TMDTKM 72

Chapter 72

Squeak.

In the dark, damp underground prison, a rat scurried past Dr. Scott, who sat huddled in despair.

Having failed to rescue his younger sister, Dr. Scott’s already unstable mind seemed to have completely collapsed.

He left untouched the bread and water given to him three times a day, allowing rats and insects to swarm. Even when bugs crawled across his body, Dr. Scott simply sat still, like someone who had abandoned all hope and was only waiting for death.

At times, he muttered his sister’s name into the air, but he neither screamed, nor cried, nor even blamed himself.

It was while he sat motionless like a stone statue that Dr. Scott suddenly felt a faint sting in his arm.

He rolled up his sleeve and looked at the inside of his wrist. A white sigil of the cult flickered faintly on his skin, as if someone were sending him a signal.

“……”

Scott stared at the flickering mark, then tapped it back in a steady rhythm. He wasn’t expecting anything—

Just thinking, What use is any of this now, anyway?

A short while later, a butterfly fluttered in, slipping through some crack in the dungeon. It landed on Scott’s wrist.

The butterfly flapped its wings a few times, then dissolved into letters that spread across his forearm.

Dr. Scott read the words, and the lifeless eyes that had lost their focus widened sharply with sudden clarity.

“Mi… Miliane!”

The message was simple: If you return even now, your sister’s life will be spared.

“Does that mean… she’s still alive?”

Scott muttered, rereading the message again and again.

When he had tried to rescue Miliane and failed, he had assumed they must have killed her. He hadn’t checked the other rooms, but even if he had, the result would’ve seemed the same. There was no way they would keep caring for the sister of a runaway cultist.

Scott wondered if the cult leader had ever been such a merciful, forgiving man.

The cult, after all, dreamed of a utopia of equality, where no one stood above another. It was filled with people who each had their own circumstances.

The cult leader had extended a hand to them, offering to build that utopia together—sometimes supporting their families or paying off debts in exchange. Not without cost, of course.

Even Scott had had to surrender most of his salary in exchange for placing Miliane under their care.

But that man never forgives failure or betrayal…

That was why Scott found the message hard to believe. That the cult leader would keep Miliane alive this long—wasn’t it strange?

Unless… unless he kept her alive just to lure me back and kill me.

If that were true, then at least—even if he died—his sister might still live.

One way or another, he was doomed. If he returned, he’d be killed. If he stayed, they’d come for him anyway. Even Duke Calix might not keep him alive for long.

If going back means Miliane might live…

If she was still alive, then there was hope.

Even if he died, perhaps Duke Calix could use the information he had given to crush the cult and then look after Miliane. Or at least place her in another facility.

If he didn’t go back, the cult leader would surely kill her. Caring for a broken, unstable girl without any compensation would only be a burden.

Mercy and forgiveness only lasted so long as someone had value to exploit.

Having made up his mind, Scott accepted when a knight came to bring him bread and water.

“Forgive me, but could you bring me some paper, ink, and a quill? There’s something I must write for the duke. I fear I’ll forget it later.”

“You’re not planning any tricks, are you?”

“No such thoughts. I still have something I must do.”

The knight studied Scott’s expression, then nodded and left. Soon he returned with the requested items. Scott immediately began scribbling frantically, writing down everything he knew.

It was his second, small glimmer of hope.

“W-What? What did you just say? Escaped?!”

I was stunned by the report delivered by a breathless knight.

Dr. Scott had escaped? That made no sense at all!

“Well, while escorting him here on the duke’s orders, suddenly a thick fog appeared.”

“Fog? In the dungeon?”

“Yes. And in that moment, Dr. Scott fled. We hadn’t bound him, only locked him in, so… I apologize.”

The knight bowed deeply.

After breakfast, Duke Calix and I had ordered Scott brought in so we could question him about the cult in detail. And in that short span, this had happened.

“Seems I was too lenient with him,” Duke Calix murmured gravely, gently stroking little Luka at his side. “To think he would choose to return.”

I couldn’t understand it. He had risked his life to escape here—so why would he go back?

Scott’s sudden actions left me unsettled, as though the center of this whole affair wasn’t the cult leader or Duke Calix, but Scott himself.

A headache threatened to rise—

“Duke! Here’s a letter the doctor left behind!”

Another knight burst in, holding up a folded sheet.

“A letter?”

“Yes! Here!”

The knight handed it straight to me, though he had announced it as meant for the duke. The gesture was so natural that no one objected—not even Duke Calix.

It struck me that everyone now saw me at the duke’s side as a matter of course. For a moment, I felt self-conscious, but my urge to read the letter outweighed any hesitation.

“Let’s read it together,” Duke Calix said softly, leaning in so close beside me that his face was nearly against mine.

Too close… it’s not like his eyesight is poor.

The letter was short. A single page where Scott had written everything he knew of the cult. At the end, he added a single line asking that his sister be looked after.

When we finished, Duke Calix murmured,

“In the end, he went back for his sister.”

“Will he… do you think he’ll survive?”

“Unlikely. It seems he knew it too.”

“But why? Why face it alone like that…?”

My mind was too tangled for words to come out properly.

While I faltered, Duke Calix reread the letter and then offered a careful guess.

“Perhaps his sister is already dead. It smells of a trap.”

“Then isn’t that all the more reason not to go? He isn’t foolish. Why go, knowing that?”

“Because of her. If he didn’t, her death was certain.”

“But even if he went, there was no guarantee they’d spare her.”

I tilted my head in confusion. Duke Calix looked at me warmly.

“It’s a difficult dilemma. But between a less than 1% chance that she lived, and a 100% certainty of death… Dr. Scott chose to bet everything on that tiny sliver of hope.”

“……”

I couldn’t argue with that.

I couldn’t understand Scott, but Calix seemed to.

And strangely, I found myself envying his sister. To be cherished so deeply—that must feel like the greatest comfort in the world.

What exactly is family?

At that moment, I wished that someday, I too might come to understand the choices of both Scott and the duke.