Ellie couldn’t understand what was happening.
She had only followed Rutus down to the basement out of curiosity, as she had expected him to head to the bedroom. Instead, he moved toward the mansion’s underground area, and she couldn’t resist following him.
She hadn’t been to the basement before, not even when she had wandered around the mansion searching for the child in the past. She thought she might as well take this opportunity to check if anything had changed.
[Your Grace―]
[Quiet.]
There were guards stationed in the basement—several, in fact—at every corridor leading further inside.
Even after passing all of them and entering the deepest chamber, Rutus went further through a secret passage. Only after walking a long distance down the hidden path did they arrive at the place where she saw it…
– ……
If that was her corpse, how was she supposed to react to this?
Ellie staggered, her face pale.
‘I was just looking at the gravestone moments ago… then what is this?’
Could the gravestone have been a fake? If so, why?
She couldn’t grasp the intention behind it.
Seeing herself lying there with a peaceful expression and closed eyes, an inexplicable nausea welled up. Clenching her hand over her mouth to suppress it, Ellie hastily turned away.
She tried to escape the basement as if something was chasing her, but her body wouldn’t cooperate.
Thud.
In the end, she collapsed on the floor before she could even take a few steps toward the exit of the secret passage. How long had she stayed like that?
“…This… back then… grew up together…”
A faint voice came from behind.
It was Rutus’s voice.
‘…What is he saying?’
She couldn’t make out the words clearly.
The passage was utterly silent, without the slightest noise, but the voice was still too soft to hear from this distance.
While she was curious about what he was saying, she didn’t dare try to listen.
Unable to return or leave the area entirely, Ellie clenched her fists against the ground.
“I don’t know…”
Of all the faint, broken words she heard, that single phrase reached her ears clearly.
It was only after Rutus’s voice had completely disappeared that Ellie, after a long while, slowly got back on her feet.
Since he hadn’t come back through the same path, he must have left through another passage.
‘…Noble households never have just one escape passage.’
And if it was the Duke’s household, there would undoubtedly be even more.
Ellie stood uncertainly in the middle of the passage, hesitating.
Should she go back in there or not?
Her honest feelings told her to avoid it—there was an instinctive sense of repulsion. However…
– How can I pretend I didn’t see that…?
There was no way she could just ignore this.
At the very least, she needed to confirm whether it was truly her corpse or something else made to replicate her appearance.
‘If the gravestone in the clearing was indeed fake…’
Then this would be no trivial matter.
In the end, Ellie began walking in the direction where she had last heard Rutus’s voice.
The path that once felt endlessly long when running away now felt too short, causing her steps to slow involuntarily.
Passing through a narrow and dark passage, Ellie’s eyes quickly scanned her surroundings as she stepped into the wide space once more.
– Rutus is
The interior was too dark to make out anything clearly, but there was no noticeable presence. He must have left through another escape passage.
Ellie walked forward slowly. And then, when she finally stood before the solitary coffin placed in the center of the wide space—
– …Hah.
She couldn’t suppress a hollow laugh. Because it was truly her.
How could a body that had been dead for more than four years remain so intact?
There was only one explanation she knew of.
‘Preservation magic…’
…It must have been used.
The white flowers filling the coffin, and the single red flower adorning his chest—
They were impossibly fresh, as if they had just been picked. Seeing this, Ellie couldn’t help but speak aloud, her certainty growing.
– Crazy. They’re all just insane. Unless they were desperate to die, how could they…
No sane person would ever do this. Who in the empire didn’t know how strict the rules were regarding magic used on humans?
Especially preservation magic, notorious for being exploited by those with twisted tastes or criminal intent, making its punishment even more severe.
If caught attempting it, even the wealthiest noble families would be fined to the brink of collapse. If the magic had already been cast, the penalty was execution.
– …Everyone involved, young or old, no exceptions.
This didn’t just implicate Rutus, who initiated the act, but also meant the entire ducal household wouldn’t escape unscathed.
Even Mason, the prime suspect, would be thought to have cast preservation magic on her body in place of Ratcliffe, who couldn’t use magic.
The only one who might have a slim chance of survival was the child—too young to be heavily implicated. But even in the best-case scenario, that child would live a life of forced labor.
‘This… the moment they’re caught, it’s a death sentence for all of them.’
Given how much time had already passed, there was no room for leniency.
In that moment, the faces of the guards she had passed on her way here surfaced in Ellie’s mind.
Did they even know what they were guarding as they stood blocking that door?
‘……’
If Rutus had made a momentary mistake in a fit of madness before heading to war, now, four years later, it was time to clean up that mess. And yet…
[I don’t know…]
…What on earth could he have meant by that?
Ellie, staring blankly at the coffin with hollow eyes, thought to herself.
‘The child… no…’
There was a child who was just now beginning to find his place. A child still impossibly small and young, and all the more precious because of it.
So there could only be one vow she could make at this moment.
– Adi… Adi cannot…
She had to protect him.
Even if that meant ripping apart the corpse in front of her with her own hands.
– ……
It was an unbearably wretched feeling.
* * *
How many days had passed since then?
Ellie looked at the child with a troubled expression and spoke gently.
– Adi… Are you still upset?
“……”
The child turned their back without answering, causing Ellie to sigh quietly and bury her forehead in one hand.
‘Well, at least this is better. Now he just sits on the couch and turns away from me…’
Just a few days ago, whenever Ellie tried to talk, the child would leave the room altogether or spend the entire day lying in bed, buried under the blankets.
And it was all because Ellie had come home far too late that day.
She had lingered in the basement much longer than she’d realized, losing track of time entirely. When it finally hit her that she’d stayed too long, she rushed back to the child’s room…
[Waaaaah-!]
[Young Master, Young Master! Are you alright?]
[Mommy’s gone… Gone! Waaah!]
By the time she returned, it was well past noon, and the entire mansion was in chaos.
The only child of the house had woken up crying uncontrollably for hours, leaving everyone confused and flustered.
‘I didn’t know I’d been gone for that long, either.’
The dark, windowless basement had no clock, and the only way to estimate time was by instinct.
But in her state of shock and distraction, Ellie had no mental capacity to notice the passage of time. And the result, as evident, was disastrous.
– Mommy’s sorry. I promise I won’t leave without telling you ever again, okay? I’ll always let you know before I go…
“…It’s not just because of that.”
– Y-You’re right…
The child’s sharp reply left Ellie speechless, her confidence deflating.
This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. She had promised never to do it again, only to break that promise, making it hard for the child to forgive her easily.
And no wonder. She had disappeared without a word, returned out of nowhere, and couldn’t even focus properly on conversations for days.
It was only natural for the child to pout, lips sticking out in protest, frustrated and hurt.
‘If only one thing could go right for once!’
Despite braving the chilly, tense atmosphere and sneaking to and from the basement every night while the child was asleep, the task of dealing with whatever was in the coffin still remained unchanged.
‘At least… it’s not possession. It can’t inhabit me or anyone else.’
Not only could she not touch it, but she’d even tried lying on top of it, just in case, but instead of the possession she’d expected, she’d just gotten an overwhelming sense of chills.
She had even attempted the desperate and shameful act of possessing someone else’s body as a last resort, only to feel even more self-loathing.
And with no guarantee that the basement’s existence would remain a secret forever…
– …How could I not feel anxious?
Startled by her own muttered words, Ellie quickly covered her mouth. The child, hearing her, glanced back and met her eyes.
“That’s why. Mommy isn’t even sorry to me.”
– N-No, that’s not it…
“You keep breaking promises with me! And now you’re thinking about something else again!”
Mommy’s so… Oh. The child, clearly frustrated, threw himself facedown on the couch, determined not to look at her anymore.
His resolve was evident, leaving Ellie helpless, rubbing her face repeatedly in exasperation.
“Are you lying down again, Young Master?”
“Marie…”
“You haven’t been moving much lately. You haven’t even been going out… Are you feeling unwell? If so, you must let me know right away.”
“Uh, no… It’s just that someone keeps ignoring me and won’t play with me!”
“…Who dares to do such a thing?”
Marie, who had just entered with a tray of cookies and drinks for snack time, froze at the child’s words. Her expression turned icy, as if recalling something unpleasant from the annex.
Realizing his mistake, the child stammered, trying to cover it up.
“W-Well, I mean—”
Crash!
Before he could finish his sentence, a loud noise erupted from the direction of Rutus’s study.
Although the study wasn’t far away, what on earth could be happening inside for the noise to be heard all the way over here?
The child, looking uneasy, glanced nervously at Marie and asked,
“Wh-What’s going on? Is something wrong with Daddy…?”
“Well, that’s…”
“……?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but before I came here, I overheard the head servant say something… It seems they found out who was troubling the Young Master during his stay at the annex…”
Marie’s unexpected words hung in the air, leaving both Ellie and the child frozen in shock.
* * * *
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