Chapter 49
How could the conversation jump to that? As Lottie gaped at her, looking like she’d heard the most absurd thing in the world, Mary got fired up instead, acting as if she were the one who had been deceived.
She went on and on about how if Lottie had come to read books, she should have just said so honestly, asking why she hid it and made people misunderstand—even wondering if the date spot was the library instead of the cathedral backyard….
‘So that’s why she followed me. To check out my fiancé’s face.’
Lottie laughed hollowly, seeing right through Mary’s intentions. She felt bad for Mary, but it couldn’t be helped. She really had come here because she wanted to see the cathedral’s collection.
“If you don’t believe me, come and see for yourself.”
“See what?”
“Come to the library with me and check with your own eyes. Whether I’m here to flip through pages, or if that’s just an excuse to flip through something else.”
“You want me to go into that damp underground library? No way! If I go in there, my fragile lungs will get clogged with library dust and I’ll die!”
Hmm. Watching that exaggeration reminded her of a certain someone at Blue Brick who claimed he’d die from a paper cut.
As Lottie shook off memories of her own dark past and turned away, Mary had no choice but to follow.
Well, it would be a nuisance if Mary actually followed her all the way to the library, but it didn’t matter. She really was here to find clues about the madness, and the ridiculous coincidence of running into Calyx here wouldn’t happen. So….
“……?!”
It happened. And right in front of her eyes?!
Lottie, who had been walking confidently, came to a dead stop when she spotted Calyx just as he was stepping out of the cathedral building. Consequently, Mary, who slammed her nose into Lottie’s back, let out a shriek.
“Ow!”
“Oh my. My friend is hurt because of me. I’m so sorry.”
“……?! What are you doing? Oh my, oh my!”
Lottie apologized haphazardly and pulled the back of Mary’s head firmly into her embrace. While she held the bewildered Mary tight to block her vision, she signaled frantically to Calyx behind them.
‘My friend knows your face! Go away quickly while I stall for time. Hurry!’
It would have been better if Lottie had recalled the memory of that day on the balcony—the time she almost burst from frustration due to a communication error while exchanging hand signals with Calyx.
If she had, she would have realized that the man was remarkably terrible at understanding silent signals and that she needed to keep them brief.
‘What? Why are you coming this way? Don’t come here! Go away! Shoo!’
Calyx, misinterpreting Lottie’s desperate gaze as a signal for ‘help,’ approached her in just a few strides with his long legs.
“Lottie.”
By the time he realized her desperate eyes meant for him to disappear quietly, it was already too late.
“Phew! I thought I was going to suffocate! Why are you suddenly acting like th—”
At that moment, Mary, who had broken free from Lottie’s arms, stopped mid-complaint.
Her gaze was fixed on the tall man standing over Lottie’s shoulder. With the sun at his back, the man appeared as little more than a silhouette.
“Th-this person is…”
“Let me introduce you, Mary.”
Lottie slowly stepped back from Mary. This left Mary standing face-to-face with the man who had been behind Lottie’s shoulder.
As her eyes adjusted to the sunlight, the man’s form, which had been nothing but a silhouette, gradually became clear. Mary’s pupils shook violently.
This man…. This man…!
“This is my fiancé, Mr. Stallion.”
He was wearing… a white cloth over his face.
Mary, looking back and forth between Calyx and Lottie with a stunned expression, realized that the cloth covering his face was the mass veil that had been on Lottie’s head. As Mary frowned, Lottie quickly added:
“Mr. Stallion has a very large boil on his face. He said he absolutely wanted to look presentable for you all. Please understand.”
Lottie’s mass veil was so densely embroidered that Calyx’s face was barely visible behind it. All she could distinguish was hair like gold thread and the fact that his eyes within their deep sockets were reddish-brown.
In that brief moment, Lottie felt relieved by her quick wit in throwing the veil over Calyx, while also feeling deep gratitude toward Susan for the dense embroidery.
“Didn’t you just say a moment ago, quite firmly, that you came to the library to read books?”
“Oh, you! Of course that was a lie! How could I say out loud that I came for a date? It’s embarrassing.”
Lottie laughed gaily and slapped Mary’s shoulder. Only Lottie herself knew how incredibly stiff her hand was.
Mary, peering intently behind the veil, spoke hesitantly.
“Hello…?”
Mr. Stallion seemed to deliberate for a moment, then gave a stiff nod. As he raised his head, the veil covering his face fluttered.
“Are you really the Crown Prince of Deisnoia?”
“Mary! Why would you ask something like that?!”
“I guess not. Seeing as he understands Matila so well.”
The counterargument that the Crown Prince of Deisnoia would have mastered every language on the continent to a native level came to mind, but Lottie swallowed the thought.
In any case, Mary knew Calyx’s face. The priority was to get him away before she made up her mind to pull the veil off.
“Well then, since we’ve been caught like this….”
Lottie carefully linked arms with Mr. Cloth—no, Mr. Stallion—and looked at Mary.
You know what I’m trying to say… right? Her eyes were saying exactly that.
Unable to withstand that piteous yet burdensome gaze, Mary yelled.
“You’re really too much! You know that?”
“Get home safely.”
“Hmph!”
Mary snorted and turned away. Lottie waved until she had completely disappeared from sight.
Whether he knew how much her heart was racing or not, Mr. Cloth whispered languidly.
“You should have just said you weren’t showing me because she might fall for my face.”
“Shut… Be quiet.”
When Lottie said she had come to read the books kept at the cathedral, Calyx insisted on accompanying her.
She explained that Mary knew his face and was persistent enough to hide and then jump out to rip off his veil, which finally convinced him to turn back.
After sending Calyx away, she entered the underground library, but even there, Lottie didn’t gain much of a harvest. If she had to pick something, it was learning that Lake Mofit, famous as a tourist attraction in Dempis, was created by a great flood in the past.
‘There’s too little information on the madness. Was the cause not something like a poisonous herb?’
Lottie returned to the castle covered head to toe in library dust.
As she trudged down the second-floor hallway to greet her father, she heard the sound of him speaking with someone. The sound was leaking from the half-open study door.
“I see. Have you found out anything about the deceased Mr. Britt?”
Mr. Britt was that man. The one who had reportedly murdered his wife in a fit of madness.
At her father’s question as he stood by the window, his shadow, Walter Hanson, bowed his head. It was an affirmation.
Lottie leaned against the doorframe and listened to their conversation. Perhaps she could find a hint for her investigation into the madness, which had felt like walking through a maze.
In a low voice, Walter Hanson began to relay the stories he had heard from the residents as accurately as possible.
Mr. Britt always had a bit of a delusional jealousy. Right before that disaster happened, it got exceptionally worse. He’d spout nonsense about his wife being involved with a demon and carrying a demon’s spawn, or about someone constantly insulting and mocking him.
Right, right. Everyone said so. That Mr. Britt was definitely seeing things. Hearing voices, too….
According to the residents’ testimonies, there were times when Mr. Britt felt like a completely different person. For instance, he would fluently use vocabulary he would normally never use, or devour foods he wouldn’t usually touch.
- Looking back, even his eyes were off. They were empty, like a dead man’s. It made my skin crawl from head to toe.
Then, one night.
Mr. Britt, having returned home, approached his wife who was snoring in the dark.
He lifted a sharp blade and stabbed his wife in the abdomen without hesitation.
If he had intended to end her life instantly, he could have aimed for a vital spot, but he avoided them and hacked at her body here and there.
The wife died wailing. Slowly, painfully.
It took a total of five grown men to drag that scrawny fellow away. He had the strength of a giant; we almost lost him.
That fellow, he laughed like a maniac as he was dragged out covered in blood. That was chilling enough, but what was even stranger were his eyes.
“His eyes?”
Her father, who had been listening silently to Hanson’s report, asked urgently. Lottie, who was eavesdropping, also swallowed hard.
Hanson replied.
“Mr. Britt’s eyes were originally a bark-like brown, but they say they turned blue immediately after he murdered his wife.”
It was likely no coincidence that Lottie’s thoughts flew to Calyx at that moment.
- Sister-in-law.
The man who had shot her dead while smiling more beautifully than anything in the world also had blue eyes, like those of a corpse.
The unbelievable story continued.
The residents said they had locked Mr. Britt in a warehouse until daybreak. The next morning, as soon as the sun rose, the residents who went to the warehouse were shocked. Mr. Britt was found dead, his entire body charred black like a piece of coal.
“Are you saying someone caused Mr. Britt’s death?”
“No, sir. There were no signs of a fire being set, and the warehouse was locked from all sides. Mr. Britt’s hands and feet were tied, so he couldn’t have set a fire himself.”
“Are you saying he spontaneously combusted…?”
At her father’s grave tone, Lottie also became serious.
‘A method that causes auditory and visual hallucinations, and ultimately leads the patient to their death.’
On top of that, a method that can change the eye color to an eerie blue, and can only be found here in Dempis.
‘Among those, there is no poisonous herb that makes the entire body burn to death like Mr. Britt.’
The direction of her investigation had been wrong from the start. While she was agonized by the thought that her efforts had been in vain, Lottie missed part of the conversation between her father and Hanson.
“The reason Mr. Britt became like that was… what?”
