The Villainess Will Not Bring Dishonor To Her Family

19 - Ghosts In The Closet - Part 1

After everything that happened things finally quieted down.

Many people left that night to go home, but several were provided with bedrooms for the night by the Salenders. We were one of the families seeking to spend the night, and so were the Tepets. Lionel had found poison, not once, but twice today. While the first one brought disgrace to Viscount Bryar, the second had unprecedented consequences for the Salenders. The party was shut down ahead of time to find out where said glass had come from, as no one believed a child would just walk around with poisoned alcohol...

All in all they never found out where it came from, and Gilbert got out of it without losing the smile plastered on his face. Honestly, he is... a worry. I was lucky this time because it was liquid, but it was a lot harder to test food. Gilbert wasn't a stupid boy, so if he decided to keep this up for 8 or 9 more years, then I wasn't sure I'd survive... Furthermore, I don't want to make friends with him either. Poison is he weapon of a coward, the weak, and the detestable. Right now I wasn't sure which he belonged to.

All in all I was exhausted after all of that. I think I would have preferred to go with the carriage, but at least there was a lock on the bedroom door in the room I was given. I'd expected to be put in a room with at least my brother, but it seems that Eric was considered too old now. I was relieved.

No matter how much of a war veteran I am, even I need to deal with the building stress with a good or proper night of sleep or I will fall apart... but with how warm it is tonight I doubt I will get a lot of sleep. These warm nights always haunt me. I let myself sink into the soft pillows and the fluffy duvet and feel the exhaustion pulling me towards the realm of dreams.

In the novel Lily would have gone through the same things I did with Gilbert, except she would have had the mind of an 8 year old. I conclude this, because nothing I've done should have ticked off Gilbert.

Still, for an 8 year old to be poisoned not once, but multiple times in a single day is quite frankly shocking. If it keeps up this way, I am not surprised that Lily would have turned into the 'villainess' of the story. With everyone being out to poison her and only Adela, her followers and Alstair being 'kind' to her, she must have had a lot of pent up stress to take out on the heroine. When the heroine was about to take Alstair away from her she likely panicked, since her biggest source of emotional stability came from Alstair's pretended kindness.

Of course this is just me guessing, but it wasn't a far stretch.

After all, what makes a villain?

One could argue that they are not born, but made.

However, all consciences are not born equal, nor are they bred equal.

While we are not cruel to begin with, and will not be cruel unless the environment gives a reason... some may be more tempted to go in certain directions if their past life has not been purified properly.

I, who has not been purified at all, has killed. I would be more likely to kill again. In my subconscious I deem it okay to kill. This is not a direct part of my memories. In other words. A person could have been reincarnated with no memories of their past life, but with the instincts of a killer. That is, the lack of remorse for killing.

I believe Gil falls under this category.

Compared to the seeming lack of problems in his family, his killing instinct is much too strong. Be it me or the death of the dog. He had no hesitance.

Of course, as long as no one triggered this instinct, he could live peacefully and perhaps even lose it with time. Sadly, Lily seems to have triggered it.

As for Lionel, I believe his cruelty is made.

After a lot of consideration, I've come to the conclusion that the current Lionel is gentler than the original by miles. This is not by my effort, at all. In other words, he still has a lot to go through before he becomes the Lionel from the novel. He does seem to have made plenty progress in the direction of the one in the though, and I blame his family situation.

Pushing away my guesses and conclusions I excuse Ameline the moment she's done being a bother. I can only call it that. She seems to believe it proper for a young Lady to be dressed by a maid, and have her hair brushed by a maid, and cleaned by a maid. At this point I'm not sure whether it is really that, or she just enjoys prettying me up like a little doll.

Lumere shifts out of his fish form and lands on the night table in front of me as he takes physical shape. He's a palm top knight now, and bows gentlemanly now where it's just the two of us.

"So, have I done well, Lumere-sama?" I ask the god tiredly as I place my head down next to him. My composure is slipping... my sight gets fuzzy.. I really don't want to go to that place tonight.

Lumere walks up to my hand on the table and softly strokes it. Of course he leaves a wet little trail as he does, but it's this kind of incredibly kind gestures I have come to expect of him.

His presence is the most soothing thing here in the summer.

Lumere doesn't actually have a gender, but since he consistently takes male shapes I decided to just go with that. Lumere as well seems satisfied with it.

I'm just about to drift to sleep as a sound escapes from the wardrobe door. A small thud like something moved... a rush of Adrenaline rushes through my body and makes me sit up on the bed with a jolt.

Ameline hung my dresses on another hanger by the door earlier, so we hadn't actually used that closet. I glance to Lumere, but as expected it's just watching. Whatever it is, it likely doesn't have a water fairy with it.

I pick up my crumbled composure... an assassin? I know I should expect another attempt at poisoning in the morning, but now? Of course there is no way Gilbert would miss the opportunity of a morning tired Lily, that would be less likely to be cautious about her drink... but they had to be rather serious if they even went for me at night, though this assassin had to be rather clumsy to slip inside the closet.

I slide off the bed quietly and walk up to the closet cautiously. I'm unarmed, but the katana prayer isn't fully finished. I'd prefer not relying on it since the consequences of using an unfinished spell can be quite dire.

I take a deep breath as I stare at the large oaken closet, preparing to face what is inside.

I open one of the closet doors wide open, ready to face anything... and below me is a couple of mini Lionel...

They have the same soft looking brown hair... but as they see me, they tremble with fear... Both of them were shrink into the corner of the closet like they were trying to become invisible and stare at me with wide opened eyes.

...I slowly close the wardrobe door.

For some reason Lionel's brothers are hiding in my closet... what should I do about this?

...

..

.

I hold in a sigh as I open the door to my room and glance down the hallway for any passing maids. Considering how often the adults request a form of room service, it shouldn't be hard to find one... none left? The hallway is quite empty, so I walk around a bit until I find one.

"Maid, I am cold, are there any spare blankets?"

"Of course, Lady Lily."

The maid bows and scurries off... thankfully she doesn't take too long, and after politely thanking her for her work, I return to my room and shut and lock the door behind me. I head to the bed to exchange my extremely soft and fluffy feather duvet for the blanket, before heading back to the closet. When I open the door again, they peer at me, but this time less frightened and more cautious. They're still in there... I shove the large duvet into the closet on top of them and then shut the door again without a word.

I head to the bed and quickly grab 4 or so of the many pillows and then go to shove those into the closet as well.

With that I'm satisfied and crawl back into the soft bed. If they want to spend the night in a closet I won't persuade them to leave. It seems their family life is quite troublesome after all.

Well, after moving about in the closet for a while to arrange their new bedding they seem to quiet down again, and after glancing to the door I curl up inside the blanket and slowly drift to sleep...

'They're coming!-'