Villain's Will: Redemption

..෴✿۝CHAPTER 8۝✿෴..

After arriving at the Black Warrior's abode, Willow stared at the towering building in front of her.

Through the years, she garnered quite a fortune in the merchant's caravan. Willow traveled with them for a year and sincerely invested on businesses that succeeded during her past life.

But for some reason, after garnering quite the wealth, Willow settled another year at the Prican kingdom, an archipelagic kingdom separated from the main continent. It was only on her third year that she continued to travel and ended back at her fatherland.

During her travels, Willow met lots of people and they ended as a party. They joined Willow on her brash decision and joined the skirmish by the border. At first, they were simply mercenaries enlisted as foot soldiers. But soon, their talents were recognized and made them as a special unit, the Black Warriors. They were mercenaries in the first place so they can't be granted an official position, so instead, they made them into a unit specialized for missions under the direct command of sir Geordoff.

And here it is, a four story building right in front of Willow, the fruit of the troupe's blood and sweat.

The first floor is a stall for the armory and the reception area. To make extra income, this is where the troupe sell their loots. At the same time, this is where they store their weapons. The 2nd floor up to the 3rd floor is the living quarters for the guild. It's up to them if they would stay or not. Majority of them stays here but a bunch still leave somewhere in town because they had family. Just like Damien, who lives next door. Lastly, the whole of the 4th floor is the living quarters of Willow, as the captain of the troupe and the owner of the house.

Using Willow's funds, they build the house and she provided the second and third floor for their lodging, but in return, they should take care of their own living quarters and daily needs.

Willow entered her room and placed the letters she got from the postbox. There are a total of five.

Seeing that the purple letter from the emperor is of utmost importance, she first opened the letter handed by Sir Geordoff.

[To Willow of the black warriors mercenary,

Good day! Your great fits to end the war have reached the far end of the empire, and it would gladden me to see you attend a banquet held in your honor. I also hope that you and the black warriors attend the procession ceremony to welcome the heroes of the war. Attached here is an invitation for you to enter the palace. My liege would tell you the details if you decided to grace me of your presence.

Alexander Vanderdeck]

In an instant, Willow's face crumpled in frustration. The content of the letter is basically demanding her presence. It is not Willow's place to decide so she put it aside and made a note to include it on the next meeting.

It's a good thing that their fame reached the far end of the empire but it also looked like they attracted some unwanted attention.

Being a mercenary is not a fairytale. It's a bloody job to earn a daily bread. It so happened that they choose to settle the base within the empire, thus, making them affiliated to the emperor to some extent.

While deliberating a proper course of action, she opened the other letter stamped with blank seal. It's probably from Mary. As she guessed, warm greetings meet her eyes.

[Dearest Willow,

It has been five years since you left the house. I could only assume that milady's doing fine. It was thanks to your efforts that the territory was able to flourish within a short span of time. But it saddens me to say that the duke fares otherwise.

The Master's health is deteriorating day by day and we greatly fear that the Lord might not make it on the coming winter. He's totally bed ridden and his intake of food was only in the bare minimum. It may be inappropriate for me to assume, but your absence affected him dearly. The Lord might not directly tell us, but he definitely misses you. Whilst in his sleep, he would sometimes mumble your name, and the Duchess.

I hope you are faring well, my lady. We await for your arrival.

Respectfully,
Mary]

"Woah, that's creepy" Willow bursted in disbelief and frowned at the unexpected development of his father's health. She trusted Mary so it doesn't cross her mind that it was a scheme by his father to bring her back. And seeing that she was branded as useless, it won't make sense why he would even ask for her return.

Nonetheless, she sensed the urgency at Mary's words, so she could only assume that it was not a ploy.

*Sigh*

A sigh escaped her lips as she ignored the gloom that clenched her heart.

So, the old man's at his last breath? It may not look like it, but Willow is a family oriented person. It saddens her to think that the once proud Duke would deteriorate to this extent. We don't have a bright past but I can't just ignore him on his deathbed.

In comparison to the past, this has never happened before. Willow could only assume that it's a consequence of her action. Still, it's a mystery why his father suddenly acted this way.

Instead of wallowing to the unknown, she opened the next letter with a white seal. Willow sensed a bad vibe coming from the rectangular paper, but opened it nonetheless. There was a familiar magic casted on it so she confidently opened it.

At the exact moment she pulled open the letter, a bouquet of clematis emerged out of nowhere. It's unnatural big pores opened and released pollens to the air.

*Achoo* She sneezed non-stop.

"That wuss, is she trying to kill me!" Willow exclaimed and hurriedly went to the basin to cleanse her burning eyes. It's a good thing she set a barrier around her but some of the pollens still went to her eyes. It caused irritation but she didn't dare to rub it.

Knowing the sender's personality, Willow was sure that the bouquet won't only harm her at this degree. With utter distrust on her mind, she burned it using her dark flames.

After attending her eyes, Willow skillfully burned through the air and opened the windows to eradicate all trace of the pollens.

Willow once read a book about poisonous flowers and she was sure that the pollens released by the clematis can cause blindness if exposed to the eye. Just like it's meaning in the language of flowers, it symbolises artifice. A cunning act, indeed.

"Hah, I admit, she showed amazing ingenuity in finding ways to shorten the year." Willow praised the sender with sarcasm.

With this, Willow assumed that all preparations are done.

A smirk plastered at her face with the thoughts of getting the job done. Willow gleefully laughed like a maniac while crumpling the empty envelope on her hands.

After laughing to her hearts delight, she opened the remaining letters but the contents aren't that important. Willow released another sigh and started to pack her belongings.

It's time to go back. She decided.

There are only handful of her things so it took Willow less than an hour to finish packing. She then went to sleep and called it a day.
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