The empire had been paralyzed by over a week of heavy snowfall. Fortunately, the snow had stopped a couple days ago, and the sun had risen to melt the accumulated snow everywhere. Thanks to diligent snow removal efforts, travel had become possible again.
Though Clive was late for his appointment, he didn’t hurry, believing the Phineas family would understand since the entire empire had been at a standstill due to the snow.
Besides, he had little intention of keeping the appointment precisely. The well-maintained road to the Phineas mansion, reachable in a day by carriage, was exclusively for their use.
The Phineas family had possessed immeasurable wealth for ages. According to his investigation, they had no apparent source of income, yet strangely, their fortune kept growing daily.
Their domain near the capital was small and far from fertile. They conducted no business. He wondered if they plundered from their subjects, but that wasn’t the case either.
No matter how hard he tried to figure out what they did, he couldn’t discover anything. Perhaps the Phineas family had gifted expensive items to the imperial family and, being a friendly house, avoided scrutiny. Their reclusive nature also played a part. They had never once opened their mansion to the public.
Of course, they had hosted many balls at their villas or secondary residences. However, their main residence was strictly off-limits. Whenever nobles requested to visit, they asked for understanding, explaining it was a space reserved for family, but most people found this peculiar, speculating about the rumored extraordinary treasures inside.
And now, the Phineas family had invited Clive. In truth, they had no choice but to invite him after he had pushed so insistently. He used their engagement from half a year ago as an excuse.
“To celebrate our engagement, I would like to be invited to your family home. Above all, I wish to see where Aishe grew up.”
Despite his directness, they couldn’t refuse. Those accompanying Clive were excited about visiting the Phineas home for the first time, but the actual invitee felt only mild curiosity.
Just as they leisurely entered the Phineas domain, Clive looked out the window and signaled the carriage to stop, causing the following group to halt as well.
“Let’s take a short break.”
Stepping out of the carriage, he put a cigar in his mouth, then removed it, narrowing his eyes to gaze at the distant sky. His slightly upturned lips suggested something displeased him. Quickly assessing his lord’s state, his aide Ulik approached and asked,
“What’s wrong, sir?”
“Over there.”
Clive pointed to the sky with his cigar. Contrary to the clear sky above them, dark clouds loomed in the distance. Below those clouds, a flock of crows circled.
“Where do you think that is?”
“It looks like the Phineas mansion, sir.”
“Dark clouds and crows.”
It wasn’t exactly a pleasant phenomenon. It was also a bad omen.
“Why would a flock of crows be there?”
“Who knows? How could I understand the minds of crows?”
“Yes, yes. Of course not. Hahaha.”
Ulik laughed flatly at the familiar answer, but Clive’s face hardened.
When Ulik opened the iron gate of the Phineas mansion, a grating metallic sound scraped their ears. Strangely, no guards or gatekeepers were visible. The accumulated snow remained untouched, seemingly untouched by the sunlight that had warmed the rest of the empire.
A dark atmosphere pervaded the entire mansion. Even for a private residence, they wouldn’t maintain it this way. Especially not when they had invited a grand duke. Something was definitely wrong.
“Everyone, stay alert.”
Clive drew his sword. It was excessively quiet and eerily desolate. Only the raucous cawing of crows greeted them. Step by step, scanning their surroundings, they reached the entrance of the mansion without incident. This time, Clive himself opened the front door. Seeing the scene before him, he exclaimed softly,
“What is this now?”
“Gasp! Your Highness! What on earth…!”
Ulik’s eyes and mouth opened wide in shock. By the door, on the stairs, under windows—corpses lay sprawled everywhere, blood spilling from their mouths. Though Clive had seen all manner of sights on battlefields, this situation was somewhat perplexing.
Standing there, scanning the interior with his eyes, he heard humming from somewhere. Following the strange singing, he saw a woman sitting halfway up the stairs, leaning her head against the railing.
With disheveled hair and dirty clothes, she looked like a ghost.
When Eirene opened her eyes at the sound of the door opening, she sighed upon seeing Clive’s group suddenly appear. She had wanted to meet death quietly, but that seemed unlikely now.
Shock was evident on the visitor’s face. Though she didn’t know who they were or why they had come, Eirene didn’t care. Perhaps it was for the best. Thinking about it, she realized her life had been terribly lonely, and even her death being quiet felt somehow sad.
It was fine not to be alone at the end. To welcome them, and to apologize for showing them such a gruesome scene, she forced out her failing voice and sang. Only then did one man notice Eirene’s presence, striding over to look down at her.
The white-haired man carried a dead ash color in his eyes. At first glance, he seemed so cold one might mistake him for the god of death coming to collect her. A person who fits perfectly into this time and space.
Having only ever seen her sister, father, and the mage she met periodically, Eirene knew little of the world, but she could tell one thing: the man before her was quite handsome. Though his sharp, cold appearance didn’t give a kind impression. The imposingly large man resembled a snake despite his build.
His long, slanted eyes. The coolness flowing from the ash-colored pupils within them. Would a forked tongue appear when he opened his mouth?
His haughty gaze surely belonged to someone born to high status.
“Are you the perpetrator of this carnage?”
The man’s voice was pleasant to hear.
“Probably.”
“You couldn’t have done this alone.”
“I did it alone.”
“Why?”
A man who asked ‘why’ rather than ‘how.’ Just as Eirene was considering explaining since it was her end anyway, someone called to him.
“Your Grace. I’ll look around.”
Your Grace. Learning who he was, Eirene felt disappointed.
“So you’re the stupid Clive.”
“Stupid? Are you referring to me?”
“Who else named Clive is here besides you?”
“Why am I stupid… Wait, could you be Aishe?”
Eirene’s dying eyes suddenly sparkled. No one had seen her except the servants and family living in the mansion, as she had been imprisoned in the basement. Today was the first day she had escaped from there, so how did he know her? More importantly, why did he call her Aishe?
She looked different from Aishe.
“You know me?”
“Though you look much worse than your portrait, I couldn’t fail to recognize my fiancée’s face.”
Portrait. Until a few years ago, Eirene’s mother had regularly sent painters to create portraits. Not just of Eirene, but of the entire family, so she thought nothing of it, but apparently they had also been sent to Clive.
But why? Why was she Aishe? Why did her mother send her portrait to Clive?
No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t understand what was happening.
“I never imagined my fiancée, who was so shy she wore a veil and never showed her face at our meetings, could be so cruel. Who would believe someone who could barely speak a word?”
“Indeed, she was gloomy,” Clive muttered softly.
This meant he had never seen Aishe’s face. Eirene couldn’t understand why Aishe had covered her face when meeting him.
Why hadn’t she shown her face?
Aishe wasn’t a shy person by nature. While Eirene pondered what was happening, Clive’s gaze shifted to the corpses. After looking around thoroughly, one of his eyebrows raised.
“Since you’ve confessed to the deed. Very well. Let’s hear your reason.”
Ah, the reason for killing the people in the mansion. Eirene smiled faintly. What did it matter who Clive thought she was in her dying moments?
“I’ll tell you the reason if you consider mitigating circumstances.”
“You want mitigating circumstances? No matter how unavoidable your circumstances might have been, to kill so many people and expect leniency shows you have no conscience.”
“What use is conscience anyway.”
The sparkle in Eirene’s eyes faded, and her gaze drifted somewhere indeterminate. There had been many events, or rather, one simple event. She had been deceived and used—a very simple matter.
Eirene’s earliest childhood memory was of the white ceiling in the basement room. Not her mother’s face, but the ceiling. The basement was… nice. It was bright and warm enough that she didn’t realize it was a basement.
Quality meals were provided at every mealtime, and servants came in daily to maintain cleanliness. When she was young, it was filled with toys and dolls to the point where there was barely room to step. Her parents and siblings often visited so she wouldn’t be lonely.
When did it start?
Living without knowing she was in a basement, her longing for the world grew through books. It was on Eirene’s seventh birthday. The sky and sun, moon, all kinds of flowers and birds, the wind she saw in books. She wondered why she couldn’t see them and asked her mother.
“Eirene. You’re so frail that you’ll die if you leave this place. Everything outside is dangerous for you. If my beloved child falls ill and leaves this world, I would be too sad.”
She believed those words. That’s what she thought. For her beloved mother, she could endure that much. Six months after she turned seven, her younger sister Aishe became very ill. When her father brought the limp Aishe to the basement room, Eirene was frightened by her motionless sister.
She cried and prayed to God to save her sister. Perhaps the prayer of a seven-year-old child was answered, as Aishe soon recovered through Eirene. The divine power Eirene didn’t know she possessed healed Aishe. While Aishe, the recipient, was unaffected, Eirene, the giver, suffered considerable pain.
Still, since it was for her beloved sister, it seemed like a natural duty as an older sister to undergo once a month. As time passed, the pain intensified. There were days when the pain was so severe she wished to die if not for Aishe.
After enduring for so long, she asked her mother if she could skip just once and was slapped. Afterward, servant visits decreased, the once pleasant basement room deteriorated, and Aishe complained about the smell.
Around that time, Aishe’s treatment ended, and Eirene’s divine power weakened.
Everyone’s visits became infrequent. All daily routines collapsed. The light illuminating the basement disappeared. They gave just enough food for her to barely survive. There wasn’t enough water to drink, let alone to bathe.
The maids who had attended to Eirene only brought meals, leaving cleaning to her. Even after tidying up, there wasn’t much she could do in the limited space.
After several years of being abandoned alone in darkness where light had vanished, a few days ago, her parents and the mage visited Eirene for the first time in a long while. She heard what they said, and today, events unfolded. No, she made them unfold.
Clive waited for a long time, but Eirene remained silent, staring at the ceiling. Her eyes didn’t look like those of a murderer. They were dark like the storm clouds hovering over the mansion. And pitiful.
Still, she was a criminal.
The dead numbered roughly twenty. Judging by the blood flowing from their noses and mouths, he guessed poison, but it was just a guess. How had this woman, who looked ready to collapse at any moment, killed so many people?
Would she reveal what happened if he investigated? Were her family members among the dead? Was she really the fiancée he knew?
Organizing the questions in his mind, Clive took out a cigar, cut the cap, and put it in his mouth. The imperial palace would be in an uproar.
‘Grand Duke’s Fiancée Commits Massacre.’
A perfect headline. While some would be angry and saddened by this terrible crime, others would certainly welcome the news with delight.
Ulik, who had checked the bodies, approached. After glancing at Eirene, his face filled with disgust toward her.
“The Count and Countess are also dead.”
“Oh my.”
His fiancée had always spoken about her parents with a voice full of love during their occasional dates. He had no idea she possessed such talent for acting, enough to deceive him.
Like Ulik, Clive should have found Eirene horrifying, but more than that, he wanted to know why she had massacred these people and her reasons. Clive sat down to meet Eirene at eye level.
“Miss Aishe Phineas, shall we talk now?”
Rolling her eyes to look at Clive, Eirene smirked.
“…Too bothersome.”
After struggling to utter this single phrase, she closed her eyes. Eirene had gathered her remaining divine power and even her life force to kill the people in the mansion. Her family who had deceived her and consumed her life, the servants who remained silent in exchange for substantial payment.
And that wasn’t all.
There had been contempt and abuse too. Not one person had pitied her miserable life. Tormenting a weak opponent might be difficult the first time, but it only grew more cruel with repetition.
So she had punished them all. They had received the punishment they deserved.
Then what about her? What had she done wrong?
She hadn’t done anything wrong. She had only loved and trusted, yet why had she suffered such treatment? She felt a surge of indignation, but it was over now.
The sin of harming many lives would be paid for with her death. Tears with meaning unknown even to herself flowed from Eirene’s eyes. That’s when it happened.
“You devil! Die! Die!”
It was Aishe. Screaming, Aishe ran forward, raised a dagger with both hands, and plunged it into Eirene’s heart, then pulled it out.
Why are you still alive?
Eirene couldn’t speak. Aishe shouldn’t be alive. She should have died. If she was alive, then Eirene should live too. No, they should die together.
Eirene tried to summon her remaining divine power, but she had already reached her limit.
No. I can’t die like this. I can’t die this way! Ugh.
Blood poured from Eirene’s mouth. Blood flowing from her chest stained her nightgown bright red. Though Eirene was the one in pain, Aishe turned pale, trembling and sobbing.
“What, what have I done!”
Aishe dropped the bloodied knife in shock.
“But sister, you killed father, mother, and Kailo. You tried to kill me too. I loved you so much…”
Seeing Aishe bury her face in her blood-stained hands and cry, Eirene felt maddened. She was furious. But with death’s shadow looming, there was nothing she could do. Knowing Eirene’s situation well, Aishe continued to cry and embraced her.
“I’m sorry, sister. I had no choice.”
“Why… are you… still alive…”
She should have died. She couldn’t say anything more. Must she die leaving her behind?
While Eirene was filled with resentment and anger, Aishe held her and whispered very softly in her ear.
“I’m alive because I’ve been feeding on you bit by bit for a long time.”
Eirene heard Aishe’s quiet laughter. She tried to grip her sister’s shoulders, but that was all she could do. Eirene’s breath ceased.