Prologue Part 20
In the early hours of the next morning, Sylvia got up and prepared to start work. She changed into her uniform, tied her hair into a bun, and had her morning coffee. After leaving the servant's quarters, she took a walk around the house just to wake her body up. She passed through the garden and reached the Pavillion where she saw a small boy sitting there with his head resting on the table. Thin tablecloth hugged his little body.
Naturally, this startled her. She darted over to his side and tried to wake him up, but noticed he was already awake. "Are you alright, my Lord?" But when she saw his face, she knew he was not alright. There was dried blood all over his clothes and face, his entire body was bruised and eyes looked so tired and full of indescribable pain. This was nothing like the kind, energetic and playful boy that she used to know.
But what pained her even more was that there was nothing she could do to help him. "You look awful," she said, cupping his cheek with her hand. "Are you training right now?" Matteo shook his head, "Father said that I am not allowed to sleep in the house (sniff).... because I was bad in training." Sylvia's blood boiled, but she calmed herself down and gently held his bruised hand. "Do you want to come and sleep in my room?"
Matteo dropped his head, "But what if you get in trouble again?" Sylvia felt tears well up in her eyes, "Don't worry about me, my Lord. You're young, you need to be more selfish." She took Matteo and led him back to her room. It was a small room, barely furnished or accessorized. It smelled like concrete and was completely empty apart from a mattress and some clothes.
Matteo climbed onto it and fell fast asleep within minutes. Sylvia watched over him with a warm smile, and draped another blanket over him, making it a pile of four. She left her room and went back to the servant's quarters to make him some tea and biscuits. There, she ran into her friend Charlotte, who was preparing for her day of work. "Didn't you already have coffee?"
"Actually it's not for me this time (yawn), it's for Lord Matteo." Charlotte's expression turned somber. "How is he doing?" Sylvia sighed. "Horrible. The poor child is being abused every day, all under the guise of special training", she continued, each word filling her with more and more rage.
"And do you know what's worse? Now apparently Lord Thomas, his "father" has basically kicked him out of the house just because he's not doing well on that inhumane training of his!" Charlotte had shock written all over her face. "What?!" "I know!" Sylvia exclaimed. "I mean who does that?! And to a child for goodness sake! I Swear one of these days I'm going to-"
"Okay, calm down." Charlotte interjected. "I can see how strongly you feel about this, but you must remember that there's nothing you can do about this." Sylvia protested, "But I've known that boy since the moment Lady Isabella first brought him into the house! I was there when she named him as well! She also entrusted me with taking care of him! She must be turning in her grave watching what her poor son has to go through while I, his caretaker, do nothing about it!"
"I know, Sylvia. I know you've been there for him since his first day of life, and that you care for him deeply, but he's not your child and you are not his mother. You are his caretaker and that means there are limits to your influence over him. And unfortunately, Lord Thomas is his father, whether he is a good one or not.
" I do admire how supportive you are, but I'm also worried that you may be playing too close to the fire here. You may not like what I'm about to say but I do believe it would be best for
both of you if you kept your distance from him. We only have two years left on our term, and I don't want anything bad to happen to you until then, or ever. Please Sylvia."
Sylvia didn't respond and turned her attention back to Matteo's tea. There was a moment of silence before another servant entered the quarters to start her day. They exchanged greetings before she asked the both of them, "Did you guys hear about the haunted garden rumor?
Both Charlotte and Sylvia wore clueless expressions. "What's that?"
She explained, "So apparently in Cendrelys, there's a house with a cursed garden. They say that in the garden, people hear weird voices that give them headaches. Oh, and also, there were two families that used to live there, and they both died. All the members of those families died, the moms, the dads, the kids and even the babies. And what's worse is that they all apparently died from suicide."
Charlotte and Sylvia's mouths hung open. "And before you dismiss me, I'll have you know that this was on the morning paper, so it's not just a lie or a hoax." "That is so scary", was all Charlotte managed to say. "Wait, doesn't this remind you of something?" Sylvia asked. "What?" The two asked back, confused.
"Lady Isabella," Sylvia explained. "Didn't something similar happen to her and Lord Matteo? And besides, we all know what happened to her." Charlotte replied, "Well, yeah but that was over two years ago. Besides, we were also in the same room with her multiple times and nothing happened to us. Lord Matteo's also fine so there's no way."
Sylvia sighed with disappointment and decided to end their conversation short. "Well, I'm gonna go start with work, bye." She took the tea and biscuits then left. The remaining two servants left not long after.
The day continued with nothing of note happening, so did the next day and the day after that. Matteo continued his training and continued to sleep in Sylvia's room. But just when it seemed like Callistéa was about to turn peaceful again, the nation's next big disaster struck.
***
In a small pub not too far from the Dumont residence in Solenne, many of Callistéa's common folk were having the time of their lives. For the first time since the pub opened, the place was completely packed. Sounds of laughter, chatter and loud music mixed with the smell of fresh meat, beer and tobacco to create a lively atmosphere despite it being very late into the night. "Hey newbie, go get some more meat in the freezer!"
"Alright!" A young man wearing a plain brown cross collar robe made of pure cotton rushed to the back end of the pub where the meat locker was located. It was a large, dark and freezing cold room filled with a wide variety of meat… or at least it should've been. "What the hell?" The meat locker was completely empty. Not a single piece of meat in sight. The newbie rushed back to the main station. "Boss!"
The boss, a short, fat man with a balding head, turned to him, startled. "What's going on, boy? Where's the meat?" The newbie hesitated for a moment then explained, "I-it's all gone. All the meat… everything's gone!" The boss dropped his glass and hurried over to the meat locker. When he reached it, his draw dropped. "Th-this can't be". He saw an empty room, full of ice, but no meat. "What happened?!" He screamed in panic, violently shaking the newbie.
"I-I don't know boss! I found it like this!" The boss walked further into the meat locker, checking every corner for even the smallest sign of meat, but nothing, there was absolutely nothing to be found. "No, no, no, no, no!" He repeated over and over again.
"This is the best batch of customers I've ever had! This damn fridge was full of meat this morning, where the hell did it all go?!" The newbie searched with him even though he knew it was all pointless. He reached the back end of the locker and "Hm?"... saw a pile of black… whatever that was. "Boss, come see this!" The boss hurried to the newbie's side.
"What on earth is that?" he asked. "I don't know, I just found it." The newbie replied. "The boss picked one of the black things up and felt it all over. "It feels like meat, and it's… warm?" He took a small knife out of his pocket and cut off a small piece of it. On the inside, he saw some squishy flesh looking thing, reminiscent of raw beef.
"What are we gonna do, boss?" The newbie asked, genuinely concerned. The boss took a second to think, then finally decided. "Take all of these and put them on the grill, we'll have to cook them." The newbie's worry intensified. "Um… are you sure, boss? We don't even know what this is, is it really safe?" The boss stared at him, puzzled. "What are you talking about?" He asked, "This is meat! It may look a bit weird, but I'm confident that this is ground beef!"
"Okay!" The two of them took all the black meat from the meat locker all the way to the kitchen for it to be cooked. A little while later, it was fully cooked and distributed to the guests. The boss lied and explained to everybody that he had the meat be a little more charred to enhance the flavour. Everyone was hesitant to eat it, except for one brave drunk soul.
He took the first bite in the entire pub and when he swallowed, his body sprang up. "Wow! This meat is so good!" Everybody was startled by his sudden burst, but was then motivated to try. They all took small bites of the meat, and once they started chewing….
"Oh my goodness, what is this made of? Love?!"
"This might be the best piece of food I've ever tasted!"
"Can I order another one?!"
Soon, the entire pub was in an uproar. Those who were full quickly became hungry and ordered more. The drunk became sober. The depressed were all laughing and smiling. Some even cried from the pure deliciousness. The number of orders multiplied and money was everywhere. Seeing all of this, the boss looked like the happiest man in the world.
"You see son, I told you serving that meat was a good idea." The newbie was beyond stunned. "I guess it did. But still, we don't know anything about that meat. And… what are we gonna do when it all runs out?" The boss patted his shoulder. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, my boy. Now, let's go get ourselves some of this meat before it runs out".
The boss and newbie made their way to the kitchen where the other employees were already feasting. They were all just as joyful as the customers.
***
The next day in the Dumont house, Thomas and two gentlemen sat in the living room finishing a very important discussion.
"Oh, do not worry yourselves about that, Matteo will be ready to start as soon as possible. He may be much younger than the average high schooler, but he is also not your average child. I am confident he will excel". Thomas reassured them.
"Alright then," one of the men said, "We would also like to run some tests on young Lord Matteo to find out the true nature of his special seed, if you'll grant us permission." Thomas agreed proudly, "Well of course, do as you must! It's only fair after the wonderful opportunity you have given us. Heh heh, to think Matteo will be the youngest ever to attend the prestigious MacRion highschool!"
"Heh heh, it truly is history in the making." "I'll bet even Rory is feeling proud somewhere up above, seeing his school make history once again." One of the school heads commented. "It truly is a shame Lord Matteo was unable to join us today", the other head added. "Unfortunately he is hard at training," Thomas explained. "He still has a lot of work to do before planting the Heart of Seneva, so he has to stay busy at all times."
Both heads' jaws dropped. "He's planting The Heart of Seneva? At his age?"
"Really? But it's almost impossible to plant that seed. Only one in a thousand people actually manage to do it! Even his mother, Duchess Isabella had to torture herself for years just to plant it, and even then, she never fully recovered from its effects!"
"Why, I know people in their sixties and seventies who have failed to plant it, and you tell me he wants to try and plant it at only age nine?!" Thomas nodded proudly in response. All the school heads could do was sigh from the shock. "Well then, I guess we should also offer to help him plant it then." The heads offered. "It would be greatly appreciated." Thomas accepted with a small bow.
They continued longer for a short while, and as Thomas was about to see them off, he met one of his subordinates at the door, wearing a brown suit from the Kailund kingdom and holding a large pile of paperwork in his hand. "Oh, Viscount Mekcha, what brings you here?" He asked. "Good morning, General Duke Dumont," Viscount Mekcha saluted, "Apologies for my interruption, but we have a very serious problem". " What is it?" Thomas asked, sensing the panic in his voice. "Earlier this morning, we received reports from police and regional officers that last night, over one hundred people have died right here in Solenne." Now Thomas had panic in his voice. "What?! A hundred people?! In one night?! Give me all the details right now."
"O-okay", Mekcha stuttered. "So, according to reports, during the early hours of the morning, over one hundred people died from what could only be called severe food poisoning. Witnesses say the victims were vomiting blood in massive heaps while also experiencing severe psychological distress, coming from a diagnosed loss of sanity".
"Oh my goodness", the words escaped from Thomas' mouth. Viscount Mekcha continued, "The victims were also reported to have experienced migraines and head pains, with many of them dying by suicide after repeated head trauma. The most common methods were banging their heads against walls, tables or any hard object they could find". There was no way Thomas could stay calm and collected after that. But Mekcha was not done.
"And according to testimonies, these incidents all had something in common, almost all the victims were reported laughing hysterically and praising a certain food item that was served at a nearby pub."
"What food item? And where?" Thomas interjected. "The victims called it black meat , and they got it from a pub called Paulpa's Place, it's located in Nanki Street." Mekcha replied. "Alright. And how much of this information is public knowledge?" Thomas inquired once more.
"Almost all of it", Mekcha explained. "The entire city is in uproar. The whole community is in a state of panic, everybody is scared, confused and angry. Pubs and restaurants are losing business and the people no longer trust meat among the common and peasant classes." Thomas sighed, knowing he was about to have a very long day."And what about this… black meat he was serving people?"
Mekcha responded less than a second later. "That's the thing! We managed to get a few pieces of it from the pub but… it's not meat. Or at least, not any kind that we know. Even the best chefs and butchers in the nation know nothing of this… black meat." The situation had officially surpassed the limits of Thomas' logic. "Okay, pause. Let me just process this for a moment." It took him a few moments to fully come to terms with the whole situation.
"Okay, wait for me right here, I need to see all of this for myself." Thomas rushed back into the house, got his uniform, then into the carriage with Mekcha. They headed straight for the scene of the tragedy.
As the days passed, Callistéa grew more and more unsettled. News of the disaster quickly spread throughout the nation, prompting wider involvement from government officials. From then on, food was monitored much more strictly, raising the required quality and freshness of food to be served to people, health inspections and food inspections were done more regularly and with increased aggression, and customization of food items was prohibited, ensuring nothing like this would ever happen again.
However, that did little to calm the hearts of the Callistéan middle and peasant classes, whose inner communities began to crumble and suffer from these events. With the food quality threshold being increased, it was much harder for the common and peasant class to circulate their food, more of it went bad as people were unwilling to eat food past a certain timeline and soon, the overall food supply within those classes began decreasing. This led to pleas and protests from these classes to the higher noble and ruling class, begging for more support in terms of food management.
These talks weren't as successful as some of the peasants would have hoped for, causing even greater unrest from the lower class as the nobles were unwilling to share their food or cooking methods, and instead implored them to either innovate their food processing methods or simply get over the fiasco and learn to trust the food provided to them once again.
The lower class did not like this and the protests soon ramped up in aggression, even turning violent on certain occasions. A nationwide strike was declared among the leaders and influential figures of the lower working class, and a majority of the peasants listened. This strike greatly impacted the working environment and economic productivity of Callistéa, leaving the nobles with no choice but to submit to their demands. It took a few months, but it finally looked like Callistéa was once again settling back into its regular peaceful state.