It’s because all the education I received is coercive.
When I was Amy, I learned from teachers.
And…
“100 points. You know all the peripheral parts.”
“You don’t have to do more classes.”
“You have enough literary knowledge.”
“The etiquette is flawless.”
I was worried for no reason.
I already know everything, so how can I forget what I learned once?
The bridge of my nose rose to the sky.
I’m a follower of Pebula!
“History, politics, literature, and social studies are all passing marks.”
Minuet muttered with a strange face.
“But what’s the dance score like? It’s so different.”
It’s not my fault.
Perhaps because it hasn’t been long since I entered this body, or whether Ciora’s athletic nerves were originally bad, or because she couldn’t move her body completely.
“Where did you learn it?”
“I learned everything when I was young. I have a good memory.”
“You said you lost your memory.”
“Really?”
Why do I remember this?
I hurriedly looked curious.
Minuet looked suspiciously, but if I pretend not to know, it will be solved.
She frowned.
“Then I’ll skip all the basic education for you.”
“Okay.”
That was nicely avoided!
“And speaking of which, don’t tell anyone what you don’t remember. Mental illness is negative for reputation.”
“Hmm. Even to Count?”
“My father is not one to take risks.”
“Be…”
“Of course, Betty was also involved. You just have to be careful.”
Come to think of it, Cruello didn’t seem to know about my “memory loss.”
Betty’s mouth looks quite heavy.
“There are more problems.”
“What?”
“Minuet, you said you did a back-up investigation on me, right? Did you use an information organization inside of Bonetti?”
“I can’t touch you because it’s not under my direct control. I used the information guild. What’s wrong with that?”
Right, information guild!
I have been quite interested in guilds from before.
However, the first body was a child and the second body was a maid without money, so I could not be a customer.
But the story is different now.
I pointed at my head and said.
“I have to fill my memory.”
“I told you before. There wasn’t anything important.”
“It could be different if I listen to it. I might remember something.”
“And?”
I happily reached out my hand.
“Give me money.”
***
(3rd person pov)
Long white hair and a long beard.
An old man with a sage-like appearance was looking out the window.
His name was Heorim, an elder of White Desert.
“You’re falling behind.”
About two steps behind, Cruello quietly listened to the elder.
The old man turned to him.
“I don’t think I can understand. The opponent that the Senate was pushing for was from Count Bonetti, are you going to change that all of a sudden?”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s the same Bonetti after all.”
“Hah, the same Bonetti. How is the niece of an unblemished count like his successor?”
Heorim turned his head and said calmly.
But his hand as he brushed away his beard was trembling slightly.
As if to show the anger that boils within.
At best, they have created a perfect lineage, but even with filth, it is still oily.
Why did the Duke of White Desert come into contact with an unknown origin?
It is a weakness that will remain as a point of ridicule even after the great event is accomplished.
He could not tolerate it.
He will not forgive him either. Cruello then asked.
“So what do you want?”
“Break the marriage. This smuggling case has caused an uproar, so if you use that as an excuse, it will be over.”
“You don’t seem to know. It was after I found out about the smuggling that I wrote the letter for a relationship.”
“Then it’s time to create a new unsavory thing.”
“Elder.”
“If you leave everything to this old man, it will be alright.”
“The head… Am I really the head?”
Cruello asked coldly.
He stared at the old man with his eyes contorted.
“There is nothing I can do in the family according to my wishes. If that’s the case, Grand Elder-“
“Stop.”
The elder’s heavy voice trampled the short resistance from Cruello.
The old man pounded the floor with the cane in his hand.
Smoke rose from the cane.
“Everything is for the White Desert.”
Cruello’s eyes relaxed.
The young Duke of White Desert answered obediently.
“I’ll leave it to you, Grand Elder.”
Force was always used like this.
The elder clicked his tongue out loud and left the Duke’s office.
The sound of the cane hitting the floor and slow footsteps alternately moved away.
Cruello, who was left behind, was lowering his head with blank eyes.
Then, around the time the sign of the elder completely disappeared.
“Hahaha!”
He burst into laughter that he had been holding back.
A roar of laughter echoed through the office.
He somehow put up with pretending to be brainwashed, but how ridiculous.
“Yeah, I deserve to be mad.”
They chose jewelry by measuring this and that at best, but it turned into an imitation, so how angry that terrible elder must have been.
Thanks to this, Cruello really wanted to marry Ciora Velvet.
Cruello’s eyes are on the desk.
There were documents left by the elder.
「1) Ciora Wendy Velvet. 20.
─Wendy Velvet and Melos Velvet adopted Ciora in 454. She was 10 years old at the time.
─The identity of the biological parents cannot be determined.
—The subject’s parents died in a fire incident last month (August 464).
─The culprit is Hans, a user who worked at the Velvet Mansion. The death penalty was confirmed six days ago and is awaiting execution.
Uniqueness 1. Subject lives only in the bedroom. Same with her parents.
Uniqueness 2. No personal relationship.
Uniqueness 3. The Wendy couple neglected her.
A servant who worked in the mansion testified about her as follows:
1. She has no expression and does not speak.
2. She doesn’t leave the mansion, but she seldom encounters it either.
3. The servants referred to her as a doll or ghost.
2) The arson case of the Velvet Mansion…」
It was documents that the elder brought to persuade Cruello “moderately”.
Pls read only at pink muffin tl.
Eventually, he failed, but it succeeded in planting suspicions in his mind.
“I think that family is connected with the hearts.”
“I want to be engaged to His Highness instead of Minuet.”
The appearance seemed both pleasant and unpleasant.
Although they didn’t talk that much.
“She didn’t look like a doll or a ghost.”
Which one is it?
Was the elder writing a novel because he wanted to persuade Cruello so much?
If it’s not him…
“Did Ciora Velvet change?”
There were two people in his life who suddenly changed after being lifeless like a ghost.
And those two tore apart Cruello’s heart one by one.
He didn’t know if it’s related to them, but he was interested.
However, it will be different from before.
Even if the other person is sweet enough to die.
Even if they’re attractive enough to kill.
It will be easy to get his mind together because it will not come as a favor anyway.
“Blonde again.”
A bunch of documents crushed in his grasp.
“I’m sick and tired of it.”
***
(flashback in 3rd person pov)
One a day 12 years ago…
“Who are you?”
At the age of 9, Cruello asked in a trembling voice.
There was a familiar stranger sitting in front of him.
A girl with especially round eyes with freckles scattered on her nose like sugar powder.
The child’s name was Amy Royalsand, and Cruello’s fiance.
Suddenly, the engagement took place ignoring Cruello’s intention.
Nevertheless, the lonely child looked forward to meeting Amy, but the expectation was overwhelming.
Amy barely opened her mouth when she met him.
Disappointment occupied the vacancy as inflated expectations exploded.
Cruello hated Amy.
Still, he had to keep looking at his fiance.
He was happy to hear that she couldn’t meet him for a while because of what was going on, but the day came where she had to meet him again.
Cruello barely entered the drawing room, dragging his feet.
His teeth trembled as he opened the door at the thought of talking to a wall.
“…Are you Cruello? Why are you so cute?”
Amy Royalsand was acting weird.
He treated her as if she were a stranger, and her attitude was different from before.
“Why do you speak informally? Uh… Right, I should use honorifics.”
“It’s better to speak informally to get close.”
“The sky was so blue today. Yes, it’s blue. I knew it too.”
“Have you tried sorbet? It was really good. I didn’t know there would be such a sweet and cool thing in the world.”
“I think I’m the only one who’s been talking. Don’t you have anything to say?”
In a good way, she chatted like a sparrow.
If anyone else had been there, they would have been suspicious.
Moreover, Cruello’s favorite book at the time was the Monster Encyclopedia.
In that book, this story was written.
「A doppelganger swallows a person as a whole and changes its appearance to that person.」
Such a story was written.
「It sometimes takes away a person’s body.」
Whether this or that story, the solution was the same.
「Ask the person you are suspicious of. Then they will surely reveal a suspicious omen.」
“Who are you? You’re not Amy.”
So Cruello had the courage to ask.
“Huh…?”
Amy was bewildered.
It was the first time Cruello knew that a human eye could widen so much.
“What are you talking about? It’s me, Amy.”
Her face turned white and her voice trembled as if she had put in a staccato rhythm.
The conversation turned formal again.
“Do not lie. Amy never speaks more than three times in the drawing room.”
Cruello was happy.
A sense of victory over defeating the monster pierced the sky.
‘I have to tell Eden!’
But the monster was not exterminated.
The next day the monster sat again in the drawing room of the White Desert Duke’s mansion.
The girl, with her hair tied up, said terrifyingly as Cruello entered.
“I am Amy.”
His expression was also terribly frowned upon.
Cruello was terrified inside, but he pretended not to be.
“Do not lie.”
“What do you know about me? You only saw me five times.”