He’ll be heading out soon, Sienna informed me as she twined around me from behind.
We’d come ashore from the sea now; I’d followed Sienna’s lead into the mountain path, where we’d climbed a tree. Below us lay a single, well-maintained road. Following the mountain path upward, there was only one residence—the mansion where my aunt and uncle lived.
Meaning only my aunt and uncle, and those connected to them, passed through here. It was a secluded spot within the estate, utterly deserted.
“Ah, this day has finally come.” Just thinking about how I’d kill my aunt made me feel exhilarated. For the sake of my mother, who was killed by her sister, I wanted to give her a miserable death.
After giving birth to that failure of a daughter, Laviange, I’d been scolded by my birth mother. It was only natural: She had wanted a son with my uncle’s—well, my father-in-law’s hair and eyes. But it was all my husband’s fault for failing to grant that wish. It infuriated me just seeing Mihail grow more like him each year. I couldn’t stand my husband, and he paid me no attention whatsoever.
By contrast, Sienna’s real father—my former fiancé—had always put me first. Until he’d been seduced by that lowly woman and eloped with her.
“You really had her attacked by thugs?” he’d told me. “I’ll continue interacting with her as a servant working at the estate, and I’ll let go of my feelings for her so I can marry you next year. I’ve already removed her from my personal staff. After I succeed as head of the household, I’ll keep her away from the main residence too. That’s why I told you not to do anything.”
Yes, my former fiancé had never laid a finger on that woman—Sienna’s mother—until they eloped. Though they’d grown closer for a time, after I warned them both, they’d maintained their distance as the next head of the house and a servant.
I knew all that...and yet seeing that woman working as a Robur household servant was unbearably irritating.
Even when I’d pleaded with my uncle, he’d made it crystal clear: Personnel decisions at the estate were my aunt’s prerogative; no other family had any say during the engagement period; and if I dared to take the life of a Robur household servant, even a commoner, I’d better be prepared for the consequences. And my mother had strictly ordered me to avoid any missteps with my uncle, so I couldn’t speak up.
I’d kept thinking that that woman might grow close to my fiancé again, and it had made me lose sleep. Even when he was with me, I’d felt like he was always thinking about her, and she became more and more unbearable day by day.
So I had some thugs attack her and beat her to a pulp. That should have taken away any desire to do her work, right? Of course, I’d obeyed my uncle’s orders: I made sure to tell them not to take her life.
She was just a commoner. She’d had no sense of her place and incurred the wrath of a noble. It couldn’t be helped.
Besides, a commoner couldn’t become a mistress. I wasn’t the only one; neither the branch family nor the other Four Ducal Houses would tolerate the Robur bloodline being sullied by a commoner. At worst, both that woman and my former fiancé would have their very lives destroyed. I’d thought she should be grateful I’d warned her early.
But then he’d eloped with that woman?! And worse, my uncle had given the position of the next head of the household to that man’s brother, the man who was now my current husband! It was unbelievable!
But mother had actually been pleased. My husband had colder, more aristocratic features, more fitting for House Robur.
After that, I’d understood my mother’s feelings—her aversion to her sister’s features and complexion. Every time I saw my aunt, I recalled the indigo eyes my former fiancé had fixed on me at the end, eyes filled with cold, murderous intent.
But I still hadn’t felt murderous toward my aunt. That began only after I bore that failure of a child.
My aunt had driven my mother away from me. She’d had father confine mother to the frontier and mistreat her. Mother had died several years later. I’d only learned of it after the funeral. I could never forgive my aunt.
I’d reclaimed my magic, and my father-in-law’s position was now weaker than my husband’s. Surely now was the time to kill my aunt, wasn’t it?
Look, over there. Just as my resolve to act on my murderous intent toward my aunt solidified, Sienna pointed. A carriage could be seen entering the mountain path from the other direction.
“Heh heh heh, this should be fun, Sienna. My uncle is at the manor, right?”
Yes. After we kill grandmother, grandfather is next. That’s the order, mother.
Honestly, I had no interest in my father-in-law. With my magic as it was now, I couldn’t defeat him anyway.
But after Sienna had emerged from the ring again, the magic I tested felt stronger. Above all, the power to command beasts was astonishing. With this, I could at least set the beasts upon him and watch from a distance. If he proved stronger than expected, I’d just flee before I could be discovered.
“Of course. Look, she’s here! Go!” I called out toward the base of the tree, and the giant green lizard replied with a cry. After it’d brought me here, I’d had it wait inconspicuously in the shade of the trees.
The green colossus leaped out right beside the carriage that was just about to pass by. The giant lizard first spat liquid at the driver holding the horse’s reins. But without a moment’s delay, a magical barrier appeared to block the attack, sizzling and scorching the weeds at our sides.
The driver, who immediately halted the horse and drew his sword, flashed a sharp, icy glare from beneath his golden-brown hair.
Even if she was the retired matriarch of the household, living in the countryside, it seemed odd she wasn’t more heavily guarded. But the driver seemed to double as her escort—and a skilled one at that. Troublesome, but if that was the case...
“Sienna.”
Coming.
At my call, first one black magic bird gathered at eye level, then another, and another, forming a black mass. As the dozens of birds began screeching, the horses pulling the carriage grew terrified, whinnying and pawing the ground in place.
The demon birds were palm-sized. But with fangs visible beneath their beaks, they were clearly predators. They hunted prey in flocks. Their magical beast-like red eyes glowed fiercely, and their excited cries echoed through the trees.
The driver parried the giant lizard’s sharp claws with his sword while severing the harness connecting the carriage to the horses. Seizing the moment the lizard reacted to the fleeing horses, the driver summoned a sharp, pointed rock from the ground between them and propelled it skyward. It served not only as a shield against claws and corrosive fluid, but was also aimed to impale the giant lizard.
“Break through that carriage window and devour the humans inside alive!” I commanded, and the demon birds charged forward like a black ribbon, swarming into the carriage.
“Oh, no! Madam! Please stay inside!” The coachman’s voice sounded like it belonged to someone younger than expected. But his plea was futile. The door swung open of its own accord.
“But it’s overflowing with birds, and it’s quite cramped in here. Oh, don’t mind me—look, go ahead and deal with that lizard first... Well, that child is being controlled too, I suppose.”
Her voice was slightly more hoarse and wrinkled than I remembered, and her hair had turned a much paler peach gold. But the face was unmistakably my aunt’s.