episode_0176

“Priscilla. Priscilla. Wake up, how long are you going to sleep like that?”

I hear a longing voice. A kind and warm voice that I really want to hear.

When I slowly opened my eyes, I could see the cloudy sky even though the sun had risen. When I slowly closed my eyes and opened them, the familiar sight of the ceiling came into view.

I was looking up at the ceiling blankly, then slowly turned my head to the side. I made eye contact with my sister who was looking at me with a warm smile.

“Did you sleep well, our late sleeper?”

“Yes, sister.”

After that day, I gave up the seat next to my bed for my sister who said she didn’t want to sleep alone. This is a sight I see every morning.

Although I was a little tired after waking up not long ago, it wasn’t so much that I couldn’t move my body. I laid my body on my side and hugged my sister tightly.

Is it because the morning air is cold? My sister’s body was a little cold.

“It seems a little cold this morning?”

“Yes. So I want you to keep me warm.”

“That’s easy. It’s something I do every day.”

I smiled and hugged my sister with both arms and placed my face on the crook of her neck.

My sister’s body smelled like a fishy basement.

“Sister?”

I called my sister with my eyes closed, but she didn’t answer.

Ah, no. Please don’t do that. Please, let me ask you this.

“Sister.”

I called my sister again, and this time I opened my eyes and looked at her face.

My sister just looked at me with empty, corpse-like eyes. No, he wasn’t even looking at me.

Because you won’t be able to see anything in your eyes anymore.

* * *

The day is dawning. The long-awaited tomorrow has gone somewhere, and today’s morning, which I hoped would never come, has dawned.

When I slowly open my eyes, what I see is neither my sister’s face nor the familiar ceiling. It was a guest ceiling that made you feel stuffy just by looking at it.

“… … .”

also… … . It’s that dream again. The future I had hoped for ended up being invaded by cold reality. It is a terrible nightmare that forces me to face my sins.

I’ve been having the same dream for three days now. Even though the morning of the fourth day of staying in the same mansion as my sister dawned, I was not happy at all.

I knew that killing people and hoping for their happiness was greed, but the pain of having to watch my sister die in my dreams every morning was much greater than I thought.

And the fact that it was reality gave me a feeling of despair that was truly unimaginable.

“Sister… … .”

Feeling a creeping sense of guilt, my hand went to my bloody wrist.

When I felt the tip of my fingernail get caught on the tip of a scab, I was a little scared. I gritted my teeth and moved my hands.

Tsk, tsk, the scab that had barely sat down was torn off once again, and I felt a burning pain.

“Heh, heh… … .”

He scratched the skin on his wrist, making a sound that I couldn’t tell if he was crying or laughing, and trembled as he tore off the raw flesh underneath the scab with his fingernails.

okay. Because I am a bitch who deserves to die. It’s natural to suffer like this. This is a natural punishment. I feel like I want to die, but I have to say sorry to Charlotte and then die.

So, until then… … .

“… … .”

I looked down at my wrist, which was now covered in blood, and before the blood dripped onto the blanket, I got off the bed, opened the window, and used water magic to wash my bloody hand and wrist with water.

However, perhaps because I had cut my wrist too deeply a little while ago, the bleeding did not stop no matter how long I waited.

I could have used potions or healing magic, but I decided to leave it alone until the bleeding stopped on its own. I stuck my arm out the window and waited for the bleeding to stop.

“Ha… … .”

As I was sitting by the window waiting for the bleeding to stop, I saw someone walking from a distance.

At first it was hard to see because it was far away, but the other person kept coming this way. Thanks to that, I was able to find out who was coming towards me.

‘――My name is Terra Earningstone.’

“Investigator directly under the royal family… … !!”

Why are those two people here? Why on earth? Did you realize that I killed the matriarch of the Rochelle family? no. That can’t be possible. The poison I created was definitely not of a recognizable type.

There’s no evidence. There’s no reason. Why, why did you come here? for what reason?

From the moment I saw the investigator, my heart started pounding like crazy. It was difficult to breathe, and I was so dizzy that my eyes were spinning.

“It’s okay. It will be fine… … . Let’s calm down.”

I got down from the window as naturally as possible, closed it, and wrapped my wrist tightly with a clean cloth to stop the bleeding.

smart–

“Huh!?”

I was dumbfounded by the sudden knocking sound, but fortunately, the person on the other side of the door didn’t seem to hear me.

After trying to calm my trembling heart, I cleared my throat and opened my mouth.

“What’s going on?”

[I’m here to inform you that breakfast is ready. If necessary, I will prepare it separately and bring it to the room.]

“No, I’ll leave now.”

After lightly grooming myself, I opened the door and came out wearing a cleanly washed gown.

The butler I saw on the first day was waiting for me at the door.

“I will take you to the restaurant.”

I nodded to the butler’s words and tried to stay calm, repeating over and over again in my head that it would be okay.

However, such efforts were in vain, and in a corner of my mind, the worst hypotheses continued to be formed and collapsed repeatedly, complicating my mind.

“Arrived. I will bring you food right away when you come down, so please wait a moment.”

“Yes.”

After answering unconsciously, I came to my senses and found myself arriving at the restaurant before I knew it.

Let’s come to our senses… … . Maybe you didn’t come looking for me. If you get nervous and think it’s suspicious, you’ll be in trouble.

no… … . Do you have any trouble? … ? If I get caught by the investigators, I will pay for the crime I committed. Then wouldn’t we no longer have to suffer from guilt?

no… … . no. At least after I tell Charles the whole truth, I don’t know if I get caught after that, but not before that. I think I’ll feel a little more at ease if I at least admit my sin with my mouth.

But, when can I apologize? When does Charlotte wake up? Are you just going to wait? How are you going to hold on for so long?

As I was splitting into two groups in my head, screaming and fighting, a maid came up to me and whispered, breaking my thoughts.

“Master Arcien La Rochelle has arrived.”

Putting aside the worries that kept rising, I stood up and looked toward the door. Not long after, the door to the restaurant opened and a boy with light pink hair walked in.

The moment I saw the image of a boy who resembled that man, not my sister, the corners of my eyes fluttered as if the man, who must have been dead, came back to life and came to see me.

As I was trying to calm myself by looking behind the boy instead of at the boy, Sarah came in following the boy.

Sarah looked at me and smiled faintly, then bent down and showed the boy a piece of paper with something written on it.

“… … go? No――uh.”

The boy who saw the paper looked at Sarah and whispered something, but Sarah just looked at the boy with a small smile.

The boy, who was making eye contact with Sarah for a moment, soon erased the expression of unwillingness on his face, looked at me, and gave a light greeting.

“Hmm. nice to see you. Aunt. It is called Arcien La Rochelle.”

“Yes, nice to meet you. Arcien. My name is Priscilla de Arbel.”

boy… … . No, Arsien looked at Sera as if to say that was enough, and Sera smiled and looked at Arsien.

Arcien then went to his seat, and I sat down again after that.

Not long after we sat down, a person who appeared to be the head butler came in with a tray in tow.

“I brought you a meal.”

The meal time that started like that was very uncomfortable and frustrating.

All I could do was eat my food quietly, but I felt more frustrated and suffocated than when I was attending a faculty meeting.

As I was eating the prepared food, half-conscious, not even knowing where the food was going, I suddenly felt eyes on me, raised my head, and made eye contact with Sarah, who was smiling faintly.

‘Now, soon?’

Sarah said something with her mouth, but only the first two words were recognizable.

Soon… … ? What does it mean? I lowered my gaze again and ate my food, trying to find the meaning of Sarah’s words.

The word ‘soon’ means that something is coming to an end or something is beginning. And if you think about this like what Sarah said that day… … .

‘The real culprit is Master Arcien.’

As soon as my thoughts reached that point, a picture was drawn naturally. The royal investigator I saw this morning, Serah’s signal that he will be here soon, and even the statement that the real culprit is Arsien.

Could it be that the reason the investigator came here was not because of me but because of Arcien?

smart–

At that time, someone knocked on the restaurant door.

Since I knew that it was rare for a nobleman to knock on the door while eating, except under very special circumstances, I was able to guess who this knock was from.

‘I’m an investigator.’

Sure enough, the person who opened the door and came in was Earnings Stone and his junior investigator, whom he had seen at the academy.

“Ah, excuse me.”

“Sorry during the meal.”

The first to react was the head butler who brought the food.

“You came in like this without permission. You seem to lack manners. How dare you know where this place is? And what were the knights doing until these guys came in? Rather, who brought these people here?”

The person who answered the deacon’s question was the head maid who followed the investigator.

“I brought it in.”

“Chief Maid Liev… … !”

The head maid looked at the two investigators without saying a word, and the two investigators nodded and took out the eyes of the sun, the symbol of investigators under the royal family, from their arms and spoke.

“This is Terra Earningstone, a royal investigator.”

“Similarly, it is Sinaera, an investigator directly under the royal family.”

After introducing himself, Earningstern took a step forward and spoke.

“In addition to the Gaju poisoning incident, I came here because of several other incidents… … . Please cooperate.”

Master Arcien La Rochelle.