TOM Chapter 5

The word 'education' makes me feel resistant.

That's because all the education I received was forceful/coercive.

Amy was the last time, wasn't she? I met the teachers with some nervousness.

And then.

"One hundred points. You know everything down to the most detailed parts."

"There's no need to continue the lessons."

"Your literary knowledge is sufficient."

"Your etiquette is flawless as well."

I worried for nothing.

It was all content I already knew - how could I forget something I'd learned once?

My pride soared to the heavens.

I am a devotee of Phebula!

"History, politics, literature, social graces - all passing marks."

Minuet muttered with a puzzled expression.

"But why is your dance score like this? The difference is too stark."

That's not my fault.

Whether it was because I hadn't been in this body for long, or because Siora's motor skills were originally poor, I couldn't move my body perfectly.

"Where did you learn all this?"

"I learned it all when I was young. I have a good memory."

"Didn't you say you had amnesia?"

"Right?"

Why do I remember this?

I quickly put on a surprised expression.

Minuet looked at me suspiciously, but pretending not to know solves everything.

She furrowed one eyebrow.

"Then I'll skip all the basic education."

"Yes!"

An enthusiastic affirmation!

"And while we're on the subject, don't tell anyone about your memory loss. Mental illness is bad for one's reputation."

"Hmm. Not even to the Count?"

"The negotiations we've worked so hard on would become waste paper. Father isn't one to take risks."

"Be—"

"Betty's already been told to keep quiet, of course. You just need to be careful."

Come to think of it, Kruelo didn't seem to know about the 'memory loss' either.

Betty's lips are quite sealed, it seems.

"There's another problem."

"What."

"Minuet, you said before that you looked into my background, right? What'd you do, tap into some kind of intelligence network inside the Bonetti family?"

"That's directly under the family head, so I can't touch it. I used an information guild, but why do you ask?"

Right, the information guild!

I'd been quite interested in guilds for a while.

But my first body was a child and my second body was a penniless maid, so I couldn't become a customer.

However, now things would be different.

I pointed to my head and said.

"I need to fill in my memories."

"I told you before. There was nothing to dig up."

"It might be different if I hear it myself. Something might come back to me."

"So?"

I cheerfully held out my hand.

"Give me money."

Long hair white as clouds and a flowing beard to match.

An old man with the appearance of a sage was looking out the window.

This was Heorim, the Grand Elder of Whitedesert.

"This lowers our dignity."

About two steps behind him, Kruelo silently listened to the Grand Elder's words.

The old man turned his head toward him.

"I simply cannot understand this. The marriage candidate the Council of Elders had been pushing for was the young Count Bonetti, and now suddenly you want to change that?"

"It doesn't matter, does it? They're both Bonettis anyway."

"Ha, both Bonettis. How can the Count's adopted niece, who doesn't even share blood, be the same as his heir?"

The Grand Elder turned his head and spoke with forced composure.

Yet his hand smoothing his beard shook ever so slightly.

As if betraying the fury that burned within him like fire.

After going to such lengths to cultivate a perfect bloodline, now they dare scatter refuse upon it—surely even tolerance has its limits.

Why in heaven's name would the Duke of Whitedesert tie himself to some worthless pest of uncertain lineage?

Even when their momentous work reached completion, this would remain a permanent source of derision.

The Grand Elder simply could not stomach it.

That one would assuredly not pardon such disgrace either.

"So what do you want me to do, Grand Elder?"

"Sever the engagement. Given all the chaos from this smuggling business, that will serve perfectly as your justification."

"Apparently you weren't aware. I wrote that letter about fostering good relations after I found out about the smuggling incident."

"Then create some new unseemly affair."

"Grand Elder."

"Leave everything to this old man and it will be resolved well, my lord."

"My lord... Am I really the lord?"

Kruelo asked back coldly.

He glared at the old man with distorted eyes.

"I have no say in anything whatsoever within this house. If this is how things are going to be, maybe the Grand Elder ought to—"

"Enough."

The Grand Elder's weighty voice crushed that brief rebellion flat. 

The old man tapped his cane against the floor, and blue smoke began curling up from its head. 

"Everything is for Whitedesert, my lord." 

Kruelo's gaze grew distant and unfocused. 

The young Duke of Whitedesert replied with perfect obedience. 

"I'll leave it all to you, Grand Elder."

Why must you make me resort to force like this?

The Grand Elder clicked his tongue audibly and left the Duke's office.

The sound of the cane tapping the floor and slow footsteps alternately faded away.

Left behind, Kruelo sat with vacant eyes, head bowed.

Then, when the Grand Elder's presence had completely disappeared.

"Pfft!"

Hahaha, he burst into the laughter he'd been holding back.

Refreshing laughter echoed through the office.

He'd somehow endured it while pretending to be brainwashed, but how ridiculous it was.

That sight of him trying to maintain dignity while his beard trembled.

"Yes, it's understandable that he'd be furious."

After all that meticulous fussing over selecting the perfect gem, only to have it sneakily swapped out for a cheap fake—oh, how absolutely livid that wretched blood purist must be.

Thanks to that, he really wanted to marry Siora Velvet now.

Kruelo's gaze turned to the desk.

There lay documents the Grand Elder had left behind.

「1) Siora Wendy Velvet. 20.

—Wendy Velvet and Melos Velvet adopted the subject in 454. Subject was 10 years old at the time.
—Identity of birth parents cannot be determined.
—Subject's parents died in an arson incident last month (August 464).
—The perpetrator was Hans, a servant working at the Velvet mansion. Execution was confirmed 6 days ago and awaiting implementation.

Notable Point 1. Subject lives only in her bedroom. Same even when parents were alive.
Notable Point 2. No individual human relationships formed.
Notable Point 3. The Wendy couple neglected the subject.

Servants who worked at the couple's mansion testified the following about the subject:

1. Has no expression and does not speak.
2. Does not leave the mansion, but rarely encountered even within the mansion.
3. Servants referred to the subject as a doll or ghost among themselves.

2) Velvet Mansion Arson Incident........」

These were the documents the Grand Elder had brought along to 'gently' talk him out of his decision.

The old fool had ultimately failed, but he'd managed to plant some seeds of doubt anyway.

"I believe family is something connected by the heart."

"I want to get engaged to His Highness instead of Minuet."

Kruelo's mouth curved into a smirk.

The expression was equal parts amused and disturbing.

They hadn't exactly had deep conversations, but still.

"She certainly didn't strike me as some lifeless doll or ghost."

So which was it, then?

Had the Grand Elder gotten so desperate to change his mind that he'd simply fabricated the whole thing?

Or maybe his lackey had been so terrified of losing his head that he'd wildly exaggerated everything?

Or perhaps—

"Maybe Siora Velvet really had changed."

There had been two others in his life who'd gone from ghostlike and vacant to completely transformed.

And both of those lovely creatures had torn nice, bloody chunks right out of Kruelo's heart.

He had no idea if she was connected to them somehow, but his curiosity was definitely piqued.

This time would be different, though.

He wasn't about to hand over pieces of his soul just to watch them get carved away again.

Even if she turned out to be sweet enough to die for.

Even if she proved captivating enough to kill for—not this time.

She probably wasn't even approaching him with honest intentions anyway, so keeping his guard up should be laughably easy.

"Another damned blonde."

The stack of papers crumpled viciously in his fist.

"I'm sick to death of it."

One day, 12 years ago.

"Who exactly are you?"

9-year-old Kruelo asked in a trembling voice.

Sitting before him was someone both familiar and strange.

A girl with freckles scattered across her nose like sugar powder, with particularly round eyes.

The child's name was Amy Royalsand, Kruelo's fiancée.

The engagement had proceeded suddenly, ignoring Kruelo's wishes.

Nevertheless, the lonely child had looked forward to meeting Amy, but his expectations were crushed.

Amy barely opened her mouth when meeting with Kruelo.

When his inflated expectations burst, disappointment filled the empty space.

Kruelo disliked Amy.

Still, as his supposed fiancée, he had to keep seeing her face.

He'd been happy when told they couldn't meet for a while due to some matter, but the day came to meet that child again.

Kruelo dragged his feet and barely made it into the reception room.

His teeth chattered at the thought of conversing with the wall. But then.

"Wow... You're Kruelo? What? Why are you so cute?"

Amy Royalsand was strange.

She treated him as if seeing him for the first time and her attitude was different from before.

"Why are you speaking informally? Uh... Right, we used formal speech."

"They say it's better to speak informally to become close. That's what they said about children."

"The sky was really blue today. Yes. It's always blue. I knew that too."

"Have you tried sorbet? It was really delicious. I didn't know something so sweet and cool existed in the world."

"But it seems like I've been the only one talking. Don't you have anything to say?"

To put it nicely, she chattered like a sparrow; to put it badly, she babbled on chattily.

Anyone else present would have been suspicious.

Moreover, Kruelo's favorite book at the time was the Monster Encyclopedia.

That book contained stories like this:

「Doppelgangers swallow people whole and transform into their appearance.」

And such stories as this too:

「Ghostly undead represented by banshees sometimes steal and possess human bodies.」

Whether it was such stories or those stories, the solution was the same.

「Ask the suspicious party about their identity. They will surely reveal suspicious signs.」

So Kruelo gathered courage and asked.

"Who exactly are you? You're not Amy."

"Uh...?"

Amy was clearly flustered.

Kruelo learned for the first time that human eyes could shake so violently.

"What are you saying? It's me, Amy."

Her complexion paled and her voice trembled as if with staccato rhythm.

Her speech had returned to formal language too.

"Don't lie. Amy never speaks more than three times in the reception room."

Amy, who had gone pale as death—no, whatever thing was pretending to be Amy—fled.

Kruelo was delighted.

The rush of victory from beating an actual monster launched him sky-high with pride.

'I have to tell Eden!'

But the monster hadn't been vanquished.

The next day, the monster was sitting in the reception room of the Whitedesert ducal residence again.

The girl with her hair tied up like a horse's tail spoke as soon as Kruelo entered:

"I'm Amy."

Her expression was frighteningly scowling too.

Kruelo was inwardly terrified, but pretended not to be on the outside.

"Don't lie."

"What do you know about me? You've only seen me five times."

"Amy never opened her mouth in the reception room!"

"Maybe I just didn't want to talk."

"Then why were you chattering so much yesterday!"

"I wanted to become close with you."

"Uh...?"

"But you hurt my feelings."

Amy's eyebrows contorted as she grew sad.

Her round pupils seemed to moisten.