It was suppertime. The Lavande family sat around the table. As they were eating the delicious mushroom gratin that Aurelia had made for the first time, someone knocked at the door. Marsillias rose to answer. At the door was a middle-aged man, looking so weather-beaten that Marsillias didn’t even bother to ask him why he came. He led him to the table and sat him down. He whispered to Aurelia to serve him some of the gratin. The man ate while being observed by the children. The latter were suspicious of this man and shot him killer glances. Marsillias also shot them such a murderous look that they hurriedly finished their meal and fled to their room. Jojo spoke up first.
“I think there’s something off about that man. He’s suspicious.”
“I agree.” said Abel. “He’s acting strange. He’s supposed to be very hungry. But he eats with such manners...it’s too bizarre. He eats too carefully, too slowly.”
Everyone nodded. Jojo suddenly spoke up.
“He’s after mom.”
“Yes” agreed Abelheid, “he’s probably after mom.”
“I didn’t say probably. I said he is after mom, Hakuto.” said Jojo with a defensive stance.
Everyone turned to Jojo. He covered his mouth.
“What?” They talked all at once. Abel was asking how he knew. Adele was asking him to repeat. Adelheid was shaking him asking why he said that. Only Abelheid was staring open-mouthed.
“S-s-stop sh-sh-shaking m-me. I c-c-can’t s-speak!” exclaimed Jojo. Adelheid brusquely stopped shaking him. He fell on his butt.
“Ouch! If I tell you will you keep it a secret?” Then, with tears in his eyes, he added:
“Will you leave me alone? Will you take me when you’re leaving?”
The quartet looked at him in shock. What was he talking about? They looked at him open-mouthed.
“I can see thoughts. I know where you come from. I know you’re supposed to save the world. Don’t go without me. Please.”
“We love you, Jojo. But it’s too dangerous. We just can’t take you along.” replied Abel.
“What if someone attacks me to get to you?”
“Jojo, that’s just an excuse. What if mom and dad were attacked, on the other hand? You can protect them. We won’t hate you. Well, we’ll discuss this later. Right now, our priority is to protect mom.”
”He wants to kill all of us.”
Everyone gasped. Adelheid turned as white as a sheet. Adele dropped to the ground. Abelheid looked grave.
Abel spoke up.
“We have to find a way to stop him.”
“What about setting a trap? If he approches any of our doors, he gets frozen in place, then, we find him the next morning and try to get the truth from him.” proposed Abelheid.
“It’s too lenient,” intervened Adele. “Mom and Dad would think he was just wanting to talk to them or something. We’d be the ones in a bad light. You know how they never think bad of anyone.”
“Is there any spell we could use, Ha—Abelheid?” asked Abel.
“You can use your real names. It’s not like you can hide them anyway.” said Jojo.
“Let me think” said Abelheid. “And it’s better if we use our new names because we can’t afford to call ourselves by our old names in public. Better get used to it.”
After thinking for a while, he spoke again.
“Well, there’s a detection spell, but I can’t see how we can use that. We can set a trap, but we won’t have proof. We have to find a spell that injures anyone who has a bad intention.”
He thought a little more, the added.
“I think I have an idea. What if we set a trap, and then use a spell that weighs intentions? Wait... what if we created one?”
“What?!” exclaimed everyone else. “You want us to create a spell?! added Jojo.
“It’s entirely possible.” He used teleportation magic to get to the library. He immediately camouflaged himself. Marsillias was sitting at his desk, his head in his hands.
“I have to talk to the children.” he said and stood up. He left the library. Abel found the spell creation scroll and teleported back to the room, no longer camouflaged.
Back in the room, the children heard a knock. It was Marsillias.
“Hey. Can we talk for a while?”
The children glanced at each other.
“Yeah.” said Jojo. Adele shot him a glance. She thought, Is it okay? Jojo nodded. He opened the door. Marsillias looked round at the children.
“Where’s Abelheid?”
“He’s practicing camouflage.”
“Where? Show yourself, Abelheid.”
“What if you try to find him?” tried Jojo with a happy face.
“I haven’t time. Abelheid, show yourself.” he repeated sternly.
It was at that exact moment that Abelheid teleported back into the room.
“Good. Listen to me. I know you’re not used to people outside the village visiting, but be kind with him. He wanted to go to his hometown, but lost his way. He found the way again, but he’s run out of provisions. Don’t glare at him, okay? Make him feel welcome.”
“Okay!” they responded together. Marsillias smiled tiredly and turned to the door.
“Sleep well. Good night.” He left. The children turned to look at each other. Jojo spoke up first.
“Whew! Abelheid, that was a great save! A little more and we would have been toast!”
“Yeah, but Jojo, your plan was too risky.” said Adelheid.
“You forgot. I could read his thoughts from the library. I knew he had almost found the scroll and that he knew dad was coming. On top of that, Abelheid can do sums and such very well, so I knew he’d make it just in time by guessing at what time dad would enter.” said Jojo.
“It would seem that I miscalculated, though.” replied Abelheid.
“Yeah, geek.” said Abel. “Back to the unmasking. What are we gonna do?”
“Shhh!” suddenly whispered Jojo. He rounded everyone up and whispered again “He’s listening.”
“How, though?” whispered back Adelheid.
“Just soundproof the walls! Quick!”
Adele did just that. “What now?” she asked.
‘He’s using a sort of instrument. I can’t see it, but I heard him think: “Now let’s see if this instrument works. Are the children sleeping? Time for carnage!” with an inner laugh’ said Jojo whiles making a creepy face.
“Creepy!” hissed Adelheid.
Then Jojo smiled. “We got him.”
On the other side of the wall, our creepy visitor struggles with a strange instrument. The instrument is essentially two cups connected with a long piece of wire looking material.
“What is going on? The marquis of Stratburg said it would work. Ugh! What now?” he thought. “I’ll just destroy the whole house with fire. No, I’ll torture Selana first. What a wonderful idea, hehe he!” He grinned wickedly. He started making his way to the place where he had seen Aurelia and Marsillias disappear. “Aurelia, my foot. Running away and marrying such a lowlife villager. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, first princess Selana?”
Still grinning, he reached the door. At last! But before he could touch the handle, the children’s door opened. One by one the children came out and grouped together. He switched to his poor guy look.
“Umm, children, could you help me find the toilets?” he said with a sleepy voice.
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