Frida had spent another sleepless night and morning staring at a wall that she nailed that includes everything from little snippets of newspapers to an entire section of the newspaper laid out that details out all the big arson incidents in the city. All of it dragged on 3 years ago, back when Hilda was reported missing.
She can't take a rest, this somewhat gut trembling feeling that Hilda might be responsible for the recent arsons and what just happened yesterday.
She can't take a hold of herself. Stop thinking about it and relax, you have an entire day ahead. She decides to look away from the nailed wall and go downstairs to eat some breakfast.
As she walked down the creaky staircase, she saw David and Kaisa already at the table, chatting alongside some biscuits and tea, and thanks to the creaky floor, they immediately noticed how tired she appeared to be.
"Hey…." said kaisa with a worried expression;
"My God, you look beaten up today."
Frida scoffed. "I'm fine guys… really I'm fine, it's just…."
Kaisa looked without an expression. "okay…."
Meanwhile, Hilda was having the nicest of her mornings, as she was cutting extra beef for dagger, who some would say was just skin and bones, got herself the luxury of some salami and even bread.
For her, this was as luxurious as her life could get, and usually after some very rich people tipped the funerary home… she could barely imagine how much she would gain with selling Jared's stuff from his body.
Even though on the outside she seems neutral between her and Jared, in her mind, she had pretty much decided already: he needed to go, as her mom's will and for his own deeds. She promised it would be impartial, and justifying it from the will, but she was just lying to herself, she wanted to do this since she realized who he is.
Hilda has gone so badly down, just because of his deeds, out of his and the rich class's lack of compassion and responsibility. She couldn't stand a lot longer anyways, seeing her local newspapers talking about arranged marriages alongside the actually important news…
And now… a new trend between killers.
Trollberg was only known for a few things outside of its city borders. It's looming high stone walls and its bell towers, its pristine, crystal clear waters on its coasts, but now it's slowly becoming "The Widow City".
Reported among multiple households, women had started to kill their arranged husbands, and it wasn't a recent trend, some were uncovered recently but happened decades ago, seemingly well hidden and used to rack up money for the rich.
Some went even as far as openly say they are related to what was initially a small sort of cult, called "marras", who used, among other things, dark magic as a sort of feminine empowerment for a mostly conservative Britain.
Needless to say this was the perfect scapegoat, she could easily frame his new wife for her act, and not only that, a scapegoat with them too! it was just, all aligning…all set.
Now for the bloody part, although she had killed a man before, she couldn't make a complete plan on Jared. not only was he rarely alone, but he would be more prepared than that man, who had no way to see it coming.
It also had to be with that knife… which means getting close.
And that had its own issues.
She had to think of something before it's too late.
Back with Kaisa, she was once again taking a small break in her office, reading a small book from the Ferguson's personal library, hiding behind the typewriter that is still being built, until David came in.
"Kaisa...uhhh I need your help.."
"Oh… sure!"
"so…. Dad wants to send me to another one of those universities… but…"
"Why? You don't wanna go?"
"yeah…"
"Umm a-alright, since you don't wanna go, maybe I can find your entrance exam envelopes and burn it, therefore they can't find it."
"Oh wow, never thought you'd...do all of that for me, thanks."
"N-no issues at all, sir!" Kaisa responded, nervously smiling at him.
Being the secretary of the family wasn't daring, but it was no usual secretary job. To start, Stephen paid her in percentages, so her salary was constantly rising and falling if his business went well or bad, spiking in what today would be around the 50,000 Pounds, but getting as low as mere 200 modern Pounds.
However as the coal business actually skyrocketed in demand, she could take a breath of fresh air as a secretary in the higher classes, and she wasn't afraid of showing off her wealth, often using commissioned clothes and necklaces, shoes, and painting the meshes of her hair in a purple-ish blue, mixing the colors the better she could.
Needless to say, she was quite proud of herself, seeing her position as a sort of personal achievement, as she climbed the social classes with surprisingly relative ease, and again, she wasn't afraid to brag about it.
She even had a party to go to, from sheer fame and due to Stephen having to bring her along for a business meeting.
And there she would do what she does most of the time: drink beer as just a German could, get people angry for her weak french sotaque, and, somewhat like stephen, talk with the few scot-related families she met in town.
She was pretty odd for a secretary, and she would prove it again.
In the other room, Frida was bashing her head against the wall, looking at a few more notes she took from her investigation. Why should it be so hard? Why couldn't she just forget it all?
She was supposed to be buying clothes for her workers anyways, and she had to hurry to a small wardrobe in the house, filled with some vests, coats and hats. She didn't like it, but it was a small price to keep herself up.
As a dark-skinned person in town, at the time she didn't have a lot of choices, but she was already quite happy Stephen wouldn't press too hard while they are at home. Sure, he was a bitch, but he wouldn't whip her like before.
David meanwhile has his own issues, as he was in his room, frustratingly trying to make any sense out of the economy notes his dad took for him.
As the son of a traditionally Protestant family, it was to no surprise that Frida and him weren't allowed a lot of time, for multiple reasons. Even if they were very casual friends. He was, however, allowed plenty of time with Kaisa, and he knew Stephen had a small thing for him: marrying a Hanoverian or a Scot.
It was quite a recent trend as places mended with the nations, and Trollberg had a semblance of cultural diversity, with some Nordic and German combined with African culture, brought over thanks to the slave trade.
In an attempt to "purify" Trollberg's ethnic background, the city hall made quite the effort to interest Hanoverian immigration towards their city, which benefited them a lot.
Kaisa, having her ethnic group from those regions, was a strong candidate for him, and Stephen clearly rooted for them, which at first seemed a terrible idea for David, since that would violate the city hall's laws, and for the family, marrying a maid could be a bad reputation sign for the other families.
That's why stephen went through the effort of putting her in the role of the secretary and entrusting her the mailbox of the estate, and now finally, David was seemingly starting to like her, as much as she tried to hide it from stephen, he could see his son had a preference for her over the other maids.
Stephen himself was again at his workshop, trying to understand the engines for his locomotive as his wife brought him a teacup of herbal tea.
"Thank you, my wife." Stephen greeted shortly, resting his fingers at the blueprint before reaching out for the teacup.
"So...how did it go?" Mary briefly asked, leaning towards the nailed pieces of paper in front of him.
"Fine and dandy as always..." Stephen softly muttered before he accidentally wrote a mistake in the blueprint. "Anyways, how's it going between David and Kaisa so far?"
"As a matter of fact, they both have been going a little warm for each other actually."
"And how's Frida?"
"Getting clothes for her family."
"Perfect." Stephen muttered, closing his eyes in relief before opening them up to fix the mistake.
Hilda meanwhile, was at her home doing a pretty average routine exercise as her time would allow, walking across the streets and moving around the house while distracting herself from city life until the first funeral of the day arrived at her station.
Eventually she checked the file and looked at the clock and changed to her usual clothing, going to work like any other day until she noticed something.
At the center of the city, a small gathering had formed where Jared announced the wedding had now turned into a massive mob, mostly around the church which was finally being rebuilt.
She didn't think much of it, passing by and ignoring the yells and bells of the mob, which was pretty common at the time. It was only natural Jared would want his marriage in a brand new church rather than a simple one, like the ones she didn't burn.
But she can't ignore the screams for long, she looked again at the crowd, making sure Jared wasn't in the mix… but he was somehow in the crowd despite it being jampacked… and that was simply… off putting.
In an act of blunt stupidity she went into the mob, as she still had about an hour before the actual burial preparations to see what the hell is happening in the mob. She approached the couple who were getting gifts and handshakes from everyone, mostly lower middle class citizens giving out their precious.
She finally arrived at Jared and his new bride, having nearly all of her pockets picked trying to get there, and thanks to her unassuming look, Jared didn't bat an eye and just gave her a simple handshake.
She then gave him an eerily and somehow threatening smile and then promptly walked off back to the crowd where she needed to rush her way back to the funeral quick.
As she ran off, a glimpse of her iconic blue slipped out of the tricorn hat and as Jared looked around at the crowd at a distance, he caught a glimpse of it.
As she finally ran outside of the crowd and ran away from sight, Jared tried to remember when was the last time someone in their level of society had blue hair. It stressed him enough that he gave the crowd farewell and went back to his estate with the bride.
Hilda rushed to the cemetery and looked over the field, observing for a good burial spot for the man she swore to kill.
As she awkwardly leaned towards every patch of grass in the field, her coworker and part-timer Alfur walked out of the station and noticed her squatting at a patch.
"Hilbert...what are you looking for?" Alfur asks, batting an eye and coughing lightly to get her attention.
She simply raises her head with a monotonous gaze, and smiles softly.
"Just a patch of grass, to see how much we have left." she said, not fully understanding her own lie.
"Uh….okay?" He blankly responded, walking away out of fear of whatever the hell ~~she~~ he had in mind.
"He always acts weird, sometimes he even likes a woman." Álfur pondered, pausing his daily exchequer routine in the desk, 'I don't wanna seem assumptive but...maybe he is and I just couldn't guess.'
While she was all alone in the cemetery, Hilda then proceeded to sift away at the dirt around the guard that she killed and then placed him in a sack before dragging him all the way to an isolated outhouse in the nearby lake.
As she took it out and placed him accordingly in the outhouse pier, she then proceeded to create an improvised cement shoes out of simple big rocks she found at the side and after tying them up, she then gave the dead man farewell and respect before rolling his unconscious body to the lake, never to be seen again.
Kaisa meanwhile was out in her office, Stephen was out being involved with the business world, Mary was at the park and Frida and David were in their own rooms. She could just sit back and enjoy some wine, of the finest they could afford and with all the time she has, what could possibly happen next?
And then one of Stephen's mailmen knocked on the door and entered the room with a strangely bright green envelope in his hands.
"Here's mail from an anonymous sender, secretary." The mailman spoke before placing the envelope on the desk.
She dismissed him out of the room quietly before focusing on the envelope. As she opened the curtains in her room to illuminate the surrounding and as she sat back down, she suddenly smelled garlic out of nowhere.
She knew she didn't bring in any garlicky foods or odors inside, as she didn't even move out of the room and as she followed the smell, she sensed it on her desk.
Sensing that the envelope is laced with a chemical, she grabbed a nearby napkin and wrapped it around her face to cover her nose from smelling the garlicky odor before using another few pieces of napkins to hold the envelope.
"I see you have ignored our warnings, so much to your dismay, I am sorry for what will happen soon."
Kaisa felt terrified of the message, she's already suspicious of their first mail but now with a poisoned envelope, it seems like the threat is real.
On the other side of the city, a young woman with white hair of eccentric hairstyle and a bright green dress made her way to a small forge that Stephen owned and within her pockets, in her bras there were two medium sized bags of gunpowder that her henchmen (henchwomen?) stole after raiding a barracks down the river.
The issue is, that in order to get there… She needed to go through the cemetery for the easiest path and that had issues with being detected with two gunpowder bags that can be scented within a yard.
As she passed through the gate and saw the fences that surrounded the cemetery, she knew how hard it'll be to scale the spiky fences.
As she walked pass through a few notable graves, many of which laid their graves here by the likes of Sir William Craigie and Edmund Ahlberg, she then managed to reach the far end of the cemetery and proceeded to try to scale the fence.
"Hey, what are you doing over there?!"
She turned around and as she turned, she lost her grip on the fence, falling at a mere few feet from the ground but never hurt, trying to see who said it.
"You there, what are you doing and what's in those bags?" An eerily masculine yet feminine sounding voice echoes at a distance.
She quickly got herself up and tried to run back to the exit but she's quickly discovered by Hilda across the cemetery.
"This is private property, mind you." Hilda reminded, "And what's in the bag?" She asks as she immediately reaches her hand towards the bags.
"No, you don't understand." She quickly excused, pulling the bags towards her pockets in defense. "They're only my belongings and I was just-"
"How can I be sure they're yours if I can't see them and also you're too far from the gate to be leaving." She reasoned, trying to keep a deep and serious tone. "If you're here to rob a grave, I'm calling the guards!"
The woman backed away from her hands at the bags. She kept avoiding her across the cemetery, accidentally knocking a gravestone or two in a hurry.
Why does he sound like he's a woman? The marra then attempts to climb the high fence one more time but alas, she can't climb fast enough before she gets tackled by Hilda to the ground.
In a quick act of desperation, the woman quickly pulled a knife and tried to stab Hilda, only to have the small and rusted kitchen knife bend at impact on her thigh. She then tried to take hold of the spade, only for Hilda to pull it out of her hands and hit her knees.
As she fell on the ground, Hilda then noticed the two bags that were on the side of Craigie's grave and inspected it. The smell is already evident that the woman is trying to do something despicable. She then sent a death stare as she dropped it on the soft grass.
The woman, now on the ground and crawling towards the exit, realized what is gonna happen next and tried to face up to try and reason with her.
"Please, sir, those are for our countrymen! Don't call the guard, my husband's in there!"
Hilda, already sensing the lie given that the woman had no rings on her hands, took the spade and aimed it towards the helpless woman
Paralised and muted by sheer fear, and had no way of resisting, she tried to lie her way out but it's too late, Hilda already had her target set and impaled her on her chest, thrusting deep into her midsection in one strike. As she opens her eyes to see if she lived, she's now looking up to a tall spade stuck in between her chest and abdomen and the ground surrounding her laiden with blood.
As she looked at Hilda with pitiful eyes, she tried to tell her of what she has done but her voice is drastically losing its volume as liters of blood drained from her body with every second.
Then Hilda lets out her feminine voice. "I'm sorry, little one."
Her eyes widened in shock at the unexpected tone, and the thought of her killer as a woman is far beyond understanding, but she can't think for too long and by the next minute, she's dead.
Hilda looked at the helpless body with a tear flowing out from both eyes, knowing what to do next. She carefully pulled out the spade from her chest and she begins making a makeshift grave for her, she knew that a random grave in the middle of an upper class only cemetery is weird but she can't let her rot to the vultures.
After digging a grave deep and wide enough for her, she then walked over to the carcass of the woman and after inspecting her belongings for any heirlooms for her family, she saw a card in her pockets.
The card reads:
Jaeden "Twintails"The Marras
Intrigued by the card, she placed it back in her pocket and made sure that it stayed above the grave to signify that she's there. And as she continued her search, she then finally examined the bags that she was holding mere minutes ago.
She thought she was carrying gunpowder, as the smell is already evident enough, and after taking a peek inside the bags, the purely grey powder and the strong sulfur smell is proof that it's gunpowder.
Seeing a use for these bags, she mumbled an apology to the woman as she pocketed the bags to herself in her coats.
She had plans… but first… she had a body to bury.