We still need man-things!

Chapter Twenty Eight

After having lunch, Mike got extremely drowsy and went to his room to sleep. As he had done very hard work and slept for only two hours, he didn't wake up until it was late in the evening.

His muscles were hurting from the heavy loads he had pushed, and he felt that he was smelling of all that filth despite having the full body protection suit that Cassandra gave him.

By this time, life in the castle had returned to normal. Maids who hadn't ended their day yet were quietly doing their jobs like always. It wasn't clear how Alcina had explained to them their late wake-up time; he could only imagine that perhaps she just said that Linda had drugged them so she could escape, and they should be lucky that the drug wasn't poison and they are still alive.

Mike went to the shower first, then dressed up in clean clothes and visited the first floor to have some snacks for supper. There were a lot of food leftovers still in the dining room. As Camilla was cleaning the table to feed these leftovers to moroaicas, he quickly grabbed two untouched chicken legs before they could end up in the slop bucket.

"Ghouls have a party today." He just began speaking. "But what will happen to us? Who knows. There's so much evil lurking everywhere."

"We just have to forget these bad events and move ahead. Life is too short to worry all the time."

"Indeed. But at least Ingrid survived. How is she now?"

"She's mostly recovered by now." Camilla sighed. "She just went in her room, but it's better to leave her alone at the moment. She said she doesn't want to see anybody today."

"She should get the entire week free." Mike agreed and sat down to start eating. "That crazy bitch! That's just unbelievable. Steal the money and make someone else guilty like this."

"Linda had always been a fucked-up person, even in her childhood. We often heard stories about how she had hanged stray cats for fun or burned alive bird nestlings to make so-called firebirds. And thefts with older boys happened basically every month."

"And nobody reacted?"

"We have no police, but of course she got punished several times over the years. When she was thirteen, I remember Mother Miranda personally whipping her on the floor of the church after she had spray-painted Maiden of War. That was horrible, like super-screamy pig slaughter. I happened to witness this through the window while playing with my friends, and we all thought that she would either die from this or become a good person with very bad scars. And for six years after that, we seemingly saw a good person, but now it's clear that she didn't change to be good at all."

"That's so typical, like most criminals." Mike agreed again and drank some wine. "But what's good, however, is that she can never return to this town now, and your birds and cats should be safe."

"Yeah, that's for sure. But I'm a little afraid because my father is working as a guard outside, and she could do something to him if she's still here. We found a gun in her room."

"Gun? You mean Ingrid's hand cannon?"

"No, it was an old American Colt with six bullets inside. But that doesn't mean that she's unarmed now. Daniela found two poison smoke bombs she had made from household chemicals."

"Wait a minute. Then it was she who tested one outside a couple of nights ago! I felt the smell coming through the crack in the armory's wall I repaired in the morning, and I even asked it about her, but she said that Ingrid did it because she wanted to test some self-made black powder as she planned to go hunting with Cassandra as soon as the temperature allowed."

"That was another lie from her." Camilla explained. "Hunting season begins in September, and there is no need to risk your fingers; quality gunpowder is easily available. Linda is such a good liar that even Miranda couldn't see through her intentions. As you go home, I can only say to you that if you ever see her again in your life, you should never listen to any of her words. Turn around and walk away; she only speaks to another person if she wants to take advantage."