Mad Rosetta - Chapter 52

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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 52

 

A Cowardly Man (4)

 

Since it was the middle of the night, the manor was quiet, and young as I was, I hurried my steps toward the room where Mother would be, driven by creeping fear.

 

After knocking a couple of times and entering, Mother’s maid was in the middle of neatly arranging the bedding.

 

“Oh my, Lady? What brings you here at this late hour?”

 

“I wanted to stay with Mother today… But where is Mother?”

 

“The Duchess is in the study. This year’s budget allocation isn’t finished yet, so she’s been returning late for several days. Shall I escort you there?”

 

“Hmm… No! Instead, put me in that thing!”

 

As I boldly pointed my finger, the maid’s eyes followed it, and soon she groaned as if quite troubled.

 

It was closer to a small box that only a small child could barely fit into, a kind of dumbwaiter made to move documents or food to different floors within the manor.

 

“Uh, um…”

 

“Come on, help me out.”

 

“Uh, uh, um…”

 

“Father isn’t here either. Why are we being like this between us?”

 

“…I really can’t win against you. But you must knock on the door to be let out as soon as you go up, alright?”

 

She said this while reluctantly lifting me up.

 

The dumbwaiter was small in size, and its outer door was structured so it couldn’t be opened from the inside.

 

Because of this, it was also a device that caused endless incidents and accidents due to children who entered without knowing better.

 

Especially since the interior was barely visible from the outside—you could only make out the eyes if you looked carefully—Father had particularly instructed us to be mindful of safety.

 

‘But you don’t come home, do you? Mother will obviously let it slide, saying children should grow up playing pranks, right?’

 

Giggling, I obediently boarded the dumbwaiter as the maid seated me.

 

She waved her hand and closed the door for me.

 

“Oh my, who could this be.”

 

“Mother!”

 

When I knocked loudly on the door after going up to that floor, Mother’s mischievous smile appeared along with bright light.

 

Her apricot blossom-like eyes, revealed as the door slowly rose from bottom to top, looked especially lovely that day.

 

As I smiled brightly without even getting out, Mother crouched down to match my eye level and gently pressed both my cheeks with light force.

 

“I wondered if some beast had gotten into the dumbwaiter, but it was our daughter?”

 

“I looked for Mother and they said you were in the study. When will you go to sleep?”

 

“Asking like that, you must be sleepy. Did you come because you wanted to be with this mother of yours today?”

 

“Father happens to be away too… I thought perhaps us lonely women could share some warmth.”

 

“What’s this, I never taught you to say such things.”

 

Mother, who had briefly looked dazed like a dead fish, soon lightly pinched my cheek and said,

 

“Since you’re being so demanding, I’ll have to handle the remaining work tomorrow. I’ll just tidy up and come down soon, so go to the room first.”

 

“Yes, please come quickly.”

 

“…Aren’t you getting out?”

 

“This is faster.”

 

“…I’m letting this slide because Father isn’t here.”

 

“Hehe, of course.”

 

Wondering who on earth you take after with such cheekiness, Mother closed the door for me again.

 

Who do I take after, indeed.

 

Ever since I was young, people had said things like ‘The upturned eyes are Duke Benatra’s, and the bold way of speaking is unmistakably the Duchess’s, even if heard backwards,’ so even I couldn’t help but know.

 

Unable to suppress my continuous giggling, I was waiting for Mother to send me down when it happened.

 

Through the low and narrow gap of the dumbwaiter, I saw the study door open and someone enter.

 

Seeing Mother straighten her peacefully bent body, it seemed to be someone familiar, but I could only see the person’s legs.

 

‘…?’

 

Don’t they say that when people face an extremely shocking sight, their thinking stops?

 

In an instant, the hands of the person wearing black gloves moved a couple of times.

 

What caught my eye then was a sharp dagger gripped in that person’s hand and drops of blood falling to the floor along it.

 

Finally, even Mother’s back slowly collapsing before my eyes…

 

For young me, it was all incomprehensible.

 

‘…It seems Mother has fallen. I should help her up, but why…’

 

My whole body trembled as if I had been doused with cold water in the middle of winter.

 

Leaving Mother collapsed, that person headed somewhere and then returned to their original spot.

 

I could glimpse a lantern and a bundle of documents in their hands.

 

Soon the gloved hand smashed the lantern and scattered it on the study floor along with the documents.

 

Only after a very clear fire had risen to some extent did that person leisurely leave the room.

 

Even showing the leisure of firmly closing the door.

 

“…Go, …tell them, Coco…”

 

Finally facing Mother who turned her head toward where I was, I couldn’t say anything.

 

Originally, sounds from outside couldn’t be heard well from inside the dumbwaiter. This was a fact unknown to people who had never been in such a place.

 

However, the reason I just froze was because Mother, who was conveying the message, was smiling while clutching the area around her neck.

 

“…Haha, damn… scoun, drel. Coco…”

 

No matter how much she held on, the blood flowing abundantly soaked the front of her dress.

 

Even Mother’s lips, as she kept speaking, were red.

 

Why? Why did this happen?

 

When I could only think such thoughts,

 

Mother finally began pulling the dumbwaiter rope with determined eyes.

 

Down, and down again.

 

“…No, I don’t want to. I don’t want to, Mother! Please bring me up. Please let me out! Please, Mother…!”

 

Even though I pounded on the door roughly, I passed through a very dark passage.

 

Though I finally realized the dumbwaiter had reached Mother’s room, I couldn’t come out of there for a very long time.

 

This was because many attendants had evacuated or been mobilized to put out the fire that occurred in the Duchess’s study in the middle of the night.

 

The next morning at dawn, all the newspapers poured out news of the Duchess’s death due to the fire at Benatra Estate.

 

Along with news that the Duke’s daughter, presumed to be the only witness who knew the inside story of the incident, was also unconscious.

 

* * *

 

“She’s, she’s awake! The Lady has awakened!”

 

I regained consciousness two days after the incident occurred.

 

The attendants of Rose Manor, who had been about to report the fire, realized I was missing and hurriedly informed the main manor.

 

Mother’s maid, who had sent me up to the study, opened the dumbwaiter just in case and found me unconscious inside, causing another commotion.

 

“Co, Coco… Are you conscious, hmm? What on earth happened…”

 

Father’s appearance after so long was truly miserable, like someone who had completely abstained from food and drink.

 

Besides the butler with bandages on his arms, many attendants seemed to have been injured by the fire, with treatments here and there.

 

“Father…”

 

“Yes, that’s right. It’s your father. Say something, anything.”

 

“…Shouldn’t you be in the capital?”

 

“…What?”

 

“You said there was a state council meeting and you’d be away for a while. Why is everyone in my room…”

 

The emotion Father was busy hiding that day was probably somewhere between despair and disappointment, I think.

 

My memory, which had completely disappeared from when I lay down to sleep after eating cookies, was eventually diagnosed as memory loss due to the shock of being trapped in the dumbwaiter.

 

“But what about Mother?”

 

“…Duke.”

 

“…I want to be alone with my daughter, so everyone leave.”

 

Can you believe it?

 

That I woke up to the tragic news that Mother had died in an accident.

 

How strange. Father was originally someone who didn’t know how to make any proper jokes.

 

I thought Father’s words, delivered to me with such a devastated face, were terribly unfunny for a joke.

 

“I, I can’t believe it. I absolutely… I tried to get an autopsy, no. I tried to at least understand the truth, but Coco…”

 

Father’s face, dried up and withered, was soon drenched with moisture as if it had never been dry.

 

I heard that the fire spread more rapidly due to the study’s windows being open.

 

However, what Father found strange was that Mother was sensitive to cold, so even when ventilating, she would give instructions to do so when she wasn’t present.

 

So he even requested an autopsy, but the body was too severely damaged, leaving the cause of death undetermined.

 

Father cried so much while holding me in his arms as I sat there in a daze.

 

⟪Duchess Benatra’s Accidental Death, Tensions Rise Between Two Nations⟫

 

It didn’t end there—Mother’s death, who had been a princess of a kingdom before becoming a duchess, became a major diplomatic issue.

 

Return the remains of Princess Tabena Ariella to her homeland.

 

The enraged King of Terkikan sent that message.

 

When even I, who inherited Mother’s blood, was threatened to become a spark for diplomatic warfare, Father had no choice but to hold only a funeral and hastily send Mother away.

 

“On the final journey of that noble soul, we pray for peace and painless rest…”

 

The autopsy of the Duchess’s body, her only daughter who had lost consciousness, and the fierce pressure from her maternal family.

 

Just a few hours after I realized I had lost Mother, we held a one-day funeral.

 

After that, talk about Mother gradually decreased in the manor by unspoken agreement.

 

It truly deserved to be called Benatra’s nightmare.

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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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