Arthur and Malinda entered through the Manor's main doors.
They passed through the corridor and living room, then headed up the spiral staircase to the second floor-the Manor was steeped in the style of the Silver Age, with its emphasis on opulent grandeur.
Or, perhaps, extravagance.
Arthur could easily make out the remnants of gilding on the staircase.
Without anyone to maintain it, however, that gilding had long since become patchy.
Moreover, Arthur was certain this had not happened in the short time since Baron Kemail's death. It had begun much earlier.
Just like the equally faded oil paintings on the walls.
"Did the decline begin during the Seven-Year War?"
Arthur murmured to himself.
"The Kemail Family was already showing signs of decline toward the end of the Silver Age.
Back then, Baron Kemail's father, like his grandfather, never awakened his bloodline.
The same was true of Baron Kemail himself.
With three generations failing to awaken their bloodline, the entire Kemail Family began to teeter on the brink.
To ensure the Kemail Family's long-term survival, Baron Kemail's father had no choice but to engage in certain 'resource exchanges' with other nobles in South Los, securing the family's continued existence in return.
He even hoped to change the Kemail Family's desperate circumstances through a marriage alliance.
Unfortunately...
Some things simply can't be avoided."
With her cigarette holder between her lips, Malinda exhaled a plume of smoke.
The smoke drifted forward, brushing past the oil portraits of the Kemail Family's ancestors.
Seven in all.
The men in the portraits looked either valiant or elegant, making it easy to imagine how magnificent they had been in their prime. Yet the battered frames dragged everything back to reality.
What was gone was long gone.
It could not be changed, only...
Replaced.
"Do you think