One Shot, Two Kills
Serdia Estella’s eyes flickered ever so slightly. I froze in place, her hand still gripping my shoulder. I couldn’t even draw a proper breath. The room was unbearably still.
It was so quiet that I felt as though I could hear the faint rustle of the damp cloth in the basket I was holding.
Lady Estella looked down at me for a long moment. No, more precisely, at my face, and then at the silver hair that had slipped down beside it.
“……”
Why wasn’t she saying anything? If she was going to scold me, she could do it quickly. Just staring like this was far more terrifying.
I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut, but even that felt impossible. Then, at last, the lips that had been pressed into a hard line slowly parted.
“What’s your name?”
Her voice was still cold, but for some reason it no longer carried that murderous edge from before.
“R, Ria.”
Lady Estella quietly rolled my name around in her mouth.
“Ria.”
I tightened my grip on the basket handle for no reason at all.
“I-I’m sorry. I took the wrong room... ”
Only then did the hand weighing down on my shoulder fall away. Even after it did, my shoulder still tingled and ached.
Lady Estella lowered her gaze a beat late, then returned to that same cold expression she’d worn at first.
“I told them no one was to be let into my room.”
“Y-yes.”
“Why did you come in?”
“I was told to leave the basket in the room at the far east end. I was told to set it on the table inside and come right back out...”
I kept my head bowed, my voice shrinking smaller and smaller.
“I’m sorry. I think I got the room wrong.”
Lady Estella let out a quiet sigh. At that one sound, the shoulders I had just loosened went rigid again.
“That room is all the way over there.”
“Pardon?”
“Leave.”
“Y-yes!”
I hugged the basket to myself and spun around in a hurry. My sweaty hand slipped slightly on the doorknob.
Get it together. If I trip here, I’m really done for.
I finally managed to open the door and slip outside, then closed it carefully behind me.
Click.
Only after hearing the door shut did the breath I’d been holding burst out of me.
“Haa...”
I really thought I was about to die there.
I leaned against the corridor wall and closed my eyes for a moment.
Thank goodness. I wasn’t cut down. Probably.
But then, the very next day, I was called again.
“Ria.”
“Yes!”
A senior maid was looking at me with a strange expression. I had just lifted the bucket I’d been about to use for scrubbing the floor, and now I stood frozen in place.
“Lady Estella is calling for you.”
“...For me?”
“Yes.”
The bucket in my hands suddenly felt much heavier.
Was this because of yesterday? So she hadn’t just let it go after all.
The senior maid looked at my bloodless face and let out a small sigh.
“What on earth did you do?”
“N-no, I didn’t really do anything.”
“When you go in, don’t talk back. Just answer what she asks.”
Another maid standing nearby added in a worried voice, “And don’t make excuses for no reason.”
Ah.
Was I really in trouble?
I set the bucket down to one side and walked with heavy steps toward Lady Estella’s room.
The corridor felt even longer than it had yesterday. Even my footsteps sounded too loud.
I stopped in front of the door and took a deep breath.
Should I run?
No, but what about the money I owe if I run? Part of my first paycheck was already supposed to go to the innkeeper.
With trembling fingers, I knocked.
“Come in.”
I opened the door carefully. Lady Estella was seated at her desk.
In her hand was a small silver object. When she sensed me enter, she quietly hid it in her palm and slid it into the drawer.
“Uh... I was told you called for me.”
Lady Estella looked at me without saying a word.
Before I knew it, I had straightened my back.
Then she spoke briefly.
“Clean.”
“Pardon?”
“I said to clean. Didn’t you hear me?”
Ah.
So I wasn’t being scolded after all.
Relief flooded through me, and I nodded vigorously.
“Yes! Understood!”
Thank goodness. Truly, thank goodness.
I immediately took up the cloth and started wiping around the desk. I was careful not to wet the papers, wiped the dust from the desk edges, and cleaned the window frame as well.
The room was already so spotless it was almost suffocating. Honestly, there wasn’t much to clean.
And yet Lady Estella had still called me in.
At first, I thought she wanted to watch whether I did my work properly. I thought she was looking for something to nitpick so she could give me a hard time. So, almost pointedly, I scrubbed even more diligently.
But something felt strange.
Lady Estella’s gaze wasn’t on the window frame I was cleaning; it kept settling on me.
When I wiped the window, she looked at my hands. When I stood in front of the bookcase, she stared at my hair as if trying to pierce right through it.
I tightened my grip on the cloth for no reason.
What is it? Am I cleaning wrong?
“I’m done.”
After a while, I reported cautiously. Lady Estella was silent for a moment.
I’d assumed she would inspect my work. But she didn’t even rise from her chair.
“Good.”
Then she lowered her gaze back to the papers.
“You may go.”
“Yes.”
I left the room with light steps.
Just before I closed the door, I caught a glimpse through the gap of Lady Estella’s hand returning to the drawer. It was a little strange.
But I decided not to think too deeply about it.
I hadn’t been scolded, so that was enough.
Still, I was called to Lady Estella’s room often after that.
First to dust the desk. Then to bring tea. Then to organize the bookshelf. One day she had me change the water in the flower vase. I simply did as I was told, quietly and obediently. Lady Estella still seemed cold, but not nearly as sharp and terrifying as the senior maids had made her sound. Rather, there was a faint kindness in the way she spoke, one word at a time.
Sometimes, though, she would ask sudden, unexpected questions.
“You still look young. You’re already working?”
I looked up from changing the water in the vase.
“I need to earn money.”
“Money?”
“Yes. I have debts to pay, money I’m owed, and other things too.”
“...Family?”
The question came out in one short cut-off breath. I blinked twice, then shook my head.
“None.”
Lady Estella didn’t immediately continue.
The room fell into an odd silence.
Thinking I might have answered wrong, I pressed my finger against the end of the rag.
“To be exact, I’m not really sure. I don’t remember any family.”
“......”
“But it’s fine. I’m used to being on my own.”
Only after saying it did I realize I’d slipped. There was no need to add something so unnecessary.
I hurriedly bowed my head and pretended to keep cleaning the desk. Lady Estella didn’t speak for a long while.
But I could feel her gaze on my back. It wasn’t the same as before, that cold look from above.
My back prickled strangely under it.
Another day, after I placed the tea down and turned to leave, Lady Estella called after me.
“Ria.”
“Yes.”
“Are you eating properly?”
It really was one bizarre question after another.
“I’m eating fine.”
“Not lacking anything?”
“Ah, yes. I’m not lacking anything.”
I had just set the teacup carefully on one side of the desk and was about to step back when it happened.
Grrrrowl.
I froze like a stone, tray still in hand.
Lady Estella, who had been turning over papers, slowly lifted her eyes.
“......”
“......”
No. Why now, of all times.
I clutched the tray handle and forced an awkward smile.
“Ahahaha... that wasn’t me just now...”
I stopped halfway through my feeble excuse and shut my mouth on my own. There were only the two of us in the room.
Without a word, Lady Estella opened the desk drawer. From inside, she took out a small, elegant paper box.
“Eat.”
“Pardon?”
“I kept these to have with tea.”
Inside the box she slid toward me were several small pastries, beautifully baked.
I hesitated for a moment, tray still in hand.
“But I’m still working...”
“One should be fine.”
Lady Estella’s voice remained quiet and calm.
I glanced at her and carefully picked up one pastry. The moment I took a bite, a rich, sweet flavor burst across my tongue.
It was far, far more delicious than I’d expected.
“...This is really good.”
I murmured it without thinking, and Lady Estella’s fingertips, resting on the papers, stopped for the briefest instant.
“I’m glad.”
Her voice in answer had sunk strangely low.
I chewed the rest of the pastry and stole a glance ahead. For some reason, Lady Estella wasn’t looking at the documents anymore. She was watching me eat for a long time.
With eyes that somehow looked a little sad.
* * *
That afternoon was especially stifling and sticky. The window was wide open, but not a single breath of wind came in.
While dusting the top shelves, sweat had gathered at the nape of my neck before I knew it. My long hair kept sticking to the damp skin there.
Ugh, annoying.
I set the cloth aside for a moment and haphazardly gathered the troublesome silver strands up. I pulled a string from my pocket and tied it into a rough knot.
Good enough, I guessed.
I was just rising onto my toes again to straighten the shelves when...
“Ria.”
Lady Estella’s cool voice came from behind me. I jumped and turned at once.
“Yes!”
She was seated at her desk, staring straight at me. Not at my face, but at the exposed nape of my neck.
“What is that on the back of your neck?”
“...Ah.”
I reached back belatedly and felt around the nape of my neck. Then I remembered the mark the Black Magician had burned into me.
I was done for. Normally it was hidden by my hair, but I must have revealed it completely when I tied it up just now.
“Is that a wound?”
Lady Estella’s voice dropped noticeably. I hesitated for a moment.
Should I hide it? No, the fact that I’d been brought in as part of the party handling the Black Magician’s bounty was already known through the guild. If I tried to cover it up clumsily here, I might only look more suspicious.
So, trying my best to seem unconcerned, I laughed it off lightly.
“Ah, this? I got it when I was trapped by a Black Magician.”
Lady Estella’s expression changed by a fraction. Tiny, but unmistakable.
“You were trapped?”
“Yes.”
I scratched at the back of my neck before I remembered and dropped my hand. Touching the area around the brand never felt pleasant.
“I was an experiment subject.”
The air in the room sank heavy and still.
Lady Estella said nothing, as if she had turned to stone.
Not wanting the atmosphere to grow more serious, I hurried to add, “But it’s fine now. That Black Magician is dead already.”
Lady Estella did not answer me.
The fingertips resting neatly on the papers curled inward, slowly, very slowly.
“How...”
“Pardon?”
“How did it happen?”
Ah. I didn’t know that either.
More precisely, it wasn’t that I didn’t know. It was that I couldn’t say.
I hadn’t been born into this world.
When I came to myself, I was already inside this small body. The body of the silver-haired girl I had raised in the game.
The cold stone floor. The dark room with not a single thread of light. The pain of the brand searing into my flesh at the nape of my neck. And the Black Magician’s voice, laughing and mocking.
That was all I remembered of the world at first.
I had no way of knowing what came before.
And there was no chance I could say the truth outright. I wasn’t about to tell her, Actually, I’m not from this world, and when I woke up I was on the floor of a laboratory. There was no way I could say something like that.
I gave a small shrug and smiled it away.
“I’m not sure. I don’t really know.”
Lady Estella’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“You don’t know?”
“No. I don’t have any memories from before.”
Maybe because I’d said it too plainly, her face hardened a little more than before.
I averted my eyes and fiddled with the end of the cloth.
“By the time I came to my senses, I was already with the Black Magician. I guess I’ve forgotten whether I had parents, where my home was, all of that.”
“......”
“If I had to say how much time I remember, it’s only about... five years? Six years? Around that.”
That was when it happened.
Lady Estella’s eyes stopped as though they had been nailed in place.
“Did you just say six years ago?”
Her voice was so faint it was almost a breath.
I tilted my head without thinking.
“Pardon?”
Creaaak-
Lady Estella shot up from her seat. The heavy chair scraped backward across the floor with a sharp, jarring sound that rang through the room.
Instinctively sensing danger, I stumbled a step back. But her hand moved much faster than my retreat.
Snatch-
“Ah...”
Her grip clamped around my arm with more force than I expected, and a short cry escaped me. Only then did I notice the slight tremor running through the fingers that held me.
But she did not let go.
“Six years. Did you say six years?”
“I mean, I’m not sure of the exact number. I just meant roughly around then...”
“Six years ago?”
She kept muttering the same words as though she couldn’t hear my explanation at all. Her eyes were on my face, but they didn’t seem to be seeing me.
I was a little scared now.
This was different from before.
“Um, Lady Estella.”
I carefully tried to pull my arm free.
“I’m basically done with the bookshelf. So I’ll be leaving now.”
No answer came.
Lady Estella remained standing there in the very same posture, still holding my arm. I didn’t wait any longer and slipped out of the room as if fleeing.
Only after I closed the door and stepped into the corridor did I let out the breath I’d been holding.
“...What was that, seriously.”
It was strange. What had just happened felt genuinely dangerous.
* * *
Even after the door closed, Serdia Estella didn’t move for a long while. The fingertips resting on the desk trembled slowly.
No, that couldn’t be.
There was no way that child had returned.
Serdia had known that for a very long time. She had told herself so over and over again ever since that day.
She would not come back. No matter how long she waited, the child would not return. The tiny footsteps that used to echo through the manor would never be heard again.
And yet her hand was already opening the drawer.
Deep in the back, wrapped carefully in soft silk cloth, there was a silver locket.
Serdia lifted it out with care.
It was an old locket, one she had opened and closed so many times she no longer knew how many. The tiny clasp came undone, and the picture held inside was revealed. A girl smiling brightly, frozen as if time itself had stopped.
Silver hair like woven moonlight. A small white face. A dimple that dented only her right cheek whenever she smiled.
Serdia’s fingertips gently traced the face inside the locket.
Six years ago. There was no way she could forget.
Crying. Screaming. Her eldest daughter sitting on the wet ground, clutching at her dress with bloodied hands and unable to speak. And then her younger daughter, who never came back at all.
From that day on, Serdia’s time had failed to move forward even one step.
Ria.
Serdia repeated the name she had just heard in her mind.
That child wasn’t her. She knew that.
The color of the eyes was different. The way she smiled, the way she spoke, her habits, everything was different. The more they spoke, the clearer it became. She wasn’t that child. She absolutely wasn’t.
And yet why?
Why did she have to appear before her eyes with that silver hair? Why, exactly six years later? Why, with every memory of the past wiped clean, did she have to come and shake Serdia’s heart like this?
Serdia tightened her hand around the locket.
It was an absurd thought.
There were no miracles that brought dead children back. God was not that merciful.
And yet one tiny thought refused to vanish, like a thorn lodged in her throat.
What if?
What if, just maybe, from the sky above, that child had taken pity on her.
What if she had looked down on Serdia, still bound to that day six years ago, and borrowed another body just to return to this manor once more?
In the end, Serdia could not close the locket.
If she shut the lid now, even that beautiful silver hair that had swayed before her eyes just moments ago would feel as though it would vanish forever.
“...Ria.”
The name was terribly unfamiliar.
And yet, strangely enough, once she had mouthed it aloud, it clung stubbornly to her lips, just like the true name of the child she had called for so long in the past.