The Knight Who Broke Off Our Engagement and Told Me to Never Show My Face Again Still Clings to Me Today, Even Though I Was Possessed and Turned Into a Villainess for Ten Years - 65 - One Second Before the World Ends 1

“…Are you really Sadie…?”

When I arrived at the Arclight family estate together with Rufus, I was greeted by my mother, father, and Neil. Their eyes were swollen from crying.

Since things had already reached this point, they couldn’t hide it from my parents any longer, and I heard that Neil had explained everything to them.

“I’m sorry… I made you worry again.”

“It’s not your fault. We’re the ones… we didn’t even notice it again…”

My mother looked devastated as big tears kept falling from her eyes.

My chest hurt, feeling like an unfilial daughter, but I promised them that I would definitely return to my real body. Then Rufus, Neil, and I headed to the room where Norman was.

As we walked down the hallway, I apologized for them not noticing the body swap, and Neil shrugged his shoulders.

“…But still, I never thought Gerald would betray us. I always thought he was strange and his obsession with you, Sadie, was abnormal, but… I still believed we were comrades. This is seriously the worst.”

Neil said it with a joking tone, but sadness was clear on his face. We all thought the bond between the five of us was strong.

Soon, we knocked on the door of the room where Norman was, and Eliza’s voice answered.

“Norman…!”

Even from a distance, I could see that Norman, lying in bed unconscious, looked very pale. I rushed over to him.

According to Mabel, he wouldn’t die for about a week, and if he took the antidote within that time, he could be saved.

But even to an untrained eye, it was clear he was in terrible condition, and a strong sense of panic filled me.

“…This is really terrible…”

I held Norman’s cold hand and bit my lip hard, overwhelmed by frustration and sadness.

We couldn’t trust anything Mabel said, so we had doctors examine him too, but since they couldn’t identify the poison, they could only try to slow its effects.

As I stared at Norman, I looked up and met Eliza’s eyes. She was staring at me blankly.

“So… this is what my body looked like when I was eighteen.”

“Eliza…”

It suddenly hit me. Since we saved her from that place, Eliza had stayed in this mansion the whole time. This was the first time in ten years she had seen her own body.

She gave a fragile smile, looking like she was about to cry, and I couldn’t find the right words. Eliza then whispered in a faint voice, “I’m sorry.”

“Really… I’m so sorry… Because of me, Norman…”

“It’s not your fault, Eliza! Since Gerald betrayed us, this would’ve happened sooner or later anyway.”

“No… and also… I didn’t even notice that this happened to you…”

She blamed herself, tears filling her eyes. I hugged Eliza tightly.

She hadn’t been able to sleep or eat, and it looked like she could collapse at any moment. I asked Neil to let her rest, then Rufus and I decided to head to Mabel’s room.

Apparently, Mabel was using my room. We climbed the central staircase of the mansion and headed toward my bedroom.

Even though I had only been away for about a month, everything felt nostalgic and dear to me.

“Are you okay?”

“…Yeah.”

Standing in front of the door, I didn’t knock. Instead, I spoke up, “It’s me, Sadie.”

Then I heard my own voice from inside, laughing happily, telling me to come in. I told the worried Rufus to wait downstairs and entered the room alone.

“Oh my, you look fine. What do you want? Have you already prepared the money?”

“……”

Mabel, in my body, was sitting on the sofa with her legs crossed, elegantly sipping tea.

Her smug, relaxed attitude filled me with deep anger, but I took a deep breath and opened my mouth.

“If we really prepare the money and the way for you to escape, will you really give us the antidote for Norman?”

“Even if I said I wouldn’t give you the antidote, you can’t do anything anyway, and your precious friend would just die, right? So don’t you think it’s better to listen to me?”

Her utterly mocking attitude made me feel sick. I clenched both hands into fists and stared straight at Mabel.

“Where is the magic tool?”

“You’re really stupid, you know? As if I’d honestly tell you that. …Ah, but I’m kind, so I’ll give poor you a little hint.”

“……”

“It’s somewhere in this mansion. You’ve got two days left, so try your best to find it. Hehehe.”

I knew I couldn’t trust anything Mabel said. And even if this was true, she was only acting playful because she was confident we would never find it. Even so…

“…Fine. Then I’ll do just that.”

That’s all I said before I started searching the room.

“Hahaha! How ridiculous.”

No matter how much she mocked me, there was nothing else I could do now but look for the magic tool.

We could never abandon Norman, so in two days, we would probably end up setting Mabel free.

I pulled open drawers, dug through the closet, desperately searching. Then, by chance, I found a knife I had received from my grandfather and treasured for years.

Father had told me it was too soon for a child, so I had kept it stored away all this time.

“Yaaawn… Well, I’m going to take a nap.”

Mabel lazily lay down on the bed. I swallowed down the urge to stab her throat with the knife, put it back in the drawer, and continued searching elsewhere.