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Chapter 70 Part 4 – Side Story: The Blood-Sucking Madam of the Abandoned Castle (Part 3)

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「Scarlet-sama!! Wake up, Scarlet-sama ……」

I could hear Alisa’s voice.
I tried to answer her, but I had just woken up from sleep and my body was not strong enough.
I felt a little bit low blood pressure.

「Unn, Scarlet-sama is not waking up. Could it be that she’s dying? Oh no, Alisa is going to be a widow. I’m so sad. …… Scarlet-sama ……!! Papa is going to leave Alisa and baby Scarlet junior inside Alisa’s tummy. …… I have to do artificial respiration on Scarlet-sama.」

What are you talking about!?
Don’t make up a child with a weird name.

After a long one-man show that I didn’t know where to start to comment from, Alisa put her lips on mine. Impressively, she also pinched my nose.

Ohh, she succeeded in making me reconsider my views about her.
She was seriously following the proper procedure …… Hey!! Don’t push your tongue in!!
There is no such artificial respiration method!!　

In the end, Alisa is still Alisa.

…… Mn!? Hey ……!? S-stop it ……!

I got horrified when I felt a thrilling electric current run through my body.

Come to think of it, there were several nobles who slumped to the floor after kissing Alisa. Even for a dandy with plenty of experience, if they let Alisa do whatever she wanted because they considered her a stupid girl, they would be in big trouble.

「…… Alisa!! You!!」

I pushed Alisa away in a rush as my body’s engine started to rev up, albeit belatedly.
At the same time, my memory comes back with the force of a spring bursting.

What about Hannah ……!? And Elisabeth!!

But in response to my panicked questioning, Alisa tilted her head in puzzlement.

「Who is Scarlet-sama talking about? Scarlet-sama came to help Alisa after I got lost in the fog and then you fell down and fainted. Did Scarlet-sama have a dream?」

「No way ……」

I was stunned.

Was that vivid incident a dream?
But Hannah’s smile and the sadness of losing her still lingers so much in my heart?

However, Alisa, who was supposed to have been stripped naked, was wearing her regular clothes and even though Vente Castle in the background still retains its majestic appearance, it’s covered in moss. The stone walls have crumbled and the wooden parts have rotted away. Looking closer after the fog had cleared, it was clear that people only lived there a long time ago.

I wonder if it was really just a dream as Alisa said ……

「When seeing it up close, it’s so big. This castle.」

Alisa put her hand over her forehead, stood on tiptoe, looked around, and admired the castle.
Before I knew it, we had entered the courtyard of the castle ruins.

「Alisa wants to live in a smaller house with Scarlet-sama in the future. That way, if Alisa wants to do naughty stuff, we can go to bed right away from anywhere in the house …… Oh?」

Alisa’s eyes opened wide as she was talking about a horrifying future.

「Scarlet-sama, what is that big, square building?」

「That’s the castle tower. It’s the center of a castle. In it, there’s a banquet hall, and in some castles, there’s also rooms for the castle lord’s family. It’s also the last stronghold when the castle is under attack.」

It’s been a long time since the Hydrangea royal family forbade nobles from owning large private armies. Now, the residence of the nobles is not a castle but a mansion. It pursues convenience and splendor, not defense. It’s no wonder that the foolish Alisa had no idea about the structure of an old castle.

「Ohhh. Then, since that place is going to collapse, this castle is finished, right?」

「Eh?」

As soon as Alisa said that, the castle tower crumbled down.
The castle tower collapsed as if it had been violently folded by an invisible giant, causing dust and debris to fly into the air.
It all happened as quick as a sandcastle collapsing, but the sound of falling rocks crashing down and the shock that was transmitted to our feet told us that this was the end of the tremendously huge castle.

「…… W-W-What ……!! !? …… A-Alisa, what did you do?」

I was flabbergasted. Beside me, Alisa squatted and pulled out a knife. She stopped in the middle of engraving something on a stone and turned around with a smile.

「…… Mnnn, I thought I’d write『Scarlet was here』to commemorate today.」

「Hey, don’t do that!! That would make it sound as if I’m the criminal who destroyed the castle!!」

Who is it!!　
Who the heck let such a nutjob hold a knife!?

Feeling taken aback, I took away the knife from Alisa. But then, I stood still in shock.

The stone was covered with a familiar shawl.
I had given it to Hannah as a gift.
The wind blowing across the ruins of the castle made the shawl flutter.
On the stone, I could see the word 「Hannah」 engraved in the stone.

「Hannah ……」

I knelt down and stroked the faded letters with a trembling hand.

「…… Alisa-sama!! Scarlet-sama!! You’re here. Thank goodness, we have been looking for you.」

A servant of the Fontaine family found us and rushed over with a relieved expression on his face.

「Ohh, that is the『Hannah’s Stone』.」

He bowed his head in respect.

As a former inhabitant of this area, he was familiar with the history of this castle.

Two hundred years ago, Elisabeth had been murdering numerous girls in Vente Castle.

Her evil deeds were exposed when one of the girls succeeded in escaping from the castle.

It was Hannah, who worked at the castle, that helped the girl to escape.

The revealed atrocities happening in the castle were so cruel that even though Elisabeth is a high-ranking noble, they could not turn a blind eye to it. She was locked alive in her room and the door and windows were painted over so that she could never escape. And all the castle workers were considered accomplices and were dragged out to the courtyard of the castle and burned to death without any trial.

「Look, the soil around here is reddish-brown. So many people were burned by the fire that even after 200 years, there are still traces of it.」

「Although it’s an unreasonable act」, he sighed.

「…… It was a period of time when the power of the nobles was absolute. If they disobeyed the nobles, they and their family would have been killed, so the servants had no choice but to obey Elisabeth …… All of them knew that. But since they have executed the feudal lord in power, they had to make those below her be implicated as well.」

I remembered everyone in the kitchen who acted favorably toward me.
They, too, had always wanted to save the girls.
That’s why they helped me in the way they did.

「However, regarding Hannah …… everyone in the village knew that she had warned them persistently, 『Don’t go to the castle』. Even the girl who managed to escape testified that Hannah had been desperately trying to get the other girls to run away. That’s why Hannah was supposed to be the only one to get acquitted. But she ……」

As the story progressed, I could no longer hold back my tears.

Hannah chose death to atone for her sins.
No matter how much the officials tried to change her mind, no matter how much the girl, who she had saved, cried and stopped her, she stubbornly refused to yield.
Until the moment she died in the flames, she kept apologizing to the parents that had lost their daughters, saying that she was sorry she could not save them.

The anger of having a blood-related relative killed is tremendous. Once they find the target of their anger, it will never subside. However, at that moment, the bereaved families fell silent as if water had been poured over their burning anger. Some even shed tears and offered prayers.

They were deeply moved by Hannah’s saintly way of life, who acted so even after they had abused her and turned a deaf ear to her words, that they asked the officials to engrave her name on a stone as a gravestone for her. They could not create a proper gravestone because Hannah refused it.

I hugged the stone with all my heart.

「Hannah …… you’re such a good-natured girl. But that’s so like you ……」

What I saw may have been an illusion.
But she was certainly here.
The same Hannah that I had met.

「I will never forget you. Hannah. It’s still cold at night, so let me put this around you.」

I gave the stone a goodbye kiss and wrapped the shawl around it. Then I stood up.

「Goodbye. No matter how far apart we are, I will always remember my friendship with you. I’m going to go now. Because it’ll be harder for me to say goodbye if I continue to stay here ……」

I urged Alisa and the others and started to walk away.
I didn’t look back.

‘…… Scarlet-sama.’

I felt like I could see Hannah’s bashful smile.

That’s right.
I can always see Hannah’s face when I close my eyelids.
Because I’m sure that Hannah’s heart is with me.
So, this is not goodbye.
We will always be together.
There is no need to look back.

My hair fluttered in the wind as I smiled.

「…… At any rate, I feel strangely breezy. I wonder why ……」

I tilted my head in confusion about the sense of discomfort and put my hand through the slit in my skirt and felt around inside. Then, I instantly froze. …… It’s not there!! The thing that should always be snuggled up against my skin and wrapped around me is …… not …… there!!

「Eh? What’s wrong? Scarlet-sama.」

Alisa tilted her head and asked.
Her twin tails tied with the usual black string swayed.
And there’s a strange shaped ribbon on her head ……

「W-Wait, that’s not a ribbon ……!? Isn’t that my underwear!!」

「When Scarlet-sama was unconscious, I took it off so that you could breathe easier. Ehehe, didn’t Alisa do a great job? I don’t mind being kissed as a reward.」

The stupid girl proudly puffed up her huge breasts.

Who the heck would do that!!
Where in the world is there a method of taking off the underwear to make breathing easier!!

「Give it back!! Alisa!! …… Uwah, she’s so fast ……!?」

By the time I tried to snatch the underwear off Alisa’s head, she had already fled far down the hill. Rather than a dash, it was a high-speed breakaway comparable to the speed of a falcon. Wasn’t there an afterimage!? That’s crazy.

As expected from a servant of the Fontaine family, even after he knew about the collapse of the castle tower of the Vente Castle, he only said, 「Well, wherever Alisa-sama goes, it wouldn’t be strange if that place will ……」.

Aaaahh!! Alisa’s already reached the carriage!!
Uwaaahh!! She’s proudly taking my underwear and showing it off to everyone as a trophy!!

Hannah, the Hannah I can see when I close my eyes, is smiling bitterly with a blush on her cheeks!!

I desperately held down my skirt with both hands to keep it from billowing up in the wind and hurried down the hill while waddling like a penguin.

「You stupid girl!! Stay right there!!」

「Mnn, I’ll wait for you if you’ll give me a kiss.」

「There’s no way I’d do that!! I’ll give you my fist!!」

「Then, I’ll run away. Sca-demon, come here. Follow the sound of my clapping.」

「Who are you calling Sca-demon!! Don’t give me such a strange name!!」

After the fog has lifted, the hill on which Vente Castle is located reveals a stunningly beautiful green. However, it seemed that it would be a long time before I could calmly appreciate the spectacle.