The Flawed System - Chapter 6 Duke Joseph

~5 years later. July 28, 1708th year of the Astralin calendar.~

A young girl can be seen swinging her sword up and down. Beads of sweat flowed down her face and exhaustion was slowly encroaching upon her. However under the morning light, this young girl barely at the tender age of 5 was persistent in her training. Unlike all the other girls who wanted to be treated like a princess, this young girl was the opposite. Taught from a young age that being strong would be the only saving grace to this world.

“Justine! Come in for breakfast!”

“Coming!”

Justine heard her mother’s call and hurriedly placed her wooden sword on the ground. Then she ran into the mansion at an astonishing speed unfitting for a 5 year old.

“Good morning mama.” Justine ran to her mother’s legs and hugged her.

“Good morning sweet. ” Christina was very affectionate towards this young baby of hers.

“Where’s big sis? And is dad stuck in his office again?” Justine pouted and had tears forming in her eyes when she thought of her father being to busy with work and ignoring his family for nearly a week.

At this moment, the world suddenly lit up and her sister was walking down the stairs. With composed steps, she walked down and arrived at the dining table. Justine was enthralled with Rachel’s beauty everyday and couldn’t be more stunned today. With raven black hair, blue and black eyes, and a mysterious aura that seems to attract others, Justine ran up to her sister and hugged her.

“Good morning sis!”

“Good morning to you too.”

Rachel looked at her younger sister and smiled. Everyday this young little meat bun would hug her affectionately around this time.

“What’s for breakfast mother?”

Rachel moved her head away from Justine’s face and gazed at the table.

“Ughmmm…bacon and ham with eggs.”

“Not again…didn’t we have this for a whole week straight now?”

“Well…it’s not my fault that I can’t cook. And all the chefs applied for vacation at the same time last week. They have been working here for years and all of a sudden they applied to leave all at once! My, what coincidence!”

Rachel had an ominous look on her face whereas Justine was straight out confused.

“Though you don’t have to worry, they are all going to be back today. I heard they had a group trip to the hot-spring. Apparently it was said to be famous for curing wrinkles.”

Though Justine’s mother was infatuated with the hot-springs, she still had a beautiful face that lacks any wrinkles or blemishes.

*Creak*

” Hmm? Oh you came out just at the right time honey.”

Justine saw her dad coming out of his office dead tired. Deep bags were under his eyes and an unshaven beard was transparent on his face.

“Papa!” Like with Christina and Justine, she hugged Alex and Alex responded back with holding her in his arms.

Then they went to their seats and started eating breakfast that was slightly simple yet fulfilling.

“I never really asked honey but what kept you so busy?”

“Although it is confidential, there’s nothing to hide in this family.” Alex smiled at his wife and his daughters. He thought for a few moments on how to phrase his sentence.

“So you know how the Elves are always somehow getting kidnapped to be sold to those lustful nobles? Well apparently I caught some confidential information on the traffickers and the noble who is supposedly the mastermind behind all this.”

“Really? Who is it?” Christina has always despised these horrendous cruelties and wanted to know the truth about who was behind it.

“You’ll never guess who it was. It was Duke Joseph, the blood related brother of the current king, Wayne.

“That guy? Wasn’t he known for being upright and righteous?” Christina has always viewed Joseph very favorably as he was known to be an ideal man for every woman. He had a good status and reputation, lots of wealth and was still single.

“That’s why I spent so much time digging for information. Apparently even I couldn’t believe it myself until I sent some ‘subordinates’ of my to secretly infiltrate Joseph’s house. And when they reported back to me, I found out that there was a whole secret dungeon underneath his house. And even worse, there was humans and elves held captive. Although nothing happen to them yet, as they appeared to be recently captured. Though that wouldn’t remain true as those people will be sold in the black market.

“Then save them now papa!” Unknowingly, Justine had tears in her eyes and intervened into the conversation that Alex and Christina were having.

“… I’m sorry sweetie. I can’t do that yet for many reasons. And one of those reasons is that you guys will be in danger.”

” Then…what can I do?” Justine had tears flowing down her face and was sad from even thinking about how those people must be feeling. Despair. Hopelessness. Distress. Misery.

“DON’T YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING ANYTHING!” The one who screamed all of the sudden wasn’t Christina, but rather Rachel.

“You’re not some type of hero Justine. You are a child. A weak one nevertheless. Any adult can immobilize you in matter of seconds so stop having such foolish thoughts.” Rachel who never spoke too many words, all of a sudden exploded with momentum.

Justine then started to wail from her sister’s sharp tongue and suddenly she felt pain in her head. Before another second has passed, she fell of her chair and collapsed onto the ground with memories suddenly flooding into her brain.

{Who is this man? Why does he look like my dad? And the woman who came after that man. She looked like a splitting image of my mom. And this girl who yelled and slapped me…she reminds me of my sister who just yelled at me. And lastly this guy who came in last. H-h-he even kissed me when I was vulnerable. How shameless! But why did I not feel disturb, but rather as if it was the most natural thing in the world? Then there was darkness and…the System!}