Chapter 52
A warm weekend afternoon,
In a place reserved, so to speak, for people of means, three young ladies of suitably elegant bearing had gathered for a tea party.
“Heheh, hello, Miss Luina Aubert. This is our first time meeting at a gathering like this, isn't it? Let me introduce myself again. I'm Cecilia Asil. It's a pleasure to meet you.”
“Hello! We aren't exactly strangers, are we? I'm Aria Melts. It's nice to meet you!”
“…Hel…lo, everyone? This is a little… bewildering. Hmm, I'm Luina Aubert. It's a pleasure to meet you too.”
At the sight of the two entirely unexpected guests, Luina Aubert seemed flustered,
but Cecilia Asil and Aria Melts greeted her with smiles, as though their presence here were only natural.
“Something came up for Professor Rain, so we offered to come in his place.”
“I've always wanted to have a tea party like this with you, Luina! It made me so sad that you kept turning me down!”
“Oh my, I'm sorry. I've been rather busy. I suppose I kept refusing you without meaning to.”
“But that's all right! We're together now!”
Since Luina had gone out of her way to avoid spending time with the two of them, being here now was extremely uncomfortable.
Aria Melts, the original protagonist and the woman who had stolen—or whom Luina had thought had stolen—her love.
Cecilia Asil, a witch who had carried out a horrific massacre, yet was strangely quiet in this version of the world.
Both were difficult people for her to deal with.
“But what brings you here? I've heard both your names, but we weren't close enough to warrant a gathering like this, so… I'm curious.”
“I just wanted to become friends! You're the most famous person at the academy, after all!”
Luina wanted to demand, ‘You should know your place. Who taught a low-ranking noble that barging in and insisting on a meeting was proper etiquette?’ but
“Heheh.”
she couldn't bring herself to say it because Cecilia Asil was smiling meaningfully beside her.
In the original story, Cecilia had been a witch who committed murders with that smile, so Luina couldn't help shrinking back.
“Oh my, but if you'd contacted me beforehand, I wouldn't have been so flustered… It's a little unfortunate.”
That was the best Luina could manage—speaking so indirectly.
‘Hmm? Why is Miss Aubert acting like this…?’
But that was precisely why Cecilia grew suspicious of Luina.
The Luina Cecilia knew was cold and sharp, and she had hated blatantly discourteous behavior like this.
So naturally, Luina should have voiced her displeasure.
‘And yet she smiled and let it pass. While clearly conscious of me, too… Could it be that Miss Aubert has noticed something…?’
‘…Then shall I test her a little?’
“I was going to, but I was worried it might start unnecessary rumors. I wanted to ask you about my father’s… treatment.”
“…Treatment?”
“It isn't exactly a secret, is it? Everyone who visits the infirmary knows that you're being treated by my father.”
At the mention of Deokbae Asil's treatment, Luina became visibly flustered.
As she remembered his hands on her, she began to worry about how much Cecilia knew and why she had brought it up.
If Cecilia knew about her disgrace, what did this question mean, and what answer was she seeking…? Luina was afraid to find out.
“Wh-why do you ask? It isn't strange… I mean, it's not strange, is it? It's simply receiving treatment for an ailment.”
“Oh my? Seeing you so flustered only makes me worry. As his daughter, I merely wanted to ask whether there had been any problems with your treatment… Is something wrong?”
“That…”
But that was Luina's mistake.
Her unnatural behavior had instead aroused both women's suspicions.
Luina regretted not simply asking them the same question outright, but it was already too late to undo it.
“Heheh, I already know everything.”
“…Wh-what? That can't be… You promised you wouldn't tell anyone…”
“I have a way of knowing everything.”
“There isn't anything Cecilia doesn't know!”
Cecilia's answer, along with Aria's confident backing, made Luina's face stiffen.
The hand gripping her teacup trembled violently, sending the tea sloshing back and forth.
She was breathing, yet she couldn't breathe.
Her breathing grew ragged, and her vision blurred.
Shame that seeped to the very marrow of her bones made her feel faint.
Seeing Luina like that, Cecilia opened her mouth.
“Miss Luina Aubert. Stop receiving treatment from my father. I'll say it again. Stop receiving treatment from my father.”
“That's right! Stop! For your own sake, Miss Luina, you really should stop from now on. The time I get to spend receiving therapy will decrease… Ah, anyway!”
“…What…did you say?”
Luina had feared the worst.
She pictured the witch using this weakness to turn her into a toy and toss her around, while the true heroine took away everything surrounding her.
But contrary to what she had expected, the two comforted her instead and advised her to stop receiving treatment.
They were nothing like the two people in her memories or in the original story.
‘Why…?’
She was grateful and relieved. Yet at the same time, she recoiled.
‘Why am I…?’
Stopping treatment was tantamount to suicide. She needed it to stay alive. In other words, those two were telling her to die.
‘Are they telling me to die…?’
Goosebumps rose all over Luina's body.
A refusal spilled from her mouth on reflex.
“I-I don't want to! I don't know what you're so worried about. The professor treated me, and I received treatment. Thanks to it, I'm healthy now, and that's the end of it. I can't understand what right you two have to tell me what to do.”
It was the fiercest resistance she could muster. In a way, it was an impolite rejection of their goodwill.
But she had no room to worry about something like that.
From the moment the two of them appeared before her, she had already been incapable of thinking normally.
“Did you… say you didn't want to?”
“Yes! I'm grateful that you're both worried about me, but don't cross the line. If that's all you have to say, I'll be leaving now.”
All Luina could do was be stubborn and escape this gathering immediately.
Aria laughed at Luina's flustered behavior, so unlike the elegant composure she always displayed. Contrary to the rumors, Luina was just as easy to handle as Aria herself.
Cecilia, however, couldn't laugh.
‘The suggestion… didn't work?’
Her prized suggestion magic had failed to work on Luina.
She had planned to use this tea party to cast suggestion magic on Luina and protect her virginity, but she had failed.
‘Heheh, hehe… Ahahaha!’
‘I never imagined the suggestion wouldn't take…! As expected… Miss Luina Aubert! You truly are Father's destined partner!’
For Cecilia, Luina was the first person besides her father to resist her suggestion.
Even as she realized Luina would not be easy, she sensed fate in it at the same time.
The harder Luina Aubert was to obtain, the more precious she seemed.
“W-wait! I'll tell Lucius Hesse everything!”
“…What?”
“If you're that confident, then there's no problem, is there?”
“Ugh…”
If the suggestion wouldn't work, she had to move her plan forward.
She didn't know when Deokbae Asil might take Luina's virginity, so time was running short.
‘I'll have to force things a little. Still, it's lucky we have Rain. He'll buy us plenty of time.’
“Miss Melts! Stop bullying Miss Aubert.”
“Yes!”
“What…!”
Luina's legs had trembled as Aria backed her into a corner,
and she was left dumbfounded when Aria immediately changed her attitude at a single word from Cecilia.
Aria was truly Cecilia's lackey.
“Heheh, sorry for troubling you, Miss Aubert. You're right. We have no right to tell you what to do.
But please, take good care of yourself. Well… we'll be going now.”
“See you again, Luina!”
“……”
Luina felt as though she had been caught in a storm.
She was miserable, dizzy, and nauseated.
The two left, leaving Luina behind.
‘The next full moon should be ideal. Delaying it any longer would be dangerous.’
Cecilia went over what had happened today and adjusted her plan.
The total solar eclipse she had originally considered was far too far away to wait for.
She considered the many variables involved in moving the plan forward.
‘It’s… entirely possible. It was the right choice to keep the prince and the bodyguard away from Miss Aubert. Hesse alone won’t be able to stop me.’
‘Ah… I’m already getting excited. It really is happening soon.’
‘The moment I get to have Miss Aubert’s body…!’