Ch.3: Searching For A Way

"The archduchess does not deserve to die!" shouted Maria, once again having another discussion with the two fragments of her inner consciousness, Light Maria and Dark Maria.

"Such a nice woman definitely does not deserve to die." Light Maria sagely nodded her head in agreement.

"Saying that she's a nice woman is not going to help us. I mean, how did she die in the novel?" questioned Dark Maria, who was floating in the air, eating a hamburger for some reason.

"Hmm, if I recall correctly, both the archduke and archduchess publically died in a tragic fire that randomly broke out in the manor, but we later found out that the archduchess died from poison first before the fire started." Maria was decked out in her Sherlock Holmes costume, recalling how the story mentioned that during the middle of a tea-party, hosted by the archduchess, a fire randomly broke out and ruined the event.

The archduke who was returning home was mysteriously attacked on the road and during the battle was poisoned. The poison could've been cured if it had been treated right away, but the archduke wanted to hold out on it until he reached home. Only by the time he arrived, it was under siege by raging flames, and after hearing how his wife was still somewhere on the premise of their home, rushed in to save her. The ending result was both of them dying and the only thing left of their corpses was ash.

"If the manor was going to be set on fire in the first place, why was the archduchess poisoned?" lazily questioned Dark Maria.

"To hide the true matter of the crime, which was that the archduchess did not die by an accidental fire but was murdered! Murdered by one of the empress' evil schemes, cause she knew if it was ruled as an accidental fire, an investigation would not take place!" proclaimed Maria, clearly convinced with her theory.

"The jealous heart of a woman can be quite scary," sighed Light Maria.

"So we somehow have to save the archduchess and her family, but... just how much time do we have before she meets her tragic end?" asked Dark Maria, who, for some reason, was sunbathing now, sipping on a tropical drink.

"In the book, they died on the fourteenth of August, two weeks before the Diamond Academy Welcome Back Banquet." Maria remembered in the book that every year, Diamond Academy hosted its Welcome Back Banquet to welcome its returning and new students.

"So, we have two weeks before we have to save the archduchess? That's not a lot of time." Light Maria said the exact words Maria was thinking.

"There's also the problem of what poison killed the archduchess. If she was killed with a certain type of poison, then only a certain type of antidote can cure her," said Dark Maria, adding more to the discussion of things they needed to think about if they were going to stop that tragedy from happening.

"If I remember correctly, in the book, Richard's investigation on the death of his parents revealed that his mother was killed by {Lux Brumalis} poison. The type of poison that's made by mixing two low-level ice-class toxin ingredients. Once it enters the body, it will freeze all of the victim's internal organs. The antidote to {Lux Brumalis} poison is {Aestas}, which is made by brewing a petal of a Summer Flower and Lemon Grass. Lemon Grass should be easy to find, but I don't know about the petal from a Summer Flower. I'll have to look it up that later."

Maria was brought back to reality when Shirone knocked on the door and stepped inside. "Ojou-sama, everyone is waiting for you downstairs for dinner." Once Maria was escorted out of her room, she was brought into a large, elegantly decorated dining room and was escorted to her chair. Once seated, Maria recognized both her brother and mother at the dining table, but she did not recognize the handsome man sitting at the head of the table.

The man looked to be in his mid-thirties with dark blonde hair. He was fairly attractive yet one was unable to admire it thanks to those cold dark brown eyes and the expression he gave off. Sheepishly shooting a few glances at him, the man gave Maria the impression of being very strict and uptight, the type who expected nothing but the highest of expectations from his children.

Seeing this, Maria couldn't help but gulp; she wasn't good with these types of people. Though she completely missed it when the man looked towards her way, a feeling of dejection flashing through those dark brown eyes of his. "Maria, I'm happy to see you're feeling okay." Maria couldn't help but jump at such a deep and authoritative voice, almost dropping her silverware, yet she still managed to nod her head, too afraid to speak.

Sorting through the original Maria's memories, it seemed that the poor girl always held a sense of fear towards her father. First off, the original Maria's father was a busy man, so it was kind of hard to form a father/daughter bond due to the man being away most of the time. Then there was also the commanding and authoritative aura he gave off all the time. Things only got worse when one day Maria was about to visit her father's study, only to hear him harshly scolding someone; that only made the young Maria's fear of him increase.

While Maria was too busy in her own thoughts, she completely missed the brief look of gloom that passed through her father's eyes, receiving nothing but pity looks from both mother and son. After an awkward silence, it was Maria's mother who decided to break the silence, cheerfully beginning to speak about her day.

Maria was chewing on a piece of delicious steak when she heard her mother say, "Ah, I just remembered! In order to thank you for the beautiful present you gave her, the Archduchess has invited you to attend a play with her family!"

Maria didn't know whether this certain predicament was a blessing or a curse. Silently thinking to herself, 'If this is a blessing, then I must save the archduchess and her family. I really hope in this life they will achieve happiness and not despair like in the novel.' After dinner, Maria made her way to the library located inside the family manor. While trying to dig up information about the Summer Flower, a voice close to her ear startled her and made her scream.

After dropping the book, Maria turned around and saw that it was big-brother who had frightened her. "Brother, what are you doing here?" Maria asked, trying to get her heart to calm down.

"That's what I should be asking you. If you wanted me to read you a bedtime story, you could've just asked you know?" It seemed her older brother thought that his cute little sister wanted to read a bedtime story, but once he saw the cover of the book that had fallen out of her hands, he grew confused.

"Why are you reading a book about plants?" he asked as she began flipping through the pages again.

"I'm looking for information about the Summer-Flower," stated Maria, hoping that her big brother could maybe give her some clues on where it was located.

"The Summer-Flower? Why do you want to know about that?" he asked, holding her book and began flipping through the pages.

"I'm just curious about it since I want to make another hairpin using a Summer-Flower this time," innocently lied Maria, only to wonder why the answer she had given him caused her brother to chuckle.

"Maria, a Summer-Flower is not just any regular flower, it's a plant-monster." After saying that, he walked over to the bookshelf and pulled out a book. Opening it, he began flipping through the pages before finding the right one and presented it to Maria.

"You see this is a Summer-Flower. They're only active during the months of June and July before going into hibernation," explained her brother, showing her a picture of a large sunflower-like plant creature, which had razor-sharp teeth and several thick green limbs.

Looking blankly at the picture, Maria thought one thing, 'I'm screwed!'