Chapter 25
Episode 25
"Rosie, you look pale."
Seeing me shambling around like a zombie because I hadn't slept properly last night, Emily said worriedly.
"......Yeah, I don't feel well."
"You've been like this since yesterday, Rosie. Are you okay?"
No, not at all.
Just learning Rosie's true identity was driving me mad, but Yurta's words about keeping me imprisoned for life were pushing me over the edge.
What should I do now?
For now, I needed to tell the butler that I'd postpone my resignation......
"Rosie, Rosie."
At that moment, Emily poked my side.
I looked at her with an expression asking what was up, and she nodded toward the other side.
In the direction her head pointed was Ella coming up from the basement with potatoes.
But strangely, the potatoes she carried today were intact.
"She's coming toward you?"
Ella smiled faintly upon seeing me.
For some inexplicable reason since the last time she delivered the potatoes, she acted like a chick looking at its mother hen whenever she saw me.
"Um, Rosie."
As Emily said, Ella approached me.
"What's up, Ella?"
"I have something to give you......"
Ella glanced at Emily, signaling her to step aside.
Emily glanced at me. Stay with me, Rosie?
I replied with my eyes. Do I have to?
Emily then openly deflated and shuffled away.
Her retreating figure looked so wistful that I felt like a criminal.
"So, what do you have for me?"
Ella handed over the armful of potatoes she held.
"Why this......?"
Was she giving them because she thought I was hungry?
My meager brain couldn't come up with any other answer.
"......He told me to give it to you."
"Who...... the man in the basement?"
"Yeah, the monster."
Was she crazy?
Suddenly asking her to deliver boiled potatoes?
I examined the potato. There were knife marks on it.
What was this?
Two circles spaced apart, and below them a curved line bulging outward.
'◡'
A smiling face......?
"Why did he tell you to give me this?"
"I don't know that either...... Anyway, eat it well, Rosie."
Ella shook her head and left my side.
I stared at the potato for a long time even after she left.
Then I recalled how he and I had parted.
To his plea to help him escape......
<Pretend I didn't hear that. I won't tell the Marquis, so don't bring this up again. To anyone.>
I had spoken coldly as if I'd never see him again and left his side.
I looked again at the potato with the smiling face drawn on it.
Is this guy seriously insane?
* * *
Today too, the new maid delivered potatoes to him.
Thinking Rihart had taken a liking to 'potato abuse,' she presented them as if they were tribute.
Rihart pondered crushing the potato but instead drew a picture on it.
It was a smiling face of himself.
He drew it and handed it to the new maid.
"Why this......?"
"Please give it to Maid Rosie."
As he handed over the potato, Rihart had a truly absurd thought.
If she received the potato with his image on it, it would mean she possessed Rihart, and if she ate it, she might be devouring Rihart himself.
She would be appalled if she knew.
After the new maid left, he smiled languidly and briefly recalled his last meeting with Rosie.
<Please help me escape.>
Uttering those words had been impulsive.
Even Rihart himself was surprised he had said it.
But he had no regrets. That made it all the more strange.
<Then I'll place wealth and glory in your hands.>
That too was unlike him.
He planned to take her with him while escaping.
Her presence suppressed the pain he had endured his whole life, making her the most useful thing he'd encountered in his life.
Thus, if she simply obeyed, he was willing to grant anything.
<Pretend I didn't hear that. I won't tell the Marquis, so don't bring this up again. To anyone.>
The cold response wasn't particularly surprising.
He had already anticipated it.
In truth, it would be stranger if this maid promised to stay by his side for wealth and glory.
Impossible to imagine.
After that, Rosie looked at him with cold eyes and left the basement without looking back.
Rihart unwittingly thought he wanted to touch her softly swaying pink hair.
A distance too far to reach even by stretching his hand.
That was the distance between the maid and Rihart.
He didn't like it.
But conversely, that distance could be easily closed if he broke the restraints and ran to her. So he thought.
A rough and crude method appealed to him so much.
Just her visit yesterday had been enough.
Thanks to it, he escaped the pain without Mana Suppressant, even if briefly, and could attempt escape.
He hadn't just sat idly imprisoned all this time.
Even while suffering Mana Pain, he relentlessly researched how to nullify the Mana Shackles.
And today, that attempt bore fruit.
Crackle!
Sparks flew from the Mana Shackles, and cracks began to spread with a sharp sound.
He shattered the Mana Shackles that had bound him for so long.
Boom!
In the process, the Mana Shackles exploded. The fierce wind that swept through the basement once was intensely ominous.
The shock of destroying the Mana Shackles had likely shaken the basement enough to leak outside.
People would come rushing soon.
Even in this dire situation, he smiled pleasantly.
Now it was time to go fetch Rosie.
No, kidnapping was the right term.
A chilling smile formed on Rihart's lips as he left the dark basement.
Now was the time to realize his desires.
* * *
Smile.
I split the potato with the smiling face in half. Seeing the halved potato made me feel refreshed.
I handed half to Emily. The two of us amiably chewed and swallowed the potatoes.
"Rosie, did you know?"
"What?"
For some reason, I felt uneasy.
"I overheard this morning by chance, but it seems a distinguished guest is coming to the mansion."
Not interested in the story, I fiddled with my thumb and played with my hands.
"Aren't you curious who?"
"Why should I be curious about someone I don't know?"
Emily looked at me with disappointed eyes.
She must have wanted to see me get excited out of curiosity.
"Wow......! I'm curious."
Too late, I even clapped, but it was already over.
"Ahem. So, who's coming?"
"The young master of a super famous family!"
So who is it?
"The son of the Herthas Count Family!"
......Huh?
Did I hear that wrong?
"I heard he'll be staying here for a while."
Did I commit some great sin in my previous life?
Why do only bad things keep happening?
"......Um, Emily, do you know which son of the Herthas Count Family is coming?"
As far as I knew, the Herthas Count Family had two sons.
The first was Dillon Hertas.
The thug from my dreams who had struck Rosie's head until it bled.
And the second was the crazy sub-gong I'd seen yesterday.
The first was violent, but still, he seemed better than Yurta.
Judging that if it was the worst anyway, the lesser evil was better, I waited for Emily's answer......
"Since the second son attended the last party, maybe it's him again?"
Oh my god.
I couldn't hold back the horrific emotion and buried my face in my palms.
"Rosie, are you still sick? You look bad."
"Emily, I just realized people can die from shock."
"Rosie! What do you mean die!"
I ignored Emily shaking my body worriedly and sank into thought.
He's probably coming here because of me.
Am I really going to get kidnapped in the middle of the night?
Should I start sleeping with Emily from now on......
It was when I was seriously about to suggest to Emily that we share a bed instead of separate rooms.
Boom!
A deafening roar shook the mansion.
