When I Finished Playing the Terminally-Ill Villainous Omega C23

Chapter 23

Toward evening, I heard through Howard that Mother was on her way back. I immediately tossed my medicine into my mouth, gathered two lamps fitted with glowstones, and headed down to the basement. Under the pretext of catching insects, I was going to see Locke. This time, it didn’t feel like a misunderstanding on my part—I truly felt that we had grown closer, and I wanted to talk with him more, to become even closer.

Yet Locke seemed unaware of my feelings and lay stretched out on the bed. Without the slightest sign of welcome, he spoke coolly.

“Anyone looking in might think you’re the criminal here, Young Master.”

“I can’t stop thinking about that insect you said was mating earlier. I should catch it before it lays eggs.”

I placed one of the lamps I’d brought at each end of the cell, then began swinging the riding crop I’d brought along, striking at insects hiding in the shadows.

Locke merely watched me from the bed, his gaze steady and unreadable. Occasionally, when a spider dropped from the ceiling and clung to my hair and I shrieked and rushed about in panic, he would silently remove it for me.

“Aren’t you grossed out by bugs?” I asked.

Shaking his hand free of sticky webs, he replied indifferently,

“Aren’t humans more disgusting than insects?”

“I’ll try my best to be less disgusting, then.”

My answer came out reflexively, and his gaze flicked briefly to my lips. Had I said something wrong again? As I swallowed nervously, something suddenly dropped through the slightly open neckline of my blouse.

A chill shot up from the nape of my neck and spread through my whole body.

“Aah! A bug! I think a bug got inside—my neck!”

I immediately stamped my feet and shook the hem of my blouse wildly. The sensation of something crawling over my skin made me writhe all over, and in a panic I tore off the blouse and flung it aside. Locke, who had been looking at me as if I were hopeless, hurriedly dropped his gaze.

“Look! Is there a bug? What is it? Don’t tell me it’s a centipede—or a spider?”

After letting out a short sigh, Locke rose from the bed as if he couldn’t be helped.

He scolded me for not standing still—how was he supposed to see anything otherwise?—then gently pulled my arm toward him. Bending at the waist, he slowly examined my upper body. Each time he exhaled, warm breath brushed against my skin, making me itch in places and stirring an odd, twisting sensation deep inside.

“Hm.”

“What is it? What is it?” I pressed, growing impatient as he deliberately took his time.

Instead of answering, his fingertips suddenly touched my skin. The coolness of his temperature made my body shudder in fine tremors.

“What’s wrong? Is it really a bug? Did you catch it?”

“It’s not that…”

With his fingertips, he slowly traced along the ribs connecting my chest and abdomen.

“You’re far too thin.”

The tension I’d been holding snapped all at once.

“You’re not even catching the bug!”

As his fingers moved languidly, the side of his hand lightly brushed against my nipple. A strange sound—huh—escaped my lips.

I froze stiff as stone. It felt as though time itself had stopped; he didn’t move his hand either. Only his breath lingered heavily against my chest.

“Why are you shaking so much?” he asked quietly.

“B-because you’re touching me—it tickles! Isn’t that obvious?”

“I thought something had just passed through here.”

He answered slowly, his hand once again gliding over my skin. The delicate, keen sensation skimmed across me, and I lost the rhythm of my breathing. My body felt as though it were gently boiling, and I avoided his gaze.

The subtle awkwardness lingered for a while. In the end, unable to endure it any longer, I picked up my clothes and said it must have already fallen off, moving to put them back on. Even then, Locke’s gaze remained fixed solely on my chest.

I resolved never again to ask Locke to catch bugs for me, and shoved myself back into my blouse with the buttons still half undone.

When I glared at him, huffing, he rubbed at the area around his mouth as if wiping it and turned his head away. For some reason, his earlobes looked conspicuously red.

❖ ❖ ❖

Darkness settled over the garden. Under the lamplight illuminating the path, a fine drizzle drifted down. Along the lamp-lined road, the Count’s antique carriage quietly crossed the garden path.

It was unmistakably Mother’s carriage.

I had been sitting on the bed watching the scene; now I closed the book I was holding and quietly rose. I had already sent word to Count Verden’s estate through Howard, so if she had read the letter, she would have a general idea of what had happened at the manor.

This was where it all began. After checking my reflection in the mirror, I left the room.

I was about halfway down the stairs, properly dressed, when Mother entered the entrance hall with my sister. I picked up my pace to greet her—then suddenly stopped.

What…?

I stared again at the entrance, unable to believe my eyes.

…I hadn’t imagined it. Through the door that hadn’t yet closed, Cassian was walking in.

He looked at me with cold eyes, brushed the rainwater from his shoulder, then pulled the corners of his lips into a smile, as though he had already seen through all my moves.

No wonder he had been silent even though it was long past the time he should have returned. It seemed he had gone to meet Mother at Count Verden’s estate.

That hyena-like bastard.

I need to stay sharp.

Mother gave instructions to Howard, who had come to take her coat.

“It’s late. We’ll hear the details after we wake tomorrow. Increase the guards in the basement and ensure that no one goes in or out. Keep a strict watch.”

She added firmly that “no one” included everyone except herself, then headed straight to her room.

I had been waiting for Mother’s return, but since she had spoken so decisively, there was nothing to be done. All I could do was wait.

Several hours passed after Mother’s return, and around dawn—

Hearing the faint sound of horses outside, my eyes flew open. It had to be the news I’d been waiting for. I rushed to my desk and carefully reviewed the record of events I had organized throughout the night.

❖ ❖ ❖

“Mother… what did you just say?”

After breakfast, Mother summoned Cassian and me to the annex drawing room. Until then, I had assumed—without much suspicion—that since it was a murder within the manor, she intended to handle it quietly, without drawing attention.

However, the first thing she spoke of was not the incident itself, but the scandal involving Locke and me.

“They say Locke harbored feelings for you that he should not have. That those feelings went too far, leading him to drag you outside and worsen your condition.”

Cassian’s doing. That despicable bastard.

“Mother, did you not read the letter I sent?”

I asked, disappointment clear on my face. I had expected the murder to be mentioned first, and there was also the possibility that Cassian had intercepted the letter.

But Mother only let out a deep sigh in response.

“Shouldn’t you answer my question first, Cedric?”

Her voice was calm, yet it carried considerable pressure.

“…I’m sorry, Mother. If you’re asking about my condition, then it was not Locke who worsened it, but my brother. If he hadn’t dragged my personal attendant into Allure’s domain and left him alone inside the barrier, I would never have been caught in the rain.”

“You speak as though I deliberately put your attendant in danger,” Cassian sneered. “Is that what he said? That I abandoned him there? Were you two close enough to exchange such pitiful complaints?”

“No. I inferred it from my brother’s behavior—how you pretended to know nothing when he went missing. If you were the one who took him to the hunting grounds, you wouldn’t fail to know why he wasn’t there. Yet you lied to me.”

As if it were no big deal, Cassian waved a hand dismissively.

“I didn’t pretend. I truly didn’t know. As soon as it started raining, I had a knight send Aiden and Locke back to the manor first. I assumed he’d be there. When he wasn’t, what else was I supposed to think but that he’d run off with someone else?”

His shameless lies didn’t end there.

“And really, how gutsy must he be to stay in monster territory after I ordered a retreat? A servant goes missing and a downpour starts, yet you still step into monster territory yourself. Or what—was that your secret rendezvous spot?”

I didn’t even know where to begin responding to such brazen speculation. I could only let out a hollow laugh.

“You consort with a market beggar and dare laugh after shaking the dignity of House Hestian?”

“That’s enough.”

At Mother’s firm command, Cassian’s relentless tirade came to an abrupt halt. Tension settled heavily over the drawing room.

How long had it been like that? The taut silence broke with a knock at the door.

“Come in.”

As the door opened, Locke was dragged inside by knights gripping both his arms. Forced to his knees before Mother, he bowed his head silently.

“I hear that for some time now, someone has been placing roses on Cedric’s table. They say that person was you. Did you know the meaning behind giving roses when you did so?”

“With all due respect, I did not,” Locke answered calmly, without the slightest sign of agitation.