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Chapter 16
“…Y-Yes, my lady…”
“Did you happen to meet anyone unfamiliar that day?”
“No, I—I came to the ducal house right after my mother passed away, s-so I’ve never left Birch Castle even once. I never met anyone except the people inside the castle. It’s true, please believe me…”
“Then do you have any idea how that voice ended up inside your head?”
Hannah hesitated with a tear-streaked face before answering shakily.
“Huu… my lady, actually… ever since I got my memories back last night… all night, until now… I kept thinking about it. What on earth it was, why something like that possessed… possessed me…”
Tears spilled down again. She clutched her head as if she were really losing her mind.
“But n-no matter how hard I think, I don’t know. I truly don’t. I’m sorry… It may sound like a lie, but I really don’t know anything… It just suddenly happened, without any warning or reason… I’m sorry, I’m sorry, my lady…”
“I see.”
Rita answered briefly, then turned away and sat back down on the sofa.
‘My nightmare that night didn’t have any warning either. If Pascal is a great mage capable of manipulating memories, he probably used some magical method ordinary people wouldn’t notice.’
She didn’t particularly resent Hannah.
She wasn’t angry enough to take it out on a twelve-year-old child who had merely been controlled by a great mage.
To be honest, more than anger or betrayal toward Pascal, she mostly felt confusion.
‘I don’t understand. Why?’
Why would a man called a great mage kidnap a completely unrelated child from another world and turn them into a weapon? And using such a complicated, inefficient method at that?
And how had something like that even been possible?
‘Was it a coincidence that I possessed the body of a girl named Dorothy—who looked like Hannah—in that world?’
What exactly was the relationship between Hannah and Dorothy? Were they merely look-alikes? Or was there something more?
At the very least, until she found that out, she needed to keep Hannah close.
‘And if Pascal managed to possess Hannah’s body once… doesn’t that mean he could do it again?’
Hannah might be the only link connecting Pascal from the other world to this one.
‘What am I going to do with her?’
If the truth from ten years ago were revealed, Hannah would face at least the death penalty. Even if she acted without intent, a lowborn orphaned maid kidnapping a duke’s young daughter was a crime so grave that dying cleanly would be merciful.
‘Hannah must know this. If she wanted to live, she should’ve run away the moment she got her memories back.’
But instead of running, she came to Lillieta of her own will and confessed everything.
Even though she’d been threatened with a mirror shard and nearly strangled during Rita’s episode, she showed no resentment or blame.
Judging from that alone, she seemed like a very honest and loyal maid.
‘…But it’s not impossible that this is all an act. That she was an accomplice from the start, and rushed to confess first after hearing I regained my memories to avoid suspicion.’
Of course, given the circumstances—a child who’d just lost her mother—the likelihood of Hannah being an accomplice was low.
‘But not zero. If Pascal possessed her repeatedly whenever he needed to, she could’ve unintentionally become his accomplice… or even been persuaded or brainwashed into becoming a real one.’
She had seen good, innocent-looking people betray others or be turned into monsters more than once. She had to always consider the worst.
Which was it? What should she do?
Rita touched her lips, thinking deeply, then finally decided how she would deal with Hannah.
“Hannah.”
“Hic… y-yes, my lady…”
“I’ve heard everything.”
“T-Then… am I to be… punished…?”
“No. You will continue working as my maid.”
“Huh?”
Hannah jerked her head up, her eyes wide with disbelief. Under that stunned gaze, Rita thought:
She couldn’t let someone who might be a crucial clue die or be exiled. It was better to keep her close.
‘If she truly was innocent and merely used by Pascal, and she confessed out of guilt, then she’s someone to bring to my side. And even if she was an accomplice… the conclusion is the same. I need her as a link to Pascal.’
Rita spoke calmly.
“Hannah, you said you were sorry, right?”
“Y-Yes… hic…”
“Then repay me with loyalty.”
“…!”
“I’ll believe that you didn’t kidnap me of your own will, and that you didn’t even remember the incident until yesterday.”
“Y-You’ll believe me? Truly?”
“Yes. I believe you, Hannah.”
In truth, she didn’t.
You shouldn’t trust people carelessly. But showing suspicion often makes even those who weren’t planning betrayal decide to betray you.
‘Why did I do that just now? Rita, no matter the situation, it’s better to say you trust them first. Showing suspicion never helps. But that doesn’t mean you actually trust them.’
A bad person will let their guard down when they’re trusted—good.
A good person will be moved by being trusted—even better.
If it was the former, she could gather solid evidence. If it was the latter, she would gain a precious ally.
‘—Or so Gide said.’
Gide Pascal had been skilled at handling people. That’s why, when they founded the Beacon Squad together, he became captain and she became vice-captain.
She missed him.
And the Beacon Squad comrades as well.
‘The chances of meeting them again here… are none. Because they’ll all be safe.’
Rita tucked away her sudden feelings and looked at the moved Hannah.
“I’ll trust you. So from now on, repay me with your loyalty.”
“Y-Yes! Yes! Thank you, my lady! Truly, thank you! Since you forgave me and spared me, I’ll dedicate my life to you! I’ll risk my life to serve you!”
Hannah burst into tears and prostrated before her. Rita sighed softly.
‘First, while investigating the traces on the slipper fragment and coffin shard, I should investigate Hannah as well. And meanwhile, I should give her tasks… something simple, since I said I trust her. Maybe basic information-gathering? But it must be something I can cross-verify.’
After thinking awhile, she spoke.
“Then, I have something for you to do first.”
“Yes! Please tell me anything!”
“I want you to investigate and compile everything that happened in Birch Castle after I went missing. The changes from ten years ago, and what happened to the members of our family. Since you’ve been working here the whole time, you’ll be good at it, right?”
“Of course! Leave it to me!”
Hannah clenched her fists with enthusiasm. Rita smiled faintly.
‘Information Hannah can easily gather in ten years here, easy to verify, not particularly secret. This should be enough.’
She also wanted to hear from someone outside her family what had happened during her disappearance.
Lillieta had been the young, weak youngest daughter of the Laskyle family. Her overprotective family, after losing her for ten years and finally getting her back, wouldn’t want to tell her anything painful.
‘Especially Leon. He’d never burden his youngest sister. But I need to know everything.’
Rita recalled the stories she’d heard from the butler, the maids, the gardeners, Richard who’d visited drunk, and the duchess who had jumped into the lake at night.
‘…They all need healing.’
Because she’d disappeared, many parts of their lives had broken. She wanted to fix all of it. Only then could she truly feel she had returned home.
The duchess, who’d fallen asleep after taking medicine, woke up in the afternoon.
As soon as Leonhardt and Lillieta entered the room, the duchess leapt from her bed as if flying.
“Lily!”
And she clung to her daughter as if the eldest son standing beside her didn’t even exist.
“It wasn’t a dream, it wasn’t a dream!”
Life returned to the duchess who’d looked like a withered flower. She endlessly caressed Rita’s face.
“Lily, you came back. You came back to us, thank the heavens… No matter how many years passed, how could a mother not recognize her child? I knew right away. The moment I saw you. Isn’t that right? My daughter, my angel, my fairy…”
Lillieta leaned her cheek quietly into her mother’s hand.
“Yes, Mother. It’s me, Lillieta.”
“Ahhh…”
Tears fell as the duchess whispered.
“Lily, where have you been all this time?”
“In a place very far from here. I didn’t know how to return, so I couldn’t come back until now.”
“A faraway place? How did you live there? Did you suffer? Was it hard?”
