ITTWACP • NACP

Chapter 121

Killian smirked at that answer. "Did you check the basement?"

"What?"

"That villa has a basement. Didn't you know?"

Cliff froze, and Lizé, standing beside him, looked very pale.

"Leonard. Explain what you saw when you went down to Wellesley's basement."

As Killian commanded, the knight who had checked the basement with Killian took one step forward and spoke in a clear voice.

"When the door leading to the basement was opened, there were several doors on one side of a long passageway, and only one of them was open. In the middle of the room was a chair where someone had been tied up, and on the floor was a horsewhip, bloodstains, and...... part of Lady Edith's corsage."

Killian's fierce gaze flew to Sophia. "It must have been you, Sophia, who tied Edith up there and tortured her. You kept saying she wasn't there until the very end, just to kill her."

Then Sophia began to giggle. "You have a long life. How the hell did you get out of there?"

Maybe because it was a freezing-cold execution ground, but her giggling was creepy as hell.

'Maybe she's the ultimate villainess in this story.'

For a human being who takes pleasure in tormenting Edith for having something she doesn't have......

"We can't afford to lose any more time, so put Edith in the dungeon for now."

The Duke, who seemed to be thinking about something, ordered me to be imprisoned again, his voice softer than before.

Killian tried to protest again, but the Duke firmly turned his head away from him.

Grabbed by the knights again, I began to walk toward the dungeon.

My legs wobbled from the tension, but the knights were much more polite than before, and I didn't end up being dragged.

The knights who had led me to the dungeon scurried off again, and I stood there a little dazed in the silence, listening to the crackle of torches.

'What happens to me now?'

In the original story, the narrative after this episode is pretty much centered around Lizé and Cliff. I realized that even if I knew that, it wouldn't help me at this point.

"Ugh, it's really cold in here."

Earlier, I hadn't really felt the cold because I thought I was about to die, but now I wondered how I hadn't felt it before.

The aches and pains I had forgotten were back.

I shivered, pulling my coat tightly around me.

Then I heard screams in the distance.

'The execution has begun.'

I was unmoved by the sound of people being beheaded, knowing that they were the ones who would die at this point.

Honestly, I just felt like they were being punished by heaven.

'Oh, I'm sleepy.'

I didn't mean to do it while listening to people die, but the aftermath of not sleeping for days was finally setting in.

I am so tired, so sleepy.

'If I fall asleep in a place like this, I'll die......'

With that thought, I drifted off to sleep.

But then I woke up to a strangely familiar darkness, like floating in lukewarm water and seeing the universe......

'Huh? Isn't this......?'

As soon as I thought that, I heard a voice I had missed.

[The third exception condition has been met. An exception has been granted and the author's control has been reduced. The third exception condition will be removed.]

It was a notice that I had been wanting to hear for a long time.

But this time, my mind was flooded with question marks.

'What? What was it? What was the exception condition this time?'

I was so overwhelmed that I didn't even bother to ask as politely as I had before. But as if politeness wasn't important, the announcer-like voice answered,

[The third exception condition: Do not resist your death fate.]

Huh?

I was dumbfounded, and then I asked again,

'What did you just say?'

[The third exception condition: Do not resist-]

'No, I didn't ask you to say it twice! What the hell does that mean?!'

[It means giving up the will to live when you are on the verge of death.]

'Oh, you mean, like I did earlier? When I saw someone coming to kill me, I offered him my neck and hoped it would be done quickly......?'

[That's right.]

When the AI-like voice confirmed my answer, I felt even more like shit.

I was dumbfounded for a while, even though I was in a dream, and it was funny to feel that way.

It wasn't until much later that I felt a surge of anger.

'That damn author!'

You fucking asshole, are you playing with people's lives?

Every swear word I knew quickly flashed through my mind, reproducing my anger.

That man, woman, beast, or whatever, the author, must be a crazy psychopath!

This is not a fair or fun game at all.

The third exception condition is tantamount to telling me to die!

"Don't resist your death fate" means telling me to set my mind to die!

It's almost impossible for a human being, or any living thing, to do that.

'And I've managed to do the impossible. That's a real kick in the teeth.'

During my time in the basement of the Wellesley villa, along the way to the capital, until I arrived in the capital and hid myself, covering my face with a scarf, I thought only of living.

And that's what brought me to the execution ground.

'Even if I had taken a long carriage ride, the knights would have chased me down and captured me, wouldn't they?'

I couldn't stop myself from laughing.

However, the damn announcer-like voice was not yet finished and I heard another notice.

[Congratulations, you've survived. The original storyline set up for Edith Ludwig is now gone. The force holding this world together has been changed from 'original flow' to 'probability' as the original flow has become extremely weak.]

I was drained, but somehow I won the battle against the original.

All the author's efforts to kill me as a villainess have been undone by my immense luck.

'What I said to Sophia was half true. The hard worker can't beat the lucky...... I have never wished for this kind of glory, but......'

Only then was I able to fall into 'real sleep' with peace of mind.

* * *

'Why did this happen? Why......?'

Lizé had been kept out of the execution ground by the Duke and Cliff's concern, so that she wouldn't have to see the gruesome details of the execution.

But Lizé's hands, bundled in her warm fox fur coat, were still shaking.

'I can't believe I lost!'

Lizé paced back and forth outside the execution ground, chewing on her fingertips.