The Nefarious Rat Embezzler
Serena let out a hollow laugh at the sight of the curtain fabric clutched in Lumina's hand.
So she made that sound on purpose just to scare me half to death?
Whether Lumina noticed Serena's bewilderment or not, she asked the same question again.
"I asked you… how you got in…"
Serena set aside her exasperation for a moment and thought it over.
I can't exactly say I picked the lock and walked right in… "A lady's secret"? No. That sounds way too much like a scheming villainess.
Then…
In an instant, Serena sorted through every option and answered with the purest, most innocent face she could muster — as if she truly knew nothing at all.
"It just unlocked all of a sudden!"
For all her acting, Lumina didn't believe a word of it.
There's no way…
Lumina knew perfectly well how meticulously and thoroughly her family had fortified the locks on this room — all to hide a girl who looked like a witch. Save for those deep nights when she herself opened the door and slipped out, no one could enter this place.
Even that much was a recent improvement. Until not long ago, there had been locks on the outside as well, so she couldn't open the door whenever she pleased.
Forget it…
But Lumina's thoughts went no further than that. There was no point in thinking about it.
There had been a time when she wanted attention. She had cried and begged. She had thrown tantrums and raged. But in the face of pure neglect — without even violence — every thought and every attempt of hers had been meaningless.
That had been her past six years.
Since her birth mother had departed for heaven when she was four, she had never been allowed to keep a single thing. She had long since stopped forcing herself to think. What was the point? She couldn't have anything anyway.
And yet today, for reasons she couldn't begin to guess, her stepmother had assigned her a personal maid.
Had she known nothing, she might have tried to win this girl's interest and goodwill. Unfortunately —
Lumina knew she had less than two years left.
The end was already set. It wasn't far away. And so she had let go of everything, waiting idly for what was coming. She did not want someone precious to appear in her life now — someone who would leave her clinging to the path she had to walk alone.
Lumina wanted to meet her end without regret.
That was why she hadn't opened the door for Serena. She had no intention of getting involved with her.
Lumina trudged over and sat on the edge of the bed. She stared blankly into empty air with eyes that could not see, killing time the way she always did.
Or rather — she tried to.
"—!?"
At the unfamiliar sensation on her shoulder, her body trembled in small, fine shivers. Warm, soft, yielding — the touch of a young girl.
"It's already March and there's still heavy snow falling. The north really is cold! Would it be all right if I stayed close?"
"…Do as you like."
Serena smiled faintly and pressed herself even closer to Lumina.
It wasn't as though Serena genuinely wanted to become close with her.
"While that child is still alive, treat her well. If she can close her eyes happy, then I can entrust my niece to you, can't I?"
Vireia had set that condition. Serena was simply putting in the bare minimum of effort. She needed to act familiar on a regular basis if she wanted to look naturally close in front of Vireia as well.
As part of that effort, Serena attempted some small talk.
"By the way, what's that door inside the room for?"
"The bathroom."
"Pfft."
…They were in crisis from the very first exchange.
The exasperation she had briefly suppressed reared its head again. So there was a bathroom in the room, and she had still told that lie?
Look at this cheeky little brat…
Not only had Lumina made her wait out in the hallway for hours on end — she had also told a lie that would be exposed the moment anyone asked. A certain vengeful, mischievous impulse stirred in Serena.
"There."
And so she wrapped both arms around Lumina. She tried to push me away, so if I hug her like this instead, she'll hate it, right? That was the idea.
"What are you doing."
"I was out in the hallway for so long, I'm freezing!"
"…"
She had pulled her into a hug on first meeting — and not just anyone, but a young lady of a ducal house. Serena fully expected to be shoved away in shock. Instead, Lumina showed no reaction at all, as still as a doll.
At that, Serena decided to get a little more wicked. She pinched Lumina's cheek, then began nuzzling against it.
Still not moving? Cold-blooded, truly cold-blooded.
Serena tipped Lumina all the way onto the bed and pulled her snugly into her arms.
"Lady Lumina…"
"…"
"When was the last time you washed? You smell a little musty…"
"…"
That, at last, got a reaction. An enormous chill began to pour from Lumina's body. More precisely, it felt as though every scrap of energy in the surrounding air was being sucked into her and vanishing without a trace. Sensory-wise, it was like having the warmth inside you forcibly drained away — the way it felt during a blood draw.
Is the mana getting sucked out along with it?
It was an extremely unpleasant sensation. Of course the girl who looked like a witch would have a nasty ability to match.
Regardless of that thought, Serena only held her tighter. She was throwing her whole body into her revenge.
"Can't breathe."
"Ugh… it's so cold!"
"You're cold because of me. Move away and you won't be."
"I don't know! Serena doesn't know about that! I'm cold! I'm hugging Lady Lumina!"
At Serena's sheer stubbornness, Lumina's brow twitched.
Annoying…
Her decision not to get involved with Serena had not been an emotion — just a practical choice about the situation. So this "annoying" was the first truly human feeling Lumina had directed at her.
Even now, Serena was hauling Lumina against her chest and wrapping her arms around her shoulders with abandon.
Seriously annoying…
Lumina made the air around them even colder.
This should make her let go…
What Lumina had misjudged was that Serena, for her part, was extremely desperate.
Hmph. If something this small was going to make me back down, I never would have come this far in the first place.
A political marriage to a man versus hugging an ice-cold little girl. The former was worse than death, so Serena's choice was obviously the latter.
And annoyance could not defeat desperation. Lumina was the first to tire; she withdrew her ability. Serena grinned at the returning warmth and hugged her tight.
"Let's be good friends from now on!"
Lumina neither answered nor resisted. The two of them stayed like that for quite a while, until Serena finally yawned and returned to her own room.
It had been a rather strange first meeting.
In the room Serena had left behind, Lumina lay in an awkward state — neither covering herself with the blanket nor pushing it off.
She had lost her sight at four years old. Perhaps as compensation for that loss, her sense of smell and hearing were remarkably sharp. That keen nose was now picking out, with perfect clarity, Serena's scent soaked deep into the bed and the blankets.
That girl's smell…
In this terrible, comfortable place of confinement, the scent of a stranger lingered. Even for someone who had let go of everything and achieved a kind of detachment, it was a rather disconcerting experience.
What do I do…
The deliberation did not last long. The room was on the fourth floor — sweltering in summer, freezing in winter. As the night deepened and the air grew colder, she finally pulled the blanket up to her nose.
Serena's scent, dizzyingly strong, flooded deep into her lungs.
…Strangely enough, she didn't find it all that unpleasant.
The next morning.
Serena had just finished breakfast and was about to go find Lumina when —
"Serena, dear. Come here a moment."
Vireia called her somewhere quiet and pressed a glass bottle full of pills into her hand.
"What is this…?"
"Medicine."
"Uh… medicine for what?"
"I told you yesterday that Lumina doesn't have much time left, didn't I?"
Serena looked down at the bottle.
"Is this…?"
"Yes. This is medicine I prepared for that child. One pill a day — I'd like you to make sure she takes it without fail."
With that, Vireia left. Serena stared at the bottle of pills. Shouldn't a medicine bottle have something written on it? This one was completely blank.
What kind of medicine is this…? Come to think of it, how is Lumina even sick…?
Last night, the Lumina she had held in her arms had certainly felt fragile. But was that the body of a terminally ill girl with only two years left? Thinking about it, it was a little ambiguous.
I clearly asked what kind of medicine it was, and Vireia just brushed me off. She never even told me what disease Lumina has.
Maybe she simply didn't want to burden a young girl with heavy, difficult talk. But Serena did not ignore her instincts or her suspicions. She was, after all, a thoroughly wicked and cunning child who even doubted the parents who loved her dearly.
Doubt everything. Doubt whether you're doubting properly. Live your whole life in suspicion… such is the destiny of Meridiana the schemer…
Her paranoia fully ignited, Serena grabbed a pouch and began bustling through the manor. She was searching for a very special bond that had existed since humanity first took up farming.
And in the food-waste disposal area in a damp, shady corner of the estate, she found the connection she was looking for.
"Squeak, squeak…"
Rats trapped in cage-style traps let out thin little cries at the sight of her. She intended to feed them the medicine Vireia had given her for Lumina.
"Pretty big sister has something nice for you, so come along quietly, okay?"
"Squeak…"
Serena selected the sturdier specimens and transferred a total of four into her pouch.
Thus was born Serena, the nefarious rat embezzler who had absconded with no fewer than four rats belonging to the great Sirius Duke House.