Kill the Author, Then to Hell - Chapter 17.2
The governess who had been a constant hindrance.
Jane, who was neither kin nor someone whose absence would invalidate my existence, could be eliminated with a single shot from this gun.
But…
“This isn’t a toy. I’ll only say this once, so listen carefully. In a moment, an assassin will appear out of thin air.”
In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger, foolishly so.
“If you become an obstacle to my escape, I’ll shoot you immediately. Follow me.”
Sensing that all this was no joke from the change in my tone,
Jane’s eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with her hand, nodding.
My room in the villa was unfortunately on the third floor. We had to cross the grand central staircase, past the living room, out the entrance, and even then, there was a wide garden to cross.
‘But if I want to live, I have no choice.’
I ran, clutching the hem of my bothersome skirt, and Jane followed at a similar pace, holding up the bottom of her dress.
Just before turning at the end of the stairs towards the living room,
Jane grabbed my arm.
“This way will be faster.”
Jane led me to a door beneath the staircase.
A space I passed every day without knowing it was there.
It occurred to me that the assassin wouldn’t imagine we’d hide here. Of course, they’d find out soon enough if they used magic.
Click—
As soon as I pushed myself inside, Jane locked the old-fashioned lock from the inside.
“It might be useless against magic… but it’s better than nothing.”
I looked around the interior.
Despite the musty smell due to the lack of sunlight, it was a quaintly maintained living space.
A room so narrow it might barely qualify as a dormitory rather than a studio apartment.
Hence, a long wall shelf served both as a desk and a bookshelf, and the hard bed seemed to double as a chair.
And on that shelf, a book all too familiar to my eyes.
<Lady’s Conduct> written by Sir Charles Levelle a hundred years ago was there.
That meant…
“My goodness… Teacher, do you actually live here?”
I had never imagined it.
Of course, I knew that Jane, a live-in governess, lived somewhere in the mansion. I also knew she went somewhere after our lessons ended.
But I had never really wondered about where exactly that might be.
“I had no idea you were living in such poor conditions…”
Despite being a teacher, and with plenty of rooms to spare in the house, it felt wrong that she was made to stay in such a place. As someone who once valued Confucian ideals, I felt like trash.
“I am grateful for any space provided to me. I don’t consider it poor.”
But Jane, having locked the door, simply responded calmly.
“Besides… Miss, you were right. Do you hear it?”
Thump— Thump—
Indeed, I could hear it too.
Undoubtedly, it was the sound of footsteps searching the house from the third floor down.
“…What do we do now?”
“There’s a door here that leads to the basement storage.”
Jane lifted the floor behind the bed, revealing a ladder going down.
“It’s a passage made for servants to move without being seen by the masters. The basement storage also has an exit to the back of the mansion.”
I had lived in this mansion without ever noticing it.
Therefore, even if the assassin had thoroughly investigated, this was information they couldn’t possibly know.
Maybe.
Maybe there was a real chance we could escape alive.
But we had to move quickly to seize that slim chance.
“Alright, let’s go.”
Careful not to miss a step, yet moving as quickly as possible, I focused on descending the long ladder.
About halfway down, I noticed something odd.
“Teacher? What are you doing? Hurry up!”
Jane was just looking down, not following.
“I’m not going.”
“What, what do you mean? If we stay here, the assassin will…”
Then it dawned on me.
Jane was planning to delay the assassin for me.
“Ah, come on. That’s so cliché. Hurry up.”
“Please go. They’ll be here any moment.”
I never particularly liked Jane.
But I hated this.
No, that made it even worse.
Because I had never liked Jane.
I never wondered about how she lived, what she liked, why she was a governess, what she wanted when she was my age, or if she ever got tired of all the etiquette…
I had never been curious.
I couldn’t bear it.
I started climbing the ladder back up.
“Edith, you’ve always been the most disobedient student I’ve ever taught. Look at you, not listening to me even now.”
“…If you have time to say that, hurry up!”
Jane, who was almost always strict and rigid, smiled faintly for the first time.
“Strangely, I was most fond of you. Always saying the strangest things… Maybe because it was so bizarre.”
“Alright, I get it, just…”
Continuously setting death flags, Jane closed the upper door.
“Just listen to me for once. Don’t look back, just escape.”
That was when.
Boom—
The sound of the lock tearing apart like paper and the door opening.
“How rude at this late hour. Who are you?”
Even then, Jane was concerned with manners.
Of course, there was no reply.
“I am Jane Eyre, a governess. It seems you’re after Miss Edith, but you’ve chosen a bad time. She has already returned to the estate.”
Perhaps to buy time, Jane started babbling first.
‘What to do.’
I hesitated for a second.
‘What do you mean, what to do?’
This story was a loop.
And in my hand, I still held Chekhov’s gun that could end everything.
Kaboom—
‘Just shoot the guy, right?’
I pushed the door with force and sprang upwards.
