Chapter 147: Rejection and Acceptance
“Lying… you say.”
Sue chuckled dryly.
Anger was finally stirring within her.
Why was this man suddenly picking a fight with her? He had never said anything before. It wasn’t like he had suddenly awakened to some grand sense of morality. Woo Acrea, why was he looking at her like she was a bug?
“Is this Grand Duke Reeves’s order?”
Her voice came out cold, involuntarily. Acrea, speechless at her brazen remark, didn’t answer. Sue smirked and pressed on,
“You’re saying this to me, but not to Lady Enzhe, so you must have been ordered to do so by Grand Duke Reeves.”
“…Perhaps.”
Sue, taking his vague answer as an affirmation, clenched her fists. She tried to smile, but her face twisted into a grimace.
“Master Acrea, I’m sorry, but the Byron family has already pledged their eternal loyalty to the Lopetrefer family. I won’t betray Lady Enzhe. Ever.”
Was he trying to recruit the Byron family now that the Vava family had become friendly with the Acrea family? But Sue Byron wasn’t the kind of woman who could freely switch political sides.
Besides, there was nothing, not even a speck of dust, that the Acrea family could gain politically by bringing in the Byron family, so she couldn’t help but laugh.
“If Lady Enzhe wants to use the basement, I’ll go to the basement. If she wants me to, I’ll let her beat me until she’s sick of it.”
“…Byron.”
Sue shrugged.
“Surprised? That’s the Byron family for you, Master Acrea.”
***
“So! Argh! I’m so frustrated! Why is everyone suddenly acting out of character?!”
Sue, visiting Apricot Tea Forest for the first time in a while, let out a string of curses that would never reach the capital. She threw Jean’s pillows at the wall, venting her frustration all day. Even the high priest, who had initially encouraged her to rant, had eventually stuffed his ears with cloth.
Sue finally mumbled, her voice trembling,
“I have to escape. Quickly…”
She buried her face in a pillowcase. Jean, ignoring her, focused on his research. But the high priest, who had removed the cloth from his ears as Sue quieted down, chuckled and mocked her,
“Hey, you’re talking about Louis, right? Hahaha! Serves him right! He pretended to be her best friend in front of me! Those damn nobles! Ouch!”
He screamed at the end because Jean had stabbed him in the forehead with a quill.
Jean, who had been silent until now, closed his magic book and turned to her.
“Sue, you’re right, the sooner you escape, the better. So here, take this.”
He smiled brightly and handed her three pieces of parchment. Sue, her face gloomy, took them and looked at them, puzzled.
“What’s this?”
“Simple magic formulas.”
“Uh… I know that, but why are you giving them to me?”
Jean placed his hand on her shoulder and winked.
“Copy them for me next time you come. I need them.”
***
“Dark Magic Transmission? What the hell is this?”
The academy library was deserted, even though the winter evaluation was approaching. Sue was copying the formulas Jean had given her onto another parchment, but she didn’t understand a single word.
Raines Noel was sitting across from her, his chin resting on his hand, his face blank. He yawned, looking bored, but he didn’t fall asleep or leave.
Sue, her hand trembling as she drew the magic formulas, finally put down her quill in frustration. She leaned her head back and stared at the high ceiling of the library for a while, then suddenly said,
“I hit someone again.”
She spoke casually, as if she had no intention of hiding it from anyone in the quiet library.
Noel didn’t answer. He just stared at her intently. Sue slowly lowered her head. Her hand, which wasn’t holding the quill, was still trembling.
“Noel, you can leave if you want.”
Noel answered immediately, his face calm,
“I don’t want to.”
Sue swallowed her tears. She asked,
“Why are you friends with me?”
“Haha, because I like you.”
It was a confession. But neither the confessor nor the confessee felt any excitement. They were just happy, touched.
Noel, who had been staring at her, finally looked out the window and continued,
“I know you don’t want to do those things. Even though you are doing them.”
“…That’s true.”
Sue nodded, unable to deny the undeniable truth. Noel chuckled again. He turned to her, their eyes meeting.
“Even the most evil person has one or two people by their side. Think of me as that person.”
Because they shared the same sin. Because she was the woman who had dragged him to hell, and at the same time, the woman who had saved him. Because he thought it would be interesting.
There were complicated reasons, but he had almost forgotten them.
Noel wished Sue wouldn’t go to the basement. But he knew he couldn’t stop her, and he knew that even if he told her not to, things wouldn’t go smoothly.
Sue rarely talked about Enzhe or her family when she was with Noel. She didn’t talk about the basement either. She had always tried to keep their conversations light and happy.
The fact that she had brought it up so bluntly meant that she was mentally cornered.
If he could provide her with a moment of respite… That was Raines Noel’s atonement.
***
Michaela was sick. When Michaela was sick, the entire mansion was turned upside down. Mother would fall ill with worry, and Father would drop everything, even urgent matters, to check on Michaela.
Ever since Michaela was born, it felt like the whole world revolved around her. Because she was a success.
She had never felt any affection for her family. They treated her like a failure, they had probably never seen a future in her.
…No, that was an exaggeration.
Yes, her parents loved her, to some extent. Even though she was a failure, she had a talent for magic, and they could use her marriage to Shina to strengthen their political position.
She also loved her parents, to some extent. Even though she was a failure, they hadn’t abandoned her, they had even given her a rather interesting toy, the snake curse. And most importantly, they had connected her with Shina.
Their family had been able to survive, based on a moderate amount of respect and trust.
But she hated Michaela Lopetrefer. She hated her so much that she wanted to strangle her.
That “success” shouldn’t have been born. God probably loved her, the defective one, more than Michaela, who functioned perfectly.
Whenever she ran into Michaela in the mansion, she couldn’t help but feel nauseous and would immediately go down to the basement. If she kept walking through the deep, tunnel-like basement, she would reach a door, secured by several layers of iron bars. Only those with Lopetrefer blood could open that door.
So she could easily open the iron bars. Behind the iron bars was another deep cave. And if she kept walking through that cave, she would finally reach a space where she could relieve her nausea.
“Hahaha… Hahahahaha…”
A vast chamber.
It was covered in blood. Strange-colored flesh was splattered everywhere, and the humans trapped in the cages surrounding the chamber were praying to her for salvation, their bodies twisted and broken.
Looking at them, her nausea would subside, her mind would clear, and she would feel a surge of fresh blood coursing through her veins.
A sensation she had first discovered when she had killed Cedric. He had been a clueless idiot who had felt inferior to Shina, but she couldn’t help but be grateful to him for giving her this pleasure.
…Haha. Hahaha.
“What a disgusting family.”
***
“I’m done.”
Sue slammed the stack of documents onto the table in Jean’s workshop. They were copies of the formulas Jean had asked her to copy. Sue hadn’t understood a single word, but she had copied them diligently, as if she were drawing.
“Oh, good job, good job!”
Jean praised her, examining the parchments.
“What is that? Magic?”
The high priest, who had been sweeping the floor halfheartedly, asked, his eyes drawn to the parchments. It seemed like he was being forced to do chores as Jean’s lab rat.
“Yes, things I’m going to experiment on you with.”
“Ugh…”
Jean chuckled as the high priest instinctively stepped back.
“How is it? The… results of the experiment?”
“Results? You’re talking about results? I’m dying here,”
“It’s going well. Thanks to this guy, I’ve made some progress.”
Jean cut him off.
“Progress? What kind of progress?”
This wasn’t the time to worry about the high priest’s suffering. This was the first time she had heard a “progress report” since making the deal with Jean. Sue’s voice was filled with excitement.
“Well, first of all, when I compared your formula and the high priest’s formula, the structure is exactly the same. I haven’t been able to decipher it yet, but I’ve figured out the patterns in the structure. And I’ve roughly understood the principles through a few experiments.”
Sue saw the high priest’s shoulders flinch at the words “a few experiments.” She clutched her waist and mumbled,
“…That’s amazing.”
It was a simple statement. But the emotions behind it were overwhelming.
“This is just the beginning, Sue. It’s all thanks to you finding the high priest.”
Sue nodded silently. Jean changed his expression and asked,
“Are you still having a lot of seizures?”
Sue clutched her waist tighter at his sharp question. It was an affirmative answer.
“Your face is pale. Very pale. Lady Enzhe Lopetrefer must be heartbroken.”
“Yes, very.”
The seizures had continued even after the break had started.
How were Enzhe and Fritz doing? It was true that Fritz had broken up with her, but there hadn’t been any official announcement yet. But Sue didn’t have the confidence to persuade Fritz, nor the courage to face Enzhe.
Had Halo, the Holy Demon Religion, all been for nothing?
Sue, her voice hesitant, said to Noel, whose violet eyes were filled with worry,
“Hmm… I don’t know. What should I do?”
She couldn’t change their minds, she was too weak.