Chapter 44. What It Means to Be a Noble
Count Treshy was trembling uncontrollably, and Bella let out a scoff.
“Ha. You’re really pathetic. Then I’ll make a threat too. Tell me right now who’s tormenting me in this mansion. If you don’t talk, you won’t just lose your life—you’ll lose everything.”
“All I can tell you is that they killed Duke Prellod! Please, help me!”
Count Treshy lost all reason and clung to Bella’s trouser leg.
Bella let out a deep sigh and lightly kicked him off her leg.
Count Treshy flopped to the ground like a dying insect, writhing as if paralyzed by fear in the face of death.
“Haa. My precious ghost cried because of people like you. Should I be angry or not?”
“I-I…”
Tears streamed down Count Treshy’s face as Bella looked down at him coldly.
He had killed countless people simply for living in this mansion. And yet, he had carried on shamelessly, without an ounce of guilt. Now he trembled in fear and wept before his own death.
It was a ridiculous farce—no, a tragedy disguised as comedy.
“Isn’t dying one way or another all the same? The people you served have clearly abandoned you. At least I offer better odds.”
“What’s on me is a curse. A curse that can’t be undone!”
Count Treshy suddenly screamed, clutching his throat with both hands.
He seemed to be squeezing out his voice with every ounce of strength.
“A curse? In a kingdom with temples and gods, how dare you say something so blasphemous?”
Just as Bella approached him to press further, Count Treshy suddenly vomited a dark, bloody liquid.
“Ah, n-no… hic! Gack, guh…!”
So much blood poured out that the floor was drenched in black-red stains.
Startled, Bella quickly turned his head to the side to secure his airway and checked if he was still conscious.
Thankfully, he was still breathing.
“Stay with me! Hey!”
The noise had drawn Count Karl, who rushed into the drawing room and immediately spotted the dying Count Treshy. He ran over and shook him urgently.
“What the… Count! Wake up! Are you insane? How dare you kill a noble during his trial?”
Count Karl roared, his voice echoing through the room.
Bella, too, was shocked by how suddenly Count Treshy had collapsed spewing blood.
“He’s still alive. And I didn’t do this.”
Bella calmly pulled out her usual medicinal herbs while Count Karl continued to shake Treshy and shout.
“You expect me to believe that when you’re holding a knife?”
As Bella finely chopped the herbs for Count Treshy to swallow, she finally lost her temper and snapped.
“It’s a physician’s scalpel! And he’s bleeding from the inside without any wounds—what does that have to do with a knife? If you’re not going to help, just get out! Stop yapping!”
“W-What? Yapping?”
Count Karl blinked in disbelief at the rapid-fire scolding.
Meanwhile, Bella resumed trying to get the herbs down Count Treshy’s throat. It was a mixture effective for internal bleeding and pain relief.
“Count! Swallow this!”
As Bella desperately tried to save him, Count Karl’s expression slowly changed.
The face that had been distorted with fury began to relax and soon turned eerily blank.
“It’s no use.”
His cold voice rang through the drawing room.
But Bella didn’t have the mental space to notice Count Karl’s shift. She was too busy trying to force the medicine into Treshy’s throat, only for him to keep spitting it out.
“He’s not dead yet…!”
Soaked in Count Treshy’s blood, Bella fought on. Count Karl approached her.
“He must die.”
“…What?”
Only then did Bella finally meet his eyes.
“It has to look like you killed Count Treshy.”
“No way…”
Count Karl’s voice was gentle, as if coaxing a child, but it carried a chilling finality.
One high-ranking noble growing cold in her arms.
Another looking down at her with a smile.
And one ghost watching silently from outside the window.
The warm blood clung stickily to her skin, leaving behind a sickening sensation. The overpowering stench of blood stabbed at her nose.
Bella stared blankly at the floating figure of Chei, who hovered above, watching her.
Would Chei know how to fix this?
The thought crossed her mind—how easy it would be to let go, to give in, to rely on someone else.
A dangerous habit waiting to take root.
“You shouldn’t have offended him. Tsk. Do you think I enjoy coming to this ghost-ridden mansion?”
“Why… Why are you doing this? What’s so special about this mansion? What the hell did Duke Prellod do? What kind of twisted thoughts do you people have?”
A noble was dead. And not just any noble—a high-ranking count.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Could there really be a force capable of killing a powerful noble so easily?
If so, wasn’t this country already doomed? Should she have fled to another nation instead?
Bella’s mind was a tangled mess.
“You’re a murderer now—a noble killer. Of course you’ll be put on trial and executed in the square.”
“…You people…”
“Still not thinking clearly, are you?”
Count Karl shoved Bella, who collapsed easily to the floor in her dazed state.
Even on the ground, she couldn’t regain her senses.
She had always known the noble world was complicated, cruel, and petty—but this, this was another level entirely.
“But he’s a Count…”
“So what?”
Count Karl scowled as he noticed a drop of blood on his sleeve, reacting as if he’d been dirtied by something foul.
“You saw who killed him—how could you not?”
“Don’t you see it? How pathetic.”
He clicked his tongue and walked to the window, which he flung open. Then he gestured for the servants waiting below to come up.
Neither the servants nor Count Karl looked the least bit surprised.
This was all part of a well-orchestrated plan.
They’d used a man who had been their ally just yesterday, just like that dead cat Bella had seen on her first day at the mansion.
All just to frame her.
“No matter how used you are to ordering people around… how can one human treat another like this?”
“You’ve seen the assassins who came after you. Why are you so surprised? Honestly, I’ve been wondering too. How has someone as powerless as you managed to survive this long in this mansion?”
Bella raised her empty gaze.
By the window Karl had opened, Chei still lingered, silently watching with the same calm expression.
It felt like time had stopped.
Bella slowly closed and opened her eyes, looking straight at Chei.
At the end of their eye contact, Chei gave a small nod—and then vanished.
“Did a real ghost come to help you? Hm? What did you offer the ghost in return?”
Count Karl’s voice was oily and suggestive.
That was when Bella came to her senses and glared at him with contempt. Even without asking, it was obvious the kind of payment he had in mind—something vile.
“If you were going to kill all the owners, why not just sell the mansion? Why do all of this? What’s the point?”
“Because this is the game. Bring in a new owner, kill them, bring another, kill them again.”
It was excessive cruelty. Worse than blood and torn flesh was the sheer horror of what she was witnessing now.
Humans were tools.
Humans were used like hunting dogs, then discarded and killed once they’d served their purpose.
Neither money, status, nor power could protect them.
Bella had thought that if she had a family, a stable life, money, or influence—and just stayed out of trouble—she could protect herself and live in peace.
But now…
“My father… must’ve lived in a much harsher world than I imagined.”
Bella let out a hollow laugh and slowly stood up.
She spread her arms just slightly and gently closed her eyes.
…
And when she opened them again—
Her gaze no longer belonged to her. It shone with a different light, like someone else had taken over.
