Remesis did not even have time to process what had happened.
Everything occurred too swiftly.
Her brother's face loomed directly above her — too close. A mad, hungry gleam sparkled in the depths of his amethyst eyes, making them look like shards of a broken precious stone.
Remesis swallowed convulsively.
In that very moment when his fingers predatorily clenched her shoulders, she truly thought this was the end.
She was too shocked to offer any resistance. Her body seemed to have turned to wood, her mind refused to accept what was happening as reality. And yet, this agonizing moment, filled with primal terror, lasted only a few seconds.
Because before Livius could reach out his hands to commit the irreversible…
Thump!
A resounding, solid blow tore through the silence of the corridor. The young man who had just been looming over her with frightening menace suddenly lost consciousness.
Livius Carter went out instantly, without managing to utter a sound. His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed heavily to the floor, like a broken marionette whose strings had been cut.
Remesis simply watched this in shock, unable to move.
"What… what the hell is going on?"
Her thoughts were jumbled, her heart pounding somewhere in her throat. However, an even greater shock awaited her in the next moment.
When Remesis raised her eyes, she saw standing over her… her older brother.
A young man with disheveled light hair and a haggard, gaunt face. Honestly, Michel Carter looked absolutely terrible right now. Remesis had never seen him like this.
He who, always being the family heir, had looked impeccable — immaculate, with a proud bearing and cold arrogance in his gaze — now seemed extremely disheveled. There were dark circles under his eyes, his clothes were rumpled, and his movements showed a wild, unaccustomed sharpness.
Michel was breathing heavily, raggedly, and in his left hand he was clutching an object which, upon closer inspection, could be identified as a candlestick from the corridor. Apparently, he had ripped it from the wall, not wasting time searching for a more suitable weapon. It was with this improvised club that Michel had knocked out Livius.
"…You fucking bastard," Michel hissed through his teeth, and there was such hatred in his voice that a chill ran down Remesis's spine.
She, finally recovering somewhat from the shock of what had happened, cautiously rose to her feet. Remesis stared at Michel with wide eyes, not believing what she saw.
"Brother… What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Michel lifted a heavy, weary gaze to her.
"And I shouldn't be?" he replied hoarsely with a question in return.
Remesis was silent for a while, thinking over the situation. She lowered her gaze again to the unconscious Livius. His serene face now looked deceptively calm, having nothing in common with the madman who had attacked her moments ago.
"Livius said that you left the mansion after Father was taken into custody," she finally said, trying to piece the facts together.
The young man listened to this for a few seconds, and then grinned maliciously, bitterly. The corners of his lips twisted into a smirk that boded nothing good.
"Indeed," he drawled with a caustic mockery. "What other lies did that idiot manage to feed you?"
For a few seconds, tense silence reigned between them, broken only by muffled breathing. In truth, this was indeed a very strange and ambiguous situation. One in which it was impossible to understand whom to trust and whom not.
Remesis had suddenly woken up in the middle of the night because her own brother had attacked her. She had had to jump up in panic and flee, not understanding what was happening. It was genuine turmoil. Nevertheless, the resolution of this situation was even more unexpected. Because the one who came to the girl's aid was… Michel.
He was the person she could count on in this situation the least. The one with whom she shared only a surname and mutual animosity.
Now they stood in the middle of the night in a gloomy mansion, and it was completely unclear what should happen next. The air was thick with tension.
For a while, the girl looked with an indifferent gaze at the dark crown of her brother's head as he lay unconscious. Apparently, Michel's blow had been precisely calculated — not fatal, but strong enough to knock the opponent out.
Nevertheless, Remesis came to her senses fairly quickly when she heard footsteps. They were not so far away, and at night, in the complete silence of the corridor, their sound became frighteningly distinct.
"Someone's coming," Remesis whispered barely audibly, her body instinctively tensing.
Michel, staring at her, immediately became alert, his fingers gripping the candlestick tighter.
"…Huh? What's going on here? I heard some noise…"
The person's voice grew closer and closer, echoing off the high ceilings, until it sounded just around the corner. Ultimately, it was too late to hide or drag Livius's body into the darkness. They could only face the inevitable.
A little more time passed, and they saw a young man who looked sleepy, squinting at the light, illuminating his path with the flickering flame of a candle.
Remesis's heart skipped a beat. She recognized this man immediately. It was Morris — the guy she had seen quite often in the Carter mansion since her arrival. All because he was Livius's personal servant and trusted confidant.
And when the servant saw the scene unfolding before him, and especially his master prostrate on the floor unconscious, his face contorted into a grimace of horror and rage.
"You…! What the hell!" he exhaled, panic flaring in his eyes.
Without wasting a moment, the man turned and dashed back, nearly slipping on the smooth floor. Obviously, he intended to call the guards and raise the alarm.
Michel and Remesis froze for a moment in panic. No, to be precise, Remesis, unlike her brother, assessed the situation coldly and soberly.
If Michel ran now to catch and stop him, he wouldn't make it in time — Morris would have time to summon the guards first. They needed to act very quickly. Immediately. One moment of delay, and they would both die.
"Give me that," Remesis's voice sounded harsh, brooking no objection.
"…What?" Michel was momentarily taken aback, not understanding what his sister was getting at.
But then he realized what she meant and, without a second's hesitation, handed her the candlestick. It was the very object he had used to knock out Livius earlier. Now the girl took it, feeling its unfamiliar weight in her hand. Focusing, she made a quick, precise throw, and the heavy metal whistled through the air.
"Guards…!" Morris tried to shout, but didn't have time.
The candlestick hit the fleeing servant squarely in the back of the head. He let out a muffled groan and collapsed unconscious, never finishing his cry for help.
Michel stared at this for a few seconds, stunned, processing what he had seen, and then said quietly, with a note of unexpected respect:
"That… was good."
Remesis said nothing. Her gaze coldly slid from one prone body to the other. Adrenaline was still surging through her blood, but her mind remained crystal clear.
Although the immediate problem was temporarily solved, in truth, this was not the end. Because now they had two bodies that needed to be hidden somewhere.
Michel also acted without hesitation. He approached the unconscious Morris and, unceremoniously searching his clothes, extracted a set of keys. These were the keys to all the rooms in the Carter mansion — a massive metal ring that could open any door.
Remesis looked at this in confusion.
"Why… aren't these keys always with Geraldine?" she asked, frowning.
Geraldine, as the head butler of the estate, had always been the one in charge of that key ring. Remesis could not understand how they now ended up with Morris.
But Michel only answered dryly, taking the keys for himself:
"You haven't been home for a long time, so you wouldn't know. But Geraldine quit."
"Quit?" Remesis repeated.
The old man who had served the Carter mansion long before Remesis was born… For some reason, Remesis found it hard to believe he no longer worked here.
"Yes, more precisely… He was fired," Michel corrected, a bitter mockery entering his voice. "I think it's not hard to guess why. At any rate, that wretched bastard has now taken his place."
Remesis slowly nodded, pressing her lips together. It seemed that too much had indeed changed in the Carter mansion. She really had not been here for a long time, and during her absence, many things had changed.
Meanwhile, Michel unlocked one of the doors of the nearest guest room with a selected key and addressed her:
"Help me with this?"
Remesis didn't quite understand what he meant at first, but then, catching on, nodded silently.
In the end, the two of them dragged the bodies into an empty room one after another, trying to act as quietly as possible. Then Michel locked the door and propped it with a chair for good measure.
"I hit that bastard pretty hard, and you landed a good blow on that guy too…" Michel remarked, wiping sweat from his forehead. "So I think they won't regain consciousness until at least morning."
"Mm… Good," Remesis only nodded slowly, still processing what had happened.
After they finished with that, the former heir of the Carter family and his younger sister, with whom they had been perpetual rivals, silently sat down on the steps of the main staircase to catch their breath. From the outside, this sight indeed looked surreal.
Michel, disheveled and exhausted, whose appearance was in complete disarray, sat leaning his elbows on his knees. And Remesis, who due to all these events was also disheveled from head to toe and was still in a thin nightgown, did not feel the cold because of the fire raging inside her.
Now they sat side by side on the cold stone steps, almost shoulder to shoulder.
And, without a doubt, even more astonishing was that it was the two of them.
Remesis and Michel.
These were people who could certainly never be imagined next to each other. The truth was that there had never been a good relationship between the brother and sister. They were almost enemies, who wouldn't even eat from the same dish, separated by years of mutual grievances, competition, and cold contempt.
Had Remesis ever thought such a situation would occur in her life? Definitely… It was unthinkable.
There were many questions. Very many. And unresolved problems related to this situation were even more numerous. No matter how you looked at it, what had just happened was indeed utter madness. And yet…
The one who first broke the silence that settled between them was Michel. The young man took out crumpled cigarettes from his pocket, and Remesis didn't even ask where he got them at this hour. Michel leisurely took out one cigarette, twirled it in his fingers, and then, after a pause, offered a second one to her.
"Want one?"
Remesis looked at the cigarette offered to her with a neutral expression.
"…I don't smoke," she answered calmly.
"Mm… Got it."
Michel shrugged, put the second cigarette back, and lit his own. The match illuminated his face for a second, accentuating the sharp shadows under his eyes.
They sat in silence in the nocturnal quiet of the mansion, broken only by the soft crackle of the cigarette. Each was lost in their own thoughts, but they were united by a strange, fragile truce born in the chaos of this night.
And suddenly, Michel unexpectedly chuckled, releasing a puff of smoke into the darkness.
"Hah… That really was fun."