Episode 27: Cornering the Culprit
“…What do you intend to do with me?”
Entering the empty room and closing the door, Ilias turned to look up at me, a frightened tone escaping his lips.
“…Spare me the poor acting, Ilias-sama.”
I regarded him with a cold, detached gaze.
“There’s no acting… I was just threatened and followed along out of fear.”
He continued his charade.
–Ah, he’s just like me.
This scene overlaps with when Samuel, the tutor, first confronted me.
Ilias will surely try to weasel his way out of this.
That’s what I would do.
Making himself appear weak and helpless, hoping to resolve things peacefully if possible.
A survival tactic.
–The last-ditch effort of someone who knows they’re powerless. Since a head-on collision would only get them blown away, they aim for the opponent’s weak spots, slipping through to move forward.
But I won’t use it to hide my misdeeds.
“You poisoned the juice you gave to Ati, didn’t you? I saw you.
You deliberately held the glass from above, slipping the poison you had hidden in your palm into it.”
A trick often used by magicians.
“Poison? I would never–“
“Then, would you mind drinking the juice from earlier?”
As I pressed him, he dropped his frightened expression, slightly raising and then lowering his shoulders in a “good grief” manner.
So, he’s dropping the act.
“Is there any reason why I would do something like that?”
Ah, he’s becoming defiant.
“There’s no reason for me to listen to what you say, right?”
Well, yeah. True enough.
“You could drag me and force the juice down my throat, but you won’t, will you? –Madame Karamanlis.”
He narrowed his eyes, a terribly sadistic glint in them.
…So, he knew.
Well, I figured as much.
He looked like he noticed just now.
“You don’t want to ruin Ati’s birthday, do you? That’s why you won’t do anything to stop the party.
That’s why you brought me here, isn’t it?”
Unwavering speech that belies his eleven years.
This kid, he’s got a quick mind, and he’s been doing this kind of thing since he was even younger.
He’s not to be underestimated — but it’s a waste.
If he used his abilities for something else, he could live as he pleased.
Why does he have to be so fixated on one person to feel alive?
“Besides,”
Ilias curled his childishly cute lips into a sly grin.
“If I make a scene here, you’re the one who’ll be in trouble.”
Correct.
Ugh. What a nasty personality.
“No one but you saw me put anything in that juice.
So, if I claim that you were the one who did it, that’s how it will be.
–Regardless of the truth.”
Well, that’s certainly true.
Ilias-shonen has far more trust in this mansion than I do.
“In the first place, you’d be in trouble if your true identity was revealed here, wouldn’t you?”
The malicious boy concluded, wearing a completely triumphant smile.
I scratched my cheek, a bit perplexed.
“…So, you admit to poisoning the juice?”
He definitely said it earlier. “No one but you saw me put anything in that juice.”
I knew Ilias put something in the juice, but I wasn’t sure it was poison.
…He really did it, didn’t he?
“Yeah. Well, in this situation. But once I leave here, I’ll deny everything and pin the blame on you.”
Wiping away his earlier sinister grin, he declared with a childishly cheerful smile.
Hmm. I’m stumped.
He’s not remorseful at all.
This is a grave problem.
If he had regretted or reflected on his misdeeds after being exposed, there might have been room for rehabilitation.
But this kid doesn’t think what he did, or tried to do, was wrong, bad, or unforgivable. Not even a little bit.
His desires are everything. Zero social awareness.
This is bad for an eleven-year-old.
What to do…
“…Ilias-sama, are you familiar with fingerprints?”
I muttered, clenching and unclenching my hand.
“Fingerprints?”
The intelligent, obsessive boy looked at his palm and fingers, just like me.
He probably knows. We use thumbprints, after all.
“Humans have patterns on their fingers, right? These are different for each person. No two people have the same fingerprints.”
Even identical twins have different fingerprints.
“Since our fingers secrete sebum, touching something leaves a trace of those fingerprints.
Especially on hard, smooth surfaces.”
Like the glass that held the juice.
“Fingerprints can be made visible by sprinkling fine particles like ash and blowing them away, leaving the ash in the shape of the fingerprint.”
As I said that, I could see Ilias’s expression visibly change.
He must have realized what I was implying.
“As you know, I didn’t touch that glass with a single finger. I’m not wearing gloves, so I can prove I didn’t touch it.
So.
What about you?”
Of course, Ilias isn’t wearing gloves.
In other words, the glass that Samuel, the tutor, is securing has Ilias’s fingerprints on it.
“T-That’s just proof that I touched it!”
He started to panic.
Probably because things didn’t go as he expected.
He’s still a long way to go if he’s flustered by something like this.
“Well, I don’t care about your evidence.
I don’t want to expose what you did to the people there. I just need to be able to deny it myself.”
I let out my true feelings.
That’s right, my goal isn’t to expose Ilias.
Then, relieved by my words, Ilias looked relieved.
“Then, I’ll back off today. So, if you don’t want your true identity revealed–“
“I wouldn’t be that troubled if you revealed my true identity.”
I stared straight into his eyes and declared it clearly.
He showed a surprised face.
He seemed to believe that I desperately didn’t want my true identity revealed.
There’s no way.
“Well, I’d certainly be blamed. ‘What were you doing sneaking into the mansion in men’s clothing, Marchioness?’
If I say I wanted to attend Ati’s surprise party, that’ll be the end of it.
I’d get scolded a bit, told to stay home, and that’s it.
Well, it’d be a hassle later–“
He must have noticed a certain emotion welling up in my eyes.
Ilias-shonen began to tremble.
“–That doesn’t matter. Compared to Ati’s life being constantly threatened, it’s nothing.”
I put my hand in my back pocket.
Ilias flinched.
“Fortunately, there’s no one here.”
I gave a faint smile and took a step forward.
In response, Ilias took a step back.
“When treating an illness, the basic principle is to treat the root cause, not just the symptoms. Problem-solving is the same.”
I took another step forward.
He took another step back. But his back hit the wall of the room.
“I-If you kill me here, the others will find out, and you won’t get away with it either!”
Ilias looked up at me with a terrified expression.
He was wriggling, trying to move back somehow, even though it was impossible.
I laughed.
“Oh, Ilias-sama. Do you think I’d leave evidence? You know there are ways to kill without leaving blood, right? You can break the cervical vertebrae. You’ll die before you feel any pain.”
“But, the body…”
“I can just carry it away quickly. It’s the middle of the party right now. No one will notice if I take advantage of the commotion. Then, I’ll chop it up, crush it, grind it, and turn it into feed, and all traces of your existence will disappear from this world. Easy.”
The moment I uttered the words, “all traces of your existence will disappear from this world,” his gaze darted around.
His eyes, unfocused, scanned the space.
“No…”
Suddenly, his face turned pale, and he began to tremble more violently than before.
“I’m here…”
Unable to stand, he clutched his head and knelt on the floor.
Eh, what’s wrong?!
Oh no, did my threat work too well?!
Even if he’s smart, it wasn’t a story to tell an eleven-year-old, was it?!
“I’m here!”
A great scream that seemed impossible to be emitted from his small body.
“H-Hey, Ilias-sama?!”
I thought he might be making a scene to frame me as the culprit or a suspicious person and drive me out, but something seemed off.
“Please don’t erase me, don’t erase me, I’m here… Look at me… I’m here, please, don’t erase me…”
Ilias continued to mutter like a mantra, collapsed on the floor.
The moment I felt a slight sense of déjà vu from those words–
“Found you! Iliasu! Look at present!”
The door to the room slammed open, and Eric peeked in, holding a toy sword.
“Eric-sama! No, not now──”
I hurriedly tried to stop Eric from entering the room, but I was too late.
Ilias was faster than my unguarded self.
Ilias leaped at Eric, who was standing in front of the door.
I saw a glint of light on the switchblade in his hand.