ECD 05

Chapter 5 I Died, and Everything Changed

Vermont scratched between his eyebrows, looking troubled.

“I have no intention of giving you even a single drop of my blood or anything else, so get out of here.”

“……Huh.”

He let out a hollow breath.

“It would be better for both of us if my warning ended as just a warning.”

If a murder happened here, especially if something happened to Irene right after my death, it was obvious that Vermont and his faction would also get dragged into the mud.

“There is no way you planned something this big with that brain of yours. And whoever is behind you probably wouldn’t want you to act so carelessly, either.”

Even after I explained it to him clearly and kindly, Vermont just blinked.

“Use your head, you stupid bastard.”

Only then did Vermont take a hesitant step back at my sharp words.

He was too stupid to even be called the head of a snake.

He was barely at the level of a worm.

Well, would he even wriggle if I stepped on him?

“……This is driving me crazy. What the hell is going on?”

Vermont scratched his head roughly and clicked his tongue.

“Your brain probably isn’t enough to figure out the situation anyway, so save your companion’s life and leave.”

I removed the piece that had been pressing against the man’s neck.

“Don’t think about anything else and leave like this. Unless you want to kill someone today.”

Whether I died or he died, either way, it would be a bad situation for Vermont, who was only running errands for someone else.

“Fine. We’ll leave for today. But……”

Ah, how typical.

What was this but supposed to mean?

“Forget whatever you were going to say. Hurry up and disappear.”

As soon as I released him, the man covered his bleeding head and neck and rushed toward Vermont.

Vermont supported him as he ground his teeth.

As if seeing them off, I kindly pointed toward the door.

“You came in by yourself, so you know where the door is, right?”

Soon, the two of them disappeared from the room.

Even after they left, I could not get up from the floor for a while, as if my legs had given out.

The metallic smell of blood still bothered my nose.

“……Haa.”

My head was throbbing.

I ran a hand through my messy hair.

“Irene, what kind of life…… have you been living?”

I thought I knew her well.

I had dared to think that there was no one more predictable than this girl.

“Irene……”

What did I actually know about Irene?

“What in the world is this……?”

The maid who entered the room the next day turned pale when she saw the broken glass scattered around and the dried blood on the floor.

The hand I had cut on the vase had been treated and bandaged after the bleeding was stopped, but I was not in good enough condition to clean the entire room myself.

“What was your name again?”

While fixing the bandage that had become twisted while I slept, I asked the maid her name.

The maid blinked a couple of times before opening her mouth.

“I’m Carlin.”

“Right. Carlin. How long have you been working as my maid?”

Thinking back, Irene’s maids changed often.

Assigning a new maid to her every time had been one of my many tasks.

I remembered simply dismissing the fact that the maids never stayed with her for very long as being because Irene was difficult.

“I, I’ve been the young lady’s maid for two months.”

“Where did you work before?”

“I was with a street band.”

As I listened to her, I stepped onto the floor on the opposite side of the bed, where there were no pieces of glass.

“That’s an interesting background.”

I gave her a gentle smile and sat down on the sofa in the corner of the room.

“Could you help me put on a new bandage?”

“Ah! Yes!”

At my words, Carlin hurried over and knelt in front of me.

I watched as she removed the bandage stained with blood.

“How did your hand……?”

“Ah, I just had a little accident.”

I rested one arm on the armrest of the sofa and leaned my face against it. The terrible images from last night came back to me.

“A rather unexpected accident.”

Everything that happened to Irene, everything that happened inside the Mergen family, was included among my mistakes.

My instincts told me that this would probably become one of the more complicated and dirty incidents among all the mistakes I had made.

“Your hands are very careful.”

I said this to Carlin as she removed the bandage and carefully applied medicine.

Carlin gave me a shy smile.

“Have you often done this kind of thing before?”

“……”

At my question, she closed her mouth and hesitated.

“Her arms would be covered in bruises about twice a month. So I often had to apply medicine to make the bruises go away……”

“Hmm.”

So they had been taking her blood once every two weeks.

“Right, you said you were from a band. What instruments can you play?”

“I mainly played the drums. It isn’t much of a talent……”

“So that’s why your hands are so skilled. Your hands are firm, so they feel reliable.”

“Th-thank you.”

“But to leave a band and become a maid at the Mergen estate, you would have needed someone’s recommendation. Whose recommendation got you this job?”

Her hands suddenly stopped.

Carlin seemed visibly shaken by my question.

Then she slowly raised her eyes and looked at me.

There was a faint trace of anxiety in her green eyes.

“Shall I guess?”

“……Th-that……”

“Did you come here on my mother’s recommendation?”

“No!”

“Then, the Roosevelts?”

At my words, Carlin’s lips tightened.

If she was Chloe’s younger sister, then it was practically the same as being here on Chloe’s orders.

“What kind of task did they give you?”

Even while sweating heavily at my question, Carlin somehow finished wrapping the bandage perfectly.

Looking at the firmly tied knot, I felt strangely a little more generous toward her.

As I brought my hand in front of my eyes to check the bandage, Carlin suddenly threw herself flat onto the floor.

“I’m sorry, young lady!”

“Why are you suddenly doing that?”

“I-I actually have a younger sibling I need to take care of. The medicine costs a lot, so I needed money. I really didn’t want to hurt you, young lady!”

Carlin bowed so low that she even raised both hands above her head and rubbed them together in apology.

“Hmm……”

I had not expected this kind of reaction.

I hadn’t even done anything.

“I was only told to report on the young lady’s daily activities…… I never meant to harm you!”

“Why are you telling me everything so obediently?”

Anyone could tell that there would be much more to gain by siding with Chloe rather than Irene.

“I…… have a sick younger sibling. So whenever I look at you, I see my younger sibling…… I really didn’t want to do anything bad…… Sob.”

I had expected Carlin to be soft-hearted.

The way she flinched at every little thing also made me think she was rather incompetent for someone working for Chloe.

“I see. So that’s how it was.”

So I had no intention of twisting Carlin’s words over and over again to judge them.

And even if she was Chloe’s person, I had no particular way of dealing with it right now.

Even if I dismissed this girl, I could not freely choose a new maid.

I had to admit that Irene was at the very bottom of the pyramid in this family.

“I’m not trying to blame you.”

“Sob, but I…… I stood by while they took your blood until your arms were covered in bruises……”

“There comes a time when everyone is forced to abandon their beliefs because something is beyond what they can handle on their own.”

“Y-young lady……”

Carlin raised her head and looked at me. Her eyes were wet.

“I have no intention of throwing you out of here and putting you in a difficult situation. And I don’t want your sick younger sibling to die, either.”

With every word I spoke, tears fell from Carlin’s eyes.

“I just want to ask you for a favor.”

“A-a favor?”

“Yes. I just want to borrow as much goodwill from you as the amount of pity you feel for me.”

“P-please, tell me!”

“Keep reporting just as you have until now. To the Roosevelts or to my mother.”

“You want me to report everything just as before……?”

Confusion appeared in Carlin’s eyes.

“Yes. But there is one small secret between you and me that you should leave buried.”

“A-secret……”

“You simply forget about some very small things I do. That’s a mistake anyone could make, right?”

“Yes…… Yes!”