STVC 05

Chapter 05

Brillian is a foreign language that nobles learn by default.

It’s optional, but for vain nobles, it’s the easiest way to flaunt knowledge.

I had started learning it with the twins but had given up.

“I’ll look for a teacher who can teach the language of the Eastern Continent.”

“Thank you. If possible, I’d like Rehen.”

As soon as Ariel spoke, the duke’s gaze landed on me.

The Rehen she mentioned was said to be my mother’s country, located at the farthest eastern edge of the Eastern Continent.

“I understand.”

A brief silence passed, and the duke turned his gaze.

“Eriel.”

“Yes!”

Eriel responded loudly.

Ariel flinched at his sudden volume and glared at Eriel, but he didn’t care and focused only on the duke.

“You ran in the hallway and broke a vase. That’s what’s written here.”

“Pfft.”

When the duke finished speaking, Ariel, who had been caught off guard, couldn’t hold back a laugh. She quickly tried to mask it, but the twitch at the corner of her mouth was unmistakable.

“Th-that’s…”

“No excuses. Be careful with your behavior from now on.”

“Yes…”

Eriel looked crestfallen, probably not expecting to be scolded so abruptly.

I patted Eriel on the back.

“And you’ve ranked as a Sword Expert.”

“Yes!”

“You’ve worked hard. But pride is forbidden. To be worthy of the Ardentain name, you must stand at the peak with your sword.”

“I will remember!”

The Ardentains are a family that has produced sword masters for generations. The current duke is also a sword master, and Eriel, as the heir, must reach that level.

As a family that protects the empire, they are the only ones allowed private soldiers, and they have more knights than other noble houses.

‘But Eriel committed treason.’

The now-cold Earl Grey tea tasted even more bitter. I should have added sugar.

To ease the bitter taste in my mouth, I took another bite of the Mont Blanc cake. The sweet chestnut flavor soothed my uneasy thoughts.

‘Things are different now. It should be okay.’

It should be fine. Eriel’s reason for taking up the sword has changed.

It’s no longer to fill the void of twisted love, but to protect his family.

So Ariel won’t cast a curse, and Eriel won’t rebel.

“Sernia.”

“Yes?”

The duke rarely called me directly.

Since I hadn’t been taking other lessons recently, this was even more unusual!

I nervously wondered if it had to do with my weight, when suddenly the door swung open without a knock.

“Duke, something terrible has happened!”

It was my personal maid, Chelsea.

The duke, displeased that Chelsea had entered without knocking, used his magic to exert pressure.

“I told you no one should disturb teatime.”

The air in the room froze.

Though the magic was not violent, the duke’s presence made it hard to breathe.

Chelsea turned pale, but trembling with effort to do her duty, she continued.

“I-I’m sorry… but you urgently need to know…”

“What is it?”

From his expression, it seemed he might draw his sword at any moment if it were trivial.

I, standing closest to the duke, lightly grabbed the end of his sleeve.

Eriel seemed fine, but Ariel’s pale expression worried me, so I couldn’t stay idle.

He scanned the children with his icy gaze and then gathered his magic.

Finally, the tension eased.

I exhaled and held Ariel’s cold hand tightly.

Chelsea glanced at the twins and me, then approached the duke, whispering softly.

Though his expression remained impassive, I noticed a subtle twitch of his eyebrows.

“I’ll go myself.”

The duke stood, and I naturally rose too.

Seeing Chelsea, I knew it involved me.

And since the duke’s gaze lingered on me briefly, I was certain.

“Stay here.”

“If it involves me, I’ll go with you.”

“…Do as you wish.”

Seeing my determination to follow, the duke yielded easily.

Chelsea, on the other hand, looked uneasy.

‘If normally impassive Chelsea looks this alarmed, something serious must have happened.’

While the twins waited behind, the duke and I followed Chelsea.

At the far end of the quiet corridor, murmurs began to rise.

Workers who normally labored in the duke’s household had gathered, so it was clear where the incident occurred.

It was my room.

“Step back.”

He spoke quietly, yet no one ignored him.

Recognizing the duke, the workers bowed and hastily moved aside.

Once the workers were gone, my room came fully into view through the wide-open door.

Until this morning, my bed had been pristine.

The ivory-colored bedding and pillows were shredded, feathers scattered, and in the center lay a human-shaped doll, stained red with an unknown substance.

Chelsea, now behind me, placed her trembling hand on my shoulder and whispered reassuringly.

‘A cursed doll!’

I recognized it instantly.

It was part of a side story I had read.

‘Why? Who would do this?’

I had thought that as long as I didn’t follow the original story, I would be fine.

Novels are novels; I believed I could change the future.

‘But why did the incident from the book occur?’

Something felt off.

‘Why did it happen four years later than in the original story?’

If it were fate or the story’s inevitability, it should have happened four years ago.

In the original, when the twins were around ten, Sernia finds the cursed doll in the maid’s room.

The maid had tried to curse the twins. Sernia executed the maid immediately, not listening to her excuses, as cursing a noble was a grave crime.

Hearing about it later, the duke ordered a thorough investigation. The knights and Dean re-inspected the maid’s room.

They found a strand of Sernia’s hair and one of her pearl earrings, which she often wore.

The duke suspected Sernia, and after finding her diary detailing jealousy toward the twins, the incident escalated.

The twins, unable to believe that the maid cursed them, were confused and inactive when Sernia was accused.

‘At first, Sernia protested, then laughed crazily and drew a dagger to commit suicide.’

She bound the twins with an unbreakable chain through her final gaze.

“What happened here?”

The duke’s voice, cold as ice, snapped me out of my thoughts.

“W-we came to clean, and… saw this…”

“Were you the first to find it?”

“Yes.”

A young maid lowered her head and answered the duke.

“She was the one who informed me. After confirming it myself, I immediately ran to the duke.”

Chelsea, beside me, spoke as well.

When she finished, a heavy silence filled the room.

The duke walked calmly to the bed.

Unlike the hesitant onlookers, he approached the strange scene without hesitation.

Without a moment’s pause, the duke picked up the cotton doll.

‘What is he doing?’

Everyone watched him in stunned silence.

He held the doll and infused it with magic.

I couldn’t see the magic, but the pressure on my skin from his earlier exertion was different from normal, so I could tell this was something else.

The doll in the duke’s hands began bubbling like a liquid and then suddenly exploded with a pop.

“Gasp!”

“Duke!”

Chelsea drew in a shocked breath, and Dean stepped forward to approach the duke.

“It’s not a curse.”

Amid the chaos, the duke remained calm, speaking matter-of-factly.

If it wasn’t a curse, there was nothing to fear.

I was strong against horror films and haunted houses, though gore made me uncomfortable.

‘So it’s not a curse. Just harassment?’

Even though I wasn’t an Ardentain direct descendant, I was treated like one while growing up with the twins.

No wonder a cousin might be jealous.

‘But I have no cousins who would be jealous… or maybe one of the families serving the Ardentains?’

I stood beside the duke, forming hypotheses.

He seemed about to speak to me, but Dean’s worried eyes interrupted him.

“Duke, it’s not a curse?”

“Yes. A curse is a contract-based magic; if it receives other magic, it reacts violently to protect the contract.”

Ah. So that’s how curses work.

I stored this new knowledge in my head.

Nothing special was on the bed. My gaze passed over the red bedding to the duke’s hand.

“Oh!”

“What’s this?”

Seeing the remains of the doll on the duke’s hand, I cried out unconsciously.

The duke looked down at me, asking a question, but I couldn’t answer. I doubted my own eyes, blinking repeatedly.

‘No way.’

This was the first time I got goosebumps in this room. Pale and shocked, I approached the duke’s hand to examine the remains closely.

Up close, nothing had changed.

‘My hair and the pearl earring I lost long ago.’

“Are you okay, miss?”

Chelsea, near the door, asked, checking my complexion.

I couldn’t answer. My mind was too chaotic.

‘Is this… mine?’

“…Yes.”

The duke also found the hair and earring among the cotton.

A strand with a violet tint and a pearl earring.

‘Wait, was Sernia really innocent in the side story?’

I took a deep breath.

I needed to calm down. I closed my eyes to sort out my chaotic thoughts.

‘In the novel, Sernia was jealous of the twins but didn’t curse them. The maid intended to curse Sernia, not the twins.’

The novel cleverly obscured both facts.

‘A narrative trick?’

The author intentionally gave biased information to mislead the reader.

‘In a romance fantasy, not a mystery novel, using a narrative trick? Are you kidding me!’

I organized the information calmly but also cursed the author in my mind.

A genre novel whose author’s intent is opaque, unlike pure literature.

‘In mystery novels, I could find the culprit, but in a language test, I only memorized the author’s intent.’

Having roughly sorted things out, I opened my eyes and first met the duke’s green gaze.

Surprise. He was staring straight at me.

“Do you have any guesses?”

“Hmm…”

I couldn’t speak hastily.

There was no evidence to declare the maid as the culprit.

‘In the end, did Sernia commit suicide because the twins didn’t trust her?’

I knew the truth but not the heart behind it.

Why Sernia killed herself, why the maid tried to curse Sernia… I didn’t know.

It was like being given only the answer on a blackboard and not the method to reach it.

‘Should I shout it? The maid is the culprit?’

No. The fact that it happened four years late means it was a carefully planned act.

Hmm. I crossed my arms, thinking seriously.

‘Author, did you use a narrative trick to hide the implausibility of the maid cursing Sernia?’ I wanted to shake them and ask.

“Enough. Gather everyone from the Duke Dean household, from coachmen to knights.”

“Understood.”

“Stay with the twins.”

“Yes.”

I answered obediently. There was nothing more I could do here.

‘Why hasn’t science developed? Investigate the scene, it’s over.’

If science could hear me, it would feel unfair, but I blamed the author and science out of frustration.

“Miss, the duke will definitely find the culprit.”

“Yes, Chelsea. I’m fine.”

The duke and Dean left the room first, and Chelsea, who had worried for me until the last, walked away heavily.

I was left alone, but I didn’t go to the twins.

‘When was the last time I saw the maid?’

When we were young, the three of us were together, but as we grew, we had different lessons, and the maid spent more time with Ariel and Eriel.

Eriel, aside from sword lessons, was mostly with Dean, and I had leisurely activities like reading or walking, usually with Chelsea.

Teatime was always at 3 p.m. if nothing special occurred.

‘The last time I saw her was at lunch with Ariel?’

Before teatime, the maid checked desserts, so she was likely in the dining room until teatime.

Then the crime must have occurred between 1 p.m. and 3:10 p.m.

Should I confront the maid about her alibi?

“I’m not a detective. What am I doing?”

I was starting to forget the genre of the novel I had reincarnated into.

And this red thing wasn’t in the novel.

At first glance, it looked like blood, but it didn’t turn brown over time, so it wasn’t.

At first, I thought it might have been animal blood.

‘Let’s figure out the culprit’s mindset.’

Why would the maid try to curse me? No—it’s not a curse, according to the duke. So maybe just to scare me? Harassment? Or something else…

Click. Clack.