Positioned in front of the bulk of a man aiming to kill Mathias, I raised the dagger Isabella lent me and tried to stab the hand going for the young man behind me. This went beyond my own feelings towards the boy and my fear. If Mathias died, we were doomed, as simple as that. I had no opportunity against Sebastian. Heck, he had barely broken a sweat while disposing of professional mercenaries as if it was nothing, and I wanted to go against him now? I must be crazy.

And crazy I was, for I had no idea what I was going to do beyond trying to stab him. He was going to flatten me like a pancake before I could touch him. A puny eleven-year-old against a seasoned warrior, how funny that was.

But there was no time to worry over such small details. I couldn’t let him touch Mathias. I couldn’t let him win.

My left hand trembling, I jumped, dagger at the ready.

And before I could even reach him he quickly caught me with the other hand. I screamed at the force he was using, enough to break my poor wrist, my palm opening in response and letting the dagger fall to the ground. He took a second of his precious time to throw me right onto the opposite wall. And in that second, that small second, I acted on instinct.

The rope I had wrapped around my right hand, the one I thankfully thought of taking with me before, flew in his direction, and it was only by the grace of the gods and countless times herding cattle that the tied end managed to land perfectly around his neck. With the force he used to push me, I was able to drag him away from Mathias, even if it wasn’t for long.

This was the same trick Noah used once his glaive was lost in battle during their fight in the manga, and needed to save Lucas from certain death. The rope tightened around the man’s neck, and even though I knew it was futile, I pulled, doing my best to keep him away from Mathias for as long as I could. My feet landed on the ground and I almost slipped, but funnily enough the hold I had on Sebastian prevented me from falling.

And then he pulled the other end of the rope and I was hoisted up until he had me at eye level. I gasped.

“Annoying” he spit, swinging the rope and throwing me in the opposite direction. I screamed in those few moments I felt my body lose to gravity and the force of his thrown directing my soft and squishy body against the rock of the wall, just before another presence caught me at the very last moment. I gasped as my body collided with the warm body behind me, my back pressed to their chest.

“Good… going…”

I looked up, and was received by Noah’s crooked smile. His head had a big gash with blood oozing out of it in rivulets, and one of his eyes was swollen, maintaining it slightly close in comparison to the other, but beyond that he looked… relatively fine for someone who was brutally shoved down on a marble table. “Took me a moment to… recover…” he looked up. I followed his gaze, seeing Isabella, all bloody and with big shards of glass sticking out of her skin, engaging Sebastian at close combat. She was staggering, the blood loss affecting her, but she didn’t need to take Sebastian down yet, just keep him away from Mathias. For that, she was good enough. “How long till’ he finishes? Damn…”

I wondered the same. Not even three minutes have passed but it felt like an eternity, especially with everything that took place in that short period of time. I looked at Mathias, willing him to finish already before Isabella reached her limit. I could see she was getting slower, and Sebastian taking advantage of it. He lifted his hand, going for Isabella’s heart in a moment she slipped. She was not going to make it.

“NOW!” Noah screamed, desperate.

As if on cue, Mathias raised his hand, directing it at Sebastian. The pulse that was liberated then was nothing like the one before. It felt like being pushed by a wave in the ocean while your feet couldn’t touch the bottom. I braced against it and thanked the fact Noah and I were already against the wall, otherwise we might have been flattened by the force. The chairs and cabinets flew, crashing against the walls and shattering. The table was pushed back as well. I closed my eyes and hoped none of it would crush us.

Then, as suddenly as it begun, it stopped. Furniture crashed on the floor, glass shattered, including that of the windows, and the table toppled over, further cracking its surface. I felt a wave of dizziness spreading over my entire body, along with the need to vomit. Everything was spinning. Behind me, Noah fell to his knees, not having the force to even hold himself up, his form sprawled on the floor as he took big mouthfuls of air. His skin was even paler than usual and there was cold sweat dripping down his forehead.

“Noah…” I knelt, my legs practically giving out under me as I reached out to him. When I touched his cheek, he was cold. If Noah is like this, then Sebastian… I turned in the direction he and Isabella were standing before. He was on his knees, a hand against his throat breathing as hard as Noah. He was also pale and sweating. However, it was a testament to his strength that he could still hold his body up. Under his feet, the tiles were broken and the floor sunken. He had done his best not to be swayed by the pulse, but had still left the imprints of his effort behind him on the ground.

Isabella was a little farther away, taking her blade out of the ground where she had embedded it, most likely to prevent herself from flying like the rest of the objects in the room. She took a breath, running in Sebastian’s direction and slashing at his neck, blood flowing out of the wound and tainting her clothes and face. Sebastian’s body gave out, and he fell face first with a loud thump.

And then it was over.

“Tough motherfucker…” Isabella gritted out, letting herself fall on the ground, not minding the blood around her. She was quite a sight to behold, the golden fairy covered in red. She glanced back at us. “Hey, how’s it going back there? Are you two alright?”

“I…” I cleared my throat, trying to stand up and failing. Why was everything spinning so much? “I think I’m going to throw up…”

“Woah, woah, wait right there!” Isabella exclaimed, standing up and trotting over to us. “First step away from Noah. Don’t want him waking up covered in vomit later.”

“I’m awake…” a very pitiful voice was heard from the boy lying dead on the ground. Isabella blinked, kneeling and poking his cheek.

“Wow! Amazing! Maybe your magic control it’s getting better? Last time an enemy did that you were out of commission for at least half a day.”

“…I hate you…”

“…Me too…” I murmured as well, leaning my head against the wall, closing my eyes. How nice must it be not feeling any of the effects of a magical pulse. God, this was horrible.

“I’ll help you three” another voice spoke from the other end of the room. I didn’t open my eyes, but felt Mathias getting closer. In that moment, I didn’t care if he was Satan’s spawn or the prince of darkness incarnated, I wanted him to make this awful sensation stop at once. Mathias, use your healing powers! If you do I might even consider forgiving you!

Ha, as if.

He knelt in front of Noah. His hand shone a dark blue, like a scanner all over his head. Within minutes, Noah opened his eyes, sitting up and blinking, perplexed.

“Tell me what we have to do to recruit you. Man, that was awesome” he said with all the seriousness in the world. Mathias shook his head before going over to Isabella. Hey! What about me?

“She’s worst off than you. Be patient” he answered to my accusing eyes. I wanted to complain some more, but he was unfortunately right. I huffed and crossed my arms, becoming increasingly annoyed when I saw Isabella blushing and looking away in timid fashion that was obviously so not her.

“I-It’s not necessary…”

“Isa! Just let the noble heal you! You’ll feel better in no time!” Noah exclaimed with a big smile, as oblivious as always. Poor fella, if only he knew he was in front of his biggest love rival yet. Whatever, I wasn’t going to warn him. He better find out on his own.

“Don’t be stupid. You’re losing a lot of blood” Mathias said, and before this could become any more nauseating with the way Isabella was blushing, he reached out a hand and took out the biggest glass shard protruding right from her right thigh. She hissed. “First take off all the shards. No point healing you if you’re only going to bleed again later when you take them off.”

Isabella gave him an annoyed look, the hearts and bubbles around her thankfully dissolving as she mumbled something under her breath and proceeded to take off the biggest glass shards from different locations in her body, biting her lips and grimacing as she did so. Once the most visible were off, Mathias healed her.

“The smallest shards can be taken off later, with more care. In the meantime, this will do” Mathias explained, before turning to me. I gave him a mean glare.

“I don’t need your help anymore, I’m already feeling better” I huffed while crossing my arms, irritatingly looking away. However, pain shoot from my left wrist, and I pulled away with a yelp of pain.

Mathias lifted an eyebrow. I ignored him very pointedly as he healed my wrist, cursing my forgetfulness. Damn, from all people in this room… as I did so though, my eyes landed on the lifeless body of Domenic, lying away from us, his neck bent at an unnatural angle, and my heart and stomach dropped to the floor.

It was the first time I had ever seen someone die. And it was done in such a brutal way. I didn’t know Domenic, barely even spoke to him, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t feel pain at his death. I looked over at Noah and Isabella, who were bantering with each other again about something unimportant, and my brow creased. Why weren’t they devastated? Wasn’t Domenic someone precious to them?

Mathias stood up, extending his hand towards me to help me. I thought about denying him for a moment, but with a resigned sigh I ended up taking it. No point in acting up on my hatred towards him now of all times.

“If you’re done joking with each other, it’s time to move on. I still need to place the remaining onions and…” Mathias frowned, staring over at Domenic’s body. “Is he going to be alright?”

What? He wasn’t really asking that, right? Can’t he see his neck?!

“Oh yes, we need to put his neck back into place before he can move again though. Mind if you help us with your magic?” Noah answered with all the nonchalance of the world. My eyes snapped towards him.

“My magic only works on the living. You’ll have to repair him manually” Mathias dismissed easily, walking over to the exit now that his job here was done. I blinked, suddenly understanding everything.

“Domenic is an undead?” I asked, bewildered. Isabella, Noah and Mathias all looked at me with surprise. “I mean… if he’s not dead after what Sebastian did to him… I mean, he is technically dead, but…” I blabbered, all of a sudden feeling embarrassed at having their attention on me.

Isabella was the first to speak. “Yes… he is. I’m surprised you have heard of them though. Not everybody is privy to such obscure matters.”

Well, I read the manga, not counting I was about to be used as a sacrifice in order to create a new undead, or revive the viscountess, in other words. You see, while it’s true the revived corpse has more autonomy over themselves the sooner the ritual is performed, it’s also true that, no matter what, the life given to them continues being a ‘stole’ or ‘taken’ one. They also have an unbreakable bond with the necromancer who revived them, and their fake life it’s forever tied to them. That means the only way to kill an undead, or zombie, whatever you want to call it, it’s killing their necromancer or waiting for their natural death. And since necromancers can live a very long life…

I looked at Domenic again as Noah walked over to him, grumbling something about always having to do the nasty jobs. When he started tinkering with his neck, I looked away, feeling a bit sick to the stomach. Mathias stared at the scene, completely forgetting what he was supposed to do, and for a moment I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking about all of this.

I didn’t need to ask what he felt at Sebastian’s death. It was obvious, going by his reaction from earlier, that he hated the old butler, whatever the reason for that was. And although I was indeed curious about what happened between them, what Sebastian meant by punishment, what seemed to be the real relationship between Mathias and his father, I dared not ask. I didn’t want to pry in something that had nothing to do with me. My role as a sacrifice was already overwritten, and other than killing the viscount there was nothing else to do now.

But I did wonder. And I thought more than I was supposed to.

What exactly happened here? Why was this family so broken? Why did Mathias do everything he did up till this point? Why was the viscountess so important the viscount was willing to sacrifice his own sons for her?

I was sure the answer wasn’t easy, it never was, I knew, but this… this was beyond complicated.

Mathias continued to look at the scene, sickening sounds on the background and curses from Noah being heard as he tried to put Domenic’s neck back into place. I bit my lip, before shaking my head and deciding now was not the moment to think about all of this, to ask myself questions I might never get the answer to.

Instead, I walked over to Sebastian’s dead body after seeing Isabella retrieving her knifes from different points in the dining room, and with a bit of trepidation, looked for the rope I used on him before. It was proven to be incredibly useful already, I needed to recover it before we left to do whatever else we had to do. My dagger too.

I saw it on his neck, cut on the same place Isabella sliced at his neck, and cursed.

My rope!

End of Chapter 5.