Meanwhile, Idel discreetly glanced back and only relaxed when she confirmed that Dante wasn’t moving from his spot.
‘Dante Knightley is smart, so he must have figured out that the person who dislikes him is me.’
If not, he would have persistently followed her, given his personality.
With that thought, Idel lightly shook her head and walked towards her room.
Since the maids had given up and gone back, it was now time to sneak around her room.
‘The best scenario would be to run into Veronica or Sylvia…’
“Miss Idel.”
Bingo.
She was starting to get used to these coincidences. Idel composed her expression at the sound of Sylvia’s voice from behind.
Before she could turn around, Sylvia approached her with a serious expression.
“Miss Idel, there you are. The maids said they couldn’t find you… Were you avoiding them?”
“Hmph, they were probably just pretending to look.”
“…Sigh.”
Thinking Idel was just nitpicking again, Sylvia let out a small sigh and continued.
“Miss Idel, it’s not that you should get close to the servants or treat them well. However, treating them the way you do now could become an issue.”
“Treating them the way I do now? What have I done?”
“Like disregarding the servants’ hard work or pretending their mistakes are intentional…”
“Right. That’s how it looks to you.”
Idel cut off Sylvia’s words as if she hadn’t expected anything different. Then, turning her body slightly as if she didn’t want to continue the conversation, a barely audible mutter escaped her lips.
“This is all because of you from the start…”
“Excuse me?”
With a look as if to say, “What did you just say?” Sylvia raised her eyebrows and opened her mouth.
“You really don’t know?”
“What do you mean I don’t know?”
“That stupid thing I saw in your office the other day…”
“Miss Idel!”
“Tch.”
Idel clicked her tongue lightly at Veronica’s sudden appearance, which had her precariously walking a fine line.
Of course, she had no intention of telling Sylvia the truth right now. It was obvious that Veronica wouldn’t leave her and Sylvia alone, and…
‘The moment Sylvia learns the truth needs to be more dramatic than this.’
Glancing at Sylvia, Idel bit her lower lip slightly and looked at Veronica.
Idel and Veronica’s gazes briefly collided in the air.
Veronica quickly assessed Idel’s expression.
‘Is it because of her pride?’
Idel Clementine was holding her ground despite realizing her situation. She didn’t seem to be afraid of her yet.
‘But it seems she hasn’t told Sylvia yet.’
Even though she had intervened, the old Idel would have immediately spoken in front of her.
Veronica, twisting the corners of her mouth subtly, put on a gentle expression and let out a sigh of relief.
“Ah… I’m so glad you were with Sylvia. Really.”
“……”
“I was really worried when you went out, Miss Idel. I’ll make sure to give the maids a bit more guidance, so please don’t be upset, okay?”
“…Forget it. I don’t want to see anyone today, so tell everyone to leave except Diane.”
“If that’s what you want, I will do so.”
Veronica, responding politely to Idel’s words, turned her head toward Sylvia.
“Sylvia, I will escort Miss Idel to her room. You must have a lot of work as it is, so please leave this to me.”
“Ah, just a moment…”
“Yes?”
Sylvia instinctively grabbed both of them and, after a moment of contemplation, shook her head.
“No, it’s nothing.”
While it was true that Idel’s earlier words were bothering her, it wasn’t important enough to pry in front of Veronica.
‘I can check later when the opportunity arises.’
Taking in Idel’s sulky expression, she calmly said to Veronica, “Then please take good care of Idel. The servants too. If any problems arise, don’t hesitate to come to me.”
“Yes, don’t worry. Well then, I’ll take my leave. Miss Idel, let’s go.”
“Don’t touch my body.”
Idel spoke sharply to Veronica, throwing one last glance at Sylvia before walking toward her room.
It seemed she had set a pretty good bait for ‘that moment.’
☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
“Miss Idel, then, as you mentioned, we will take our leave…”
“Where’s Diane?”
“Ah, Diane… I called her, but it seems something came up. I’ll send someone again.”
“Hmph.”
“Then I’ll close the door. Please rest comfortably, Miss Idel.”
Watching the door close without a moment’s hesitation, Idel tilted the corners of her mouth into a smile.
“What work? She probably just didn’t call Diane.”
She likely had no intention of calling her in the future either.
It seemed like this time, they were going to neglect her. Using Idel’s request to leave her alone as an excuse.
‘That’s good for me.’
Was it because the servants had been bothering her so childishly? She had been feeling that her surroundings were too noisy lately.
Relaxing her tension with the certainty that no one would come, Idel flopped onto the bed.
‘…I’m tired.’
The tension she had been holding to react appropriately to the situation eased up.
‘It makes sense. When I go to meet Sigmund, I don’t need to strategize, so I can at least catch my breath, but right now I can’t do that.’
The sensation of the blanket against her cheek felt softer than usual today. Just as her eyelids were growing heavier and she was slowly blinking…
– Knock, knock!
A knocking sound came from the window.
Not the door, but the window? Startled, Idel quickly lifted her head. With a wary gaze, she looked out the window and tilted her head in confusion.
‘…A bird?’
The one knocking on the window was a black-feathered raven with red eyes.
The raven, peering in with its bright eyes, knocked on the glass again with its beak.
– Knock, knock, knock!
It was as if it had been waiting for their eyes to meet, acting quickly.
Seeing the raven, which clearly seemed to have a will of its own, Idel sighed softly and approached the window.
‘Melisa didn’t send this to spy on me, did she?’
It shouldn’t be necessary to go that far yet. Or perhaps she wanted to take pleasure in seeing Idel struggle…
‘It’s obvious this isn’t an ordinary raven, so I’m feeling wary.’
Of course, either way, Idel had only one choice: to open the window.
Ignoring it wouldn’t make the raven simply go away.
– Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock!
“Ah, I got it. I’ll open it now.”
Wow, it’s really impatient.
Thinking that the bird had no patience, Idel opened the window.
The raven nodded as if welcoming Idel’s action and hopped into the room.
Then it blinked its round eyes and stared at Idel intently.
‘What is this?’
Just then, as Idel found herself unintentionally in a staring contest with the bird, the raven tilted its head from side to side and proudly extended its foot toward her.
“What’s this?”
“Caw!”
Was it because she was so dumbfounded? Only then did Idel notice that something was dangling from the raven’s foot.
It was a raven-shaped device, about the size of her finger.
‘…A raven attached to a raven’s foot?’
What a bizarre object this was.
As Idel narrowed her eyes and stared at the device, the raven device suddenly opened its tiny beak and spat out a small note.
[Hey. Death?]
[Frustration. Creation. Secretly]
[Answer. Note. Feed]
[Shortly]
…No, four of them.
Idel let out a small gasp as she stared blankly at the list of notes.
It was only after seeing the note that she realized the being in front of her was nothing other than a ‘raven.’
“I was foolish.”
“Caw?”
“The raven is a typical symbol of the ‘raven’s den.’”
It seemed that Sigmund, unable to contain his frustration due to the lack of news, had created a communication artifact.
‘Given that only short words are transmitted, it doesn’t seem very high-performing.’
But it’s something.
Following Sigmund’s request, Idel wrote a few short words on a piece of paper and fed it to the raven artifact.
Watching the note disappear in an instant, Idel couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
There was no particular reason. It was just…
[Ability. Lacking?]
[Joke. Cute]
She could imagine Sigmund’s reaction to seeing the note, which could be interpreted in multiple ways.
