When Nafız, finishing her words by bowing respectfully, started walking towards the door, Niko was watching her with disbelieving eyes.
"Come downstairs, we are done here!"
While the female orc speaking with her blood-curdling voice slowly left the room, Niko had shed the role of the happy man he had assumed for all these years.
In the living room of the small stone house, Nafız said "sit" looking into Niko's blue eyes devastated by crying.
"Since you received the answer to your first question, now it's time for the second one; yes, I can cure your daughter, but the price for this job will be quite heavy!"
"I will give whatever you want, including my own life!"
When his daughter was mentioned, the gray-haired man revived as if pushing his pain aside with his hand.
"I told you before, I am not interested in your or your loved ones' lives. I want you to present me with a detailed report about the City Lord."
Seeing Niko looking at her with surprised eyes, Nafız continued.
"The sole person responsible for your wife's death and your daughter's current condition is City Lord Astute!"
Niko had also seen that the symbol appearing on the ceiling and the tattoo on Astute's neck were the same, but he couldn't form a connection between the two.
"The Black Lily Clan was cursed by the Sacred Blood Sect, one of the Six Great sects of the Hell Realm, as a result of their treachery. The lineage of the clan leader and all disciples who swore an oath of allegiance carry the black lily tattoo, the evidence of the crime, on their bodies!"
The grieving man couldn't sit still; he was restless and agitated. His mind was muddled due to the names he heard for the first time.
"What does my daughter have to do with these? We are just a merchant family minding our own business!"
When Nafız gave a short pause to the things she explained in one breath, the blue-eyed man intervened.
"Your daughter and wife are just victims. The real target was you and your lineage. The people love your family; they know that if they are living in such prosperity right now, it is thanks to you, not the city lord. Actually, you had no crime other than being an obstacle standing in front of absolute power!"
Nafız, starting to explain to Niko the point her deductions brought her, continued her words with seriousness.
"What caused your wife's death is the City Lord's Soul Binding Technique. This is the technique that caused the death of the person my master valued most in her life and the cursing of the Black Lily Clan!"
Nafız came to the point where she couldn't control her increasingly swelling anger. While the items inside the room shattered due to the aura she released, dust accumulated on the ceiling covered everywhere like drizzling rain.
Niko was listening to her without moving even a millimeter from his place. The middle-aged man had also burned his bridges. Let alone the room shaking, he wouldn't care if the ground opened up beneath him.
"My master devoted her life to the treatment of this curse and finally found the cure, but it wasn't possible for her to bring back the departed. You will secretly bring your daughter to this house six day-cycles later. I will put an end to this nightmare in the place where the curse passed to her!"
While the man, who had been looking for a cure for his daughter's illness for years, should have been screaming with joy with the good news, he was shedding tears silently where he stood.
"Niko, you must not say a single word to anyone. The City Lord's spies could be anywhere in the house!"
The man, physically here but mentally in another world, nodded his head confirming what was said.
"During this time, I have to kill many people in the mansion and inside the city. It would be good if the report I want is in my hands before darkness falls!"
The leader of the Partheni family was nodding at what was said with teary eyes. Although it was very difficult to digest what he heard and saw, time was limited; he had to pull himself together quickly.
"You will get what you want before the sun sets, but there is something bothering my mind; why are you helping me?"
While looking at the man slowly recovering himself, Nafız continued her words placing a bitter smile on her face.
"The Orc Steppes are on the eve of an inevitable change. Consider this a payment we make for you to play the role assigned to you!"
The gray-haired man, bowing his head, understood that he was pulled into a chain of events over which he had no control, but there was nothing he could do.
He had three questions in mind when he came, and he still hadn't asked one. To ask the last question, he turned his eyes looking at the floor to where Nafız was located.
Niko was seized by the feeling of experiencing deja vu because, just like at night, the female orc had suddenly disappeared from sight. He sat in the armchair he was buried in for a while longer, then got up quickly and headed for the door.
The garden looked neglected. The sadness of the flowers left among weeds combined with the gloomy air the house emitted. Niko, ignoring any of it, opened his arms to both sides and pulled a huge breath into his lungs.
He had been living by deceiving himself for years. He had buried his pain in a place no one knew, not even himself. Now he was waiting at the head of that place with a pickaxe in his hand. His eyes were determined, and his heart was fearless.
Another man at the other end of the city was busy refilling the wine goblet he hadn't put down since the night before. He had lost money before because of his own warrior, but this was a first to fall into this situation because his school won the struggle.
Yesterday, he had met the warriors returning from the arena at the entrance of the school and ordered the orc who achieved a first in arena history to be crucified and whipped. Orcs were nothing more than trash in the Agustus house, as they were within Parthenia.
While the bodyguards walking among the gladiators watching the events with surprised eyes were about to take Alyon, someone would step in front of them.
"Morrison, what do you think you are doing? Get out of our way!"
The bodyguard trying to push the gladiator instructor by the shoulder went into shock when the man grabbed his wrist.
"As long as I am here, I won't allow a winning warrior of mine to receive punishment. First, you have to trample over my corpse!"
The bodyguard, making his move to reach for his sword after his friend was caught and the words he heard, suddenly saw that they were surrounded by other gladiators. Instructor Morrison was disciplined, even harsh to the point of cruelty, but no one could question his integrity.
The bodyguards formed a circle around Alyon, Morrison, and their friend immobilized by vise-like hands. Those facing them had only wooden training swords in their hands, but these men were people who managed to survive in the cruel environment of the arena.
"Ah Morrison, you and your old-fashioned thoughts. Bodyguards, retreat to your posts!"
The tense atmosphere dispersed after Quintus's words. This was a gladiator school, and everyone inside was his slave.
"Stupid orc, you caused me to lose a very large amount of gold. Every encounter of yours will be much harder. I hope you don't lose any of them, otherwise, all these people will have to die with you!"
While Quintus turned his back and walked away pointing at the gladiators surrounding the bodyguards, he had signed the death warrant for all of them. Bodyguards were returning to their posts; gladiators were lining up behind instructor Morrison.
"The orc who wrote history! It seems we will have to feed you well now!"
Morrison spoke with joy while looking into the eyes of the hulking orc on whose shoulder he put his hand. When he finished his words, the gladiators behind him would also burst into laughter; Alyon was confused about what hit him in the face of the scene, couldn't say a single word.
"We are people who make love to death. Or did you think such threats would scare us?"
After the instructor shouted frantically into the giant orc's face, he joined the laughter of the others.