Chapter 101: The Play (2)

The moon was stained slightly red because of the dusty sky tonight. When a person bled, they were also covered in red. The coincidence made me uneasy.

It looked like the moon was bleeding. I walked, my anxiety dogging my heels like a shadow.

I could hear the servants talking in the distance.

“You shouldn’t do this here, my lady!”

“This is the property of the Duke of Ivansia!”

“I know His Highness cherishes you, but it’s late in...”

“She’s basically an intruder,” Lady Silver Lily muttered as she walked beside me. Her tone reflected her contempt for the Inquisitor—no, for Lady Goldencup. “Considering that she came at this hour, she’s probably not here to have tea with me. Butler, did she ask you to arrange a visit?”

“No, she didn’t.”

I was also baffled. It was already past midnight. The Inquisitor had no reason to meet Lady Silver Lily right now.

The day before yesterday, we had a talk.

“I’ll temporarily be working as Lady Silver Lily’s butler,” I said. “It’s to get information about her and use that to conquer this stage.”

“Hmm.” The Inquisitor’s expression changed subtly, although it was brief. He quickly resumed his usual bright smile. “Okay! It’s inevitable for the sake of the mission. I understand. Good luck, Mr. Death King!”

That was what we agreed on. That was supposed to be our agreement.

“Bring my butler!”

We got closer to the voice.

“My butler! I know you’re here!”

In the flower garden of Lady Silver Lily’s villa, the dark night sky couldn’t completely hide the spring in it. White magnolias’ heads drooped with the heavy weight of spring on them. The red moon shone down on them, painting an illusion of a garden filled with purple magnolias in full bloom.

“Ah!”

A magnolia petal fell.

“There you are, my butler! I knew it!” The Inquisitor pushed away the guards at the gate.

While the guards hesitated, unable to use force on a noble lady, the Inquisitor lifted his dress and strode into the garden, trampling the fallen petal.

He smiled. “I was worried because you didn’t come back even though it was late. You made your master worry so much that I had to come all of the way here. Isn’t that inexcusable for a servant?”

My anxiety reached a fever pitch when I saw the Inquisitor. The moonlight was shining down on his blond hair, which had grown even longer than yesterday.

“My lady... ” I barely managed to say.

“You’re my one and only butler and my childhood friend, so you mean more to me than just a servant. Is it too inelegant of me to ask you to understand that?”

It wasn’t just his hair. I could see traces of the Inquisitor in his appearance, but he was somehow unfamiliar.

Did he use a Divine Formula to change his appearance?

I wondered.

Why?

“Anyway, you shouldn’t be in a place like this. It feels like even the flower beds in this garden are poisonous. Now, my butler.” The Inquisitor approached me. “Come back with me.”

“How insolent of you.” Lady Silver Lily stopped him. “Just causing a commotion like this in the middle of the night is a crime enough to have you lashed. Don’t tell me you’re unaware of where you’re raising your voice right now. Get on your knees right now and confess your wrongdoing.”

“Oh, are you going to hit my calves with a cane after that?” The Inquisitor smiled thinly. “If you’re going to hit me, please do it hard, my lady. I wonder what would happen if I show the wounds on my calves to His Highness. It’ll be one more fond memory for His Highness and me to share.”

“H-how can she even say that...!”

The servants trembled. The crown prince’s fiance was officially Lady Silver Lily, but the Inquisitor boldly threatened to turn him against her. Flushed with anger, the servants glared at the Inquisitor.

“Really?” Lady Silver Lily quietly muttered.

The servants paused at her voice. I also felt a chill in my heart for a moment.

“I suppose you would.”

Her voice froze the blood in my veins.

“It’s beautiful to try building memories during your school days. Well, even a dive in a trash bin becomes a nostalgic memory at your age. Since you want to build beautiful memories, I, as a noble of this empire, will assist you.” Lady Silver Lily raised her left hand. “Bring me a cane.”

The servants trembled.

“M-my lord... ”

“I remember giving you an order not to address me like that here.”

“If His Highness were to find out about this by some chance... ”

“She raised a commotion on my family’s property. Are you telling me I should just let her go? Even if I do, the news will spread and tarnish the family’s name. The law takes precedence over all else, and His Highness is responsible for upholding the law.”

The servants held their breath. They didn’t look convinced because the crown prince wasn’t that kind of person, but none of them could voice their doubts.

“My left hand is still empty,” Lady Silver Lily chided. “Bring me a cane. Don’t make me repeat myself again.”

The servants quickly moved around on the magnolia-covered path to bring her a cane. They all looked down at the ground, as if they were afraid of the moonlight reaching their faces.

Only two people here, Lady Silver Lily and the Inquisitor, were holding their heads up straight.

In the end, I had no choice but to approach the Inquisitor. “My lady. What’s going on? Why are you here at this hour?”

“You’re asking an obvious question. I came here to get what’s mine back.” The Inquisitor grinned. “I’ve been waiting for you since this morning, but you never came back. At first, I thought you had an emergency, but then I heard that you were by Lady Silver Lily’s side.”

The Inquisitor cupped his cheek. “I realized right away that she was using your weakness to threaten you. That’s her specialty, after all. Poor you, you got caught in the crossfire because of His Highness and me...”

I didn’t understand what he was saying.

“Don’t worry.” The Inquisitor’s smile was still bright. “I won’t lose anything to her anymore, whether it’s His Highness’s love or your loyalty. Cane? She can lash me as much as she wants. It doesn’t matter. I’ll save you, my butler. She’s the one who’s going to be hurt if she lashes me.”

“No... I’m sorry. Please excuse me for a moment.” I moved a little closer to the Inquisitor so no one around us could hear what we were talking about. Fortunately, no one stopped me from doing so. “My lady.”

“Yes, my butler.”

I swallowed my saliva and whispered, “Mr. Inquisitor.”

Silence prevailed for a moment.

“Yes?”

My heart pounded. My lips were dry, and I couldn’t move my tongue. I never realized how hard it could be to weave words together into a sentence.

I slowly said, “When spring comes.”

“Pardon?”

My heart...

“Mr. Inquisitor...”

“What are you talking about, my butler?”

“If you’re joking around like last time, I’m going to be mad. I mean it. I’m asking you very seriously right now, so please answer me properly. How high is your immersion level?” I asked, urgently.

The Inquisitor blinked. “Huh? It seems like you’re the one who’s joking, my butler. Are you feeling nostalgic? Or maybe you’ve become a little unstable after spending an entire day with her. Hahaha, I can understand that.”

“When spring comes...”

The Inquisitor laughed. “Spring is already here, my butler.”

No.

“Isn’t it a beautiful season?” Lady Goldencup laughed.

The servants who had scattered across the villa returned. They kept their heads low as one of them offered Lady Silver Lily a cane.

“I-I brought the item you ordered...”

It was thin. I could tell that they had run around the mansion looking for the thinnest cane. It was probably their way of showing their loyalty.

However, Lady Silver Lily coldly said, “Bring me a different one.”

The servants flinched and went back inside the villa.

“A different one.”

The order was repeated four times. The cane became rougher and thicker each time. When the servant bit his lip and brought her the fourth cane, Lady Silver Lily took it in her left hand.

“Lady Goldencup.”

𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“Why don’t you call me by my real name, my lady?”

“Sylvia Evanail.”

“Yes, Lady Raviel Ivansia.”

The moon and the sun faced each other.

“You’ve trespassed on the duke’s property and caused a disturbance. Yet you haven’t said a word of apology. There is a clear hierarchy in the empire, so your insolence makes me appalled. I will punish your crime in the name that His Majesty has bestowed upon me.”

“My crime? I’m the one who knows my crime the best.” Lady Goldencup smiled brightly. “My crime is receiving His Highness the Crown Prince’s deepest affection despite being born to a mere baron’s family in the outskirts.”

That wasn’t something one could say to the crown prince’s fiance.

“I’m sorry that I’m loved.” The daughter of the Baron of Evanail slightly lifted her dress with her hands. A goldencup arrived at the magnolia garden and delivered a textbook perfect bow to the lily in front of her. “I’m sorry that I receive more love than you do, Lady of Ivansia. Will that suffice as an apology?”

The wind blew.

“But, Lady of Ivansia, I do have one question. Is this really my crime? Love carries meaning only when someone receives it. People either love or are loved. Am I really the one who should be held accountable for this division? Maybe...” Lady Goldencup didn’t complete her sentence and laughed instead.

The petals fell from the dark tree branches.

Lady Silver Lily raised her left hand. “You’re an awful person.”

Her cane cut through the night air. Lady Goldencup didn’t scream or even groan. She simply stood straight. Even the smile carved into her face didn’t disappear, as if she were a sculpture. She—he—was confident of victory.

[Your character immersion has deepened.]

That was why it looked like the moon was bleeding in my eyes.

[Your immersion level is 40%.]

Tonight, the moon was a little red in the dusty sky. When a human lay on the ground bleeding, it turned red. Due to the dusty air, Lady Silver Lily had dry coughs. No one said anything. The night was silent except for her coughing and the sound of her cane lashing against Lady Goldencup’s skin.

“Sylvia! Sylvia! Are you there, Sylvia!?”

A wave of torches arrived, and the sound of footsteps broke the silence. The crown prince ran toward the garden holding a torch of his own. The guards hurriedly followed him. Yes, there was no way the crown prince wouldn’t be aware of a commotion like this one.

“Syl—”

The crown prince stopped in front of the gate. When he saw what was happening in the garden, he fell into silence for a moment.

“Raviel... !” His voice held a different warmth from the time he had called for Lady Goldencup. “Get out of my way!”

The crown prince shoved past the estate’s guards. None of them could stop the future emperor.

He immediately went to Lady Goldencup’s side. “How...? Still... How...!”

“I’m fine, Your Highness.”

“I’m not fine! You fool...!” The crown prince quickly checked her state, and then he turned and glared at Lady Silver Lily. “How despicable of you!”

Words could hurt a person.

“How could you treat her like this!”

They left invisible wounds, so the owner of those words wasn’t aware of it.

“I had to set the law of the empire straight, Your Highness,” Lady Silver Lily answered.

“The law isn’t more important than the people!”

“They are more important than one person.”

“That’s why I call you despicable! You’re no different from a witch!”

The world was probably divided into those who knew the wounds and those who didn’t. The crown prince was one of the latter.

After coughing a couple of times, she sighed. “Would you like to punish me?”

The crown prince’s face crumpled up, but he couldn’t answer her question. He shook his head as if it wasn’t even worth answering, but that was just denying reality. He didn’t have the guts nor the skills to deal with Lady Silver Lily.

“Let’s go, Sylvia! You shouldn’t be in a place like this.” The crown prince picked up Lady Goldencup.

In his arms, Lady Goldencup looked at me. “My butler, come with us.”

Instead of answering the question, I looked at the Inquisitor.

As if I were praying, I muttered,

Show me the character window.

Name: Sylvia Evanail

Affection: 90

Liked genre: Romance

Disliked genre: Political fiction

Liked characters: People who love her, the crown prince, the butler, the teachers, the seniors, the juniors, the classmates.

Disliked character: Raviel Ivansia

Liked plot points: Victory of the strong, true love

Disliked plot: Defeat of the weak, betrayal

State of Mind:

Raviel Ivansia, I won’t give you anything.

The character window no longer had the name “Inquisitor.” His liked genre—fairy tales—and his liked character—humans—was gone too. The Inquisitor was completely immersed and consumed by the role of Lady Goldencup.

“My butler, you’ll come with me, right?”

I could feel that I was near the end of this try.