CHAPTER 136: HE PLAYS BOTH TEAMS

"You..."

Edith wanted to say something, but as soon as she started to speak, the look in Vivian’s eyes changed.

Her eyes widened, then shut with an anguished expression.

Her shoulders started to move and shake frantically.

With both hands on her head, she leaned against her bed, then fell.

"Vivian!"

Edith rushed to her, but she then saw the weapon in her hand and decided to sheath it first before stepping closer.

Vivian was now shaking on the ground, resting her back against the bed, clutching what she could grab from it very hard, her veins popping all over her shivering hands and forehead. She then raised her head, arched her back upward from the extreme pain, and made a very sharp and almost inaudible squeak before dropping down, gritting her teeth, and holding her head.

"The curse!"

Edith barely spoke those words, knowing the full truth behind Vivian’s suffering. On the other hand, Vivian looked at her with bloodshot eyes, enduring the crazy pain that finally started to settle down, and held herself up, sweat all over her, shivering, and in the sorriest state Edith had ever seen her in.

"Who... who is doing this to me?" she asked with a hoarse voice filled with pain.

"You almost killed my brother and Ian Grayson too; you wounded them gravely," Edith said before shaking her head. "You killed no less than three men that night; you killed over thirty Blackguards in total, and you are wanted for killing Royal Guards, destroying Brookwell Crossing, a Royal Convoy, killing Natasha Ivanov, and... the list goes on and on and on."

Edith then looked Vivian right in the eye and simply asked:

"Your list of enemies is not a short one, Vivian. Can’t you even realize who it was?"

"The enemies are for the Swan," Vivian said, as she could no longer joke about it. "There is a reason for her to have those kinds of enemies... so it doesn’t bite me in the ass."

"I see." Edith raised her brows, nodding but totally in a state of turmoil, as seen on her honest face. "Well, it turns out all you need to lay a curse is some blood. You left a substantial amount of that on my brother’s blade."

"Blood?"

Vivian’s expressions twitched as she started putting two and two together. If her blood was used to lay down a curse, the list of curse users could be narrowed down to those associated with the Prince. Of course, she did not know many sorcerers, but the keywords "blood" and "curse" brought up a certain name in Vivian’s mind.

"Beatrix Morgan."

Vivian sat on her bed with clear exhaustion. She knew that bit of information from the game. After all, in the route of Ian Grayson, Beatrix curses the Heroine through blood. The game never described what kind of curse it was, but it decreased health and stamina like a nasty son of a bitch.

Now that Vivian had almost killed Ian that night, it all made perfect sense. Beatrix Morgan was behind it all, of course, driven by her love and madness, a realization that knotted all parts of Vivian’s curse puzzle together.

Vivian and Edith looked each other in the eye.

Two friends by chance, two sisters of fate, two villainesses of a heroine’s story. Their ideals are a stark difference from each other, their hearts are loyal to different causes, and their actions can almost alter the course of history.

Now, they either come together as allies or split up as rivals.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Vivian and Edith sat apart from one another, each at one end of the bed. They were looking at their cups, unable to speak; each of them was in a mood more sour than the other.

Edith was originally here to vent, but now the situation has turned out to be an inquisition for the sake of the justice she believes in. The moment she matched the timing of the daily torture that Beatrix practices along with Vivian’s epilepsy episodes, it did not need a genius to know that the one Edmond fought three nights ago was actually the Swan.

"Personal Magic is treated as a major secret for sorcerers. You seem familiar with Beatrix’s magic; how?" Edith asked.

"I know things," Vivian said, and rubbed her left hand with her right thumb. "I knew she was a curse witch. Something called the Heart of Thorns, if I am not mistaken."

"Heart of Thorns?" Edith did not seem to understand what that name implied, but she asked, "Do you know that she is inflicting the same pain on herself to hurt you?"

"The fuck?" Vivian looked at Edith with a horrified face. "Is that how her magic works?"

"She said if we were to kill her, you would die too."

"Fucking... crazy bitch!"

Suddenly, Vivian was no longer the composed noble Edith knew. She was taken aback, but the disbelief in Vivian’s eyes was greater than Edith’s.

"That girl... she has to wake the fuck up!" Vivian said and tried to stand, but her body was too damaged to move. "He doesn’t love her, that Grayson fucker."

"And how do you know that?"

"Because all he wants from her is her Magic and maybe an heir, just like all Richard wanted from you was your womb and your family’s backing." Vivian spoke to Edith harshly, pushing herself up to stand at equal eye level with Edith.

"You don’t know that!" Edith retorted.

"I know he plays both teams," Vivian said.

"What?" Edith frowned.

Vivian sighed, knowing that she had to blast a beehive right in Edith’s face.

"You remember Reginald Ashcroft?" she asked.

"The senior who was murdered after assaulting Isadora... on the academy graduation day," Edith answered with obvious hesitation.

"He was Richard’s boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?"

"They were buddies in the molly house," Vivian said with a tired face. (Means that Richard is Gay.)

"How the hell..."

Edith’s breath hitched. Her gaze snapped to Vivian, eyes wide, as if trying to unhear the words that still hung in the air. A tremor ran through her jaw, the only sign of the storm raging behind her, suddenly frozen expression.

"That’s not possible!" she said and pointed with a vicious glare at Vivian. "You know I broke my engagement with him because he was acting improperly around that commoner girl."

Vivian raised both hands with a smile, casually replying:

"And I said he plays both teams."

"How is that even possible?" Edith asked with a high-pitched voice, unable to process what Vivian was telling her.

"Don’t ask me! I only swing one way." Vivian raised both hands, then with a grin, "Isabella can tell you more, though, if you are interested."

Edith did not seem to appreciate the joke, as she sat at one end of Vivian’s bed, covering her face with her hands, leaning on her knees, and finding it hard to process.

Vivian also sat on the other end of the bed and turned to Edith. Now that she had redirected Edith’s anger, she had to make her own point to convert Edith of House Black to her cause.