Escape (12)
Escape (12)
Rineta and I were moved to the main house.
A fair amount of time had passed since then.
Today, Rineta's face kept surfacing in my mind.
The face twisted in agony, vomiting dark red blood.
Levina said she was alive.
Only that she was alive.
I hadn't gone to see her myself.
I had no idea what expression I should wear if I saw her again, or what words I should let out.
I returned to the room Levina had prepared for me, right next to her own.
The book in my hand lay open, but none of the words registered.
The letters merely drifted across the paper without meaning.
A translucent window appeared in the air.
At this point, I half-suspected it was a hallucination.
Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any psychiatrists who specialized in people who'd been burned alive.
[Collect the Endings. 3/?]
[Currently Collected Reward: Lingering Fragrance]
[Reward: Return to the Original World, ??]
I stared vacantly at the System window.
Something had changed, but I couldn't tell exactly what.
Since I knew nothing, I hesitated even to believe that Serepina would trust me despite having changed.
The moment I first returned surfaced in my mind.
The moment Levina blew my head off right in front of me.
I didn't want to ask myself how it had come to this.
If I asked myself, the only answer I'd get would be something idiotic.
The people who end up on the streets aren't all like that, but most of them have reasons for it that make a grim kind of sense.
I wasn't much different.
Given that I was living like such a fool, it was probably because I was one.
In the beginning, all I could think about was going back.
The room felt suffocatingly stifling.
This space, filled with neat wallpaper and expensive furniture, kept overlapping with the underground prison I'd been locked in before.
I shut the book and stood up.
I opened the door and stepped into the hallway.
A long, silent hallway.
A hallway that existed only in 'Ravin's' memories, but it was familiar nonetheless.
On both walls, portraits of those who had belonged to Edelgard stared down at me with indifferent eyes.
Somewhere near the end, a portrait of me as a child was probably tucked into a corner.
When everyone else had objected, Father had insisted on having it painted and hung, wanting to leave it behind.
I walked aimlessly, leaving their gazes behind me.
Then I ran into someone around the corner of the hallway.
A middle-aged woman in an elegant dress.
The Duchess.
Levina's mother.
The person who had poisoned Rineta and me.
She narrowed her eyes at me, looking slightly flustered.
"You... what on earth are you doing here?"
Surprise and wariness mingled in her voice.
I wondered if she hadn't known I was staying here.
Thinking back, I hadn't left my room once since coming to the main house.
Even my meals were dealt with by eating the reasonably soft bread Levina kept stocked in the room.
"The Heir Apparent brought me. She said she couldn't stand to see someone who was once part of Edelgard wandering the streets."
The Duchess seemed to mull over my reply.
Soon after, she smiled gently and spoke to me.
"In any case, it's been a while since I've seen your face. Since you're here, why don't we have a word in private?"
The atmosphere didn't allow for refusal.
We headed to the conservatory garden at the back of the mansion.
Afternoon sunlight poured through the glass ceiling.
The conservatory air was warm and humid, thick with the scent of nameless flowers.
The Duchess didn't speak right away.
She strolled slowly through the garden, gently stroking the colorful plants.
Whenever her hand touched them, the leaves seemed to tremble faintly.
She stopped in front of a blue flower with a purple tinge.
Without hesitation, she snapped it off.
The sound of the slender stem breaking was unnervingly clear.
Maybe I only imagined hearing it.
"It seems you've managed to occupy quite a corner of Levina's heart."
She spoke in a low murmur.
Just then, servants entered carrying refreshments and tea on a silver tray.
Two white teacups and a plate of cookies were set on the table.
Fragrant steam rose from the teapot.
A teacup was placed in front of me, but I didn't touch it.
The memory of collapsing while vomiting blood a few days ago was still vivid.
The Duchess, whether she noticed or not, picked up a cookie and bit into it elegantly.
"It was always that way since you were a child. You were a child who received people's love. I love you too, dear. For now, at least. You were an Edelgard child, after all."
She spoke calmly.
Her voice was so excessively serene that one could mistake her for a mother meeting a son she hadn't seen in a long time.
"So I can't fathom how you grew so close to Levina. That child wasn't raised to open her heart easily. Because she's the Heir Apparent of Edelgard."
I answered her.
"I wouldn't know, since I know nothing. She must have simply looked upon me favorably."
At least, to me, that was the truth.
But the Duchess made a soft 'hmm' sound, as if she didn't believe me.
"Ah, that reminds me. Someone called Rineta. A child who entered around the same time as you. I hear she was gravely injured in the annex and is receiving treatment in this mansion. Would you happen to know anything about it?"
She asked me this, pretending to know nothing.
"These days, Levina often went to the annex. Then, suddenly, she brought over a child living there who had fallen ill, giving her a tiny room in the mansion to stay in. She's so fiercely protective of her that she won't even let her own mother near."
"I don't know who you could be referring to."
I nudged the teacup in front of me lightly with my finger.
It slid silently across the table.
The Duchess gave a slight frown at the sight, but soon recovered her usual smile.
"Your insolence remains unchanged. Tell me, do you plan to keep living here from now on?"
"I don't know."
"My, you've changed a great deal. Unlike before, there's a lot you don't know. Why, your mother..."
I cut her off mid-sentence.
"I must have been through quite a lot."
The conversation went back and forth a few more times like that.
Meaningless pleasantries and trivial small talk.
Then the Duchess brought it up, as naturally as could be.
"You are beautiful, just like your mother. And your end will likely be similar."
I said nothing.
The Duchess picked up the teapot.
She began to pour tea into my cup.
The teacup filled, but she didn't stop.
The hot tea overflowed the cup and spilled onto the saucer.
From the saucer, it overflowed again and spread across the table.
The tinted tea soaked into the white tablecloth, creating a bizarre pattern.
"Do make yourself comfortable for the time being."
Leaving those words behind, the Duchess rose from her seat.
She left the conservatory, leaving behind the tea I hadn't drunk and the overflowing table.
The sound of her footsteps faded, and silence returned to the conservatory.
Only the wet tablecloth and I remained.
Not long after returning to my room, I heard a knock at the door.
Knock, knock.
Levina opened the door after knocking and came in.
"At least you knock these days."
I said.
For the first few days, she would enter without knocking, rummaging around or bringing in new things.
Whether I was sleeping or awake, she hadn't cared.
Levina ignored my comment and got to the point.
"You left your room this afternoon."
Her voice was low and calm, but had a sharp edge.
"I heard you wandered the hallway without my permission and even had a private conversation with Mother. Are you out of your mind?"
Levina walked up to me, lowering her voice.
"What were you thinking, staying alone with that woman? I told you to stay in the room."
She grabbed my shoulders and forcibly turned me to face her.
Her pupils were shaking uneasily.
"Are you hurt anywhere? You didn't drink or eat anything strange, did you?"
She inspected my face and body carefully.
I said nothing.
I just silently endured her touch.
"Nothing happened."
"Aren't you even afraid?"
"Of what?"
"You could have died."
"Then I'd die. So what."
Levina seemed displeased by my lack of reaction.
"Back at the annex... when you were with that maid, you still smiled sometimes. You seemed... alive. But now..."
"..."
"Ravin, if you die, that maid dies too. In the end, it would be that worthless maid who killed you."
Levina cupped my face in both hands, forcing me to look at her.
Cold fingers touched my cheeks.
"If you die, I'll kill that maid as well."
Whenever our eyes met, I had always been afraid of those dispassionate eyes.
I wore a mask of indifference now, but both now and in childhood, it had always been the same.
It was the look of someone who could kill a person without a flicker of expression.
I thought idly while listening to her.
I'd be glad if she could kill Kyle for me.
But the mood wasn't right for a reply, so I didn't voice it.
While entertaining such a pointless thought, it suddenly felt as if Levina's earlier words had lodged themselves in my skull.
"...Wait. Who did you kill?"
"I eliminated that child's reason for doing anything reckless."
I started to answer, but after looking at Levina's face, I didn't want to continue the conversation.
For some reason I wanted to smoke a cigar, but fire still frightened me.
A hollow laugh escaped my lips.