chapter 8
8 – Unexpected (3)
Looks like someone did.
The moment you go to the battlefield, the plan is distorted.
Then, is my place a battlefield?
Why did all the plans go awry in less than a day?
When I opened my eyes, my body had recovered enough to express my dissatisfaction.
You must have rested that long.
It certainly seemed to have a calming effect, as Sylvia said.
“Are you awake, boy?”
It was a dark infirmary after the sun went down, but I could recognize the owner of the voice as if my eyes had adapted to the darkness.
A platinum-haired student sitting on a chair next to the bed and staring at me.
He doesn’t wear the maid uniform like he did when I saw him in the mansion, but his words and actions were the same as when he was in the mansion.
“Is it Charlotte?”
“Yes, this is Charlotte.”
“How did you know?”
“It was time to return, but the young master did not come back, so I went looking for him.”
“You made me suffer. Sorry about that.”
Now that you feel better, get up to go back to the mansion.
“Boss, there is something I want to ask you more than that.”
Charlotte put her hand on her chest, inviting her to sit down with a rather serious expression on her face.
Then she took out a crumpled piece of paper that she had squeezed tightly in her hand and pushed it right in front of my nose.
“What the hell is this?”
It was crumpled and the ink smeared in unknown water, so it was hard to recognize, but after looking at the recognizable letters, it was probably a suicide note.
I am.
No, the will presumably left by Adele before I was possessed.
“I found it in my desk drawer while cleaning my room.”
It was supposed to be found and read by her exclusive maid Charlotte, but in summary, it contained contents such as thank you for helping me and sorry for not treating you well.
‘This is…….’
What do you mean?
I am Adele, but I am only Adele on the outside, but I have not become him on the inside, so I don’t know what he was thinking when he left this will.
But judging from the contents, it seems that Adele was pessimistic about her inevitable fate in an abusive family and was about to commit suicide.
It wasn’t written directly, but the nuances you could feel in the writing were like that.
“Does the fact that you were lying unconscious in the infirmary have anything to do with this?”
Charlotte’s businesslike voice trembled.
She got up from her chair and pushed her paper closer to her face with her arm and knee on the bed.
She, who could be called a model of a maid just this morning, was urging her to answer as if Charlotte were interrogating her master, Adele.
“You can’t do this if you feel sorry. If you feel grateful, shouldn’t you try to make such an irresponsible choice?”
“Uh, um.”
I had just woken up, and there was too much information that suddenly came in, so I couldn’t organize my thoughts easily.
It was unknown why Adele wanted to commit suicide and why Charlotte was doing this, as they did not appear in the original story.
I just had to guess with my head with this limited information.
‘Why is Charlotte like this?’
What I can think of is Charlotte’s situation.
Charlotte is Adele’s exclusive maid.
Since her role is to wait by Adele’s side, it is only natural that she will be held accountable for not stopping Adele’s suicide in advance.
“Isn’t it something to think about about the person who will be left behind?”
From Charlotte’s point of view, it is also natural for Adele to feel resentment from her since it will seem like she irresponsibly got herself caught up in her death.
If this was a situation where Kyle or the heroines hated me, I wouldn’t have bothered to make excuses, but there’s no need to hate even Charlotte, who isn’t even a heroine.
Moreover, if Charlotte informs her family of this fact and tries to spy on me for no reason, that would also be frustrating.
It is not recommended to wear shackles in case something happens in the future.
I chose my words for a moment.
I quickly skimmed through the contents of the will to organize my thoughts, and also checked to see if there was room for a different interpretation.
And after finishing the arrangement, I chose my words.
“No, Charlotte. You seem to be misunderstanding something.”
“What is an illusion?”
“This is just a letter I was writing to you.”
There is no direct reference to death in the will.
I am sorry that I did not treat Charlotte well, and thank you for serving her for a long time.
Like a child who is not good at communicating her feelings.
So I could have persuaded Charlotte enough using this part.
“Yes…… ?”
Charlotte put down Adele’s will with a dazed sound.
She looked at me as she propped the bed with her hands.
“Someday, I thought it was natural for you to wait by my side, and I thought you were neglecting me, so I was trying to convey my feelings about him.”
She hasn’t prepared her mind yet, but she’s sneakily averting her gaze as if she’s been caught.
“It looks like you found it first before conveying it.”
“Oh, no, this was a suicide note… ….”
“It’s a letter.”
The will that Adele wrote is correct, but not from now on.
As Adele, I said it was a letter, so now it is a letter.
“… ….”
Charlotte quietly listened to Adele’s suicide note and read it again.
She read and read again to see if once was not enough.
She sat down in her chair with a serious expression on her face and read until she understood, then she quietly raised her head.
Her ears, illuminated by the cool moonlight coming through her window, were red, whether from excitement earlier, or from embarrassment at the misunderstanding, or both.
Charlotte blinked her eyes, and she seemed to have something to say, but she couldn’t bear to say it, just her babble.
She then asked, covering half of her face with the will, peeking out only her eyes.
“…… My…… Was it an illusion?”
“It is an illusion.”
“───!”
Charlotte made an incomprehensible sound like boiling water from a kettle and covered her face with her suicide note.
I couldn’t control my shame, so one kick knocked on the floor of the bed, and such an action continued without knowing that it would end with a variety of repertoire.
“…… Whoa.”
I think about 5 minutes passed like that.
She seemed to finally realize what she was doing. She took a deep breath as Charlotte straightened her posture as if nothing had happened.
“Whoa… ….”
I wonder if once wasn’t enough. One more time.
She swelled up and shrunk several times, and the bizarre action came to an end only after her hand moved several more three-dimensionally on top of her chest.
“…… I’m sorry to show you what I can’t see…….”
She seemed to have gone over well, so she was lucky.
Since she has to live as Adele in the future, she wants to improve her relationship with the rest of the people except for the main character.
There must be a lot of sh*t made by this damn scoundrel, but if you work hard, won’t it work out?
That way, you won’t get stabbed on the road later.
“He was bolder than that. I didn’t know you would do this to me.”
“No, a little while ago, I was excited without even realizing it…… Please forget…….”
“Where is formality again?”
“…… Forget it.”
I tried teasing her once because her embarrassing appearance was cute, but her hard tone and glaring eyes as if resentful of me returned immediately.
I thought it would be hard to have fun no matter how much I teased him, so I got out of bed with the intention of going to the mansion to rest.
“Go back.”
“Yes.”
The two of us walked down the hallway where the moonlight that came in through the window sparsely illuminated the floor like piano keys.
The academy is quiet and empty with everyone in their homes or dormitories.
Only two footsteps could be heard regularly.
* * *
‘So why did you try to commit suicide?’
Back at the Heights mansion, I gazed up at the golden full moon from my balcony, repeating my unanswered questions.
Adele is definitely the villain who appears until the end of the academy’s strongest swordsman.
Could she come out because she failed to commit suicide?
Why did suicide fail?
Now that Adele is dead, the unknown…….
“No.”
I shook my head and denied it.
Suicide failed?
That is incorrect.
Adele, Adele, who is currently my body, is living as Adele, even if the inside is different.
So, while Adele succeeded in her suicide, she failed at the same time.
“No way.”
Here, I suddenly came to an idea.
Why did Adele disappear?
That’s because the existence of me was overlaid and I got rid of him.
Possession.
A phenomenon worthy of being called a fairy tale…….
In that case, can’t it be said that I did not possess Adele, but that Adele assimilated with me?
“There is a possibility. But why did he have to die that way?”
What is the reason?
He himself wants to die, but did he have a reason not to die?
If that’s not the case, there’s no reason for a guy who’s about to die to die in the cumbersome way of calling me.
I turned away from the balcony where the cold wind was blowing.
What you see through the half-open door is Adele’s room.
Adele’s space where Adele lived.
“If that were true, it would have left a clue for me to replace him.”
It’s probably not far away.
Whether in a room or in this mansion.
A place where I can see it someday, even if I don’t bother looking for it.
So it will be okay if I don’t bother looking for it.