Mad Rosetta - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Mad Rosetta

Episode 18

Even When Watering a Sprout, One Must Be Careful (1)

⟪Arcanis Academy Building B Research Lab Fire… Casualties?⟫

⌜Early dawn the previous day. A sudden fire broke out in the Arcanis Academy Building B Research Lab, causing a commotion as researchers evacuated. The Security Bureau revealed that the fire originated from Dr. Dravu Beaumont’s lab in Building B Room 804…, and it has come as a great shock that the fire was caused by a lamp owned by Dr. Beaumont, who took his own life. Meanwhile, Dr. Beaumont’s funeral…⌟

“Controversy seems inevitable as responsibility cannot be assigned for the massive loss of research materials…”

No matter how many times I read it from beginning to end, the content of the article wouldn’t change.

He was dead, Dr. Dravu Beaumont.

And he had taken his own life, that Dr. Dravu Beaumont.

My hands were trembling so much that I could barely hold the newspaper properly.

This couldn’t be. This shouldn’t have happened.

I had planned to somehow get the antidote before the debut tante. That’s why I had spent my own money to give that old man plenty of research funds!

“Don’t be ridiculous… No, this can’t be happening!”

I simply couldn’t accept the fact that the doctor had suddenly taken his own life.

After that. When I came to my senses, what I faced was the torn-up newspaper and Penny and the other girls holding me down with their whole bodies.

My head was dizzy, and my breathing was coming too fast.

It was clearly my body, but I had lost control again.

“Lady, please calm down!”

“Someone bring a handkerchief!”

With the crushing pain in my lungs, Vicky and Sara supported me as I was about to collapse to the floor clutching my chest.

When they forcefully covered my mouth with a handkerchief, my breathing seemed to gradually calm down, but my head already felt like it had been butchered.

How much longer must I suffer because of that damned flower?

The self-loathing and helplessness of losing control of my body again came flooding in like a tide, draining the strength from my body.

Sing also came to my side and kept talking to me, telling me to calm down, but the trembling in my body wouldn’t stop.

I needed time to think.

“That’s enough, everyone get out now.”

“When you’re feeling so unwell, what are you saying!”

Penny made a tearful face and snapped at me outright.

Wow, she’s actually yelling at me.

I couldn’t even remember when I had last heard such worried words.

So while I felt touched, I was simultaneously anxious that I might lash out at her pathetically.

No matter if it was due to the aftereffects of the poison, if I laid a hand on even Penny, I probably would never be able to get back up again.

So I ordered them once more to withdraw from the room.

“Lady… If you feel uncomfortable anywhere, you must call us again, okay?”

Penny earnestly pleaded while still tearful, and after hesitating reluctantly, she soon left the bedroom with the other servants.

Was it because I had caused such a commotion?

When the surroundings suddenly became quiet, all sorts of thoughts tore at my heart again.

【Hanged himself, you say… How absurd. Don’t you think so too?】

“…Of course.”

Right, let’s calm down.

On the surface, it could be seen as one person’s suicide incident, but there were too many suspicious aspects.

‘How does it make sense for someone struggling with suicidal thoughts to extort plenty of research funds?’

Above all, the fact that a perfectly fine lamp didn’t just fall over, but his research materials were completely burned due to being left unattended for a long time seemed too suspicious to be a coincidence.

Moreover, there were plenty of people around me who would benefit from Dr. Dravu Beaumont’s death.

“Could Odette have…?”

【Even if she’s under house arrest, it’s entirely possible if she uses subordinates.】

“No, but for Odette to have directly ordered it seems somehow…”

She was a child whose expression would easily darken with just a little provocation from me.

When cornered, Odette’s appearance of quickly crumbling was nothing more than that of a 15-year-old girl.

Rather, dealing with her, I thought she was just a bit cunning, and even if Odette showed her true colors, it wouldn’t be difficult to handle.

– “Oh my, it’s thanks to our mother treating us well. She said she used an extremely potent poison that leaves no trace.”

Suddenly my mind became alert.

What if it wasn’t Odette who moved Lianna, but Lianna who moved Odette?

Come to think of it, regularly bringing in the Panilnia flowers that were said to be difficult to cultivate was also something that would be hard for Odette to do alone.

“If it was Lianna who has been moving Odette all this time, then it makes sense. Anyway, they’re both in cahoots, so, hah… I focused too much on just Odette…”

【Relatively speaking, didn’t your stepmother have little movement? Above all, since it was Odette who was the main culprit trying to poison you, it’s understandable.】

“This is like I only caught the fox cub while missing the mouse.”

Lianna was a woman who rarely showed herself to me.

While she lived in the main manor and took charge of the household’s domestic affairs, so there were few opportunities to meet, it was also because she had almost no contact with me.

Unlike Odette, she didn’t bother to come find me and act sweet, and when we occasionally gathered in one place, she was more inclined to just observe from father’s side.

“If my guess is correct, then Odette or Lianna found out that I had brought in Dr. Beaumont and dealt with him…”

Imagining the process of Dr. Dravu Beaumont dying, my body shivered eerily and I had to shrink as if avoiding the cold.

I was afraid.

If this incident happened because I had entrusted the research on the Panilnia flower to the doctor, I felt guilty.

At the same time, I got goosebumps from fear at the cruelty of Lianna and Odette, that mother-daughter pair.

“Is it okay to kill people this easily?”

【…】

“How can harming innocent people be so easy…”

I felt only anger at their behavior of treating others’ lives like objects to be cleared away if they became obstacles in their path.

Selfishly, rather than deeply mourning the dead, the current situation where I had to worry about my own physical condition with no path forward was despairing.

Should I find another researcher who could manufacture an antidote even now? Would there have been progress in the doctor’s lost research materials?

If I commissioned someone else and then heard news like today that someone had disappeared from this earth, would I be able to accept it?

When all sorts of worries were tangled up inside me, I was crumbling again.

“I underestimated them… I shouldn’t have thought within the bounds of common sense.”

Just as my behavior had suddenly changed, they too could do worse things to match it.

What Odette might do in the future, what schemes Lianna, who I thought was quiet, might be harboring.

It was already far beyond the future I could predict.

“…Wasn’t the location of the doctor’s funeral mentioned earlier?”

So I had to do what I could.

If I went to the doctor’s funeral, couldn’t I at least hear clues or about the research through his family or close acquaintances?

When I widened my eyes and asked Sing, he grinned and pointed somewhere.

【Oh, there was.】

Whenever he smiles like that, he’s sure to annoy people.

【I think you could see it again if you piece together those newspaper fragments you tore to shreds.】

I couldn’t help but sigh at the paper scraps scattered under the terrace table.

Right, I tore it all up in anger earlier…

Feeling awkward for no reason, I complained about whether they had left without cleaning up this trash, and Sing laughed in an exaggerated tone as if acting.

【It was darling who told the children ‘don’t bother me anymore and withdraw!’ I believe.】

“Is Penny thereeeee!”

When I rang the bell three times loudly, Vicky came in instead of Penny.

I quickly ordered her to bring a fresh copy of today’s newspaper.

Fortunately, the monastery where the doctor’s funeral was being held was in Benitra territory and not too far from the Duke’s mansion.

It was a stroke of luck that the capital’s academy and Benitra estate were close.

‘Since he died early dawn the previous day, the first day’s ceremony must already be over… If I move quickly, I should be able to attend the second day’s ceremony today.’

The problem was that a young lady who hadn’t even debuted in society yet couldn’t attend such a ceremonial occasion without a guardian.

But disguising myself and secretly leaving the manor was risky, as one of the servants might quickly tattle to their master, so I pondered for a moment.

‘If I can’t leave secretly, then it’s a frontal assault.’

When I suddenly got up from the bed, Sing tilted his head.

【Where are you going?】

“To Lianna. I’m going to ask her to go to the funeral with me.”

【Hmm… If that’s the case, it won’t be easy to move around freely. Will that be alright?】

“? What would I do with a ghost following me around?”

【?】

“Are you talking about me?” Sing pointed to himself and asked innocently, to which I responded with great enthusiasm.

“Just as you said, I’ll have to stick close to Lianna’s side and stand there pretending to know nothing. Sing, you go around among the people and extract some useful information.”

【Haha, it’s like we’re undercover investigators from the Security Bureau. This is going to be really annoying.】

“That’s right, isn’t it fun?”

What’s the point of having a ghost that only I can see if I don’t use him at times like this?

Besides, I’d been feeling resentful that he seemed too detached while I struggled alone all this time.

With the sentiment that if we agreed to seek revenge together, he should suffer a bit too, I gave his shoulder a vigorous pat.

Thanks to this guy who seemed resigned, saying he wouldn’t complain about rights without contributing, and proudly boasting for me to just trust him, I felt a bit more energized.

‘Alright, let’s see who’s the real imperial crazy bastard!’

To punish the mother-daughter duo of Lianna and Odette who tormented people together, I burned with determination.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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