Everything Exposed
Everything had been exposed.
She had tried to see Louis one last time, but failed.
Felice and Lucy headed for the Ansberg Territory.
The school year was nearly over anyway, and with a disaster of this magnitude, academy classes no longer mattered. Thanks to the academy processing everything with remarkable speed, the two of them were able to leave at once.
Inside the carriage bound for the territory, Felice Ansberg was drowning in guilt and despair.
Her father had fallen into critical condition. She did not know the full extent, but many of the territory’s people must have died as well.
If only she had fought to the death alongside Louis and somehow managed to kill that gargoyle…
If the creature had never escaped, it would never have returned leading a swarm to ravage the territory, would it?
In the end, every last bit of this seemed to have happened because she refused to listen to Louis. Because of her. The thought tormented Felice beyond endurance.
Of course, it was not as if she had no excuses at all.
The moment they spotted the gargoyle, the situation had been so desperate that Louis had shouted for them to attack without any explanation. True, he had no time to explain that the beast would strike the Ansberg Territory, but still. The other party members had been uncooperative as well; even if Felice alone had sided with him, they might never have caught it. And the explanation Louis gave afterward had been so far-fetched that no one could have believed it until the swarm actually attacked.
If she wanted excuses, plenty came to mind.
Yet the more she piled them up, the deeper her self-loathing grew.
Worse still, even after she had ruined everything, she had made no preparations whatsoever—despite Louis’s warning.
Well… she had done one thing.
She had cursed the very man who had worked so hard for her sake.
What must Louis have felt when, after pouring everything into protecting the Ansberg Territory, he was met with her abuse? Just imagining it tore at Felice’s chest.
He had pushed himself until his body was a wreck, only to be repaid with venom. And even then, Louis had carried his warning all the way to her territory.
Even with that advance notice, the damage had been severe enough to leave the count in critical condition. What would have happened if Louis’s warning had never arrived at all? The mere thought made her blood run cold.
And while Louis—who had no connection to House Ansberg whatsoever—had been fighting so hard, what had she been doing?
Nothing.
Once again, excuses were not hard to find. After the ever-clashing Louis left, Leo had taken over as party leader and ordered a leisurely return to the academy. At his word they had even stopped midway, letting Aine arrange a rest and a meal. The gargoyle swarm struck that very night. Even if she had sent a letter the moment they arrived, there was no guarantee it would have reached them in time. In the end Louis’s letter had arrived before the attack anyway. And no matter how carefully Louis explained, the logic had been nearly impossible to accept. Felice could never have predicted that the territory would be raided immediately afterward…
“Kh…!”
She bit down on her lip.
Every single one of those excuses only made her more wretched the harder she clung to them. She kept telling herself to focus on the territory’s crisis, yet Louis’s face refused to leave her mind. The memory of how coldly she had ignored him haunted her without rest.
They had fought. She had never seen him truly angry before. He had struck her. She was not claiming injustice—only that the change in him had been a shock. The boy who had once been so kind…
The entire journey to the territory, Felice suffered under thoughts of Louis.
And Lucy Ansberg watched her sister with cold eyes.
There was so much she wanted to ask. So much she wanted to demand. But her sister would only ignore her—just as she had earlier, just as she always had. Lucy resolved that once they stood before their mother, she would force the contents of Louis’s letter into the open.
Both sisters carried the same man in their thoughts as the carriage at last reached the Ansberg Territory.
They arrived, yet their mother did not come out to greet them. The absence felt strange—until they stepped into the shattered lord’s castle and understood at once.
The countess looked deathly pale, as if she might collapse at any second. Even so, Felice assumed it was merely the shock of the gargoyle attack. She asked urgently,
“Are you all right, Mother?”
At the sound of her voice the countess finally noticed their arrival and turned her gaze upon them.
“What is the extent of the damage to the territory? Is the count safe?”
Felice’s tone was uncharacteristically frantic as she pressed for news of her father. To her, he meant more than she could put into words; the report that he had fallen critically ill had left her dizzy. Yet on the long road here, she had thought of Louis more often than of her father. It was not that Louis mattered more. Rather, Felice held such unshakable faith in the count that she was certain even this would not keep him down. A perfect knight would rise again. Mere gargoyles could never fell him. That certainty had let her mind linger on Louis instead.
Perhaps that was why the empty-eyed words the countess finally spoke made Felice stagger.
“Felice… your father is dead.”
The countess broke into tears once more. The girls did not know it, but until moments ago she had been collapsing in grief, rising only to collapse again.
Felice’s mind refused to accept the words.
Dead? Who? No—impossible.
Suddenly every sound around her vanished. The world spun, then darkened. The instant the truth finally sank in, the shock dropped Felice where she stood.
When she woke, she was lying on a bed. The ceiling was unfamiliar—neither the academy dormitory nor her own room in the castle. She almost wished the entire thing had been a dream. Felice let out a hollow laugh. Her room had probably been destroyed along with the rest of the lord’s castle in the swarm’s assault.
She pushed herself up slowly. A maid who happened to enter saw that she was awake and hurried to inform the others. When the household staff offered to summon healers and priests, Felice waved them away with limp hands. She did not deserve such care. Any remaining hands should go to the others who had been injured—injured because of her.
After she rose, the three remaining women of House Ansberg gathered in one of the few intact rooms left in the castle: Felice Ansberg, Lucy Ansberg, and Countess Mary Ansberg. The future of the house now rested in their hands.
Mary Ansberg had been shaken as deeply as anyone, yet she was the adult. Even in her own agony she first tried to comfort her daughters. At last she turned to Felice.
“Felice, I truly thank you. Because of your warning, we were at least able to lessen the damage. Your sister could easily have been in danger as well…”
Felice stared, bewildered. What on earth was she talking about? The one who had given the warning was not her—it was Louis Wallenst—
“Ah.”
A vacant sound escaped her.
Louis had known the truth beforehand. Her sister had said Louis warned them, yet her mother believed the warning had come from Felice. Ansberg and Wallenstein… again. Felice was no great intellect, but she could see exactly how the situation had been twisted. Shame flooded her face with heat.
She was the last person on earth who deserved that gratitude. If anything, she bore more responsibility for this catastrophe than anyone else.
Felice opened her mouth—or tried to. What stopped her was fear. Fear of confessing with her own lips that the territory had been ruined and her father killed because of her. Fear of the looks her mother and sister would give her when they heard.
While she hesitated, Lucy—face twisted with contempt—spoke in her place.
“I’m sorry, Mother. I lied.”
“Wait—”
Felice tried to cut in, but Lucy ignored her and continued.
“The one who sent the warning was not my sister. It was Young Master Louis Wallenstein.”
“Louis… Wallenstein?”
The countess’s voice was puzzled.
“Yes. He said no one would listen if it came from a Wallenstein, so he told us to use my sister’s name.”
After the gargoyle attack began, events had moved too quickly for the truth to come out. But Lucy believed the family owed Louis proper repayment—and she still had scores to settle with her sister. So here, with everyone present, she handed their mother the letter Young Master Louis had sent.
The countess accepted it with a questioning look. As she read, her expression turned colder than it had ever been.
Because the letter contained this passage:
Lady Lucy. I have already warned Felice Ansberg, but just in case, I am sending this letter as well.
He had already warned Felice. Yet no warning of any kind had ever reached the family from Felice herself. And from the moment the swarm attacked until this very hour, Felice had said nothing.
In a voice like ice, the countess asked,
“Felice. Young Master Louis Wallenstein claims he already warned you. Why, then, have you remained silent until now?”
Felice wanted to hang herself from the sheer weight of her guilt.
Ah. Everything’s been found out.