Chapter 197: The Deeper Truth
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The next morning when the weather was crisp and the sky cloudy, Samantha sat up on her bed while gazing timidly at the envelope in her hand. She felt the brown smooth texture of the envelope, her eyes displaying her affection for the one who wrote it, whilst she opened it up to take out the white paper that had been kept inside. Thankfully, Alain had gone to meet his Father for the meantime, giving her enough time to read the letter without any disruptions.
Her Father handing this letter to Madame Ginevra could only mean he sensed his death day coming. There was no other neighbor he trusted except Madame Ginevra, she understood his reasoning, but why would he give Madame Ginevra the letter to hand to her when he could have given it to her personally? Or was his perspective about her receiving the letter a little earlier meant she wasn’t ready to encounter what it held?
For some reason, Samantha hesitated, and she could feel her heart speed up. Looking at the neatly folded paper in her trembling hand, she mustered up the courage to open the letter, and when the handwriting came into view, a faint sorrowful smile curved her lips. When her green eyes lowered to gaze at the content below, she took in a deep calm breath before reading the content.
"Dear Samantha, if you are reading this letter, then it must mean that I am, sadly, no longer with you. I hope you and Maurice can forgive your Father for being incompetent enough to protect his own children. The both of you must be going through a lot as a result of my actions, the humiliation.... must have been difficult, and I am sorry that I cannot be by your side to comfort you both when you need it the most. Do not hate me for the accusations you might have heard."
Samantha paused briefly as she tried to take in another deep calm breath, it was almost as if she could hear her Father’s voice reading the letter out to her. She could sense his apology and his regrets, it threatened to make her cry, but knowing she could not do so as she needed to stay strong, she blinked the tears away and continued to read the letter from where she stopped, mentally building herself for what was to come.
"I know what you must be thinking, you must have a lot of questions to ask me, but let me answer the important one which is no, I never murdered King Muzan.... I was framed for it." Samantha’s heart eased upon reading the note, "Muzan and I were good friends who only had the betterment of the Kingdom in mind, I have told you our story more than once my child, but there were a lot of people who didn’t approve of the relationship existing between humans and vampires in the Palace. Muzan never ruled by favoritism, so he ignored the complaints. I became his special advisor since he believed I could help him make wiser decisions concerning the Kingdom, and one of those critical decisions involved the Mystic Orb."
"When the Mystic Orb was brought to the Palace, it prolonged the nature of GreenHollow, it became the target of a lot of enemies, and Muzan, who wasn’t aware of the power he had brought to the kingdom, did what he could to make sure the Orb never got in the wrong hands. The mystery of the Mystic Orb and why it was desperately wanted became Muzan’s one goal, to figure out the truth and the antiquity it held within his family. The Orb originally belonged to a powerful Demon who was castigated to hell during a war between Vampires and Demons, it was a centuries-old tale that Muzan had secretly dug up in Vesunard. We didn’t believe it was a problem since the owner had already been castigated from Earth, but a year after the discovery, it was rumored that the Demon had been awakened."
Samantha could feel a strange dread settle against the pit of her stomach, but she read on.
"The Demon was named Marius, and it wanted its Orb back. Muzan and I were reluctant to give it after comprehending his perilous motive for seeking the Mystic Orb in the first place. We had stick to it till one Stormy night, Muzan called me to his Palace, and Lady Agathe had directed me to the Orb room. Right there and then, Muzan made a hasty decision, one I hadn’t expected since the kingdom was already under serious threats by Marius. Muzan figured the Orb could grant wishes, but it was in exchange for one’s life. I tried to stop him, I tried to talk him out of considering his options, but Muzan felt the need to sacrifice his life that night, and the wish he made... he wished for the Orb to be human so it would never be found by the Demon. If the Orb became human, its connection with Marius would be temporarily hindered... it didn’t sound possible, but it was a risk he was willing to take. "
"There was a bright light after he made that wish, but when it died, Muzan was gone. Someone had alerted the guards about what was happening, but it was a lie spread by Lady Agathe that I had killed the King. She never liked my closeness with Muzan, and I had realized too late at what I had gotten myself into. Before he died, Muzan made me promise to take the Orb and run away with it, to somewhere safe, and that’s when you, my precious child, came along. After escaping from the Palace, I hadn’t realized until after I stopped running that I wasn’t holding an Orb, but a beautiful baby girl. You are not my real daughter, you are the Mystic Orb."