The Woman Found the Will I Wrote

9 – Post-examination stories

A torture room in the dungeon beneath a deep-rooted family house.

Where the air was hardly fresh and the rotting smell of human flesh wafted, the butler initiated a conversation with me.

“They’re quite an obstinate lot. Despite all the interrogation methods, none of them were willing to speak.”

“Is that so?”

I wondered if they could still be called human, resembling zombies more than anything else due to their countless injuries.

Looking at the three who were no longer in human form, I awkwardly nodded my head.

“Yes. After consulting with torture experts, they say it’s due to decades of severe brainwashing since childhood and an unidentified contract magic embedded within them.”

Unidentified contract magic.

At that word I felt a slight discomfort and fell into a small contemplation.

‘What on earth is the Celestial Church doing?’

At first, I thought it was just a corrupted religion or a cult.

Looking back now, there were many questionable points that couldn’t be addressed by simply calling it a religious group.

For instance, their standpoint of wishing only for Rumi’s misfortune.

Audacious enough to instigate group violence in the academy for the cult’s purpose.

On top of that, imposing such strong brainwashing on ordinary believers.

No matter how much I thought about it, there were quite a few unsettling aspects about the cult.

‘I should have read more of the novel.’

Due to busy reality, I was only able to read one or two chapters a day.

Not having read the entire “Over a thousand Female Lead’s Vicissitudes” left a bitter taste.

I wish I knew at least the identity of the Celestial Church, when suddenly, the butler began to speak.

“Are you alright, Young Master? Your injuries…”

At that statement, I looked at my body and nodded.

Seeing my response, the butler heaved a sigh of relief and continued his words.

“That’s good. If you were seriously hurt, I could not imagine how furious the family head would be.”

That family head?

Even in the novel, he was quite cold-hearted so it didn’t seem likely.

With a noncommittal shake of my head, a thought about Rumi prompted me to ask about her.

“Rumi is expected to recover from all injuries in a few days.”

That was very reassuring news.

‘In the novel, her injuries were going to trouble her for her lifetime, but now it’s just a few days until recovery…’

Whether these changes will be positive, no one knows.

One thing’s for sure, most of the carcinogenic parts that emerged from that injury will disappear.

I nodded, recalling the image of Lumi from the novel, who was restrained by the wound.

“When Lumi gets consciousness back, call me.”

“Yes, I will do that.”

I nodded my head and turned around.

* * *

Lumi regained consciousness the next morning.

I glanced at Lumi who was staring at the ceiling with a vacant expression and asked shortly.

“Are you okay?”

At that question, Lumi, regaining consciousness, hurriedly crawled under the blanket and spoke to me.

“Ah… uh, hmm.”

Judging by the painful groan before answering yes, she seemed to still be in quite some pain.

I sighed, looking at Lumi buried in the blanket like a mole, and continued speaking.

“At least, until your wounds heal, you should stay here.”

At my words, she momentarily flinched, then quickly nodded with only her face sticking out from the blanket.

“No, no. I can’t be such a burden… I will rest a bit and leave right away.”

Her stuttering denial,

In that state, I felt a weird irritation and spoke firmly.

“Rest.”

“……”

In the novel, she was always accepting a loss, she had a personality where she couldn’t cause harm to others, upon thinking about this, my voice rose sharply.

“If you wander outside with your body like that, word will get around that this family can’t even cure a guest heading to Lerche’s wound properly, so listen.”

“…Then, as soon as the wound heels, I’ll leave right away.”

I wanted to say that she should rest thoroughly since she is resting anyway.

But seeing that she wouldn’t listen even if we argued more, I decided to give up.

I was watching Lumi for a while, about to go back to my room after confirming she was okay.

“Wait, a moment!”

Lumi urgently called me back.

Wondering why, I turned around and saw Lumi speak to me, hesitantly crawling out from her blanket.

“Why… did you help me?”

At that question, I couldn’t answer straightforwardly.

No matter what I said, I thought it would be out of context and contradictory for Lumi to accept.

‘Although I helped, the character ‘Deren’ was intending to kidnap and assault Lumi, even up to the point of rape.’

So while standing without saying a word.

Lumi was looking at me hesitantly, then she drops to her knees on the floor and speaks.

“…Thank you. Without you, I might have died.”

I was taken aback since I wasn’t expecting her to kneel down.

Every time I interact with Rumi, I feel as though my facade crumbles.

Rumi, still kneeling, looks up at me slowly and starts to speak.

“I will surely repay this kindness in the future.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“No, it’s right to repay, no matter what… If there is anything I can help with, tell me anytime, even at dawn… Ah, I can’t go out. But, I will help you as much as I can, no matter what.”

Her self-esteem is so low, she usually lurks around.

In strange places, she shows an excessive amount of firm belief.

Seeing Rumi trembling all over, proudly speaking of repayment, I sighed and continued speaking.

“Do as you wish.”

“… Okay! I will even write an IOU!”

That damned IOU.

Why does she always want to write an IOU even when it isn’t about money?

I wanted to fix this warped sense of obligation, but considering her stubbornness, it doesn’t seem like she’ll change, so I decided to give up.

* * * * *

The next day, as soon as I got to the academy, I was called by the principal. Despite my annoyance, I made my way over to his office.

It was clear that he wanted to investigate the incident of group violence and the intrusion of my family’s knights that had happened yesterday.

As I opened the door, feeling an impending annoyance, a rather strange scene unfolded.

‘Why are those jerks kneeling?’

The young nobles who had partaken in the violence yesterday were sitting on their knees in a line.

I was taken aback as I hadn’t expected to witness such a scene in the principal’s office.

As soon as the principal saw me, he swiftly rose from his seat and approached me.

“Student Derun, you have arrived.”

I was a bit confused about where to begin pointing out the problems in all this.

I was feeling a touch of vertigo, unable to comprehend the situation at all.

The principal guided me to my seat and told me about the incident with a smile on his face.

“I sincerely apologize for the violence that happened yesterday.”

“……”

“Although there’s nothing to say considering this incident happened due to neglect on the academy’s part, we’ve all been scrambling together to resolve the situation as much as possible…”

Indeed, it was the professors’ fault for not properly supervising the exam day violence.

But still, it seemed somewhat questionable that the principal would apologize in such a humble demeanor.

Just as I was wondering if it was all too much, clues trickled out from the principal’s mouth hinting at the reason.

“Could you tell the director not to be too upset?”

The director.

At that very moment, I had a rough idea of the reason.

‘One of the humans of the Lershe family was the director of the academy.’

Was it an uncle, or an aunt?

I did not remember exactly, but I recalled from the novel that a similar incident was dealt with in a similar way.

‘Derun had also suggested in the novel to sweep this under the rug.’

Despite such an act of violence happening, it was glossed over largely due to the influence of the Lershe family and the director.

It tickled my funny bone thinking about it.

Given my powerful backing, I thought the actions of Derun were just about right…

Suddenly, I noticed the aristocratic students kneeling in a corner with a perplexed voice.

“So, who are they?”

“Ah, those are the perpetrators involved in the recent violence. They came to ask for forgiveness on their own.”

The principal finished his speech and handed me a list of the perpetrators.

“The students say if you could forgive them, they’re willing to accept any punishment. If you could forgive them, I would be really grateful.”

As I scanned through the list handed by the principal, I began to understand why they came forward like this.

‘So, they’re the kids of weakened aristocrats or rural nobility.’

I closed my eyes, picturing how Ariel could have successfully coaxed so many students.

‘Probably lured them with financial support or promising positions after graduation using the power of the celestial order.’

From their perspective, who had neither money nor jobs, harassing one commoner girl could significantly improve their lives, so it must have been a pretty tempting suggestion.

‘After all, they’re just commoners to them.’

The commoners, which they could ruin and mistreat without any consequences.

Thinking about this, an unusual anger began to boil within me, as I calmly conveyed my demands to the principal.

“In exchange for making it disappear, I have one condition.”

The principal nodded quickly, glad about not having to expel a large number of students at once.

Facing the principal, I briefly stated my demand.

“I’d like to beat them up a little.”