Chapter 112: Damsel in Distress

In this very moment, Estelle took her chance to enact what she had imagined inside her head.

By a sharp swing of her leg, she would aim at his shin and fracture the bone.

She was confident that she had enough strength. Hopefully. Unless the man had something to protect him from, she would be fine.

Estelle had long concocted her plan.

Estelle kept crying and sobbing, making even Adrian at a loss on what to do. Her appearance was top notch even as a child and would draw pity from many if she was seen basked in sadness.

She was an expert at playing this damned role.

"Hey, I apologize. It's just that you.. uh, you're here at the wrong time. I'm sorry. You're not the one at fault here," Adrian's messy attempt at consoling Estelle made the little girl jump with joy inside her heart.

This proved that the man was letting his guard down.

That he cared for her.

So be it.

That care will be the downfall for him. The fact that he still prioritized his emotions and careless assumptions in a situation like this was enough proof for Estelle to deem him incompetent.

But in this case, that incompetency was something Estelle had to be thankful for.

One more push, and..

It'll end.

Estelle didn't stop crying even as Adrian consoled her.

"But what would his motive be..?" Adrian's confused voice rang as he pondered on this subject, no longer minding Estelle as a threat. The girl had shown him enough vulnerability for him not to be on guard.

Not much information was disclosed about Estelle, and the girl had played it off as a case of kidnapping. There was only the reasoning part left.

A dumb choice indeed.

If he had thought about the clues more carefully, he would be able to discern that her descriptions didn't exactly make sense.

However, that was of no concern to Estelle. She was ready to make her attack.

The bloodlust that she had concealed was let back out as she couldn't help but let out a small laughter.

Just as Adrian was about to turn around and see why the girl had made such a reaction, Estelle shocked him by executing her plans.

Estelle kicked at his shin as hard as she could. A cracking noise could be heard. A sign of fracture.

Right then and there, Estelle knew she had won.

Hearing him scream and wince in pain. The shock that stemmed from Estelle's unexpected power as a child.

The fact that Estelle's parents were protective and loving instead of ambitious was a plus for her. Thanks to that, she was able to not be renowned as a genius child.

If she was born into a detestable family, she would certainly be used as a pawn. In that situation, she could only wish that Adrian did not know.

However, in Estelle's case, Adrian really hadn't heard of Estelle's monstrosity. The only thing he had heard of was that strange things happened inside the Dukedom, but that was quickly clarified at the audience.

Immediately, Adrian tried to squat down to check on his fracture along with some pained shrieks. However, Estelle beat him from getting to the wound as she launched another kick that would sweep him off his feet.

It was aimed at his ankle, hitting him right at the malleolus. Sadly, that part was protected by Adrian's quite sturdy pants. Thus, the impact wasn't as powerful.

Even so, she was still able to make the man fall to the ground sideways, which allowed her more flexibility on her actions.

She straddled the man and choked him at the neck, holding him down.

Pressing at the right spots, Estelle waited as the man struggled to scream out his pain. The smooth air supply was cut off, and in minutes, he fell unconscious.

Estelle was relieved as she finally confirmed that the man was indeed not conscious. She checked multiple times to satisfy her conscience.

She got off the man and stood back up, walking towards the door to shut it close. She wouldn't know if anybody besides the Duke and Heine had access to the room. No risks could be taken.

Estelle sighed. She went back to the place where she hid Heine. The place was actually very simple once you find out.

Standing in front of a clean sofa, Estelle reached out her hand to touch the surface. Immediately, a cracking sound could be heard.

Estelle had masked the man with an illusory type spell in haste. There he was, the Fae that sat down on the cushions limp.

Luckily, Adrian hadn't thought to touch the sofa since it was too normal.

"It was a rash decision," Estelle grumbled. "He did seem like he could use magic.. but area scans are pretty high class, so I doubted that he would perform it,"

And Adrian indeed didn't do it.

Giggling  in victory, she looked at Heine's sleeping face. Yes, he went to sleep. He was overwhelmed with the pain and passed out. Even so, pain could be seen on his face.

"Well, if he did realize it, I would've brought him down anyway the moment he said we were underground,"

The situational benefits of being underground in a secretive place, she was thrilled.

Estelle nonchalantly pinched Heine's chin and lifted it upwards.

Immediately, the effect Estelle had for the black marks began to activate once more.

The black marks, that had slumbered for a few moments began to rampage once more. They swirled around, trying to gather around Estelle's fingers.

Estelle frowned at this display. She was still confused as to what Heine had done.

In the next second, Heine was immediately afflicted with the pain and began to scream as loud as he can. Estelle was thankful that the room was designed to be an underground chamber.

Estelle suppressed Heine's rampaging movements with ease as the man was too overcome with pain.

Estelle had an internal dispute.

"If he dies.." Estelle mumbled. "Well- if he dies, would he really die?"

(A/N: Estelle, people die when they are killed.)

Estelle thought this way because she recognized that both him and her were able to have more than two lifetimes. In this case, she was led to believe that their souls could enter the cycle of reincarnation with no problem at all.

Or at the very least, someone was controlling their paths. Their destination kept overlapping, how could Estelle not be suspicious?

Estelle began to work her way around Heine's marks.

Immediately, her primary suspicion was that the movements were caused by the Origin Magic the Absolute had bestowed upon her.

But how could such a reaction come to be?

Using her recovered memories as a basis, she knew that the Origin Magic was something that belonged solely to the Absolute. To think that the being would gift her with the power was strange.

There had to be something more.

Whatever it is that Heine consumed or did.

"..Bear with me," Estelle decided to take a risk.

If she was truly able to have some effects on the man's condition, then she was going to try out some things.

First , she directed the black marks to somewhere away from his throat solely because she didn't want him to vomit it out.

Instead, she wanted to test something out. Her intuition's wild guess.

If Origin Magic reacted to it, what would her True Creation Magic do? Would it have an adverse effect, or perhaps a positive effect.

Estelle investigated the truth and quickly discovered the foreign element.

"It's Destruction Magic..!" Estelle exclaimed.

No wonder she was also quite heavily affected. It was her nemesis. However, instead of being given pain in the same way she had felt during the previous encounters, the current pain only made her sick.

The only thing that made her light up was the fact that her Creation Magic was indeed having a reaction for the case.

Estelle began to focus one more time, slowly drawing out the black marks to where she left before and carefully imbuing her True Creation Magic.

Indeed, she felt an attraction between the two. Like they were magnets trying to seek each other out. The attraction was much stronger then when she instinctively plated herself with Origin Magic at the start.

It was like a superglue that didn't wish for them separate.

"It's like Destruction Magic, but it's a little bit different," Estelle commented.

This time, instead of harming her, it harmed Heine.

At some point, Estelle was even forced to retreat because of the dangerous amount of stickiness she was feeling. She thought that she was about to get sucked by the other energy.

This, however, didn't deter Estelle completely. She was still willing to try further.

Heine's continuous agony made Estelle's heart shake, but she had learned better. She told herself not to be swayed.

She continued her progress. Trying to prod into the case slowly.

She was like a scientist who keeps discovering new elements as her life progressed, which was further backed up by her high level of curiosity.

After trying a few times, with Heine turned into a mess of sobs and tragic case, Estelle finally received a different reaction from what she had prior to this.

It was a combination. Like when she mixed the nothingness and her previous Creation Magic, it happened again.

"What in the..?" Estelle couldn't believe what she was feeling.

The magic she managed to generate was precisely a lukewarm version of Origin Magic. It had fused with her own.