Chapter 112: Chapter 112

"If I untie you completely, what if you run away, darling?"

As if he lacked the ability to catch me. How annoying.

Not that it mattered—right now, I wouldn’t even be able to outrun a cat.

What could I possibly do when I had collapsed just from trying to use divine power on Minuet?

It would take at least a week for my soul to properly settle into my body again, leaving me in this pathetic state until then.

With a sigh, I gave up.

"Then why are you here, Cruello? Did you come just to gawk at the mess I’m in?"

"I wanted to see you."

"The Elders are all dead. Isn’t it about time you stopped joking like that?"

Right. Cruello had confessed before.

It took me a moment to remember, but when I did, my shoulders tensed.

There had been so much going on that, for a brief moment—a very brief one—I had forgotten.

Now that I thought about it, he confessed back when I was Viga, too.

Was he fated to like me no matter what?

The absurdity of the thought had me scrambling for an excuse.

"You... you did say that if we ever met again, it should be as friends. So I thought you'd already moved on."

"...Darling, have you ever actually liked someone before?"

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

"If you'd ever felt romantic attraction to someone, you wouldn’t be talking about ‘moving on in a few days’ like it’s nothing...."

Cruello trailed off, rubbing his face with both hands.

"Forget it. If you had, that’d probably annoy me too."

"Hey, I’d like the friend version of this conversation, please."

"As a friend, I’d advise you to live alone forever."

What kind of friend says things like that?

"I just came here because there was something I forgot to ask yesterday."

Something he forgot to ask?

I had plenty of things I wanted to ask, too.

Though, thanks to the situation, I couldn't voice most of them.

Cruello was silent for a moment, staring at the floor before raising his eyes to meet ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) mine.

His gaze wavered slightly, shadowed and uncertain.

"At the funeral hall... why did you collapse?"

"I guess my exhaustion finally caught up with me."

I had anticipated the question, so I answered immediately.

"Even after seeing a priest, they couldn’t find anything wrong. Though, to be fair, I am a priest, but I don’t know much about illnesses."

"Minuet and Gavotte must have been pretty shaken. That’s probably why I ended up ."

His voice was low, hoarse.

I swallowed dryly and returned the question.

"What else would it be?"

What are you thinking?

Cruello locked eyes with me, studying my expression intently.

A long silence settled between us.

The tense atmosphere was shattered by the sound of a horse neighing, followed by the rumble of carriage wheels.

I could hear the Bonetti servants greeting someone outside.

Had Minuet already returned?

I instinctively turned my gaze toward the window.

At the same time, Cruello stood up and approached it.

"...Who is it?" I asked.

"Want to see for yourself?"

He turned back to the bed—and then lifted me up blankets and all.

If he was going to go through all this trouble, he might as well have just untied me.

I was exasperated, but I obediently peered out the window.

A massive carriage stood outside.

There was no family crest visible, but just a slight turn of my head confirmed who had arrived.

A tall woman with hair the color of wood—Daedire.

And standing right in front of her, with unmistakable silver hair, was Gavotte.

What was Daedire doing here?

I was still puzzling over it when her attendant handed her something huge.

Something so massive it covered her entire upper body.

"Hm. I lost in terms of size," Cruello muttered, feigning disappointment.

I ignored him, too absorbed in watching what was unfolding below.

Then, in full view of everyone, Daedire knelt and presented the bouquet to Gavotte.

Anyone could see what this was.

"Looks like Julian’s been abandoned," I murmured.

"Of course. No matter how close they were as childhood friends, who would stay with a criminal like him?"

"Then, if I became a criminal, would you be able to forget me just as easily?"

"It wouldn’t be so simple. You’d have to become a bigger criminal than me first."

"Don’t tempt me, Cruello."

I turned my attention back to Gavotte, eager to see how he would react.

If I had some cookies, I’d be munching on them right now.

Even from this distance, I could see the color drain from Gavotte’s face.

He was completely frozen, unable to move a muscle.

His hands hovered hesitantly in front of the bouquet, trembling.

Then, all of a sudden, he lifted his head.

Just before our eyes met—

Using what had to be the fastest reflexes of my life, I yanked the curtains shut.

"...You don’t think he saw me, right?"

Cruello just laughed in silence.

Gavotte definitely saw me watching.

As a result, I had finally been freed from my blanket cocoon.

But in exchange, I had been dragged down to the parlor for a very awkward face-to-face conversation.

Gavotte had been trying to explain himself for so long that my ears felt like they were going to bleed.

I spoke mechanically.

For what had to be the thirtieth time.

"I see. So it wasn’t a proposal."

"It wasn’t! Daedire just came to apologize!"

What kind of criminal kneels down and hands over a giant bouquet to apologize?

Actually, wait—I had read about that once.

Something about a criminal who fell in love and—

Yeah. Gavotte would definitely get mad if I said that out loud.

"Sir Gavotte is right," Daedire added calmly. "I only came here to atone for the wrongs I committed back in the Academy."

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

"Gavotte, what exactly did Dame Daedire do to you back in the Academy?"

"I have no idea. I don’t remember her ever saying a single bad word to me."

"I heard that Julian spread some nasty rumors about you. Turning a blind eye to it was a great enough wrongdoing on my part that I can't claim innocence."

She had only pretended to be oblivious so she could continue working smoothly as a secret investigator, but Daedire had probably grasped the general situation all along.

At this point, I was starting to doubt whether her act of being dense had ever been an act at all.

Gavotte, looking like he was barely keeping himself together, turned to her with a thoroughly uncomfortable expression.

"Regardless. You’ve apologized, so let’s not have any more kneeling or bouquet-giving, Daedire. And take back the gold bars you brought."

"You brought gold bars?"

"Don’t get any ideas. They’re not yours, Siora."

Daedire had already promised me full compensation!

But Gavotte, unaware of our little deal, simply saw me as a shameless money-grubber.

He made Daedire swear to take back all the gold bars before abruptly standing up.

Something about another appointment.

Just as he was about to leave the drawing room, he threw a pointed remark toward Cruello, who had been silently observing the entire exchange.

"Your Grace. Siora is still a patient. I trust you understand what that means. Not that I actually trust you."

He delivered the entire statement in a single breath, barely taking three seconds to say all three sentences.

Then, without waiting for a reply, he bolted from the room.

That was definitely an escape.

Anyone in the drawing room would have thought the same.

Cruello murmured with feigned innocence, "I have no idea why he’s acting like that."

I shot him a brief glare.

Oh, I could think of a few reasons. Confessing and kissing me probably counted as doing something.

Now that Gavotte had fled, the atmosphere in the room changed entirely.

I finally voiced the question that had been bothering me.

"Dame Daedire, you’re not pretending to be oblivious, are you? That’s just how you really are."

"I had no choice. If I had acted seriously, exaggerated rumors about Gavotte’s time at the Academy would have spread even further."

Now that she mentioned it, that did make sense. But still...

"Surely you don’t think an apology alone is enough to make up for that?"

"Don’t worry. Today, I only intended to meet with Lady Siora without raising suspicion."

With that, she placed two envelopes on the table.

So these were the interesting documents she had mentioned before?

The ones she uncovered while investigating Marchioness Somon?

I wasted no time opening the first envelope and skimming through its contents.

A list of names. And the common factor among them...

"A hereditary disease?"

"Yes. A peculiar genetic condition that has never been recorded outside of White Desert."

Why was she bringing this up?

"After discovering that Nigelia and Elin were the same person, I conducted a thorough investigation of White Desert’s personnel. It was a necessary step in tracing her past movements."

"And somehow, that led you to this?"

"Because I found something even more subtle and strange connecting them."

She spread out the documents on the table as she spoke.

"Unlike Marchioness Somon, where one person had to die before the next one could appear in public, these cases don’t have such an obvious connection."

"But this disease has only ever appeared once per generation. And that’s strange—genetic disorders don’t choose their timing."

I followed Daedire’s lead and scanned the documents carefully.

One case per generation. Or at most, one case every two generations.

But in every single instance, a new patient only appeared after the previous one had died.

And the last name listed at the end of the document was none other than Eden White Desert.

"Eden’s illness is inherited from his paternal grandfather."

I had always assumed he was just faking it—putting on an act.

But was that not the case?

Was there something hidden in Eden’s condition?

Frowning, I examined the document in greater detail.

"The symptoms progress . There are no warning signs during the incubation period, but once it manifests, the patient’s body progressively weakens. Neither divine power nor medicine has any effect. Eventually, they die."

A strange sense of familiarity crept up my spine.

Cold sweat trickled down my back.

"The later the generation, the more delayed the onset," I muttered.

"Exactly, Your Highness. There’s been no medical breakthrough, no discovered cure, yet somehow, it’s as if the patients themselves adapted and delayed the onset over time."

"And this might just be a coincidence, but..."

Daedire opened the second envelope and placed a document on top.

The moment I saw it, the vague sense of familiarity that had been nagging at me solidified into something undeniable.

"There were cases outside of White Desert with similar symptoms."

「Amy Royalsand. 442.03~454.11」

"Your first fiancée, Lady Amy Royalsand."

That was all the confirmation I needed.

This wasn’t just a coincidence.

Questions rushed through my mind in rapid succession.

Why would a family designed with purpose allow a genetic flaw to remain?

Why did the disease only appear in one person per generation?

Why did Eden, someone so overwhelmingly powerful, suffer from the same affliction?

And why were my own symptoms exactly the same?

One after another, the pieces clicked into place.

The truth settled heavily in my mind.

Eden White Desert is the same as me.

He, too, has been living by borrowing someone else’s body.