Chapter 16
“Yes, I think I forgot due to the trauma of being badly injured.”
“Then you don’t remember anything from before arriving at that mansion when you were eight?”
“I’m not sure what you mean….”
“Do you remember coming to the mansion that morning—the day of the fire?”
Belia furrowed her brows.
It was an unexpected question.
“Hmm, I don’t remember that clearly either. But since I was injured in the mansion, I must have gone there in the morning, right?”
“That would make sense. But I’m asking because I’m curious how you ended up at that mansion. Something about it feels suspicious.”
“Suspicious?”
“Your name wasn’t on the guest list at the time.”
“I wasn’t on the guest list?”
That was news to her.
“Yes. There were quite a few young children among the invitees, but when I looked at the final guest list, your name wasn’t there.”
“It wasn’t…?”
Alendo nodded.
“Apparently, you were originally on the list, but your name was removed at the marquis’s request, possibly because your health was weak.”
“Then why was I at the mansion that day?”
“That’s what I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking you. Did your family ever say anything about it?”
“No. Not at all.”
Belia shook her head.
“Hmm, did you just go along with the eldest young master?”
“Huh?”
“Barun Arfedi, your older brother, was on the list. So maybe you came with him. That wouldn’t have raised any concerns.”
“With my brother?”
Not a single thing came to mind.
Watching Belia frown, Alendo narrowed his eyes.
‘Carlton is very interested in the mansion incident, and he suspects that so-called teacher of his was the one who started the fire… and judging by what I’ve seen, this young lady seems to be connected to that teacher somehow.’
Alendo rubbed his chin, continuing his speculation.
Knock knock.
“What is it?”
A man who appeared to be a servant approached the crown prince and whispered something in his ear.
“Ah, I see. You may go.”
Looking at Belia’s still-serious expression, Alendo pulled out a letter from inside his coat.
“It seems both you and I have a lot of questions for each other, but I’ve got matters to attend to, so I’m afraid I have to cut this meal short.”
“Ah, okay.”
Belia, still frowning, glanced at the clock and nodded.
“Well, don’t take it too seriously. Even if you weren’t on the guest list, you might’ve just been let in because you came with Young Master Arfedi.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“And this.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a letter Carlton asked me to give you.”
Belia accepted the worn envelope.
* * *
As soon as she got into the carriage after finishing the meal with the crown prince, Belia opened the letter.
After examining it from all angles with a serious look, she sighed.
“Is this written in some kind of code?”
It was disappointing—she’d expected more.
Belia flipped the blank letter upside down.
Nothing came out, even when she shook it.
It seemed the only message was the one written on the outside of the envelope.
Giving up on deciphering it, Belia leaned back in her seat.
[I’ll come find you.]
Belia ran her fingers across the writing.
“Guess I just have to wait.”
She had neither the ability nor the means to seek out the master of the mage tower.
All she could do was wait for him to come to her.
“More importantly… a potential fiancée to the crown prince, huh….”
The thought of the upcoming tea party made her head ache.
If the group around Lady Doltan, whom she’d seen at the banquet, caught wind of this… they’d no doubt torment her endlessly.
Already chosen as “Young Lady of the Year,” and now a candidate for royal engagement?
“Well… maybe it’s not such a bad thing?”
Even before her regression, she had attended many tea parties and banquets, but they were always the same.
She would quietly take a seat in the corner and chat with Songbr—nothing more than a peaceful, ordinary event.
In contrast, the debut banquet for her sixteenth birthday had been the loudest, most attention-grabbing event she’d ever experienced.
She had expected it to be exhausting—but it hadn’t felt all that bad.
“Do not bring shame to the family. Make sure your behavior doesn’t disgrace our name.”
Barun’s advice before her first banquet often came back to her after the regression.
At that young age, his cold demeanor had scared her, and because he was her eldest brother, she’d obeyed instinctively.
Whenever she attended places with many people—banquets or tea parties—she’d remember that cold gaze and kept quiet.
There had been only one incident, around the age of twelve, when she got into a scuffle with an earl’s daughter.
Even though it was the other girl who started it, Barun had scolded her as if she were entirely to blame.
He had demanded to know why she couldn’t just stay quiet at the banquet, and his anger had frightened her.
With no parents around to defend her, she was terrified of her brother and had promised to behave from then on—and so she did.
“I was stupid.”
Barun was smart, and the family always praised him.
To her young self, Barun had seemed admirable and intelligent, and she’d tried hard to listen to him.
But now that she knew his true, ugly nature—she didn’t want to anymore.
“We’ve arrived!”
With the coachman’s call, the carriage came to a stop.
“Ah.”
As the envelope from the crown prince slipped from her lap, Belia bent down to retrieve it.
The small amethyst embedded in the center of the envelope shimmered faintly.
At the same moment, a violet mark briefly glowed on the back of her neck.
“My lady, I’ll open the door.”
“Mm.”
The faintly glowing mark disappeared again beneath her hair.
* * *
The cave was filled with a terrible stench.
“So you think she’s connected to Bain?”
“Yes. Karin, doesn’t anything come to mind?”
At Carlton’s question, Karin shrugged.
With her long green hair tied back, Karin continued to add herbs into the bubbling cauldron.
“For now, take off your clothes.”
“The smell is awful.”
“So what? If we don’t do this, we’re both dead.”
Karin shrugged again.
Carlton wrinkled his brow at the still-unbearable stench as he took off his clothes.
“Still the same wound?”
Karin glanced at Carlton’s body, recalling the state he’d once been in.
Compared to before, this was a big improvement.
Carlton finished removing his shirt and sat in a chair.
“What was her name again? Belia? Black hair, black eyes?”
“Yes. Do you remember anything?”
“Nope, not at all.”
Karin thought back to when she first met Carlton.
“What reason would either of us have had to meet a noble lady like that? You’re the master of the mage tower, and I was hiding out in the neutral zone doing experiments.”
“You said you had scattered memories of being experimented on by that teacher.”
“Yeah, but I don’t remember any girls being there.”
She carefully transferred the refined liquid into an empty vial and walked over to the table.
“Why do you think a perfectly pampered 16-year-old noble lady from the Empire is connected to Bain?”
As she poured the liquid into a magic circle drawn on the table, it briefly glowed purple, then turned black.
Picking up the squishy black substance, Karin walked over to Carlton.
“Don’t come so late next time. Tsk tsk.”
She clicked her tongue at the mark on Carlton’s right shoulder.
Even if they had suffered similar experiments, the nature of the curse was different.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed, Karin chided Carlton more than necessary.
“Do I really have to be the one to clean up this mess every time? Come on time. At this rate, I’ll be stuck cleaning up my only friend’s corpse.”
With a rough touch, she brought the black substance close to the mark.
It was absorbed instantly, and Carlton let out a pained groan.
“Hurts, right? That’s why I keep saying not to miss doses. There’s only so much I can do to slow the curse. You have to take it on schedule.”
The pain today was much worse than usual. Carlton gritted his teeth.
Watching the sweat bead on his forehead, Karin clicked her tongue again.
“I definitely saw this mark on the back of her neck.”
“This mark?”
Karin, in the middle of cleaning up, froze.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“What?”
“Why would a marquis’s daughter from the Empire have a cursed mark like that?”
“I don’t know either.”
“Are you sure it was the exact same mark? Exactly?”
Karin asked with a troubled expression.
“Yes. Except smaller—every detail was identical.”
“Why would she have a mark that drains life like this? Did you look into it? Any signs she’s connected to Bain?”
“Do you remember the Forest of Fog?”
“The place with the strongest traces of Bain?”
“Yeah. Look at this.”
“What? Hey!!! Are you crazy?!”
Karin shouted the moment Carlton opened his palm.
In his hand lay a fractured piece of amethyst.
