Chapter 50.1

Chapter 50 – Part 1

While pouring a cup of warm tea for me, Charlotte asked anxiously.

“Madam, are you alright…?”

“I’m fine. It’s nothing, so don’t worry about it.”

I was startled the very moment it happened, but I really was fine now.

Missus Seymour was captured by her attendants and promptly locked in her chambers.

The entire way she was dragged back there, she laughed and screamed like a madwoman.

Later, the family doctor went into her room to check her condition, but I only heard that she almost got hit by a ceramic vase to the head, and that’s what prompted her to run away.

People whispered amongst themselves and agreed on one conclusion.

‘Missus Seymour is out of her mind!’

…Perhaps she had truly gone mad, or perhaps she was only pretending.

In my perspective, the latter seemed to be more likely. Missus Seymour was not so easy of a person to break.

She had dedicated so many years as an ‘elder of the Valentino Duchy’. A woman with so much tenacity like her would not just easily give up what she had built up until now.

So, the question was this: what reason did Missus Seymour have in pretending to be insane?

‘What exactly did she and Theodore talk about?’

It was only after their discussion that Missus Seymour began to act strangely.

However, this was not the time to ask Theodore.

‘I’ll ask him once he returns.’

After taking a sip of warm tea, I reclined and buried myself into the soft couch I was sitting on.

Then, closing my eyes quietly, I suddenly recalled the black and violet amulet that Missus Seymour threw at me.

“……”

Maybe she did that only to offend me. Or maybe she truly was cursing me from the bottom of her heart.

Out of everyone else, Missus Seymour must be the one who’s most desperately wishing for my death.

‘If it’s my death she wants…’

…The clock was ticking without any stop anyway. We’re getting there soon enough.

During my entire stay here at the Everett residence, there were many instances that I wished to die. However, I didn’t have the courage to take my own life.

Maybe until then, I still wanted to live.

Right now, I don’t feel like taking my own life, really. I had no need to do that.

Without knowing how the rest of my life would go, I felt myself succumbing to habitual despondence.

I was not anxious.

My ending was all too obvious.

* * *

Uproar swept through the manor over Missus Seymour’s episode, but it died down eventually. They went on to continue decorating the Tree of Origin with knot amulets that they finished making.

And, Theodore returned two weeks later. It happened during a normal day in autumn, when the temperature had already dropped sharply in the middle of September.

The sound of horse hooves over crushed fallen leaves resounded throughout the front yard one after another. I came out of the manor together with Charlotte.

Of course, it was only right for me to greet Theodore and the knights who had returned from battle. There would be a large banquet to celebrate the knights’ return, and it would span from today until tomorrow.

I heard that none of the knights had been seriously injured, and there were no deaths among them. It was a huge relief.

But the problem lay with Theodore. He seemed to have suffered a head injury yet again this time. It didn’t seem to be as big of an injury as last time, but even I thought that he should increase his guard detail because this was the second time that he had such an injury.

Even so, it seemed like almost all of them had recovered from the battles, and it looked like they were talking to each other well enough.

From the vanguard, Theodore’s silhouette was getting closer and closer until he became clear in my view. Following behind him were the rest of the knights.

Thanks to their victory, the knights seemed to be in high spirits.

However, the moment they saw me, the expressions of several knights—including the knight captain—became odd.

Something seemed to be off…

They were looking at me with concern.

‘…What is it?’

As I was perplexed, my mind spun with so many questions.

Then, when Theodore finally drew closer to me and I met him face to face, I realized what exactly it was.

It’s as if lightning struck me then and there.

Thump—

My heart dropped heavily.

My mind went blank in an instant.

Thump, thump—

My heart pounded violently. Cold sweat dripped down one side of my forehead.

My ears were ringing. I could hear nothing else.

After slowly dismounting from his warhorse, Theodore looked at me with such malice.

His gaze was freezing cold.

His expression was as frosty as a glacier.

It was a familiar sight to me.

“…Ah.”

Blankly, I managed to utter only a single syllable.

…Yes, I see now.

In the end—

‘His memories returned.’

And he must have forgotten the time that passed during the period that his memories were gone.

——