Chapter 98
“Does it suit your taste?”
“Huh? Yeah.”
In truth, she didn’t have the time to actually taste it. After realizing that Vallon had no shadow, Leticia found him increasingly terrifying and couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eyes.
What exactly is Vallon? Is he even human?
“But why the strange expression?”
As expected, Vallon didn’t overlook the change in Leticia’s demeanor.
“My expression? What’s wrong with it?”
Had her attempts to control her expression looked unnatural?
“You look like someone who’s discovered a secret they shouldn’t know.”
“W-What are you talking about…?”
Caught off guard, Leticia stammered. While her heart pounded as if it would fall to the ground, Vallon casually sipped his wine, utterly calm.
The red wine going down his throat looked like blood. The dining room was so quiet that the sound of the wine sliding down his esophagus seemed to echo.
Just then, someone entered the room.
“Ah, looks like she’s here.”
Leticia immediately recognized who had entered.
The woman, dressed in extravagant attire from head to toe, was unmistakably the Duchess. She had a sharp and cold impression, and it seemed that coldness ran in the family.
“Mother, please come in.”
Vallon greeted her with a smile. But the Duchess’s elegant expression cracked. She didn’t look pleased.
Was that the look of a mother seeing her beloved son? Absolutely not.
Her face, which looked irritated and angry, was devoid of warmth. Her furrowed brow made the atmosphere in the dining room even colder.
‘Is it because of me, sitting next to him?’
Leticia thought to herself that the moment she’d been dreading had finally come. She hoped, deep down, that the Duchess would slap her and tell her to leave this place immediately.
The sharp clicks of high heels heightened her tension. Leticia gulped as she looked at the Duchess, a woman who seemed like she could be quite the fierce character.
The Duchess’s fingers were adorned with rings, and Leticia was sure that if she were hit by one of those hands, her mouth would bleed, and her face would be scratched. Still, if it meant being free from Vallon, Leticia felt she could endure a brief moment of pain.
Screech.
The Duchess sat down across from Vallon and Leticia. Her sharp gaze remained fixed on Leticia, sizing her up from head to toe.
‘Tsk, how pitiful.’
That was the Duchess’s impression after looking at the young girl, whose baby fat hadn’t fully disappeared yet. She was certainly striking in appearance.
Hadn’t she been Vallon’s playmate when they were younger? From the start, that snake-like son of hers had been completely fixated on the girl.
***
At some point in the past, Vallon had stopped slaughtering animals, and the Duchess had thought his dreadful mental illness had finally been cured. But all of his peculiarities had transferred to the girl sitting in front of her.
The Duchess was well aware of Vallon’s obsessive nature. He had asked her only one question before.
He had asked where the girl with the radiant hair and bright eyes lived. At first, she hadn’t thought much of it, but it didn’t take long for her to realize it wasn’t just a normal level of affection.
One of the maids had burst into her room, pale as a ghost, as if she had seen something horrible.
“Madam, you must go to the young master’s room immediately.”
What could have scared her that much? Had he dissected animals again? At that time, the Duchess had considered her son nothing but a troublemaker, thinking she might need to commit him to a mental hospital to avoid losing her sanity.
“Did he kill another animal? It’s not the first time—just clean it up.”
“No, it’s not that… You really need to see for yourself.”
In the end, she had no choice but to follow the maid. Vallon, who had never been a particularly active child, was, as usual, sitting in his room. How could he even see in such a dim space?
He was sitting in a corner, drawing by the light of a single candle. At first, the Duchess thought all this fuss was over a mere drawing, but when the maid turned on the light, her opinion changed completely.
“My God…!”
She had known he was mad, but not this mad.
The room was filled with drawings, from the walls to the floor. Every single one of them was of the same girl. All of them had the same expression.
Though the girl in the drawings was smiling brightly, there was something unsettling about it. Her son, who never showed emotion, had drawn a smile that was anything but perfect. Looking at those incomplete smiles made the Duchess feel deeply uncomfortable.
“Ugh…”
She felt like throwing up at her son’s bizarre behavior. It seemed like all the drawings in the room were staring at her, sending chills down her spine. Why couldn’t this child be normal?
If her husband ever saw this, it would be a disaster. She needed to get rid of them quickly.
Discussion
0 CommentsReactions
No comments yet.