Chapter 652: Screwed Things Up?
In a dimly lit corridor, a girl with a long white ponytail and blue eyes ran with a tearful look on her face. But once she estimated she was far enough away from the ballroom, the saddened look on the girl’s face immediately vanished—replaced with a subtle, faint smile.
‘With how I acted, Marionette should have left the ballroom to chase me by now.’ Lillian thought, wiping the water from her eyes, which she faked as tears. ‘I hope she doesn’t get lost.’
Having played through this route several times, Lillian had already made a plan to save Marionette. The heart-jerking performance she had put on in front of the Assassin was just the start of her plan.
Despite a few unforeseen events yesterday, Lillian was confident in her success.
‘Damien and his Bloodhounds should be arriving down this hall any second…’ Lillian thought, while pulling out the charm of her necklace.
She stared thoughtfully at the troublesome necklace with a faint smile; it was a vital item for her act. Lillian was no actor, nor did she have experience of being one. Thus, the only way she could make her act appear convincing was to rely on her necklace.
It had a useful enchantment of making her act the way she wanted her to. For example, if she wanted to appear convincingly joyful or—in this case—sad, her necklace would make her appear so.
It was an actor’s dream accessory.
‘The only downside to this enchantment is that it relies on an audience to boost the effects. Not like it matters given where I am.’
With Lillian’s stunning looks and Damien’s unintentional help in transferring some of his attention onto her, the enchantment had more than enough of a boost to fool Marionette’s eyes.
Lillian’s eyes briefly became half-lidded at the thought of the Assassin.
She sighed.
Tucking her hands into her pocket, Lillian walked further down the hallway, wanting to distance herself as far as possible from the ballroom.
‘Although it was all an act, I guess I’m still a bit hurt by how strange she was acting…’
“Maybe, it’s because I was looking forward to the dance for a while…” Lillian thought out loud with melancholic eyes, ‘I really want to know what changed in her to act in such a way…’
Had she actually done something wrong to upset the Assassin? Or… Was there someone influencing Marionette’s thoughts?
‘Someone? Or something…’ Lillian’s brows furrowed. At this point, Lillian was now certain it was because of the True Darkness’s influence, ‘That parasite managed to get to her brain without being detected? How is this possible?’
Lillian was stumped. How had the True Darkness grown to such a level of intelligence in such a short amount of time?
‘It should’ve only been a week or at most a week and a half since Marionette’s surgery…’
Unknown to Lillian, the True Darkness had double the amount of time to grow.
‘If the Gardener of Roses was correct in his assumptions, the True Darkness shouldn’t have stirred awake under the influence of the medicine. So long as, Marionette didn’t overuse her magic to a plicated degree.’
Lillian thought deeply, but not before long, a flicker of realisation flashed in her eyes. ‘The nobles!’
Yesterday, there had been countless nobles who went missing, something that shouldn’t have happened. ‘It wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t here…’ Lillian finally connected the dots.
Had Marionette been attacking these nobles without her knowing?
‘Occasionally, she would make an excuse to disappear, but I didn’t think anything of it. It finally makes sense now!’
Lillian didn’t care or worry about the nobles all too much, since their presence didn’t bring much to the table. Instead, she was more worried about Marionette’s current state.
‘No wonder she’s been acting weird, that little parasite…!’
Stopping dead in her tracks, Lillian shouted with fierce determination in her voice:
“MARIONETTE! When I find you, I’m going to force-feed you my blood! Even if I have to slit my wrist or tie you down, you’re drinking my blood! And after all this is over, we’re going to have another dance, and I’ll be sure to never let you out of my sight ever again! Do you know why?! It’s because I love you—!”
“Oh, shut up with all the shouting!”
Lillian paused as she slowly turned around, finding Damien standing behind her with an aggravated look on his face.
Damien probed the inside of his ears, visibly annoyed by Lillian’s echoing voice. But if one looked closer, they would realise there was something else that annoyed just as much, if not more.
The Darkhound twitched his nose, sniffing the scent trail in the air that belonged to Lillian and finally ing to a realisation of her identity. “No wonder you felt so familiar, you’re that maid.”
His face then wrinkled in disgust as he took off his masquerade mask.
“And a gay one at that.”
Watching as Lillian took off her own mask, Damien found the girl’s eyes to be half-lidded and filled with coldness.
The eyes of a killer, who had found their next target.
[Ding!]
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“I was looking forward to the dance for a while…”
Marionette, who had been hiding behind a nearby corner, felt her heart tighten with guilt. She was lucky enough to have found Lillian, but for some reason…
‘I can’t…’
She couldn’t muster the courage to approach her just yet, especially not after what she had just heard.
“Haaa…” Marionette let out a deep and shaky sigh as her back slid down the wall.
Sitting down, the Assassin clutched her heart with a grieving and repentant look on her face. ‘I’m so sorry, Lillian…’
Why did she act like that? Why couldn’t she just have acted normally and talked with Lillian afterwards? Why did she…
‘Why did I doubt Lillian’s love for me…?’
Marionette held a hand over her heart while simultaneously taking off her mask. She then gritted her teeth and pulled her knees to her chest.
With her head down, Marionette’s beautiful face wrinkled with shame.
‘How could someone like me, who have killed hundreds, struggle to pull a bit of courage?’
Marionette had faced death more times than she could count, and yet, the fear she felt at this moment was far more than she had ever experienced.
‘…’
“I’ve screwed things up…” Marionette reflected in a strained voice.
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