Frosi had just stepped into the castle when she couldn’t help but furrow her brow.
The scent of blood hanging in the air irritated her.
Unlike Ivy’s usual sweet-scented blood, the smell here made Frosi extremely uncomfortable.
She glanced at Emilia beside her but noticed that Emilia showed no reaction, as if she was strangely unaware of the blood scent in the air.
Frosi frowned and immediately enveloped herself in a mist of blood fog, wrapping Emilia in it as well.
Emilia looked at Frosi with confusion. “What’s wrong?”
Frosi’s expression remained unchanged as she slowly asked, “Don’t you think the blood scent here is a bit off?”
Emilia’s confusion deepened; she seemed to be recalling something before slowly replying, “Uh, maybe it’s because it’s been left for too long, so it smells bad?”
“I don’t find anything strange about it.”
Frosi gave Emilia a deep look but said nothing more, turning instead to walk deeper into the residence.
This should be where Diwen’s First Wife lived, she thought.
The bed in this room bore marks of knife slashes, and the dark red bloodstains on the bedframe and walls, impossible to clean off, clearly testified that something had happened here.
Frosi continued forward and arrived at a staircase leading upwards.
The top floor should be the room of the manor lord, Diwen Norton.
That’s where she might find what she wanted to know.
Without hesitation, Frosi called out to the dazed Emilia beside her, then headed upstairs.
With no servants lighting oil lamps, the castle felt gloomy and terrifying.
But with the blood clan’s inherent night vision, it was still fairly bright.
Frosi lingered briefly on each floor, observing carefully for anything suspicious.
As expected, she found nothing.
Of course, if there had been anything strange, the blood-stain-cleaning servants would have discovered it long ago; it was impossible it would be left until now for her and Emilia to find.
Thinking this, Frosi reached the top floor—the level where Diwen Norton resided.
First was the study.
As Frosi opened the study door, dust long undisturbed drifted in the sunlight streaming through the windows, making the particles particularly noticeable.
She walked to the desk, which was strewn with documents—mostly paperwork Diwen had been reviewing before his accident.
The contents were all related to commercial dealings.
Frosi put the papers down and moved to scan the bookshelf.
Emilia continued examining the documents on the desk.
Frosi skimmed the books on the shelf; most were about the Violet Empire’s history, such as The History of the Violet Empire and The Great Violet Emperor.
There were also some bardic poems.
Frosi picked up one of the poems and started reading.
But just as she removed the volume, her gaze was suddenly drawn to a book beside it, distinguished by a faint red hue on its cover.
She slowly put down the poem and reached for that book.
Its title was The Violet Poems—a collection of verses extolling the Violet Empire.
However, it wasn’t the title that caught Frosi’s attention.
What truly intrigued her was the bright red mark at the front of the book.
She flipped open The Violet Poems and quickly flipped through it.
There were many annotations in the middle section, made by Diwen Norton.
Frosi stopped at a page marked with that same vivid red, where three large characters were written in bright red ink:
“Save me.”
Beside those words were chaotic doodles, apparently drawn when Diwen’s mind was in a state of extreme turmoil.
Frosi flipped backward and saw a strange pattern.
The design was made of numerous whirlpools intertwined with many symbols.
At the center of the whirlpools and symbols was a single eye, looking particularly eerie.
If Ivy were here, she would immediately recognize it—the pattern was exactly the same as the strange image she had dreamt of in a half-conscious state!
Frosi stared at it for two seconds, inexplicably feeling a pang of unease, then continued flipping through the pages.
Towards the back of the poem book were endless pages filled with similar eerie patterns, completely covering the text.
Frosi found no other useful information in the poems.
She put the book down, feeling a sudden dizzy sensation for an unknown reason.
She furrowed her brow as the dizziness vanished as quickly as it had come—almost the instant she noticed it.
Looking at the Violet Poems in her hand, Frosi pondered the cause of the dizziness.
Perhaps it was triggered by the unsettling pattern that had made her heart race.
Frosi chose not to show this book with its strange patterns to Emilia but instead described the pictures briefly.
That way, even if the pattern carried some corrupting power, Emilia could kill her immediately to reset her state.
It would prevent the core blood essence of the blood clan from being contaminated.
They found no other clues in the study, so the two moved toward Diwen Norton’s bedroom.
Upon opening the bedroom door, everything inside was still neatly arranged.
The bed was made with blankets and pillows perfectly in place, and the items on the desk were not messy like in the study.
The tidiness was unnerving, as if no one had lived here for a long time.
Frosi lightly touched the wall and a layer of dust appeared on her hand.
She shook it off, and the dust vanished.
It was obvious this room hadn’t been occupied for a long while.
Yet Diwen had died only five days ago; logically, dust shouldn’t have accumulated this much in just five days.
Frosi scanned the room—from the bed to the wardrobe and then the desk.
Her gaze then fixed on a cabinet beside the bed.
There was nothing on top of the cabinet, yet her instincts told her something was inside.
She slowly approached and opened it.
The first drawer only contained some odds and ends.
After a quick search, she opened the second drawer.
It was empty as well.
Still, her sixth sense kept telling her she had missed something.
Deep in thought, Frosi reached to the bottom of the cabinet.
Her hand touched something made of leather.
She carefully pulled out the leather item.
It was a notebook, appearing to be a diary.
Frosi flipped through it rapidly, searching for the information she needed.
Soon, she found it.
Violet Calendar, Year 357, September 13
A servant found a medal made entirely of pure gold; it seems quite valuable, but the strange pattern and eye on it make me uneasy.
I don’t know why, but I always feel like the eye on the medal is watching me, so I ordered the servant to discard it.
Violet Calendar, Year 357, September 14
Damn it, I distinctly told the servant to throw the medal into the river, yet it was picked up again!
This time, I’m going to throw it myself.
Frosi’s expression gradually darkened as she read the diary, flipping through it rapidly.
The earliest entries merely recorded strange incidents Diwen had encountered.
But gradually, the pattern on the medal appeared in the diary—the very same pattern Frosi had just seen in The Violet Poems!
A chill crept up her spine.
The diary’s entries became increasingly eerie.
Diwen seemed to be undergoing some transformation, and Frosi could clearly feel his fear and helplessness.
But gradually, Diwen’s resistance to the medal vanished.
He began praising it and filled his diary with drawings of the medal.
Yet among these patterns were small pleas for help, apparently written while he was lucid.
Frosi flipped faster and faster until her eyes settled on a series of murmurs.
“The gods favor me, the gods bless me, the gods watch over me.
I have felt it—I have felt the gods.
They are watching me; I understand now, I understand.
Everything is food, everything is the gods’ food.
All will be destroyed.
Everything is but a game of the gods.
The gods are eternal.”
Frosi suddenly froze in place.
Everything… will be destroyed…
The words abruptly emerged in her mind.
Within less than half a second, her mind was filled with the murmured phrase.
She slowly turned her head and looked at Emilia, who was rummaging nearby.
A strange smile curved at the corner of Frosi’s lips, and an unusual red light gleamed in her eyes.
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