The Runaway Young Lady Wants Her Home (3)
"Mari. I like the Robbins family."
"…My understanding is too limited to grasp your meaning, my lady. Forgive me."
"There's no hidden meaning. I simply realized that I like the Robbins family — exactly as it sounds."
Silvia looked at Mari.
Mari was a maid who belonged not to herself, but to the Robbins family. And it wasn't only Mari. Everything Silvia wore right now had come from the Robbins family as well — the beautiful clothes, the glittering ornaments. From head to toe, she was adorned in things that belonged to House Robbins.
"I need the Robbins family's vast wealth and renown. I want the power to stand above other people. I love the grand estate I've lived in my whole life."
If none of it had ever been given to her in the first place, it might have been different. But she already knew the sweet taste of power and fortune. She knew the pleasure of commanding countless servants and attendants, of eating delicious food.
There were two choices before Silvia. Accept her fate and rot away for the rest of her life in some backwater countryside where even the toilets were outdated — or defy that fate and protect everything she already had. One or the other.
"I'm not leaving the family."
Nothing was more infuriating than being given something only to have it snatched away. Silvia resolved to hold on to everything that was hers.
"But I don't need the people in it. The Duchess, the other siblings, and Father as well… I've realized they're nothing but obstacles standing in the way of what's mine."
"My lady…"
Mari started to reach toward Silvia, then let her hand fall. She understood. Her lady had already made up her mind.
"Heh. I don't need Father anymore."
"My lady. If anyone else had overheard what you just said, it would have been a disaster. Please watch your words."
"You're right. If someone had heard, it would have been a disaster."
A disaster. She'd already been targeted for assassination by her own father twice, so the disaster had long since arrived. The water had been spilled ages ago.
"Sir Rix opened my eyes. Not every parent is a good person."
Silvia smiled, looking thoroughly unburdened.
"That's my story. Well? Feeling ready to talk yet?"
A man lay face-down on the ground, hands and feet bound, unable to move an inch.
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
An iron gag was clamped between his teeth. He was screaming desperately through it.
Silvia removed the gag.
"You insane bitch! And you call yourself a noble after this?! You're nothing but human garbage!"
"My, how surprising. You still have enough energy left to insult me."
Silvia stretched a thin line of Red Lightning and drove it into the man's body like an acupuncture needle.
"Gyaaaaaah! Aaaagh!!"
Every time the lightning needle pierced him, the man screamed in agony.
"Kill me — just kill me alreadyyy!!"
Magic that killed people was easy. What was truly difficult was magic that inflicted pain without quite killing. You had to know the human body's weak points and durability, and you had to be capable of the finest magical control at the same time.
The Academy's genius mage. Silvia was a master of torture.
"Gyaaaaaaah!!!"
The man screamed, his face flushed scarlet — a red face smeared with tears, snot, and drool.
"You came here to kill me, so you should have been prepared to die yourself. This much is only natural."
"Haaah. I-I'll talk. Hic. I'll tell you everything about who ordered it!"
The bandit who had attacked Silvia cried out with a desperate look on his face. He had broken under the genius mage's torture.
"Everything — I'll tell you everything I know!!"
"No need."
"What…?"
"I already know."
Ashen gray bled into the bandit's red face. He still didn't understand the situation, but he could feel perfectly well that he was in grave danger.
"Th-then why did you even ask me? Going so far as to torture me…?"
"Hmm."
Silvia thought for about three seconds before speaking.
"It would be such a waste to send someone who came to assassinate me off to the next world comfortably."
"Ha… haha…"
"Shall we start the next experiment, then? Everything I learned at the Academy was pure theory. This is my first time trying it for real, so I'm terribly excited!"
"Demon… You're a demon."
"Calling a person a demon. How rude."
"You're enjoying the torture and you still claim you're not a demon?!"
Silvia smiled — a soft, cruel smile. Red Lightning coiled around her right hand.
"Villainess. Call me that."
The torture continued.
"Ah, that was refreshing. Inflicting pain is so much easier than straining yourself to hurl insults. I never knew."
Silvia dusted off her hands and left. The bandit's corpse was burned until not a trace remained. The only witnesses to this murder were Silvia herself and her maid, Mari.
"Mari. From this moment on, I'm taking back everything that was stolen from me."
"…I will follow your will, my lady."
"Good choice. Wise of you — just as I'd expect from the maid I trust."
She set off. She climbed into a carriage bound for the Robbins Duke Estate.
On the road back to the manor, the carriage rattled and jolted over the rough country path.
Come to think of it, Sir Rix said something like that once.
If someone hates you for no reason, give them a reason to hate you.
I didn't really understand what that meant at the time…
Now she thought she did.
The Robbins Duke Estate.
Silvia arrived before the vast, magnificent manor she had lived in all her life.
"Mari. Wait outside. I'll handle things and come back."
"Understood."
She walked toward the grand estate.
"L-Lady Silvia?! You've returned!"
"Yes. I'm back."
The moment her eyes met those of a servant in the garden, the man nearly jumped out of his skin.
"His Grace has been anxiously waiting for you, my lady. He has been terribly worried since you vanished without a word."
"Is that so. I suppose he would be worried."
He'd been planning to kill her, and then she'd suddenly disappeared — of course he'd been flustered. It wasn't a father's concern. He was worried because his plans had gone awry.
From Father's perspective, does it look like I simply got lucky?
Escaping two assassination plots had been entirely thanks to Rix. Not knowing the truth behind it, her father would have assumed it was pure coincidence and been more than a little rattled.
Sir Rix, really. Claiming he received a consultation fee, and yet helping me this much…
Silvia recalled her conversation with Rix. When she'd asked why he was helping her, he'd brushed it off by saying he'd taken a consultation fee, so of course he would.
To go so far as to give that kind of nonsensical answer just to hide his real reason…
A consultation fee? She'd never even heard the word. It was obvious he'd just made something up on the spot. So what was the real reason Rix had helped her?
Sir Rix must like me. If that weren't the case, there'd be no need to hide why he's helping me, would there?
Silvia knew her own looks were exceptional. The Empire's most dazzling jewel — that was the kind of nickname people gave her. Handsome and beautiful people inevitably learned they were handsome and beautiful, because the reactions around them made it impossible not to notice. Do the same thing, and if you were good-looking, you got bonus points. That was how the world worked.
Heh. Sir Rix could have just admitted he'd fallen for my looks. Acting all shy like some teenage boy. He has a cute side.
Silvia pictured Rix's face. He wasn't extraordinarily handsome, but he was tall and rather good-looking in a warm, pleasant way.
If Sir Rix ever confessed to me… Hmm, I don't think I'd have to turn him down. Someone like Sir Rix is perfectly fine.
She kept walking, lost in her fantasies.
His looks are just handsome enough, which is actually better. No fox-faced women will come swarming after him for his appearance alone.
Sir Rix's charm was something only she understood. Silvia smiled, thoroughly satisfied with the thought.
Lost in idle musings as she walked, she soon reached the end of the garden and stepped into the manor.
"Lady Silvia?! Y-you've returned!"
"It's been a while."
Every servant she encountered nearly jumped out of their skin, reacting as though they'd run into a ghost. As she wandered about startling people left and right, word of Silvia's return spread quickly. Everyone in the estate learned she was back — including her father, Bardo Robbins.
Upon hearing the news, Bardo stormed out of his room with a face twisted in fury and set out at once to find Silvia.
The grand, beautiful central staircase connecting the first and second floors. Bardo stood at the top of it, on the second floor.
"Silvia! Where in the world have you been without a word?!"
He shouted down at Silvia on the first floor. She slowly lifted her head and looked up at her father on the second floor.
"It's been a while, Father. I trust you've been well."
"Is that all you have to say?! Do you have any idea how much I've fretted because of you?!"
"You must have suffered terribly, missing your chance to assassinate me."
"…What? S-Silvia. What on earth are you—"
Crack-!
Silvia leapt, leaving a trail of Red Lightning in her wake.
BOOM—!
She vaulted the staircase in a single bound and shot up to the second floor. Now their eyes were level.
"Father. It's been so long — why don't we have a nice, heartfelt father-daughter chat?"