Chapter 217: Twenty-fourth Episode: Chapter 8-1 (2/2)
The local bullies and riff-raff seemed to be afraid of the old woman. After a moment of silence, they helped the wounded man into the alleyway. The blind old woman murmured something inaudible and turned to the queried Prince of Titan, ”Come in for some tea? It's free!”
Oscar shook his head initially, but Sasha shook his arm as a gentle plead, and with that, the Imperial Prince quickly nodded. His wife then smiled in delight.
The old woman's residence was simple and humble. Oscar noticed that there was no window in the small room. The lower-class citizens set up a bed in such a shantytown, and sprawled on the bed lazily were the old woman's family. At first glance, one would have thought that there were as many as a dozen people. Oscar's attention swept by these lifeless faces. He saw the pain, greed, pressure of survival, and the young girl with a swollen belly...
”My God... is she any more than twelve years old?” Sasha also noticed a young pregnant girl. She and her husband whispered into each other's ears but the parents in the room turned when she drew the curtains.
The old woman glared at them with her empty, white eyes, ”Noble young lady, don't expect a whore to give birth to golden eggs. We can only pray that the child will not be like its father.”
Oscar and his wife retrieved their gaze from the young girl, and they followed the old woman into the room behind the curtain.
As soon as he entered the door, Oscar saw a massive valance and a square table covered in thick wool. In the center of the wool blanket laid a huge crystal ball. The Prince of Titan looked at the old woman in confusion. Based on the economic standards of this household, they should not have means to obtain such a gigantic rare, natural crystal ball.
The old woman sat at the square table and stretched out her hand toward the other side. Without having a reason, Oscar found himself following the old lady's instruction. Sasha accompanied her husband and inspected everything in front of her eyes.
”What are we doing?” Oscar's could not take his sight away from the crystal ball. He felt something unknown inside it that was deeply intriguing.
The old woman's eyes blinked a couple of times, and her dry and thin hands hovered around the crystal ball. Soon enough, the insides of the crystal ball began swirling up a whirlwind of eye-catching colors.
Oscar whispered to his wife, ”I thought she just asked us to have a cup of tea.”
”Shh...” Sasha made a silent gesture. The leader of Andrew House shrugged indifferently. He was uncertain why were they engaging in this incomprehensible thing, he really did not want to waste time here.
”Madam! Are you a psychic or fortune teller?”
His Highness the Prince did not receive an answer. The old woman focused on the color change in the crystal ball and occasionally scanned her eyes on the roof full of cobweb. Oscar finally got impatient after waiting a long while. He pulled Sasha up from the seat, and whispered to his wife, ”I thought that the previous fights among the religious enemies had cleaned all these heresies!”
”Blood! Loads of blood...” the old woman suddenly screamed, and Oscar turned around in confusion. Yet, after a long wait, he was not getting any further comments. Prince of Titan shrugged nonchalantly and threw a golden Ti on the table.
”Madam! Tell us what else do you see?”
The old woman suddenly muttered a series of strange spells. The way Oscar heard it, this series of confusing words sounded like ”abracadabra,” but whatever it was, it was really stupid for him to be wasting his precious time here with a mad old lady! Oscar was so devastated that he had to tell off his wife who kept insisting.
”Ola Sasha, I think we should leave now!”
The old woman suddenly stretched out her arms and rays of blinding lights shone from within the crystal ball. Instinctively Oscar closed his eyes and extended his palms to block the light. When he opened his eyes again, what appeared in front was instead a spherical mirror image.
A gorgeous palace, gold-inlaid silver ivory bed, a young and beautiful mother has just given birth. In the arms of the maid was the newborn, and the room was full of people with delightful smiles on their face. Oscar tried to distinguish carefully, but he could not make out the face of the woman in labor until a man took the child away.
”William...” The Prince of Titan cried. He wanted to stop it, but he was blocked by a palace door and he found no way to cross. The anxious Oscar had to turn around to question the mother of the child. He knew that woman in bed was his Elizabeth. At this time, the spherical mirror suddenly flashed!
The magnificent palace disappeared and what replaced was a humble bedroom. The door to the bedroom was opened ajar, and a nun walked in with a cloth-wrapped package in her arms. She gently lifted the valance draped over the wooden bed and showed the crying little in her arms to the woman on the bed.
Oscar learned from his mistake, and he squinted to focus his sight… Finally, the woman's face appeared! However, this woman was not the adopted daughter of Prince of Titan, but Her Majesty the Queen of the Deiss Kingdom. Oscar was astonished, as he was not sure if the woman who was breastfeeding the child was Opareal Roulexberg. When the Prince of Titan was about to enter the picture, the scene suddenly became a chaos! Screaming, shouting, women crying, men mourning! Various intense sound fields repeatedly hit Oscar's eardrum, while unpredictable pictures flashed rapidly in front of his eyes. The Prince tried his best to figure out the scenes with his limited sense of perception and realized each frame was flooded with fresh, bright blood.
Finally, the fast-moving spherical mirror froze! Oscar panted and puffed, and he carefully examined the scene played in front of his eyes. This scene was unusually familiar to him. Golden bed curtains, white carpets, pictures painted on the ceilings, and glazed, tiled window sills. What was this all about! This was Sasha's bedroom in the Serevan Palace!
Oscar suddenly found himself now able to move, therefore he crept into the large bed, and then gently lifted the drape...
The overly frightened young Prince suddenly opened his eyes. He calmed down his mind, and then looked around him in panic. Sasha glanced back from the dressing table, ”Oh... You're awake! Can you help me? My hair is stuck on the wooden comb!”
”Where am I?”
Sasha rolled her eyes in disdain, ”Oscar, my dear! It was you who dragged me into the bedroom at noon. I don't have the habit of napping!” the young Andrew mistress suddenly glared at her husband shyly, ”But... well, I'll let you off the hook this time!”
Oscar propped up himself and realized he was naked. Lingered on his body was the fragrance of his wife.
Sasha E went to the bedside and draped a thin cloth over her husband. Then, she sat down with her back facing him, ”Help me out! It hurts so much!”
Oscar extended his arm mechanically, and carefully pulled out the wooden comb. The comb naturally carried a few blonde hairs of his wife. Sasha moaned in pain softly and she turned to hit her husband's arm. Oscar smiled, but he thought of the picture appeared in his dream... woman, child! Sasha's lower limbs were full of blood, as she stared at him with empty eyes.
Oscar pulled his wife into his arms tightly. Sasha looked at him strangely as the man vowed to her.
”I will not let anyone hurt you! No! Absolutely not!”
Sasha nodded, although still puzzled, and she smiled at the hickeys left on her husband's body, ”Go wash that off! Go!”
Oscar left the bed, but instead of heading for the bathroom he went straight to the door.
The officer from Military Intelligence, who had waited outside the room for a long time, came forward immediately. Without any expression, Oscar shook his finger at Janin Sherman.
”Ola... I've had enough! Go and get that old man Glenn Alpré!”