Chapter 28

But Aisha had been watching them for years, and she had often seen them laughing and chatting together. They weren’t starry-eyed lovers, but they were as relaxed around one another as brother and sister. Aisha had always looked up to the two of them. But then…that woman appeared. Cecilia Luze. Somehow, that country girl who stank of mud had stolen His Highness Enrique’s heart. It had happened one day when His Highness snuck out to the castle district. A gang of hoodlums was just about to attack Cecilia when he happened to pass by and rescue her, or so the story went. It was straight out of some cheap romance novel. Nevertheless, anyone could see that His Highness was infatuated with Cecilia. But Aisha didn’t think they were the kind of couple everyone said they were. His Highness was born with a serious temperament and good sense. She didn’t know what his innermost feelings were, but at the time, he seemed to treat Cecilia as no more than a close friend. In fact, it was the irresponsible people around them who seemed desperate to turn the relationship into a tragic love story. The rumor of romance between a prince and a girl of low standing spread like wildfire. Enrique’s obvious attraction was partly to blame, but so was Scarlett’s behavior. To go so far—it gave the rumors the ring of truth, though she was most likely only acting out of dislike for Cecilia. The result was that His Highness and Cecilia Luze really did appear to be secret lovers. The situation made Aisha anxious. If nothing changed, the rumors seemed likely to turn into truth. She had to do something. It was then that she remembered something her cousin had said during a visit several days earlier. Aisha hadn’t seen the woman, a relation of her mother’s, in a while and was surprised by how slim she had become. Her cousin pulled a small bottle from the bodice of her dress and whispered that she was taking medicine to lose weight. “It’s a restorative tonic from abroad. Don’t you think the results are amazing? Don’t tell anyone else, though. All you need is a drop. If you take too much, it will make you sick.” Make you sick. The words were music to Aisha’s ears. She had heard that Cecilia Luze was born with a weak constitution. If she fell ill, she would probably have to go back to her domain. The Luze domain was on the border with Melvina. That was very far from the capital, so she would hardly ever be able to see His Highness. Aisha made up an excuse to visit her cousin. As they chatted idly, she decided she would give up on her plan if she didn’t come across the medicine. But then she saw the little bottle sitting among her cousin’s neat row of perfumes, as if she had placed it there hoping no one would notice it. Aisha hesitated for only a moment. When her cousin was looking the other way, she slipped it into her purse. Then, pretending she was dizzy, she swept the remaining perfume bottles onto the ground with her arm, smashing them to bits. When her cousin saw her bloodied arm, she screamed and ran to call a servant. Not long after that, Aisha visited the Luze residence with her mother. Aisha’s maternal grandmother was from Melvina, and her mother was close with the Viscountess Luze, who was also from Melvina. Aisha had no idea that Scarlett had visited only hours before and quarreled with Cecilia. Dressing like Scarlett was a way for the socially awkward Aisha to protect herself in social situations. She had given up on wearing the whole outfit after her mother chastised her, but she couldn’t bring herself give up the jewelry. Scarlett had worn the moonstone earrings at a ball a while back. Aisha chose to wear her copy to the Luze residence. The jeweler had told her to be careful with them because they were fragile, but she hadn’t noticed that the metal setting had grown loose. At the Luze residence, as everywhere, Aisha was like air. Nobody seemed to notice when she left the room in the middle of her mother’s lively conversation with the viscountess. There were surprisingly few servants in the mansion. She had heard that the Luze family had left their domain for the first time in many years, so perhaps they weren’t accustomed to the ways of the capital. Thanks to that, Aisha escaped notice. Still, she hesitated as she stood in front of the water jug. Until then, she had thought only of harming Cecilia, but now she realized that her actions might end up harming other people as well. She paused for only a moment, however. After all, it wasn’t as if they would die. It was only medicine. Probably not too different from a laxative. Just a little stronger than normal. That was what Aisha told herself. She was doing this for Scarlett. This was what Scarlett would have done. If she were Scarlett— If she did this, she could become Scarlett. Aisha unscrewed the lid with trembling fingers and poured the contents of the little bottle into the water jug. “I didn’t know it was poison. Cousin Sharon said it was medicine. I did drop my earring, but I never hid the poison bottle in your room. I could never do something like that…!” Aisha had been so shocked when she heard the substance in the water jug was poison that her heart nearly stopped beating. At the same time, however, she felt confident Scarlett’s name would be cleared. After all, Aisha hadn’t dropped Scarlett’s moonstone earring, but instead a mere piece of silver-shell. But the earring was declared to be Scarlett’s, and a half-used bottle of poison was found in her room. Aisha didn’t have a clue what was going on. She still didn’t. Now, too, she had no idea what was happening. The girl standing before her was Constance Grail, but at the same time she wasn’t. She was Scarlett. Aisha knew. Obviously, the flesh-and-blood Scarlett was dead. She had been executed. Executed ten years ago, in Saint Mark’s Square. On that day, all Aisha could do was cower trembling in her house, praying to the goddesses for a miracle. “It’s a lie! I still have the bottle I used that day! If they evaluated it, they would find it was only ordinary medicine for losing weight! It’s not my fault! Please, forgive me, Scarlett…,” she pleaded in a shaky voice. “Forgive you?” Scarlett muttered, delicately arching one eyebrow and narrowing her eyes as if she were evaluating some inanimate object. “Then why didn’t you confess your crime?” Aisha stiffened. “It doesn’t matter if you used poison or not. You knew I was innocent. I was executed for a crime that you committed.” “But I d-did it for you! I’m certain you would have done the same thing if you had the opportunity! So in your place—” Scarlett interrupted her. “I wouldn’t do something so shameful if my life depended on it.” Aisha gasped. “Everything you did ten years ago, you did for yourself,” Scarlett continued. “Know your place. Don’t use me as an excuse.” Aisha stared at her in a daze. She was right. “You said you wished you were me, Aisha Spencer. I’ll do you the favor of asking you one more time,” Scarlett said with a smile. “Just who do you think I am?” Her smile was haughty and noble and more beautiful than anything in the world. She had known the answer long ago. She sensed something inside her crumble. She had known. That was the truth. She had shut her eyes out of self-interest. She was the reason it all happened. Everything was her fault. It was Aisha who had killed Scarlett. Her vision went black. Before she knew it, her hand was on the hilt of the knife she had tucked into her dress. “No!” An instant before she plunged the blade into her own heart, somebody came flying at her. “What can you do once you’re dead? Your death won’t erase what you did to Scarlett!” A strong hand grabbed her wrist and forced her to drop the knife. It wasn’t Scarlett anymore. Startlingly bright green eyes took in the empty shell that was Aisha. “You must stay alive to atone for what you have done.” In response to Connie’s words, Aisha bit her lip regretfully and nodded. Then she collapsed to the floor as if the string holding her up had been cut. Apparently, she had fainted. Connie called a servant, who seemed unsurprised to see her mistress lying on the ground and picked her up with practiced movements. As Connie gazed at Aisha’s body, as thin as a dead branch, she wondered if this happened all the time. Scarlett glared at Aisha with blazing eyes. Connie was unsure what to do. Should she call the military police or not? She had nothing that would qualify as evidence. Aisha could easily deny her confession, and that would be the end of it. Plus, several mysteries remained. Even if Aisha were detained, somebody else might get to her first, like they had with the earrings. “…Scarlett, let’s go,” Connie whispered, leading the way out of the Huxley residence. She had made up her mind. “Are you all right?” Randolph was waiting outside the front gate. Connie had told him she was meeting with Aisha today, and she guessed he’d come by to check on her. For some reason, the moment Connie saw his stern face, she nearly burst into tears. But she managed to hold them back and tell him briefly what had happened. “…It was Aisha. She poisoned the Luze family water jug. But she didn’t know it was poison. And she says she wasn’t the one who switched the earrings or put the poison bottle in Scarlett’s room.” “I see. Is there anything that could be used as evidence?” “She said she still has the bottle from back then. I think the one found in Scarlett’s room was put there by someone else.” “From ten years ago? It will definitely take time to prove her story.” Randolph frowned, narrowing his cerulean eyes. “Also, I’m not sure whether it’s related, but Aisha uses Jackal’s Paradise.” “…So she’s involved with Daeg Gallus, as I thought. I’ll send someone to watch her. We’ll know right away if she tries to do anything.” Connie nodded. She had much more to tell him, but she felt too exhausted to continue. Randolph raised his eyebrows slightly and told her he’d take her home. Taking her hand, he helped her into the carriage. He sat down across from her and silently took out the documents he’d brought with him. The rustling of paper was the only sound. Since Randolph seemed busy, Connie didn’t feel bad about staying silent. In other words—he was probably doing it for her sake. They arrived at her house without having exchanged a single word. When she looked up at him apologetically, he patted her head as if to say, Don’t worry about it. “Once you’ve had a chance to rest, tell me all the details.” Back in Connie’s room, Scarlett spoke up. “Why did you stop her?” she asked in a low voice. “We’d be better off if she’d died then and there. If we can’t put her in jail, we might as well send her straight to hell!” Her amethyst eyes were glowing. “You’re an idiot, Connie! Why did you save her?! She was the one! She was the one who—” “Because!” Connie said, forcing herself to fight back. “It would be no joke for her to take her own life because of something you said!” When Connie witnessed Aisha Huxley attempt to throw away her life without a second’s hesitation, she had felt pure fury. “I would never be able to forgive her—using you as an excuse until her final moment…!” Scarlett’s eyes widened in surprise. Connie squeezed her hand into a fist and continued. “Plus, if Aisha died now, we might lose our only clue. In the end, all Aisha put in the water jug was ordinary medicine. But those ornamental fish died. Someone must have switched the tonic for poison.” “Yes, or…maybe it was poison to start with, and Aisha simply didn’t realize,” Scarlett said, shaking her head sternly. Connie frowned. “…What do you mean?” “What if Aisha’s cousin was lying? Maybe it was Jackal’s Paradise in that bottle, not a weight-loss tonic. If you take too much of that kind of hallucinogen, I’ve heard you lose your appetite and you can stay up for days. Anyone would lose weight if they did that for long enough. Aisha herself is skinny as a stick. Take too much of any medicine and it becomes poison. She poured in the whole bottle of something that works with just one drop. That could easily have been a deadly dose.” For the first time, Scarlett’s face looked as uneasy as a lost child’s. She must have been thinking about it ever since they’d left the Huxley residence. She glanced down. “…Maybe everything that happened ten years ago was the result of mistakes and coincidence,” she blurted out. “If that’s the case, then I—” “But even if that’s how it began,” Connie broke in, “somebody put that poison bottle in your room. Someone switched the earrings. And we still don’t know what happened to Lily, or what Daeg Gallus is up to.” Scarlett looked up and blinked in astonishment. “Your revenge is still far from complete. Listen to me, Scarlett. I…” Connie remembered the absurd words Scarlett had spoken when they first met. I saved you, and I won’t take no for an answer! Constance Grail, prepare yourself. “I…promised to devote my life to making sure you get your revenge!” Starting on that day, Connie’s fate had been transformed. Scarlett froze at the sight of Connie with her hand on her hip, spewing out words with utter confidence. “…Occasionally you do say things that make sense,” she said, then burst out laughing. “How saucy! Are you sure you’re Connie?” Several days passed before anything happened. Abigail had summoned Connie to her home, and she and Randolph had gone together. Apparently, it was a matter of great urgency. Abigail and Aldous Clayton were already waiting in the drawing room. “Someone contacted the Mayflower yesterday,” Aldous said. “Apparently, Aisha Huxley confessed her guilt in the execution of Scarlett Castiel.” The room went silent. Connie stared at him wide-eyed, Scarlett frowned, and Randolph blinked slowly. It was Abigail who broke the silence. “Quite a scoop, isn’t it?” she said with a smile. “What…?” Connie finally managed to say, breaking out of her shock. Randolph rested his hand on his chin pensively. “I was sure she’d go to Daeg Gallus for help. This is a surprise indeed.”