Chapter 103

Chapter 103

Was Edith’s voice originally this cold, or was it an optical illusion created by the situation? Louise unknowingly gulped down her fear and hugged Irene even tighter.

“Hi-hiding something? There’s no such thing!”

“Then why do you keep making me waste my time with this? Are you doing this because you want to end up like this, too? If you don’t have any business, just go away… ugh!”

“After I see this scene, do you think it’s not any more strange that I’m standing still? Here, lean on me.”

As Edith’s feet were hurt and she could no longer walk anymore, Louise carefully set Irene down and hurried to her.

She continued to babble while supporting her.

“I’ll help you, but you’ll have to explain. I remember when I lived in this mansion, Madam Edith helped me a lot, and the same goes for Madam Henrietta, so I don’t think you’re a bad person.”

“…You’re good at being so naive. I just said there’s no kindness without reason.”

Hearing that Edith’s voice softened significantly, Louise breathed a sigh of relief.

It was a sign that she could somehow catch Edith off guard and sort this situation out.

“I know not all relationships are so romantic, but just acting out of necessity doesn’t mean the help I received goes away, does it?”

“Do you really think that’s for you?”

Louise’s steps halted as she carried Edith toward the door with her back to Ahibalt. She stared at the woman she was carrying, who, unlike herself, was sweating profusely.

Edith’s face was distorted by pain and a mixture of emotions.

…For example, regret.

“If you’re so curious, I’ll tell you why I sent you to Lavrenti.”

She started off like that and trailed off quietly.

“Louise Orpen. Have you never thought it was puzzling that I remembered your last name, even though you know that I’m bad at remembering people’s names?”

As she uttered, the dark eyes on her distorted face became oddly shaped.

The woman who had spent decades on her research had such a tenacious face, so much so that it was no different from a madman.

“I heard you consulted with Henrietta…”

That you see things that weren’t really there?

The moment she said that, Louise attempted to let go of her hands that were supporting her, but Edith’s grip became even stronger.

“Le-let go of me!”

“You said that you’ve experienced unidentified shapes and voices, and that they always tell you lots of things. They apologize to you, telling you that they love you and even talk about people you don’t know… so because of that, sometimes you’d get distracted by it.”

Do you know how happy I was when I heard that?

…Edith’s words added like a whisper were terrifying.

Rather than being surprised at the fact that Edith had overheard the conversation she had with Henrietta, Louise struggled to withdraw her hand, fearing a sudden sense of foreboding.

However, she wondered where did Edith get her strength from since she obviously sat only at the desk*, but Louise couldn’t even move, let alone withdraw her hand away.

[ T/N: I think it’s quite obvious, but it’s an idiom which means, ‘To spend time staying in the office or reading documents without trying to take action in the field.’ ]

‘Wh-what’s with this strength?’

There was no way she would have known that some of the experiments Edith conducted on Rodion to improve his physical capabilities were also conducted on herself, so it was a natural question.

In the end, Louise was half-crying, half-shouting.

“Madam Edith, I really don’t know what you’re talking about! Why the hell would you be happy for me to see things that aren’t there, and why would that be the reason you sent me to Labrenti—”

Suddenly, her words stopped.

To see things that weren’t really there, Larventi…

It was because the figures and voices that were once obscure became so clear to her after coming to Lavrenti as if Edith’s explanation had connected all of the dots in her head. Louise just stood there dumbfoundedly for a brief second before she moved her parted lips to form a sentence.

“…Does Madam Edth know why I suffer from such symptoms?”

“It would be more accurate to say that you were the last piece of the puzzle I have been looking for.”

“Puzzle…”

“I’ve been researching fate, and there have always been four puzzle pieces… Three of them being the sons of Lavrenti, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on the fourth most important piece of them all.”

While Elios did show her scenes, they were never whole, just fragments. So because of that, it never really reveals who the men of Lavrenti were professing their love to.

“At first, I tried to look closely around because I knew that it was a maid.”

The most likely candidate was Irene. Not only that she opened Otis’s heart, but she even put Rodion to sleep even when he went berserk.

However, the reason Edith excluded her from the puzzle was simpler than you might have expected.

It was because her personality was far too different from the one Elios showed fragments of. There should be at least a little bit of liveliness, but Irene always maintained an attitude that made her look as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

Still, if it wasn’t her… then who else could it have been to win the hearts of those scarred and demanding children?

Who could be the final piece of the puzzle…?

In the midst of her deliberations, she overheard Louise talking to Henrietta about her issues.

“I had a dream… that someone was trying to kill me, and I ended up dying. But, it wasn’t the first time…”

“Don’t cry, Louise, speak slowly. Did the dream frighten you?”

“No, I wasn’t afraid. The dream wasn’t scary, but it was so sad… This guy said he loved me and pulled me closely into his arms, but he stabbed me in the back with a sword…”

Another time, I died after being bitten by a dog, as well as dying after falling down a flight of stairs.

The moment Edith heard those words, a lightning bolt of realization struck her.

The fact that the maid who only made accidents was the last piece of the puzzle.

“…Louise Orpen, you were the one I was after. That’s why I needed to send you to Lavrenti.”

After discovering all of the pieces in the puzzle, it wasn’t hard to put them together. It was fortunate enough that the interests of the other parts aligned so well.

…No, you could call it fate.

Even without her intervention, it was destined to be that way anyway.

“The dreams you have been having aren’t just normal dreams, nor are the figures and forms… They are a part of your destiny.”

…Or remembering the past.

Edith’s story ended with a brief explanation of the repetition of time and the manager of fate.

However, even after hearing the whole story, Louise still looked confused. At first, it was simply to divert Edith’s attention, so she started asking questions. It was only natural since she obviously never imagined that she would find out about such a secret.

In addition, the manager of destiny, secrets of the world…

“Time has repeated itself…”

“It was repeated, centering around you. Now, can we please stop asking useless questions? I have no idea how far away Ahibalt’s men are, so if we can get out of here as quickly as possible—”

“I didn’t expect you to know this much.”

Just then, a voice was heard from behind.

Louise could feel Edith’s grip on her hand turn ice cold in an instant as there was a figure standing behind Edith’s back.

The figure was as familiar as the voice.

His body made a few creaking noises, like the sound of bones breaking, as he smiled eerily.

“I tried to pretend that I was dead in moderation and move on… but it seems that you know too much.”

“…Ahibalt.”

With a squeaky turn of her head, Edith glanced behind her to look for the source of the voice and made a sound as if she couldn’t breathe.

Turning around, there was Ahibalt, who looked like the very embodiment of evil.

His distorted flesh and broken bones from the explosion disappeared as if they were washed away. However, the splashes of blood and flesh couldn’t be concealed. In addition, his usual smoothness was gone. If there were anything to compare it to, it would be like a machine that had lost control.

A heavy, knife-like voice flowed from his lips, which had no trace of a smile from earlier.

“You’ve done a great job of inferring an administrator, and I commend you for getting as far as you have in this, but your research has a fatal flaw, Edith.”

“Wh-what is it?”

“The idea that the manager of fate and the manager of time were the same person.”

Click.

As a gun was pointed towards Edith, the oblique moonlight pierced through on Ahibalts face.

“Then, let’s get this situation straightened out.”

I didn’t want to lose this life either.

The shadows of the eyelashes across his cheeks resembled the traces of tear stains.

__

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