Chapter 36
In that moment, Catherine’s reaction was more honest than it had ever been. Even without words, he had his answer.
A smile played on Calyx’s lips.
“I could have kept my mouth shut. I could have continued acting like a clueless layabout as I always have… and perhaps met a relatively comfortable death compared to the weight of my sins.”
Calyx took a step closer. His voice was so excessively soft that, for a heartbeat, it made him feel like an ally.
The revelation that this was a complete illusion came the next instant, as his face hardened into a mask of ice.
“There is only one reason I didn’t.”
“…….”
“Charlotte.”
As if to signify that while everything else could be a joke, this alone was not, a clear voice of warning followed.
“Don’t touch her. It was enough that she nearly lost her life once because of your moron son. Stop trying to tie her down to the capital, stop trying to blackmail her using her father as leverage, and stop the background investigations. Stop all of it.”
“……!”
“There won’t be another warning. Unlike some people, I don’t know how to negotiate using weaknesses.”
“How dare you……!”
Unable to contain her fury, Catherine swung her hand. But before it could even get near his face, it was caught in Calyx’s large hand.
Staring calmly at the struggling Catherine, he spoke in a low voice.
“Try to make me go mad like back then. Because this time, the one who dies by my hand will be your precious son.”
Catherine’s body jolted. For a fleeting moment, a blue light seemed to flash within his reddish-brown eyes.
Having said his piece, Calyx released Catherine’s hand as if throwing it away and began to walk.
He stopped in front of the door, looking as though he were confident he could walk out into the hallway without being caught.
“Remember the time I appeared in the secret room of the Grand Banquet Hall two months ago.”
“……What?”
“Death is closer than Your Majesty thinks.”
His parting gift was a boyish smile. After giving her that playful grin, he quickly opened the door and vanished.
Now truly alone, Catherine gripped the side table to keep herself from collapsing.
She tried to process what that insolent wretch had said, and wondered if she should punish the guards who had allowed him to sneak into the Queen’s bedroom.
Amidst the swirling thoughts, her eyes fell upon the box on the side table. It was the box she hadn’t been able to open due to Calyx’s interruption.
With a trembling hand, she lifted the lid and pulled back the velvet lining.
“…….”
A crudely shaped piece of amber with a reddish tint lay in the corner of the box.
— It was strange. Why did it look like the jewel was sucking in the blood at that moment?
If that man had been more certain of his irrational hypothesis, this would be in his hands by now.
She took the jewel out of the box.
The texture felt as filthy to her palm as ever. It was because she knew it was a parasite that fed on the blood of living humans.
She started to squeeze it tight, then stopped.
It wasn’t just because of the chilling warning that he would kill her son if she drove him mad again.
— In truth, you couldn’t kill me, could you? Because ‘someone’ behind Your Majesty wants me alive.
— Do not kill him. The Prince’s life. That is sufficient payment for lending my strength to the Princess.
As voices that sounded as if all emotion had been bleached from them overlapped in her mind, Catherine had no choice but to scream uncontrollably.
Attendants rushed in at the sound. Among the slow-moving servants was her aide, Frostis.
“Frostis! Chancelot……. Bring him here this instant. Now!”
Lottie was diagnosed with somnambulism. It was a result she had somewhat expected.
“There are reports that sleepwalkers can carry out conversations or simple daily activities as usual. However, riding a carriage for a long time or wandering around a place they’ve never been to as if it were their own home……. Well. It is difficult to give a definitive answer at this time.”
The doctor’s vague response was also expected.
Dreams that felt like glimpses into the future, auditory hallucinations, and visions.
To explain the unbelievable things happening to her on a logical level, this was the only path for now. Even if Lottie’s consciousness had been far too clear at the time to simply dismiss it as sleepwalking.
Contrary to Isabel’s concerns, Lottie no longer showed symptoms of somnambulism.
As she spent her days busily, the memory of that day became as distant as a midsummer night’s dream.
Time flowed like water, and the day to return to Dempis was fast approaching.
Blue Brick, which had been filled with the traces of its tenant, returned to the same hollow state it had been in when they first entered the mansion.
Most of the luggage had been sent ahead by courier, so on the day of departure, they would only need to carry small handbags.
“So many frantic things have happened. I want to leave this dreadful place as soon as possible.”
Isabel said, sitting by the drawing room window. Her eyes were narrowed tightly, perhaps because of the increasingly intense sunlight.
“I feel the same way, Great-Aunt, but shouldn’t we at least see the fireworks on the final night before we go?”
At Lottie’s bright suggestion, Isabel, who had been leaning back in her armchair, snapped her head toward her grandniece as if she’d been burned. It seemed the nightmares of the past were threatening to resurface.
Recalling the incident where the child who had vanished in the middle of the night was found in the center of that horrific scene at Roy-John, Isabel shook her head.
“No. If we stay to watch the fireworks tonight, we won’t be able to leave at the scheduled time tomorrow. Besides, haven’t we sent off most of the luggage? You don’t even have clothes to change into, let alone dress up.”
“Changing from the morning train to the late-night train doesn’t change the fact that we’re leaving this tedious place, Great-Aunt. And do I really need to dress up to go out? The darkness of the night sky will hide my bare face.”
Regardless of her great-aunt’s face turning increasingly pale, Lottie continued to chatter.
“I can just borrow clothes from the maids. Once the fireworks start, we’ll be rubbing shoulders with people for hours, so wouldn’t comfortable clothes be better than a dress that’s just pretty and inconvenient?”
“Lottie.”
“We don’t know when we’ll be back once we leave. I understand how you feel, but please let us see them. Yes?”
Lottie’s last words swayed Isabel’s heart significantly. It was because she guessed the meaning behind the words that they might not return for a long time.
The spring social season was a matchmaking ground prepared for young, unmarried men and women.
If one felt too embarrassed to show their face again after completing the three-year term, or if they intended to find a match through a separate intermediary, they would have no reason to set foot in the capital again.
Isabel understood her grandniece’s words to mean the latter.
‘In truth, it’s neither the former nor the latter.’
Ultimately, Isabel allowed the fireworks viewing, albeit with several conditions attached.
The maids, who had been feeling down as well, excitedly prepared for the outing.
Though the clothes they would put on the young lady would be incomparably plain compared to what she usually wore, they insisted they couldn’t neglect her grooming and brought in all sorts of flowers and cosmetics.
“I know a great spot for the fireworks! It’s incomparable to the crowded Grand Park. We’ll be able to enjoy it quietly by ourselves!”
When the youngest maid shouted confidently, the group grew excited without exception. Even Isabel, who had opposed the fireworks, seemed secretly expectant.
Their expectations were cruelly crushed when they reached the hillside, which, contrary to the maid’s confident words, was swarming with people.
If Grand Park was the famous fireworks spot for nobles, this seemed to be the spot for commoners.
Seeing the sea of commoners, Isabel got angry and tried to turn back. Lottie was only barely able to hold her back by making the excuse that her legs ached.
A celebratory shot rang out, signaling the start of the fireworks.
“…….”
The people were lost in the sight of the beautiful, multi-colored fireworks bursting in the air.
In the midst of them, Lottie thought alone about what came next.
‘When I return to Dempis, I must first investigate how to induce madness.’
A reply had come to the letter she sent to her father previously.
As expected, he said that among the residents who had suffered from madness so far, only two had a family history. Even then, their symptoms were significantly different from those of their ancestors.
— Are you saying there is a way to intentionally induce madness? That it is related to my homeland, and that Padrick tried to marry me to get his hands on that method?
She now believed the story she once thought impossible.
A series of events had occurred, and above all, wasn’t her own current existence proof that nothing was impossible?
For she, who had departed this life after being shot, was alive and well, having returned to ten years before her marriage.
‘A way to intentionally induce madness.’
Whatever that unknown thing was, it was related to Dempis, and Padrick intended to inherit Dempis through marriage to her to claim that method.
Even if she didn’t yet know what he planned to plot by obtaining it, she had to stop him. Of that much, she was certain.
‘I must protect the family and the estate. To avoid repeating the past where everything was taken from me.’
To do that, she had to know more than what the vile Redbreezes knew.
‘Once I return to Dempis, I probably won’t have the leisure I have now.’
To prove to her father that her claim to inherit the family was not empty talk, she would have to study harder than ever.
‘I won’t say “can I do it” anymore. I will make it happen. I will believe as I want to believe.’
With a fierce roar, fireworks painted the night sky yellow.
Counting the dots scattering like stars, Lottie recalled the past three months in Ronvernon.
Rejecting her ex-husband who tried to seduce her.
Matching Andrew with his wife, and being pointed at as the temptress of Matila.
Not yielding to that and finally winning her freedom from her ex-husband, and…….
There was a man she had saved with her own hands.
It still didn’t feel quite real. The secret of the auditory hallucinations and visions she experienced that day remained unsolved.
Still, she couldn’t deny that the achievement of that day had instilled a great deal of confidence in her.
It didn’t mean she fully trusted him, but yes, it was true that she felt a certain degree of gratitude. It was also true that she was curious about the man named Calyx Valdea and wanted to trust him a little more.
As the memory of those yearning eyes staring at her surfaced, Lottie shook her head violently as if she’d been burned.
It was a strange feeling. Her chest felt somewhat tight near the left side for no reason.
‘He was sentenced to exile. That man isn’t here anymore.’
Still, did he really leave without even a word of goodbye? Just as a sense of hollow disappointment was about to wash over her, a commotion broke out in the crowd. There was no time for other thoughts as she was jostled and pushed around.
“Whoa……!”
The moment she tried to find her group, from whom she had been briefly separated, someone slammed hard into Lottie’s shoulder.
As her balance crumbled, the world flipped upside down in an instant.
‘I’m falling……!’
