~Chapter 40~
Elodie regained her composure in an instant and pointed at the bracelet inside the glass case — the one with the crimson gemstone glimmering faintly.
“I want that one.”
“Th—that one is absolutely…!”
“You’re not going to say it’s absolutely forbidden, are you, Mother?”
“……”
“If some stranger with no connection to us just dropped it off without a reason, then it can’t be that precious, can it?”
“……”
“Elodie says she wants it.”
“……Fine. Do as you wish.”
Claire’s suppressed voice leaked a murderous intent she failed to hide.
But Sera ignored it cleanly.
She opened the glass case so Elodie could easily reach it.
With a strangely trembling hand, Elodie took out the bracelet and gripped it tightly.
Basilisk.
She had her suspicions, but without evidence, there was always a chance she was wrong.
But now—finally—she had proof.
“Hic… Mom… how could you do that to me?”
Unable to contain her outrage, Rose finally burst into tears.
How could she slap me?
And after hearing every single thing that Cinderella said to me, how could she just stand there? Worse yet—how could she even agree with her!
Rose still couldn’t believe what had happened to her.
That Cinderella girl, who used to wash her clothes and polish her shoes, had the nerve to sneer at her as if she were trash. The image wouldn’t leave her mind.
Seeing her daughter crying loudly enough to shake the mansion, Claire felt her head splitting.
“You foolish child. Don’t you realize it ended with just that because of your mother?”
“What? Do you not see my cheek? It still stings!”
“Stop focusing only on your pain and think about how Cinderella behaved. Was she anything like the girl we knew?”
At those words, Rose stopped crying and sniffled.
“…No.”
No matter how much they nitpicked her, that grimy little girl used to obey meekly.
But now she was nothing like that.
Had Cinderella ever looked her straight in the eyes and behaved so boldly?
“With the Valkyrisen young master and that Ratson rat at her back, she’s gotten all full of herself…” Rose muttered through clenched teeth.
Then Daisy, who had remained silent until now, finally spoke.
“No matter what, a person doesn’t just change that much in a few days.”
“Exactly. That Cinderella brat has always been rotten to the core.”
The way she hid her claws until she gained the strength to take over the Bluewood family said everything.
From the very first moment Claire saw Seraphina, she had felt an overpowering intuition:
If she doesn’t crush that thing now, disaster will follow.
She must never give that girl even the slightest chance.
She had once thought: It’s fine as long as I give birth to a son with the Count.
But she changed her mind.
She worked her.
If she disobeyed, she punished her.
She dressed her in servant clothes.
She gave her the nickname “Cinderella,” meaning “covered in ash,” instead of her real name.
She made her work harder than the maids, to the point everyone regarded it as normal.
Then she filed a death certificate and erased Seraphina from the family registry, turning her into a ghost…
Ten years passed after her remarriage, and she still had no son. Claire became convinced her decision had been right.
But she never imagined it would turn out like this.
“Maybe that Ratson rat knew she was actually a high-ranked mouse beastkin and protected her intentionally.”
Crafty little vermin.
All the troublesome work she’d put in had gone to waste instantly.
But to avoid the family’s ruin, she had no choice but to submit for now.
Claire gripped Rose’s and Daisy’s shoulders with a frighteningly hardened expression.
“For now, stay quiet. For now.”
Just as Cinderella once did.
That much, at least, was worth learning from her.
“She may have gotten the title back, but she’s still nothing. Just a girl with a name and no power. There are still countless chances to overturn this.”
And this time, she would not make a mistake.
Claire thought:
Yes, my mistake was…
Being satisfied with just declaring her dead and working her like a servant because she was still young.
This time, she would make sure to kill her properly.
So no further variables could ever arise again.
The bracelet brought from the Bluewood estate seemed as if it had fallen from the sky.
No matter how they traced it, not a single clue appeared.
“I’m sorry.”
Edmund apologized, unable to hide his gloomy expression.
It seemed he felt guilty for achieving nothing despite Elodie’s request.
“No. Eez ohkay.”
She had asked him to investigate the bracelet’s origin, but she hadn’t expected much anyway.
There was no way anyone would leave behind traceable clues if they wanted to hide the truth.
The Basilisk family was said to be so secretive they rarely left their own territory except when fulfilling a request.
Of course they would erase all traces.
But it seemed they never imagined that this bracelet would be tied to Elodie’s memories.
Which meant the bracelet itself did not have any memory-storage function…
“This gemstone is a red diamond,” Edmund explained just then.
“It’s extremely rare and very valuable, but it was not crafted as an artifact.”
He confirmed that it was merely a bracelet with an expensive jewel.
She had heard before that the rarer the gemstone, the better it worked as an artifact…
But had she really stored a memory in an unprocessed gemstone?
Was that even possible?
Well, she was born from a divine agent’s bloodline…
Perhaps an intense surge of emotion manifested as a supernatural ability at that moment.
Elodie felt a bit impressed by her own younger self, whose memories she didn’t even have.
I must have been really angry.
Honestly, after being mocked so relentlessly—
Saying God would watch and save her, daring the heavens to strike her with divine punishment…
Even a three-year-old wouldn’t tolerate that.
“Do you think this bracelet belongs to the person who abandoned Lady Ratson in Teranollia?”
At the cautious question, Elodie—who had been lost in thought while gripping the bracelet—raised her head.
“Edmunt, du yu kno Basilisk famli?”
“Basilisk…”
Edmund swept up his bangs, clearly distressed.
“I do know of them.”
Even the Valkyrisen young master only knew of them. That was how isolated the Basilisk family was.
They supposedly had zero interaction even with neutral territories like Valkyrisen.
Just how many secrets did they hide?
“All Basilisk serpents use false names, not their real ones. Even if you meet them outside, they’ll have their faces and bodies completely covered by hoods or cloaks.”
“Why? Why dey do dat?”
“…Because of their line of work,” he said vaguely.
It was clear he didn’t think it was something to say to a child.
Elodie already knew from the Squirrel, though.
The Basilisk “profession” meant:
As long as the price is right, they accept any job, no matter how unethical or vile.
You don’t call a family that kidnaps a child without guilt anything but notorious villains.
“The Ratson lady would probably know more than I do. I heard they only reveal their real faces before the Emperor of Animallia and the High Priest.”
Hearing that, Elodie finally understood why the Basilisk she met had shown his face and name.
It was because she was the High Priest’s successor.
“Was it the Basilisk who did it?”
Edmund’s quiet question carried a sharpness she hadn’t seen before.
The killing intent he failed to hide was enough to make her skin prickle.
Surely he wasn’t planning to march an army to their gates right this moment?
Even if he did, the Basilisk family was just an ordinary noble house — Valkyrisen wouldn’t take much damage. But—
That absolutely must not happen.
The true mastermind was someone else.
Given the Basilisk family’s nature, it was far more likely they had been paid to execute someone’s request.
Attack the Basilisk, and the real culprit would cut ties and disappear.
So she had to approach this carefully.
Quietly.
And in secret.
