You Get Lost Too
You Get Lost Too
Renoa's bedroom was draped in darkness.
Only a thin sliver of moonlight, leaking through a gap in the thick blackout curtains, faintly illuminated the room.
Renoa, lying in bed, looked deathly pale. Her breathing was shallow and scattered irregularly.
Sitting by the side of her sleeping master was the personal maid, Bibi.
She carefully reached out and wiped the cold sweat from Renoa's forehead and neck with a towel.
Her touch was extremely devoted and cautious, as if afraid Renoa might wake.
The gaze she directed at Renoa was no different from that of a loyal subject worrying over the well-being of a precious master.
Willingly staying up all night for her master. That was the duty of a subordinate serving their superior.
-Ttok-ttok.
The sound of a knock echoed through the silent room.
Bibi set down the towel she was using to wipe Renoa's forehead and rose soundlessly from her seat.
She approached the door and asked in a lowered voice.
"Who is it?"
"It's me."
The voice coming from beyond the door was Irion's. Bibi quietly opened the door and stepped out.
"What brings you to the Young Lady's bedroom at this late hour?"
"I was looking for Bibi-ssi."
"Me?"
"My mind is troubled, and I didn't have anyone suitable to talk to. If you aren't busy, would you care to join me for a moment?"
After a brief moment of consideration, Bibi eventually nodded.
"I understand. A short while should be fine."
Irion and Bibi left the mansion and began to walk through the night streets.
"How is the Young Lady's condition?"
"Her fever shows no sign of breaking. It is likely not a physical illness like a cold, but rather because her heart has collapsed."
"She's lost the ability to use magic, and she might even lose her sight. The stress must be extraordinary."
Bibi nodded heavily.
"Magic was everything to the Young Lady. She whipped herself every single day, believing she had to become a greater mage than anyone else just to survive. But now..."
Bibi couldn't finish her sentence. Her voice sank with melancholy.
Irion stared blankly at the dejected Bibi before speaking again.
"How long has it been since Bibi-ssi started serving the Young Lady?"
"It was before I even reached the age of reason. If my memory serves me, I was probably around five years old."
"That's over ten years. At that point, you're practically family."
"The weight of the years spent together probably isn't that important. Especially not to someone like our Young Lady."
It was exactly as she said.
The form of human relationships Renoa formed was strict. She never allowed anyone to cross the line she had drawn.
Only those whose interests aligned could walk by her side.
"Still, it must be different for Bibi-ssi. The Young Lady entrusts everything, from the trivial to the important, to you."
"I wonder."
"I can tell by watching from the side. That the Young Lady trusts Bibi-ssi more than anyone else."
"......."
Silence filled the gap between the two again. In the alleyway where darkness lay thick, only the rhythmic sound of footsteps echoed.
"Talking only about depressing things isn't good for many reasons."
Irion raised his tone and skillfully shifted the topic.
"I drank some tea that was in the study earlier. Is that what the Young Lady has been drinking lately?"
"Yes."
"It was incredibly delicious. I had no idea such tasty grass existed in this world. I think I understand why the Young Lady seeks out tea so often."
A faint smile brushed Bibi's lips.
"I am glad it suited Sir Irion's palate. I shall prepare a portion for Sir Irion as well from now on."
"Thank you. By the way, what is the name of those tea leaves?"
"Are you curious about the tea leaves?"
"Yes. I'd like to recommend them to the friends I made at the Academy. And tell the Prince-nim about them too."
Bibi, who had been answering readily, fell silent for a moment.
"Bibi-ssi?"
"My apologies. I received them from an acquaintance, and I seem to have forgotten the name."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. I only know that they are precious tea leaves cultivated in very small quantities in the southern part of the Empire."
"I see. I wanted to share that taste with my acquaintances. That's a shame."
Another silence followed.
Only the sound of shoes and the night wind echoed.
"Sir Irion, it is late. I am worried about the Young Lady, so I should head back..."
"Bibi-ssi."
"Yes."
It was at that moment.
Irion stopped walking.
The voice he let out next was as cold as an abyss.
"Do you think it makes sense that you don't even know the name of the tea leaves the Princess eats?"
-Tak.
Bibi stopped in her tracks.
She slowly turned her head. Her expression was an unreadable blank mask, as always.
"My apologies. However, as I mentioned, I have forgotten the name. My memory is not particularly good."
"Isn't it that you can't say it because it's Litho-phosphorus Flower, not because you forgot?"
"......."
The moment those three words fell from Irion's mouth, the night wind circling the alleyway seemed to hold its breath.
Bibi stood in her usual composed posture. However, beneath that expressionless mask, a cold current flowed out.
"My apologies. I do not know what Sir Irion is talking about. What is Litho-phosphorus Flower?"
"Let's stop feigning innocence now. I've already confirmed that the tea is water brewed from Litho-phosphorus Flowers."
Immediately after Irion drank the tea during the day, his proficiency in Status Effect Resistance had increased.
Unless there was some kind of Formless Poison like in martial arts novels, there was no way his resistance proficiency would react.
Through the process of elimination, he had no choice but to think the tea was poisoned.
To confirm, he immediately took the leftover tea on the floor to Iskalon for appraisal, and the result was as expected.
That the tea was Litho-phosphorus Flower.
And.
"It's you. The one who fed the Young Lady toxic herbs."
The person who fed Renoa toxic herbs was none other than Bibi.
Irion had internally placed Aether high on the list of suspects, but the more he tried to fit the puzzle pieces together, the more they clashed.
Assuming that Renoa, poisoned by Litho-phosphorus Flower, would reach out to black magic in despair as she is now.
In the original work, the time Renoa falls into corruption is around the summer break.
It was physically impossible for Aether, an outsider, to continuously feed her poison while she stayed at the main family mansion.
If so, the only person who could blend into Renoa's intimate daily life, both in the past and now, and make her swallow poison naturally without any suspicion.
No one remained except Bibi, the personal maid who had moved like her hands and feet for many years.
The aura Irion radiated, filling the alleyway, became even sharper.
"Answer me. Why did you feed the Young Lady poison? Why you, of all people?"
His gaze, filled with conviction, shackled Bibi. It seemed no more excuses would work.
Bibi let out a shallow sigh.
"Because that... was the best I could do."
Irion furrowed his brows.
"The best? You know better than anyone how important magic is to the Young Lady. Taking that away was the best?"
"Yes."
There wasn't a hint of hesitation in Bibi's answer.
Instead, she remained eerily calm and met Irion's gaze, which was trying to pierce through her, head-on.
"Irion. You do not know. That magic is a double-edged sword that threatens the Young Lady's life."
"What does that mean?"
"Well. This is as much as I can tell you. I do not know if the day will come when you understand this or not."
As soon as she finished speaking, Bibi leaned forward and pressed her hand against the ground.
"I leave the rest to you."
"What?"
Before he could demand an answer, the ground flashed. Acrid smoke and light, enough to paralyze one's vision, erupted together.
Irion reflexively drew the sword at his waist and unleashed a gust of sword wind.
The smoke that had filled the alleyway without a gap was torn apart along the trajectory and scattered in all directions.
However, in the alleyway where his vision cleared, only a heavy silence had settled.
In the spot where Bibi had been standing just moments ago, only disturbed dust swirled in the night wind.
It happened in an instant.
"Tsk."
Irion clicked his tongue harshly.
He had guessed that Bibi wouldn't be an ordinary maid. In fantasy, a Battle Maid was practically a standard rule.
If he had intended to catch her, he could have.
The reason he hesitated for that split second was likely because of the not-so-short time he had spent with her and the thin layer of affection built up in between.
More than anything, the words she left right before vanishing into the darkness troubled his mind.
'Leaving the rest to me?'
Those were hardly the lines a traitor who destroyed a mana core—the very heart of a mage—would spit out.
Furthermore, her complexion had held a deep loneliness rather than murderous intent or malice.
As if she were someone worrying about Renoa.
'What on earth is going on?'
The more his thoughts spiraled, the more he felt like he was wandering through a fog. Nothing ever seemed to be solved easily.
And above all.
"How am I supposed to explain this to Renoa......."
Bibi was almost the only person Renoa felt comfortable with.
The confidante to whom even Renoa—who was wary of her own family and treated even the kindness offered by others as a poisoned apple—had defenselessly opened her side.
To tell her that Bibi was actually a traitor and had stolen her most precious thing.
"How am I supposed to say this...."
Irion didn't have the confidence to handle the aftermath. But it wasn't a matter that would be resolved by staying silent either.
Eventually, the next day.
Irion told Renoa the truth.
"Bibi was...... the culprit?"
"Yes. The tea the Young Lady was drinking was water brewed from Litho-phosphorus Flower leaves. Since it also has narcotic effects, the addiction the Young Lady felt was likely......."
Renoa's pupils shook violently. The fact that the confidante she trusted was a traitor was a significant shock.
"Where is Bibi... now?"
"She disappeared. Last night."
"......."
Renoa's lips parted and closed several times. As if a sense of betrayal beyond imagination had constricted even her vocal cords.
Was she going to lose her mind? Just as Irion was watching Renoa with an anxious gaze.
"Puhup."
Ironically, what burst from Renoa's mouth was laughter.
"Puhuhuhuhu."
Renoa bowed her head over the crumpled blanket, her shoulders shaking. The sound of laughter, as if she were running out of breath, echoed through the room.
"Ah, seriously......."
After laughing for a long time like a madwoman, Renoa slowly raised her head.
Whatever was so funny, there were even tears gathered at the corners of her eyes.
"I crawled up from the bottom despite being a mere illegitimate child, and just when I thought I finally had a hold of something of my own. This is the final destination."
"......."
"I knew better than anyone that there wasn't a single person on my side in this world to begin with. To trust someone just because we spent a few more years facing each other. It's sickeningly stupid."
It was a truly fitting end for a bird that had struggled to escape its cage without knowing its place.
Renoa's empty pupils fumbled through the air before stopping toward where Irion was standing.
Even that gaze was slightly off. It lingered on the area around him, not his eyes.
"Irion, it's funny even to you, isn't it?"
Her tearful voice trembled pathetically.
"Even a son of a bitch from the streets doesn't bite its master if you take it in for ten years, so how ridiculous must it have been to see me struggling to sit in the position of the family head when I can't even see into a person's heart."
"......."
"There was no need to despair over losing my sight now. I couldn't even tell someone was mixing poison right in front of me with my eyes wide open. What's the point of having these decorative eyeballs? I was practically blind from the start. It might have been better to just gouge them out long ago."
Self-mutilating self-mockery poured out incessantly along with a manic smile.
Renoa's laughter, after she gasped for a long time, eventually subsided. Only a heavy silence lingered in the room.
Renoa, having spent all her energy, closed her eyes while leaning her head weakly against the headboard.
"Irion."
Her voice, devoid of moisture, crumbled dryly.
"You were always asking to be freed from your slave status, weren't you?"
Irion's brow narrowed. Without waiting for an answer, Renoa continued.
"I'll let you go."
An empty voice, with no lingering attachments.
"Don't stab me in the back later. Just get lost from my sight right now."