episode_0033

During the week-long break, Asher would roll around aimlessly. He would lie down as if he had been liberated from all the laziness he had never experienced before.

The butler always stayed by Ashe’s side. If he tried to leave Ashe’s sight even for a little bit, Ashe would grab the butler and stop him.

The butler was worried that Arsent might notice him, and that even a close conversation would make him feel uneasy.

After much effort, the butler finally ended his break by exchanging a few words of greeting with Arsent. And now that the break was over, they were about to enter the third floor.

“Are you mentally prepared?”

“No, that didn’t work.”

“Huh?”

“How do you prepare yourself mentally? Isn’t it strange to be prepared when the danger is so obvious?”

“… That was a slip of the tongue.”

The butler pretended to clear his throat and changed the question.

“Are you willing to climb the stairs?”

Only then did Asher sigh heavily and reluctantly nod.

“… Yeah. I have to go.”

The butler listened to Asher’s soft answer. He was standing one step ahead of her and quietly extended his hand.

Ashe, who had difficulty understanding the other person’s intentions, tilted her head.

“What, what is it? Why are you suddenly reaching out… Are you going to escort me or something?”

“That’s right.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes.”

Oh my gosh, there’s so much going on.

The butler, who never cared about anything I did, offered to escort me. Where did this kindness come from? I began to have reasonable suspicions that he might be a ghost disguised as a butler.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll take it…”

“No!”

Turup!

Asher quickly clung to the butler. Opportunity was an opportunity, and he had to grab what he could.

“I was embarrassed. I was wondering why our blunt butler was acting like this.”

Asher was very excited. It was inevitable that she would add useless details.

“Do you finally see me as a woman, butler?”

Ashe’s surprise question, which was flirtatious, brought about disastrous results.

“…”

“Ah.”

Asher slowly lowered his gaze diagonally.

“No, just kidding… Of course, yeah.”

I saw a face I will never forget. I witnessed the sight of the butler’s face, whose expression rarely changed, distorting like a facial art.

I wanted to question how much of an unpleasant thing it must have been to hear someone so contorted their facial features like that.

The butler must have realized something too late, so he coughed in vain and added his words.

“The reason I recommended you to be an escort is… because this might be the last chance to show respect to Asher.”

“The last one? What do you mean?”

“… It’s early, but I think the time to choose has come for me.”

The butler was repeating nonsensical words. Asher strained his senses to figure out his intentions.

After that, the butler, who had been keeping his mouth shut for a while, opened his mouth again after a long silence.

“My choice is Asher, you.”

“Suddenly? You skipped the context of the conversation…!”

“I just want you to know.”

“No, don’t dismiss it like that. I know that what the butler is saying right now is very important. Then at least convey the correct meaning!”

Asher, feeling suffocated, persistently urged the butler. However, the range of things the butler could say to Asher was very limited. Therefore, the best the butler could do was to be as flexible as possible and convey the message indirectly.

“A lot has happened in a short period of time.”

“… That’s right.”

“I think you did a great job with something that was difficult to do with a clear mind. If I were in Ashe’s shoes, I would imagine how far I could go.”

“What would it be like if you imagined it?”

“I concluded that it would have been difficult for me because I lacked the talent. Above all, the case of Madame Mirelda was a trial that required facing original sin squarely and overcoming it head-on, so I think it would have been absolutely impossible for me.”

“Ahem ahem…”

Asher’s spirits soared as the praise poured in without warning. It was as if clouds were wrapping around his ankles and floating him up.

“I’m looking forward to it. What kind of life will Ashe live if she leaves the mansion? What kind of monarch will she be?”

“Butler, why are you so honest today? It’s embarrassing… Hehe.”

Asher pretended to scold the butler by tapping his arm. Of course, the butler paid no attention and continued talking calmly.

“… Perhaps, fate was decided from the moment Ashe chose to paint the portrait of Mirelda Neterto. That is why Ashe was chosen.”

“So what does it mean to say you chose?”

“That’s all I can tell you.”

Stop.

It was at a point where the stairs leading to the third floor were just in front of me. The butler’s footsteps suddenly stopped.

Soon after, the butler’s escort was naturally released, and a distance was created between Ashe and the butler.

“Oh my god.”

Crack, crack.

A loud footstep came from the other side. An exclamation that was annoying just hearing it was a bonus.

“Is it slowly going up?”

The identity of the approaching person was Arsent.

Asher suppressed her bad mood and answered in a feminine tone.

“Yeah, that’s right. The timing of the appearance is quite coincidental.”

“What a coincidence. Of course I was aiming for it. Two is better than one, and three is better than two, right?”

“This is a really great topic for a free rider.”

Arsent lightly laughed off the somewhat rude remark. Asher felt uncomfortable with her sister’s reaction.

Even when he first visited the mansion, Arsent had a sanguine personality. No, even when he was in the palace, he was so irritable that he abandoned many of his servants.

I am definitely not the type of person to just take insulting words and roll over them.

‘I’m sure… My personality has completely changed since I visited the painting called Demonic Realm.’

What kind of experience did someone have that completely changed their personality?

It didn’t change for the better, nor for the worse. If we had to be specific, it would be right to define it as changing in an unpleasant way.

As Asher’s worries deepened, Arsent spoke strangely.

“Aren’t you going to come up? Arcela.”

“… I’m going.”

Asher shook off his distracting thoughts and faced forward.

The high ground was close.

The mansion that was visible from the outside was a building of about four stories. It only looked huge because its own area was so large and the ceiling was particularly high. If you only consider the number of floors, it would be hard to see it as being that tall.

That means, if you pass this ordeal safely, you will face the final task.

… In addition, the mistakes the Empire has made in the past will also become clear.

From now on, you must brace yourself both physically and mentally.

“… Ugh.”

Not long after Asher made that pledge, he felt some of his resolve crumbling away.

“What is this smell? It smells bad…”

I had only climbed five or six steps, but the stench was so strong it numbed my nose.

‘But this stench, I think I’ve smelled it somewhere…?’

Asher was busy revisiting the past in his head. He would remember such a strong stench even if he didn’t want to. Something seemed to come to mind at any moment.

Just then, Arsent struck the player without a care.

“Aha, that’s the smell of a rotting corpse?”

“…!”

Only after hearing her sister’s impressions did Asher realize the true nature of her feeling of discomfort.

‘Haley…!’

The hunting dog, Hailey, who had appeared as a ghost. It was his scent. It was very similar to the strong smell of decay that emanated from a body with pieces of flesh torn off.

‘But how did you distinguish the smell of a rotting corpse?’

It wasn’t at the level of guesswork. I was so sure that I could clearly state that it smelled like a rotting corpse.

Arsent, who had never soiled his hands in the palace or the marquis’ house, could not possibly have smelled the stench of a rotting corpse.

‘Could this also be from the Demon Realm…?’

The doubts only grow.

I felt frustrated because no matter how much I urged, I only got empty answers.

Moreover, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the world was becoming more and more bizarre with each step I climbed, although it may have been my imagination.

As the evil sisters got closer to the third floor, the strangeness grew bigger and bigger.

[Save me!]

[I don’t want to die!]

There was crimson writing carved into the wall. Most likely, it was written in blood.

Wooden ornaments were invariably covered with human claw marks, and drops of blood were a common sight.

If there were no traces of life in any part of the mansion that had been passed so far, the traces left by humans were all too clear on the third floor. And those traces left by humans must have come from the process of slaughtering life.

[I should have killed that child.]

[Madam was right.]

[Black is the color of misfortune and death.]

[If only he hadn’t been there…]

Every wall, no matter where it was located, was painted in dirty blood-letter script.

Asher felt an incomparable sense of anxiety compared to the past.

The sense of alienation was further heightened by Arsent’s silent acceptance of this unrealistic sight.

“Butler…”

Asher instinctively looked for the butler. The butler was a man who would be two-faced even in such a sight. Seeing his blunt face seemed to calm his trembling heart.

However, the butler deliberately pushed Ashe’s small hand away.

“… Huh?”

At first, I thought it was a mistake. But the butler, who deliberately turned his back on Ashe and walked forward, seemed to insist that it was intentional.

A bad feeling began to creep up from a corner of Asher’s consciousness.