Welcome to the Rose Mansion - Chapter 115
Jacqueline
—Rogéros may be leaving us alone for now, but we don’t know when he might change his mind.
Alan spoke as they neared six in the morning.
—I’ll steal the head maid’s key today. You stay put. By tomorrow at the latest, we’ll try to get into the fourth floor.
With those words, the two of them returned to their respective places.
Despite their grim determination, the night ended without any real success. However, the change it brought to the mansion was undeniable.
Richelle stared intently down the empty hallway.
“What do I do…”
Eight in the morning. Normally, the breakfast cart would have arrived by now.
But today, not even the shadow of a breakfast cart could be seen in the corridor. It was no surprise—the chef who prepared and delivered the meals had disappeared.
‘Still, I can’t just leave the children hungry…’
While pondering, she let out a long yawn. After staying up all night, she was unbearably tired.
Just as she absentmindedly patted her shoulders, a child’s voice broke through her foggy mind.
“Teacher. What are you doing?”
She turned around to see Penny and Nero peeking through the crack in the door.
Richelle quickly wiped her eyes and knelt to meet their gaze.
“I was just about to prepare a hearty breakfast for you both, Penny, Nero. Can you wait in your room for a bit? Teacher will be right back…”
“The ferocious scent of the flames is no longer present here.”
Their tone was flat, without any rise or fall.
The children were staring blankly down the hallway. Their faces were like a blank slate, completely expressionless.
A shiver crawled up Richelle’s spine, freezing her in place. Before she could react, the twins had slipped back into the room, laying on their stomachs and drawing on the floor.
They were using red crayons to scribble across the paper with innocent faces. Richelle shook her head, trying to regain her composure, and cautiously called to them.
“Penny, Nero, aren’t you hungry?”
“We don’t need to eat.”
“Yeah, we don’t need to eat.”
They sang in unison, their voices eerily matching. On the paper, black stick figures danced around a bright red ball of fire.
Richelle quietly closed the door behind her.
“….”
It wasn’t that they didn’t want to eat, but that they didn’t need to eat.
‘The roses were really… just playing at being human.’
Pretending to eat, pretending to sleep, following the rules and performing their assigned roles.
Bertrand was nothing more than a giant puppet show created to mock Otis.
After staring at her feet for a long moment, Richelle began walking toward the underground kitchen. No matter what happened, no matter how much betrayal she faced, as a human being, she still needed to eat. She still needed to sleep.
To keep living the days ahead.
‘I’ll gather some food… and bring some to Alan too.’
Knowing him, Alan would easily skip meals without a second thought. She couldn’t just leave him like that.
Richelle headed to the official entrance of the basement, rather than using the secret passage from the night before. She no longer saw the need to sneak in.
As she passed through the unfamiliar door at the bottom of the stairs, a dimly lit, damp stone corridor appeared.
Looking around, she was struck with an odd feeling. Just hours ago, she had wandered, run, and fought here, yet now it felt like a distant memory.
‘These pointless thoughts…’
Shaking off her musings, Richelle continued walking.
As she had already confirmed, there was a long servant’s dining hall on the way to the kitchen. Unlike at night, the door was slightly ajar, revealing a room filled with servants.
They sat in complete stillness at the empty table. Their posture and expressions were exactly the same, waiting for a meal that would never come.
It was like a perfect dollhouse display in a museum.
Richelle passed by without a second glance.
At last, she reached her destination. The kitchen was exactly as she and Alan had left it, which brought her a small sense of relief as she began searching for something edible.
“There’s really nothing good here…”
There was plenty of food, but no way to cook anything right now. And she certainly didn’t want to eat any unidentified meat.
In the end, Richelle gathered a few fruits, some preserved biscuits, and vegetables.
It was a meager collection, but it would be enough to quell their hunger for now. Richelle found a basket in the pantry, packed up the food, and left the kitchen.
‘How should I get this to Alan?’
Was he with Rogéros right now? What could Rogéros be saying to him?
She passed the servant’s dining hall again. The servants remained in the same positions as when she had entered the basement, not having moved an inch.
The realization struck her sharply—she and Alan were the only humans left in this mansion. Only the two of them remained.
With a bitter taste in her mouth, Richelle climbed the stairs leading back to the ground floor.
Unaware that someone was waiting for her. Completely caught off guard.
“Good morning.”
The first thing she saw was a pair of exquisite satin shoes adorned with large emerald embellishments.
Her neck stiffened like a rusty tin doll. Slowly, Richelle raised her gaze.
The hem of a white skirt, gleaming with iridescent hues, was sweeping across the floor.
Above the elaborate dress adorned with delicate lace, her wrists were weighed down by bracelets that dangled, and all ten fingers were decorated with large gemstone rings. Raising her gaze slightly higher, a massive diamond necklace encircled her slender neck.
Finally, Richelle’s eyes met a pair of dull sky-blue ones, cloudy like a rain-soaked sky.
It was Madam Otis.
