“What do you mean all of a sudden?”
The next day, Mikhail, who was eating breakfast with me, asked in puzzlement.
“Why did Sir Lifros become a knight of our house? As you know, didn’t Father bring him over because he highly valued his skills as a boy knight during the Iota trade expedition?”
I tried to refute him by repeating exactly what Count Leroy had said, but I stopped, worried it might harm Sir Lifros.
“It’s nothing.”
“You bland fellow. Stop thinking useless thoughts and eat your bread.”
At first, I thought Count Leroy had transferred his dislike of me onto Sir Lifros.
But there were aspects of the count’s words worth considering. And I felt pathetic for trying to suspect Leon over such things.
Even after finishing the meal and going up to Mother’s room as usual, I felt disturbed. Even when Jake came fussing over something, grinning broadly.
“……? What are you doing?”
“Earrings that don’t require pierced ears! How about them?”
A chill settled in my chest.
“Anyway, the ancients made so many interesting things. It’s fine to dress up with something like this once in a while! It’s even better if you look beautiful!”
Jake chattered while mentioning Benedict in whispers, but I couldn’t hear anything.
The moment I saw the blue earrings that resembled Rilke’s eyes, I froze.
“Jake, where did this come from?”
The appearance of the earrings seemed to stick to my eyes.
I was worried whether I’d recognize them, but I recognized them at once.
No one would have known. That those earrings resembling water harbored terrible fire.
One side of my face felt like it was burning.
“This? It was sent by the person who kept sending letters?”
Jake carefully retraced her memory.
In the past, it was supposed to be sent by Baron Moss,
“That young lady! The young master’s friend!”
This time, the sender was Lucia Lifros.
My vision went dark. All kinds of thoughts went through my head.
“Don’t you like it?”
“No… no. For now,”
I don’t know what to do with that. Even now, held in Jake’s hands, it looked too dangerous.
The blue light of the earrings glinted darkly like the deepest part of a pond.
“I need to call a mage. Not an alpha or omega, but a mage proficient in enchantment magic.”
“Young master?”
I’d been anxious wondering when it would appear, but it really appeared before me again.
Though trembling, I felt relieved inside. It was worth pretending I couldn’t fully control my pheromones all this time.
That thing, an ominous legacy originating from the ancient island, only reacted to omega pheromones.
I’d been careful in case Rilke, who might learn I could control my pheromones, would attack me in some other way I didn’t know about.
Originally it should have arrived in September, but perhaps because the past had changed, it only appeared before my eyes now.
Then at the consecutively rising fact, thud, a rock settled in my chest.
It’s already mid-October.
“Joachim!”
Jake’s voice seemed to come from far away.
“Joachim, are you okay?”
She was calling me like when we were young. I grabbed Jake’s hand, which was gripping my arm worriedly.
“I’m okay.”
Actually, I’m not really okay.
In the changed present, the Regent Duke might not die.
It was September when my face melted away, and October when the Regent Duke suddenly died under mysterious circumstances.
I couldn’t know the exact date when he died. The me of the past had still lost my reason at that time and couldn’t even participate in the hunting festival, bedridden.
But I vaguely remembered that the Regent Duke’s obituary was delivered in early October.
Half of October had already passed.
Two days later, I attended a ball held at the great mansion.
It was the largest scale social event held after the hunting festival. I heard it was a banquet combined with a music salon and that Benedict would also attend.
“The court music director will present a new piece with his soul, or something. They say the Regent Duke will also come.”
There was such content among the news Jake conveyed.
Black spots.
A disease where pitch-black spots appeared all over the body, and when those spots completely covered the skin in black, it led to death.
At the fastest, two weeks; people who endured long lasted up to two months. It was certain that the Regent Duke had died in October in the past. If he’d contracted the disease, he couldn’t be unharmed now.
I organized the things that changed from the past and what I learned regarding the black spots.
- Mikhail, who had been fine before, contracted black spots.
- Rilke Meyer became Rilke Yorick.
- Rilke is a witch or an accomplice.
However, for number 3, from Ethan’s testimony, I was leaning more toward Rilke being the witch himself.
“Have you heard the rumor that there’s a secret room in the basement of the great mansion?”
Since Mikhail wouldn’t leave the mansion, I attended with Sir Lifros in his place. Sir Lifros brought up the topic as if it were an exciting story.
“Of course. There’s no one who knows more about this basement than me.”
“How thorough of you.”
Perhaps thinking it was a joke, Sir Lifros made a cheerful face.
“Good to see you, Prince Meyer. I hope you enjoy yourself to the fullest on behalf of Count Meyer.”
Since I came as the family representative, I exchanged greetings with Count Quina, the owner of the great mansion. He was a ruddy-complexioned, well-built man in his late thirties.
“I heard your younger sister organized the banquet.”
“Haha, that child’s skills are always excellent, as you can see.”
The count laughed good-naturedly, but thinking of his other side made me feel unpleasant.
Though I said it like a joke, I already knew what was really in this basement. Because of that incident, the mansion would be destroyed, but there would be no casualties. That’s why I just thought it was karma and didn’t give any hint.
The Regent Duke’s figure wasn’t visible anywhere.
If he didn’t come today, should I think he’d contracted the disease?
Postponing my conclusion about Duke Yorick, I walked toward today’s second goal.
“It’s been a while, Joachim!”
Lucia was dressed in a warm-looking velvet dress, holding a small handbag.
“I thought you forgot about me since you were only with your brother during the entire hunting festival! Where is your brother?”
“I think he met a friend at the entrance.”
Lucia, who had been looking around quickly, grinned and led me inside the hall. She mentioned the lawsuit between House Yorick and House Meyer that had only a week left.
“Are the trial preparations going well? The rumor is already rampant in high society! I heard that House Meyer also gained an ally no less than Duke Yorick?”
Lucia informed me that rumors had spread completely—that Mikhail had become Benedict’s confidant, and so Count Leroy took on House Meyer’s lawsuit.
“Even His Highness the Prince can’t ignore House Meyer’s wealth or business acumen. Count Meyer should be walking around proudly, but we can’t see him at all? You know that thing!”
‘The face of a successful young count!’ Lucia raised only one corner of her mouth diagonally and lifted her chin coldly. It looked exactly like Mikhail’s public face, so I hurriedly pressed my lips with my fist to swallow my laughter.
“Ahem, my brother isn’t feeling well.”
“Well, he did really look sick when he collapsed that time.”
After eagerly taking me to a corner, she brought up the main point.
“Joachim, I have something to give you.”
Telling me not to be surprised, she took something out of her handbag.
It was a letter envelope finished with pale green luxury paper.
“What’s this?”
Lucia’s cheeks reddened slightly. With a flushed face, she spoke shyly yet straightening her shoulders confidently.
“I’m getting married!”
My mouth fell open.
With her permission, I carefully opened the envelope resembling spring leaves.
“A really pretty wedding invitation— no, that’s not it, how… did you suddenly make such a decision? Ah, congratulations! I am congratulating you, but,”
“You don’t have to be flustered.”
All her friends had the same reaction, Lucia said, nodding her head emphatically.
“They’re such a perfect match, I sincerely congratulate you. But, uh, do you like him that much?”
Just then, far over there, Lucia’s fiancé, an imperial knight, was looking this way. No matter how I looked at it, Lucia seemed too good for him.
“I think so too!”
Lucia laughed cheerfully.
“But I can’t help it. If I don’t see him even for a day, I feel like I’ll die.”
“Ah… then you should.”
Lucia’s face, which had been smiling brightly like Sir Lifros, clouded slightly.
“Actually, I’m anxious.”
Her small hand firmly closed the open handbag.
“I’m constantly anxious. I even talked to a physician. I only heard advice to forget all bad memories and eat and sleep well, but it didn’t get better. But when I’m with him, it completely clears up. As if it never happened. I feel like nothing will happen and I feel only reassured!”
My heart ached watching Lucia forcibly ending her words brightly. She was talking about Baron Moss.
‘Did you hear about it?’
I’d hoped Lucia wouldn’t know, but it was such a shocking case that rumors spreading couldn’t be helped.
‘…Baron Moss, the gloomy and quiet one.’
‘Serial murder and corpse mutilation. …I heard the form was indescribably horrific. …Making them exactly like himself… matching the length somehow if it was different… the face and hair too……’
Baron Moss would probably receive ancient punishment, not humanitarian punishment. His crimes were that atrocious.
That the baron was caught was immensely reassuring, but it could have become a wound of a different meaning to Lucia. When I received the earrings again too, I avoided the moment of getting burned like in the past, but just being targeted again made me feel furious.
“I sent you a gift?”
I didn’t want to ask Lucia about the earrings when her heart was already heavy from Baron Moss’s incident, but I still had to confirm.
“What was it, remarkably excellent homemade jam? Shall I really send you a gift?”
Saying she’d received delicious waffles from me several times, she showed her characteristic thick skin. Even while receiving Lucia’s words, I felt upset that I couldn’t purely enjoy them.
I really wanted to properly repay Rilke who created this situation. I listened to her chatter without being able to concentrate on the conversation.
“So the biggest opposer of our marriage is, oops, coming.”
Lucia snatched champagne from a passing servant’s tray.
I didn’t even have time to stop her. She gulped down two glasses in succession and pretended to be drunk. And then she really got drunk.
