Chapter 16: The woman in the mansion
Ivy had decided that the best way to find Soul Edge (or to do anything, in fact) was to gather information.
So she headed to the library in search of some books about weapons, but she didn't find anything useful.
Then she had an idea. If her father had been looking for Soul Edge for so long, there had to be some information at their home.
She examined every corner of the Valentine mansion. She found no great thing, but she did find a clue to follow. It was a small piece of parchment which had an address written on it with her father's handwriting along with the words "Soul Edge".
Ivy decided to go to that place.
...
When Ivy arrived there, she felt quite uncomfortable.
It was on a street outside the city. An isolated, dirty and deserted street, with no homes on it…but one.
At the end of the street there was a huge mansion, although it seemed to be abandoned.
That mansion was the place where she had to go.
An uneasy but determined Ivy headed to the gate and used the knocker.
After waiting for some seconds, the door was opened.
An old woman came out of the mansion. She didn't seem to know very much about weapons.
- Who are you? – asked the woman.
- My name is Isabella Valentine. I'd like…
- Valentine? You are Lord Valentine's daughter, aren't you?
- Yes, I am. You'll see, I…
- I'm sorry but I can't help you. Your father already got us into trouble enough when he was alive. Now that he's dead, I'd like to forget everything about that sword at once.
- But...
- Good evening, miss. – said the woman before slamming the door.
Ivy didn't know what to do. She needed to know what that woman had to do with Soul Edge, but she didn't seem to be willing to help her.
She decided to go back home and to do what she was best at: thinking.
Ivy stayed awake for hours that night, trying to find a way to get information from that woman.
Finally, she thought that missing hours of rest wouldn't help her, so she went to bed
However, something happened which would spoil any plan Ivy could have devised.
...
The next morning, Ivy went back to the woman's mansion to try to talk with her again.
It was too late..
This time, when she arrived at the street where the woman lived, Ivy was surprised to see that it wasn't deserted. On the contrary, there were a lot of people gathering around the mansion.
Ivy made her way through the crowd to see what had happened.
When she finally managed to do it, what she saw made her shudder.
The authorities were bringing a stretcher out of the mansion, which had a bloodstained dead body on it. It was the old woman.