“Sign here, here and here.”
Carynne scanned the documents once more. And it was as she thought—there weren’t any problems.
Carynne signed as well and received the documents that Verdic had signed.
“Then, now our ties with each other have been severed.”
“Yes,” Carynne answered.
“Kindly tell your father that I’ll have the minor equipment removed by next month.”
“I will.”
It was so swift and simple that it was almost chilling.
Carynne stood up. The attendant by the door opened it in a polite manner. As Verdic followed her, he spoke.
“Since the sun is about to set, will you be staying?”
“No, I have my own accommodation downtown.”
She did not want to stay in the house of the man who had killed her several times before. She didn’t know what the reason behind this progression was, but it’s not as if he would tell her if she asked.
“Ah, um… Is that so? Then, have a good evening.”
“…Yes. Farewell.”
Despite everything though, wasn’t it only polite to insist for about three times? Why was he being so rude?
Carynne was expecting that she would have to say no a few more times. She frowned. Right now, she was neither his maid nor his adopted daughter.
Even so, Verdic didn’t even notice her change in expression.
“Let’s go.”
As Carynne walked to the waiting carriage, she spoke to Nancy and Borwen, who were still engaged with a war of nerves with each other. Caught in between, the coachman was visibly happy to see Carynne and hurriedly prepared to set off.
“Leaving so soon, Milady?”
“Seems so.”
“I thought you’d be staying here.”
“It looked like the household head had too much on his hands. Let’s go downtown, there should be an inn there.”
“Yes.”
Then, Carynne elbowed Nancy at her side. The maid’s expression was severely crumpled.
“Why’d you fight again?”
“We didn’t fight.”
“But what’s with you and Borwen now?”
“…It felt like Borwen got in touch with Lord Dullan, so I confronted him about it. Did I do a good job?”
“Yes, good job…”
Where was this brazenness coming from? Was it because she was a hypnotist, an immigrant and a maid with no money?
Carynne recalled how Nancy had been decapitated by Borwen. Sure, it was Carynne who killed the maid, but it was Borwen who chopped her to several pieces.
“Still, don’t be so forward. You might just get stabbed by a knife one day.”
“I’m not like that…”
As Nancy replied, she glanced at the coachman. Carynne knew that the coachman was into Nancy before, and was still into her now.
That reminds her, why did he like Donna back then, not Nancy?
Aha.
Carynne soon found out the answer.
The coachman was the easiest guy amongst the servants. It seemed like he had tested Nancy and also a few here and there, all except Carynne.
* * *
“What a predicament.”
Borwen came back. While ignoring Nancy, he talked to Carynne.
“What is?”
“All the inns are closed right now. It’s a mess.”
“Why is that?”
“I heard that Verdic Evans’ daughter has disappeared.”
Was the biggest change in this iteration Isella Evans? Carynne was stunned. The story just kept going down such strange paths.
“So that’s why he was so unkempt. Isella Evans disappeared.”
“Yes. I suppose so. It might be difficult for us to stay here because they’re searching through the whole town right now.”
If Carynne had come here alone, she would have stayed here though, and even helped find Isella. She wanted to see with her own eyes exactly what things had changed.
I want to kill them all.
However, Carynne looked at Nancy and Borwen. And also the coachman. Her gun had already been confiscated from her.
In the end, all she could do now was to make the proper call as these people’s master. Carynne didn’t want to, but she gave this suggestion.
“Then, should we go to the next town?”
“If we can move quickly, we may be able to arrive before nightfall,” the coachman replied.
“There’s no other way. Let’s go.”
Even as Carynne had given this order, she continued to look around town as the carriage ran forward, gazing towards Isella’s villa.
Isella Evans had disappeared.
What changed? How did it change? Carynne was so curious.
Isella Evans had disappeared and Verdic Evans had pulled out of the business venture.
Just how exactly would things progress from now on?
* * *
The coachman groaned.
“I’m so, so sorry.”
“I know it’s not your fault.”
Carynne sighed. Strangely enough, they had encountered many obstacles on every street—trees knocked down, rocks scattered everywhere. There was even luggage right in the middle of the street, dropped by the owner. Out of curiosity, Carynne wanted to check it out, but Nancy stopped her.
“It’s dangerous to go out when we’re in the middle of the woods like this.”
Before they knew it, the moon had already risen to the middle of the sky, even as the carriage was still going down the forest path.
Would a bear appear? Carynne raised her head and counted. Now that she thought about it, there was a time when such dangerous things happened often. Perhaps in this iteration, she’d be mauled by a wild animal.
“Milady, I think we might need to stop for the night at the open clearing coming up soon. There’s a watchtower at that place.”
“Sure.”
But the moment they arrived, Carynne could only blink. She didn’t expect this at all.
“Is it here?”
Of all places.
Carynne looked up at the tall tower in front of her.
It was the tower where she fell to her death at the age of 117.
* * *
It felt quite strange to sleep in a place where she had once died. Well, she did also die many times in her own home, but she had a fairly striking death in this particular tower. It seemed like this would be a sleepless night.
“The door’s locked. Will it be alright? Won’t the owner be angry?” Carynne asked.
“I think it’ll be fine though? It’s Verdic Evans’ private property anyway, Milady. It doesn’t make sense for us to sleep in the woods, and it’s only right for people to make use of a place like this,” Nancy answered.
“I heard it’s also used as a place to enact the death penalty.”
“If you get any nightmares, I’ll erase them.”
“…Even as a joke, quit saying that.”
Carynne and Nancy entered the room at the top of the tower. The entrance of the tower itself had been locked, but it took only a few shimmies of a hairpin for Nancy to unlock it. She recalled how Verdic Evans, the owner of this tower, had to have this door broken down before he could even go up, but it seemed like it wasn’t much of a lock anyway.
“In any case, we can just give some money to the custodian if he comes,” Nancy said flippantly.
There were bloodstains all over the place when she had been here in her previous life, but they’re nowhere to be found now. So, when did those get splattered?
Carynne pulled up the blanket that Nancy had placed over her. Thinking about how someone else was going to bleed in this tower before her death, she felt a bit uncomfortable.
“Still, you can’t sleep in the carriage, Milady. You can’t sleep out in the open either.”
“Fine.”
Yes, this was the best way to go about it. Carynne didn’t bother to voice her stance. She knew that it would be dangerous to go back to the woods anyway. Doing this was ‘common sense’.
Ah, Carynne really wanted to go on a trip to a place where no one was.
A trip where none of the main characters were present. No father, no Dullan, no Raymond, no Isella. She did not want to give up on this trip. No matter how the tides turned, Carynne was willing to enjoy the changes happening around her.
“We’ll be setting off as early as daybreak. Please hang in there.”
Life has changed, so it will have meaning.
Carynne lay back down, snug beneath the blanket. She couldn’t sleep right away. Again and again, she was arrested by the feeling of gravity pulling her down. Again and again, she heard the auditory hallucinations of someone banging on the door relentlessly.
But no, it’s alright. In this life, Verdic Evans had no interest in her. In this life, she and Isella Evans didn’t even meet.
However, Carynne still dreamed.
She dreamed that Dullan was here, that he stepped on her hand and drove her to a plummeting death.
.
.
.
Then, someone woke her up.
“Get up.”
It was still before daybreak. Carynne had to open her eyes to a rough touch, shaking her awake violently.
“…Can’t I sleep a little longer?”
But the hand continued to be harsh. Feeling irritated at the rising pain, Carynne opened her eyes. She couldn’t see properly because it was still too dark.
While rubbing her eyes, she looked up at the person in front of her.
“…Who are you?”
It was a man. A man she was seeing for the first time.
Not just in this life, but in all her repeated lives thus far.
The man roughly pulled her up, and she looked around in bewilderment. There weren’t just one or two people here.
Clutching Carynne’s hair, the man spoke in a ruthless tone.
“Who are you and what’s your connection to Verdic Evans?”
Then, he raised Carynne to her feet.
“What exactly are you… Foreigners?”
The thick accent was that of the land beyond the White Mountain Range. Carynne looked at the man who was detaining her.
He’s not alone in this room. One, two… There’s at least six of them in this room, both old and young. It’s like a family trip.
However, their expressions didn’t look good at all.
“Answer.”
She was sleeping up until a few seconds ago, but these people suddenly came in and were doing this. What exactly was going on right now?
Still half-asleep, Carynne shook her head. She needed an explanation.
“Nancy?”
“Mmph— mmmph—”
The maid was here. However, she was gagged. Borwen and the coachman were nowhere in sight.
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