女神归来的夏天

Chapter 266: Literally Digging for Information I

{I want to let everyone know that I have a p-a-t-r-e-o-n with two new exclusive stories on it. One is The Aeternus Universe, and the other is a new story with a basketball system. I hope you guys will give it a chance. The link is https://www.p-a-t-r-e-o-n.com/easyread. Remove the dashes. Webnovel censors the word.}

{There\'s a chance that my mom gets to come home today or tomorrow! She\'s doing much better now and is recovering from the stroke. I\'m not going to say it\'s going to be a fast recovery, but it\'s been fast so far. Thanks to all the people who\'ve been showing support and praying and/or keeping my mom in their thoughts. It\'s been really amazing to see the support.}

As Cera, Sally, and Hailey make their way towards the family graveyard. Kelly James is calling some guards to come and clean up the mess that Sally left. Since Kelly James has been planning this for a very long time, she has all the right bribes in place. Someone might question her about the things that have happened this day, but no one will convict her of any crimes. The commonfolk will be too busy celebrating, and no one cares enough about her brothers to really dig deep. Kelly James is now the only James left, and the barony is now hers.

I stand at the gate as it gets closer and closer to noon. I can see the captain of the army forces stationed here in the city. He\'s one of the high officials I have on the payroll, so that he won\'t be questioning me regarding their deaths. I never informed him why I\'m bribing him, only to turn a blind eye to the things I\'m involved in. Legel or not. Once he sees their dead bodies, he\'ll probably realize that I\'ve been trying to take the barony from my brothers. He won\'t do anything about it either. He hated them as much as the next person.

Who knows, he might even thank me for killing them. When you make enemies of everyone, no one is your friend. Too bad my brothers never thought that. They believed as long as they kept the right people paid, they\'ll be untouchable. Things are never that easy. It took me several years to bribe the right people. Get the right moles and spies, and doing it the way I did was the right way. The guards stop their horses at the gate, and Captain Keron hops off his horse and makes his way over to me.

I can tell by the look on his face that he\'s curious about why I activated my brother\'s emergency magic alarm. Before he can ask, I hold up my hand. "It\'s okay, just head to the back meeting room, and you\'ll understand I called you..." He slowly nods his head and waves his hand for the guards and soldiers to enter the mansion. They\'ll be coming out with cringes on their faces. I know that for certain. The bodies are mutilated, and as men, they\'ll see the damage done to the genitals. Seeing that brutality is going to make some of them puke.

I lean against the gate and stare off into the direction of the family graveyard. I won\'t be able to see it from here, but I know where it is nonetheless. My brothers will be buried in that graveyard, and that\'ll mark the end of the James family. I\'m planning on finding myself a nice man, marrying him, taking his name. That way, the James family will officially die. I have a place I need to stop off at too. I want to visit her after this victory. I head towards my carriage, and the driver is tending to the horses. He asks me where I want to go. "Take me home and to my private graveyard." He nods his head and gets in the driver\'s seat of the carriage.

We slowly pull off, and I look back towards the entrance of the mansion. I see some guards leaving the mansion stumbling and vomiting. I can\'t relate to their thoughts, but I can respect them. The carriage ride is slow and relaxing, and the feeling of victory hasn\'t worn off yet. I\'m sure once I get home, my butler will have many delicious foods ready in celebration. I already had a victory breakfast, and I\'m going to have a victory lunch and dinner. We slowly make our way through town, and I see the repairs on the city have already begun.

The help I sent for has arrived, and my advisors are overseeing the repairs of the city. People see and recognize my carriage. They wave and say their hellos. The good people of this city are free from my brother\'s tyranny. After a while, we exit the city again and head towards my estate. The driver guides the carriage all the way up my property and brings the carriage around to the back. I exit and follow the flower and garden surrounded path to my private graveyard. I walk up to my mother\'s grave, and I sit—time to catch up.

As Kelly speaks to her passed mother, much is going on in the city. The word has started to spread that the James brothers are dead. Many people have immediately begun to celebrate and dance in the streets. For the first time in a long time, the cities mood brightens up. Even with the ruin surrounding them, there is nothing that can stop the celebrations from beginning. There is a group of three in the James family graveyard, and they\'re are looking right at the grave where the information they need is buried, and Cera knows this is the next step on his Fighting the Disease quest.

We all look down at the grave of Kelly James\'s grandfather. Apparently, he died in battle, and his body couldn\'t be recovered, so his son buried an empty coffin. It turns out it wasn\'t empty. "We\'ll need a shovel or something? Let\'s look for a toolshed. There\'s usually one in graveyards." Sally and Hailey nod their heads, and we look around the property. Despite the fact it\'s a private graveyard, it\'s rather huge. The James family seems to have been around for a very long time. I wonder what their ancestors would think about the last 100 years.

From my belief, Kelly\'s father was the one that started slavery here in the barony. Before that, the James family\'s reputation was clean and respected. How far a family can fall in two generations. Kelly has a hard road ahead, and only her grandchildren will begin to enjoy the life of a clean name free of sin. "I found the shed!" I hear my sister\'s voice as it interrupts my thoughts. I head towards it, and Sally\'s already here. We enter the shed, and we all get a shovel. I\'m glad that these two are afraid of hard labor. There is nothing more monotonous than digging a 6-foot hole by hand.

While there is magic to make it easier, none of us are mages. We head back to the grave with shovels in hand and begin to dig. It won\'t take long with all three of us digging. I should still fill the time with some conversation. "How are you doing, Sally?" My first concern is where Sally is at mentally. Sometimes, after getting revenge you have thirsted for, it can leave an empty feeling. How big that empty feeling depends on the person. Sally stays quiet, contemplating the question and figuring out what to say.

She sighs, trying to find the right words. "It feels good... Great even... However, it won\'t bring the things stolen from me back... My purity... My mother... I\'ll never ever regret killing them and the way I did it, but the things I lost could never be recovered..." I stay silent at her deep words. That\'s usually what happens. While revenge is sweet and fulfilling and helps you move past things. What was taken or destroyed before or during the course of the revenge can never be recovered. It\'s something that can only be experienced and is hard to explain.

I\'m really glad Sally has gotten her revenge after all these years. I\'m happy that I got to be a part of it and help. "You can talk to me anytime you want, Sally. Remember that we are partners, lovers, and companions. You can confide in me and share any pain that you have. I\'ve come to care and love you very much." She smiles and blushes slightly at my words. Hailey just scoffs and rolls her eyes. "You\'re just jealous \'cause you can\'t get a boyfriend. Maybe if you weren\'t so hard to please, you could get one." She gives a laughing gasp and proceeds to throw dirt at me.

The next thing I know, there is a dirt fight between all three of us. While it\'s the dirt of an empty grave, I don\'t care cause it\'s a James. We get the extra energy out of our system and continue digging. After a minute, we start hitting the wood of a coffin. Time to get the information we came for.