Nadzieja( Polish for Hope)

Chapter 9: Floor 1:Bulls And Lions

When Charles and Augustes finally got to the mansion's door. Charles equipped himself with his Zauberstab into his right hand. Augustes started to carefully open the crooked old oak door of the mansion still clutching his cutlery weapons in his left hand just in case he was going to need them soon. The doors of the mansion opened with a creak. Charles and Augustes slowly entered the mansion with caution still clutching their respect weapons in their hands.

When Charles and Augustes entered the mansion, they noticed that the place was mostly lit by candles that were placed in rusty chandeliers. Some parts of the mansion weren't lit up at all and were completely dark as there was a cloudy thunderstorm still going on outside. The floors and walls of the mansion were filled with many cracks and holes some of which were infested with pesky rats and cockroaches. The celling was no different than the floor and walls as some parts it were covered by vile cobwebs on which spiders lived. True it was a complete abysmal place in which a very desperate human being would live there as the place smelled worse than rotten eggs.

Charles and Augustes start walking through the corridors, during their walk through the corridors both Charles and Augustes stopped breathing through their noses and instead started to breathe through their mouths as the smell became completely unbearable very quickly. The duo later finds a wide staircase to get to first floor of the mansion. The duo started climbing the stairs.

The staircase was old and rickety with one of the steps having a huge hole on it. It took them less than 4 minutes to finally reach the first floor. The first floor had empty rooms with cracks holes and the first floor almost looked exactly like the ground. Except this floor had a large double door that was 3 metres away from the stairs. The door was made from wood and they were painted white. The left door had a black kanji symbol of a bull/ox/cow engraved on it and the right door had a black kanji symbol of a lion engraved on it. Charles recognised these symbols as Japanese. "Augustes these symbols on the doors are probably Japanese kanji symbols" said Charles with intrigue" what are kanji symbol lad?" Asked Augustes "Kanji symbols are symbols that represent words, I have heard about them since Japanese is one of the 6 languages of prestige among wizards, though I don't know how Black and his crew even know about these symbols, I shall never know" said Charles with pity. "Can you read the symbols?" asked Augustes. "Unfortunately, I cannot, I only know the kanji symbols for mouth and mountain mainly because I once saw them in book when I was at my Gakkou's library and the 2 symbols I learned were very easy for me to remember". Said Charles.

"Shall we open the door, lad" said Augustes. "Yes Augustes" replied Charles. Both Charles and Augustes started to slowly open door as to, not draw too much attention just in case. Charles and Augustes then entered a big room. This room unlike the rest of mansion looked well looked after as there were no cracks and holes in the walls and floor. The floor and ceiling were painted in avocado green and there were paintings of cows and bulls everywhere with either of them apart or together. 

During the time that Charles and Augustes entered the room they noticed 6 animal cell each holding an animal. 3 on the left and 3 on the right. The cells on the right had lions and the cells on the left had bulls. When Charles saw the sad expressions of the lions and bulls, he knew that these animals used to humans but got changed into their zodiac sign (Leo and Taurus respectfully) by the European zodiac sphere. Suddenly a whip attacked Charles' right hand which was holding his Zauberstab however thanks to his wizard reflexes he was mostly able to dodge the whip unfortunately the whip did hit a small part of his hand leaving small bleeding cut on it which was painful to Charles. At the same time the cell doors holding the animals fell off. The lions and bulls gather around a woman wearing a knee length red dress with long black hair and bright purple eyes as if she was their queen, the women even petted on of the lions on their head. It was Samantha Thatcher in the flesh.

"Well, well, well if it isn't the trenchers bastards who ruined our career, I have been wait for you to show up" Hissed Thatcher with pure fury in her eyes and gritted teeth. "I had a feeling we going to meet again, Thatcher" said Charles "We know all about the zodiac sphere that you use to turn people into their star sign, this ends today, but answer me this question why are you and your crew doing this" Asked Augustes before throwing 2 of his signature cutleries weapons at Thatcher. With a knife hitting deep into Thatcher right shoulder and a fork hitting deep into her left shoulder at the same time both shoulders were exposed.

 "Why!" laughed Thatcher pulling the weaponised cutlery from her shoulders and throwing it at Charles and Augustes. Luckily, they dodged the cutlery. Steam began emanating from Thatcher's shoulder wounds dealt by Augustes. "Because before I joined Cornelius, I had sad life as I was ashamed of my own gender and lived in a terrible orphanage!" screeched Thatcher as she commanded a lion to attack Charles through telepathy. The lion quickly charged at Charles. Augustes than tries to defend him but then Thatcher commanded a bull to kill Augustes. The bull charges with his horn at Augustes. Augustes than jumps over the bull in the last minute making the bull miss his target completely and hitting the wall very hard in the process which made the bull lose his consciousness. Charles in the meantime was dodging all the lion's attacks until Charles found a perfect moment to use one of his spells. "Kulala (Swahili for sleep)!" The lion instantly fell asleep.

Charles and Augustes soon noticed that the cuts that Augustes dealt to Thatcher were long gone. "This magic sphere you call the zodiac sphere has changed my gender and granted me magnificent powers" laughed Thatcher who then telepathically commands all the remaining lions and bulls to attack. Charles then points his Zauberstab at the animals. Thatcher than tries to take out Charles' Zauberstab from his hand but Augustes stop that from happening by throwing one of his knives into Thatcher's right hand. The knife went through Thatcher's right hand making her let go of her whip temporally once again steam started to emanate from that area of the hand where the knife went through. Charles started to put the animals to sleep using the Kulala spell. When that was happening Augustes jumps over a lion that wasn't asleep yet.

Thatcher quickly manages to get her whip back, the injury on her hand by that time has disappeared, Thatcher then starts trying to hit Augustes with the whip. Augustes kept dodging the whip and throwing cutlery which Thatcher kept dodging. Until finally Augustes managed find a right moment to give her a swift kick to her head. Knocking her completely unconscious on the floor. After Charles defeated the bulls and lions. Charles and Augustes started putting the unconscious lions, bulls and Thatcher into a cell in the room during that time Charles used the spell Kusahau (Swahili for forget) on Thatcher and the animals to make them forget about the recent events that have happened. Augustes also quickly collected his weaponised cutlery that he used earlier back into his pockets for later use. After that Charles and Augustes continued their journey to find Cornelius Black. The next room was in front of them, but it was completely empty except for a staircase behind them leading to the next floor.