The Daughter of Evil - Volume 3 - Chapter 3.26

Chapter 3, Section 2-Full Moon Visitor; Scene 6
Praeludium of Red, page 189-199

✥ Kyle ~In the Lucifenian Palace, “The King’s Room”~

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Two guards were sprawled out on the floor in front of my bedroom. They seemed to be alive, but stunned. Had they been attacked by the burglars, or surprised by the explosion? That would be pretty shameful if the latter.

As expected the door to the entrance was destroyed, but the inside of the room appeared to be fine.

Looks like we’ll be able to settle this without messing up my sleeping quarters for tomorrow on.

Inside the room, a wooden-masked servant was surrounded by five women in iron masks.

The cloak the servant was wearing had been torn off, and I could see red armor exposed underneath. In her right hand she wielded a rapier that I recognized.

“Special Maneuvers Task Force, Clive, leave her to me,” I ordered.

The members of the task force took several steps back, but they did not break their circle around the servant. Clive also made no move to leave.

“…Alright. I want to talk to this burglar a little bit. Don’t hurt her yet,” I said, standing before her. It was the servant who had spoken to me the other day.

“What dangerous pets you have, esteemed King Marlon.”

I had heard her voice before.

There was no mistaking it. This was the woman I had searched for these five years.

“Take off that mask. It doesn’t suit your pretty face.”

At my words the woman removed her mask, and tossed it to the floor.

“Long time no see, Germaine. Unbelievable, that you would come to me like this.”

The hero of the revolution, Germaine Avadonia. The woman who killed Michaela.

“I decided to quit running away.”

“What a laudable attitude. You mean you’ve come to repent for your crime, and let yourself be killed?”

Germaine smiled faintly. “Crime? What sort of crime are you saying I committed?”

“Don’t try to mess with me! I know that you killed Michaela!” Despite my indignance, Germaine didn’t move a single eyebrow. “Germaine, you knew that you wouldn’t be able to pull off the revolution with just the resistance alone. So you turned your eyes on Michaela. Somewhere you learned of her relationship between Keel and I, and then you hatched a plan.”

“A plan, huh?…”

“You joined forces with Elluka of the Three Heroes and killed Michaela in the forest. And then you pinned that crime on the princess–Riliane. You assumed that once you had, Keel and I would join in the revolution!”

I glared at Germaine, but all she returned was a gaze of obvious pity.

Why? Why was she looking at me with those eyes?

Germaine opened her mouth with a sigh. “There are various retorts I could make to that…But first, what proof do you have for this theory?”

“It’s clear that you were colluding with Elluka. There’s someone who spotted you two meeting when the Forest of Bewilderment was set fire.”

“…Ah, yes I do remember that happening.”

“And there’s one other thing. Of the people who knew that Michaela was hiding in the well in the forest, there was just me, Keel, and Elluka and her apprentice.”

Germaine silently listened to me.

“Keel was imprisoned in Lucifenia at the time. Taking that into consideration, the only ones I can think of as the culprit are Elluka and Gumillia, who carelessly appeared behind me when I found Michaela’s corpse, and you, Germaine–you who was communing with them!”

Even I could tell that I had started talking much faster than normal, likely because I was getting so worked up.

Germaine kept aiming her pitying gaze in my direction.

“I want to say that I appreciate your reasoning, but it’s all little more than conjecture isn’t it? And…you know too, don’t you? About Allen.”

Allen–I would never forget. That servant who had been executed in Princess Riliane’s place. Yes, when I’d confronted Allen while he was imprisoned in the dungeon as the princess, he had certainly told me something. That he was the one who killed Michaela.

Hm, I see. Was that your excuse, Germaine?

“Allen Avadonia, I fear…did not kill Michaela.”

“What!?”

For the first time Germaine’s expression shook.

“Keel was the one who told Allen where Michaela was, as he’d been in the dungeon at the time. The night Michaela died, I’m told Allen appeared at the prison where Keel was being held, and while crying said, ‘When I went to the well, Michaela had already been killed by someone’.”

“Impossible…”

"A short while after the revolution I heard it from Keel himself; there’s no mistake. And Allen didn’t have any reason to lie to Keel. So why did he tell me he killed Michaela?”

Germaine said nothing, listening to me talk.

“Simple. He was trying to protect the real culprit. His adopted older sister, Germaine Avadonia!”

“…Allen didn’t kill Michaela…”

She seemed to be distracted.

“What is it? Are you at a loss for words, for how well I’ve hit the mark?”

And then suddenly Germaine’s expression returned to a smile.

“Thank you, it’s good you told me that. That makes me feel a little better.”

“…? What on earth are you talking about–”

“First of all, I said it before–but it’s the truth–I didn’t kill Michaela. That’s a fact.”

What are you saying, this late in the game?

“Are you telling me I have to believe you?”

“It’s more that I can’t understand why you don’t believe me. Though it was only for a brief time, we did fight together didn’t we?”

“That doesn’t mean that I don’t have any basis for thinking that you didn’t kill Michaela.”

I grasped the hilt of the sword at my waist.

“Feels like you don’t have any basis for thinking I did, either. Based on this conversation.”

“…Any further excuses you have, tell them to the Master of the Hellish Yard in the land of the dead.” I drew my broadsword. I pointed the end of my blade at Germaine.

“Or perhaps is there a reason for you to not want to believe me?”

“…What is that supposed to mean?”

“Like something that would cause you problems if I wasn’t the culprit.”        

It wasn’t like that. I was simply pursuing revenge–revenge.

“If you won’t believe me, then do as you will. But stop thinking about revenge. It’ll only bring you emptiness. I was the same way.”

Don’t compare us. I’m not a weak person like you.

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‘…How trivial.’

 .

I could hear that voice again.

Be silent. I am not trivial!

“–Revenge is an empty thing. And in a worst case scenario, you’ll end up finding a new enemy just to fill that emptiness.”

So you’re saying that I’ve picked a new target of my revenge, a new enemy, to fill up my sense of nothingness?

You’re wrong. That itself is conjecture on your part, isn’t it? Ney told me that you were the culprit. My mother told me to expand our country. I’ve just been obeying what everyone’s told me.

No. It wasn’t everyone. Me, I made those decisions. I am right. I am just.

“Let’s look towards the future after this, together. It’s more constructive to pursue your dreams and objectives than to let yourself be imprisoned by revenge.”

Dreams? Even I had dreams. I had wanted to become a painter. But I had to give up on that. Thanks to the interference of Nikolay and my mother. So I lost my dreams.

Ah, it’s true. I don’t have dreams. I don’t have anything. I’m a boring, trivial man who has nothing…

Obviously that wasn’t true, wasn’t it? Even I had dreams. I had wanted to become a painter. But I had to give up on that. Thanks to the interference of Nikolay and my mother. So I lost my dreams.

Ah, it’s true. I don’t have dreams. I don’t have anything. I’m a boring, trivial man who has nothing…

“–What’s wrong? You’re looking a bit peculiar.”

“–You! What have you done to the king–!?”

“–Just a second I haven’t done anything–”

Germaine and Clive were arguing about something.

……

It was no use. My thoughts were too disordered.

In times like this–I would touch the hand mirror, and my heart would calm down.

That mirror–where had my mirror gone off to?

“Give me back…my hand mirror…”

My chest ached, and I could hardly speak.

“What? Well that’s out of the blue. I don’t have any hand mirror.”

What? Then where? Where was it now?

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Give over everything.

Give over everything to your feelings.

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I could hear that voice from somewhere. That voice that always resounded from my hand mirror.

It wasn’t in this room

It was nearby. It was in the room next to this one.

“Clive…”

“Are you alright, Your Majesty?”

“You and the Special Maneuvers Task Force–kill Germaine…She’s the woman who defeated the master swordsman Gast Venom….Take caution with her. I’m going to leave.”

Clive leapt towards Germaine in my place.

“Oh dear, I guess now is my moment.”

Germaine moved back and then dashed for the nearby window.

And then, she threw herself towards it full tilt.

Clive yelled, “She’s escaping! After her!”

At his signal, the Special Maneuvers Task Force headed after Germaine, but she broke through the window just a step too soon and escaped outside.

Clive and the Special Maneuvers Task Force moved through the broken window and leaped out after her.

I left the room by the door rather than the window, and headed for the room nearby–the one that once belonged to Princess Riliane.