92: Erasure

Erasure

Dante walked into the kitchen, quickly taking a seat at the dining table. Lilia and Sara followed behind him, doing the same exact thing while making sure to pick the spots that were as close to his chair as possible.0

The dining table was packed with a variety of delicious food, which almost immediately caught his attention. However, the black haired boy couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about the whole thing.

Glancing at the two girls that had come downstairs with him, who weren't showing any signs of feeling a similar energy conveyed throughout the room, he simply decided to chalk it up to anxiety.

Augusta had been watching the three of them ever since they walked into the kitchen, after all. His teal-colored eyes were primarily set on Dante, but they occasionally swept over Sara and his daughter, especially around the girl's arm which had previously suffered a broken wrist injury.

Fortunately for Lilia, her wrist had completely healed for the most part. The redhead just needed to be a little wary about how she used it for a while longer, that way the faint soreness traveling through it could go away a bit quicker. The constant assistance that she has received from both Dante and Sara made the whole experience a lot easier to deal with as well, for that she was quite thankful to have such caring friends in her life.

Eventually, Flute took a seat after ridding herself of the apron that she wore whenever there was food being made in the kitchen.

Dante also noticed how subdued the woman had been for nearly the entire day, or at least during the time that she had been at home. There was a couple hours in the early morning that she was gone after he woke up. Once she returned from the city's streets, the redheaded woman couldn't seem to stop herself from smiling, but it only ever occurred whenever Augusta wasn't in the vicinity.

At first, he simply thought that she just appeared to be a lot happier after he left, and that definitely seemed to be true. However, she would also periodically throw glances at the man's back, and he couldn't really make sense of the situation in the end.

While he decided to keep quiet, Dante had an odd feeling that she was up to something...

He just hoped that whatever she was planning on doing wouldn't also result in her getting hurt as well. If that was ever the case, he would at least try to intervene in the hopes that Lilia would still have a mother to love and care for.

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Maintaining a dainty smile on her face, Flute sat down in a seat that was located right next to Augusta's position. The man sent a brief glance in her direction, which nearly caused her body to tense and lock up, but she managed to simply respond to his uncouth gesture with the smile that had been set in place on her visage.

They had begun to eat their food in haste, the kids occasionally sending compliments her way about the taste of their meals, but she had noticed that Dante was eating a bit faster than everyone else. At first, she thought that he just liked the food a lot, but their eyes had met a few times after that which evoked a sudden realization in the woman's mind.

Dante knew that she was up to something, her plan most likely involving Augusta, which must have been why he was seemingly attempting to finish his food a bit sooner compared to everybody else sitting at the dining table. In response to his actions, both of the girls eventually noticed as well, and were trying to keep up so that they could all leave the room at once.

Neither of the two girls wanted to be alone with Augusta, that was for sure.

Taking a risk, Flute sent a glance towards the man sitting next to her, and unexpectedly found her eyes looking straight into his. Her entire fake display of contentment which had been set in place for nearly the entire day almost shattered when one of Augusta's calloused hands moved under the table, intentionally landing on her thigh.

While she was originally intending to go through with her plan after the children had left the table and went upstairs, Flute wasn't sure that would be the case anymore. The redheaded woman could no longer handle the traumatic abuse that had been haphazardly dealt to her over the years.

Once the man had gradually lifted her floral dress enough to where he could finally make physical contact with her shapely legs, his fingers sinking into her flesh like it was made out of dough, the mask set into place had cracked.

Tears started running down her face, which was only noticed by the children at first, and all three of them quickly brought attention to it. However, before Augusta even had the chance to order them to mind their business and continue eating the meal placed in front of them, Flute's anger rose to a tipping point.

Abruptly standing up from her seat with an expression full of rage, which she had knocked over as a result of her sudden reaction, everybody else that was sitting at the dining table immediately looked over at the woman. Swinging her right hand over until it was pointed directly at Augusta's face in a closed fist, the viewers of the spectacle quickly noticed an unusual ring located on her middle finger, which was glowing very brightly.

Unexpected to everyone, including the wielder of the ring, the light emitting from it increased until it was practically blinding to look at. The dark blue orb appeared to more than just that, which was due to the fact that it turned out to be an eye of sorts, and that's when it finally happened.

(For reference.)

All of it occurred within the blink of an eye.

Flute did just as she had been told by Korbak, inserting certain thoughts and a specified intent within the ring in order for it to achieve her wish, and it miraculously accomplished everything that she wanted as the entire room was engulfed in an explosion of blinding light.

Even with his incredible reflexes, Augusta was taken by immense surprise with Flute's unusual ring, which he had never seen before in his life. That was essentially his last thought before his mind seemed to lose focus and he blacked out, never to be the same again once his eyes opened back up the next day.

After the blinding light receded, which allowed everybody who remained standing to see what had occurred, the entire room was deathly silent. There was expressions of shock left on the young trio's faces, completely at a loss for words at the spectacle that they just witnessed in full view.

Flute was left victoriously standing over a man that she has hated for nearly two decades, a genuine smile of happiness crawling onto her tear-stricken face as the ring wrapped around her middle finger permanently lost it's luminescence.

In the end, she had ultimately freed herself from the clutches of a heartless man who had only ever thought of her as his plaything, a euphoric feeling coursing through the woman's entire body as she turned towards the three other people within the room.

There was quite a bit of explaining to do.

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