Cinderella Story [Wriothesley x Reader]

Page 8 - I

'He swallows her whole',

the black dove cries;

but Cinderella can't hear,

no matter his tries.

╼❅╾

The night was over in a heartbeat, but you felt at least more rested than you had the morning before. The room Wriothesley had had prepared for you was a small one, just like he had said, but it didn't matter to you. There was a bed (that wasn't too comfortable, to be honest, but oh well), a bedside table and a closet to store your things. You hadn't even gotten to unpack anything, and with the sparse amount of clothes you had taken, there really wasn't any need to. The bathroom was a shared one, but you also didn't mind that. As long as you were gone from that house, away from that family and independent, you really didn't give a rat's ass.

And Wriothesley had been right last night. Since it did seem like there was a serial killer after your family, you were a lot safer down here. And there was nothing you could've done. They wouldn't have let you see the crime scene anyway. Your mind had just short-circuited, and you wanted to know what exactly happened as soon as possible, without thinking ahead of where even you'd go or who you'd ask. You were thankful for his logical way and for how he managed to calm you down.

You put on a simple dress and shoes and exited the room. After brushing your teeth, you walked back towards the middle of Meropide. At the point where the hallway filled with rooms connected to the main area, there was a familiar face waiting for you.

"Joseph," you called him, happy to see someone you knew.

He called your name too and stepped forward to meet you. "I've been waiting for you. The Duke has instructed me to send you to his office as soon as you're up."

"Oh, really? Thanks for letting me know!" With a friendly wave, you said your goodbyes to Joseph and made your way over to the middle of the Fortress.

Wriothesley was already waiting for you, just like Joseph had told you, with a stack of papers in front of him. He handed them to you, first thing after wishing you a good morning. "This is all that I could gather in this short amount of time." It was a summary of Rosalith's murder, filled with more details than you could have ever gathered on your own. Staying here really had been the right decision.

"Thank you so much," you told Wriothesley and he just nodded. You walked over to the couch and read through the whole pile.

Rosalith had been murdered two nights ago, but they had only found her body yesterday evening. That explained why you hadn't seen her the whole day. However, you also hadn't seen Pearl or Jonas. You'd had breakfast alone, then you went to Estelle's workshop and afterwards there had only been Hematitia in the house. With the dress.

Your stepsister had been stabbed in the neck three times, with a thin metal rod, just like Estelle had them, to use for different machinery, bolts, nails and other stuff. Apparently, a dangerous artery had been hit, as there was a lot of blood both on her and on the weapon, found just lying next to the body. She was discovered in a hotel room in the middle of the city, wearing nothing but a nightgown. She died from loss of blood. Apparently, she had been unable to fight back.

There wasn't much more information there, as nobody had seen anybody else enter the room, but the staff also hadn't kept their eyes on the entrance, so it could've been anybody. Not even necessarily the person she was planning on meeting there. Maybe even a group of people. You had no idea, no further leads. All this information gave you not a single hint. Defeated, you put the pages down on the small table in front of the couch.