Chapter 1094 Blood On Lips
After Natalie left the meditation room, she went to look for Anna. Natalie had to scour through the entire place before finally finding the other woman in a remote spot of the monastery.
When Natalie found her, Anna was crouched in a corner, curling herself into a ball as she hugged her head with her arms. She was trying to cover her eyes and ears, and at the same time, she was mumbling under her breath, “No, no, no. Don’t do this…”
It was as if Anna was deep in the throes of a nightmare. Natalie bit down on her lower lip and slowly approached Anna. Then, she hugged her. “Anna…”
Instinctively, Anna shoved her away before casting panicking eyes on Natalie. When she finally registered Natalie’s face, she relaxed and panted. “Natalie, it’s… it’s you…”
Even though Natalie did not ask Anna what happened, she could guess that Anna must have returned to her childhood nightmare after what she learned from Varre—Anna must have dreamed about the bloody way her mother had died in front of her.
Anna’s pain was something Natalie could not empathize with. She could not even put herself in Anna’s shoes and began imagining the pain.
How cruel had that moment been? “I’m sorry,” Natalie apologized as she hugged Anna again. “I’m really sorry… I didn’t know my actions would make you suffer this way…”
Tears just kept flowing out of Anna’s hollow eyes. “It was because he was obsessed with gem carving. That’s why he socialized with strange people; that’s why Mom ended up…” Anna began bawling and muttering. “Does he think that his sins will be gone just because he now worships Fyrtia? The guilt in him has gone away, but the dead will never come back.”
No. It was not because he was obsessed. It was definitely not because he had socialized with strange people. Anna’s mother’s death was caused by the greed of powerful people. No one knew whether the treasures in the royal mausoleum truly existed or not, but that man had no qualms about staining his hands red.
Natalie desperately wished that she could tell Anna the truth behind everything. Yet, just as she started speaking—”Anna, actually…”—she recalled what Varre had told her in the room, and she swallowed the rest of her words.
“Natalie, what were you going to say?” Anna hesitantly turned to Natalie. “Nothing. It was nothing.”
In the end, Natalie decided to keep it a secret too. The reason for her to do that was the same as Varre’s. Ignorance was bliss, and knowledge spelled pain and danger.
Natalie only wanted Anna to bring her to Varre to replicate the jade key. What was going to happen next could be even more dangerous, and Natalie did not want Anna to be caught up in it.
Natalie accompanied Anna until the latter recollected herself. Meanwhile, after Natalie left, Varre picked up the jade and began studying it.
Then, he took out the carving tools he had kept in the highest spot on his book rack. It had been twenty years since he had touched them, but when those tools were in his hands, the muscle memory returned.
He was not going to go back on his words. With that thought in mind, he started replicating the key.
Gem carving was a concentration-heavy task. As time went by, Varre’s body started to tire out. Blood escaped him from the corner of his lips, but he simply wiped away the blood with a handkerchief before throwing himself back into his task.
At the same time, Billy was on the return trip with the hyper-realistic mask-wearing substitute.
Unable to contact Samuel, Billy contacted Kenneth and Steven instead. He then set up tight security and arranged for more manpower to prevent Blaze’s people from intercepting the jade key.
Everyone was on guard, but the return trip was peculiarly quiet without any obstacles. Billy was baffled. Why is there nothing from Blaze?
