Chapter 94
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: The Cursed Mansion (3)
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“Uuugh!”
Lee Eun-hee, having come up from the underground prison, retched up everything she’d eaten into a corner of the bushes.
I walked up behind her and quietly patted her back.
“Are you okay?”
“If you were me… ugh, would you be….”
“Hey, hey! Don’t talk!”
Head bowed, Lee Eun-hee gagged nonstop.
After heaving up even the bile in her stomach, Lee Eun-hee only stopped gagging when she felt like she might actually die from it.
The state of the prison she had discovered was, in a word, horrific.
“Damn it. I thought I was used to seeing people die.”
Lee Eun-hee muttered, summoning a water ball to rinse her mouth.
“Torture is different.”
While murder is the study of how to end a life quickly and efficiently, torture focuses on sustaining the most painful state possible while keeping the person alive.
What was done to the dead Luria wasn’t murder; it was torture.
“Are you okay?”
“Seems like I should be the one asking you that.”
Looking at Lee Eun-hee’s pale face, I doubted she’d be able to work.
“I’m fine. It’s a bit nauseating, but still.”
“We ended up pulling an all-nighter.”
“This is nothing.”
Lee Eun-hee wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and caught her breath.
The physical abilities of a challenger who served a god and received a status window were different from those of an ordinary person.
Mentally, however, one could still be exhausted.
“There was no blood spatter.”
“Blood?”
“At the scene. It smelled of blood, but there was no visible blood.”
“Don’t you think they cleaned it? More importantly, how did you manage to notice something like that in that situation?”
“Have you ever seen that woman afraid of blood?”
At my question, Lee Eun-hee thought for a moment, then shook her head.
Liz was the type of woman to find fault with and punish her servants simply because she was bored.
She was closer to a woman who wanted to see blood rather than one who feared it.
“The woman who stares with wide eyes while gouging out a servant’s eyeballs? Afraid of blood? Don’t make me laugh.”
“See? There’s no reason for a woman like that to go to the incredible trouble of wiping up blood. Did you get a good look at those bodies?”
“Do you think I could have?”
The moment she saw Luria’s face and the pile of corpses, Lee Eun-hee had clamped a hand over her mouth and fled the basement.
“So? What about the bodies?”
“They looked like dolls.”
It felt wrong to describe corpses that way, but it wouldn't have been strange to call them broken dolls, given how clean they were.
Liz tilted her head as if she didn't understand.
“Damn it, I feel sick again.”
“You’re still going to report this, right?”
“Not today, at least.”
The darkness completely faded, and the reddish morning sun poured down from above.
* * *
After parting with Liz, I returned to my room, got ready a little early, and went outside.
The main estate was bustling with cleaning from early in the morning.
“Oh, you’re up early.”
Heath, yawning in the distance, waved and approached me.
“Couldn’t really sleep. It’s not that early, anyway.”
“Take it easy. People like us are nothing more than accessories or jewels to the nobles, after all.”
Heath muttered nonchalantly as he climbed the stairs.
He was an optimistic young man with a personality common in this world.
Though, every word he spoke so casually carried a certain sense of wrongness.
For Heath, who had lived his entire life this way, it was a matter of course, not even worth questioning.
“How did Lady Liz come to be part of the Pailia family?”
Heath had been assigned as Liz’s escort knight as soon as she was accepted as a young lady of the Ducal House of Pailia.
While his official rank wasn't much different from mine, he was also involved, in one way or another, with the security personnel and duties within the mansion.
“You know that Lady Liz’s hometown is a northern village belonging to the Pailia Duchy, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Actually, it’s a bit complicated. Lady Liz’s village is adjacent to the Clencia Duchy. If you go west from the village, you’re in Clencia territory, and if you go east, you’re in Pailia territory.”
It was a problem that arose because the village was in such a remote, border region.
Neither side wanted to escalate the issue, but they didn't want to yield either, so the village had been neglected for over thirty years.
The problem was the lack of clear criteria.
The village divided its territory by residence. If you lived in the east of the village, you paid taxes to Duke Clencia, and if you lived in the west, you paid taxes to Duke Pailia.
“Administratively, it should be divided based on birthplace, not residence. But, you know, people are usually born near their homes, so it’s not an issue. In Lady Liz’s case, however, the situation was a bit ambiguous.”
Liz’s mother had given birth to her on her way back from the city while pregnant.
“Liz’s home is in the western, Clencia part of the village, but she was actually born in the eastern, Pailia part, you see?”
If Liz hadn’t been a Myuel, or if she’d had an ordinary level of magic, it would have ended as a minor incident.
“The amount of magical power Lady Liz has is no joke. If you compare pure quantity alone, she has more than Her Majesty, Empress Elin. You won’t find a bigger monster anywhere.”
The Pailia and Clencia families were two of the Empire’s three great ducal houses.
This was around the time the 3rd Prince, who was a strong candidate for the next emperor, had just married Elin.
The final candidates for empress at that time were the young ladies of the Clencia and Pailia families.
“Duke Clencia has over thirty sons and daughters. And that’s just the officially adopted ones. You can imagine what’s going on under the surface, right?”
It was a common method among noble families: gather promising children under the pretext of adoption and make them compete against each other.
“The problem was that Lady Liz was an exceptionally talented individual.”
Having many adopted children meant they had their own internal hierarchy.
There was no reason why the talented Lady Liz couldn't win in a competition against the children of the Clencia ducal house.
“At the same time, there was no reason for her to do so.”
Not when she had the Pailia ducal house as an alternative.
So what they offered her was the position of Duke Clencia’s wife.
“His wife?”
“That way, she wouldn’t have to compete. But at the time, Lady Liz was only ten years old, and Duke Clencia was over 120.”
Even if he didn't look 120, it was an excessive measure.
At the time, the Pailia ducal house had no one besides Elin, so Liz naturally chose them.
“Did Duke Clencia just stand by?”
“It was probably Lady Liz who wouldn't stand by.”
“Huh?”
“Look, the village they’d left alone to save face ended up creating this mess. If the village, even as a border town, had belonged entirely to one side, this wouldn't have happened. Actually, I think Lady Liz considered the position of Duke Clencia's wife not a bad option.”
It wasn't a thought that would normally come from a ten-year-old's mind.
A ten-year-old child knowing her own talent and value and securing her position is not something an ordinary child can do.
Duke Pailia knew Liz's disposition better than anyone.
“When he met Liz, he made her a single offer. He would wipe the problematic village off the map. And that’s what happened. Ah, don’t repeat this story anywhere.”
Heath, who had been circling the mansion with me on the pretense of guard duty, belatedly realized he had said too much.
“Of course not.”
Heath and I approached the door to Liz’s room.
For a brief moment, the scene from the basement I saw at dawn and Lee Eun-hee's words flashed through my mind.
— *Are you okay?*
‘Am I okay?’
Of course I wasn’t.
I was just pretending to be.
I was better than anyone at bottling up stress.
It was also a bad habit.
Heath and I opened the door and entered Liz’s room.
“Good morning.”
“Yes. To you both.”
Liz, dressed in a red dress with black shoes and adorned with dark jewels, replied with a slight turn of her head.
Across from Liz sat Duke Pailia, drinking tea.
“Well then, I’ll see you this afternoon, Father.”
“Yes, let’s.”
Liz gave a slight bow and rose from her seat.
Her schedule for the day included embroidery, royal etiquette lessons, and ballroom dancing.
“In the afternoon, there was supposed to be a dress…”
“That’s been canceled.”
“Did something happen?”
“Not really. We’re scheduled to visit the Colosseum.”
Duke Pailia’s morbid hobby was known among the servants as the Colosseum.
After finishing her morning schedule and having lunch, we moved to a different location.
There, we found a space that truly resembled a small colosseum.
All of it was a space created solely for Duke Pailia’s amusement.
A lavish chair and table were placed in the position with the best view of the stage.
It was a space meant for only a few spectators.
“There are quite a few today.”
“I’m told they are the ones who arrived while I was at the imperial palace. I hear some from the Liberation Army are included, so my expectations are high.”
“Oh my, that sounds dangerous.”
Nowhere in Liz’s smiling tone was there any hint of danger.
Below in the Colosseum were about twenty 4th-class citizens.
Heath nudged my side with his elbow.
I turned my head as if to ask what was wrong.
“Who do you think will win?”
“It doesn’t really matter who wins, does it?”
In response to my words, Heath made a circle with his fingers.
I glanced at Liz and Duke Pailia, who were a short distance away.
The two seemed to have little interest in my conversation with Heath.
“How much are you betting?”
“Depends on what you put up.”
I casually scanned the 4th-class citizens below.
It was better not to make a bet with no chance of winning.
Suddenly, one of them caught my eye.
I held up two fingers.
“Two thousand?”
“That’s too petty, don’t you think? Two gold coins.”
“You must have some money on you.”
One gold coin was a month's living expenses for an ordinary family.
Heath, who served as Lady Liz's escort in the Pailia ducal house, was unlikely to be short on money, but it was by no means a small amount.
“Suit yourself if you don’t want to.”
“I’m the one who suggested the bet. Fine, so who are you betting on?”
Without a moment's hesitation, I pointed to a corner.
“He certainly does look pretty decent.”
Heath nodded, looking at a large, burly man.
“No, the one next to him.”
“Next to him? Uh… Are you seriously betting on that one?”
The man I pointed out had a noticeably slender build compared to the other 4th-class citizens.
“He’s the type to hide his true strength.”
“Hide his what…?”
“It’s a thing.”
“Don’t come crying to me when you lose your money. I’m betting on the redhead over there.”
“What, you ended up picking the one who looks like an easy win too.”
“That one knows how to fight.”
Right, he did mention that some from the Liberation Army were included.
The redhead Heath chose certainly looked well-built.
A bit short, though.
“Still, it’s not him.”
“Are you dissing my eye for these things?”
“I’m telling you, it won’t work.”
“Shall we find out by pitting them against each other?”
Liz, who had been listening to our entire conversation, chimed in with a smile.
Her fingertip touched the black-haired man I had chosen and the red-haired man.
Liz gave a brief explanation to Duke Pailia.
“It seems my escorts have made a bet on who would win if those two fought.”
“Oh, is that so? Then it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have them fight.”
As Duke Pailia gave his approval, the area below became busy.
At the signal, the two hesitant men moved almost simultaneously.
“Huh.”
“Hand over the two gold coins.”