Chapter 16
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He was an outsider who would be leaving in fifteen days.
Besides, even if the Grand Duke suspected her of stealing, he couldn't directly question the Princess.
It would escalate into a political issue.
'He might not even notice in the first place.'
It was a precious jewel worth his life, but the Grand Duke probably had so many that they were practically lying around.
That's why it was stuck away in a warehouse like this.
'Alright, let's do it.'
Zeke decided to test the Princess's reaction.
He started with something small.
At first, it was inconspicuous supplies.
'She doesn't notice.'
Since there was no reaction at all, he then moved on to the Wormbella Root.
It was the perfect herb to tamper with.
It was quite valuable, so he could make a decent amount of money, and even if he got caught, he had a way out by claiming another servant made a mistake.
He glanced sideways to gauge the Princess's reaction.
She was too busy chatting with that dim-witted maid.
'She doesn't know.'
She hadn't noticed at all.
'Well, I've been fooling the Grand Ducal family for ten years, what would a Princess who doesn't know the ways of the world know?'
He was convinced.
He was certain that it was time to steal the real thing.
'If I can just get my hands on that silver-decorated box...'
A luxurious small box with a subtly shining white jewel embedded in it.
It was an item that looked expensive at a glance.
'Even if I just took the jewels on the outside and sold them, I could live comfortably for the next few years.'
Zeke had no idea what the hidden meaning of that box was, nor did he intend to find out.
Only one thing mattered.
The place where that item was stored was the most poorly guarded place in the entire estate right now.
He had already figured out the Princess's daily routine.
She would be in bed by now.
Moreover, the study was quite far from the bedroom, so the chances of her waking up from a noise were extremely low.
'Now's the time.'
Zeke carefully approached the back door of the annex. Then, he took out a thin needle and inserted it into the doorknob.
Click—
The lock opened easily.
Zeke carefully pushed the door open and stepped inside.
Thanks to the lubricant he had applied in advance, there was no creaking sound from the old hinges.
The candle was extinguished in the dark room.
Only the faint moonlight illuminated his silhouette.
With practiced movements, he scanned the room.
A small chest of drawers next to the sofa in the study.
His heart was pounding.
It was right here.
He reached out and quietly pulled the drawer handle.
'Finally...'
Click.
It opened.
At that moment, Zeke's pupils shook.
"...What."
The drawer was empty.
It was so clean that there wasn't even a speck of dust.
"That can't be... it was definitely..."
Zeke instinctively knew that something was wrong.
But it was already too late.
A chilling voice cut through the silence from right behind him.
"Looking for this?"
He felt like his heart stopped.
Slowly turning around, a shadow emerged from the moonlight.
It was Odelia.
She was standing there holding the decorated box that Zeke had been trying to steal.
In the unlit room, in the darkness where only moonlight seeped in, her piercing blue eyes shone with a frightening clarity.
Her gaze was surprisingly calm, and she stared straight at Zeke, as if she had been waiting for this moment for a long time.
Zeke tried to turn and run.
But before he could, an icy voice pierced his back.
"You'd better stop, Zeke."
He thought he heard his heart plummet.
'Damn it, how does she know my name...'
Cold sweat ran down his cheeks.
The air became heavy, suffocating.
And at that moment.
'Just as I thought, he showed up.'
Odelia glared at the thief in front of her, no, the murderer, as if he were a piece of irredeemable trash.
In her previous life, he had broken into this room on the day he stole the Wormbella Root.
And he killed Leona.
Because he was caught trying to steal something, he strangled her neck like a cornered beast.
'She went to boil water for me because I was coughing...'
The child who never came back, no matter how long she waited.
The memory of that night, when she was anxiously searching for her, was as vivid as if it had happened yesterday.
That's why she had been waiting for tonight.
Before the same tragedy could be repeated, before someone else's breath could stop.
She had to end this cycle.
"Isn't ten years enough?"
"How did you...!"
At those words, the color drained from Zeke's face.
How could the Princess, who had only arrived recently, know about that?
'If this gets out... my life. No, my life is over!'
And his eyes changed.
The thief's face revealed the nature of an ugly beast.
"The rumors about you being sickly... they were true."
Zeke muttered as he took a step closer.
A strange expression mixed with bluff and fear.
But Odelia didn't react.
Her lack of reaction made Zeke even more uneasy.
"Right, this is the North... and it's cold outside... if your heart gives out, you'll be gone soon enough..."
He began to mumble to himself, looking at the air.
"A sudden death is perfectly possible in the North's deadly cold. No one will think it's strange... if you're found collapsed and dead in the snow, it's just an accident."
Odelia narrowed her eyes and watched him.
His eyes were completely gone.
"If you just disappear quietly. Yeah, then I'll live and nothing will happen... you just have to die!"
Zeke lunged at Odelia with a face as if possessed by an evil spirit.
His trembling hand slashed through the air towards her neck.
In Zeke's eyes, fear, anger, despair, and madness were mixed together.
But Odelia didn't take a single step back.
She simply stared straight at him with deeply sunken eyes.
And she extended one finger—
And tapped him on the forehead.
That was all.
But at that moment.
"Kuaaaaagh—!!"
Zeke collapsed with a scream.
He writhed on the floor, tearing at his hair, twisting his body, and screaming.
"So this... actually works."
Odelia muttered softly.
It was her attack ability that she had discovered through Ludville's memories.
The side effects of magical backlash, the undetonated poison, the pain of the illness that weighed on her heart, the Demonic Energy that distorted her senses...
Odelia transferred 'that pain' that she experienced several times a day directly into the other person's nervous system.
In other words, it meant that they would feel the pain that Odelia had been experiencing while using her Purification ability.
Ludville called this 'Sense Transference.'
She couldn't experiment directly, so she had been studying alone for several days, recalling the images in his memory, and tonight was her first practical application...
Fortunately, it was a success.
'Is this the limit for now?'
She had only manifested it once, but she could feel her stamina dropping rapidly.
Perhaps it was because she was operating her magic in a different way than her original Purification ability.
Her shoulders trembled slightly, but Odelia straightened her back and didn't break her posture.
She couldn't show a disheveled appearance.
'It will be so painful that you'll want to beg to be allowed to die.'
She would feel her insides twisting, her bones being crushed, her nerves being severed, and poison flowing through her veins.
She had to hurt that much.
Leona, that child, would have died alone in the cold and fear.
