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If there was someone who still was concerned then it was the heiress of the Hawkbridge house, "What happened to Richard? Is he returning? Can you bring him back, Elizabeth?"

Her voice brought back tranquility in the detention center—they were sent here by the librarian.

Elizabeth shook her head slowly, "I don\'t have enough strength to teleport him back and since the Headmaster knows about Richard\'s presence in the Capital, I know he will bring him back."

Amelia clenched her fist and looked down; anxiety and disappointment reflected in her eyes. She knew something like this could happen, however, stopping Richard at that moment would have been irrational of her.

Ethan drew closer to the girl, and in a soft tone, he suggested, "Richard is a strong person, the strongest first year of the academy and a very mature man. So believe in his judgement and wait for him to return."

Ethan could only say as much to console the girl. In his opinion, Richard was a very wise and rational person who makes decisions accordingly.

Nora also assured Amelia by holding her shoulder and uttering, "He will be safe."

Amelia nodded slowly, not wanting to make a scene here by being a damsel in distress. However, despite how much she was getting assured, she had a very grave feeling.

\'I hope you betray my fear and come back to me safely....\'

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Richard was in a panic, he had all the reason to be so.

Carrying his sister in his arms and the dark cultist on his shoulder, Richard ran towards the mansion in his mother\'s possession.

Bella\'s breathing was unstable and so was her ether flow. He couldn\'t tell if these symptoms were showing because of cross-dimension travelling or if there was something else.

The reason he was carrying the cultist along with him was because he could ask the man related to the teleportation or the binding vow.

The clones across the capital were slowly reducing, thanks to the Headmaster\'s quick decision-making to utilize the fallen soldiers as his shield and attack the clones from the shadows.

Richard desired to hunt down the parent clone here and now; however, right now, his only goal was to bring Bella back.

After so long, she met her brother once again, and Richard didn\'t want to steal that happiness from her.

Definitely not.

*CLINK*

Pushing open the doors of the mansion, he found there was no one inside. The place seemed completely desolate.

He frowned and tried searching for someone through observation, however, aside from a single entity in the master bedroom, there was no one present inside the building at all.

"Did they run away?" There was a possibility, however, Richard assumed the servants working here were loyal and brave.

Brushing away that thought he climbed the stairs and advanced towards the master bedroom. There was no doubt that his mother was here, and if she is here then she definitely can help Bella.

But what would he say to her? Who is Bella to him? He lied to the Headmaster about Bella being his cousin, but he couldn\'t pass the same lie to his mother as well.

\'Forget it, I will just make something up...\'

Reaching the room he pushed open the door—only to find his legs freezing near the entrance and his eyes stretching wide.

The strongest woman he had ever met in his both lives, the person who always assured him that whatever happened, she would always stand before him as a shield.

That significant person in his life was currently lying lifelessly on the bed with her face paler than a sheet.

Throwing away the cultist, he advanced towards the bed and rested Bella on the other side.

In a daze, he approached his mother and crouched down beside her.

Raising his shaky hands, he delicately held her cheek and softly called out, "M-Mom?"

"Mm..." With her face contouring in a frown, she slowly opened her eyes.

Crimson met golden, and instantly Bellarine\'s eyes softened.

"You returned..." Her voice sounded so weak, so fragile that he wanted to tell her to stop speaking.

Richard can face any obstacle in this world, but not his mother being in this state. He was shaken up to his core.

"Mom...what happened to you? Did someone attack you? Why didn\'t you contact me?"

Bellarine had a smile tugging her lips seeing her son being so concerned about her. She slowly raised her hand and held his face gently.

"Richie....I heard....about Amelia..."

Richard looked at her with a complicated gaze, not understanding why she was talking about it all of a sudden.

However, her following words made his heart twist in intense pain, "In my stead...I know...she can take...care of-"

"No, no, no! No one can replace you, Mom! Why are you saying something like this?! Nothing is going to happen to you."

Tears welled in his eyes as her breathing turned slow and the lady looked weaker by every second.

She slowly closed her eyes, as some words escaped her lips,

"I...love...you...Richie...."

With those words, Bellarine\'s consciousness slipped away.

Richard stared at her hand which lifelessly fell as his mind turned completely numb.

He sat there, on his knees, hands hanging down, and vitality seemed to have left him in that moment.

The precious sister of his whom he reunited with after so long was not responding. The woman whom he came to love the most was currently showing signs of abandoning him slowly.

*Scruff*

The dark cultist, who has been watching the whole situation since the beginning while pretending to be unconscious, suddenly rose to his feet. Extending his hand, he released a spell and a dome covered the bed on which the two ladies lay.

Richard\'s eyes widened and his whole body seemed to be enveloped in flames, only for the cultist to hurriedly say,

"I just stopped the time around the bed to not let their souls wither away! Please trust me!"

He backed off while raising his hands in his defence.

Richard frowned, his flames yet to be subdued, "How can I trust a wretched bastard who is devoted to evil?"

The man slowly lowered his hands, and replied in a softer tone, "Because I...also once had a family."

He revealed their pictures from the pendant he was wearing around his neck.

Richard\'s shoulders relaxed even for a second but soon he frowned and asked the man, "I can\'t trust your words. And stopping time? Do you even know how difficult it is to accomplish such a thing?"

The cultist didn\'t respond to him. Rather, he tore a fabric from his cloak and asked Richard, "Can you burn this? Please?"

Richard, unsure, raised his hand and did what he was asked.

As soon as the fabric started burning, the blond man threw it into the dome.

"----!!" Under Richard\'s widened eyes, he saw the fabric still burning, but it wasn\'t turning into ashes at all. The flames continued to dance on the torn piece but it was not making any visible damage to it.

The blond cultist approached Richard slowly while his gaze remained affixed to the two ladies, as he said, "They are suffering from punishment....and their life force is slowly depleting."

Richard hurriedly asked, "You can tell? What kind of punishment is this? And who inflicted it?"

The cultist looked unsure whether he should say it, urging Richard to add, "Don\'t worry just tell me whatever it is. I won\'t hurt you."

The person has already helped a lot by sustaining their condition and preventing their souls from getting damaged any further.

The cultist slowly nodded before his eyes went towards the crimson-haired lady, and he said, "Duchess Bellarine....she seemed to have made a binding vow with the Devil, and now, she is paying the price."

"Are you out of your mind? Why would she ever do such a thing?"

The blond one shook his head, "I don\'t know, but very faintly I can sense darkness enveloping her soul and devouring it."

Richard frowned, his mind turning messy by all this. However, if the cultist is saying the truth then his mother should have told him. And what about Bella? Why was she in the same state as Bellarine?

\'I need to find some clue about their situation...\' Richard began to search around the place to see if he could find something related to their condition.

Through her office to the bedroom, he began to search around thoroughly.

While he was searching her working table, he suddenly found a diary which was familiar to him.

It was the same diary which Bellarine forbade him from reading.

\'I hope I can find something from this...\'

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A/N:- Thanks for reading.