Working at a Haunted Mansion Chapter 104

“Lily.”

She dodged the reaching hand and rubbed her eyes roughly with her sleeve. It was a harsh motion, as if she wanted to scrape the skin around her eyes clean.

“What on earth do you think I am?”

Lily glared at him with reddened eyes.

“Shall I guess? Your Excellency thinks of me as a pet, doesn’t he? Right?”

“A pet? No. I understand why you’re angry. But please, just wait a moment.”

Lily wouldn’t wait.

“You pet me when you want me to be pretty, feed me so I don’t starve, and if you get busy you lock me away somewhere. You’re busy on your own — isn’t that it? It doesn’t feel like being with a person at all. It feels like serving an owner who finds me unbearably cute!”

She poured out the thought she had been holding in her chest the whole time.

“What is this? You tricked me with someone else’s life? Don’t you have any idea how much that hurt me? Or did you think that was no big deal?”

Lily really didn’t want to cry. She would have been too proud to show tears in front of this irritating man.

But the more she spoke, the hotter her eyes became.

“Absolutely not!”

Aiden hurriedly spoke and grabbed both of Lily’s shoulders.

“You are more precious to me than anything.”

He tried to soothe her with words he thought would sound good.

Lily wasn’t moved by the tired flattery. “More than anything,” he said. Ridiculous.

“Well, I could name a lot of things that are above me. Wasn’t the efficiency of the plan more important to you than my wounded lips? Otherwise, who would treat someone precious like this?”

She recalled memories that already felt like a long time ago.

The looks that felt like drowning in sweetness, the flower scent that filled her chest, the moments of joy and delight, the things she tried to protect.

“What is this really…….”

She lowered her head.

Lily is crying.

She has given up trying to stop and is hiding her face and sobbing.

Aiden stared blankly at her little shoulders shaking.

He had expected that Lily would be hurt. Still, he pushed the plan forward because he was convinced this was the way.

The suffering would be brief, he thought, and the danger would be gone by the next day.

But the scene before him was nothing like he had imagined.

Lily looked so unhappy. Faced with the pus-like outburst of pain, Aiden was stunned.

Only after cutting open his rotten insides did he realize what he had done.

She was right. Instead of trying to gain Lily’s consent, he had forced her to comply.

Even if his intention was to give her only good things and keep her far from danger, if he excluded Lily Dienta’s own feelings, what was that other than one-sided violence?

He had done it many times — no, always — ever since his body returned, he had oppressed Lily that way.

It was Aiden Kashimir himself, not the leader or public opinion, who made her cry. He had made her unhappy.

“Lily.”

Somehow Aiden felt impatient and called her name. She did not respond.

His fingertips went cold.

Could he stop those tears? What if they never stopped? If he couldn’t turn her heart around—

His desperate hand stopped before touching Lily. He wasn’t sure he had the right to touch her.

He clenched his fists and spoke earnestly.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Lily. I know what I did now. I won’t do this again. You can hate me for only realizing it after seeing your tears. So please, stop crying……”

He wanted to meet Lily’s eyes. But she kept her head bowed and silently wept.

Aiden poured out the things he had been hiding from her like a beggar.

“Tomorrow, when it’s light and after I send you away, I’ll send people to the imperial palace. I’ll tell them I barely regained consciousness and, trying to leave a last will with a close friend—”

At last Lily’s gaze met his.

“The Emperor will come to watch me die. Even if he doesn’t want to, the steward will advise that he visit for appearances. That will be when I kill him. Here.”

“You’ll kill him?”

“Don’t worry about failure. We have enough troops, and Sir Payne will join us.”

She looked around the room, dazed. Then she asked haltingly.

“You said before you would restore His Majesty Julius. Shouldn’t your body be whole for that?”

“The direction changed. We can’t let the cult leader live any longer.”

He gently reached out and wiped her tears. She looked confused but did not avoid his hand.

“That’s, that’s treason. We know the soul is different, but others won’t see it that way. I heard some nobles would gain from it. If we kill the Emperor, Your Excellency won’t be safe either.”

He had already expected Lily’s opposition. That was why he planned to finish everything and then announce it like a male who brings home his hunted prey.

But that was the wrong way. He explained carefully without hiding anything.

“What I’m planning isn’t treason but rooting out heretics. The cult leader led secret high-society gatherings. He has been conducting religious rites inside the palace and has been involved in several kidnappings. I’ll report all that to the temple.”

“After you kill him today?”

Aiden nodded.

“I don’t want to stop Your Excellency’s plans. But, but……”

Lily ground her lips, then pushed Aiden’s hand away and wiped her cheek. She poured out questions in a quick voice.

“What if the charges of heresy aren’t serious enough to lead to the Emperor’s assassination, and the temple backs off later? Or what if they say you acted on your own authority and you must take responsibility… Someone could use this chance to target Your Excellency. We could face a backlash.”

At Lily’s trembling voice, Aiden felt an indescribable emotion.

She was already worried about him. The man who had made her cry, with all her heart.

The more she worried, the more Aiden felt ashamed of his past arrogance. He should have treated Lily Dienta with more care. Not disguised as love and cute affection.

“Can’t you aim only for the cult leader’s soul, or at least follow normal procedures? No matter how I think about it, this is too dangerous.”

“No plan can be perfect. The way you suggested also carries risks. All we can do is choose the best option available now.”

He led Lily to a chair.

“With the captain’s cooperation we turned it to our advantage, but the cult leader clearly tried to kill me. The longer we wait, the more extreme his methods will become. In the end, he might harm you directly.”

He spoke slowly, asking rather than forcing so it wouldn’t sound like coercion.

“So, Lily. Follow Wolfram’s guidance and hide for a while. If the plan goes wrong, you’ll be fine. Since you suffered so much, everyone will testify that you didn’t know my act was staged.”

The more honestly he spoke, the calmer his heart became.

“You were just a temporary counselor hired with no real connection to this matter, and because you no longer need counseling, Wolfram fired you this morning. If you claim that when the investigators come, you’ll be released soon. Saul Ottes will make sure you’re protected.”

“Why would he……”

Her question was cut off by a knock on the door. Wolfram squinted at Lily and then announced an unexpected visitor.

“Lady Dienta is here to see you. She says she has news that must be delivered. Shall I bring her in now?”

“Yes.”

Lily answered for Aiden, then looked at him with steady eyes.

“A better, safer option might appear. One that keeps both you and me safe. Then we change the plan.”

He took in the tear tracks on Lily’s cheek with his eyes. There was only one answer he could give.

“All right. I’ll do that.”

 

 

 

****

 

 

 

Before Julia arrived, Lily dampened a handkerchief and tidied her face.

The woman in the mirror looked utterly dreadful. Hollow-eyed, hair in disarray, her face swollen. It was easy to understand why Wolfram, who had come to announce Lady Dienta’s visit, had flinched when he saw her.

She sighed and returned to her seat.

In truth, she still had words of complaint left unsaid. When she first entered this room she’d even wanted to slap his cheek.

But watching Aiden blurt out things she hadn’t asked for, she could feel something inside him had changed.

And when she realized that his “everything will be fine in the square, don’t worry” had been a kind of hint, she thought he had at least given it some thought.

If he were his old self, he would have simply stood there and shown her being stabbed unexpectedly.

She asked in a voice that had softened a little.

“How’d you handle the blood? The blade went all the way through, didn’t it?”

“I put a device inside the cloak. I filled animal intestines with blood and fixed them front and back; Sir Payne burst the one on the back, and I burst the one on the chest. By the way, what Payne used was a dagger. Because he had armor underneath, he didn’t get even a small wound.”

She shot Aiden a sharp look.

“There won’t be a second time.”

“Yeah, there won’t be a second time. I swear.”

At his meek reply she sighed once more.