Pitiful Young Master in a Reversed World

Chapter 19

"Ah, right, Louis."

Zenia called me.

With the spoon still in my mouth, I glanced up at Zenia.

"Why?"

"Doesn't it feel like something's missing?"

"What's missing?"

"No, think about it. Wasn't there usually one more person in the dining hall?"

"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"

I answered with a serious face.

I had absolutely no idea what Zenia was talking about.

"Right? Maybe it's just my imagination?"

"Zenia. Are you still half asleep?"

Hearing my father's words directed at Zenia, she stroked her chin.

"Maybe......."

"Yeah. If you're going to spout nonsense, just go back to sleep."

Zenia scratched the back of her head awkwardly.

*

As I stepped out of the dining hall, Hamila brushed past me, pointing at my pants pocket as she walked away.

'What the heck?'

Feeling puzzled, I slipped my hand into my pants pocket.

It didn't seem like Hamila did that without a reason.

Then my fingers caught hold of a note.

When I unfolded the folded paper, a single sentence caught my eye.

[I have something to tell you, so come to the fourth floor after breakfast tomorrow.]

After reading the message on the note, I looked at Hamila walking far away.

'What on earth does this mean?'

Of all places, the fourth floor?

I had been to the fourth floor quite a few times too.

The storage room on the fourth floor, where Beya was presumed to have gone, was the very place where I had dug the floor myself, installed a trapdoor, and laid a rug over it.

Besides that, there were several other secret passages connecting the third and fourth floors.

Actually, this mansion had an enormous number of secret passages.

Just like an ant nest.

Anyway, since childhood, I had discovered countless secret passages, so I knew the entire structure of this mansion inside out.

Even when sneaking out of the mansion, I had never once used the main or back gate.

Naturally, I knew roughly what was going on on the fourth floor too.

That's why I had even less idea what Hamila's intentions were.

I scratched the back of my head.

The day had barely begun, yet it was already full of confusing things.

*

When I entered my room, I saw Beya reading a book she had taken from my bookshelf.

For some reason, Beya now seemed to spend more time in my room than in her own.

"Miss Beya!"

As I quickly approached Beya, she took a small step back.

"Did Hamila come by here?"

"All of a sudden?"

I observed Beya's reaction.

Seeing her confused face, as if she had no idea what I was talking about, I felt a bit relieved.

"I met Hamila, and there was a red hair stuck on her clothes. Just in case, I'm asking."

"You don't have to worry. Hamila didn't come."

Only then did Beya smile as if she understood the situation.

"That's a relief. I'm thinking of going down to the basement today, what about you, Miss Beya?"

At my mention of going to the basement, Beya hesitated for a moment before opening her mouth.

"......I'll stay here."

Beya's response was quite unexpected.

I thought she would say she'd come with me.

It was a little disappointing, but since I did have business in the basement, I nodded slightly.

"Ah, there's something I wanted to show you, Miss Beya."

Passing by Beya, I placed my hand on the bookshelf.

I was sure it was here.

"......Here it is."

I found several sheets of paper secretly hidden between the books and handed them to Beya.

"What's this?"

Beya's eyes widened as she took the paper with a puzzled look.

"It's nothing special. Just a small token of my sincerity toward you, Miss Beya."

The paper I gave Beya was a map of the mansion.

On it, I had marked all the secret passages I had explored and discovered myself.

Honestly, I had agonized over it quite a bit.

From the worry that she might betray me the moment she received it,

To the concern that by giving this, I might become a traitor who betrayed my family.

If adventurers or soldiers stormed in through the secret passages I revealed, it would mean I had greatly contributed to killing my own family.

But after what happened yesterday, I made up my mind.

This place is an egg.

Inside the egg, I am safe.

But at the same time, this egg confines me and will eventually rot me away.

If I can't escape this mansion, I will slowly die in the end.

Moreover, after yesterday, I realized I was not truly safe even inside this egg.

Hamila Cartio.

As long as she was in this mansion, I was never safe.

Rather than continue to be stressed, I decided to just go through with it once and for all.

"......."

"These are the secret passages of the mansion I've discovered over fifteen years. They'll be very helpful to you, Miss Beya."

Why fifteen years? Because I had been doing this since I was five years old.

Up until I turned five, so many things confused me.

Come to think of it, I died in a truly unlucky way in my previous life.

Who would have imagined that while playing a game, the ceiling above my head would suddenly collapse and a giant piano would crush me?

Suddenly opening my eyes and finding myself reborn-only those who have regressed, possessed, or reincarnated might understand this feeling.

Like that, after dying, I was suddenly given a second life.

Since I had memories from infancy, I even questioned how I could think so rationally.

I knew that the brain keeps developing until adulthood, so I couldn't understand the situation back then.

Not only basic arithmetic, but also calculus, and even the bits of geometry I had briefly skimmed over-I could calculate all of it perfectly in my head.

I thought there was no way a newborn could think so normally, especially since I couldn't even speak then.

And I still think the same now.

In the end, I never figured out the cause.

I just assume that the goddess who presumably reincarnated me must have done something special.

Five years old was the threshold.

Starting from five, I could clearly distinguish between my past life and current self.

I also accepted the existence of this world's so-called magic power.

Around that time, I began to see what's called the status window.

At first, I thought the status window was something only I had.

But I quickly realized that was a misconception.

Beya, who was looking at the mansion's blueprint drawn on the paper, gazed at me with eyes full of emotions.

"But I--"

"It might sound silly to say this... but I can't always protect you, Miss Beya. If this helps you survive when I'm not around, then that's enough for me."

Beya stared at me with a stiff expression, as if trying to read my intentions.

I hesitated for a moment before opening my mouth.

It felt like the perfect timing to say something dramatic.

"Miss Beya. Because of you, I was happy."

"Wha...?"

"My entire world has always been just this mansion. It's a giant cage, and I was merely an ornamental bird."

Although I had first met Beya outside the mansion, she seemed to have forgotten that and looked at me with pity.

"Then I met you, Miss Beya. Those three days with you were truly joyful. In twenty years of living, this was the first time I've ever been this happy."

I showed a pitiful smile.

It was an expression I had practiced in front of the mirror, thinking I might need it someday, but I never expected to use it like this.

"Even if I end my life trapped in this mansion to the very end, I will always remember this moment I spent with you, Miss Beya."

"......Me too, me too."

Beya said, holding my hand with a serious expression.

*

Leaving Beya on the third floor, I headed down to the basement.

I was worried that Beya, left alone, might get hurt, but that was her choice as well.

For now, I had to focus on saving my own skin.

The basement was just as large as the mansion above ground, and quite deep, too.

Moreover, unlike the mansion, which had only a few organization members working as servants, our family, and nothing but toys for people,

the basement was crowded with many organization members, people to be sold off to other groups, monsters, and toys, so there were far more people there.

In some ways, the basement could be said to be even larger in scale than the mansion.

It couldn't be helped.

From the start, this mansion was built with the basement as its main feature.

Starting with the hidden dungeon connecting the first basement floor and the mansion.

The mansion itself was merely a disguise to conceal the dungeon.

This camouflage extended even to the organization members, so well-concealed that unless you were an executive, you wouldn't even know the dungeon existed.

Of course, I had trained my combat sense by entering the dungeon since I was little.

Growing up with constant access to the dungeon gave me a significant advantage over those who didn't.

My stats, far superior to those boastful women at taverns claiming to be skilled adventurers, proved my point.

'Come to think of it, has it already been half a year since I last entered the dungeon?'

I had stopped going in because defeating monsters inside no longer increased my stats.

All because the dungeon's difficulty wasn't high enough.

Grumbling about that, I straightened my robe in front of a door on the second basement floor, raised my hand, and knocked.

"It's me, old hag."