It Is Getting Dark

4 – Understanding

If you ask Katrina her impression of the knife, Katrina’s answer would be “Doll”.

A doll that is as beautiful as it is artificially combed, but can’t do anything by itself, and is an incompetent doll that barely gets up and moves its body while relying on a connected string.

Indeed, there are many words called family shame or incompetent Young master, but most of the words meant his incompetence.

He was the one who always looked after my father, Cassius, and even me, to see if he knew that too.

I thought that I didn’t want to be like that because it felt ugly.

When Carl recognized the sense of shame in Cassius’ eyes, he felt a sense of identity with him.

However, if there is a difference between him and Katrina.

‘I will go up, and you will still stay at the bottom.’

It will be the difference between those who don’t even have a chance and those who have a chance to try.

I didn’t know that he, who was only stepped on when he stepped on the floor like a crawling insect, would be making his own wings to fly.

One day, a lady-in-waiting who came to visit me secretly told me that she had found a strange room while cleaning Carl’s room, and I found out that he was conducting an experiment to create a witch.

Come to think of it, I heard a story told by a bard that a human who was flying in the sky with wings made of bird feathers flew too high and died.

Just like the story, the wings he made to fly would kill him.

And if that were to be the case, Katrina thought she might as well use it herself.

So Katrina knew what Carl was doing, but pretended not to know and waited for the right time.

Still, when he ran into him, he would just say hello and run away.

He couldn’t even talk to me first and made a reluctant expression.

He was like that.

It was strange that he greeted me with a smile while making eye contact with me.

“Katrina. Good morning.”

Obviously strange.

* * *

While Katrina walked, I also tried to stop her by walking next to Katrina.

But suddenly I got worried.

I don’t understand Carl’s tone.

The conversation we had at the restaurant yesterday was the first time we hadn’t talked in a week.

‘What kind of tone did Carl originally use?’

Remembering the conversation I had with Carl in the Witch Hunt, I remembered his tone.

“Katrina, there have been strange rumors going around the estate lately.”

“What do you mean? Brother.”

Judging from Katrina’s reaction, fortunately, the way she spoke didn’t seem strange.

I spoke her words to her, reassured inside of her, but careful not to show off her face.

“There are rumors going around that I’ve been crazy lately and made her a witch.”

I was full of heart wanting to interrogate her while saying, “I’m talking about the rumors you spread about her.”

“…Is that so? I think I’ve heard of it.”

“Is that so?”

“Well, if not, would you like smoke to come out of the chimney? Isn’t there something wrong with your older brother’s behavior?”

Still pretending, even pointing out me.

She speaks her words through her thorns.

I answered her like that.

“But isn’t the timing too coincidental?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, now that my father passed away in a carriage accident, that’s why rumors are going around.”

Hearing my words, her expression turned bloody.

“What are you talking about?”

“That’s strange, I thought you would understand if I said this.”

“Is your brother confessing to killing your father by any chance?”

“Ha- I overestimated you. I can’t even understand the words.”

I held her in her ear and said.

“Like there is someone behind you who knows your father’s death first and can control it. It means that there is someone behind me who is beyond that control and can tell me the news.”

“…”

Katrina heard me and started walking back the way she came.

“Where are you going, weren’t you going to my older brother?”

Katrina didn’t stop her steps, and she didn’t look back, but continued on her steps, she said.

“I suddenly remembered something.”

“I see, I see.”

I stood in her hallway, waited until she was out of sight, and when she was gone, I too took her steps towards Cassius.

And standing in front of the governor’s office.

Smart.

There was a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

“Brother, I have something to tell you.”

“…Carl, it was you.”

I don’t think Cassius didn’t know it was me.

While checking the documents, he stopped working and said to me.

“Talk about it. I will listen.”

After- I started to get nervous.

* * *

I told Cassius about the current situation and what would happen in the future, excluding the fact that I was experimenting to create a witch, and that the Church would manipulate it through MSG.

Well, it wasn’t a lie.

I just didn’t tell you everything.

“…So my father passed away.”

Unlike me, who was originally an orphan and never saw his face even after falling here, Cassius’ only surviving parent died. It wouldn’t be nice to hear that the little sister is hiding even the news of her father’s death in order to eat the family.

Even if you’re like me, you’d want to deny it.

“It must be hard to believe. I understand. But you have to believe it.”

“No, that’s not what I’m getting into…. Nope. If what you say is true, is there any way to get out of this situation?”

I explained to Cassius about Katrina and what just happened.

And Cassius’ answer came back.

“So, in other words, you bluffed because the crown prince would intervene?”

“Yes. And while they hesitated in doubt, we can inform the crown prince of this fact and call the nobles on the crown prince’s side. It doesn’t matter if there is evidence or not anyway. If the nobles on the crown prince’s side confirm it as well, their plan will be useless.”

He explained it to Cassius, thinking it was a good idea for himself.

However, Cassius’ expression turned darker than I expected.

“Karl, you made a mistake.”

“Yes?”

Kassius let out a sigh and began explaining one by one as if he were teaching me.

“Carl, if you tell the prince what you just said, you will be killed by the prince.”

“Yes? What is that….”

“Karl Have you ever told anyone what you just said?”

“…No, no.”

“Knife. First of all, I don’t think what you said was a lie. It was probably the three princesses who made the plan. Considering the skills of the three princesses, it’s quite possible.”

“Yes.”

“You said. That His Majesty, the Church, and the Magic Tower are mutually inviolable domains. So you won’t be able to stop it. But to put it the other way around, the fact that the Church and the Mage Tower participate in the manipulation is to challenge the emperor’s authority.”

As I listened to Cassius, I vaguely began to understand what he said about my mistake.

“His Majesty, the Mage Tower, and the Church have each other’s roles, so as long as they don’t deviate from their own domains, they don’t care about each other. Part of it is because it’s convenient, but there are times when they have to ask for cooperation when it’s outside their territory, so they don’t want to make them enemies.”

“…”

“Does it make sense to help the princess even while taking the risk that the Mage Tower and Church might turn the emperor into an enemy just because she might become the next emperor? Really, if I had gotten involved in the battle for superiority just for that reason, I would have pushed the crown prince.”

Unlike me, Cassius, who judged by listening to my story, was clearly pinching the core.

“I don’t know why you thought you were the third princess. I don’t even know how I figured it out. But if that’s true. It must have been that the three princesses had something to hand over to the Magic Tower and Church. That’s the only one I think.”

I tightened my hand and squeezed it tightly.

‘I was complacent. It was stupid.’

“I’m not manipulating that you made a witch. That you really created a witch.”

“…”

I didn’t say anything.

“…And if I tell this story to the crown prince, the crown prince will notice too. Of course, Kalner said he would buy time with his spilled words to Katrina, but even if she wasn’t Katrina. The three princesses will not be fooled.”

“If that happens…”

“Even if you ask the crown prince for help by informing her of the plans of the three princesses, the best solution for the crown prince is not to save you. The best course of action for the crown prince is to steal the plans of her three princesses and use them herself. The bottom line is to make a deal with her three princesses.”

“Neither way, there is no chance for me to live. If I had to choose, I would be killed by the three princesses. It must be either killed by the crown prince or not.”

“…Maybe that’s how I think.”