KTBYM - Chapter 68

"I'm sorry. I just saw the letter you sent."

"It is alright. I didn't expect you to be able to see it on time anyway."

Rudis answered kindly. A gaze as gentle as his words fell upon me. My heart sank for a moment. It was because the answer to the riddle had come to mind.

"I am more worried about whether you have been alright during this time."

Now that I knew Eon's intentions, there was no time to explain the context.

“Get out of here quickly.”

"Yes?"

I led Rudis, who had a bewildered look in his eyes, to the entrance.

"The Tower Master is aware of you."

The third one was the number of times Eon met Rudis with me. The first was at the hunting grounds, the second was the night we attempted to escape, and today. It was a highly self-centered delusion to assume that he wouldn't care about Rudis.

It was a huge mistake for Rudis to come to the Magic Tower today. He should have been satisfied with sending only Captain Hanson's reinforcements. He should have moved more secretly out of Eon's sight.

My mind was filled with all sorts of thoughts to the point of dizziness. Just then, I felt a warm, firm sensation wrapping around my hand. When I turned my head, I saw Rudis quietly shaking his head.

"I came here today to be with the Lady. I am endlessly grateful for your concern, but I am neither cowardly nor weak enough to run away, abandoning the person I must protect."

"No..."

"As long as Captain Hanson doesn't feel burdened by the existence of the Tower Master, we have a chance of victory. And behind him today is the Chancellor of Baynan. A reliable ally and watcher."

A gentle voice soothed my anxious heart.

"Captain Hanson and Duke Razpalin will be holding the Tower Master captive for a while anyway. In the meantime, Lady, would you guide me there?"

“What if that place?”

"You mean the exhibition room you mentioned earlier. I believe I can secure decisive evidence there that will shock everyone. Even if today's investigation is thwarted by that wicked Tower Master."

"Miss!"

I turned my head at Mary's sharp shout. I saw Count Hyrn and Mary facing off on the stairs leading to the second floor. It was clear that he was trying to harm Mary, who had left the Count's estate to come to me. I hurriedly ran toward them.

"Wait! What are you doing?"

As I got closer, I saw the Count grabbing Mary by the hair.

"So, have you been well? Well, judging by your face, it seems you have been living comfortably."

"Please let go of that hand first."

“Ah. This?”

The Count looked at the brown hair tangled between his fingers.

"But did you just give me an order? It seems you’ve lost all sense of reason since you became that close with the Tower Master."

"Count Hyrn, even if the maid committed a rudeness, please be lenient and let it slide today. Didn't we come here to plan an important matter?"

At the sound of Rudis's voice coming from behind, Count Hyrn roughly shook his hand away. Had Mary not held onto the railing, she would have tumbled to the floor.

"Now, hurry up and guide us."

“Where?”

"Are you going to pretend you don't know now? I heard something is interesting on the fourth floor of the Magic Tower. You know about that, don't you?"

'Do you know... the exhibition hall?'

My wandering eyes stopped at the red eyes of Rudis standing beside me. Rudis opened his mouth as if he had been waiting.

"Lady, there is no need to be so wary. Count Hyrn has come here at my request to lend a hand in this matter."

It was Count Hyrn who was in trouble due to legal disputes with the Magic Tower. If he could just corner Eon, he would latch onto anything like a dog. It was clear that someone, knowing this, had dragged the Count into Rudis's plan.

'It was a reasonable judgment, though.'

Because of Count Hyrn, Rudis's party, who were supposed to look like saviors, felt exactly like villains.

"Right, right, are we just an ordinary pair of friends?"

Count Hyrn smiled as if he were a benevolent father. To me, knowing the ugliness hidden beneath that smile, it was simply disgusting, but the problem was Rudis.

I had never told him about Count Hyrn's temperament. Naturally, I had never spoken about my relationship with him either. Karina knew, but it was highly unlikely that she would have told him about the internal affairs of the Count's family. Rudis must have known him as my biological father within the group, or at least my adoptive father.

And right now, it wasn't a situation where I could go on and on about my family life.

"Okay. Then I will guide you to the exhibition room."

Although I was quite uneasy about Count Hyrn being there, I eventually decided to move together.

***

I, at the front, opened the door to the exhibition hall. I left Mary behind, who had said she would follow me. She was a child who thought this place was just like any other ordinary noble household. There was no need to show her these things.

"Indeed, the atmosphere is quite ominous."

The Count's voice was laced with excitement at the certainty of having caught Eon, rather than wariness or fear. This provoked an irritation mixed with anger and defiance.

I warned Rudis before turning on the light. Since he is a sensitive person, the shock would surely be greater than when I first entered the exhibition room.

"Sir Rudis. Do not be surprised."

As a person approached, the luminous stone in the frontmost glass tube glowed. Under the bluish light, a woman with brown hair and green eyes appeared.

"I must be getting presbyopia; for some reason, that looks like a person to me."

A scream soon burst from the Count's mouth as he stretched his neck out and furrowed his brow.

“Oh my.”

Thanks to him stepping back, light entered the other glass tube behind him as well. The Count screamed repeatedly as if he had encountered a ghost.

“Oh my.”

Unable to move forward or backward, his feet became tangled, and the Count eventually fell to the ground.

"Ha..."

On the other hand, Rudis was bolder than I expected. He merely let out a sigh of endlessness. It was as if he had inherited Karina's spirit.

"So, the Tower Master calls this an exhibit."

Rudis pressed his face close to the glass tube and muttered. The clearly distinguishable pupils and irises, the eyelashes densely planted above them, and even the blood vessels and pores. It was a very well-preserved corpse.

"Th-This is the very best evidence to lock up the Tower Master—no, wait. That criminal! No, wait. Even a prison would be too good for him. I must put his head on the guillotine right now!"

At the far end of the exhibition hall, which had suddenly become bright, Count Hyrn was shouting. It was a spine-chilling cry that evoked both terror and ecstasy. The corpses standing side by side, following the luminous stones he had illuminated, were revealed.

"To think he built a graveyard like this. He has put his sins on display in their entirety."

“It’s not a cemetery.”

It was a child's faint voice that silenced Count Hyrn's excited voice. The gazes of Rudis, the Count, and me turned in unison toward the source of the sound.

“Kid?”

I was the first to speak. At the same time, I ran toward the child.

"How did this happen?"

Just this morning, all the child did was sit on the bed. To think that such a kid would walk all the way here on his own two feet. It was a happy occasion that the child woke up, but the timing wasn't good.

'Wait, here?'

It was a place that was absolutely not good for a child to see. Count Hyrn's loud voice must have irritated the child's nerves.

"Alright, alright. Shall we go into the room for now? This isn't the place for you."

I wanted to call a maid, but the circumstances didn't allow it. Besides, the little one was still a secret.

“Who are you?”

In the meantime, Rudis and the Count were searching for the child.

"Silver hair and purple eyes. You really resemble the Tower Master."

Now that things had turned out this way, no matter how much Eon insisted, he couldn't hide the little one.

"I am the Lord of the Magic Tower's nephew."

It was the result of making the most of one's quick thinking.

"Huh, did he have a nephew?"

Count Hyrn looked at the child with half-closed eyes. Soon, he changed the subject as if the relationship between the little boy and Eon was not important.

"Anyway, did you say it wasn't a cemetery?"

"Yes."

I never imagined that frail little kid would speak to an adult like that.

'Come to think of it, they said it was three hundred years old.'

Considering the little boy's age, it wasn't an unreasonable thing to say. However, on the surface, he was undeniably just a young child. And there was no way for the Count and Rudis to know the child's age.

The Count's nostrils, which had grown noticeably larger, showed that he was somewhat excited.

"Alright, shall we go to our room now?"

I tried to pull the little boy along, but he didn't budge, seemingly interested in the conversation with them.

"If it's not a graveyard, then what is it?"

"A shabby exhibition room."

"Ha. Just like a nephew, he's saying the exact same thing as that sinner."

"I told the truth, old man."

Count Hyrn, who had been holding back his anger at the word "old man," suddenly shouted.

"Where on earth did you learn that way of speaking?"

"Please stop. Count, isn't he still a child? Please don't forget what is important."

Rudis reasoned with the Count a little more firmly than before. It occurred to me that perhaps he, too, might be regretting bringing the Count along.

"Sir Rudis, I'll be right back after dropping off the child."

It was when I exchanged glances with Rudis and was about to move to another spot. Suddenly, the little boy raised his hand high. Then, he moved his arm as if he were a conductor.

"What's wrong? What are you doing?"

I felt a strange sensation, as if a sound were burrowing into my skin. Even the finest hairs were reacting to this unfamiliar sensation. I felt uneasy. It felt as though it were constantly digging into my insides, trying to gouge something out.

"There is something I want to tell Sally."

Previous                    Next

Support Novellate!