Climbing the wooden stairs that creaked with every step to the upper floor, Niko was wiping the tears flowing down his cheeks. Walking behind him, Nafız was both saddened by the state of the man in front of her and happy that they had found a strong supporter.
"If you have the courage to face the truth, open the door, Niko!"
When they waited for ten breaths in front of the door, Nafız called out to the man whose tears did not cease.
"Creaaaakkk!"
Along with the sound of weeping coming from its hinges, pain and suffering were coming out accompanied by a heavy smell of blood. Niko had closed this place immediately after the tragic event, but he couldn't destroy his beloved wife's last memory.
"Now, watch what happens without moving. In a moment, you will learn who your wife's killer is!"
When the grieving man burst into sobs and collapsed at the foot of the bed, Nafız concluded that the environment was ready. With the daggers coming out of her wristbands that became visible, she made two deep cuts on her arms. Blood began to empty into the cauldron she took out of her ring.
When the small cauldron was half full, Nafız decided it was enough and covered her wounds with a paste-like medicine. Although her wounds, which closed shortly after, didn't attract attention, her face turning white hadn't escaped Niko's notice.
"What is that blood for? Are you planning to defile my wife's memory?"
Blood was Nafız's cultivation resource, and she would spend a considerable amount for this job. The grieving man might have been right in his rebellion, but the Blood God had no time to spare for romance.
"Shut your mouth! There was always a suspicion gnawing at your insides, wasn't there? The reason you left this place like this wasn't the memories you were attached to, but the hope of finding the courage within yourself to seek the truth one day!"
Nafız, who entered the stone house a night ago and conducted a detailed investigation, had realized most things when she saw the room. Now, she just had to take the first steps in place of the cowardly man.
"No, it can't be; I won't allow it!"
The gray-haired man wanted to stand on his feet with a burst of courage; he wanted to protect the place where his wife lived her last moments.
"Sit down; cowards like you have no right to speak in any world!"
Nafız, tying the grieving man to the iron bars of the bedstead with the whip coming out of her wristbands, adjusted his face to look at the bed so he could see everything.
Using the blood in the cauldron, Nafız started drawing a circle enclosing the bedstead. When she finished her work and it was time for the star on the bed, Niko shouted as if begging for mercy.
"Don't! I beg you, don't!"
Ignoring the voice of the man shouting at the top of his lungs and completing the symbol, Nafız walked calmly behind Niko and rested her head on his right shoulder.
"I guess you were waiting in front of the door during the birth, and when your wife started screaming, you couldn't stand it anymore and entered the room!"
While his blue eyes turned red from the tears he shed, Niko practically returned to that day. The woman he loved was about to bring the fruit of their love into the world. This excitement didn't fit inside him, squeezing his heart like a vise and inflicting the sweetest of tortures on him.
With the hope of holding his first child in his arms, he had counted the carvings on the wooden door a few ten times and forgotten the number of paces he took in the short corridor. While his wife groaned to cope with the difficulties brought by birth, the encouraging words of the midwives reached his ears.
When a high-pitched scream came out of the room and reached Niko waiting in the corridor, the young man froze. This wasn't like the previous ones; his wife was screaming as a result of great pain. He was sure; something was going wrong.
When he heard the second scream, he couldn't stop anymore; he had to see his wife. He entered through the door in a fury and shouted amidst the bewildered gazes of the shocked midwives.
"What is happening here? What's wrong with my wife?"
When the man, practically roaring, directed his gaze to his wife, he would see that scene that wouldn't let him sleep peacefully for the rest of his life. The face of his world-beautiful wife, whom he couldn't bear to look at or touch, had become skin and bones, and her eyes had shrunk as if they would fall out of their sockets.
"Maria, my life, my love!"
Finishing his words, the man collapsed on his knees and held on to the bars at the foot of the bedstead to avoid falling. His wife was screaming, and due to the frantic movements of her body, no one could approach her.
Niko, watching this scene helplessly, wanted to get up, hug his wife, and save her, but the fear he fell into didn't allow him to take even a single step. The blood scattered on the bed and the screams in agony lasted for dozens of breaths; the helplessly screaming woman was experiencing her last throes.
"Niko, my darling, take good care of our daughter!"
At the end of everything, a short moment occurred. A moment where the sounds in the room ceased, and only the woman taking her last breath spoke.
Everyone, devastated in tears, understood what happened. The young woman closed her eyes to life; the silence formed was absolute. Not a sound was heard for ten seconds until the sound of crying rang out.
The adults in the room were crying, but this was different; what was heard was a baby's voice. The first to come to her senses was the head midwife of the Partheni family. She leaped from where she collapsed, reached the baby lying among the sheets, and cut the umbilical cord.
Although mother and daughter would never meet after what happened, their blood was mixing on the bed furnished with white sheets. Niko was looking with blank eyes at the midwife bringing his daughter. After a while, he raised his hands to take this small living being extended to him.
It was the first moment he felt that warmth emitted by his daughter. The first moment he tasted the emotion that would cover the sadness and darkness churning inside him.
"Niko, you can open your eyes now!"
When he heard Nafız's voice right by his ear, the grieving man would wake up from the dream realm he dived into. Niko, living the moment he lifted his daughter into the air in his hands, found himself gripping the iron bars of the bedstead tightly with his head looking at the ceiling of the room.
The whip surrounding him had long left him, but the gaze of the leader of the Partheni family was on the thing he saw after waking from the dream.
"Tell me this is a lie, tell me it is a game you played to make me suffer!"
Nafız stood behind the begging man and was looking at the shape appearing on the ceiling.
"Blood never lies. This person is your wife's killer!"
The gray-haired man's words a moment ago were not in vain. He also saw the symbol formed on the ceiling, and it wasn't his first time seeing this shape either. At the end of everything, what both people witnessed was a black lily.
The symbol was the same as the tattoo on the City Lord's neck, but for what reason would Astute want to kill his wife? A hundred years ago, his family's dominance over the city ended, and they obeyed the newly sent lord.
During this time, not only did they not attempt rebellion, they didn't even have the slightest objection to the orders given. They were not a warrior family. Their ancestors had developed the city when it was a small port town, and based on this, the people had given their family name to the place they lived with their own desires.
The man drowning in thoughts saw Nafız go to the side of the bed. The storm consisting of questions ravaging his mind continued.
The female orc murmured while looking at the bed where the blood on it was slowly disappearing.
"Maria! Brave woman who spent all her life force for her daughter's survival, rest in peace. I will cure your daughter and drown those who did this to you in their own blood!"