Vinter looked at me with bloodshot eyes and forced me to answer. No, maybe it was just me. "That..."
I hesitated for a long time, blinking my lips. It was ambiguous to say that a matter of trust was the correct answer. He thought I was going to kill Yvonne, but he tried to hide my sins.
'No. The last time you made that fuss, you treated me like a vicious villainess, maybe it's a matter of trust?'
After a long thought of struggle, I answered him who keep looking down at me. "Well...that sounds like your character."
"You mean personality?"
"Yes, your personality."
Vinter's bluish pupils grew bigger, then burst out laughing like a deflated balloon with 'haha' sound. "It's my first time hear someone commented something about personality."
I was a little embarrassed by his fuss. Pointing out personality in a serious situation, it was rude and absurd even for me.
However, thanks to his repeated burst of laughter made the gap in our relationship which had been serious became loosen a little.
I glanced up at him and asked him questions that I was curious about. "Didn't you just say that you were interested?"
When he put up the terms of the 'encounter' contract, didn't he say that he want to satisfy his curiosity? I couldn't tell when will he change his mind.
"I don't know."
After a moment of silence at my question, he murmured with a smile.
"Every time I came to my senses since I last took you to your roomI always thinking of you."
"..."
"I regretted so much about the days I could have spent with young lady because I think I've ruined them with my own hands."
He said that and slowly let go of my hand that he was holding. I swallowed the words that his doubts toward me were now progressive, and I gave a rather cool-headed reply.
"I'm sorry, but I can't accept it."
His ambiguous love, I'm sorry, but I didn't need it anymore. Vinter understood me calmly.
"I'm not begging you to accept it. However, what I want to tell you is"
"..."
"Please don't put yourself in the danger."
Vinter looked at me desperately and finally revealed what he wanted to talk. "Take advantage of me. I'll take care of it."
"What?"
"...Everything."
I stunned at his answer. And even though hard mode is over, there's still a gauge bar floating on Vinter's head.
'...What does purple color mean?'
Trying to answer unnecessary question, it was simply my complain to change someone's mind. "What ifyour mask will be removed when you're helping me?"
"I have already prepared myself since I made the poison." "Uh, what if I ask you to make Yvonne as the real culprit?"
"I will prepare the situationwith the memory manipulation magic."
I was surprised at his answer, wondering how far he would deal it. "What if I ask you to kill her for me?"
The last question finally got him speechless. His face, which showed that he was ready to do everything for me, turned pale.
"That"
He shook his lips and hesitated, finally he opened his mouth as if he had a piercing scream. "I'll request the assassination guild"
"..."
"And, I will involve myself in."I only laughed briefly at his reply. It was such a down answer.
'Wouldn't it have been better if he did this just before the hard mode was over?'
Although he's at the end of his trust issue, but Vinter was originally friendly and attentive.
For this reason, I had planned to use him as insurance instead of Eclise several times. But now everything was meaningless.
"Then what about the children you're protecting?" At my laughing voice, Vinter's eyes expanded.
"I heard there are some descendants of the wizards, who may still be persecuted by Leila followers somewhere."
"That's"
His face suddenly darkened, as if he hadn't thought of it until now. Its love or mission. Believing in his mission and me, he had too much burden on himself. It was the same for me too. And sadly, unlike him, I am now planning to reject it.
I finally decided to stop teasing Vinter, who was almost crying. "Don't worry, Marquis. Because I'm not going to ask you to do that." "Young lady."
"I don't know if you believe it or not, but I'm a pacifist." I added with a shrug.
"Don't lose your mission because of me. I don't want to be used as your excuse for having no choice."
Unlike his simple way of speaking, I spoke so coldly that it really hart him. As I pretended to be it, I continued to speak thoughtlessly.
"I'm going to finish this as quietly as possible, then I will leave the dukedom."
"ButIt's not your self-play. Obviously, someone is aiming for young lady. So, why are you trying to
frame yourself, young lady?"
Suddenly, I felt tired of this man's questions. Come to think of it, it's been quite a while since I stood in the back garden. I sighed and told the truth.
"That's right, it was self-play." "But, the poison is different."
"Then it's a self-play made by the one who had this poison." "What are you talking about—?"
"I had already gotten the poison through my own maid."
I tilted my head, and threw to him a hint that everyone in the dukedom hadn't found answer while I was unconscious.
"...So who ordered the poison through the dead maid?" Vinter breathed heavily while asking his meaning question. "As expected, you knew that too."
Tep-.
He came at once, narrowing down the distance I had set. "Who is it? Young lady, who is...?"
He stopped talking when he suddenly looked at my expressionless face. As if he had noticed the answer, he asked carefully, looking at myself with a trembling eye.
"...Is that Lady Yvonne?" "..."
"Pleaseanswer me. Did lady Yvonne do that? Did lady Yvonne is the one who made the self-play?"
I did not answer and kept him in silence. Because I wasn't sure, whether he would believe me or not. "My God"
Whether it was hard to accept, Vinter raised his hands to rub his face roughly dry. 'Oh well, it's hard to accept that an angelic heroine who only helps others did that.' I understood why he's like that. After a long time, he finally asked with a faint voice.
"Then, why did you drink the wine even though you knew it was poisoned? It wasn't for Lady Yvonne,
but for you, why do you poison"
Vinter suddenly stopped talking. He slowly taking off his hands from his face and then looked at me with a tears.
"Lady, really, are you planning to die?"
The deep-sea eyes glowed with anxious impatience.
"It is true, like I said when I woke up... I wanted to die"
His pale face, which had been groping for the answer with a tremble glare of his eyes, was shattered. Before I could open my mouth, he suddenly move forward and grabbed both of my shoulders.
"Why... Why Lady, why!"
"You heard it."
I answered lightly. Since I woke up, instead of faking up a lie, I had really been taking my way, how to gat out of here.
— Do I need a good reason to drink poison?
It was clear whether he was thinking of the same thing, and that despair permeated in his dark blue
pupils, which was just so close to me. His hands tremble to the point it can shake my through my shoulders, and soon they fell.
"Ah, ahhhh..."
Vinter staggered, touching his forehead with a haggard complexion. Strangely, I couldn't feel any emotion at all about his change.
"So what should I do... If you drink the poison I made, I will..." "There's nothing you can do to me."
"Young lady."
If you're willing to do something for me, I'd be happy if you just shut up and pray for my safe recovery." I uttered what I had intended calmly. My words shook Vinter's eyes without mercy.
"The poison... the poison I gave you, still remains."
While speaking gibberish, he suddenly shouted as if he had something to point at. "How can you drink it and die again...?!"
"That won't happen anymore." "How can you guarantee that?"
"I've through it once, but I can't do it twice."
I answered with a frown. It was true. It was an inevitable choice to escape, but would I did it again if I already failed once?
I didn't want to die in vain as one of the supportive characters for Yvonne.
Whether he saw a firm will in my face, Vinter spoke in a more sincere tone than a little while ago. "Then... what will you do with the poison?"
"I'll take care of it."
"Please give it back to me. For certain"
"Marquis."
I wanted to end this meaningless conversation, so I cut him off and changed the topic. "Do you think Yvonne still a very good kid?"
"That's"
He couldn't answer right away. He still seemed confused. Maybe he is measuring that my words are true or false.
Anyway, Yvonne, who made that suspicious sick man blindly believe that she was good and kind person, was also great.
'Is that also a brainwashing?'
Actually, it didn't matter what it was. I was going to get out of this crazy game. I'd prepared the still troubled Vinter to 'time over'.
"That's enough, Marquis."
"...Young lady, please let me have time to re-examine"
"I'd like to ask you a favor."
He tried to make a hasty excuse, but I blocked him from saying anything and instead I said myself. Vinter, who bit his lower lip, responded reluctantly.
"What is it?"
"That dead maid named Becky."
"Ah..."
"Marquis, please pick up carefully her body and give a small funeral."
The eyes of the Vinter were wide opens, as if he never expected my words. "That's, why..."
"It's just, she was so pitiful."
I murmured lonesomely, looking at the nameless purple flowers blooming in the back garden. "Like the supportive character, she died vainly after being exploited."
Then suddenly, I was puzzled just like Vinter. Why should I care about the maid who drove me into the villain? Anger sprang up suddenly in me. I asked arrogantly, frowning with my nose.
"Did the kind and good Yvonne ask the Marquis to do something like this?" "She's..."
In my words, Vinter lost in thought for a moment. If she was a good lady who helped others in need, she would have taken care the body of a maid who died before me. But.
"She... never told anything about the dead maid." With a completely chaotic face, he asked me why.
"It's a short time, but you must have been sad to be apart with her, so why..." "Well."
I said in a playful way, as if humming a song with a grinning smile. "But she was on my service for a short time, so why should I?"
That was his mission, so he have to think of it by himself. Vinter froze with a stiff face. Leaving him in the middle, I turned my back without hesitation.