Chapter 3: 3

Madenna did not choose Farren only for his magic skills.

In her past life, she had met Farren once.

It was after Suzanne’s coming of age ceremony.

Farren had visited Madenna in person when Suzanne was studying abroad.

At that time, she had thought Suzanne was an honest child so she was reluctant to see Farren, the villain of the novel.

She was planning to kick him out from the estate, but in the end, she decided to receive and serve him tea before sending him back. 

No matter how evil Farren was, his villain title still enticed Madenna’s curiosity. She would like to see how devious he was as the villain in real life. 

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say, she was flabbergasted to see Farren face-to-face.

Thanks to Suzanne’s beauty, the countess was unaffected by  most people who had attractive looks as no one was up to par with Suzanne’s beauty.

But Farren was different, he had the type of beauty that could steal someone’s breath without them realizing.

The combination of his jet black hair and bloody red eyes gave off a devilish charm.

‘Is it necessary to be this handsome when you’re the villain?’

Yet, as soon as Farren sat face-to-face with Madenna, he uttered strange words to her.

“Countess Rodenherg, you’d better watch out for Suzanne.”

He had warned her that Suzanne was trying to bring her down. She was planning many malicious schemes behind her back.

When Madenna heard that, she was beyond furious and immediately drove him out.

At that time, she had believed in Suzanne so much that she would never doubt her sincerity. The novel portrayal of Suzanne as the heroine, also helped paint her as a good person in Madenna mind.

That was Madenna’s last encounter with Farren, she hadn’t seen him ever since.

In the novel, Farren appeared after Madenna was executed, so naturally, she had little to no interaction with him.

Yet, after fully realizing that she had been betrayed by Suzanne, the first person who crossed Madenna’s mind was Farren.

Farren was the only person who knew of Suzanne’s true nature and had advised her to be careful.

Once she returned to the past, Madenna didn’t hesitate to sponsor him.

She also had calculated the profit. If she decided to invest her money in him and polished his abilities, who had the same magic talent as Suzanne, it would bring her tremendous returns minus the backstabbing.

“Here we are, Countess.”

Madenna, who was taking a walk down memory lane, raised her head when she heard Suzanne’s voice. She looked at the direction Suzanne pointed to. 

In front of her eyes laid a small door in the corner of the second floor. On top of the door, a small hole was built, about the size of a human face.

The hole was covered with glass, but even though it was daytime, the room was dark, so she couldn’t see anything through it. She tried to open the door, unfortunately it was shut tight.

“I need a key to get in. Do you have it?” Madenna asked.

“No, I don’t,” she replied with an innocent smile.

‘Then why did she come forward and lead me all the way here?’

“But you can see inside through the hole in the door. He’s the one called Farren. He is a really violent kid. It would be better to see him from here rather than meeting him in person.”

“……”

At first glance, she was told that he was in a ‘reflection room’, but in her eyes this room resembled a prison room rather than a child’s reflection room.

Madenna, of course, had no intention of following Suzanne, so she thought she should bring the key.

Just as she predicted, an urgent voice approached from behind them.

“Co-countess!” Lanthan shouted as he followed the two belatedly.

“Suzanne! You shouldn’t be rude to the countess.”

“’No. The Countess asked me to show her around.”

Originally, Suzanne was the one who offered her help, but when she changed her wording, she made it seem like Madenna was the one who asked for her help.

Lanthan softened his attitude and said, 

“Well, If that’s the case then…” he turned to face Madenna.

“Countess, as you can see, he’s such a troublemaker that we have to punish him in the reflection room.”

“Open the door for me.”

“…Yes.”

Lanthan hesitated, before he took out a bundle of keys from his waist and opened the door to the reflection room.

As soon as he opened the door, the funky smell of mold wafted through the air.

“Farren! The countess is here. Get up and watch your manners!”

The room had no windows. Perhaps, it used to be a warehouse that was turned into a self-reflection room by the director.

“It’s dark,” Madenna said.

Hearing the countess’ comment, the director quickly smoothed out his voice and said, “I’ll turn on the lights right away!”

Lanthan quickly turned on the lights in the room. A silhouette was seen in the corner of the dim space. The silhouette that was sitting, slowly rose.

As soon as Madenna saw the boy’s face, exposed under the dim light, she almost cried inadvertently.

The beautiful face of the young man who remained in her memory was hard to find.

The bruises on his face were so severe and his eyes were swollen.

“…why does he look like this?”

Lanthan quickly replied

“Well, like I said, he’s a really arrogant, unrepentant bastard. Because of that-”

“Because of that you beat him?” Madenna questioned in a low voice.

“What do you mean, a beating? We only gave proper corporal punishment for his sins” 

Even if he did, it would not have been appropriate to treat a person that way. 

Madenna approached Farren without a word. Farren, standing unsteadily, was startled when he saw her closing in.

“Can you show me your body for a moment?”

When Madenna asked kindly, the boy hesitated before he finally answered.

“It’s dirty,” he said as he averted his gaze.

“It’s okay,” she answered gently.

Upon hearing her answer, Farren slowly lifted his arms, letting her inspect his body.

Madenna unbuttoned his dirty shirt and checked Farren’s body.

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As she had expected, the sign of abuse wasn’t only on his face. On the contrary, the wounds on the body that were hard to see outside were more severe than she had thought.

“… it doesn’t seem to be a very appropriate for a corporal punishment.”

“Countess, that’s just how much he’s done wrong.”

“This is just not right.”

At that time, Suzanne, who was holding the director’s hand finally spoke out. 

“Fa-Farren bothered me!”

Farren frowned as soon as he heard it. 

“That’s right, Countess. He needs to be punished because he bothered Suzanne…”

Director Lanthan immediately backed up Suzanne’s claim, unfortunately his words fell on deaf ears. Madenna ignored him and instead asked Farren.

“Is what the girl said the truth?”

“… if I say no, will you believe me?”

“Of course, I hate liars.”

“Farren is a liar! Don’t believe him, Countess!” Suzanne cut in from behind. 

Madenna ignored her and said coldly to the director, “Director, did you not educate your children to not to intrude into other people’s conversations?”

“I-I’m sorry! Suzanne, go out now!”

Upon hearing the director, Suzanne burst into tears.

“…But Farren stole my stuff!” 

“’Yes, I know. I know, but now you’re in front of the countess, so you must be polite.”

I could easily imagine what she looked like crying her eyes out. Her beautiful blue eyes would express so much sadness that it would cause everyone to feel guilty. 

But Madenna already had enough of Suzanne’s crying face, she didn’t look back and instead asked Farren once again.

“Will you tell me the truth?”

Farren raised his head as he whispered. 

“I didn’t steal anything.”

He met Madenna’s eyes with swollen eyes. The sight was pitiful, but his eyes shone with determination.

“Li-liar!”

“Don’t be fooled, Countess. Farren is lying to catch your attention.”

“….”

Madenna thought for a moment.

Although now I know Suzanne’s true nature, that didn’t mean I should easily trust Farren.

“Tell me about the incident.” 

“Well…” Director Lanthan began to explain the incident in detail.

“The welfare officers from the central government visited last month. He usually comes every once or twice a year. One of the officials gave Suzanne a silver brooch.”

Even without asking for the rest of the story, Madenna already knew how the officials managed to give out a precious brooch to a little girl. Suzanne was a child who was very skillful at the art of manipulating people.

Apparently, one of the caretakers fell for her cuteness and gave her the small jewelry as a present.

“Suzanne loved the brooch and boasted about it. But after a week or so, the brooch disappeared.”

Suzanne stroked her chest with a sullen look. A silver brooch adorned with purple gems could be seen from the gap of her hand.

That brooch must have been the gift.

“So?”

“I looked everywhere. I thought I had dropped it somewhere, so I searched all over the places…”

Madenna looked at Suzanne, ordering her to continue the story with her gaze.

“I checked my personal drawer just in case I misplaced it. Somehow I accidentally opened Farren’s drawer and found the brooch inside of it.” 

“I was so surprised. I didn’t know that Farren would steal the brooch. He usually would only bother me, but not steal my things.”

Tears poured out even more from her glistening blue eyes as she recalled the ‘horrible’ experience..

‘As I thought, she’s a really good actress.’

Madenna swallowed the rebuke she had on the tip of her tongue.

“… that’s what she claimed. I didn’t steal it. If I stole her thing in the first place, I wouldn’t leave it just anywhere, where it could be easily found,” Farren defended himself.

“I think that makes sense too, but that’s your one-sided argument. Do you have any proof? Someone who can testify that you’re innocent.”

Farren looked down and blushed at Madenna’s question. Obviously not having anyone to attest for him. 

At the sight of Farren’s defeated look, the director immediately exclaimed.

“Look at him! You don’t even have any evidence. I’m sure you stole Suzanne’s brooch without thinking much about it anyway. You don’t need to listen to his nonsense anymore, Countess.”

“So, if there’s evidence, you’ll believe this kid’s innocence, Director?” 

“Pardon?” the director frowned, perplexed at Madenna’s sudden question.

“No?”

“If there’s proof, I’ll trust him.”

“Okay.”

Madenna turned her head and laughed lightly.

“The solution is actually very simple. You just need to cast a projection magic on that brooch.”

“Projection magic?”

Director Lanthan and Suzanne’s facial expressions fell at the mention of the magic.

Projection magic was a magic that showed the memory remaining on the object in the form of an image.

Although they lived in a society where magic was neglected. The projection magic was often used by the law enforcement to investigate criminal cases.

“Yes, I’ll hire a sorcerer who can use projection magic. It’s easy for me. With the projection magic, we’ll be able to get the culprit right away, right?”

“A-about that… countess you don’t have to do that just because of a mere incident between children,” Lanthan stammered, trying to prevent the countess taking any action.

“I said it earlier right? I hate liars.”

Madenna’s eyes were fixed on Suzanne’s stern eyes.

“I don’t want to go without revealing the truth.”

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