Chapter 106
“Oh my, Miss! Are you alright? Have you woken up safely?”
Perhaps to allow their reunion, Segleninde stepped back from Cynthia’s side. Cynthia looked Melissa up and down, who was tightly holding her hand. Fortunately, she seemed unharmed.
Melissa, too, was relieved to confirm that Cynthia had not a single injury and looked perfectly fine.
“That’s a relief. If anything had happened to you, Miss, I…”
But then, Melissa’s face began to change.
Her pale skin was completely stained with black, and the skin of her face transformed bizarrely. In the place where her head should have been, a black flower like a tentacle bloomed, and in its center, a mouth lined with huge, sharp teeth appeared.
Cynthia froze like a stone at the sight.
“…Melissa?”
“I’m sorry for deceiving you all this time, Miss.”
Cynthia stared at the grotesquely transformed Melissa with a confused expression. The mouth in the middle of the flower hesitated as it spoke.
“I’m not human. I’ve belonged to this mansion from the beginning.”
Melissa’s true identity was that of a creature of the Wincastle Manor and the Third Floor boss, the ‘head maid’.
From the very moment, in that final instant, when she grabbed her just as she was about to escape the mansion, Cynthia had already somewhat expected it. The map only displayed human survivors, so Melissa, who was not human but a creature of this mansion, would not be shown.
But there were still too many things Cynthia could not understand. How could someone who was a creature of the Wincastle Manor be her maid?
“W-What happened? Why are you… Melissa…”
“The truth is…”
Melissa cast a brief glance at Segleninde, who was standing a distance away watching them, and then leaned her head close to Cynthia.
Even though the mouth at the center of the flower looked menacing and sharp, Cynthia did not think Melissa could possibly be a threat to her, so she didn’t flinch and listened closely.
Melissa whispered in a low voice.
“…I was ordered to watch over you. That’s all I can say.”
A chill wind brushed the nape of Cynthia’s neck.
Melissa withdrew her flower head that had come close, and slowly folded her petals. As the bud changed shape, the maid’s face that Cynthia knew reappeared. Her green eyes were brimming with moisture.
“But serving you up close as your attendant, cherishing and caring for you, that was genuine. Even after the banquet began, I sincerely wished for your safety. That’s why I’m truly glad to see you again, safe like this.”
“…..”
“I understand if you hate me for deceiving you. But… I heard you’re going to stay in this manor from now on. I’ll have to stay here as well, so… could you show me your face every now and then, just once in a while? Even that would be more than enough for me…”
At that moment, Cynthia tightly grasped Melissa’s hand.
She didn’t know how the real ‘Cynthia Obel’ would react if she found out, but at least the current Cynthia did not hate her.
“Not just once in a while. See me often. When did I ever say I hated you?”
“Miss…!”
“I don’t hate you. There’s someone here who’s told even bigger lies than you, you know.”
The fact that Melissa was actually a creature was certainly shocking, but Cynthia herself was not the real ‘Cynthia Obel’, but a transmigrator, so she was deceiving Melissa in her own way. Since she couldn’t say where the real lady Melissa served had gone, she herself was a fake.
Suddenly, Cynthia had that thought. Melissa, crying as she tightly held her hand, and Segleninde, who watched from behind and gave her a purposeless smile when their eyes met.
They all love not the Shin Sia from Earth, but ‘Cynthia Obel’.
Thinking that, Cynthia felt as if she’d lost her way.
Would she really be alright? As an unchanging fake, could she stay here and safely return to her original world?
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