Later that evening, Airam finally opened her eyes.
Her injuries had been treated efficiently with high-grade healing potions. Both her lacerated hands and her bruised forehead, injuries entirely self-inflicted in her frantic rebellion, were cleanly bandaged. Perhaps the magic in the potions, combined with physical exhaustion, was the reason she had slept so heavily throughout the long afternoon.
Raising her body abruptly, she panicked for a brief, terrifying second, her black eyes darting wildly around the unfamiliar bedroom as she searched for her sisters. But feeling a familiar, comforting weight on the mattress beside her, she immediately lowered her gaze.
Hermione and Esther were right there.
Esther was fast asleep, curled up snugly on the bed right next to her. Hermione, however, was seated stiffly in a wooden chair pulled close to the mattress, positioned exactly like a guard standing watch over them. Eventually, though, she too had succumbed to exhaustion, collapsing forward with her arms folded on the bed, her head resting peacefully upon them.
Seeing the two of them safe and unharmed, Airam's usually guarded, stone-cold expression softened visibly.
She reached out with her bandaged hands, gently patting both of their heads in a slow motion. With their mother dead, they were her only remaining family in this hostile world. As the eldest sister, she felt an overwhelming, bone-deep responsibility to shield them.
She had to protect them. She had to keep them safe, no matter the cost, no matter the means.
Both Hermione and Esther had cried endlessly after their mother's murder. Throughout their departure from the smoldering ruins of their destroyed village, and even during this past week trapped within the Count's estate, the grief had been suffocating. Every single night, without fail, Esther would cry herself to sleep.
For as long as they could remember, the three of them had always slept safely tucked beside their mother, drifting off while listening to her gentle bedtime stories. It was a comforting, unshakeable routine, until it suddenly stopped forever.
All three of them felt the void left behind, an unbearable ache that threatened to swallow them whole.
Esther simply couldn't hold back her tears; she was too young and too fragile. Hermione tried her best to resist the overwhelming sorrow, putting up a brave front, but eventually, the dam would break, and she would cry out alongside her younger sister though quieter.
Airam, however, never shed a single tear.
She refused to surrender to her emotions. She would never, ever let her tightly wound control slip, because she believed that giving in to grief would immediately weaken her. And a weak Airam could not protect her sisters from the monsters hunting them.
She needed to remain sharp. Every sense had to be honed like a blade, constantly scanning for any hidden threats in the shadows. She was the eldest now. She had to take her mother's place and become the impenetrable shield they so much needed.
And she would do anything, kill, lie, or die to ensure no harm ever fell upon them again.
"Mngh…"
Just as that dark resolution settled in her mind, Esther suddenly stirred.
The young girl let out a small, tired yawn before fluttering her bright blue eyes open. The moment her gaze landed on Airam, who was currently offering her a small, almost imperceptible smile, Esther's eyes snapped wide open. Without a second of hesitation, she launched herself forward, burying her face into Airam's chest and hugging her tightly.
"Elder Sister!" She wailed, instantly bursting into fresh tears against Airam's shoulder.
"I am fine," Airam said gently, returning the embrace and lightly patting Esther's blonde head.
"I—I was so scared… you didn't even wake up… sniff…" Esther shook her head stubbornly, keeping her face pressed tightly against Airam's chest as she squeezed her harder.
Hearing Esther's loud, sudden cries, Hermione's head shot up from her folded arms. She didn't wake up groggy; she woke up panicked and immediately terrified.
In a flash, she shot up from her chair, a stolen kitchen knife suddenly gripped tightly in her hand.
"I won't let you touch my sisters, Ulrich!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, brandishing the blade threateningly at the completely empty, closed bedroom door.
A long silence fell over the room. Both Airam, and Esther who stopped her sniffling, turning their heads to stare blankly at Hermione, who was still standing in a combat stance against an invisible enemy.
When Hermione finally blinked, fully waking up to realize that she had completely misunderstood the situation, her cheeks flushed a bright, burning red. She quickly lowered the knife, clearing her throat to hide her intense embarrassment.
"Hmph. I told Ulrich not to dare step foot inside this room, or else I would kill him," she huffed, trying to salvage her pride. "He wouldn't have dared to come anyway, Airam. Don't worry," she added confidently.
"The Count said he will not hurt us, big sister…" Esther said from Airam's chest, her voice timid but surprisingly firm in its defense.
"We cannot trust him. He imprisoned both me and Airam, and you saw it happen with your own eyes, Esther," Hermione replied sharply, still holding the kitchen knife defensively.
"B—But he didn't actually harm you, big sister…" Esther replied softly. "The Count explicitly said he will not harm us unless we forced his hand…"
"You are being far too naive, Esther," Hermione snapped, before shifting her intense gaze toward the eldest sister. "Now that you are finally awake, Airam, we must quickly form a plan to leave this place."
"W—Why! No, big sister! We are safe here!" Esther suddenly cried out, jumping off the plush bed to stand defensively between them.
Hermione's eyes widened in shock at the outburst.
"We are not safe here, Esther," Hermione insisted, crossing her arms defensively.
"We are! Lord Rubenhart firmly promised to protect us… and because we belong to his Noble House now, no one will dare harm us, isn't it true?" Esther pleaded.
"We cannot ever trust a noble, Esther. Even more so, we cannot trust a noble hailing from Skargardia," Hermione countered. "The other day, I heard the maids whispering in the halls. They said that Ulrich's own mother had been killed by a Witch's curse."
Her revelation caused both Airam and Esther to freeze, their eyes snapping toward Hermione in shock.
"Do you honestly think someone like him, someone whose very blood hates witches is helping us purely out of the kindness of his heart?" Hermione asked, pressing her point. "He personally took part in the slaughter that destroyed our village and caused our mother's death!"
"H—He tried to save us during the attack!" Esther yelled back, her small fists clenching tight at her sides.
"If he truly wanted to save us, he wouldn't have attacked us in the first place!" Hermione glared down at Esther. She didn't like how the youngest was blindly defending Ulrich like this.
At the blunt reminder of their mother's death, Esther's brave front crumbled. Her blue eyes instantly welled with fresh tears.
Hermione immediately felt a pang of guilt at making her cry, but she stubbornly refused to apologize, instead turning her head urgently toward Airam.
"Airam, you are okay to travel, right? We are leaving soon. Maybe even tonight," she said, looking for confirmation.
Airam remained completely silent for a long moment. She slowly lowered her gaze, staring blankly down at her bandaged hands resting in her lap.
"No," she said.
"W—What?"
Airam looked up to meet a confused Hermione and gave a shake of her head.
"I think we should be staying here, Hermione," she decided.
"W—Why?! You were the one who wanted to leave this place the most, Airam!" Hermione let out, dumbfounded by the sudden reversal.
"We are too weak," Airam replied. "We cannot adequately defend ourselves outside. He is right. We wouldn't survive long outside these walls, and I… I refuse to take any risks with you and Esther. Setting aside the Hunters and the Knights… if the Coven finds us…"
At the mere mention of their Coven, both Hermione and Esther flinched in unison.
It was the very Coven their mother had abandoned, fleeing deep into hiding just to raise her daughters in relative safety and peace. The Coven had never accepted her traitorous departure, and they knew exactly how magically precious her three daughters were.
"We stay here, protected by him and his status," Airam concluded, her dark eyes hardening. "We learn. We get stronger. And only then, we leave."
At her words, Esther nodded her head, roughly wiping the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand.
Hermione stared at Airam with a complicated, conflicted expression. But she couldn't deny that every single word her elder sister spoke was the harsh truth.
"We get stronger, and then we leave…" Hermione repeated softly, letting the plan settle in her mind.
Airam nodded her head.
"And we don't bother Lord Ulrich while we do it!" Esther added brightly.
Instantly, both Airam and Hermione slowly turned their heads, fixing Esther with identical, freezing cold stares.
"What exactly did Ulrich do to you?!" Hermione shrieked, suddenly rushing forward and grasping Esther tightly by the shoulders. "He used a dark mind-control spell on you, didn't he?! I am going to purge it off right now! Don't move!"
"Eeekk! Y—You are scaring me, big sister!"