The Daughter of Evil - Volume 3 - Chapter 4.2

Chapter 4-Time and a Forest and a Song; Scene 2
Praeludium of Red, page 212-215

♣ Yukina ~In the country of Elphegort, “Millenium Tree Forest/Old Well"~

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After moving on a little ways farther, Gumillia stopped in front of us.

She was quietly gazing to the left in front of her. She was staring at something that looked like a small well.

“There’s a well in a forest like this?”

Passing by Gumillia as she stood still, Germaine drew close to it.

“Did someone live around here a long time ago?” She peered into the well. “It’s pretty deep…Huh? There’s a ladder here. We can go inside with this.”

Evidently, Germaine had an endless interest in this different structure that had suddenly appeared in the forest.

This was my first time coming here. But I knew what sort of place this was. My father had told me about it when I was little.

I observed Germaine for a little bit. And then I gained a surge of confidence.

So this was the first time she had visited this spot after all.

“This was used by the Freezis Family in emergencies, as a hideaway,” I explained to her, walking up to the well. “When you go down the ladder there’ll be an iron door. That door leads to a hidden room.”

“Hold on a sec. If this is the Freezis Family hideaway, then that means this is…”

It seemed Germaine had realized the significance of this place as well.

“Yes. This is where my family’s former servant, Michaela, spent her last moments.”

When Lucifenia invaded Elphegort, Michaela had escaped to this place that my father told her about.

And here she was murdered by someone.

“Yes, here is where…”

Germaine faced the well and quietly closed her eyes.

Having watched the two of us from a distance, Gumillia came over.

“There is a slight presence, left here,” she said, while looking into the well.

Germaine’s expression became faintly grimmer.

“You mean that he’s here?”

“No, he’s not here now. But there is evidence that he stopped by.”

Germaine put her hand on the well’s ladder.

“I’ll investigate a little just in case. Maybe I’ll find some clue.”

Before she’d finished speaking, she descended down into the well using the ladder.

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Thirty minutes later, Germaine came back up and shook her head.

“No good. There was nothing important down there.”

Gumillia roused herself, having been resting against a tree in the shade.        

“Let’s go. I have another, idea.”

At her words, I stood up from where I had been sitting near the well too.

After taking in a big breath I shouted, in order to convince myself, “Yeah, let’s go! We’ll find Mister Kyle, wherever he is in this forest, and exorcise the demon in him!”

I didn’t know if we’d really be able to or not.

But like Germaine said, we had no choice but to do what we could.

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“Sigh~ this place was a wash,” Germaine muttered as she walked along.

“Oh no, I wouldn’t say that,” I replied, walking behind her.

“Did you learn something, Yukina?”

“Yeah. I know now without a doubt that you didn’t kill Michaela, Miss Germaine.”

Michaela had been killed near that well. But Germaine hadn’t known about it until now.

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I found a gravesite in a place not far from the well.

It was probably the grave of a soldier who died during a battle. Written there was:

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Here lies the heroic swordsman, Ayn.

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After praying before the gravesite for the soldier’s happiness in the afterlife, I hastened along.