Chapter 3
As in the original work, she tapped the foot of the crow statue at a steady rhythm, then pressed firmly on the very tip of the feather at the far end of its left wing, and a handle appeared.
The moment she opened the door, a sour and metallic smell surged toward her.
She covered her mouth when she saw the vivid red magic circle on the floor.
‘Disgusting.’
Even if she did not know what it meant, it was an ominous place where it was impossible not to realize that it was something sinister.
It matched exactly the description of the place where she had been dragged away and met her death. Everything was exactly as the Eliza of her previous life had read in the information.
Eliza hurriedly escaped from the room and closed the door. Then she walked away with unsteady steps.
Without even knowing that someone who had discovered Eliza had gone to report her whereabouts to the young master.
“Ha, haha.”
On the sky bridge connecting the East and West Wings, Eliza stopped, clutching a pillar.
Her insides churned with the emotions boiling within her. She did not know what name to give them.
All those complicated emotions took on a gloomy shadow and pushed her mind into an abyss.
‘I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.’
She had no choice but to admit it. The Hagen Marquessate followed black magic.
Those who had smiled at me would plunge a knife into me with those same faces.
‘If I beg them to spare me, will they let me live? If a sacrifice is needed, does it really have to be me?’
In the original work, Eliza’s death had merely been a device to emphasize Hagen’s cruelty. The exact condition for Leopold’s awakening had never been revealed.
If there were conditions for the sacrifice…… If it were something like the sacrifice of someone close to him, that would be a problem.
Leopold had no friends other than her. If the condition had already been fulfilled with this body, Hagen would not easily give up the sacrifice.
‘Why does it have to be me?’
Eliza squeezed her eyes shut, horrified that she was even having such thoughts.
Her face, which was usually pale to begin with, was now devoid of color.
“What are you doing here?”
“……Leopold.”
Suddenly, the hat covering her head came loose. The wind on the open sky bridge naturally tousled her hair.
The face revealed beyond her flowing silver hair looked unusual, and Leopold’s brow twitched.
“Are you sick somewhere again?”
“……No, it’s the same as usual. Weak. Dizzy.”
Leopold naturally placed Eliza’s hand on his arm so that she could lean on him.
Eliza unconsciously slapped his arm away.
“Wait.”
She turned around and quickened her pace. She did not even spare Leopold a glance, so she failed to notice.
“Eliza!”
Leopold’s expression turned unusually grim as he grabbed Eliza by the shoulders. It was a face she rarely saw from him.
“It hurts. Let go.”
“You smell.”
There was something unsettling about Leopold’s words.
Should she ask or not? Eliza hesitated. But before she could, Leopold spoke first.
“Don’t tell me you went into that place?”
“……What place?”
Eliza’s heart began racing.
‘How does Leopold know about that room? Don’t tell me, you too…….’
Eliza bit the inside of her cheek to regain her composure.
With a slightly furrowed expression, she said,
“My clothes are old, so I guess they smell.”
The clothes she was wearing were shabby maid’s clothes.
To disguise themselves on the way here, she had taken out the commoners’ clothes that she and Leopold had hidden together.
Leopold readily accepted her explanation and nodded.
“Ah. Then why did you take those clothes out? You probably didn’t even wash them.”
“I was bored, so I wore them for the first time in a while.”
“You were so bored that you went as far as sewing together scraps of dust-covered cloth and wearing them?”
“Is it really so unusual for me to act on a whim?”
“That’s true.”
Even as she naturally exchanged words with Leopold, Eliza’s thoughts did not stop.
Should she report the Marquis of Hagen first? In this kingdom, the fate of anyone who dabbled in black magic was, at minimum, exile, and at worst, the executioner’s block.
“Leopold Hagen.”
“Why are you calling me so frighteningly? I’m Leo.”
“I have something to ask you.”
Whenever he saw the solitary violet eyes shining brightly within her pale face, Leopold found himself wanting to uncover everything hidden within them.
However, that was impossible, so today, as always, he obediently played along with his young lady.
“What is it?”
“What would you do if I betrayed you?”
“I’d marry you.”
The answer came without hesitation. Eliza blinked several times.
She wondered if she had heard him wrong.
“What did you say?”
“I have no one but you, and if you betray me, I’ll have nothing left. So you have to take responsibility for me.”
Leopold’s eyes curved as they always did. At the sight of that familiar face, the tension abruptly left Eliza.
It was another crazy thing to say. He was playful at times and never showed a serious side to her.
Even so, her heart did not ease at this usual joke because of the weight of the thoughts that had settled in her heart.
“What if I die?”
“Are you joking? Why would you die?”
Leopold stepped right up beside Eliza and immediately frowned. Eliza smiled when she saw his face.
‘Right, quietly accepting death doesn’t suit my personality.’
The truth she had realized. Confusion and frustration. After that, there was only one thought that came to her.
‘I’m sorry, Leo.’
Eliza hated being in pain. Therefore, she hated dying even more.
‘I will choose to live. I’ll live, and I’ll atone to you.’
Eliza wanted to live.
Even if it meant betraying her one and only friend and fiancé.
***
“Ugh…….”
“Oh, you still have enough strength left to groan?”
“Ugh, uaaagh!”
In a dark warehouse with not a single ray of light anywhere, the fingers of a man who had been writhing across the dirty floor were crushed beneath a shoe.
The man, covered in blood, twisted his body and screamed, but the man standing on his hand held a candlestick toward him and smiled.
“P-please, spare…… Ggh, uheong…… Please, spare me…….”
“Who said I was going to kill you?”
A cold blue flame flickered ruthlessly in his eyes, which did not smile at all despite only the corners of his mouth being raised.
The candlelight illuminated the man’s hair in a reddish-golden glow. It was a beautiful color, but there was no one who could see it.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make you a perfectly clean idiot.”
“Aah!”
“I should have gagged you too.”
A shadow ominously rippled around his eyes, which had thin double eyelids.
Leopold grabbed the man’s head with his large palm. As black energy flowing from his grip seeped into the man’s head, his screams grew more intense.
“Does it hurt? That’s what you get for kidnapping someone.”
The man was the mastermind behind the attempt to forcibly take Eliza away, bearing a grudge after she rejected him.
Eliza was too soft-hearted and would not be able to deal with the culprit even if she knew who he was, so as her kind friend, Leopold decided to take revenge in her place.
“Ggh…….”
“Ah, that won’t do.”
When Leopold released his hand, the man, who had been foaming at the mouth, collapsed backward.
As Leopold dusted off his hand, he suddenly looked down at his palm. A small black feather had sprouted there.
He pulled it out in one swift motion.
“Ah. That hurts?”
A sharp pain pierced his palm. Soon after, even his head began to throb.
Whenever Leopold used this ‘power,’ there was always a slight aftereffect. It was because the power was still incomplete.
He turned his gaze toward the distant sky. He knew hair as clear and dazzling as a snowy field, not a hazy sky covered in clouds.
‘I want to see her.’
Leopold rummaged through his clothes and took out a note. It was one Eliza had given him not long ago.
「I can’t meet you.」
It was a short and cold answer.
Our young lady has been acting strange lately. Leopold put the note back into his clothes and stroked his chin.
She was secretly a coward. Seeing that she had hidden herself like this again, her friend of eight years knew very well that it meant something had happened that she was afraid of.
That side of her was adorable, but unfortunately, Leopold’s patience had a habit of becoming rather poor around her at times.
“If you can’t meet me, then I’ll just go meet you.”
Leaping out the window, Leopold turned his steps toward a familiar place.
Leopold Hagen needed Eliza Waluer.
Because she was the only one who could calm this blood.
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