The Birthday Celebration of the Duke of Fritillaria 6
A short time later, a bugle call was blown to signal the end of the hunt.
Satisfied-looking gentlemen returned on their horses.
As I looked around, I noticed that among the men with many prey, there was one gentleman who was apparently empty-handed.
I blinked several times, but the person looked to be my blood brother.
“No――-oh, how about a bloody game like that?”
When my brother reached us, he frowned and began to make excuses, but hunting was a fine gentleman’s sport.
As a legitimate son of a marquis family, he should have definitely kept this in mind.
I thought so, but what came out of my mouth were completely different words.
“Brother, I spoke with Celia-sama a while ago. She’s a very sweet girl, and she’s more concerned about her brother than herself.”
When I thought about it again, I could only say that Lakas must be crazy to dispatch half a dozen knight guards to his sister in the supposedly safe premises based on my baseless comments.
So, although she was hiding it, Celia probably has cause for concern.
Nevertheless, Celia put herself aside and came to warn me not to pester her brother.
She was a good kid who loved her brother.
I wanted to do something to help Celia, but I could no longer come up with more options.
I knew it would be easier if I could just say that I did all I could. However, I still felt like I overlooked something and couldn’t help but ponder over it.
――― I had already warned Lakash.
Since I couldn’t determine where Celia would be attacked or what kind of demon it was, I couldn’t give any more specific advice… And when a thought popped in my mind, I paused with a start.
Right. When the demon attacked, Lakash was badly injured and Celia died.
In other words, they were both attacked at the same time.
Oh, I always left out the most important things.
I should have warned him to be careful when they were both together.
I ran toward the castle as if I had been shot.
My brother’s voice followed me from behind.
“Hey, what’s up all of a sudden, Luciana! It’s good to see you’re doing well, but the event we need to attend is over. It’s time for us to leave. Do you hear me? Don’t go too far!”
I have never been in such a panic before. But it was my bad habit to start panicking as soon as I realized something.
I knew it, but I couldn’t stop running. Breathing hard, I ran all the way to the entrance of the castle and asked a servant, who was waiting nearby, about Lakash’s whereabouts.
The servant looked at me suspiciously as I heaved repeatedly. But as a servant of a high-ranking aristocrat, he answered me politely.
In short, I was told that Lakash had already returned from the hunting trip and was probably in the cellar checking the wine.
I turned down the servant who offered to show me around with a smile, typical of a villainess, and ran down the stairs. I opened the door that led to the basement.
It was a long corridor, but one of the doors that lined both sides of the corridor was open.
Then, on the other side of the open door, I saw the figure of a dark-haired man wearing a deep purple shirt.
I was facing his back, so I couldn’t see his face, but it was rare to see a man with such long legs and well-proportioned body.
I thought for a moment and decided that it might be Lakash, so I called out to him.
“Lakash-sama!”
The man I called stood rock still for several seconds with his back, as if contemplating whether or not to turn around, and then turned around as if he had resigned himself to it.
“What brings you to a place like this, Miss Dianthus?”
The man who looked back at me was indeed the man of statuesque beauty, Lakash.
The deep purple color of his shirt matched his black hair and eyes, making his beauty stand out even more.
The right thing for a former unpopular woman to do would be to admire his beauty, but unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to do so right now.
“Lakash-sama, err…”
I was about to speak, but Lakash stopped me with one hand and put the bottle of wine back on the shelf.
“Let me hear about it when we get back up there…You never know what kind of accusations we’ll be accused of when staying alone in a closed room like this.”
Lakash pointed to the door with one hand and implored her to go outside. His eyes narrowed quizzically when he heard the sound of rushing footsteps.
“These footsteps…Are they Celia’s? Why is she in a rush?”
Lakash was looking at the door as he suggested when his sister, Celia, jumped in through the door.
Then, she stepped through the door, walked past me, and clung to her brother, Lakash.
“Brother!”
“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“I was worried that something might happen to you!…Staying alone in a locked room with a woman.”
Celia glanced at me as she said this.
…Yeah, yeah, I’m an ill-mannered villainess. So you have no idea what I’ll get into when I’m alone with a man!
But the truth is, as a former unpopular woman, you’d be surprised how fastidious we could be.
I argued against it in my mind when I heard a click in my head.
“Huh?”
The sudden noise was disconcerting, and I looked around in surprise.
Then I noticed purple smoke gradually approaching from all sides of the room.
Peek-Aboo 
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