I was reborn as an orphan, But I won't let that stop me

Chapter 30

Annette moves swiftly and undetected like a shadow. From the sound of the recording, she has concluded that the entrance to what seems like a secret hideout is not inside the mansion. So she checks every shed in the garden and tries to calculate how to open it from the sounds she heard in the recording. She was not able to figure it out even after an hour but as she hears someone walking in she quickly hides on top of the wood beam just under the ceiling. The person who walks inside walks a middle-aged man and looking at his clothes he is not a typical servant. He should be either the secretary or the treasurer. He opens the secret passage and walks inside with Annette stealthily following him in. As she walks down the staircase at the end there are actually three paths to go. But she decides that it is best to continue to follow the man who walked the path to the right. Then she follows him through the last door and quickly finds a good hiding spot.

This place is like miniature prison that only has one large cage, she can not see whos inside it as there are one man and a woman blocking her sight. They look like twins. Besides, that cage is a few tables with a lot of medical and magical tools as well as herbs. There are also some torture tools. contrary to what one might believe this place is unexpectedly very clean and doesn't have a fowl smell. The man she allowed here walks toward the two in front of the cage. " How are things progressing?" The man asks. "Not great, she has started to get used to our torture methods." The twin male answers. "Then use something more painful, the duke needs you to be able to mass produce the improved green sin as soon as possible." The man says impatiently.  " If we do that she might pass out." The female tells him. " What is the problem with that?" The man asks. " Because unlike us she cant cry if she is unconscious." The male twin answers. 

"Is there any kind of medicine that can keep her awake?" The male asks. "... There is one kind of potion that has that function, but that is for humans I don't know if it will work." The female says. " Give it to her and see if it works, if it doesn't work I will see if the duke can find someone who has a solution." The man answers and walks out of the room. The twins on the other hand walk towards the table with herbs on it. So now Annette is finally able to see who is in the cage and just as she suspected inside of it is the phoenix. But unlike the magnificent bird, you see in paintings or in picture books this bird is very tethered. The pristine yellow and orange feathers that resemble flames are now muted and unkempt and she is also missing many feathers. It is like candlelight that is struggling to survive. Not only that but there are a lot of whip wounds all over its body. There is also a cooler on her neck with a magic stone on it. It is probably there to suppress the phoenix's powers. 

Seeing this Annette doesn't feel much but she does think that this is wrong but now is not the time to care about freeing the phoenix. Annette takes out a palm-sized crystal, this is a motion crystal. It is like the magic on her chocker but instead of recording sound, it records a video without sound. But of course, she still uses her chocker to record the sound too. She has had it on 24/7, only not using it when she cut off all the useless recordings. She sees the twins making some kind of potion with the herbs and once it is done they put a fire-based spell on it. Then the female twin takes the potion while the male twin picks up a whip. They enter the cage and she forces the phoenix to drink the potion. Once that is done she walks out and grabs an empty glass bottle with a special shape at the top. It is made that way presumably to catch the phoenix tears easier so nothing goes to waste. After she has walked in again the man starts to put a lightning spell on the whip and starts to whip the phoenix. The phoenix cries in pain after every hit but does its best not to cry. So he hit it harder and harder intensifying the lightning spell so that instead of getting whip wounds instead the phoenix gets burn marks. Something that a phoenix should not be able to get. But with its magic sealed away and him using lightning magic instead of fire this is the result. It is so bad that Annette can feel the burning smell.

But instead of crying the phoenix uses its weak body to hit her head against the cage three times knocking herself unconscious. " That damn bird, it is intelligent enough to know what we are after so why not just give in, it will be a lot easier for her." The man says annoyed. " Phoenixes are prideful birds they refuse to give up." The woman answers. " Anyway, let's find something to tie its head so that it can't do this again. The woman says. " On it." The man answers. That's the queue that Annette decides to leave as there is nothing here left to see. She decides to go check where the other paths lead. Even though this is enough information to turn him in Annette wants to find more prof and possibly get to know just exactly what the duke's plan is. So she then walked the left path and found that this is where they make the drug. She does her best to record the face of every person here and the ingredients they use to make it easier to make a cure. Then the last path she discovered was the place where the meeting between Walsh and the duke probably took place. Annette carefully looks through all the papers on the desk and finds a lot of important letters and documents. It includes some people who are involved, proof of embezzlement, bribery, and other things. She uses a magic tool to make copies of the evidence and then puts everything in its original place. After that, she returns to Walsh's bedroom.