~Chapter 92~
“……What?!”
Ares could hardly believe his ears.
He had just made the confession of his life.
And her reaction… was like this?
Ares stormed forward, shouting.
“I saved you! Can’t you see that?!”
He stomped on the stone floor, and it sank slightly. The sound of rushing water came from the drain.
The entrance to the drain had opened, sucking in the water.
“All this time! I’ve been saving you!”
Ares could hardly contain his anger. He pounded his chest, growling.
“Even when the Baron tortured you, I tried to keep you alive!”
“Hah.”
Was that really saving her?
Camilla touched her forehead. Every word Ares had said, treating her like a toy, was unbearable.
“Even when Amelia planned to lock you away properly! I changed it by kidnapping you instead! You’re alive now because of me—”
“So… that’s why you threw a dagger at my mother and tried to make me die?”
“Just now…!”
Water rushed rapidly into the drain. Camilla’s cold voice overlaid it.
“Before, you kidnapped me to frame me. Now, you kidnap me again while I was doing well in the Duke’s house, and you say you saved me?”
She laughed coldly.
“Don’t spout shameless lies, Ares.”
“Anyway, I saved you! You cling to the Duke so ignorantly, not realizing my devotion!”
“What?”
“Despite everything, I saved you and kept you by my side!”
Ares shouted over her voice, genuinely upset.
Camilla could hardly believe it.
Meisa quietly whispered to Camilla with a blank face.
“…Where did you pick up that trash?”
“Is that something my mother, tied to the Baron, should say? And I have no hobby of keeping trash beside me.”
Camilla had no intention of keeping anyone by her side except Dane.
Ignoring Ares stomping toward her, she glared at Meisa.
“…Pfft, pffhahaha!”
Meisa laughed atop the stone lion, and Camilla’s eyes widened.
“Right, the Empress Dowager said it herself. You’re the Grand Duchess, the Grand Duchess…”
“……”
“She never became one, yet you… my daughter… hahahaha!”
Camilla frowned.
“What’s so funny?”
Meisa smiled weakly.
“Yes… yes… leaving you to the Baron was the right choice.”
Camilla’s face twisted in anger. She slipped off the stone lion.
Splash!
The water was only ankle-high. She pulled Meisa under the lion toward her.
“Hik! Wh-what?!”
Meisa’s dagger slipped from her waist.
Camilla grabbed her shoulder, shouting.
“Don’t joke! You say that kind of thing?!”
As a child, Camilla often had nightmares.
And in those nightmares, it was the hut and the woman who abandoned her.
That little girl had been sold for a chest of gold.
She had no idea how hellish that mansion was. She shouldn’t be saying such things.
“There is no ‘right choice’!”
All the struggles to avoid the worst had brought her here, and danger still lingered.
She worried whether she could face Dane again. Ares was coming down, sword in hand.
And now her mother said that.
“This isn’t the right choice. It’s only the result of struggling to survive!”
“-Hey, Camilla!”
Ares came splashing down into the tank, shouting, but Meisa gently freed Camilla’s hand from her grip.
Then she clasped her hands and whispered:
“Yes, then keep struggling.”
‘…?!’
Camilla, startled, felt something solid in her hand. For some reason, Meisa smiled faintly.
Meisa released Camilla’s hand, pushed her shoulder hard.
Splash!
Camilla fell into the water. Meisa picked up the dagger and climbed atop Camilla, raising the blade above her head.
“I… will be free.”
“……?!”
“So you live freely too. Following trash like him wastes your life.”
For some reason, Meisa’s sickly, exhausted face looked bright.
Plop!
Camilla’s eyes went wide. The smell of blood hit her.
The steel sword was lodged deep in Meisa’s chest.
Camilla couldn’t believe her eyes.
Beyond the slowly collapsing, bleeding Meisa, the killer laughed.
“See? I saved you. Even now.”
Ares wiped the blood off his sword. Meisa’s blood spread across the water like paint.
Camilla screamed.
“Mother-!”
She grabbed Meisa’s trembling hand.
Meisa coughed up blood in color, choking.
“I… hhh… lived… my way… You… live… your… way…”
Her breath slowly stopped.
“Don’t joke!”
Camilla tore her skirt and pressed it to the wound.
“This… is it… supposed to end like this?”
The wound, aimed at vital points, couldn’t be stopped with just cloth.
“Don’t die! You never properly told me how you lived, so don’t die like this!”
Finally, Meisa’s breathing ceased completely.
Camilla stared in shock.
‘Is this how it ends?’
Meisa had been the worst. Her mother, who abandoned her, was even more terrible than the Baron. No apologies had been given, so forgiveness was impossible.
A traitor to her teacher.
A villain who crushed the Everitt family.
‘But why do I feel this way…?’
Camilla shivered, throat tight with pain. She saw the dagger that had fallen from Meisa.
“Now, let’s go.”
Ares whispered.
“Ah, your chains? Wait a moment. I’ll free you.”
Humming, he pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked Camilla’s shackles.
“…I’ve been foolish before, haven’t I?”
“……”
“I know why you avoided me. But I promise. Anyone who bothers you from now on, I’ll kill them all.”
Ares extended his hand proudly, as if he were her savior.
“Let’s run, Camilla!”
But Camilla gripped the dagger beside the lifeless Meisa.
“Hah, what? You planning to attack me? Think you can beat me with force?”
Ares laughed.
He couldn’t lose to Camilla, the former deputy commander of the Baron’s guard and Glamis’ action captain.
Ares even thought she was somewhat cute.
Instead of throwing the dagger at Ares, Camilla drove it into the stone wall.
Clang!
The already cracked dagger split with a small impact.
“…You threw a broken dagger at my mother, didn’t you.”
“Yes. To save you. Can’t you feel my sincerity?”
Ares grinned, proud that his kindness had finally reached Camilla.
“…Even though this dagger reaching me meant nothing, you still swung it…”
“Yes! But she abandoned you. No need for pity.”
“…Now I understand.”
“What?”
“I wanted an apology.”
The reason she had kept calling the woman who abandoned her “mother.”
The reason she resented yet still hoped.
Camilla looked at Ares, tears in her eyes.
‘And that useless child ruined it.’
Ares felt his heart pound as he faced her.
Camilla bowed her head, shoulders shaking.
“Hey, don’t cry.”
Seeing her cry sent shivers through him.
He wanted to comfort her, but also just watch her.
Unable to resist, Ares gently patted her fragile shoulder.
Then, Camilla leaned softly into his embrace.
“…Ares, I’m cold. Please… hold me.”
She whispered, hiding in her hand what Meisa had given her, voice faint and fragile.
