Chapter 160: Demise

It all happened in a flash, making it all seem so surreal, yet so in tune with the world. The culprits were standing there, as if they did nothing wrong and Lucas Delmonte's death was nothing but an incident that was meant to happen. A death that could've been preventable had the madam gained even the little bit of humanity.

Lucas' life was just as worthy as anybody else's, no? He was a proper Delmontes' child. He was born from the rightful Lord and Madam, not an illegitimate child. He was supposed to live the life of a noble, albeit his family status being rather small. He was supposed to live a life that was better than the average person, at the very least. But why was this happening?

That day, Aria left Lucas to do her chores as usual. She didn't account for anything to happen because it was just like any other day, she was spending time with Lucy and was scheduled to go back to Lucas after she was done with the job.

Like any other day!

Imagine her shock when she visited Lucas' room, bringing him a hot, tasty meal just to find out that the door was unlocked. This was the first sign that something was wrong. Lucas always locked his room in order for the other inhabitants of the manor to not be able to bother her.

But she continued forward, thinking that the child probably just wanted a nice change of scene. But that wasn't it. The boy was nowhere to be found, and the window glass was broken. The tiny bits of glass shattered everywhere, spilling to the ground. The wooden frame was broken, and there was drops of blood trailing around the broken part.

Aria's heartbeat jumped. She stopped and dropped the food. A terrifying looming sense of disaster creeping into her heart. It suffocated her.

'It can't be, right?' Aria thought to herself.

Blood, the broken window, and the uncanny scene. Lucas was nowhere to be found, even though he should have known that this was Aria's normal visiting time. Typically, the boy would be sitting on his bed, or anywhere. He had been waiting for her arrival because he always looked forward to when Aria paid a visit and lightened up his day with knowledge that she pulled out from her head. Valuable knowledge that he fell in love with.

He would be there, with a shy smile, wanting to rush into studying directly. But then, Aria would force him to gobble up his food first before it went cold, because of how frail Lucas' body was.

It was joyful to Aria and the child. It took her mind away from all the fights, and truly made her feel like Lucas was still there by her side. The past Lucas was this child, in a few years he would grow back into the state he was. Only, with Aria's guidance, he should've became luckier and could fend for himself better, no?

Like that, Aria took slow and silent steps towards the broken window. Some of the glass shards penetrated into her feet, but she was way too in trance to realize such a thing.

Because there was a grim speculation that showed up in her head. A speculation that she was almost completely certain was true.

When she peered outside, her eyes immediately widened. A strong stench of blood. Lucas Delmonte's corpse was laid down on the ground, as if he was sleeping peacefully. But naturally, that wasn't the case. He laid in a pool of blood, and there was no movements coming from him.

In a rush, and fearing for Lucas' wellbeing, she jumped out of the window directly. This was the third floor. She was used to jumping from such a height, but Lucas was still a child. Not to mention, his body was rather malnourished from the amount of abusive treatments that he had been receiving ever since he was little. She was starting to help him recover, try to nurture him the right way.

But before she could view the correct end result of it, Lucas was dead, lying in front of her breathless?

He couldn't have jumped to his own death by himself. Lucas was way smarter than that, and he wouldn't have such negative thoughts especially since his willpower to grow was extremely strong.

What was it? Who did it? There were so many culprits that she could point to. Except for those who held a neutral stance to Lucas' condition, the only one who tried to treat him better was herself. Aria Schreiner. Only her. The others held him in a negative light. Lucy was also beginning to morph her intake on Lucas ever since Aria worked hard to get the boy out of his comfort zone, but she was at most a neutral person since she had a lot of things that she had to protect outside of the manor, and it required her to not make any silly mistakes or take heavy risks.

The lord was apathetic, so he probably wouldn't even try to visit Lucas. Lucas' brothers could also be the culprits, but even they knew that killing a noble child was not the best thing for them. Even though Lucas was treated badly, everybody knew of this child's existence. If the child disappeared just like that and was proclaimed dead with obscure reasons, could you imagine what the general public would think of them?

Murderers. Even if they were nobles, it wouldn't be enough of a shield for them to escape justice entirely. The noble society was competitive, so there had to someone who had a grudge or didn't like the Delmonte house that would gladly take this information and twist it to make them suffer.

Thus, the kids should be out of the question. The maids, and the other servants would also be denied of this suspicion because of their status. If they killed a noble, then it would mean that they would be forfeiting their own life as well.

It left one choice left.

The madam. The lunatic that went crazy, trying to hinder Lucas as much as possible even though he did not do anything in particular. This bastard should be the one who killed the child. Or at least, she might have ordered someone else to enact the murder while staying on the back laughing heartily.

That was the type of person the madam was.

With all of these speculations swirling around her head, she checked on Lucas' condition and found out that there was still a tinge of life left inside the child. It was little, a little fire that seemed like it would burn out any moment now. If Aria just shook the boy a little, he would definitely leave Earth and ascend to heaven.

Even though Aria wanted to touch him, she knew that she couldn't. There was only a few moments left that she could spend with the boy. Once she touched him, the boy would wither like a flower.

Lucas couldn't even speak. Sometimes, he would twitch a bit, but that was it.

And after a minute or two, the twitches stopped. The last bit of life inside Lucas disappeared.

This was a grim reminder to Aria. That not everything would go according to her plan, and that her trying to change something could end up in creating a scenario that was worse than the original.

She looked in disbelief. She trembled as she gripped Lucas' hands, trying to wake him up while being bloodied as well. And yet, the boy wouldn't wake his eyes up. Although it was not the real world, it still shook her to the core to see Lucas dying in front of her like this.

And to shock her another time, a bullet went through her heart as she clutched Lucas' hands tight. It was a magic bullet that was clearly aimed at her. She turned around and saw the figure of the madam. She was caught off guard and couldn't dodge nor defend herself, so her body collapsed on top of Lucas weakly.

"..Why. Why.. why?" Aria could only say that one word, repeating it over and over again.

Tears started rolling down her face as she lamented the fate that she chose. This was the scene she created.

This was the end that she achieved because of her choices.

He wasn't supposed to die. But because of Aria's entry, the child died.

The tears mixed with her own blood and Lucas', forming a puddle that reeked of death. Aria could feel that her heart was in pain. Not because she was dying, but because of her regrets.

Just like that, her consciousness started to fade- the signs of death was approaching. As she grieved, she could hear the maniacal laughter of the madam saying that the nuisances had finally been disposed of and that she could be in peace now.

She let go of her life in this alternate realm and passed away, sighing her last breath in agony.