Kill the Author, Then to Hell - Chapter 9.1
Johan didn’t hesitate much. After looking around, he quickly ushered me into his room.
“Waaah—”
I didn’t even need to pretend; tears naturally started flowing.
“Dad, Dad he… Brother, save me.”
Johan didn’t know what to do, seeing his younger sister become a sea of tears in front of him.
“Edith, calm down first, okay?”
Then, thinking it was best to calm me down first, he wiped my tears with the sleeve of his pajamas and soothed me.
“What exactly happened? Did Father… get angry at you?”
“Waaah— I don’t… I don’t know. I had a nightmare, and when I went downstairs, suddenly Dad…”
I explained the situation, omitting the part about trying to shoot him.
After all, the evidence had disappeared, and escaping this moment was my priority.
“…Father did that again.”
Fortunately, Johan seemed to have pieced together a coherent story in his head. Considering the sounds of abuse I had overheard, Johan likely knew the Marquis’s character better than anyone.
“Stay here, I’ll go check.”
I grabbed Johan’s sleeve as he tried to leave.
“What if Dad comes here?”
I remembered the Marquis suddenly appearing out of thin air in my previous life.
<How did you…? I didn’t hear the door open…?>
<Have you forgotten what kind of man your father is?>
It was a highly plausible speculation.
Even if Johan wanted to protect me, if the Marquis came straight here, it would be the end for me.
“It’s okay. I’ve cast a strong locking spell on this room that prevents anyone but those I allow from entering.”
When I still wouldn’t let go of his sleeve, Johan sat me down on the sofa and patted my head.
“Even Dad can’t break the spell, so don’t worry. You trust me, right?”
“…Yes. I trust you.”
Though not completely reassured, I let go of his sleeve. It was the first time I wanted to trust someone that much.
“Edith, where are you? Hm? Come out.”
Just then, Marquis Simon Dayton’s voice loudly calling for me echoed from the first floor. The Marquis, who had been deep in thought, seemed to have fully regained his composure.
His voice was sweet and caring…
The same tone he used when he killed me last time.
“Stay here. I’ll handle it.”
Leaving those words behind, Johan eventually left the room.
Click—
As Johan left, the doorframe briefly glowed blue before returning to normal, indicating the locking spell Johan mentioned.
Now, all I could do was hope it would protect me.
Thanks to the [Perkily Perked] buff, I could hear every word of the conversation from the first floor as if it was right next to me.
“Father, what’s going on?”
“Good, Johan. Edith has gone into your room, hasn’t she?”
It was clear the Marquis had some means of tracking my location.
It was as if I was in the palm of his hand, no matter where I ran.
“The night is deep. Let’s sleep first and talk later.”
Johan neither confirmed nor denied, seemingly trying to block the Marquis.
But… how long could that last?
“There’s no time for long explanations. Bring Edith here.”
The Marquis’s firm command carried an intimidating pressure that was hard to defy.
“Edith is very frightened, Father. Please calm down first…”
“How can I calm down now! When some unknown people put a gun in my daughter’s hand trying to kill me!”
“A gun…?”
“It wasn’t some crude homemade weapon. It was enchanted with high-level magic that makes it destroy itself immediately if it falls into others’ hands.”
Of course, this was news to Johan. I hadn’t told him.
“Look with your own eyes. Here, these runes!”
Simon seemed to be showing Johan the blue runes that were floating in the air earlier.
Now, what would Johan do?
Would he protect his suspicious younger sister, or would he immediately hand her over to their father?
The latter possibility could not be dismissed.
I began searching Johan’s room, preparing for the moment Johan might come to seize me.
As befitting the room of the future head of the family, it was twice the size of Edith’s room, simple yet splendid. There weren’t many pieces of furniture, but each one seemed like a high-quality item touched by a craftsman’s hand.
Of course, I had no time to admire the interior decor.
‘Isn’t there any way out?!’
How about the windows?
The large window faced the garden, and looking down, it seemed like a height from which one could jump without dying.
But without any means of escape, and unable to use the warp gate, running away on foot would only get me caught faster.
‘Maybe there’s a secret passage? Like in the movies.’
I randomly pulled books from the shelf, then I went inside the walk-in wardrobe and felt along the walls. Naturally, a secret passage wasn’t so easily found.
In the meantime, Johan seemed to have finished reading the letters in the air.
“That’s… right. It’s significantly faster than the reaction speed of existing detection magic. I didn’t know this was possible…”
“It’s all because you’re weak and slow! Choosing you to be the successor of this house—hah! No wonder we’re being taken lightly!”
Simon seemed to blame Johan out of habit, even though it wasn’t Johan’s fault.
‘Gaslighting again.’
“Do you know how furious I was when I saw the thesis House Chester’s eldest had published? Huh?! His father has been losing to me all his life!”
Thump—
Comparing him with the sons of other houses, Simon shook Johan’s mental state and eventually resorted to actual violence.
It pained me to think this was all happening because of me.
‘I’ve got a bigger problem at hand though.’
I was now desperately lifting carpets and knocking on the floorboards.
‘Please, let there be some empty space… Huh? Could there really be one?’
It was a shot in the dark, but I found a floorboard that sounded different from the rest.
At a glance, there was hardly any difference, but upon closer inspection, the corners of the board had slightly wider gaps than the others.
Just enough for a fingernail to fit.
I wedged my fingernails into the gap, grunting as I pried the board out. Once I had the edge, the rest slid out smoothly.
‘A secret passage entrance… doesn’t seem like it.’
The board was about the size of a brick, not big enough for a person to fit through.
It seemed I had found Johan’s small secret drawer instead of an escape route.
And what I found inside was…
‘Huh? Isn’t this that thing?’
It was the metal sphere I remembered from when Edith was nine years old.
The ‘Magic Gauge’ that had clearly shown Edith her incapability in magic.
Two spheres fit perfectly into the space beneath the lifted floorboard.
‘Why… why even hide these here?’
Mesmerized, I held the two identical spheres in my hands.
The one in my right hand, just like when I was nine, offered no reaction, just its weight. But the left one…
Pop—
Rainbow-colored fireworks burst forth from it before it disappeared.
Compared to Peter’s that had filled the living room, the fireworks this time were smaller. If I stretched my arms wide, it could all fit within them.
But it was an undeniable reaction that no one could doubt.
‘He lied to me.’
