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I arrived at the Young Miss’s room at top speed.
On the way, I passed the clock tower and confirmed that it was now dinnertime.
…This also meant this was the perfect time to strike.
Without a moment’s hesitation, I kicked the door open.
“Young Miss!”
The first thing I saw upon opening the door was the little golden pufferfish, preparing to eat.
“Ailena?
What are you doing here?”
She was surprised by my arrival, and her movements to eat came to a halt.
Looking at her plate, it seemed she hadn’t even taken her first bite yet.
…Thank goodness I made it in time!
While I let out a sigh of relief inwardly, I shouted to the Young Miss:
“Young Miss!
Whatever you do, don’t eat that food!”
“Ailena, what on earth is going on?”
Although she had stopped what she was doing, the Young Miss questioned me again.
But I had no time to explain everything in detail.
“Young Miss!
Get away from Senior Aina!
She works for Vladimir!
She’s a spy!
The recent turmoil in the estate was all orchestrated by her!”
The Young Miss’s eyes widened.
“Mother’s illness too?”
“Yes!
She was the one who let Vladimir in!”
Hearing this, the Young Miss immediately left her seat, took a few steps back, and distanced herself from Senior Aina.
“…Ailena, I’m truly hurt.
Why would you believe that I’m a spy sent by Vladimir?”
Aina covered her face with a handkerchief, pretending to dab at the corners of her eyes.
“And that’s where you’ve exposed yourself.
Besides myself, the head maid, and the few guards on duty that day, how could any other servant in the ducal estate know that the demon who invaded that day was Vladimir?
His Grace the Duke would never casually share such information with the servants… The official story was simply a demon invasion.”
Still trying, Aina retorted:
“…I heard it from Celine.
You know that she and I are on very good terms, right?”
“The head maid is a very serious and diligent person.
She wouldn’t leak important information, not even to a close friend.”
“…”
Aina lowered her head and silently undid her braids.
“Haha~ To think I’d be exposed over something like this.
I was really careless.”
Her long hair fell loose, the ends turning an eerie black, and her pupils changed to a vivid blood-red.
“Yes… I am one of Lord Vladimir’s kin.”
When she raised her face again, she wore a chilling grin that stretched to her ears.
“All the strange things that have been happening in the ducal estate recently~ were all my doing.”
“…”
I listened to her confession in silence.
“Whether it was planning Lord Vladimir’s invasion route, spreading rumors about the Young Miss among the maids, or even poisoning the food just now, I did it all.”
“Why on earth would you do all this?”
She didn’t look entirely like a demon; her features were only human, and she lacked the overwhelming presence that Vladimir had.
…And my intuition told me she was originally just a human.
“That’s obvious… It’s for Lord Vladimir’s blood, of course~”
Her gaze drifted into the distance, as if remembering something, and her expression became dazed.
“His Lordship’s blood is an absolute delicacy.
Once you’ve had a taste, you can never savor the flavor of anything else… Well, for us kin, our bodies have become unable to live without His Lordship’s blood.”
“You’re clearly human, yet you side with demons?”
The Young Miss, who had been silent until now, spoke.
“As long as I have His Lordship’s blood, nothing else matters~”
“…You’re completely insane.”
“But~” she shifted her gaze to me, “I went to the trouble of having you sent to confinement, so why are you still able to appear here?”
…So even my being sent to confinement was part of her calculations?
“Because I sensed the Young Miss was in danger, I blew down the door with magic, knocked out the guards, and ran all the way here.”
“…Aha, what kind of monster are you?
The confinement cell is supposed to have a magic suppression device, you know?”
A magic suppression device?
No wonder I felt a bit stuffy when using my magic.
“Well… I’m not that surprised, really.
I knew you were strong, what with that superior bloodline of yours~ I just didn’t expect you to get here so quickly.”
As she spoke, she took a few steps back and sliced through the candle on the table.
The room was instantly plunged into darkness.
“Trying to escape!”
I immediately drew my short knife and rushed toward Aina.
However, before I could even thrust my knife, she had already vanished.
The next moment, Aina’s voice rang out from another spot.
“I’m not running away~ Now that I’ve been exposed, there’s no need to play house anymore.”
Looking again, Aina had appeared behind the Young Miss at some point, holding a jet-black dagger to her neck.
“Young Miss!”
“Don’t move~ If you dare make a move, your beloved Young Miss might just lose her life, you know~?”
“…Tch!”
“To be honest, if I had to fight you for real, I wouldn’t be confident of winning~ But luckily, there’s a burden here, so my chances of victory are now infinitely high~”
“Burden?”
As soon as those words were spoken, the Young Miss’s face immediately darkened.
In an instant, Aina’s vision began to spin.
Before she could even react, she was thrown to the ground by the Young Miss.
“Who… did you call a burden?”
…I see.
Because her source of information was us maids, I had never spoken of the Young Miss’s true strength.
So she must have subconsciously thought that the Young Miss was just a novice who had only been learning swordsmanship for a little over half a year.
In reality, the Young Miss’s physical abilities far surpass my own.
Even among the entire order of knights, she is an existence few could hope to match.
It is precisely because she possessed so much information that it became a hindrance at a time like this.
In any case, the Young Miss had subdued Aina, so the matter should have ended there…
“…?”
Looking again, Aina, who had been pinned to the floor by the Young Miss, had vanished.
Even the Young Miss herself looked completely baffled.
Immediately after, Aina appeared in another inexplicable location.
“…I really was careless.”
One of her eyes was stained crimson with blood, looking incredibly eerie.
I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination, but she looked somewhat exhausted.
Recalling my previous encounter with Vladimir, I had a good idea of what her ability truly was.
“…Magic to slip into shadows?”
“This is a magic bestowed upon me alone by Lord Vladimir.
The other kin aren’t favored this much, you know.”
She seemed quite proud of it.
But this way, it would be very difficult to catch her.
If she was determined to escape, she would surely vanish without a trace, just like Vladimir did that day.
It would be best to capture her alive for interrogation… If that’s not possible, I must execute her on the spot, so she cannot harm anyone else.
“Take this!”
And just as I was wondering what to do, the Young Miss produced a longsword from somewhere and slashed at Aina.
…Fine!
No point overthinking this!
Let’s just fight first
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