The Harvest of Souls

CHAPTER 32

ASTURIAN ISLAND

11.01.8462 - 08:00 AM

Scarlet woke slowly to the morning light streaming through her bedroom windows. She groped with her left hand, running it over Mário's chest as she yawned, turning on her side to face the angelic face of her sleeping husband. The girl left Mário aside and got out of bed, taking the MC from the bedside table. She accessed the messages in the group created by Mila, where everyone was sending the published news about Felício's murder. The last messages were a series of emojis with astonished expressions. She quickly climbed through the emojis and then reached Mila's message.

GUYS, AS WE ALREADY EXPECTED, THEY WERE HEAVY, LOOK WHAT AN ABSURD!!! LET'S TALK AT 9 AM?

Right below Mila's message was an online address for the story, which Scarlet quickly accessed. The article had the photo stamped that reverberated in all the media the day before: Lélia and Charlotte fallen to the ground, with a charred body attached to a trunk. The newspaper had taken care to treat the photo to make it even more impactful, adding black stains on the parapets and floor of the bridge, placing a gray filter over the image, and black smoke at its edges. Scarlet took a deep breath and began to read:

THE OBNOXIOUS QUEEN

Rafael Obritzky

Whenever we think that lélia Mota's story has come to an end, she surprises us with even more barbarities. Convicted for the murder of Alexandre Arcanjo in 8411, Lélia spent 16 years in the Ice Prisons. Through an assassination, Lélia managed to catapult her political influence and left the Ice Prisons, one of the most secret and dirtiest places in the world, to join an even dirtier place: the infamous CriSPe Institute.

With no relation to reality, the Institute Lélia chose to work for is nothing more than a drain, that drains the taxes collected by the kingdom. Though practically disinherited by her family after Alexandre's merciless murder, Lélia remains one of the richest women in the whole world. She owns more than three hundred and fifty billion Árkades, in addition to her fifteen percent stake in Mottamotors, approaching 1.2 trillion of Árkades.

The fact is, Lélia likes to paint herself as a victorious fighter. Still, she was never anything more than a highly wealthy heiress who used her capacity for influence and persuasion to get into the inner cycle of Richard and Charlotte. What no one expected was that Lélia would be so unscrupulous to the point of pulling the rug out from under the one she supposedly considers a friend. Sources inform that upon being invited to assume the highest position in Asturias, Lélia didn't even hesitate, kicking Richard to the ancient continent and greedily taking over the kingdom.

Not even an hour after Lélia was made official as interim regent of Asturias, Taclán, and Seslesia, Lélia started showing what she came for. We are sorry to report the murder of Excellency Felício Arcanjo, director of the navy, former director of the Armed Forces, a person who has always donated his life to the kingdom. Arcanjo built a brilliant military career from scratch, bringing glory to Asturias and having the role that Charlotte lacked to win the last war. Arcanjo still played a prominent role within the government and was one of the most fervent and sensible opponents of Lélia's growth within the CriSPe Institute.

In one of his highest moments, he brought scathing arguments against one of Lélia's promotions and was attacked by it to an extreme. Lélia constantly tried to belittle his work and his historical importance to Asturias. Arcanjo always took criticism maturely and sparingly, remaining true to his commitments to the kingdom.

We recently discovered that in the last few days, a wave of murders has started to occur around Lélia's: the daughter of a close friend Jean (Jeannie) van der Veen ...