Chapter 34: Liz's POV
(Liz) Well, what do you have to say for yourselves now?
(Pitiful) you can't talk to us like that, I remind you that we are your parents.
(Liz) That's your only excuse? Because I've heard it so many times that it has completely lost its value, and if you don't want me to throw you both out of here, answer, where is Camille?
The hopeless excuse I have for parents looked at each other, I was hoping they would quickly give me the name of the nobleman these monsters sold their daughter to, and I could buy her back before he did something to her, but their answer is not what I expected, they really didn't know where she was.
It seems that in a way I was right, the trash that I have for parents had sold my sister to pay their debts, but it seems that she never reached the territory of the count to whom they had sold her, and since they had already received their payment, the monster who tried to buy my sister is demanding his money back.
(Pitiful) this is all your fault, if you weren't so stingy with money, none of this would have happened.
(Liz) get out of my sight.
(Waste) But what are you going to do? The creditors were demanding their money.
(Liz) I said get out of my sight.
The human scum finally left the room, I felt like my head was going to explode.
Gods... I don't know how you did it Leonora.
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I am Liz Croiss, I used to be a simple daughter of a concubine of my father, the Duke of Croiss, well concubine is very elegant, one of his multiple lovers to be more precise.
I used to be the middle child of the duke's 3 daughters, so it seems we lacked any courage, and so we were left alone and could do what we wanted.
Those were very monotonous and boring days, where the only form of entertainment was to see the tantrums of Britney, my older sister, or what Nerea, my younger sister, was breaking, also my father's wife had a son, but since I have no blood relation with him, I always avoided him.
One day, something happened to the monotony of the mansion, it seems that my father and his wife finally had a legitimate child, everything was jubilant until one day simply nobody talked about it, for a long time I never knew what had happened with that baby, at first I thought they had died, and hence the reason why nobody wanted to talk about it, until one day I met my sister Leonora.
She was a child of less than 2 years old, yet she not only spoke perfectly, but also knew mathematics, management, history, commerce, social studies, law, mythology, magical theory, and practically anything else one could imagine.
Before I knew it, that mysterious girl was holding the reins of the duchy.
For a while I avoided her, as I didn't know how to deal with her, but in the few conversations we were able to have, I realized that she was a good person, and she really cared about people.
In that sense she opened my eyes, I never knew what to do with my life, my life consisted of waiting untill I was 18 to start looking for a husband to take care of me, so as not to disturb my lifestyle of doing nothing.
But Leonora taught me that I could do more, that I could aspire to more, I had secretly put myself to study several hours every day, so that one day I could help her manage the territory.
Until that fateful day came.
I always wondered, if Leonora was so exceptional, why were my parents hiding her? It wasn't until that trip to the capital of the kingdom that I discovered the reason.
During our stay in the capital, one day soldiers from the church stood in front of us and arrested my parents, and that's when I discovered the truth.
Leonora was the witch.
For a while I didn't know what to think, I had only heard stories and rumors about the witch, but none of them resembled Leonora in the least.
My apathy continued until my parents were released, so it seems that the charges of hiding the witch disappeared.
Despite the great power of the church, my parents were still dukes and thanks to Leonora they were very loved by their people, so the demonstrations were not long in coming, and since the church never presented Leonora's body or a solid proof that she was the witch, they had to retract and apologize to us.
But at the same time, Leonora didn't show up, I myself gave her up for dead for a while, until I realized the true personality of my parents, and I knew that Leonora just didn't feel like coming back.
I always knew they were careless and lazy, but seeing them squander money at that magnitude was just too much.
That's why since I came of age, and since my parents were about to ruin the territory, I decided to take control myself, at first I came to think in a very innocent way that it was an easy job, but my parents were too inconvenient to do it.
But after a while I realized how much hell it really was, not only is managing the territory difficult in itself, but I also have to deal with my parents and their obsession with wasting money, with my older sister and her whims, with my brother who turned out just like my father, and my younger sister who keeps getting into trouble.
All this just makes me respect Leonora even more, she made it look easy.
Soon after that, there was another piece of news, my father's wife was pregnant, and they had another daughter, a little girl they decided to name Camille.
Despite the fact that my parents are scum, for some reason impossible to explain, the children they have between them, are special in a way, Leonora was a genius like the world has never seen, and Camille my other younger sister was born with an unusual amount of mana, which makes her very valuable to certain people.
Camille was a very intelligent and quiet girl, she always avoided giving problems, and did what she could to solve them, but to her bad luck the shoes she had to fill were huge, despite being the spitting image of Leonora, Camille did not have her prodigious mind.
As much as I tried, comparisons were impossible, I myself admit to having done it, but it was almost impossible, Leonora from her tender age not only took over the duchy, she also brought prosperity like never seen before, that's why many of us expected her to be like her sister.
Such a big burden must have been impossible for such a little girl, that's why I let her pretend to be like Leonora, I wanted her to be able to be a normal child, but I think she didn't see it the same way, I think she thought she had let us down.
I wanted to let her know that it wasn't so, that she could take her time to grow, to learn and to mature, that it was us who were wrong to expect her to be like Leonora, but I discovered that my unfortunate parents had a series of secret debts, which increased my workload a lot.
Even with all the work I have done, I can't help but think that I have failed, even though I was her older sister, I have failed them both, for now they are both lost.
Although I have tried to find her, I have never seen any trace of Leonora, it makes me believe that she does not want to be found, so I gave up looking.
And on the other hand Camille, although I had promised that I would take care of her, she has also disappeared, since I took power of the duchy, I decided to cut the funds that my parents would receive, I would not give them a lily unless they work, but on the sly they took loan after loan, in the end the debt exploded and my parents again only thought of demanding the money to settle their debts, when I refused, they took the only option they had left, to sell Camille.
For the last few months, they had been very close to her, at that time I thought they were starting to change and even started to give them money with the excuse that they wanted to take her to know the kingdom, I have always wanted to be more aware of her, but my work is too much, and I never had time, and when I do I'm very tired, that's why I was glad that her parents began to behave as such and take care of her.
I knew nothing, that in reality those scumbags were intended to introduce her to sick and rich old men, and to see which one would pay more for her.
One day I was surprised to see that my parents hadn't asked me for money for days, and strangest of all, I hadn't seen Camille in the last few days.
After investigating, I found out that a strange carriage entered the Croiss grounds, and that my parents did everything they could to keep me from finding out about it.
It was not difficult to understand what happened, so I questioned them to discover Camille's whereabouts, but it seems that she never made it to her buyer's house, and now she is truly lost.
And now that man is demanding his money back or give Camile to him, and unfortunately the law is on his side, the cohabitation contract that my parents signed is completely legal, why in addition to losing my sister I have to pay a huge sum of money.
For now I can only curse my parents, I have to find a way to get them to sign over the succession of title to me, to cut ties with them, and send them to the darkest and dirtiest hole I can find.
While I was trying to calm down there was a knock at the door, I don't want to see anyone, but from the way he knocked I knew it was Milccery the duchy treasurer, without his help I would never have been able to take care of everything, so I told him he could come in, I just hope he doesn't bring bad news.
(Milccery) I'm very sorry Miss Croiss, but I bring you bad news.
Just what I was missing.
(Liz) What is it now?
(Milccery) a letter has arrived from the court for us to pay an indemnity to Count Lucius, for the affair of your sister.
(Liz) pay him at once, I don't want anything more to do with that guy.
Milccery lowered his head and paled, I understand his reaction, it took us a long time to get back to normal, if we pay the compensation, we will be back in the red.
(Liz) it's for the best Mr. Milccery, we can't win the lawsuit, I have reviewed the contract and my parents signature is there, clear as day.
(Milccery)) I understand, Miss.
(Liz) we try to forget all this, for now it is more important to find my sister, but for now, do you have any papers I should check?
Milccery was carrying a large stack of papers under hir arm, he put them on the desk and we set to work.
Among the papers, I found something unusual, an envelope, with no return address or seal, but what caught my attention was that in the corner of the envelope there was a blue circle, a moon if you paid more attention.
That's why I opened the envelope at full speed, in it there was only a solitary sheet of paper with a single sentence written on it.
"Camille is with me."
I pressed the letter to my chest, and my eyes filled with tears.
Leonora, you are very bad with words.
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