I Reincarnated as the Villainess's Brother, and my Family may Fall to Ruin

Chapter 7: The Mystery

On the next day, I quickly got up, got ready, and went to investigate more.

It's harder to use shadow magic during the daytime as I'm more likely to be seen and I'm still a complete novice at using magic. That's why I opted to just investigate on foot instead.

I woke up pretty early, so I won't be called to breakfast for awhile. As long as I make it back to my room before someone comes to get me, I should be fine.

I walk quickly to the room from yesterday. Luckily, it wasn't hard finding it since I remembered the layout last night.

I slowly opened the door, trying not to make any noise. Who knows, I might get stuck with that one creaky door that always appears whenever people try to be sneaky.

Luckily, it seems the door's hinges are oiled properly, since there was no creaking.

I walk inside, looking around again.

Unlike yesterday night, the room feels less, what's the word, beautiful?

The light from the moon gave a blue-ish tint and glow to the room, but now it just looks dreary and dark.

Looking around, I can really confirm this was the viscount's room. I can see picture frames on the shelves of what seems to be the duchess as a child and a man who presumably looks like her father.

Now then, on to the main concern I had yesterday.

I walk over to the bed that's heavily covered in drapes, concealing what's underneath. Once again, I unveil what's being hidden.

Looking at it again, I realize what I saw last night wasn't an imagination. This was truly the situation.

What I was looking at was not the duchess's father. It wasn't even a human. The only thing in the bed was life-like doll of some kind, almost like a wooden mannequin. Either way, the doll is where the Viscount should be, and the latter is nowhere to be seen.

I have no idea what happened, but I have till the end of the day to figure out what happened to him, and hopefully unravel the mystery I feel that's surrounding the Eleuthera household.

I decide it would be best to leave the room now, as I notice how much time had passed. I walked back to my room just in time as another servant came to inform me it was breakfast time.

Breakfast proceeded like dinner yesterday, as in the, "ah. I want to die. This is so awkward," energy was going full blast.

I swear, if I have another meal like this, I'm going to get an ulcer before I even turn seven.

I try my best to keep everything down and I pray to god that my face muscles don't suddenly become useful for no reason and expose the fact that I'm about to die from the tension on the air. Violet, who's sitting next to me seems to be completely unaware of whatever poison is being mixed in to their unimportant chatter. This poor, naive child.

"Mother, is father still not showing his face today? He hasn't appeared for quite some time already. The last two times I visited, he was gone also."

The duchess caught my attention cause she actually brought up an interesting topic. I'm not going to lie, I'm more invested on figuring out where the Viscount is than anything right now. Maybe it's just a child's curiosity, but I also don't want to call myself a child...

The Viscountess let out a deep sigh.

"Aria... I seems we won't be able to hide it any longer..."

"What do you mean, mother?"

"I didn't know how to tell you this since your father didn't want to let you know, as he knew you would be worried to death... but... your father has been very ill these past few months..."

What are you on about, lady. If there was an illness that can suddenly turn you into a doll, this would have the horror genre on it.

However, it seems the duchess believed her without doubt. I mean, who would even lie about it anyways.

"Mother... can I see him?"

Probably not—

"We can visit him after breakfast..."

Wait what?!

How are you going to go on about that?! He's not there!

Despite being in a state of disbelief in my head, I continue dipping my bread that's as hard as a rock into my soup so it would soften, truly a heinous meal by modern standards. Luckily cause of my mental distress, I can't really taste this abomination.

After breakfast, we all went to see the viscount, and I once again walked into the dark and dreary room.

The duchess went to open the drapes, but her mother stopped her. Oh, I wonder why.

"Your father wouldn't want you to see him like this..."

What baloney. I seriously wonder how you're supposed to make me believe that he's actually there.

She calls for the viscount to let him know that the duchess was here.

What baffled me the most was what happened.

The drapes only showed the silhouette of the person inside, and slowly, the silhouette got up in a natural manner. Wait what! Is that the doll?! Hey! Why are you even making him do a fake cough!

Behind the curtains, the viscount(?) was moving and even talking to the duchess! They were doing that heartfelt talk or whatever, but seriously! What is going on?!

I swear that it was just a wooden doll laying in bed when I checked it last night and this morning!

As I was turmoiling in my head, I suddenly felt this familiar warm feeling waft before me.

What is...

Wait! Isn't this magic?! I recognize it since I can use it and I naturally have a higher sensitivity to magic, but is that what this seriously is?! It would make sense, but!

There hasn't been magic that's been recorded that allows a person to control a doll and even recreate a person's voice. If there was, people could start wars and cause chaos through stolen identities! Who's responsible for this?!

There wasn't a mention of this in the original game, I know it focused on the romance and characters, but wouldn't this be a pretty big deal?!

My thought process was brought to a halt when I sudden felt this chilling sensation down my spine.

It hit me like a truck—... it came like a flash, and jolted me back to reality.

This cold feeling mixed in with the warmness of magic... this doesn't feel right...

What...

Suddenly my view was taken over by darkness as I collapsed.