If I try to run away again, Mary will die. Just then, as if to confirm whether I understood his intentions, Eon met my eyes.
"What are you two talking about? Why would I run away from here?"
I had no choice but to play along with this joke that wasn't really a joke.
"Isn't that right? Oh, it seems the Marquis likes the Young Lady enough to worry about something like that."
Mary's genuinely joyful laughter and Eon's laughter, concealing his dark intentions, mingled. I alone circled around them like oil that cannot mix with water.
"There will be things lacking in serving the young lady. Feel free to buy as much as you need."
"Oh my, thank you! I was actually in need of perfumes and cosmetics. I also think I should get some good quality soap."
It was an item she had never used in her entire life. Mary rattled off a list of items she had likely heard about from the Countess's lady-in-waiting.
“I see.”
"Okay."
Eon nodded satisfactorily as if those words were a brilliant magic recipe. Excited by this, Mary set out to buy them immediately.
As soon as Mary left, the temperature in the room dropped instantly. I erased the smile I had forced myself to wear.
"Don't touch Mary."
"Wouldn't that depend on Miss Selinia's actions?"
Although he no longer needed to act, Eon still had a pleased look on his face.
"Don't worry. I like the girl named Mary."
"With brown hair and green eyes, of course she must have pleased the Tower Master."
He pretended not to hear me and continued speaking.
"Thanks to that child, I think we will be able to see a different side of Miss Selinia. I look forward to what comes next."
At those words, I untied my hair, which Mary had carefully tied up. Even though the atmosphere had been amicable for a moment thanks to Mary, I hadn't forgotten that he had killed Karina.
"It seems you've forgotten what happened in the meantime."
"If I am hated any more here, I think I will be too distressed, so I will tell you the truth."
At the sharp question, Eon's voice suddenly turned serious.
“Is it the truth?”
I waited for words to come out of his mouth, but Eon just stared at me. As if he thought I could read his thoughts just by looking at his face.
"If you have nothing to say..."
"I am not the one who killed Karina de Lemont."
Eon and I, having reached the limit of our patience, exchanged answers. Perhaps worried that I might not have understood, he repeated the same words.
"I said that I was not the one who killed Karina de Lemont."
It was utterly shameless of him to bring up Karina's name first, and to try to deceive me with an obvious lie. That blatant lie sounded more like he was toying with me.
"That's right. Strictly speaking, the Tower Master didn't kill her personally."
"It was a shadow that attacked you and your party, but I wasn't the one controlling it."
“Then who is it?”
“I’m curious too.”
I glared at him as if I were having a staring contest. His purple eyes, claiming his innocence, even looked innocent.
My eyes felt stiff. I couldn't tell if it was because Karina came to mind or if I had strained my eyes. Feeling as if tears were welling up, I snapped my head away. In any case, I didn't want to cry in front of him again.
"Alright. Let's say that's the case."
I wanted to end the conversation with him here. I wasn't in the mood to argue with him right now, nor did I have the energy. I just wanted to get him out of here quickly and lie back down in bed.
As if sensing my feelings, he changed the subject. It was clear that he didn't want to leave me alone.
"You haven't forgotten that you promised me, have you?"
The little boy in the forbidden room came to mind. I had completely forgotten about him.
"I will allow you to move around inside the magic tower."
So, it meant making an effort to fulfill the promise.
'Because I'm no different from an animal locked in a cage.'
I had been under the illusion that I was free thanks to Eon's whims, but it was time to realize my place. I turned the doorknob without a word.
"But that doesn't mean you need to leave right now, does it?"
Eon stood beside me and smiled. I thought about sarcastically remarking on how generous he was, but I swallowed the words welling up inside me like a stone. I left the room without a word.
***
I crossed the barrier of the Forbidden Room once again. The first time, it felt like my whole body was scattering into pieces, but the second time was much easier. Strangely enough, I was able to enter the room without any particular sense of strangeness.
'Come to think of it, that's strange.'
I looked at the door I had just passed through. Selly seemed to think I had broken the room's barrier, but I hadn't done anything. I had merely grabbed the doorknob; I hadn't analyzed any formulas or recited any magic.
'It's like I've become the key.'
So, the possibility I came up with was subjugation magic. I wondered if the Forbidden Barrier might recognize me as such because I am a being subjugated to Eon, and thus let me in...
This, too, was merely my own thought and had no basis whatsoever.
"Hi, little one."
It was obvious that they wouldn't hear, but I still gave a quiet greeting and placed the flowers to decorate the room on the table. The flowers came from the laboratory, not the garden. There was no way there could be fresh flowers in this winter. They were sunflowers that had bloomed in the summer, treated with preservation magic to prevent them from wilting.
'To think you can even preserve a person by applying such basic magic. Don't you think the Tower Master is truly amazing?'
I remembered what Sally had said as she handed me the flowers. I shook my head, wanting to shake those words off.
I intended to trade this sunflower for the dry branch in the vase. There had probably been a flower at the tip before, but what remained now was a blackened skeleton that had withered away.
I reached out to throw away the dry branch. However, before I could even feel it touching my fingertips, it vanished before my eyes. To be precise, it scattered right before my eyes like dust. It felt as if a long period of time that had been stopped had suddenly flowed by and weathered away in an instant.
'No way, it can't be that old.'
I examined the hand I had extended, but there was no trace of a dry branch left anywhere.
'Hmm.'
I opened the window and shook my hands a couple of times, making a tapping sound. That was all. What mattered right now wasn't some wretched, withered flower.
The bright yellow, large sunflower petals seemed to liven up the room. As expected, such large and sturdy-looking flowers suited a child's room.
This was all I had decided to do in this room. I pulled a nearby stool over and sat at the child's head. I had no idea what to do.
As I stared blankly down at the little boy, Eon's face kept coming to mind. I felt like I was sinking deeper into the darkness, and at the same time, anger kept surging up inside me.
'No. I can't just stay like this.'
I couldn't let Eon, who wasn't even right in front of me, dominate me.
"Shall we start with an introduction? Aren't you curious who I am?"
He spoke in a higher tone, the kind of voice used to soothe children at an orphanage.
"I'm Selinia. I joined the Magic Tower as a researcher. I'm a newcomer, having been here for less than two months. Do you know what it means to be a newcomer?"
Naturally, there was no answer.
'What am I doing right now?'
The sunlight of a clear winter day tickled the white face, but the child did not move. The eyelids looked as if they hadn't blinked even once, and the lips seemed to have stuck together as one.
'Come to think of it, if it were a simple task, Eon wouldn't have bothered to entrust it to me.'
It was a task set as a condition for forgiving the crime of breaking the rules. It was only natural that it was difficult.
"Should I clean up in preparation for when the little one wakes up?"
The room wasn't dirty. On the contrary, it was so clean that I wondered if a purification spell had been cast on it. Rather, I had chosen this because I deliberately wanted to get some physical activity.
As I was scanning the room thoroughly, the blanket the child was covered with caught my eye.
'Since you were fiddling with it last time to block the shadow.'
I decided to wash that blanket, not knowing when it had last been laundered. If I washed it thoroughly and left it in the sunlight for a few days, the soft, fluffy texture might cheer up the child. In the meantime, I was looking for something to cover the child with...
It was when I pulled the blanket down, thinking I should check.
A red line flickered at the edge of the sleeve. It had only brushed past for a moment, but I could recognize it clearly.
‘That pattern.’
I hurriedly rolled up the child's sleeve, which was half-rolled up. A vivid red pattern was revealed in its entirety. This time, I rolled up my own sleeve and compared it to the mark engraved on the inside of my wrist.
'It's the same.'
What was drawn on the child's wrist was clearly a mark of a subordination contract.
The child's arm was trembling. No, my hand holding the child was trembling.
'This child also signed a subordination contract with Eon.'
I did see the senior maids following Eon's orders like machines, but I did not see any signs of a subordination contract on them. Contrary to my expectation that all the missing persons captured and brought to the Magic Tower would be in a state of subordination contract, Eon did not have a direct relationship with them.
But to think this child would be wearing the same mark as me.
The hand holding the child gained strength.
“Who the hell are you?”
It started like a quiet murmur, but before I knew it, my voice grew louder.
“Who the hell are you?”
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