Chapter 24
Reasonable Reasoning (2)
“… What?”
Aria was so shocked by what she heard that she didn’t even realize that she had spoken informally.
Lennon’s intelligent gaze scoured Aria. His eyes were filled with conviction.
“I’ve been thinking about it since I saw Bonita.”
He continued, ignoring Aria’s speechlessness.
“No matter how I look at it, it’s strange. Everyone believed that Bonita was definitely stillborn. Even Elodie herself, the mother. But Bonita is alive.”
Tap. Tap.
Tapping his index finger, he reasoned.
“Then there’s one hypothesis that I can think of… Someone switched the real Bonita with another baby’s corpse.”
“Now, wait a minute.”
“So the question becomes ‘who’ did it, ‘why’ they did it, and ‘how’ did they do it?”
His coral eyes sparkled.
“It’s hard to infer ‘who’ here. But if we consider the ‘why’ first, two major possibilities come to mind.”
He made a V with his fingers and wiggled them.
“First, they did it because they had a personal grudge against Elodie. Second, they had business with the Duke of Lysianthus.”
“However, Elodie is not someone who would be resented by anyone. This is obvious, even if I think about it objectively, not as her brother.”
He said confidently.
“Even if they’re after Rottweil’s property, there’s nothing the culprit would gain by getting rid of Elodie when there’s my brother and me.”
“Then, there’s only one motive left. They switched the baby because they’re after Bonita who would become the Duke of Lysianthus. And switched the baby with someone else’s dead baby.”
Aria was now staring blankly at Lennon with her mouth open.
She knew her second brother was smart, but she didn’t think he could deduce this much in such a short time without any clues.
Lennon seemed to gain more confidence after seeing Aria’s expression.
“Then who would benefit the most if the Duke of Lysianthus disappeared?”
“… Huh?”
“Of course there are many, but if I had to pick one, it would be the Duke of Lysianthus’s younger brother, Viscount Delphinium.”
“Wait, wait.”
Aria stopped Lennon.
“Viscount Delphinium was in the Empire at that time. That’s ridiculous.”
“Maybe it was someone else who did it.”
Lennon smirked, lifting one corner of his mouth.
“The most suitable executioner would be a woman Elodie trusted enough to keep by her side during childbirth. Probably Aria Hilton. Well, maybe not.”
He stroked his chin and considered.
“Besides, didn’t Miss Hilton go on maternity leave two months ago? I don’t know what happened to that baby, but what, was it stillborn?”
“Then Viscount Delphinium went to the Empire… to hire an ice magician who was good enough to preserve the baby’s body?”
Hearing Lennon’s reasoning, Aria instinctively tilted her upper body.
Her slender hands gripped the bench.
“If Miss Hilton used some unknown magic tool to switch babies, it would explain why she quit her job after Elodie’s birth. She must have gotten a lot of money from Viscount Delphinium and left.”
“No way-”
“So.”
Whoosh.
Lennon’s head turned.
Aria and Lennon were staring at each other right in front of each other.
“So, why did you crawl into the Ducal residence with Bonita, whom you finally switched? Did you run out of money? Or…”
Aria swallowed hard.
It was dangerous.
If Lennon went to Luke and told him this mystery, she would be kicked out without a fight.
It would be lucky if she was kicked out.
It was not known whether Viscount Delphinium was really the culprit, but since Aria was the one who did it, there would definitely be a clue if they dug into it.
No matter how much Bonita wanted her, would Luke really leave Aria alone?
… There was no way.
She quickly thought about it. She had to get out of this awkward situation somehow.
But originally, she was far from smart. Her grades in school were barely average.
Lennon’s eyes studied Aria like that. He hesitated, then spat out the words.
“Elodie?”
“I’m not—huh?”
Aria paused, much longer than the first time she’d heard the words, “You’re the killer, right?” So did her brain.
Her mind, which had been spinning to make excuses, felt like it had all gone blank. In reality, it’s probably not much different.
It was something she had never imagined. But Aria quickly lowered her expectations.
‘No, no. Luke and modem said something similar, but it was a joke. Brother must have been….’
“For your information, it’s not a joke.”
Lennon didn’t give Aria a chance to continue her thoughts.
He crossed his arms and tilted his head slightly to the side. His long, almost bobbed pink hair tumbled downward.
His intelligent eyes hidden in the sweet colors stared at her.
“There’s something strange. No matter how much I think about it, Aria Hilton would never have brought Bonita here. And if she had switched Bonita at the behest of the Viscount, well. Anyway….”
Lennon, who was about to recite his own reasoning, mumbled his words.
No matter how smart he was, this part was difficult to explain logically.
It was the same.
Elodie died six years ago.
A person who died six years ago suddenly appears as Aria Hilton?
A passing dog would laugh.
If Lennon hadn’t seen Aria in person, he would never have believed or guessed.
But something kept clicking at him.
He called this ‘intuitive but somehow likely’ feeling, a gut feeling. Such a feeling was never wrong.
That was why he asked Aria such an absurd question.
Aria tightly clutched the hem of the dress she was wearing. Her heart was pounding.
“I, I-”
Someone recognized her. It was the situation she had been longing for.
Her red lips fluttered. She unconsciously swept her face.
What expression was she making right now?
Joy? Jubilation? Fear? Or… A face full of hope?
The two faced each other like that. A spring-like night breeze blew.
Lennon’s well-groomed hair swayed. Aria couldn’t read his expression properly.
He muttered.
“That’s right.”
It was a sigh.
“You’re not Miss Hilton. Are you?”
Unlike just a moment ago, when he had been rational, his tone was somewhat agitated. His chin trembled slightly. His eyes were distorted.
Aria had spent more than twenty years with Lennon, but this was the first time she had realized that he could make such an expression.
At that moment, Aria’s body shook. It wasn’t of her own volition.
“Tell me so quickly. Okay?”
Lennon’s two hands grabbed her shoulders.
He didn’t hold them tightly.
Rather, he was careful, as if he was handling a glass bottle that seemed ready to break at any moment.
“Please…”
He stared at her with earnest eyes.
The desperate face of her younger brother, who had always been rational in every situation, easily touched the emotions that had been sleeping deep inside her. As if someone was holding her heart tightly.
“I, I-”
So she tried to say those words with a pounding heart-
“Ugh…!”
Until something blocked her voice.
Aria’s mouth opened and closed. However, the words she had intended did not come out.
Lennon had also noticed her strangeness. His eyes sharpened.
“Magic? Or a curse?”
“I, I don’t know.”
Once we were off the subject of identity, she can spoke again.
He read the confusion in Aria’s eyes and his expression became serious.
“Yeah. Things can’t be solved that easily. Haa, there’s no great magician in the kingdom….”
Swish.
He looked away and then looked at Aria again.
“That just convinced me, though.”
“… What do you mean?”
“You’re Elodie. Elodie.”
While he was thinking like that, he suddenly stretched out his arms and hugged Aria.
The delicate Aria was instantly hugged by Lennon.
Thanks to this, her vision was blocked, and all she could see was the hem of his white cravat.
However, sometimes, there are emotions that can be felt without seeing.
Lennon’s body trembled slightly. Aria heard him sobbing softly in her ears.
Lennon didn’t say anything, but he was conveying his feelings with his whole body. Aria instinctively hugged his arms. Then the trembling grew even stronger.
A silence came between the two. But it wasn’t really ‘silence’.
The sound of leaves swaying in the wind. The sound of tightly held clothes rustling.
A sigh filled with emotion broke out in between. Lennon, who had been silent for a long time, sniffled.
Aria realized that Lennon’s cravat hem had become damp.
She had never cried since she came to this body.
It wasn’t because she wasn’t sad.
It was just because she didn’t want to show that face in front of Bonita.
And… to Luke, who didn’t recognize her.
As Aria was almost tearing at Lennon’s shirt, he, who had been swallowing occasionally, began to speak intermittently.
“How much I…. You… don’t know I…”
He searched for words for a long time, unable to finish the sentence.
He didn’t know how to express the feelings he has right now. He really thought she was dead.
Now that he was sure, the longing that was surging in swept him away like a tidal wave. It felt as if his very existence would disappear.
“Elodie, I, I….”
He continued foolishly, He kept mumbling the same words, and then finally managed to spit out one word.
“… I missed you. Elodie.”
