The Unfilial Heir Who Tries to Kill Me Tempts Me - Chapter 30

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 30.

My shoulders had gone rigid.
I turned my body slowly.
When my gaze landed on the figure before me, I recognized her immediately.
“…Aunt?”
What was she doing here?
My heart dropped like a stone. In that same instant, I realized where I was—the living room of my Aunt’s House, the place I’d lived after my parents passed away and before starting university.
“Honestly, an adult is speaking to you, and your mind wanders to who-knows-where?”
Smack!
A heavy hand flew toward me, striking my head with a sharp sting. My ears rang instantly, the sound of the blow echoing in my skull.
“Is that how badly you want to show up your sister? You have to humiliate her like that in front of the family elders?”
The memory returned in full.
I was being scolded.
At the first family meal after my parents died, my response to my grandmother’s polite greeting had been the spark that set her off.
“No, Aunt, I wasn’t—”
“So you’re intelligent? So you’re exceptional? What’s the big deal about being top of your class that you need to preen and brag like that in front of the adults?”
My aunt shrieked, her voice sharp enough to tear.
My shoulders curled inward without my meaning to.
“My daughter is a senior in high school now. She’s already depressed about her grades dropping, and you—you deliberately do this? Do you have any idea how she felt standing there?”
My aunt ripped the bag from my shoulders and seized my jacket, shaking it violently as she ranted about not wanting to bring a girl like this to family gatherings.
“Why did your brother leave a brat like this in my care…!”
She muttered irritably, shoving my shoulder with one palm—once, twice.
“If you’re going to live off someone else’s charity, you need to at least have some sense. If you want to keep living your high-and-mighty life, then get out of this house.”
Heat flooded my face. I couldn’t meet her eyes and dropped my head, my heart sinking through the floor.
I wanted to run away.
But my body wouldn’t obey. My feet remained rooted to the spot as if nailed down, and only the pulse in my fingertips raced.
“While we’re on the subject, do you know how much our household expenses have gone up since you moved in? You just waste money—do you have no shame?”
A lie.
My aunt had taken every last coin of my parents’ inheritance for herself.
I wanted to say it, but the words caught in my throat and never made it past my lips.
“…I’m sorry.”
“I don’t even know if there’s anything going on in that head of yours.”
She shoved my shoulder hard again, saying she didn’t want to look at me anymore, ordering me inside. I stumbled into the dark room as though being dragged.
Bang!
“It hurts….”
My tangled hair hurt, and the scratch on my cheek where her hand had caught me hurt. I rubbed my eyes roughly with my sleeve.
But something was wrong.
No matter how much I wiped my eyes, my vision wouldn’t clear. It was as if a thick fog had settled over everything, or perhaps the space itself was built that way from the start.
“Why is this happening….”
Where were my glasses?
I fumbled around searching for them when I suddenly froze.
…Wait.
Had I even been wearing glasses during this time period? Hadn’t I stopped wearing them after I started university?
That was when it happened.

-…lotte.

A shrill ringing pierced through my ears, and a headache crashed down on me. I clutched my head in both hands without thinking.

-Charlotte.

Flash.
“…Caeius?”
My mind snapped back like I’d been struck by lightning. I jolted upright.
That’s right.
I was in the Dungeon.
Only then did the fog lift from my thoughts, clarity returning as if I were waking from a dream.
I looked around frantically, and that’s when I realized the space around me was twisted in a deeply unnatural way.
“An illusion.”
A classical spell that locked its victim in their most horrific memory.
The magic was designed so intricately that unless one recognized it as an illusion, there was no escape—and the stronger one’s mind, the more agonizing the memories it conjured.
“Caeius! I’m here! Can you hear me?”
I’d shouted until my voice grew hoarse, but this time no answer came. The connection that had flickered briefly seemed to have severed.
How do I get out of here? Can I even cast magic in this state?
I reached out to trace a Magic Circle, but it was useless. Perhaps because I was trapped in my own Unconscious Mind, not even Mana flowed from my fingertips, let alone a proper circle.
“Damn it, why won’t it work!”
That was when it happened.

—Charlotte Schmidt, come to your senses!

A voice called out from somewhere again.
I saw faint light seeping in from beyond a door that had been firmly shut.
I rushed forward and wrenched it open. The memory of Aunt’s House vanished, replaced by a grotesquely warped space that sprawled before me. At the far end of that space, pale light was bleeding through. Something primal in me understood that I had to move toward it.
Boom—crash, crumble.
The space suddenly convulsed, and one corner of my room began to undulate and crumble like sand.
“No! It’s collapsing!”
Without looking back, I ran for my life.
Once the collapse began, the space pursued me with terrifying speed, as though determined to swallow me whole. The moment I reached the light, an invisible force seized me and yanked me forward with brutal strength.
“…Gasp!”
“Charlotte Schmidt—are you conscious?”
[Chirp, chirrup!]
A chill crashed over me all at once.
My body trembled as my eyes fluttered rapidly open. Caeius, cradling me in his arms, came into focus first—then Golsun, hopping excitedly beside us.
“…What happened? Ugh, my head is splitting.”
Caeius slowly helped me sit up.
“Once I escaped the illusion, I found you collapsed beside me, unconscious. More mist seemed to be rolling in, so I extracted us from the Corridor and sought shelter in a nearby area.”
Before I lost consciousness, I’d been standing in the middle of a long hallway. Now I was sitting alone in a vast space where even the ceiling was invisible.
How long was I out?
So much for looking the part of a mage.
“This is my fault. I should have been more vigilant, not just watching the floor.”
“Enough of that.”
Caeius fixed me with a steady gaze and reached out, brushing my cheek lightly.
“Clean yourself up.”
“Hm? Oh.”
Only then did I realize my cheeks were wet. Tears were still streaming down my face.
“What kind of illusion did you see to cry so pitifully?”
I started in alarm and rubbed my eyes furiously.
“It’s nothing. I think some dust got in them.”
“Is that so.”
Will he let it go if I just move on?
“…It seemed to be an ancient spell that traps victims in painful memories. I should have seen through it quickly, but the magic was far more intricate and potent than I anticipated.”
I spoke desperately, turning my head away from his gaze.
“And you—how did you wake up so fast?”
“Hm.”
He drew out the end of his words.
“Dead things that should never have been breathing were moving before my eyes.”
“Ah.”
I felt foolish.
Why did I ask? His memories would be predictable.
“I’m sorry.”
Caeius’s expression twisted subtly—not quite a smile, not quite a frown, but something in between.
“You have a habit of apologizing for the strangest things.”
You wouldn’t understand, but I’m partly to blame for what you saw.
“In any case, where are we? Are we still on the 3rd Floor? We need to move down…”
“I’d like to as well, but it won’t be easy right now.”
With that, Caeius jerked his chin in a direction.
“Huh?”
What was that?

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