novelraw Chapter 96 : Chapter 96
Chapter 96 : Chapter 96
Chapter 96: The Doll's House (3)
Iris René von Orléans.
That child might die today.
Perhaps tomorrow, or the day after.
Konstanze often thought so. At least when she was a student at Cia-Harphe Academy.
It made sense, for Iris, CIAR was enemy territory.
Her siblings were after Iris. Countless assassins wanted Iris's head. How did it come to this? When Konstanze asked, Iris answered concisely. Because she was too competent. Perhaps competent enough to kill her father.
Konstanze couldn't understand.
Was Iris always such a cold child? She had been so gentle in her childhood. She used to pretend to be a commoner and wander around the city. She seemed like a child who was more interested in saving people than in killing them.
She had been nothing but gentle.
“I can't really imagine a gentle Iris, but……”
Drogo von Babenberg le Zylon.
Konstanze's close friend had said.
“……aren't they both Iris? The cold side, and the gentle side.”
No, it's different.
Drogo doesn't know because he's too much like a bear.
Konstanze thought so. There had to be a limit to being cold and being gentle. Iris was as cold as a full-fledged duke, and at one time, she was as gentle as a saintess in a story. Could she be like a duke and a saintess at the same time? It's impossible to be as gentle as a saintess and then become as cold as a duke. And it would be impossible to be as cold as a duke and then become as gentle as a saintess again.
And so, when she told Iris directly,
“To think you were worried about something like that.”
Iris smiled faintly.
“You are such a cute child.”
It was when Iris had been cooped up in her dormitory for two days.
She had heard that she was sick. Konstanze didn't believe it. No matter how much she knocked on the door, she couldn't hear a voice, and there was no sign of anyone even after she had waited with her ear to the door. And so, she had broken down the door and entered. Late at night, so that no one would know.
“Then I will ask, Stanzi.”
Iris was with the corpses.
They were assassins. In the midst of the corpses that had been destroyed in the most gruesome way, with their heads crushed or their legs shattered,
“What do you want me to be?”
Iris asked.
With a faint smile. To Konstanze.
“Do you want me to be like a duke, or like a saintess?”
Choose one.
I'll do as you wish.
Iris whispered so, and,
“I……”
Konstanze thought.
What was more like Iris?
She had only asked herself for a very short time.
It soon felt unimportant. Whether she was like a duke or a saintess, Iris was young. Whether she became a duke or a saintess, Iris would be a friend she had known since she was young. Therefore, Konstanze answered.
“I want you to be a student.”
And I will teach you from now on.
“How to live like a student.”
* * *
“You have to mourn?”
Iris's eyebrows twitched.
She couldn't understand the current situation. Konstanze was standing with a shovel in her hand, and a golem was smiling beside her. Fabien, was it? He must be the latest model of golem that assists Abel. She remembered having serviced that golem's memory circuit.
[Yes……. I want to mourn Fleur de Saint-Pierre.]
Konstanze answered with a gloomy expression.
A student had died. She had watched the coffin containing the dead student being carried. As the vice president, she had announced the student's death and had given a eulogy. But even so, it was not enough. Therefore, she had to make a grave. After making a grave, let's bury something. After burying it, let's offer our condolences. That was what Konstanze was thinking.
“You have already offered your condolences. Don't you remember?”
[It's not enough. So I have to do more.]
“I can understand that feeling. But there is no reason to dig up the field. Am I wrong?”
[……There is. There is a reason.]
Konstanze answered, tightening her lips.
Her body began to tremble as if being crushed by something.
“Are you sure?”
[Yes…….]
She's broken.
Iris thought, narrowing her eyes.
She had noticed that there was a problem with her operation. A while ago, she had asked if she was really the original.
What had completely broken this doll? Did the death of a student act as a shock factor? Iris shook her head. That couldn't be. While CIAR was the empire's top educational institution, in the end, it was a place where political conflicts took place. There were definitely cases where students died due to internal and external strife within families, or violence based on class.
‘In the first place, that doll has been teaching children for a long time…….’
If you teach children, you will also experience the death of children.
The death of a student could not break Konstanze.
‘Then what is the reason?’
Did some other factor play a role?
While Iris was silent, deep in thought,
“Fabien.”
Abel stood by Fabien's side.
“What were you doing?”
[I was also mourning.]
To Abel's question, Fabien answered readily.
[I was trying to bury the remains of the combat golems that went berserk before. Lady Monika had mourned for them, but she didn't make a grave.]
“That's right. A grave would have been necessary.”
[Of course. But it seems the Vice President didn't think so. She kept questioning me, asking who had ordered it. So I lied and said that you had ordered it, Professor.]
“So you've learned to sell me out now.”
[It seems so. For some reason, I was able to bluff without any guilt.]
And also……, he said.
Fabien said, looking back and forth between Konstanze and Iris.
[I suggested to the Vice President. If she would like to make a grave with me.]
“So that was it.”
Was that why?
Abel thought, nodding his head.
Fabien's suggestion must have caused Konstanze to collapse as a doll. In the first place, Konstanze must have harbored doubts for a long time. Whether she was really the real Konstanze von Theresia.
It couldn't be helped. Iris must have repeatedly ordered the doll to do something, and the sense of obedience that she must follow the order and her self must have clashed repeatedly.
‘As Iris said, the vice president has already offered her condolences.’
She had confirmed Fleur's death, and had watched the coffin being carried.
She had recited a eulogy with all her heart, and had taken care of the students.
‘Then this current act is…….’
she must be trying to offer condolences as a doll.
That was why she was clumsy. The hole dug in the soil was small and shabby. Both the place Fabien had dug and the place Konstanze had dug seemed immature to Abel. Unlike humans who had established the custom of making a cemetery, counting the days for mourning, and solidifying a series of customs, the mourning of a golem and a doll was extremely awkward.
“Well done, Fabien.”
And so, Abel praised him silently.
“To think of making a grave for the combat golems, it's truly admirable. You have made the right judgment.”
[Is that so?]
Fabien had a faint smile.
[But why? The two people over there look very uncomfortable. The Vice President seems to be cold. Isn't she trembling? On the other hand, Her Highness the Duke of Orléans is like a statue. The way she's standing there, stiff and unmoving.]
“That's because……”
Abel let out a sigh.
“they don't know what is right.”
The doll did not know if she was right as a doll, and,
the master just did not know if she was right as a master.
‘What will you do, Iris?’
The moment Abel harbored that question in his mind,
“Stanzi, you……”
Iris opened her mouth.
She looked at the doll with her pale red eyes wide open.
She had been planning to drag that doll away. She had been planning to throw the fake Konstanze next to the real Konstanze. After making her realize that she was just a doll, she had been planning to quietly watch what kind of reaction she would show.
“……you must have been having a hard time.”
She resented that doll.
Because it had taken everything from her friend.
She cursed the sight of it living the life it had stolen from her friend as if it were its own, without even knowing that it was a doll. Why did that thing treat her so warmly? Why was that thing teaching children? Why did that thing have to live on even after her friend's death?
It was no different now.
Iris could not consider Konstanze's doll a friend.
She could never affirm it.
“Come here, Stanzi.”
But why?
Iris wondered, embracing the doll.
Why was she hugging the doll as if it were a friend? Why was she comforting the doll's false body temperature? Why did she open her mouth to the doll, and,
“You're just very sad. Because you lost a student.”
[I don't know. I, I…….]
“You don't have to make a grave.”
[……Why?]
“Because that's not your share. Your student's grave is already in the capital.”
[I know. I know, but……, I feel like I have to make it.]
“I'm sure you do. That's because you're confused.”
Stanzi, she said.
Iris gently chided her.
“You have a heart, don't you? You have to bury the student there.”
[……A heart?]
“Yes. Because you couldn't bury it in your heart, you're digging up a strange place.”
[A heart……, do I really have a heart?]
The fake, the doll, Konstanze looked up at Iris.
[I……, I'm strange, Iris. I keep thinking that I'm wrong.]
“What part of you do you think is wrong?”
[Everything about me……. My head……, my heart…….]
“If that were the case, you wouldn't be alive.”
[Being alive……, also seems wrong.]
“That's not true.”
[No, I……. Am I really the original? Am I human? I don't think so…….]
“If you're not human, then what are you?”
[……I don't know.]
“The thought of not knowing is something that only a human can have.”
[Really?]
“Elves, dwarves, trolls, and orcs could have such thoughts too. But you were born a human.”
Konstanze's lips trembled.
She felt like she should say something, but she thought she still didn't know. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Her mind went blank, and she came to the conclusion that she didn't know what she was. She couldn't stand the fear of that ignorance.
Tears welled up.
“Stupid.”
Iris opened her lips.
She had something to say, but she thought she couldn't bring herself to say it. I know, I know, I know. Her mind was extremely cold, and it was clear that that doll would soon learn its true identity, but she couldn't stand the fear of reciting that fact.
Laughter welled up.
[……A, abnormal reaction detected.]
[Please complete……, complete……, the authorization process.]
When would she find out?
Konstanze wondered, bursting into tears, and,
“Iris René von Orléans, the one who has been delegated control by your master.”
[Iris……, a, iris confirmed……. Iris……, René von Orléans……, the one who has been delegated full authority by my master.]
“From now on, I will give you an order.”
She will find out soon.
Iris was sure, with a smile.
“Be absolutely optimistic. Be optimistic about everything about you.”
There wasn't much time.
It was just hard to endure the fleeting time.
“……Please.”