Not even bothering to change out of her pajamas, Michelle walked over to the Archduke’s office, but he wasn’t there, so she went to the drawing room. "Father? Did Alexander Terce co to see you?" she asked as she entered, her brows creased into a tight frown.
The Archduke was clearly surprised to see his daughter already so angry, even though she was still in her pajamas, which showed she had just woken up. "He ca to see . What’s wrong?" he looked at Michelle as she sat opposite him and ate one of the cookies on the coffee table.
Remaining silent for a while, Michelle took another cookie, but before she could eat it, from the rage boiling within her, she broke it in half, and it fell from her hand.
"How did he anger you?" the Archduke asked as he watched the red color slowly appearing in Michelle’s purple irises.
But Michelle didn’t answer. She was too enraged to answer. Instead, she had a question: "What did he want from you, father?"
The Archduke stared at the cookie crumbs in Michelle’s hand for a while before answering her question: "He was acting strangely!"
"How strange?" Michelle lifted an eyebrow. "What did he do?" she added.
Thinking about how odd it was, the Archduke sighed. "He was very curious about your upcoming journey to the lower realm," he said after a while.
Hearing that, Michelle frowned. "What did you tell him?" she asked quickly.
"Don’t worry! I didn’t tell him anything serious. In the end, you didn’t even tell anything valid about your plans there," the Archduke assured her. "How did you know that he ca to see ? And why are you so angry? What did he do?" he asked, still sohow confused about the situation.
Once again, Michelle remained silent for a while before speaking again: "He ca to see just now."
That made the Archduke lift a brow. "What did he want from you?" he asked.
"The sa he wanted from you! He asked what I wanted to do in the lower realm and why I don’t plan to go straight to the upper realm," Michelle explained.
Listening to her, the Archduke stared at her seriously. "That’s not the only reason why you are so enraged, right? You aren’t the kind of person who would get angry just because of an unexpected visit."
The Archduke’s words made Michelle rember being immobilized by Alexander. "Father, can you check the back of my head?" she suddenly asked as she moved her hair away from the back of her neck.
Not even knowing what was going on, the Archduke still walked over to her as she turned her back on him. Running his hands through her hair, he checked the back of her neck and head. "I don’t see any—" before he could finish speaking, he froze in shock.
The silence that enveloped the Archduke made Michelle frown. "What’s wrong, father?" she asked.
For a while, the Archduke remained silent and continued going through her hair, his fingers tracing a pattern on the back of her head. Then, he sighed. "Michelle, for the next few days, don’t leave the mansion," he said as he pulled his hands away from her.
Hearing sothing like that so out of the blue, Michelle turned her head to look at her father in confusion. "Why? Father, what did you find in my hair?"
But the Archduke didn’t feel like answering. "I have to take care of sothing now. Until I’m back, don’t go anywhere. I’ll explain everything to you when I get back."
Michelle didn’t even have the chance to react when the Archduke stord out of the drawing room.
She sighed and went to her room, only to see Cold Fla lazily sleeping on her pillow. "Flamie, I need your help!" she poked his wing as she sat on the side of the bed.
At first, Cold Fla didn’t want to wake up, but after being repeatedly poked, he opened his eyes and was about to complain when he saw Michelle’s expression, which spelled nothing good. "What happened, Michelle?" he asked lazily.
Michelle touched the back of her head and frowned a bit. "The place where Alexander touched my head... When my father saw it, he started acting strange, so can you check it for ?"
Rembering when Alexander immobilized Michelle, Cold Fla nodded a bit and took on his human form. Just like the Archduke did, he started going through Michelle’s hair, and, after a while, he froze. "Michelle, when your father started acting strange, did he tell you sothing?" he asked after a while of silence.
Michelle nodded slightly: "He said that I shouldn’t leave the mansion for a few days, and that he had sothing to take care of. He also said he would explain things to when he returned."
Cold Fla sat down next to her and rested his head on the palm of his hand, his elbow pressed against his knee. "Listen to your father and don’t go anywhere for a while," he said after a mont.
"Why?" Michelle couldn’t understand what was going on. "What did you find on my head?" she frowned.
Silence overtook the room for a while before Cold Fla spoke up again: "You have Spirit Soul Blood, which is highly tempting to beasts and monsters, to the point that they would be willing to disobey their contracted masters to be able to listen to you, not to ntion fulfill your wishes."
"I know that much..." Michelle nodded. "What about it?" she tilted her head in confusion. "Did Alexander sohow affect it?"
Cold Fla shook his head. "No, he didn’t! He just discovered sothing..."
"Discovered?" Michelle arched a brow. That word didn’t fit into the situation. "Why would him discovering sothing make the Archduke so shocked when he went through my hair? Why would him discovering sothing put sothing on the back of my head?" She frowned. "Flamie, that makes no sense!"
"Michelle..." Cold Fla sighed. "Every single person in the past who had Spirit Soul Blood had a strange birthmark sowhere on their body. The smallest recorded mark was the size of a pebble, and the biggest was the size of a fist, but yours is over the whole back of your head, reaching from the top of your neck to the crown of your head."
Michelle frowned when she heard that, but she remained silent and let Cold Fla continue: "Also, the birthmark was usually on a very visible spot, like the face or hands, which was why people with Spirit Soul Blood were usually quickly discovered and captured by powerhouses in the past, but your birthmark is under your hair, hidden away from prying eyes."
"Why is the size and placent of the birthmark so important?" Michelle finally asked. "Also, you knew from the start that I had Spirit Soul Blood, and you could clearly see that the birthmark wasn’t in a visible place, since you’ve never seen it, so why is it suddenly such a big deal?" she added, a frown forming on her brows. She suddenly had a bad feeling, suddenly thinking about the human-like creature clad in all black. For so reason, its face kept appearing in her mind lately.
Cold Fla transford back into a small bird and flew back to the pillow. Though all Michelle’s beasts preferred their beast forms, he seed to prefer it the most out of the four of them. "Michelle, no one bothered to think about it because, though it was unusual, it wasn’t unseen for the birthmark to be in a more hidden place, like the back or legs, but it being on the head was sothing... let’s say unheard of," he explained.
"And it has a special aning?" Michelle guessed.
"Yes..." Cold Fla nodded. "There was a prophecy, twenty or thirty years ago, about soone with Spirit Soul Blood," he was hesitant as he spoke.
That made Michelle raise a brow. She had never seen Cold Fla hesitant, and the talk about a prophecy was making her curious. "What prophecy?" she asked.
But Cold Fla shook his head. "I don’t rember it all. Basically, no one rembers its content. And that’s, most probably, why your father suddenly went. He wants to confirm the content of the prophecy."
Michelle frowned a bit. "But you rember at least a part of the prophecy, right?" she asked, certain that she would get a positive answer. For him to be so shocked when he saw the birthmark on her head, he must have rembered sothing about the prophecy.
And just as she had expected, Cold Fla nodded and started speaking: "I don’t know the full content of the prophecy, but I know it said that a person with Spirit Soul Blood would appear and that he or she would have the birthmark as big as the world has never seen, and in a place where eyes cannot see, in a place one can see it only if his hands help him. That perfectly fits with your birthmark. Under your hair, it can’t be seen unless it’s brushed aside, and it’s bigger by folds than the biggest birthmark recorded."
Slowly, Michelle’s frown deepened. "That’s not the first prophecy about that I’ve heard here..." she muttered.
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