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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 76
Chapter Title: The Fake Garden
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I gathered myself and headed for the garden.
The garden was lavishly landscaped.
Even if I hadn't heard that Cheshire had come this way, I think it would have stopped me in my tracks.
Gaudily vibrant flowers swayed gently in the wind, but something about them felt unnatural.
Like a shirt buttoned wrong, they seemed out of place with the surrounding scenery.
Without asking for permission, I crept into the garden.
Wh-who said they could treat the Young Lord's wife like an afterthought? It's my job to run all over the place at this age!
As I walked down the narrow path between the flowers, an unusually thick and potent floral scent enveloped me.
It was comparable to the smell of alcohol that had filled the Fairy Jewel Shop.
“Cheshire? Are you here?”
There was no reply.
Had he already gone somewhere else?
But it felt like a waste to just turn back.
Recalling the scene from the Waning Moon Forest, I nudged some of the dirt with the toe of my shoe.
When I pushed away the thin layer of damp, brown earth, the ground's true state was revealed.
“...It's pitch-black here, too.”
But why are the flowers perfectly fine?
I tilted my head and grasped a flower.
Huh, it's a fake flower.
They were artificial flowers, so elaborately made that even flowers of the same type had different leaf shapes and scent concentrations.
I touched every flower I could reach.
Not a single one was real.
I was so dumbfounded I couldn't even blink.
Just then, Sabrina's head bobbed in and out of view beyond a moss decoration, as if she were following the path I had taken.
Sabrina had her maids in tow.
Worried that Rebecca might get into trouble, I quickly hid the doll.
Soon, Sabrina spotted me, her eyes widening.
“I thought a little rat had snuck in, but it was the Young Lord's wife.”
As if she didn't follow me here knowing it was me.
Sure enough, Sabrina looked me up and down, as if searching for something else to pick a fight about.
I was about to retort but suddenly felt a surge of indignation.
Sabrina was more than two hands taller than me.
Even considering the age difference, it was frustrating.
I've been eating just as well as Sabrina lately!
Sabrina deliberately bent down to ask me.
“Young Lord's wife, what are you doing here? It's quite suspicious, seeing you wandering around alone.”
I rolled my eyes.
—Now is the time for the virtue of enduring injustice.
Thanks for the advice back then, Mr. Guard.
But my father-in-law is here today, so I'll try to endure a little less.
I ignored Sabrina's provocation and asked what I was curious about.
“Why aren't there any real flowers here?”
Sabrina's eyebrows shot up.
“That's up to the gardener.”
“It seems you have a terrible gardener.”
At that, Sabrina flared up.
“What's wrong with it? You can control the scent, and it's so convenient because it doesn't attract bugs!”
For a moment, I thought that Viscount Rose, who despises bugs, might like this, but I quickly shook the thought away.
Sabrina fumed.
“You have no idea how much money my dad spent on this garden!”
“...”
Of course I don't know... And I don't care...
Seeing my unenthusiastic expression, Sabrina gritted her teeth and provoked me.
“Ah, now that I think about it, you really wouldn't know how a castle of this size is run, would you, Young Lord's wife? I heard about it when I was in the capital. They said Count Mayol didn't even treat his second daughter like a person. Since you haven't learned anything, I doubt it's much different at the duchy.”
I just found it fascinating how Sabrina was a textbook example of flying off the handle.
Why does she hate me so much?
“Are you doing this to me because the Young Lord rejected you in the past?”
As if it were an unexpected question, Sabrina's face instantly turned bright red.
“Who got rejected by whom! I'm the one who would refuse a monster like that!”
...This, I don't feel like enduring.
How long do I have to just stand here and listen to people call Kivrin a monster?
When I tilted my head, Sabrina flinched.
The maids also seemed frightened, just like Rebecca earlier.
“M-My lady, please calm down.”
“She is still the Young Lord's wife. Please...”
But the prideful Sabrina shook off her maids' hands.
“Th-The duchy's success is only temporary. He said that even the vassals who bad-mouthed my dad will be hitting the ground in regret later!”
Sabrina spun around and stormed away.
A sudden stinging pain in my chest made me furrow my brow.
What's wrong with me? Could it be because I'm angry at Sabrina?
Rebecca's reaction earlier wasn't normal, either.
As a strange sense of unease washed over me, Viscount Rose's warning suddenly came to mind.
—Anyway, if by some chance someone bullies you, go tattle to Kivrin or your amazing in-laws. Don't you get angry. If your supernatural ability manifests unconsciously, it won't end on a light note, you hear? It's one thing for you to get hurt, but your surroundings will be annihilated.
A cold sweat formed on my palms.
N-No, I have no intention of getting revenge with Del's ability! Calm down, body!
I sank to the ground and took deep breaths repeatedly.
In my mind, the conversations I'd had with Viscount Rose replayed at high speed, like a rewinding tape.
—You really are miraculously weak. It would be a problem even if we undid the sealing spell. That body of yours wouldn't be able to handle it and would shatter.
—Sh-Shatter?!
—I'm just saying that's how it is in your current state, so don't worry. Anyway, that pitiful body of yours will grow, won't it? ...It will grow, right?
Viscount Rose had said that Cheria's body was a vessel that couldn't accept Del.
Because this body is only eleven years old, and Del's ability is the result of an incredibly long accumulation of power.
That's why he'd speculated that even when Del foresaw her own death and reincarnation, she deliberately used the inefficient method of entrusting it to Jaehae.
—Then, what if it were Kivrin? Could he handle Del's ability?
—Are you and that kid the same? If you set the standards very broadly, Del at least falls into the category of human. He, on the other hand, is not.
—But the Young Lord is the Duchess and Duke's child.
—I told you, he's not. That's still true now.
Setting aside the fact that Kivrin was an extraordinary being from birth, I couldn't help but feel a sense of urgency.
If Sabrina were to come back, something might happen that couldn't be solved even with a blank check.
I managed to pull myself to my feet.
“I've calmed down. Sabrina must have a good side to her, even if it's the size of a grain of rice, so I won't use my ability. I'd rather just kick her.”
I repeated the mantra, which was close to self-hypnosis, as I went deeper into the garden.
It seemed to be working, as the pain gradually subsided.
Before I knew it, the flower path had disappeared, and I was in a space overgrown with trees and vines.
My small frame would be easily hidden here.
But there was no sign of anyone.
Without much expectation, I called out.
“Cheshire? You're not here either?”
The garden was silent, as if I were the only living thing within it.
Ugh, I give up on finding Cheshire. I can't move anymore.
I stopped walking and lay down on the ground.
As I lay there gasping for breath, I felt no breeze to cool my face.
...What is this?
And there was something else strange.
Like the flowers, the trees and vines were all fake, but they had no scent at all.
Unlike the flowers, which were so exquisite they seemed enchanted, these reeked of being fake even at a glance.
Just as I was trying to slowly grasp the situation, I heard the murmuring of voices.
“...You don't think they noticed, do you?”
“Don't say such unlucky things. They said that monster came to repay a debt from last time, right? We just have to get through one day.”
Are they talking about Kivrin and Menelik?
Stop with that damn 'monster' talk... Ah, no, let's not get angry right now.
“Besides, the one who should be worried about getting caught is the marquis, not us. Even if that guy gets captured, we can just run for it.”
“...I guess so?”
I rolled onto my side and hid in the fake bushes.
It seemed they weren't very close, as the men's voices grew more distant.
“By the way, wasn't this place originally decorated with artificial flowers for show? Why has it turned into a haunted forest?”
“How should I know? Thanks to this, the entrance is about to be exposed, so hurry up and erase the traces.”
Haunted forest? An entrance?
I lifted my head to see where the two were going.
Following them alone would only cause worry, so I just memorized their direction and then checked the path I had come from.
“Huh.”
As if harvested all at once with a sharp sickle, all the flower heads had fallen off.
Only the stems remained, standing ramrod straight at the same height, making it feel like I had entered a space made of green awls.
