“You’re awake. Awake. The great murderer and destroyer Lucienne Bickman is awake!”

The man who approached me, speaking in a theatrical, eerie tone, grabbed both my shoulders and roughly pulled me up. From his mouth wafted a terrible smell of alcohol along with a concentrated version of the sweet scent filling the room. I forced down my churning insides and opened my eyes.

“Where am I?”

Just saying those few words sent pain like a knife through my throat, and I swallowed dryly. My throat felt swollen and hot.

“Hell, where else? The place where you’ll be buried.”

The man’s brown eyes were cloudy, as if covered with a film. His giggling laughter made him seem out of his mind. I barely managed to trace through my tangled memories and found a name.

“Troy… Langberton.”

The man Laurel had loved.

His eyebrows twitched, apparently surprised that I knew his name. He had a handsome face befitting an actor in a theater troupe, but his complexion was poor. Looking at his whitened lips with some unknown bluish foam on them, I asked,

“Are you looking for Laurel’s murderer?”

Suddenly, he grabbed me by the collar. Spittle flew onto my face.

“You’re the murderer, Bickman. You killed her. You threw her from a high place. Such an endlessly cruel devil!”

“It wasn’t me. I……”

“Do you know what happened because of you? I can’t do anything now. Nothing without Laurel! Only she saved me, only she looked after me! Creditors search for me wandering the streets every day. I can’t get food or medicine anymore. She’s gone. She’s gone. Because of you!”

Troy’s hands grabbed my neck. As I was suffocating, I grabbed his shoulders with both arms, and he violently shook my neck.

“I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you!”

There was no time to think. The giant and dwarves started jumping around again. I moved my fingers and scratched at his eyes as if to stab them. Troy screamed and threw me aside.

“Arghhhh! You devil!”

“It wasn’t me! I needed Laurel!”

Clutching the dagger in my bosom, I shouted until my throat felt like it would burst.

“We had the same goal. We both wanted Laurel to become the head maid. To do that, we needed to push out Nina, the current head maid, and Laurel died while investigating her background!”

“Don’t talk nonsense. Rumors that you killed Laurel have already spread everywhere. She disliked you. A cunning little girl. An enviable little girl who seized a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rise in status. An annoying little girl who never said anything wrong.”

Hearing the inner thoughts of a dead person wasn’t pleasant, but at least it bought me some time. Troy staggered with unfocused eyes.

“Nina. Nina. Who is Nina?”

“She’s the head maid of the Bickman mansion. Laurel was trying to become the head maid to help you. Because she loved you.”

Looking at Troy’s condition, I was certain. His need for money wasn’t because he was extravagant. He was addicted to drugs. I had seen eyes like his countless times on the streets when I lived in the stables.

It didn’t seem like he was acting on Nina’s orders. That meant he had captured me purely out of resentment for Laurel. If I could persuade him, there might be a possibility of escaping from here.

“Nina. Yes, Nina. I’ve heard of her. A terrible woman who tormented Laurel. An irritating woman.”

Troy paced in place, muttering as if talking to himself. Suddenly, he raised his head with an “Ah.” His dull eyes momentarily sparkled.

“Money. She said she had a lot of money. She showed me the ledger saying she had over 500 pedirs from swindling merchants she was close with. She said she would take it. Then neither I nor she would have anything to worry about anymore.”

“……What did she show you?”

A word I couldn’t ignore caught my ear. But as if he couldn’t hear me, Troy burst into tears.

“But now Laurel is gone. I won’t be able to do anything. Those people will eventually sell me as a plaything in the most shameful place. I’m finished now! I’ll kill you!”

“Troy.”

Raising my hand as if to restrain him as he approached me with the whites of his eyes showing, I slowly removed my ring. It wasn’t extremely expensive, but it was gold decorated with rubies and diamonds, so it would be worth something.

“I’ll give you this. If you sell it, you can put out the urgent fire for now. You’re not finished. I’m here, aren’t I?”

“What?”

Troy’s focus wavered as he breathed roughly. I carefully continued, as if soothing a beast that might show its wild nature at any moment.

“Killing me now isn’t a good idea. You should think about how to use me. I’m in your hands anyway, so you can harm me tomorrow, the day after, whenever. Of course, if you can use me to get rid of your worries, you might not need to kill me at all.”

Troy alternately looked at my lips and the ring in my hand, then snatched the ring like a crow discovering a shiny jewel. After examining the jewel, his gaze flew back to me.

“Give me everything. All that you’re wearing.”

Because it was just a casual outing, I wasn’t wearing anything luxurious, but the dress under my outer garment had a brooch decorated with coral and gold, and I had another money pouch like the one I had given to Tom.

When I took off my coat with its soft velvet lining and fur trim and placed the brooch and money pouch on it, Troy quickly took them. His somewhat excited expression made him look like a child, which was absurd.

“Tie your feet with this.”

He threw me a curtain cord. Inwardly clicking my tongue, I tied my ankles in a way that wouldn’t hurt, and he came over and pulled the knot tight. I lost my balance and fell backward, but Troy paid no attention and turned both my hands behind me, tying them tightly with the same cord.

“Stay right here.”

Giggling, Troy got up. He gathered my belongings and walked toward the door.

“Answer me one thing.”

He glanced back at me as he put on an old coat. The eye area where my nails had scratched was swelling.

“The ledger Laurel showed you, do you know where it is? If you find it, I’ll give you more.”

Troy looked at me with empty eyes and then turned his head, ignoring me. I carefully watched the gap as he opened the door. Outside, where cold wind rushed in, was only darkness. No other houses were visible.

I heard Troy go outside and firmly lock the door. The fresh air that had blown in was welcome. I wriggled my hips and moved as close to the door as possible.

Sniffing the thread-like air coming through the cracks of the wooden door, my constricted breathing seemed to open up a little.

Where is this place? It seems to be nighttime.

At least Maya would have reported the news to the house.

“……I hope they don’t suspect Tom wrongly.”

I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly at the thought that he, who had said he didn’t want to hear news of my death, might receive even worse news. My throat hurt and I wanted to swallow, but my mouth was too dry.

Sighing, I leaned my head against the wall. The stone wall was cold, but it was better than having my mind clouded by the sweet smell of the drug filling the room. Without my coat, my body began to shiver little by little, so I had to curl up tightly.

Tom would be suspected simply because he had animal blood on his hands every day. Kirhin probably wouldn’t be cruel, but Tom had said he liked me, so he would likely reveal why I had visited him.

If that happened, Kirhin would realize that I suspected Nina as the culprit in the Laurel case. With Tom’s testimony added, he might even interrogate Nina. If things went that way, this kidnapping might not be all bad.

But…

I needed to escape somehow before Lars heard about this. I hated being treated as a fool or a useless little girl by him more than I feared death.

Troy didn’t seem particularly dangerous, but he was clearly an addict. Addicts tend to become enraged over trivial matters and suddenly explode with emotion, so I couldn’t be completely at ease.

“If he moved me alone, he would have needed some means of transportation.”

The place where he kidnapped me was an alley not far from Tom’s shop. Though it wasn’t crowded, it wasn’t completely deserted either.

Why was Troy there in the first place? Did he follow me? How did he know when I would come out?