Chapter 30
30
I stared intently at the wound, and she gave an awkward laugh, saying, "Ah..."
"Is it ugly?"
"......"
Leah, even though I wasn't crying, fidgeted and left to get medicine.
"Shall we continue the lesson? This tower was built three hundred years ago, and the Duke of that time built it to honor his ancestors..."
It was a strangely shaped spire.
It didn't seem to be built for lodging or any particular purpose, but simply as a symbol.
Inside, there were only stairs, and no separate rooms. There wasn't even a magic-powered lamp, just a torch stand.
"Wow!"
"Would you like to go up?"
"Yes!"
Seria chuckled as she watched me hop up the stairs.
"Why?"
"It reminds me of children like my younger siblings."
"Seria must have been a good older sister."
"Not really."
"No, you were."
I looked back at Seria as I climbed the stairs.
"You even killed a noble for those kids."
"......!"
Her face hardened.
Checkmate.
'I hoped it wasn't you.'
The evidence is the scar that looks like it was branded on her instep.
I saw it at the slave auction. All the slaves had the same mark on their insteps.
'The man who tried to attack me had it on his instep too.'
And Seria has a Noxian accent.
Noxstone, the border region where most immigrants are captured.
"The dead noble was actually a slave trader. Seria, you were a slave sold by that noble."
The dead noble didn't take in the elderly and weak to help them. It was to sell them as slaves.
Since Seria was a slave raised by that noble, she was able to break into the mansion alone. She would know the structure well.
"How... how did you know..."
Seria, who was looking at me with trembling eyes, burst into a hollow laugh.
"It seems you heard it from Duke Dubled. I didn't think I could hide it for long, but I was found out sooner than I expected."
I rolled my eyes.
'Thank goodness. She's misunderstanding on her own.'
I had prepared an excuse, though.
"That's right. He was a man who deserved to die."
"......"
"No one knew he was such a person. Not even the children who were sold as slaves."
Seria clenched her fist tightly.
"Those children, who knew nothing, must have been waiting for him to save them even after they were sold. ...Just like me."
"......"
"But I was lucky. I was smart, so I worked in his mansion. Because of that, my adolescence passed, and I was sold later than the other children, and I realized his damned nature earlier."
Seria said she escaped desperately.
She rushed to the facility to save the children, but many had already been sold.
"The children who weren't suitable for sale were brutally..."
Seria trailed off.
So, I understand why she killed the noble.
'But why did she come to Dubled of all places?'
Seria knelt down in front of me.
"Little Miss, prospective administrators like me cannot meet the Duke. Please, please, help me meet him."
I was startled and said.
"Gongzhanmi will kill Seria!"
Did she think someone with no blood or tears would spare her because she had a sad past?
He'd hand her over to the security forces, saying, 'There was a fly in my castle.'
"His subordinate is here. I have to find my siblings who were sold."
"What?"
"I heard it from another subordinate. I don't know why, but he definitely said he would enter Dubled."
In that moment, the things that had been bothering me came to mind.
The way he looked at me.
How he especially liked children.
How he measured the length of my hand at a glance.
"Jacob..."
It was when I muttered that.
"How did you know?"
A clumsy voice came from below the stairs.
It was when Seria flinched and looked up. He rushed up in an instant and grabbed her neck.
"Cough...!"
Then, without a shred of regret, he dropped her down the stairs.
Thud!
Dark red blood pooled around Seria, who had fallen down the high stairs.
Jacob looked at me.
"Huh? How did you know?"
I bit my lip tightly.
This tower I'm in now is very far from the main castle. It was an area that knights didn't patrol well because it was just a symbol.
That's why I said I'd go into the tower because there was no one around.
I needed a space to talk to Seria, and I was sure she would never attack me.
Jacob slowly approached.
"Aren't you going to talk?"
I didn't answer and took a step back.
Jacob groaned, "Hmm," and tilted his head.
"I was told to bring the guest without damaging her... Too bad. I won't get the full price."
I glared at him as he muttered in a very regretful tone.
'If I regress this time, I'll kill you first.'
But what's the best way to die without hurting too much?
Should I fall from the tower?
Should I bite my tongue?
'Damn it, I have to die before I get caught.'
Jacob's 'guest' who told him to bring me is definitely a crazy pervert, so the most dangerous thing is to lose my mind after being caught.
'Falling to my death is the best option after all.'
I quickly ran towards the window, but Jacob was faster.
He grabbed my collar and said.
"It'll be fun to play with you since you're so lively."
That's when it happened.
"What are you doing?"
I heard a familiar voice.
'Leah!'
Uni was behind her.
I hurriedly shouted.
"Run away!"
Two women wouldn't be able to beat an adult man.
Above all, judging from the way Jacob dropped Seria down the stairs earlier, he was a skilled assassin who was good at this kind of thing.
It would be more troublesome if those two died together trying to protect me.
But the two didn't move.
Just as I was about to shout again to run away.
Leah, who had strongly kicked the ground with one foot, closed the distance in an instant. She was much faster than Jacob.
Jacob twisted his body towards Leah. However, Leah leaped up and spun in the air, grabbing his shoulder and wrapping her legs around his neck.
"Kuh...!"
Jacob's temples bulged with blood vessels, and his face turned completely red, as if he couldn't breathe.
Then, Leah hooked her leg around the wall and swung it around.
Jacob let go of me and fell to the floor.
Because of that, I rolled around and hit my head with a thud.
"Little Miss!"
Leah, who was startled, ran towards me.
"Are you okay? I'm sorry, it's been so long that I made a mistake..."
I stared at her, dumbfounded.
"Oh dear, your forehead is red."
My forehead was a little red, but Jacob was dying.
Uni, who had run over here, twisted Jacob's shoulder and asked.
"Where are you from? Are you a Malta from the Cheongga Association? Or Orca of the Brown Wolves? Or the oily hair of the Karutano Brothers?"
From Uni's mouth, who was usually cheerful and lovely, came a torrent of crude dialects along with the names of drug organizations, human trafficking organizations, and assassination squads.
Then she grabbed his hair and slammed it into the floor, and it sounded like walnuts were being cracked somewhere.
"Ay, spill it before I pull out your guts and blow on them."
Oh...
I, who was watching Jacob being beaten like a dog, suddenly came to my senses.
"...Leah, aren't you just a maid?"
Leah quickly waved her hand.
"She's a maid! She just worked somewhere else for a while in the past."
"Where?"
"For a while in a place called Iri..."
Iri, a group of Magi Knights who all use aura, rumored to have ended a battle involving over 100,000 people in just fifteen days, are you talking about Dubled's elite knights?
I swallowed hard and asked.
"Uni too?"
"No, Uni was briefly involved in organized crime before coming to the castle..."
Then Uni flinched and made excuses.
"I was just doing small-scale finance!"
If it's finance, is it perhaps loan sharking...?
Uni threw away Jacob, who had foamed at the mouth and fainted, and came to me, waving her hands and making excuses.
"But I have the lowest bounty among the maids who serve the Little Miss!"
...So Dahlia and Linda are also wanted criminals?
I realized I had overlooked one thing.
Dubled accepts administrators and employees regardless of status or background.
In other words, criminals may already be mixed in.
'Ah, so that's why they call Dubled villains...'
I nodded blankly.
"I was just carrying out God's teachings. There are people in the world who deserve to die... no, people who need to be sent to God's side."
- Said Dahlia, a serial killer who killed about a hundred rapists.
"My family was poor since I was young, and we never ate out like others, and my mother said she didn't like pasta..."
This was said by Linda, a con artist who ran off with an amount equivalent to the annual budget of a decent territory.
"Little Miss, don't be disappointed!"
"Everyone has washed their hands now!"
"That's right. We're living while repenting!"
I nodded with hazy eyes.
"It's okay."
But the maids must have known it was a lie, because they sobbed.
'It's really okay.'
Strictly speaking, I was also an attempted murderer of Mina before the regression. Of course, my case was a false accusation.
'More important than that is what's important now.'
Leah came into the room with a stiff face.
"The Master is looking for you."
I headed to the main hall of the main castle.
