Chapter 17 - Volume 2 (1/2)

Family Arc – Chapter 8

With a trembling body after being shaken, I was pulled from the edge of sleep.

Judging from the sensation I had, shutting my eyes and sinking into the sea which was the futon as my awareness was nearly on the brink of slipping away, I was then pulled out with a net, that was how it felt like.

The owner of the hand that rudely shook a person’s shoulder – was Shade’s.

「…??」

Surprised by the invasion of an unwanted visitor while getting up from bed, it was considerably clear that I awakened in an instant.

「W-what on earth?」

Shade was standing next to the bed I slept on, adjusting his heavy breathing.

The reason that I did not poke fun at him by saying things like “Are you a pervert?!”, was because no matter how I looked at it, that situation was not natural. The white face that the faint light on my bedside illuminated was, to an extent, ghostly pale.

「Did something happen?」

「F-father, he…」

「What about Uncle Narcissus?」

Shade, who had an unprecedented frantic look on his face, caught my attention.

「My eyes, he told me to hand it over」

These were Shade’s excessively outlandish words.But I felt like I’ve heard it somewhere before.Inside the game.

『When I was a child, my father said “hand over your eyes”, and chased after me』

This matter was never further explained; whether it was a joke or it wasn’t, it was depicted in such a way that even the user and even the heroine really didn’t grasp it.

However, I’ve already experienced a  glimpse of it in this reality. Through Uncle’s obsession with regards to the『Red of the Duke Lilia Family』

「Don’t tell me… right now – you’re being chased by Uncle?」

I only managed to ask that, when Shade nodded his head several times.

Just then.A knock resounded across the room.

I dragged Shade under the futon, just finishing to haul up the quilt.

My personal cloth covered the bedside’s magical lamp to turn the light off.

The sound of a knock – continued on.

「Y-yes. Who is it?」

While praying from the bottom of my heart wishing I was with Wolf, I clasped my two trembling hands together.

「Lycoris. It’s me. It’s Narcissus. I’m sorry since it’s late, but did Shade happen to come in?」

「He didn’t come in」

I regretted it right after it was said. It was way too unnatural for a person who had just awoken to respond with an answer. ‘What’s wrong?’, or something of the likes should have been what I asked in returned.

「I’m coming in」

Without waiting for even an acknowledgement, Uncle entered the room as if he owned the place.

Inside the room, was pitch dark.

As Uncle continued his approach, I waited while suppressing my nerves until he was at the side of the bed, then – I hurled the pillow I’d been gripping towards him.

Having thrown it with the force of my whole body, it was very fortunate that it hit him on the face, breaking my bewildered Uncle’s stance. I took Shade’s hand and ran towards the door.

Although escaping to Wolf’s room had also crossed my mind, his room was on the opposite direction from the stairs. Rather than involving Wolf, I deemed the matter of letting Shade escape be settled first. (1)

「Let’s escape outside!」

Shade and I ran down the stairs, towards the door that was connected to the outside.

But, the locking of the big door was, even from the inside, something that us children couldn’t do anything about. Naturally, there was no time to look for the key.

I asked Shade if he happened to know a place that led outside, but he shook his head while taking in a painful-looking breath. Even for me, though I’d played around this mansion before, a way to go out from this place, with the exception of the door, was a matter that I’d never considered.

For instance, there was such a method of leaping out of a raised window in a room somewhere in order to escape. But right now, we didn’t have the courage to leap into any of the lined up rooms at the side of the hallway. That is, our group of shorties was in a situation where a window would be an unusable form to move in or out, possibly, owing to the form of the key, we’d be in a state where we’d be imprisoned at a dead-end.

While we didn’t find the best plan, the sound of footsteps coming closer as it continued to descend, urged us to run towards a different staircase. Then, through the direction of the upper floors, we headed to the attic room. In there was the only place I knew in this Rankgerüste mansion where holing ourselves was possible.

We rushed up the stairs as fast as we could, and leaped into the attic room. Collaborating with Shade, we piled up absolutely every bit of items within the vicinity in front of the door to use as a barricade. Then, I gave the instruction to Shade in order to climb up the ladder at the corner of the room.

This attic room’s structure was two stories. Generally, the room entered from the door was the first story. From there, climbing ahead through a simple ladder was the second story.

After Shade had ascended, I followed as well, if we pulled in the ladder from the top, it’s expected that no one else would think of climbing up. Sitting in that place, our heavy pants were cut off by violent coughing induced by the increasingly bad atmosphere.