Chapter 47
I Want to Be Helpful to You (2)
The next day, as soon as I washed up and got ready, I left my room to find Ethan.
“Edith.”
Ethan was looking for me too.
I nodded as I approached him.
“Ethan, we should go find Diana now and discuss when to visit the office. I’m worried she might have already made a move.”
“Good idea. Where is Diana then?”
“That’s the thing. Her room was empty.”
Diana’s room, which I had just visited, was chillingly cold.
The bed should have been at least a little rumpled, but even that was neat and tidy.
Where could she have gone so early in the morning?
As I tilted my head in thought, a small figure suddenly appeared at the end of the hallway. It was Diana.
“Diana!”
As I called out to Diana happily, she came running with a bright smile.
“Sister!”
And the strange occurrence happened as soon as I mentioned ‘yesterday’s events’.
“About what we talked about yesterday.”
Diana, smiling like a baby angel, said this.
“Hm? Ah~ that. It was nothing, Sister! Thinking about it again, I think I was mistaken.”
It took a moment for me to understand Diana’s words.
So… what did she say?
“…What?”
“Really~ Don’t you love your family, Sister? It’s natural, isn’t it?”
Diana pulled my arm, hugging me tightly while looking up with sparkling eyes.
It was a completely different look from yesterday when she seemed pitiful, as if I were the only person she could trust.
“……”
“It’s natural that Dad might get angry because I spilled the ink, and it’s natural for the servants to manage the castle diligently. Isn’t that right? I think I was being too sensitive.”
Diana, holding onto my arm and playfully swinging it, looked as if there was really nothing wrong.
“I only need you, Sister.”
“……”
In just one night, Diana had changed to be no different from Mother and Father.
Why on earth…
At that moment, Ethan, who had been watching from behind, pushed and broke a vase decorating the corridor.
Crash!
“……”
With the sound of the vase shattering, Diana’s hand swinging my arm stopped abruptly.
“……”
Diana glared at Ethan with a suddenly changed expression. It was an extremely chilling look. At the same time, it was an expression I had never seen on Diana before.
“Young Lord, what are you doing?”
Her clear voice rang sharply through the empty corridor.
Ethan raised both hands with a blunt expression while kicking aside the broken vase pieces with his foot.
“Oh, it was an accident.”
That was clearly not a mistake to anyone watching. Why suddenly…
“Haa.”
Just then, Diana suddenly collapsed onto the floor.
Then, before either Ethan or I could stop her, she quickly grasped the glass shards with her bare hands and burst out in anger.
“What mistake…! I knew you would ruin Crowell Castle!!”
A frenzied anger towards someone who damaged Crowell Castle’s property, a chilling voice and expression…
“Get out of this castle right now!”
“Unfortunately, I’m a guest. I can’t leave as I please. I’m sorry, Diana.”
Ethan’s gaze, which had been responding to Diana, briefly turned to me.
Thanks to that glance, I barely regained my senses. I could read Ethan’s intention.
I nodded briefly, knelt down opposite Diana, and grabbed her thin, dry wrist.
“…Diana.”
I could feel the wrist, easily held in one hand, trembling. Her skin was as cool as a plaster statue.
Struggling to keep my voice from cracking, I whispered to Diana.
“Your hands… they’re hurt.”
When I waved my hand to magically gather and lift the flower vase fragments, Diana’s expression finally softened.
The way she calmed down when I spoke to her was exactly like the symptoms my mother and father had shown at the dinner table.
Diana muttered absent-mindedly.
“Ah, Sister…”
“……”
I bit my lip and removed the glass shard embedded in Diana’s hand. Because it had dug into the flesh, I couldn’t remove it instantly with magic.
Especially since Diana had clenched her fist around the glass shard, her palm was a complete mess.
At this rate, I couldn’t even use healing magic.
As I held Diana’s hand, frozen, Diana glanced at me and suddenly stood up.
“This much is nothing, I can treat it myself! Don’t worry, sister!”
She says with a forced smile, even as blood drips from her hand. In an instant, Diana ran down the corridor and disappeared.
Watching Diana’s light brown hair flutter as she ran away, I felt as if my heart had stopped.
Where is she going with her hand injured like that…!
I reached out hurriedly, but Ethan grabbed my other arm.
“……”
I didn’t shake off Ethan’s grip. It was a wise decision not to follow her.
Only after Diana had completely disappeared did Ethan slowly speak.
“So it turned out like this after all.”
“…And in just one night.”
Even to my own ears, my voice came out cold and hard, scraping my throat.
Even when children at the academy had irritated me with their childish gossip and pranks, I had never been this angry.
As soon as I saw the blood droplets seeping from Diana’s hand, a hot, sticky rage welled up inside me.
I muttered quietly.
“I won’t let this go.”
If last night I was curious about who had cast this brainwashing spell on Crowell Castle and for what purpose, now I felt there was no way to resolve this anger without destroying the person who cast it.
I thought I had experienced almost everything I could by now.
To be this shaken, it had truly been a while.
“I will definitely find the bastard who dared to use such a filthy trick, and finish them off.”
I slowly raised my chin. Perhaps blinded by excessive anger, the Ethan before my eyes blurred into a vague shape, and behind him, the long, dark corridor of Crowell Castle seemed to sway.
What a cunning and strange brainwashing spell they cast… Who could it be?
Even near the end of my life in my past incarnation, only the servants and family members who originally worked at Crowell Castle, and high-ranking ambassadors were allowed to enter.
Crowell Castle has always shunned outsiders, and I was overwhelmed just by embracing those within my care. So, I never carefully considered those outside my embrace.
Is there any reason for an outsider to cast a spell that rejects outsiders?
If so, the individuals capable of casting such a spell…
The servants of Crowell Castle flashed through my mind. As did the images of my mother, father, and Diana.
It’s always cruel to suspect one’s own people.
I spat out words as if chewing them, trying to gather my thoughts.
“I’ll crush them thoroughly, leaving no loose ends.”
As a regressor, I’ve had to bid farewell to many people more times than others, unwillingly, and I’ve learned not to grieve or obsess over each and every parting.
The only time I prioritize saving others over my own life is when I judge that their survival would be more beneficial to the world than mine.
I can’t deny that there might be a self-destructive desire hidden in that.
Anyway. If I try to save someone without considering their usefulness, it would be because that person is ‘within my embrace’.
Like my parents, Diana, and the people of Crowell Castle.
That’s why I’ve constantly tried not to increase the number of people in my hands, and steadily pushed away those who crossed the line.
That’s also why I bid farewell to Ethan Behemoth in my past life. Because I felt I might want to draw him into my embrace.
‘…It was good that I pushed him away then.’
I smiled coldly and flicked my fingers.
The dense magic wrapped around my hand coagulated at my fingertips. It’s a magic different from my original power, somewhat unpleasant and sticky.
Now that I can use my abilities without hesitation to a certain extent due to Terion’s machinations, there’s no reason to tolerate this interference even for a moment.
How dare they play such tricks on me, on my people…
Recalling Diana’s image, smiling as if it didn’t hurt with blood droplets on her hand, made my insides churn once. My chest ached. A bitter taste gathered under my tongue.
I will make sure they pay a proper price. Over and over again.
🥀
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