A Mad Lady’s Confession - Chapter 80

When he called her name, the woman in the cat mask flinched.

A fire ignited in his eyes, which had been impassive only moments earlier. Matthias’s gaze shifted to the blade Eleanor was holding. Her hand trembled violently around a small silver fruit knife, the sort used for nothing more than cutting fruit.

There was no need to ask what she was doing. Eleanor Brynhill had been about to drive the silver blade into Crown Prince Klaus’s heart.

“Eleanor.”

When he called her name once more, the slender figure shuddered as though awakening from a dream.

The woman’s gaze left him and turned toward Klaus, sprawled across the bed. Her hands rose high with renewed resolve, then hesitated in midair for a fraction of a second.

“Klaus!”

At the voice coming from outside the bedroom, Matthias didn’t hesitate.

He crossed the room in a single stride, snatched the knife from Eleanor’s hand, effortlessly swept her into his arms, and concealed them both behind a secret door in the wall that he knew well.

The door closed with a quiet click just as Daphne Fram entered the room.

“Klaus!”

Her shouting sounded distant and muffled. In the pitch-black space devoid of even a trace of light, the two stood facing each other.

Afraid she might slip away, Matthias gripped Eleanor’s shoulders and drew her tightly against him, struggling to collect himself and determine whether this was yet another dream.

The woman’s delicate scent reached his nose. That meant this wasn’t a dream.

“Wake up, Klaus!”

Daphne Fram’s voice continued outside. Yet amid it all, only the woman’s shallow breathing reached Matthias’s ears with piercing clarity. Unable to see her, he had to sense her through everything else.

She was real. The person he held now was Eleanor Brynhill, the woman he’d searched for so desperately. She truly existed. She wasn’t a phantom created by his imagination.

Matthias lowered his voice as much as possible.

“You can’t go back out there now.”

“….”

“If you promise not to run and follow me, I’ll show you the way out. If you refuse….”

Matthias placed a hand against the wall. A tiny gap opened, allowing a thin sliver of light to enter from outside.

“Then the two of us can face the punishment for secretly hiding in the crown prince’s room together.”

For a moment, the only sound from the woman was her breathing. Then Eleanor let out a quiet sigh as though resigning herself.

Quickly recognizing her surrender, Matthias took her hand and led the way through the darkness with practiced ease.

The imperial palace contained countless secret spaces. Most had been constructed so the emperor and other exalted members of the imperial family could escape the castle in the event of war or a comparable emergency.

But the passage inside the walls of the crown prince’s palace wasn’t intended for emergencies.

The two walked through the darkness for a long time. Matthias moved slowly to match Eleanor’s pace, but never once released her hand as they made their way along the passage.

Only after some time did they reach a door. When he pushed it open with some force, the cold winter air greeted them.

Matthias looked around. They were at the farthest edge of the crown prince’s palace, beyond the castle walls. There was no one nearby, only a secluded path just wide enough for a single carriage.

He’d heard exactly what purpose the hidden passage they’d just emerged from served. He dwelled on the unpleasant thought only briefly before looking behind him.

A cat black as night stood with its gaze lowered. More precisely, Eleanor Brynhill, wearing a black cat mask, couldn’t bring herself to look at him.

“Take off the mask first.”

“….”

After a brief hesitation, a fair hand removed the covering from her face. Only when Matthias saw her did he finally breathe again.

Eyes like green grapes, a small but finely shaped nose, red lips that looked carefully painted upon white paper. It was the face that remained behind his eyelids whether his eyes were open or closed.

He swallowed against his dry throat.

The frigid December wind brushed the nape of the woman’s neck above her thin dress. He removed his jacket, draped it over her shoulders, and fastened the front securely.

“…Are, are you all….”

“Be quiet. I don’t want to talk any further here.”

“….”

Without another word, Matthias pulled Eleanor toward the waiting carriage.

Late that night, the master of the house returned from the imperial banquet. Nielsen’s elderly butler straightened his attire and took his customary place at the entrance of the mansion.

As the carriage bearing the family crest came to a stop, he automatically imagined how drunk his master might be tonight.

Just as the butler thought he ought to prepare hot tea with honey, his master stepped out of the carriage.

“Welcome home, Master.”

Before he could ask whether a bath or tea should be prepared first, the butler’s mouth snapped shut. Behind his master, he’d caught sight of the hem of a dress descending from the carriage under Matthias’s escort.

“…Madam.”

“Prepare some hot tea.”

With the wisdom of age, the butler immediately understood that he was to bring the tea without causing a commotion. He bowed respectfully to the duchess, who greeted him with a faintly apologetic look, then hurried inside the mansion.

He couldn’t remember how long it had been since his master asked him to prepare tea instead of alcohol. Strength returned to the elderly butler’s steps.

When the carefully prepared cup of tea was placed on the table, Matthias pushed it toward the woman.

“Drink.”

“….”

“We’ll have a great many questions to ask and answer tonight, so you’d better drink it now.”

She must have resigned herself to some extent by the time she followed him here. Eleanor obediently lifted the cup and moistened her throat. The warm water infused with fragrant flowers calmed her mind.

While the cold gradually left her, Matthias examined Eleanor as though licking over every inch of her.

He scrutinized her slightly thinner jaw, her cheeks flushed from the outdoor air, the weariness around her eyes, and the face that remained as beautiful and lovely as ever.

Unable to restrain himself any longer, Matthias asked, “Where did you disappear to that night? Why in the world….”

He couldn’t finish. Even now, remembering the end of that summer left a bitter taste in his mouth and made his heart race with anxiety. They were emotions Matthias Nielsen had never experienced before in his life.

Whether she understood how he felt or not, Eleanor answered calmly, “…While you were asleep, I returned to the estate alone.”

There, she changed into the clothes she’d worn before coming to Nielsen, gathered her belongings, and left Solvikviche. Avoiding people in an estate that hadn’t yet awakened wasn’t difficult. She’d once been Brynhill’s “little rat,” after all.

“…I took a hired carriage to Stentna, where the sanatorium is.”

“Dr. Milton said he didn’t know where you were.”

“Because I didn’t go there to see him…. There’s someone I knew from my time at the sanatorium.”

“You traveled all the way to Stentna alone?”

It was easy to say, but women traveling alone faced countless dangers. Nor was it possible to reach Stentna in a single journey. Eleanor hesitated at Matthias’s question before speaking.

“…Please promise you won’t hold anyone responsible.”

Even now, she watched his reaction and sought a promise. When he merely stared at her in chilly silence, her fidgeting lips continued, “…The abbess… introduced me to someone she knew….”

“Ha.”

“Please don’t say anything to her. I begged her because I needed help!”

She called it help. What kind of help could she possibly have meant?

“…Was that help intended to assassinate the crown prince?”

Eleanor’s shoulders trembled faintly at the cutting word. Suppressing the sudden urge to pull those shoulders into his arms and soothe her, Matthias clenched his teeth.

“Tell me, Eleanor. Did you leave Nielsen that night because of the crown prince?”

Did you leave me because of Klaus? Did you approach me because you wanted to use me, as someone claimed?

After hesitating briefly, Eleanor slowly nodded.

“Yes….”

“….”

“I left Nielsen because I intended to kill Crown Prince Klaus….”

A woman incapable of harming even an insect claimed she intended to kill the crown prince. He could still vividly see her trembling hand, unable to stab Klaus even with the knife raised.

The woman before him, who declared she would kill someone, fidgeted helplessly with her clasped hands. And yet she intended to kill a man.

“Why?”

Every question he needed to ask Eleanor Brynhill was condensed into that single syllable.

Why did you leave me?

Why were you trying to kill the crown prince?

Why did you tell me you loved me?

Why do you seem beyond my grasp even when you’re standing before me?

The woman raised her head and looked at him. A resolute will he’d never seen before lingered in her eyes like a deep-seated grievance.

“Because the crown prince caused Del’s death.”

“….”

“I have to avenge Del.”

That name again.

Del. Someone without form or substance who didn’t exist. Someone Eleanor Brynhill had probably created.

Desperate to grasp even a straw, he’d investigated everything connected to Eleanor Brynhill in exhaustive detail. He couldn’t simply take the words of Dr. Milton or Count Brynhill at face value and leave it at that.

But nowhere did a person named Del exist. No one remembered such a woman, and not even a single document connected to Del could be found.

He’d merely reconfirmed what he already knew. Del didn’t exist. She was an imaginary person created by Eleanor Brynhill.

“The crown prince caused Del’s death.”

“You don’t believe me, do you?”

Belief. The person named Del had never existed in the first place.

But Eleanor Brynhill believed in Del. She said the woman died because of the crown prince.

Del was merely an illusion.

Everything proved it.

Del was real.

Only Eleanor Brynhill proved that.

Belief. What could he believe? What should he believe?

“…You don’t have to believe me. I’ll do it alone anyway….”

“I believe you.”

The words flowed from him as though he were bewitched.

Though she’d wanted him to believe her, the woman now looked at him in confusion. As Matthias faced that expression, he realized there was nothing he could do about it anymore.

He’d chosen to believe Eleanor Brynhill. He’d decided to believe that in this insane world, she alone spoke nothing but the truth. He could no longer help but do so.

“I believe you, Eleanor.”

The woman’s eyes crumbled with sorrow. The walls Matthias had labored to build so solidly, made of all the common sense, dignity, and pretense that had defined him for twenty-eight years, slowly crumbled as well.

“…I believe you. So tell me everything…. Please.”

His plea and entreaty were the first flowers he revealed after tearing down those walls.