CH 141

“Oops.”

As if it was a mistake, he muttered, wiping the blood from his face.

“… Richard?”

“It’s nice that you call my name.”

Richard muttered as he kicked the maid’s body.

“… I had a good idea, but I killed her for nothing.”

What do you mean ? You just kill someone.

The unwavering inhumanity of it all sent chills down my spine.

A person from a world far away from me. He didn’t feel like a human being.

“… Why did you kill her?”

“Because she called you a murderer.”

“It has nothing to do with you. She did nothing wrong.”

There was just a little misunderstanding.

“That’s right. She didn’t do anything wrong, but what about you?”

“… That has nothing to do with you.”

“… … It doesn’t matter.”

Richard smiled crookedly and took a slow step toward me.

Feeling threatened, I reflexively grabbed the railing.

But instead of doing anything to me, he stepped to the front of the terrace and looked down to where the countess had fallen.

“If you fall from this height, most people will die. And if you’re lucky enough to survive, you’ll be crippled for the rest of your life.”

“……”

“Well, from my point of view, would it be better to die? Because if the Countess blames you, it will be difficult.”

“You must be misunderstanding me, but I didn’t kill her.”

“Is that so?”

He asked indifferently, but he sounded disbelieving.

“I swear. I didn’t kill her.”

Instead of letting out a word of disbelief or accusing me, he looked at me quietly.

“Then why did the Countess fall under the terrace?”

“That…”

At that moment, I was speechless.

I’m not guilty.

Because the Countess rushed to me and she fell alone.

But if he asks the Countess why she ran… It was difficult to give a clear answer.

She said I was a demon worshiper. Even if I wasn’t a demon worshiper, it wasn’t the truth that mattered at this moment.

Given the circumstances, it wouldn’t be strange if I had killed the Countess for the above reasons.

“Because you didn’t kill her. Tell me, Rosie.”

“That’s what…”

What should I say?

My brain is all white.

Richard looked at me pitifully, then reached out.

His hand touches my neck, and my whole body shrinks. My nerves are on high alert, and I slap his hand away.

Slap!

It sounded sharp, but I didn’t feel sorry for him at all.

He had the nerve to touch me.

I backed myself into a corner so he couldn’t touch me.

“You have strangulation marks….”

Richard’s eyes flashed menacingly.

“Did the Countess do that?”

“..….”

“There were signs of a fight, and I think I understand why you killed het.”

“… I didn’t kill her.”

I muttered helplessly.

Another person had died. Why did these bad things keep happening to me?

“Did the Countess call you a demon worshiper?”

I quickly raised my head.

This man, oddly enough, I didn’t say anything, but he knew everything.

“The Countess is a popular person. So even if you’re not guilty of anything, the world will accuse you.”

I know that.

It is clear where criticism will be directed against the noble nobility and the unknown status.

“It must be difficult for you to get out of this situation by yourself, right?”

He sounds sad, but somehow he seems to enjoy the situation.

“I can help you, Rosie.”

“… Help me?”

“I’m going to help you not to be the murderer who killed the Countess.”

I didn’t want to accept Richard’s help because it comes with a price.

But what if I don’t get help?

What if he slips up and accuses me as a murder?

I have no choice but to accept help here.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t answer it quickly because I knew what he wanted.

“Rosie, I actually don’t mind you being labeled a murderer. Rather, it is good thing.”

“…… ”

“The more you fall, the easier it is for me to catch you.”

I certainly didn’t do anything wrong.

I was just struggling to live.

But why is it that the more I struggle, the worse things get?

“Help me, Richard.”

Finally, Richard smiled as if he was satisfied.

*****

Richard sat me down on the sofa.

As I trembled, he wrapped a robe around me and led me downstairs.

It was to retrieve the body of the Countess.

He brought the countess’s body back to the room we were in.

Then he said, ‘I need a big bag…’ he muttered a little.

While he was cleaning up the bloodstains on the first floor and the mess on the fifth floor, no one walked by.

“This is the annex used by the Countess to practice her magic, so no one comes. though sometimes a maid will visit when she has something to do…

He looked at the maid he had killed with pity.

She was very unlucky.

“What are you going to do?”

“First, you have to make sure that today has nothing to do with you. It has nothing to do with you that the Countess is gone.”

“If I leave and the Countess disappears, of course I will be suspected, is that possible?”

“If anyone has seen the Countess since you left, it is possible.”

“Who is that?”

Richard looked at me with a look on his face, asking why.

“Of course, it’s me.”

“……”

Will Richard’s testimony determine my situation?

I didn’t like it.

“Then you will be suspicious, are you okay with that?”

“It’s nice that you worry about me, but you better think of yourself.”

Actually, I don’t worry about him.

Besides, Richard is a paladin commander admired throughout the empire, who would doubt him?

I guess it was a bit of a concern.

“What are you going to do with the body?”

“It would be better not to know that.”

“…….”

“I don’t mind telling you, but I’m afraid you’ll be shocked.”

“… Alright.”

I’ve already received what I’m supposed to receive, do I need to be more shocked here? It was difficult to bear any longer.

“It’s late, and you have to go. The longer you stay, the more suspicious you will be.”

Richard, who had been working on his job for a while, looked disappointed.

I returned the robe to Richard.

“I’ll get going.”

“Before that.”

Richard grabbed me and straightened out the messy clothes.

Then he pulled my hair down, carefully covering the marks on my neck.

“I can do it myself.”

“Okay.”

“Then stop…”

I was trying to push him away, but Richard grabbed me.

“Rosie.”

A blue eye gleamed like a jewel shining on its surface.

“Now you will quit your role as mistress and come to me.”

Richard smiled happily and pressed his lips to my forehead.

“Keep your promise.”

I left the room without answering anything.

From behind, Richard said ‘Goodbye, Rosie’, but I ignored it. I couldn’t afford to answer.

I barely moved my weak feet and left the mansion. I was greeted by the cold night wind.

The wind rustled the blades of grass.

But there was no sign that anyone had died here.

I retraced the Countess’s steps, recalling her words before she fell.

I wondered what she meant.

*****

The moon, as thin as a bird’s bite, shone upon Count Herthas’ office.

Two men were emptying their glasses in the dreary office.

Dylan felt particularly pitiful today.

“So, Dylan…”

How did I fall into a position where to listen to my father’s drunkenness?

That night in the North, Dylan begged Rose earnestly.

“Just live with me, Rose.”

I don’t know if I’ve ever felt a wind so strong in my life.

He didn’t want to let go of her, even if it was the devil’s hand, even if it meant falling off a cliff.

But in the end it came back.

<I’m sorry, Dylan.>

It was a refusal.

So Dylan returned to Herthas.

“It has already been five years since Rose left home.”

… 5 years.

Dylan realized the weight of that number.

Rose 5 years ago and Rose today have changed in many ways.

From her more mature appearance to her personality.

“Is she alive? … I’m worried. I have to stop the search now.”

Count Hartas paid no attention to his son who was drinking in front of him when he was young.

It was because he was too busy paying attention to Yurtha, who was more of a monster than a genius.

But when Rose appeared, Count Herthas began to love her.

Dylan was shocked to see it.

He thought that his father didn’t care because she was nothing special.

But that wasn’t it.

He just wasn’t interested in him.

After realizing that, young Dylan unleashed his soaring anger on Rose.

It was a childhood that I constantly regretted.

“Yurtha, if she’s not there after all that searching, maybe she’s not in this world.”

My father was tired of hearing about Rose’s search for five years, tired of watching his son hunt for her like a mouse.

“That child was also very shocked.”

“…….”

“At that time, I should have read the child thoroughly, but I regret it.”

Dylan, silently tilting the glass, grabbed the glass tightly.

But his father opened his mouth bitterly, as if busy thinking about those days.

“It must have been a shock that Yurtha killed her mother.”

“….”

My father was saying that was the reason Rose had left home.

Dylan agreed, but on the other hand, it was ridiculous for the man to speak of the incident.

It was even funny that he took Yurtha’s side and now he was acting like he regretted it.

“Rose won’t come back, Father.”

It was everyone’s karma.

For Yurta, who plunged Rose into the abyss with lust, and my father, who plunged Rose into despair out of selfishness, and…

For myself.

Count Herthas looked at Dylan, gripping the glass tightly.

Dylan returned the gaze and sipped his drink.

That moment.

“Count!”

The butler hurriedly knocked on the door.

“What are you doing late at night?”

“That, that… I have a letter from Miss Rose.”

He almost spit out the alcohol that got into his mouth.

He put down his drink and ripped open the letter brought by the butler.

Rose will never come back.

Never.

He knew her well enough.

But…

[I’ll be back soon.]

The letter said so in Rose’s handwriting.