I'm a Villainess, Can I Die?-Chapter 109

The three of us headed to the kitchen. Since the victim had been a kitchen maid, the scene of the incident was naturally the kitchen. It was already packed with people.

Why do they always crowd around like it's some kind of spectacle? I tilted my head and slowly walked into the throng.

As I appeared, the gathered people parted to make way. A scene straight out of the parting of the Red Sea. For a moment, it felt like I was witnessing a divine miracle as I stepped into the scene.

It was true then—she really had collapsed while vomiting blood. A dark reddish stain clung thickly to the marble floor.

I looked at it without much emotion.

It wasn’t that I didn’t mourn the dead. I’d just spent so many years caring for dying people that I no longer felt fear or horror when faced with death.

“They’ve already removed the body?”

“Yes. Since it was an unnatural death, they say an autopsy is required.”

“Of course.”

I clicked my tongue quietly and tried to picture the black-haired maid who must have been lying here. I offered another silent prayer for her soul, then turned away, having gained nothing from this visit.

Seeing the site didn’t ease my unease. All I saw was blood for nothing.

And then—thud. As I turned to leave, my foot caught on something.

“What’s this?”

I muttered as I glanced down toward my feet, and Jane and Aiden followed my gaze. Aiden bent over and picked up the object I’d tripped on.

“This is...”

He extended his hand toward me. Resting in his palm was what he had just picked up.

A fragment of a red bead, shimmering with a strange hue.

“...I need to take this to my brother.”

Sometimes, your gut really does know best.

Aaron stared grimly at the red shards on his desk. Across from him, Allogen wore a similar expression.

“It really does look like a red bead, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. I’m fairly certain it is.”

“And it was found in the maid’s mouth, you said...”

Aaron muttered under his breath, brushing his fingers over the edge of a shard.

There were multiple fragments, as if it had exploded inside her.

“It seems the human body couldn’t withstand the bead.”

“You mean...”

“She swallowed it, and it burst inside her.”

A truly horrifying thing. That something could explode inside a person—and take their life in the process. The maid’s death was tragic.

“Do you think she was working with them?”

Aaron frowned as he asked.

“More likely... she was used. Anyone who understood the red bead would never choose to swallow it. Someone must’ve fed it to Bell to plant a spy within the Duke’s estate. But it exploded like this instead.”

A sigh escaped both men at once.

It was a mixture of sorrow for the maid who’d been exploited and the shock of discovering that a spy had been hiding in the household.

As they both held their heads and sighed, someone knocked on the door.

“Brother, it’s me.”

“Oh, Selina.”

Aaron brightened at the sound of his sister’s voice but glanced toward the desk immediately after.

He hesitated—should he show her the bead fragments?

But the dilemma was short-lived.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

If there was one spy, there could be more. Better to tell her now and make her more cautious.

Aaron rose from his seat and opened the door himself.

Selina entered the study with Aiden behind her. Jane had already been sent away.

“Sir Allogen, you’re here as well.”

“Yes, Lady Selina. Should I give you two some privacy?”

“No, it’s fine. You can stay.”

After glancing briefly at the others in the room, Selina got straight to the point.

“I came to give something to you, Brother.”

“To me?”

“Yes. This.”

She extended her hand and opened her palm. When the red fragment she’d been holding came into view, Aaron’s faint smile froze instantly.

“I found it near the scene.”

As Aaron looked at her hand, his eyes flicked to the desk. Following his gaze, Selina’s eyes moved to the table as well.

“So it was a bead,” she murmured.

Aaron took the shard from her and placed it with the others, then suggested they all sit on the sofa.

The four of them sat in a tight circle, and a strange tension filled the room. It was Selina, unexpectedly, who broke it first.

She began speaking about Bell.

About the time Lukas had brought her up, the strange way Bell had behaved, how she often seemed dazed, and that the symptoms had started about a month ago.

With each new piece of information from Selina, Allogen nodded along, saying it could very well be a side effect of the red bead’s magic.

“Then we’ll need to focus the investigation on her actions over the past month,” Aaron concluded.

The three of them agreed. A few more words were exchanged about the autopsy, and the discussion more or less wrapped up.

After they all left, Aaron stopped Aiden before he could go. Selina and Allogen returned to their rooms.

Now alone in the study, a heavy silence lingered.

Perched on the edge of his desk, Aaron let out a soft sigh and turned to Aiden.

“Aiden, take good care of Selina. I can’t get it out of my head... that maid was in Selina’s room. It could’ve been a coincidence, just bad timing... but still, we can’t be sure.”

“Yes, my lord. Don’t worry.

Even if it costs me my life, I’ll protect her.”

Aiden’s eyes were serious. The words sounded dramatic, but there wasn’t a shred of doubt in them.

Aaron gave a pained smile and nodded.

“Sorry... but I’m counting on you.”

It seemed there wasn’t a single day that passed without some new burden on his heart.

“Who could it be, really...”

I muttered as I stirred the tea in front of me.

I was resting my chin in one hand, trying to enjoy my tea time.

Someone had died at the estate days ago, and I was having tea in the midst of it all—after throwing my family into the flames of war.

Even I found the irony ridiculous.

But the bitterness in my mouth wouldn’t go away unless I shoved something sweet in it.

“Does it bother you?”

Aiden, seated across from me, asked gently. Ever since that talk with my brother, he’d been sticking to me more closely than Jane—maybe even on Aaron’s orders.

Probably out of worry. Told him to stay by my side or something.

It reminded me of the old days. The time I tried to jump from the tower and got caught by Lukas.

I didn’t answer. I just looked at Aiden and shrugged. Saying it didn’t bother me would’ve been a lie.

No one realized it, but indirectly, I was the one pulling the strings behind it all. Of course it bothered me. Every move he made, I felt it.

If I thought about it that way... wasn’t Bell’s death kind of my fault, too?

My chest sank. I’d driven someone to death, and now here I was, stuffing my face with cake. Disgusting.

I pushed the plate away and slumped over the table.

“My lady?”

“...Sometimes I get like this. Crushed by guilt. Can’t even breathe.”

“Guilt?”

I closed my eyes in silence. The girl named Bell rose in my mind like foam—bubbling up into my vision.

It felt like she was strangling me, her eyes full of blame. Like she was saying You did this to me.

Great. Another nightmare in the making. I dragged a hand across my face and sighed deeply.

“My lady. Let’s go outside.”

“...What?”

I opened my eyes and looked at Aiden. With my chin still propped on the table, I must’ve looked pretty ridiculous.

“Nothing clears the mind like fresh air.”

He reached out his hand to me.

I glanced at the leftover piece of cake in front of him, then slowly placed my hand over his.

“My lady... do you remember what you once told me?”

“What did I say?”

He matched my pace as we walked, his voice quiet and level. It almost felt like he was mimicking me.

“‘Don’t blame yourself.’”

I looked up at him.

He smiled faintly, meeting my gaze in profile.

“You said guilt becomes a habit. That you start taking responsibility for things that weren’t even your fault.”

Updat𝓮d from freewēbnoveℓ.com.

That’s right. I had said that. To that pitiful idiot who blamed himself even after saving me. I just didn’t know why he was bringing it up now.

“I don’t know what kind of guilt you’re carrying...”

As the word guilt left his mouth, my eyes dropped from his to his lips.

“Are you sure it’s really yours to carry?”

“...I don’t know.”

Exactly. Is it really mine?

Say you let a murderer go. And that murderer kills again. Is that your fault?

I hadn’t contacted whoever was behind all this.

I didn’t even know who it was. I just acted according to my own choices.

He was the one who used monsters to harm people. The one who used dark magic to kill Bell.

“I don’t know. There’s a difference between logic and emotion. I know it in my head... but I still feel it.”

Is this just escapism? Would that maid resent me? Is my guilt even valid?

The words I once said were now circling back to stab me. How laughable.

I walked in silence, unable to find an answer, staring off into nothing.

“Aiden. Give me a moment. I want to walk alone.”

“Huh? But, my lady...”

“Just a few minutes. You can catch up after. My head’s a mess. Please.”

I just needed a moment. Aiden’s presence only made the noise in my head louder. It felt like he saw through things I didn’t want anyone to see.

Given the situation, I knew he was under orders to stick to me like glue. I didn’t plan to argue about that. I just needed a few minutes.

I looked him in the eyes as I asked, and he nodded.

“If anything happens, shout for me. Or if that’s too hard, use the ring. Master made it—it’ll do its job.”

I glanced at the ring on my pinky and nodded.

“Okay. But make sure you catch up after ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) a few minutes.”

Aiden gave me a soft, glowing smile.

Wow. What a beautiful smile.