"Nn… Nngh…?"
Saria Valhall let out a bothered voice and squirmed in her sleep, on the verge of waking up. She was completely stretched, which already made for a rather odd sleeping position… which wasn't helped by the fact that she was in fact bound, and hanging down from the ceiling in a damp, cold cavern-like space with barely any light whatsoever.
"Nnn… hmm…? Neeh…? Eh…? EH!?"
The silver-haired girl squirmed a few more times in a futile attempt to adjust her position, finally waking up and letting out an alarmed voice!
Those weren't even remotely similar circumstances to what she last remembered…! Where was she? How much time has passed already? And, most importantly, why hasn't Spite, her contracted fae, done anything to help her out this time?!
...that said, Saria did send Spite away on a certain errand before going to bed...
It should be finished with it, though, and waiting at her command...
In that case, it really should be left as a triumph card after all.
As a Vallhall, Saria had far better senses than other humans and even, to some degree, the ability to see in the dark, so it didn't take her much time to get an idea about her surroundings.
Although…
"Hey, you. Don't think you can pretend to not be here. Who are you?"
Saria sniffed the air a few times before furrowing her brows and turning to the side, as far as her constraints allowed her to, and asked in annoyance…
"!!!"
Causing some cowering person to flinch terribly and slowly turn towards her.
"Y--young Lady Saria…? Y-you're already awake? How…?"
"What is that supposed to mean? And before that, answer my first question. Who are you?"
The shaking person spoke up. It was a woman, and she sounded as if she was in great pain, but Saria wasn't particularly bothered by it and kept a haughty tone despite her circumstances.
"I… I am…"
The woman struggled to speak, but it was difficult to tell whether it was because of the supposed pain she was going through or perhaps she simply didn't want to.
"...Penelope… Penelope Edemsworth…"
In the end, she did end up introducing herself after much struggle.
"Wha…? Edemsworth? Wait…! You're Amelia's older sister, aren't you?! The bitchy one!"
"..."
Saria gasped before calling out, causing the woman to slouch once more.
"Ehem. Anyway, what are you doing here with me, though? There is something wrong with you, but you don't really seem to be a fellow captive."
After a moment of awkward silence, Saria cleared her throat and asked.
"...because I'm… not…"
It took a while, but Penelope did give her an answer, however short and annoying it was.
"Then. What are you doing here?"
Saria closed her eyes in an attempt to keep calm before opening them again and asking.
"I… made a mistake…"
"What, did you take a wrong turn and just stumble your way here?"
When Penelope gave another annoying answer, the silver-haired girl scoffed snarkily.
"Haha… if only…"
"...?"
Surprisingly, that remark made the other woman laugh, or rather let out a pained snort before a pitiful sob as she trembled, which took Saria aback.
"Maybe start from the beginning? It's not like I'm going anywhere."
Saria rolled her eyes and pointed out, wiggling a little bit from side to side to prove how constricted she was.
"..."
But Penelope remained silent, to the point that Saria thought that her approach failed, and that she would have to take action without the faintest idea of what was going on.
"...when Amelia was born…"
"Eh? You're starting from there!?"
But then, surprisingly, Penelope spoke up, causing Saira to call out in disbelief.
"...I remember I liked her mother… she was friends with mine… at least until she snuck her way into father's bed… Still… I was happy when Saria was born… until my mother grew obsessed with comparing the two of us…"
Regardless, Penelope began to share her story,
"As a child, I had little sway over her and soon began simply playing along, obeying her unreasonable requests and commands. It didn't take long for me to start hating Saria all on my own… She was always so perfect… exceeding all expectations placed on her with an obnoxiously confident attitude… It really wasn't difficult to dislike her… It got to the point where I found no problem with spreading false rumors about others just to assure Saria would be worse off… That's how I got in touch with people who wanted to assure your cousin, Rotsard, won't be able to salvage his reputation…"
"He's not my…! No… Sorry, please continue."
Penelope revealed, taking short breaks to wheeze in pain or swallow her saliva with great difficulty, which prompted even the hot-headed silver-haired girl to keep herself in check… at least to some degree.
"...at first, I wasn't even slandering Rotsard. He genuinely presented himself as an awful person, and to some degree, it even made me think that I might be doing Amelia a favor. But then things started to change. He started to show off his good sides… and I began spreading the wildest rumors. Those people contacted me shortly after the end of the last school year. The scene I made, or rather failed to make, got their attention, and they approached me. If only I listened to my… ghh… I made the mistake of not just hearing them out but actually going along with their horrid plan…! And… and when I realized what I've done… it was too late…"
Penelope sobbed, curling up even more than she already was.
"Hey, it's not that bad. I mean…"
*thunk*
Saria frowned and pointed out as her body shone and she easily broke through her bindings and landed softly on the damp floor.
"See? If you will cooperate with me, as you have already started just by not trying to stop me, we can salvage the situa…"
"NO!"
She pointed out while conjuring ephemeral blades as makeshift torches to light up the space, but ended up flinching at the screech that Penelope unleashed at her generous offer.
"...no… it's too late for me…"
Penelope said, going back to the pained whimpering.
"I… haven't told you the… most important part… They… those people, they… they sold their souls to deofols…"
"...!"
As the cowering woman revealed, Saria's behavior changed instantly.
The silver-haired girl backed off and made sure that at least two ephemeral blades would always stay between her and Penelope. She also began frantically shifting her clothes to check for any possible changes that could be a sign of gedwyld pollution.
"I didn't…! I didn't sell my soul… but one of those people… teacher Hervolst… she sold hers to a powerful deofol. Something like a plant or a mushroom… she became able to produce spores with different properties… by that point I didn't want to have anything to do with them, but before I could run or even mention anything, teacher Hervols infected me with her spores, and I couldn't fully control my body anymore…"
Penelope explained in a hurry, but Saria's cautiousness only increased.
"E-even you were affected by the spores… Teacher Hervolst snuck them into your room at night to keep you asleep. That's how you ended up here… Sorry… your fae is most likely already…"
"No. Spite isn't around because I sent her out on a task… and, are you sure that I got polluted with some gedwyld-infused spores…? I don't feel particularly different. You, though, look shit."
Penelope said nervously, but then Saria walked around her and crouched right in front of her, pointing her finger right in the woman's face.
She wasn't even exaggerating. Penelope did look as pitiful as it gets. If asked to pick which one looked like a victim of kidnapping by deofol's servants, anyone with a sane mind would choose her instead of Saria.
Matted hair in disarray, bulging reddened eyes, ghastly pale but somewhat yellowish skin, sunken cheeks, parched lips parted and trembling…
Penelope was cowering, clenching both arms against her stomach while trembling like a leaf in the wind.
Saria wasn't even certain that Penelope was even properly seeing her, despite crouching right in front of her.
"...even so, I… kind of don't sense that there's anything particularly wrong with you…"
"There definitively is, though! There is…! Teacher Hervolst made me inhale the spores…! I'm… I'm… a dead body that still somehow moves…"
Saria furrowed her brows and said after taking a few good sniffs, but nothing she said seemed to get to Penelope.
"...I don't know if you will be able to survive after getting out of here, but… please try your best… and… and… please… e-end me before I'll completely lose myself…"
Penelope shivered and asked in distress.
"..."
The thing was, Saria wasn't joking or trying to soothe the disturbed woman when she said that she didn't sense anything wrong with her.
Gedwyld pollution carried a very specific scent. So specific that Saria immediately reported traces of it to the headmaster Lazalarius once she sensed them within the Royal Academy, and therefore caused a large-scale investigation that eventually led the headmaster and vice headmaster out of the Academy…
…but she wasn't sensing anything from Penelope… at all…
Like, not even a lingering trace!
If anything, now Saria began to suspect that this whole thing was some sort of ploy that Penelope came up with, one in which she would conveniently place the blame on someone else.
But… even someone like Penelope had to know that accusing someone of gedwyld was already a serious crime with dire consequences… Would she really risk it…?
All that Saria could be certain of was that she indeed was made asleep by someone, and that she was transported to this place…
Actually…
"What even is this place?"
She ended up asking while looking around. The space was some sort of combination of a natural cavern and a building, with some walls and even the floor to some degree being reinforced with bricks. Only that it all had to be done either at random or ages ago because it all made very little sense…
One thing was certain. It wasn't within the Royal Academy that Saria knew.
…but was this space that far away? Was she transported there with magic, or is it, perhaps, somewhere underneath the Academy?
Did the Royal Academy hold some kind of ancient history buried like that?
"We… we're in the sewers beneath the Royal Academy…"
"Sewers?"
Once Penelope answered, Saria couldn't hold back her bafflement.
That space did not smell like sewers.
Or maybe, was it just another made-up excuse, just like the supposed gedwyld pollution…?
"The Royal Academy was originally a research institute built on top of ancient ruins… after everything was excavated and explored, the dangerous parts had been sealed off, and the rest repurposed as sewers… although we are in one of the sealed-off parts.. It's still sewers now…"
"..."
Penelope explained, earning herself a grim glare of the golden eyes.
"Can you at least lead me out of here first? Or are you going to say that you didn't pay attention on your way in, so you can't…?
Saria rolled her eyes and said, crossing her arms.
"You… aren't going to kill me? But, the gedwyld pollution…"
"No, I am not going to get rid of the only person who can save me hours of wandering around a sewer just because they SAY they are polluted by gedwyld."
Penelope asked in disbelief, but Saria cut her short with an annoyed scoff.
"If it'll make you feel better, when we will move, I will have the blades surround you, so you will be ended swiftly if, and ONLY if, you would show any actual signs of pollution."
Saria declared, waving her hand so that the ephemeral blades lighting up the space all gathered around Penelope.
"...fine… But promise me you will kill me after I get you out."
"Considering how annoying you are, I might actually consider it. Now, can you stand up on your own?"
Penelope mumbled, making Saria scoff and offer her a hand, but the woman refused and pulled herself up on her own.