A Mad Lady’s Confession - Chapter 72
“Welcome home, Master.”
The silver-haired butler greeted him with a respectful bow. Recently, one concern had refused to leave the Nielsen family’s butler.
It was the change in his master, whom he’d never once seen lose his composure throughout all his years of service.
His indifferent expression remained the same as ever, so no one else noticed, but the butler could tell. He saw the duke, unable to sleep deeply even at night, sometimes going to the study to drink.
None of the light remained in the eyes that had always shone with intelligence. They were empty, as though someone had bored pitch-black holes into them.
He believed the reason was that the duke had returned to the capital alone. More precisely, it was because of the absence of Madam, who hadn’t returned to the capital with him. What could have happened to keep her from coming?
“I won’t be dining. Bring rum to the study.”
Drinking while he worked was a habit he’d never had before. Matthias Nielsen had always possessed the self-control to enjoy everything in moderation, so seeing him seek alcohol every day lately was unfamiliar.
“A guest is waiting for you in the drawing room.”
“Who?”
His question sounded somewhat urgent. It was an emotional shift the butler hadn’t expected from the indifferent, empty face he’d worn moments earlier. Knowing whom his master was hoping for, the butler felt sorry to answer.
“He says he’s Dr. Milton from Stentna.”
The man sitting across from him wore a somber expression.
Although patches of white showed in his hair, he appeared to be around forty. With small-lensed spectacles perched near the tip of his nose and a crease between his brows, he looked somewhat unlike the typical doctor.
“I only heard about it from the nurse belatedly. I was attending an academic conference in the Huvetona region, so I’ve only just….”
Matthias sat with his legs crossed and leaned against the backrest as he regarded Dr. Milton. Smoke from the strong cigar he’d recently begun smoking again billowed over the doctor’s figure.
The person Matthias had sought while he remained out of his mind for some time even after the woman left of her own accord was now sitting before him. This man was supposedly the doctor who operated the sanatorium in Stentna where Eleanor Brynhill had stayed.
He thoroughly investigated the facility in case there had been a problem with her treatment. It was only natural to suspect the sanatorium’s methods, since the Eleanor he’d seen had committed increasingly bizarre acts rather than improving. Unexpectedly, however, it was an ordinary place.
Nor was it a radical sort of hospital that locked people up or tortured them to cure mental illness, as rumors in the capital suggested. It was said to be a quiet, peaceful place that treated the mind through meditation, counseling, and a small amount of medication.
“Your Grace, did Eleanor ever speak to you about Del?”
Matthias’s brow sharpened at the question.
“Del?”
It was a name he remembered hearing from the woman once. Matthias pressed his cigar into the silver ashtray and extinguished it.
“I’ve never heard of her.”
It wasn’t a lie. He’d heard the name Del, but he’d never heard anything about Del. He didn’t know who the person was because Eleanor had never told him. That was how little he knew about Eleanor Brynhill.
At his answer, Dr. Milton continued with an expression steeped in deep regret.
“…When I first saw Eleanor in Stentna, she was in a very precarious condition.”
It would’ve been better if she’d struggled, screamed, or lashed out. That would’ve meant the pain in her heart was bursting out through her body, so it might have been a more positive state.
“She was completely empty. Everyone said Eleanor, that child, had gone mad, but in my view, it would be more accurate to say her mind was simply gone….”
Like something corroded by time, every color that made up Eleanor Brynhill had faded. It seemed as though she might crumble entirely into powder and scatter at any moment.
“We held many counseling sessions. At first, she refused to speak, but when I told her stories about my siblings, she gradually began to respond. Then, from a certain point onward, she started trying to live. She actively participated in counseling and often shared stories about herself.”
It wasn’t really a deep intention. It was customary to begin with a patient’s family when counseling them about their psychiatric history, but whenever the subject of family arose, Eleanor either fell silent or merely smiled and changed the subject.
“Even so, Eleanor Brynhill improved quickly. Honestly, the counseling and treatment probably had little effect. It was simply… because that was the kind of person she was at her core.”
Healthy and bright, with a fundamental nature that allowed her to blow off wounds and scrapes and rise again.
“….”
Matthias suddenly felt his throat tighten. He swallowed against its dryness and asked something else.
“So who is this person called Del?”
When he visited Giela Düsseldorf, she’d mentioned that name too. Eleanor Brynhill had visited her and asked about “Del.” Yet Giela herself hadn’t known anyone by that name.
She’d also offered one speculation.
“Is this woman named Del the culprit from ‘that night’?”
She seemed to be trying to take the blame for something. That had been Giela’s conjecture.
The woman he’d held in his arms until the previous night had vanished like smoke, so he’d had no room at the time to dig into an incident long past. Even when the woman was by his side, he’d never been curious about her past in the first place.
But what if something involving Del, the woman, and the incident that night had caused Eleanor Brynhill to disappear?
“Your Grace, do you know the late Count Brynhill?”
“…I don’t recall ever meeting him, but I’ve heard enough stories to know a little about him.”
“Then there’s no need for me to explain it delicately…. As you know, the late Count Brynhill suffered from mental problems. Of course, I only know what I’ve heard, but in any case…. I understand he was fine while the late countess was alive, but the problems began after she passed away….”
“I understand she died giving birth to Eleanor Brynhill.”
“Yes, that’s right…. In any case, what I’m trying to tell you is that the Brynhill family has a history of mental illness extending back through previous generations.”
Matthias couldn’t understand what the doctor was trying to say. If he meant to tell him the woman wasn’t sane, both men in the room were already sufficiently aware of that fact.
“What do you mean?”
“Del wasn’t the culprit that night.”
A little strength entered Dr. Milton’s voice, which had remained subdued until then.
“Del couldn’t have been the culprit. Because she doesn’t exist.”
“….”
“Del is an imaginary person Eleanor created.”
***
A hum flowed from her without conscious thought. A line from a song she’d once heard occasionally slipped between her pretty lips.
Ordinarily, she would never have behaved that way, if only out of awareness of her changed status, but she couldn’t help herself.
That was how elated she felt.
It was now certain that the Duchess of Nielsen hadn’t returned to the capital with him.
The commander of the Capital Guard had reported as much around two hours earlier. From that moment onward, Daphne Fram’s mood had begun rising sharply.
No. Perhaps it had begun a month ago, when she first heard that Matthias Nielsen had returned to the capital.
Nielsen’s servants were notoriously tight-lipped, and his security was therefore thorough, making it difficult to discover what was happening inside his household. But today, she finally obtained confirmation.
That bitch Eleanor Brynhill wasn’t in the capital. Matthias Nielsen alone was there.
Could it have been the Paper’s influence?
“You seem to be in an exceptionally good mood.”
Only when the voice reached her ear did Daphne Fram stop thinking. She’d been so excited while thinking about Matthias that she only now realized she wasn’t alone in the room.
When lips pressed against her shoulder with a kiss, goose bumps rose across her skin. She smiled sweetly.
“Why wouldn’t I be? Everything is peaceful.”
“Ha.”
Klaus frowned at her answer.
“My newborn half-brother is growing bigger by the day so he can take my place, and you call that peaceful?”
That again? Despite talking like that, he couldn’t utter a peep in front of that infant or the child’s father. Instead of revealing her thoughts, Daphne soothed him.
“Don’t worry. Even if he’s a child dearly loved by His Majesty, you know an emperor who fails to gain the nobles’ support cannot exist in Römern. Besides….”
Daphne Fram gently placed her hand on Klaus’s thigh.
“His Majesty still hasn’t officially acknowledged him, has he? That means His Majesty is mindful of his reputation as well. And as you know, the nobles are on Your Highness’s side.”
“And we have the Paper.”
Klaus spoke as he fiddled with Daphne’s hand. It felt as though insects were crawling over her fingers, so Daphne coyly withdrew her hand.
“I heard His Majesty ordered you to find the culprit and bring them before him.”
“That’s a headache too. I’ve run out of people useful enough to exploit.”
It was more likely because so many people had recognized the crown prince’s future prospects long ago. Daphne secretly glanced at Klaus, whose pallid complexion was concealed beneath face powder.
“If necessary, we can simply create a culprit, can’t we? As it happens, there’s someone who fits the circumstances perfectly.”
“Who?”
His question irritated her when he must already have had a general idea. Daphne pulled away from Klaus, who had become particularly clingy lately, rose from her seat, and walked toward the window.
“Wouldn’t the villainess of the capital be perfect?”
When she looked back, the crown prince smiled as though he understood. Two faces, one steeped in hideous greed and the other ravaged by disease, wore identical smiles.
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namseokmin
Okkkkkk I did also think Del was made up but the conversation with Giela sounded like a totally different person… so I assumed a twin.. ugh I’m hooked