Chapter 184 - Infernal Paladins

The knight became almost a nanny to take care of Alene, who insisted on saying she was fine and was going back to the lab.

"Miss Darcy, a message has arrived from our Archduchy's main mansion," the maid, Aubrey Ksyrian, who had left to attend to her employer's business outside the Central Magic Tower, said as she entered the room and saw the red-haired woman lying on the bed with her pale face and the knight holding a plate of hot soup and a silver spoon too small for his hand, pausing in surprise to see Aubrey burst into the room.

"Miss Darcy skipped her meal again?" Aubrey asked, seeing the scene and already picking up a magic item to take the employer's temperature. This showed that it was a very common occurrence that occurred with Alene and Knight's situation was always being a nanny instead of a bodyguard.

"I'm fine, I just had a sudden headache..."

"You suddenly passed out and only woke up when I put you to bed… This is not normal, so you are not okay!"

"I even feel better now... No, Aubrey, I hate this medicine!" Alene said after Aubrey found her employer had a slight fever.

It was not a common medicine, it was a liquid made by alchemists to fight some inflammation and fever. The blue liquid seemed to glisten on the silver spoon, unfortunately, it was only pretty, but it still tasted bitter.

"It's for the fever and there's still medicine for the stomach, you know that using a lot of MANA costs the body dearly, even if Miss Darcy's body is special, you still have to be careful" Aubrey started to give a long lecture that was repeated every three days when Alene felt a little sick from overusing MANA.

In order not to hear Aubrey's speech anymore, Miss Darcy took the medicine and took the pill to improve her stomach, which by chance started to hurt... Not that she hasn't eaten, but she's been eating very little.

Her grandfather was very strict about making her start the MANA-watered foods and magic elements of the Central Magic Tower canteen, but the Wizards are so focused on getting stronger and experimenting, that the taste of the food didn't matter to them.

However, for Alene, the taste was essential for a good life.

With such terrible food and her subordinates not knowing how to cook because her grandfather wisely brought in people who can't cook to make her granddaughter eat things that will increase her body's MANA even against her will, she couldn't eat more than enough to be able to move the body.

She'd rather take alchemical pills that satiated her hunger than eat one more tasteless or, worse, terribly tallow-tasting meal.

"I want to go back home! I wish to eat Louis' food! I wish to eat candied love fruit! Not only that, but I want Darius to give me cherry-dropped chocolates! I want Charles to give me a barbecue skewer with that weird sauce of his!"

Alene began to say emotionally, as she behaved like a helpless child already intending to cry from being stuck in an unpleasant place.

"Oh, I almost forgot... A message has arrived from the main Manor, Lord Darius has sent a message via the warden's teleported" Aubrey said taking a letter made of a special cream-colored paper with the lion monogram symbol of the Archduchy.

It was a letter that could only be opened with MANA. The MANA in this world was similar to DNA in the modern world, it had a different imprint for each family group.

There was no teleportation in the Wizards' rooms because of the interference of time and space which could hamper some studies that the Wizards did in the rooms, with many complaints the teleportation system was allocated to the administrative floor and everyone can access and receive letters.

The case of Alene and her grandfather was a bit special as they were guests coming from the Magic Tower of the Aurore Empire and had a special status, a prodigy like Miss Darcy was very rare since the first imperial prince of the previous regime a couple of two centuries ago.

Messages were received in the principal's office and then picked up by the Darcy family's employees to prevent some cute wizard from trying to steal the message for a chance to speak with Miss Alene, currently rich, single, and beautiful.

Of course, she was still a talented Wizard in a generation.

A grand wedding party, talent, and abundant financial support could make even the most intellectual and studious of the Wizards distract themselves and chase Miss Darcy.

Alene got a little more excited and stopped behaving like a heartbroken child, but was forced to eat the soup which was tasteless before she could pick up the letter, she had to confess that her body felt much better after eating.

She hated every moment, but at least it could last another 24 hours.

Of course, if Gustavo and Aubrey knew her thinking, it's unknown if they would be angry or if they would be even more worried about this Elite Wizard.1

It was an ambiguous message about Emery coming home, but there was something out of the ordinary.

"Has my foolish brother returned?" Alene thought with some hope.

She hated it so much when she was reunited with her twin brother after six months of being at the abbey boarding school. She couldn't recognize her own brother. Her father said he had an accident and nearly froze to death in a nearby river, so he looked a little different.

Alene did not agree with her father, she well knew that her rebellious brother did not fall into an accident there were two possibilities either he tried to kill himself or he tried to escape using the river, and they caught him on the way, which may have caused the "accident" or as she thought an extreme punishment.

Her father had given carte blanche on Emery's boarding school education… How far these people had gone… Alene didn't want to imagine. Unlike most who saw the "candor" of the religious, she was terrified and often thought about breaking into the boarding school and bringing her brother back.

Of course, she herself was sent to the main Magic Tower of the Aurore Empire and her grandfather made a point of putting her to study, it was as if he wanted to take her away from home and her father.

She didn't know if that was it, but it was the feeling she had. And when she saw her brother... Well, not her brother anymore, Alene felt a great wave of resentment against the grandparents who did nothing to stop her father, against the older brothers who accepted things apparently in silence, and against the mother who did not stand up against her father's idea.

That Emery had the same face, the same eyes, the same hair, and the same scars gained in their naughty childhood, but looking at her brother she didn't feel the same feeling of union and connection that she always felt when being by his side.

Apparently, the others felt the same way and their father behaved strangely all winter break, as if trying to convince the whole family that this was her twin, when spring came and Emery was sent back to boarding school the brother's visits became scarce, and they would visit him instead of returning home.

Her mom was getting sadder and sadder and her dad seemed to be getting darker and weirder, until a few days ago before she traveled to the Central Magic Tower with her paternal grandfather, when both her maternal and paternal grandfathers had a big fight with the father.

Clearly, her father lost to the Master of the Magic Battle Tower and the Master of the Imperial Magic Tower, so things became tense in the mansion, she only learned that a day or two later she didn't remember very well, they received a positive message from Louis about Emery's state of health that looked much better.

Alene deeply suspected that her father was related to her twin brother's strange behavior, but she never brought it up, in fact, she was afraid that it was true.

Had her father done something unspeakable to make Emery so strange?

Alene felt it was something close to that and the resentment in her heart grew even more, she looked at the letter in her hand, feeling some warm hope that she would find her true twin brother again.

In the crater in the middle of the Holy Mountains, just after the body of the goddess of truth, Layla, fell lifeless to the ground, seven strange beings seemed to emerge from the scorched earth.

"Layla... You can't die here... Hey... Hey..."

"Stop screaming, she's gone"

"We are too late again"

"We can't do anything, even if we got to her a little early we couldn't heal a god anyway, so we'd always be too late"

"Don't start fighting now, we have a lot to do before Emperor Wrath sends reinforcements to the Celestials"

"Our Emperor will also send help"

"Who knew we would have to help our archenemies"

Seven men in heavy red armor who had horny horns on their open helmets appeared in the desolate place. The black cloaks looked like crows' wings spread by the hot wind that strangely passed between those tall beings that could easily have a wingspan of ten feet.

Perhaps they were giants of some ancient species?

Each had a different emblem on their shoulders and had a choker with different stones around their necks.

These were the Paladins of Hell, known for strength, intelligence, and ruthlessness in combat, they were rarely seen apart from fighting enemies that could amount to lesser gods.

They were named Amarilis, Anthurium, Cineraria, Cyclamen, Gerbera, Lisianthus, and Narcissus.

Yes, they were named after flowers, the infernal emperors had peculiar tastes.

Paladin Amarilis for Emperor Envy;

Paladin Anthurium for Emperor Sloth;

Paladin Cineraria  for Emperor Pride;

Paladin Cyclamen for Emperor Avarice;

Paladin Gerbera for Emperor Gormandize;

Paladin Lisianthus for Emperor Wrath;

Paladin Narcissus for Emperor Lust;