She Was Sentenced to Life Imprisonment [Unlimited] - Chapter 51
Chapter 51: The Rose Manor (16)
◎I’m naturally on your side◎
Out of the thirteen bases, two were empty, leaving eleven tall, eerie statues wearing black hoods. The figures, hunched over like old men, were illuminated by the eerie green light of the will-o’-the-wisps.
After emerging from the secret passage, the vultures Luoning was holding, as if stimulated by something, frantically rushed towards a giant birdcage in the center.
The birds were too big to fit through the tight-knit iron wires of the cage, but their bound beaks didn’t stop their desperate attempts to get inside.
A hand stretched out from within, and upon it, a pristine white glove was removed, revealing countless hideous scars.
Then, Jiang Nan and Luoning heard a man’s voice—hoarse and grating, as if it had been run over, yet carrying an incomprehensible sense of compassion that made one want to submit to him.
“It was Henriette who harmed you so. Only I can save you and cleanse your souls.”
The man looked down on them from his elevated position. His head was slightly tilted up, allowing the eerie light to fall on his harsh face, making him look like a devil from hell wearing human skin.
To Jiang Nan, he seemed like a charlatan, yet the mindless birds, soothed by his words, calmed down and glared at them menacingly.
Luoning, who was still holding the rope tied to their feet, let go, seeing that they were on someone else’s territory.
The newly freed vultures still didn’t dare to attack them. Even as they stared, their legs were shaking.
Noticing the birds’ unusual behavior, the man in the cage looked over, a sinister glint in his eyes, but he quickly returned to his approachable demeanor. “My two beautiful ladies, were you also imprisoned by Henriette?” he asked with a smile.
Jiang Nan’s eyes scanned the man in the cage. The cage itself was as big as a room, made of thick, rusty iron wires. On closer inspection, she realized it was a gold birdcage, and the grime on it was old, dried bl00d.
Despite his surroundings, the man was dressed in clean, expensive clothes, and every gesture was that of a refined gentleman. He nonchalantly wiped his hand, which had been stroking the vultures, with a clean white handkerchief.
He was putting on a show…
Jiang Nan was silent for a moment. She didn’t answer his question. Although she had received a hint from Corrie, she remained cautious and retorted, “Who are you?”
The man’s lips curled up in a confident, proud smile. Although he had been asked this question many times, he was never tired of answering it for every new inquirer.
“I am Henriette’s dearest fiancé, the only son and heir of Duke Mont. I am Gabriel Mont.”
His few words revealed his prominent status. He raised his chin, expecting looks of envy and jealousy.
Having confirmed that this man was Gabriel, Jiang Nan was about to speak when Luoning suddenly laughed. She leaned close to Jiang Nan’s ear and whispered, “Little Jiang Nan, why is he lying?”
Her warm breath on Jiang Nan’s skin carried the lovely scent of jasmine.
Jiang Nan’s expression shifted. She knew what Luoning meant. It wasn’t about the lie regarding his identity, but his claim of being Henriette’s most beloved person.
For people like them, having a beautiful woman in love with them would add to their prestige among the nobility.
After a moment of thought, Jiang Nan gave a blunt and slightly harsh reply. “He’s too ugly and not confident enough.”
The man’s clothes certainly looked like a nobleman’s, but his face was plain, the kind that would be unnoticeable in a crowd. However, the constant praise he had received in his environment made him forget his plain looks, leading to an unwarranted confidence.
Gabriel couldn’t hear what they were saying, only that the two were whispering to each other, standing very close.
Instead of the expected astonishment and admiration, they were ignoring him and talking among themselves. This was a great disrespect to him. Gabriel was suddenly displeased, but he still wanted to “generously” give them another chance.
“Don’t you have anything to say?”
At this, the two separated slightly. Jiang Nan slowly looked up at him and shattered his illusion by refuting his earlier words.
“Henriette doesn’t love you.”
She didn’t even like him. After all, how could a person like Henriette fall in love with someone so despicable and ruthless?
Perhaps her words had struck a nerve. The man’s face twisted grotesquely, his chest heaving with rage. The air around him fluctuated with his emotions.
He pointed a gnarled finger at them and yelled, revealing his true nature. “Nonsense! I am her betrothed! How could she not love me!”
The surrounding candlelight flickered wildly without a breeze. In the flickering light, the man’s shadow behind the cage elongated. For a moment, a pair of outstretched wings flashed by, then disappeared just as quickly.
Jiang Nan had already caught it all. She stared thoughtfully at the flickering shadows.
Another birdman… Jiang Nan lowered her head in thought.
Under Gabriel’s influence, Hu Tian and Xu Hao’s expressions suddenly changed. With vicious looks on their faces, they approached the two women, pointing and cursing at them in sharp, unpleasant voices that were no longer their own.
“You can’t question our master!”
Luoning laughed. In a place Jiang Nan couldn’t see, her eyes were filled with contempt and arrogance. A flash of cold light reflected the bl00d-red, sinister color in her eyes.
Two sharp, ear-piercing screams followed, much like the cries of the vultures who had died before.
Bl00d seeped into the blade, and an intense killing aura filled the air, the powerful pressure too intimidating to challenge.
The two men clutched their stomachs, bl00d seeping through their fingers and staining their clothes. The burning pain from their wounds was agonizing, but they still glared at the women fiercely.
“Our master will not let you get away with this!”
The hilt of the blade was placed back into Jiang Nan’s hand. Jiang Nan, holding the long knife, advanced towards the man in the cage. The immense pressure made the once-arrogant man shiver involuntarily. The green light reflecting on her made her look like a cold, emotionless killing machine, and it instilled fear in Gabriel.
Unable to move or dodge, he could only scowl and snap, “You wouldn’t dare!”
The moment his voice trailed off, the sharp blade was at his neck.
“Your anger is ugly.”
Jiang Nan just wanted him to calm down so the shadows would stop making her head hurt. But her emotionless words made Gabriel’s face grow even more sullen.
“You…”
Gabriel stared at the cold gleam of the blade. The overwhelming aura emanating from it made him unable to move. For the first time, he felt so humiliated, and the rage burned his mind painfully.
When the surroundings returned to normal, Jiang Nan still didn’t put away the knife. Instead, she asked, “You say you’re her fiancé, so you should know what illness she had.”
At this, the man’s face twisted again, and he said sharply, “Madness! Henriette was mad! She even wanted to elope with someone else!”
As if deeply wronged, he theatrically buried his face in his hands and sobbed. After a long while, he looked up again, his eyes filled with cruelty and madness.
“Because of her illness, I had to bring witch doctors to cure her. I never thought that woman would dare to resist me!”
His name for Henriette had changed, and his eyes were full of hatred for her.
Then, seeing that no one was responding, he began to talk to himself.
“Back then, she said I had to find all the things hidden in her flower field to be worthy of marrying her. As her betrothed, how could I let others covet her? I had a map drawn up and successfully passed her test. A ring… I found it…”
As he spoke, he seemed to recall the scene from back then. He raised his hand high, and something in his hand, a silver gleam, was meticulously examined.
Suddenly, as if he had gone mad, he angrily threw the thing in his hand away. His face twisted horribly as he screamed, “But she had completely gone insane! She couldn’t see how excellent I was! I loved her so much… and she said I wasn’t worthy of her…”
“Her parents agreed, so what right did she have to refuse me!”
He rambled on like a madman about how much he loved her, but his self-righteousness and obsession only made him seem more unsettling.
“So you killed her, right?”
Jiang Nan looked at the man who was filled with a self-proclaimed love. Her eyes were as deep as an icy lake, carrying a chilling cold. She spoke flatly.
Hearing her words, the man seemed to be provoked again. His body trembled, and his expression became even more terrifying. The eerie green light reflected on his face, making him look like a monster devouring its own kind. He let out a cackling laugh, his hoarse voice echoing in the space.
“I didn’t kill her. It was… it was she who killed herself… for a person who went against all morals, she died…”
His words and Corrie’s had some similarities. Jiang Nan combined their stories to piece together the truth.
As the heir of the manor, Miss Henriette was beautiful and talented from a young age. But even as the heir, she was just a manor owner.
Her parents wanted to use Henriette’s beauty to climb to a higher position and gain power and status. Therefore, they indoctrinated Henriette with the idea of marrying for family prosperity.
But they never expected that Henriette, who grew up docile and well-behaved, would become rebellious and fall in love with her female housekeeper.
The young and impulsive Henriette had her first taste of love. Hearing that roses were a symbol of love, she ordered the manor to be filled with them, even though she was allergic to pollen, to express her feelings.
However, Henriette’s love was too open, and Corrie had to advise her to be more discreet. But she couldn’t resist Henriette’s passion, and so, they became a couple.
But their secret meetings were discovered by Henriette’s parents.
They were forcibly separated, and Henriette was set up with a series of arranged marriages. In her helplessness, she set a condition: she hid a ring in the flower field, and only the person who found it was worthy of meeting her.
Her admirers came one after another. To find what she had hidden, they destroyed her roses, as if trampling on her love.
Henriette’s parents saw through her delay tactics and immediately arranged a marriage with a man from a prominent family, Gabriel.
Gabriel might have heard of Henriette’s condition. He enthusiastically had a map drawn up, marking the most likely locations, and went looking.
He must have found what Henriette had hidden, which forced Henriette to plan to elope. But in the end, they were discovered.
Gabriel had never been so humiliated. He flew into a rage but couldn’t let go of Henriette’s beauty. He believed she had been possessed by something evil, so he sought out witch doctors to “treat” her.
Jiang Nan couldn’t know how the “treatment” was carried out, but Henriette’s death at the end was a fact.
His emotions flared up again, and the candlelight flickered more violently, almost dying out. The room grew darker, and countless menacing shadows, like ghosts from the abyss, crept closer to them. The atmosphere was incredibly eerie.
“Henriette is the embodiment of evil. Only when she dies can you people leave!”
The man’s crimson eyes stared at them intently, scanning them inch by inch, a gesture that made them extremely uncomfortable. He no longer feared the knife at his throat. There was no bl00d when the blade cut his skin; he wasn’t a human anymore.
Gabriel’s expression turned arrogant and smug, but a sudden pain in his soul made his face fall. His grating voice spoke again.
“What exactly are you?!”
Jiang Nan glanced at him, calmly retracted her knife, and said, “Not human.”
Gabriel was clearly angered by her answer, and rage consumed his mind, making him forget the pain.
“Only I can allow you to kill Henriette.”
An unknown power suddenly descended, fueling Gabriel’s arrogance. The vultures next to them found strength from somewhere and broke free from the cloth that bound their beaks. The air was filled with a deafening clamor that threatened to shatter their eardrums.
Jiang Nan’s ears were ringing. Then, the system’s voice echoed in her mind.
【Players, please help Gabriel kill Henriette.】
The system’s words had determined the sides of the conflict.
A subtle glint flashed in Jiang Nan’s eyes. Her hand, holding the knife, tightened instinctively. She looked at the man’s twisted face, and a bone-deep chill filled her eyes.
A despicable man, yet the one the system had designated as the winner.
For the first time, Jiang Nan felt a strong sense of disgust towards the system and the so-called main god.
Luoning looked at the figure in front of her, a slender woman standing before the giant birdcage. She looked fragile and pitiful among the clawing shadows, yet she was incredibly resolute.
She sensed Jiang Nan’s change in emotion. She walked to her side and heard her speak in a flat tone, as if hiding a stormy sea of emotions.
“Did you hear the system? Whose side are you on?”
Luoning’s eyes held a smile, as if looking at a satisfying piece of art. “I… am naturally on your side.”