The Obsessive Maniac Is Trying To Confine Me - Chapter 141

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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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Episode 141

“Oops.”

He muttered while wiping the blood from his face as if it had been a mistake.

“…Rihardt?”

“It’s nice to hear you call my name.”

Rihardt kicked the sprawled servant while muttering.

“…I had a good idea, but I killed him for nothing.”

What kind of talk is that after killing someone?

His inhuman appearance without a hint of wavering was chilling.

A person from a world far removed from mine. He didn’t feel like the same human being.

“…Why did you kill him?”

“Because this guy shouted that you were a murderer.”

“That has nothing to do with you. He was someone who did nothing wrong.”

There was just a small misunderstanding.

“That’s right. This guy did nothing wrong. But what about you?”

“…So that’s the part that has nothing to do with you.”

“…Nothing to do with me.”

Rihardt smiled crookedly and approached this way with slow steps.

Feeling threatened, I reflexively grabbed the railing.

However, instead of doing something to me, he approached the front of the terrace and looked down where the Countess had fallen.

“Falling from this height would kill most people. Even if they’re lucky enough to survive, they’d live as a cripple for life.”

“…”

“Well, from your perspective, dying might be fortunate. It would be troublesome if the Countess pointed you out as the culprit.”

“I think there’s some misunderstanding, but I didn’t kill her.”

“Is that so?”

He asked casually, but his voice showed he didn’t believe me.

“It’s true. I didn’t kill her.”

Instead of saying he believed me or scolding me, he quietly met my gaze.

“Then why did the Countess fall off the terrace?”

“That’s…”

At that moment, I was at a loss for words.

I’m not guilty.

The Countess fell by herself because she rushed at me.

But if asked why the Countess rushed at me… it was difficult to answer clearly.

She said I was a demon worshipper. Even if I wasn’t a demon worshipper, what mattered at this moment wasn’t the truth.

From the circumstances, it wouldn’t be strange if I had killed the Countess for the aforementioned reason.

“You said you didn’t kill her. Tell me, Roji.”

“Well, that’s…”

What should I say?

My mind is completely blank.

Rihardt looked at me as if pitying me, then reached out his hand.

When his hand touched my neck, my whole body shrank. My nerves became even more sensitive due to what had just happened, and I unconsciously swatted his hand away.

Smack!

A sharp sound rang out, but I didn’t feel sorry for him at all.

That’s what he gets for touching me without permission.

I pressed my body into the corner so Rihardt couldn’t touch me.

“There are marks from being strangled…”

Rihardt’s eyes flashed threateningly.

“Did the Countess do this?”

“…”

“There are traces of a physical struggle, so I think I know why you killed her.”

“…I told you I didn’t kill her.”

I muttered weakly.

Another person died. Why do these bad things keep happening?

“Did the Countess call you a demon worshipper?”

I quickly raised my head.

This man strangely knew everything without me saying anything.

“The Countess is a person held in high regard. So even if you’re completely innocent, society will blame you.”

I know that too.

Between a noble aristocrat and a mistress of unclear origins, it’s clear where the blame will be directed.

“In the current situation, it would be difficult for you to get out of this alone, wouldn’t it?”

He spoke as if pitying me, but somehow he seemed to be enjoying this situation.

“I can help you, Roji.”

“…Help me?”

“I mean I’ll help you avoid becoming a murderer who killed the Countess.”

I didn’t want to accept Rihardt’s help because it came with a price.

But if I don’t accept help, what should I do?

What if he gets upset and points me out as the murderer?

Here, I have no choice but to accept help.

Nevertheless, I couldn’t answer hastily because I knew what he wanted.

“Roji, I actually don’t care if you’re framed as a murderer. In fact, that would be better.”

“…”

“The more you fall, the easier it becomes for me to catch you.”

I clearly did nothing wrong.

I just struggled to survive.

But why do things get more tangled the more I struggle?

“Help me, Rihardt.”

Only then did Rihardt smile as if satisfied.

* * *

Rihardt sat my dispirited self on the sofa.

When I trembled, he covered me with his outer coat and went down to the first floor.

It was to retrieve the Countess’s body.

He brought the Countess’s body to the room where we had been.

Then he muttered quietly, “I need a large bag…”

While he dealt with the bloodstains on the first floor and the mess on the fifth floor, not a single person came around.

“This is an annex that the Countess uses when performing sorcery, so no one comes here. Sometimes a servant visits when the Countess has given them tasks, but…”

He looked at the servant he had killed as if pitying him.

That guy was unlucky. Very much so.

“What are you planning to do?”

“First, we need to make sure today’s events have nothing to do with you. The Countess’s disappearance has nothing to do with you.”

“If the Countess disappears after I leave, I’ll naturally be suspected. Is that possible?”

“It’s possible if there’s someone who saw the Countess after you left.”

“Who would that be?”

Rihardt looked at me with an expression asking why I would ask such a thing.

“Me, of course.”

“…”

So Rihardt’s testimony would determine my situation.

I didn’t like it.

“Then you’ll be suspected, is that okay?”

“I appreciate your concern, but you’d better think only of yourself.”

Well, I have my own problems to worry about.

Besides, Rihardt is the Paladin Commander praised throughout the Empire—who would suspect him?

It seemed like unnecessary worry.

“What are you going to do with the body?”

“It would be better if you didn’t know.”

“….”

“I don’t mind telling you, but I’m worried you might be shocked.”

“…Then never mind.”

I’d already been shocked enough—there was no need to be shocked further. I couldn’t handle any more.

“It’s getting late, so you should go now. If you stay any longer, you’ll be suspected.”

Rihardt, who had been cleaning up for a while, spoke with a regretful expression.

I returned the coat Rihardt had covered me with.

“I’ll be going now.”

“Before that.”

Rihardt held me back and straightened my disheveled clothes.

Then he let down my hair to carefully cover the marks on my neck.

“I can do it myself.”

“Alright.”

“Then I’ll be going….”

As I tried to pull away from him, Rihardt grabbed me.

“Roji.”

His blue eyes flashed like the surface of a jewel catching light.

“Stop playing mistress now and come to me.”

Rihardt smiled happily and pressed his lips to my forehead.

“Keep your promise.”

I gave no answer and left the room.

Behind me, Rihardt said “Take care, Roji,” but I ignored him. I didn’t have the energy to respond.

I barely managed to move my weakened legs and left the manor. I was greeted by the cold night wind.

The wind brushing through the grass blades was desolate.

However, there was no trace that someone had died here.

I retraced the Countess’s path as I returned, recalling the words she had said before falling.

【The Benefactor will soon reveal himself.】

What did that mean?

* * *

The crescent moon, thin as if pecked by birds, illuminated the study of the Herthas Count’s Estate.

In the bleak study, two men were emptying their wine glasses.

Dillen felt his circumstances were particularly pitiful today.

“So you see, Dillen….”

How had he fallen to the point of listening to his father’s drunken rambling?

That night in the North, Dillen had desperately pleaded with Rose.

【Just live with me, Rose.】

Had he ever breathed such strong desire into his life before?

Even if it was the devil’s hand, even if grabbing that hand would make him fall off a cliff, he didn’t want to lose Rose.

But what he got in return was.

【I’m sorry, Dillen.】

Rejection.

And so Dillen returned to Herthas.

“It’s already been almost 5 years since Rose left home.”

…5 years.

Dillen felt the weight of that number anew.

Rose from 5 years ago and Rose now had changed in many ways.

From her more mature appearance to her personality.

“I wonder if she’s even alive… I’m worried. I’m thinking of stopping the search now.”

Count Herthas had shown no interest whatsoever in his son when he was young.

He was too busy paying attention to Yurta, who was a monster beyond genius.

But when Rose appeared, Count Herthas began to cherish her.

Dillen was astounded by this.

He thought his father didn’t pay attention to him because he had nothing exceptional about him.

But that wasn’t it.

He simply had no interest.

After realizing this fact, young Dillen took out his surging anger on Rose.

It was a childhood filled with endless regret.

“Even though Yurta searched so hard and couldn’t find her, she’s probably not in this world anymore.”

The Master seemed tired of hearing about the search for Rose for 5 years, tired of watching his son hunt for Rose like catching mice.

“That child must have been very shocked too.”

“….”

“I regret that I should have comforted that child back then.”

Dillen, who had been silently tilting his wine glass, gripped it tightly.

But the Master seemed busy thinking about those days and spoke bitterly.

“It must have been shocking for her that Yurta killed his own mother.”

“….”

The Master was saying that Rose left home because of that.

Dillen agreed with that too, but on the other hand, it was absurd that this man would even mention that incident.

It was even ridiculous how he took Yurta’s side and now pretended to regret it.

“Rose won’t come back, Father.”

It was everyone’s karma.

Yurta, who had dragged Rose into hell with his desires, his father, who had driven Rose to despair with his selfishness, and….

Even himself.

Count Herthas gripped his glass tightly and looked at Dillen.

Dillen met that gaze and downed his drink.

At that moment.

“Count!”

The butler urgently knocked on the door.

“What’s the matter so late at night?”

“Well, that is… A letter has arrived for Miss Rose.”

He almost spat out the alcohol in his mouth.

He put down his wine glass and frantically tore open the letter the butler had brought.

Rose couldn’t possibly come back.

Absolutely not.

He knew her well.

But….

[I’ll be back soon.]

The letter was written in Rose’s handwriting.

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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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