Chapter 146

Chapter 146

* * *

At first, it was like a dark, formless fog. But before long it took on the overwhelming weight of a condensed sandstorm. The only things visible in the darkness were the whites of the eyes surrounding the red pupils glaring down at Nix. The silence filling the cell was so dense it seemed to suffocate. The mere quiet, cold, lethal presence was more than enough to make even the boldest individual shrink.

The puppet could do nothing but stare up into the predatory, crimson gaze closing in on him like an insect tangled in a spider’s web. as the dark figure’s hand rushed toward him, a chill ran up his spine.

“Aaagh!”

The searing pain in his chest caused the blond youth’s eyes to flash open while he clutched tightly at the source of his agony. However, try as he might, he could not feel any injury. Aside from his heart beating much faster than normal, he detected no other abnormalities.

“I never knew dolls slept, let alone had dreams.”

A soft voice wafted over the puppet’s ear, which caused him to turn toward its owner reflexively. He had been unconscious ever since the meeting with the clan masters and only just noticed that night had fallen. The waning moonlight was all that offered any sort of visibility to his cell. Its cool light shone upon his visitor as well.

As the vision in his eye cleared, he could see Roxana staring down at him. She was in an exceptionally luxurious gown as if she had just come from a grand ball.

“Was that... what you humans call a nightmare?” What she had said was only just registering in his foggy mind. “Was I... dreaming?”

“You’re asking me?”

Her response was swift and curt as she tilted her head to the side in both mock and genuine confusion. As she did so, her earring twinkled as it reflected the moonlight. Something just doesn’t seem right with him.

“Wait. How did you...?”

He couldn’t fathom how Roxana was standing before him at that moment. The last time he had seen her was in the Blue castle dungeon. Despite his expectations, she had been absent all through the journey to Yggdrasil. But without warning, she was standing before him acting as if her presence there with him was the most natural scenario in the world. Then he became apprehensive as he recalled what she had initially said to him during their last conversation.

“You lied to me, didn’t you?”

He hadn’t been in the best frame of mind to properly consider everything at the time, but seeing her under similar conditions again brought every detail of their last exchange back into focus. Then as if the realization tripled in weight on his mind, his face crinkled like a piece of discarded parchment.

“You said you’d take me back to Vertium! I’ve heard more than once that we are in Yggdrasil. I was also told there is to be some sort of hearing about the Gold clan’s puppetism. So did you also lie about Noel abandoning me?!”

His sudden outburst was only making her that much more annoyed with him. Yggdrasil’s counter-sorcery clearly appeared to have an effect on dolls as well since he looked far less energetic overall. On top of that, his breathing was ragged. Even so, he was still perfectly capable of running his mouth.

It really is a shame the Gold clan didn’t launch an attack while you were being brought here.

She had been hoping they could turn a Vertium ambush into the final damning evidence to prove the grave sin of their puppetism. However, she had also been looking forward to turning Nix against his own master for the inevitable betrayal when Noel was found guilty. Whichever way possible, she wanted the offensive puppet to feel all of the various despairs and pains life had to offer.

She would neither forgive nor forget how the enchanted doll wearing Achille’s face had made her hesitate in that crucial moment. There was no forgiving herself either for allowing herself to get fooled into seeing him even for a fraction of a second as her real brother.

Nix continued to seethe as Roxana said quietly, “I heard you met Deon.”

He stopped moving abruptly. His lips shut tightly and he even stopped blinking as he heard the one name he feared the most. It seemed he had completely forgotten what he had asked her and the fact that she had disregarded it entirely.

“I-Is that man... h-here as well?”

His voice came out in a whisper, which made it somewhat difficult to piece together his stammering. A hideous sense of foreboding slowly began to creep up his spine. Although he couldn’t sweat as a doll, he still imagined the sensation of something cold running down his back.

“Do you know who he is?”

“Isn’t he the one who killed the original owner of my body?” As he spoke, Nix appeared to be searching, sneaking glances around the cell and even attempting to peer around Roxana.

She watched him for a moment before asking him another question. “How do you know that that was most definitely your first time seeing him? Did Deon tell you who he was?”

“No, I just...” But then he fell silent and frowned as he recalled the traumatic encounter. “I could just tell the moment I saw him.”

It truly had been a horrific sensation. The mere thought of the man was causing his entire body to go prickly with goosebumps.

As Nix moved his arm to scratch his nose, the chain around his wrist jangled. Roxana watched him in silence. He recalled that night being so grim and how shocking the dark figure’s visit had been, but also how warm and pure Sylvia’s energy had felt. Its warmth had traveled to every corner of his being as she held her hand to him.

Just thinking about that moment seemed to finally calm him down. She finally felt the need to break in on his reverie.

“That man... is in fact here.”

The puppet flinched upon hearing the answer he had been so desperately dreading come forth from her ruby lips.

“In fact, until a few moments ago, he was standing over you.”

Although it was impossible, he imagined he might actually suffer a heart attack just from hearing that he had once again been in close proximity to his killer. But before long he recovered himself and practically growled at her.

“Stop lying! Do you honestly think I’ll fall for your tricks again?!”

“Ah, so you think I’m lying, do you?” Her tone was becoming increasingly difficult for him to read. “You should know that the locks they use for this cell are actually quite pathetic. I hardly tapped them, yet they just about slid open.” She continued to taunt him as she began to leave. “So I doubt he would have had any trouble getting in here.”

“Damn you!”

The sound of him grinding his teeth filled the cell as she shut the door behind her.

* * *

Roxana replaced the locks as soon as she was back in the tower corridor. Picking locks was quite literally child’s play to Lante Agrece’s children. After hearing the last one click into place, she reflected on what she had just told the captive puppet. To her own displeasure, she hadn’t lied about the first intruder that night. Her older half-brother had gone in and out of the cell before she had arrived.

Her butterfly had come to inform her of the unwelcome visit, which had led her to leave the banquet in order to see what he would do for herself. However, Deon had for whatever reason already made himself scarce just before she arrived. Before speaking to the puppet, she had glanced about both the cell and corridor but found no clues as to where he might have scuttled off to. And since she could only manage to hide a few of her butterflies within herself before crossing into Yggdrasil, the number at her disposal as well as their abilities were limited by the neutral territory’s counter-sorcery. Thus, the best the sentry butterfly she had hidden in the cell could do was notify her of any activity that took place behind the heavily locked door.

It had been to both Agrece siblings’ benefits that most of the castle’s occupants were gathered in the banquet hall that evening. It also seemed that the knight in charge of guarding the cell had left his post under the belief that the locks were expected to be impregnable. She then reflected on just how pale the puppet had become since she had last seen him and wondered if it was a side effect of the counter-sorcery or fear-induced. Just as Cassis had mentioned at their dinner table moments ago, Achille’s impostor had indeed recognized Deon as her late brother’s killer.

Could it have been some sort of reflexive reaction by his body? Or is it possible Deon’s image was imprinted on Achille’s brain in his final moments?

No matter how much she tried to come up with an explanation of his behavior, one point she couldn’t refute was how genuine his reaction to seeing her half-brother had been. Either way, seeing her late brother’s face look so nervous at the mere mention of Deon’s name aggravated her to no end. In hindsight, she had to admit that the scene had made her behave far more spitefully than was necessary. But it wasn’t just the puppet that was grating at her. The very idea that her brother’s killer was making a habit of meeting his corpse was infuriating in its own right.

She was also growing more and more concerned about what her half-brother was up to, since the possibility of the two ever meeting in the first place had never once occurred to her. Not only that, she also had to worry about him clashing with Cassis again since they were both at the castle. As she stopped to study her reflection in the corridor window, her cold stare gleamed that most-hated crimson color she shared with Deon.

In a sincere attempt to calm herself, she refocused her thoughts on the man who was patiently waiting for her back down at the banquet. She would have liked to have stayed there with him much longer, but she knew it would seem strange if she were to return at that moment. She had decided it best for him to stay behind since the two of them leaving the banquet hand-in-hand on their first official night seen together would have likely proven a terrible idea.

Even so, not having any other choice but to part ways with her beloved didn’t make all the frustrations of that evening any better. In truth, she felt even worse as she reflected on how inseparable they had been during her time within the Blue fortress.

Well... I have plenty to deal with as it is. She decided the best course of action would be to assign one of the few butterflies she had with keeping tabs on Deon’s movements.