By the time Michael finished his story, it was past eight o'clock. It was time for her parents to come to work. Angie was speechless and just stared at Michael in a daze. It was a story she couldn't believe.
She couldn't tell where the truth began and ended. Michael probably didn't know either. But what he had overheard in every corner of the Duke's mansion, and what he had heard directly from his aunt Hester, who had worked as a maid there for a long time, must have been true. Even if it was all true, as Michael had said before, he might have only recognized part of the iceberg.
“Eternity... The ritual of taking that potion has actually been performed since the time of the previous Duke? Even His Highness? For that ritual, the children are needed as a remedy... a cure?”
“That’s right. I only know that it’s a ritual to obtain eternal life and immortality, but I don’t know how they’ve used us or will use us in the future.”
Angie buried her face in her hands and shook her head in horror. Eternal life and immortality? Could such a thing really be possible? Then, did the young master blindly believe in him and carry out the ritual after Edward? No way.
“Then is it true? A tea made with opium rose that contains a drug ingredient... We took that hypnotic drug like water and lost our memories before coming to the island.”
“It’s definitely true for children who are designated as Remedies. They don’t seem to listen to the adults who work as helpers, but I don’t know if it’s because of their age or if they’re somehow immune. For people like me who were born and raised on the island, it probably doesn’t matter at all.”
“Then I too... I’m originally from Trieste or another country, but I was taken here when I was young? So that song too...”
Sunset over the sea after the wind and rain have passed,
The stars twinkle quietly,
The crescent moon in spring is as beautiful as a painting,
My dear, your eyes are even more beautiful.
Maybe it was a song she heard when she was young.
“Then how on earth were we used as remedies... as treatments or test subjects? But I’m fine like this. Michael, you’re fine now too. And my friends from the embroidery club and the chapel...”
Natalia Rohen. And Lucia Perron came to mind for the first time in a long time. So those kids were used as remedies and then disappeared? Michael said that Edward had summoned several kids to Blackwell Heights for various symptoms before he passed away. But he said he knew nothing about Kyle.
“Michael. Then what happens to the kids who are no longer useful or useless as remedies? Do you know that too?
Michael shook his head. Angie's face turned pale.
“There were kids I used to know. But they disappeared at some point, and now no one remembers them. I stopped drinking the tea you mentioned—the rose tea—for a while. It was during that time that I remembered.”
“You’re also an immune type. A person who is immune to Opium Rose or has limited effects due to their constitution... A very rare case of an immune type.”
“Michael, you too...?”
He nodded with a distraught look on his face.
“Like you, I sometimes have flashbacks. A girl from my neighborhood that I was close with suddenly disappeared from view for a long time, and then suddenly popped up again. No one in the village remembered her.”
“Where are those kids? If they’re on the island, no one would know.”
For a moment, Angie's heart grew cold. Her stomach almost started to churn again as the worst-case scenario occurred to her.
“He wouldn’t kill me or anything... would he?”
“Well, maybe she just lost her memories and went out of the island. I think that’s possible. I believe the Dukes have known a way to get out of the sea for a long time. But they blocked it on purpose. To make this island a perfect isolated place.”
“Surely not. It’s not like navigation is only possible on two or three days a year when the fog clears...?”
Angie's mind flashed to Martin Silva. He had said that eight years ago, when he had tried to sail to the mainland to get medicine for Edward from the Duke's mansion, his ship had been wrecked by a storm and he had drifted to the continent, where he had been rescued. Michael spoke again.
“Perhaps the fog is not an obstacle to navigation, but it is made up. Think about it. There is no need to set the ship’s course from the beginning. If you just move forward in any direction, you will eventually get out of the fog. It may be impossible to get to this island from the outside through the fog, but it is not that difficult to get out to sea from here.”
“But what about the sharks and monsters? There was an incident a few years ago when Elliot Hawkins went out on a boat alone on a foggy night and was found on the beach with his limbs torn apart...”
“I think he might have been set up by the Duke’s family. Someone might have been guarding the Wind that night, caught him, killed him, and mutilated his body as if it had been torn apart by a monster shark.”
“That... that terrible... that much!”
“I can see how cruel they are. You would believe that too, Angie, if you had overheard the secret conversations that have been going on here and there in the dukedom for the past year or so.”
“Michael. Do my parents know all of this? If they don’t... Mom and Dad aren’t the Duke’s helpers, right?”
“I don’t know about that. But I know for sure that your parents truly care for you and love you.”
The Ridsdels truly loved Angie as if she were their own daughter. They had grown attached to her like real parents. That was why they could not bring themselves to reveal to Angie that they were not related by blood. Angie would know when she found out, but it did not have to be now.
“So there is only one way.”
Michael washed his face dry with both hands and opened his mouth again. His voice was more serious than ever.
“We’re both going to the capital. Actually, I asked the captain yesterday and he gave me permission. I think Jerome and Mrs. Dunst have been kind to me because I’ve been working hard at the Duke’s mansion. So you should go with me, Angie. This could be your last chance to escape. No, it could be your last chance.”
“What? But if we go to the capital, the young master... Besides, I can’t just leave Mom and Dad here. Especially if this island is so dangerous.”
“I’ll pretend to follow his words on the condition that my parents come with me. I’m also thinking about how to get Aunt Hester to join me. Then, when we get to the capital, we’ll take the opportunity to go far away. There’s no place to hide on this island. But once we get to the mainland, we can escape to anywhere in the world. We can cross the border to a neighboring country like Vintergar or Vicentin...”
Angie's green eyes were agitated. He was right. There was no way to escape Kyle while he was on this island. If he found out she was missing today, he would come for her right away. If everything was as Michael said, the Duke could take off his savior mask and wield absolute power.
Kyle had the physical strength to do so. He had heard that there was an armory full of guns and tools in the basement of the Duke's mansion. Michael felt that she was being persuaded and tried to persuade her again.
“Let’s do that, Angie. You’re not alone. You don’t have to be anxious because I’m here.”
“How many days are left until departure...?”
“It may be delayed a few days. The captain took you ashore earlier, so it seems there is some trouble with the ship. The storm was so bad last night that the mast may have been torn off... Then it will be a little later than the original departure date. In the meantime, let’s get ready to board. I will get Aunt Hester ready, and you tell your parents to come with me. I’m sure they will follow the order of the young master.”
“Yes, I’ll do that. There’s no other way, just like you said.”
Angie bit her lips as if she had made up her mind. She had no choice. If she was going to be taken to the capital anyway, it would be best to pretend to obey Kyle and wait for an opportunity to escape while his guard and suspicion were as low as possible.
“But Michael. The story you told me... the secret of this island and the dukedom, the Black Mass and the Remedy, all that stuff, I’m going to keep quiet from my parents for now. They’ve both trusted and followed the Blackwells all this time. They’re very loyal. I don’t want to shock them right now.”
“I think so too. It won’t be too late to talk about it once we get to the capital, so for now... Ah!”
Michael absentmindedly placed his palm on the bottom of the chair and pulled it away. It seemed that he had been pricked by the sharp end of a protruding tree. A small drop of blood dripped from the inside of his index finger.
“Michael! Are you okay?”
“Oh, it was just a little sting. It’ll go away in no time.”
He put the wound on his finger into his mouth and sucked it. The moment he saw the blood falling to the floor like raindrops, a vague memory came to Angie's mind.
She was lying in bed in her bedroom, in the farmhouse where she lived with her parents, as usual. And people were surrounding the bed. Someone was whispering faintly and lifting the sleeves of her pajamas. And there was a faint smell of disinfectant, a cold sensation, and then a prickling pain. A long, sharp needle pierced her skin. Someone was giving her an injection in her arm!
“Michael, I thought it was a dream until now, but now that I look back, it couldn’t be a dream... Argh!”
Then, pitter-patter, raindrops pounded against the window, and thunder rumbled loudly. Angie jumped and covered her ears in surprise. At the same time, outside the house, there was the sound of a cartwheel stopping and the neighing of a horse.
She couldn't tell where the truth began and ended. Michael probably didn't know either. But what he had overheard in every corner of the Duke's mansion, and what he had heard directly from his aunt Hester, who had worked as a maid there for a long time, must have been true. Even if it was all true, as Michael had said before, he might have only recognized part of the iceberg.
“Eternity... The ritual of taking that potion has actually been performed since the time of the previous Duke? Even His Highness? For that ritual, the children are needed as a remedy... a cure?”
“That’s right. I only know that it’s a ritual to obtain eternal life and immortality, but I don’t know how they’ve used us or will use us in the future.”
Angie buried her face in her hands and shook her head in horror. Eternal life and immortality? Could such a thing really be possible? Then, did the young master blindly believe in him and carry out the ritual after Edward? No way.
“Then is it true? A tea made with opium rose that contains a drug ingredient... We took that hypnotic drug like water and lost our memories before coming to the island.”
“It’s definitely true for children who are designated as Remedies. They don’t seem to listen to the adults who work as helpers, but I don’t know if it’s because of their age or if they’re somehow immune. For people like me who were born and raised on the island, it probably doesn’t matter at all.”
“Then I too... I’m originally from Trieste or another country, but I was taken here when I was young? So that song too...”
Sunset over the sea after the wind and rain have passed,
The stars twinkle quietly,
The crescent moon in spring is as beautiful as a painting,
My dear, your eyes are even more beautiful.
Maybe it was a song she heard when she was young.
I'll have to ask Mom and Dad when they come. But Mom definitely said she was born on this island. So did she lie on purpose?
“Then how on earth were we used as remedies... as treatments or test subjects? But I’m fine like this. Michael, you’re fine now too. And my friends from the embroidery club and the chapel...”
Natalia Rohen. And Lucia Perron came to mind for the first time in a long time. So those kids were used as remedies and then disappeared? Michael said that Edward had summoned several kids to Blackwell Heights for various symptoms before he passed away. But he said he knew nothing about Kyle.
“Michael. Then what happens to the kids who are no longer useful or useless as remedies? Do you know that too?
Michael shook his head. Angie's face turned pale.
“There were kids I used to know. But they disappeared at some point, and now no one remembers them. I stopped drinking the tea you mentioned—the rose tea—for a while. It was during that time that I remembered.”
“You’re also an immune type. A person who is immune to Opium Rose or has limited effects due to their constitution... A very rare case of an immune type.”
“Michael, you too...?”
He nodded with a distraught look on his face.
“Like you, I sometimes have flashbacks. A girl from my neighborhood that I was close with suddenly disappeared from view for a long time, and then suddenly popped up again. No one in the village remembered her.”
“Where are those kids? If they’re on the island, no one would know.”
For a moment, Angie's heart grew cold. Her stomach almost started to churn again as the worst-case scenario occurred to her.
“He wouldn’t kill me or anything... would he?”
“Well, maybe she just lost her memories and went out of the island. I think that’s possible. I believe the Dukes have known a way to get out of the sea for a long time. But they blocked it on purpose. To make this island a perfect isolated place.”
“Surely not. It’s not like navigation is only possible on two or three days a year when the fog clears...?”
Angie's mind flashed to Martin Silva. He had said that eight years ago, when he had tried to sail to the mainland to get medicine for Edward from the Duke's mansion, his ship had been wrecked by a storm and he had drifted to the continent, where he had been rescued. Michael spoke again.
“Perhaps the fog is not an obstacle to navigation, but it is made up. Think about it. There is no need to set the ship’s course from the beginning. If you just move forward in any direction, you will eventually get out of the fog. It may be impossible to get to this island from the outside through the fog, but it is not that difficult to get out to sea from here.”
“But what about the sharks and monsters? There was an incident a few years ago when Elliot Hawkins went out on a boat alone on a foggy night and was found on the beach with his limbs torn apart...”
“I think he might have been set up by the Duke’s family. Someone might have been guarding the Wind that night, caught him, killed him, and mutilated his body as if it had been torn apart by a monster shark.”
“That... that terrible... that much!”
“I can see how cruel they are. You would believe that too, Angie, if you had overheard the secret conversations that have been going on here and there in the dukedom for the past year or so.”
“Michael. Do my parents know all of this? If they don’t... Mom and Dad aren’t the Duke’s helpers, right?”
“I don’t know about that. But I know for sure that your parents truly care for you and love you.”
The Ridsdels truly loved Angie as if she were their own daughter. They had grown attached to her like real parents. That was why they could not bring themselves to reveal to Angie that they were not related by blood. Angie would know when she found out, but it did not have to be now.
“So there is only one way.”
Michael washed his face dry with both hands and opened his mouth again. His voice was more serious than ever.
“We’re both going to the capital. Actually, I asked the captain yesterday and he gave me permission. I think Jerome and Mrs. Dunst have been kind to me because I’ve been working hard at the Duke’s mansion. So you should go with me, Angie. This could be your last chance to escape. No, it could be your last chance.”
“What? But if we go to the capital, the young master... Besides, I can’t just leave Mom and Dad here. Especially if this island is so dangerous.”
“I’ll pretend to follow his words on the condition that my parents come with me. I’m also thinking about how to get Aunt Hester to join me. Then, when we get to the capital, we’ll take the opportunity to go far away. There’s no place to hide on this island. But once we get to the mainland, we can escape to anywhere in the world. We can cross the border to a neighboring country like Vintergar or Vicentin...”
Angie's green eyes were agitated. He was right. There was no way to escape Kyle while he was on this island. If he found out she was missing today, he would come for her right away. If everything was as Michael said, the Duke could take off his savior mask and wield absolute power.
Kyle had the physical strength to do so. He had heard that there was an armory full of guns and tools in the basement of the Duke's mansion. Michael felt that she was being persuaded and tried to persuade her again.
“Let’s do that, Angie. You’re not alone. You don’t have to be anxious because I’m here.”
“How many days are left until departure...?”
“It may be delayed a few days. The captain took you ashore earlier, so it seems there is some trouble with the ship. The storm was so bad last night that the mast may have been torn off... Then it will be a little later than the original departure date. In the meantime, let’s get ready to board. I will get Aunt Hester ready, and you tell your parents to come with me. I’m sure they will follow the order of the young master.”
“Yes, I’ll do that. There’s no other way, just like you said.”
Angie bit her lips as if she had made up her mind. She had no choice. If she was going to be taken to the capital anyway, it would be best to pretend to obey Kyle and wait for an opportunity to escape while his guard and suspicion were as low as possible.
“But Michael. The story you told me... the secret of this island and the dukedom, the Black Mass and the Remedy, all that stuff, I’m going to keep quiet from my parents for now. They’ve both trusted and followed the Blackwells all this time. They’re very loyal. I don’t want to shock them right now.”
“I think so too. It won’t be too late to talk about it once we get to the capital, so for now... Ah!”
Michael absentmindedly placed his palm on the bottom of the chair and pulled it away. It seemed that he had been pricked by the sharp end of a protruding tree. A small drop of blood dripped from the inside of his index finger.
“Michael! Are you okay?”
“Oh, it was just a little sting. It’ll go away in no time.”
He put the wound on his finger into his mouth and sucked it. The moment he saw the blood falling to the floor like raindrops, a vague memory came to Angie's mind.
She was lying in bed in her bedroom, in the farmhouse where she lived with her parents, as usual. And people were surrounding the bed. Someone was whispering faintly and lifting the sleeves of her pajamas. And there was a faint smell of disinfectant, a cold sensation, and then a prickling pain. A long, sharp needle pierced her skin. Someone was giving her an injection in her arm!
“Michael, I thought it was a dream until now, but now that I look back, it couldn’t be a dream... Argh!”
Then, pitter-patter, raindrops pounded against the window, and thunder rumbled loudly. Angie jumped and covered her ears in surprise. At the same time, outside the house, there was the sound of a cartwheel stopping and the neighing of a horse.
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