Originally, dresses were such uncomfortable clothes.

The fabric was also stiff, so even though the clothes didn’t fit me each time, I had to move in them.

“It’s so pretty!”

I let out a small exclamation involuntarily, and Mary opened her mouth with a bashful laugh.

“Right? Madam assured me that the Miss would like it.”

“Where is Madam?”

It’s not polite to receive a gift like this for a first time meeting.

Mary answered, putting her dress back neatly in the box.

“Madam is in the Young Lord’s room.”

When I heard that, I thought I should wait outside Reynold’s room.

I put the cocoa I was drinking on the table and moved on.

The distance between Reynold’s room and the room where I prepared myself wasn’t too far, so I was able to go there alone.

I worked hard on my words, trying to figure out how to thank her.

I clearly would say gibberish in front of the Madam if I didn’t organize my words.

However, at that moment, a sharp sound of flesh getting hit was heard.

That sound came from Reynold’s room.

It was my first time in this world to hear someone had been hit. As soon as I heard it, I lowered the sound of my footsteps.

The accident seemed to have stopped. Someone worthy of beating the Duke’s only son…

I hurried up to Reynold’s door and listened, yet I could hear nothing but a buzzing sound from inside, not knowing what was going on.

Then I got a little scared.

It was because I could feel the soft sound of shoes coming towards the door.

I hid behind an ornament next to the door. While holding the hem of the dress with my hands, just in case it would show out.

The door made a terrible creak, then slammed shut again with a bang.

The owner of the receding figure in the creaky shoes was Madam Collin.

That sight left me completely stunned.

She’s definitely going to the room I was in, then I’m sure Mary will ask whether she hasn’t met me on the way from Reynold’s room.

Should I run to my room now? But that would seem more suspicious.

Eventually I gave up and took a peek at Reynold’s room.

Reynold, who hid his face between his knees, looked pitiful.

Is he crying, I wonder.

I hesitated for a moment, then cautiously entered the room.

I thought he wouldn’t hear footsteps, yet Reynold lifted his face as if he a ghost.

Whether it was unfortunate or not, he wasn’t crying.

Instead, his calves, with the pants rolled up, were burning red.

…Did he have another accident?

There was no corporal punishment in Lerdonia, so I was worried about what to say to Reynold.

Even though he’s young, he’s still a noble… Somehow, he might think that it was a shame to show this to me.

However, no matter how much I racked my brain, there was nothing else to say.

In the end, I decided to bring out the most common words among the words that can be said in this situation.

“…Are you okay?”

Fortunately, Reynold replied with a face as if it didn’t matter.

“I just don’t have any thoughts.”

“…Then can I ask why you were beaten?”

After thinking about something for a moment, Reynold opened his mouth.

“I got caught pushing you into the lake.”

“…What?”

“Thanks to that, I even heard Mother calling me crazy. I don’t think I’ve heard anything like that.”

Reynold’s expression as if it was nothing was very strange.

As if his red, swollen calves weren’t in pain, there was no emotion in his expression.

Looking at it, I muttered involuntarily.

“…I really don’t think you’re insane.”

Reynold then responded with a laugh.

“Only you.”

Can you and I be compared? The words came up to the end of my throat, yet I held back. because he’s still young

I sighed and took a handkerchief from my pocket, dipping it in the ice water that was on the table. Then I put ice in it and tied a handkerchief.

I held out the handkerchief to Reynold.

“Unlike you, I’m kind, so I can’t leave an injured child alone.”

Because this is basic courtesy.

I’m not doing this because I want to be friends with you, got it?

Soon Reynold replied as if he wouldn’t lose.

“I was the one who personally pulled you up from the lake earlier.”

“Don’t you think that you’re the one who pushed me into the lake?”

“…”

I sat down next to Reynold. To think that he pushes people into the lake, such a rude fellow.

I opened my mouth with a serious expression.

“I don’t know what the hell you were trying to show me, but don’t do that to the other kids.”

“…What?”

“Don’t push people into the lake all of a sudden. If you do that to kids, you’ll be seen as a weirdo right away, right?”

Hearing my words, Reynold’s face was perfectly crumpled.

I followed him, frowned my face, and opened my mouth again.

“Huh? Look at this guy. Why are you looking angry? I’m the one who’s supposed to be angry, though?”

“…”

“There could have been other better ways, but why are you using such drastic methods? Look, even in such a drastic way, I don’t know what you wanted to show me.”

What would you do if something happened?

I didn’t say anything afterwards. Because something will really happen in the future.

Words become seeds, so it’s best to keep useless words to myself.

“If you act like that to other people, you get really blamed. Use another gentle way if you have something to say.”

“Gentle way?”

“Yeah. If you want to tell people what you think, you should express it by speaking mildly.”

“…Like acting or lying?”

I paused for a moment at his unexpected question.

“…Are you good at acting?”

“No.”

As I narrowed my eyes and looked at Reynold, he replied with a small sigh.

“I can’t act.”

“Then what about lying?”

“I’m good at it.”

Is there a big difference between lying and acting?

If one’s good at lying and bad at acting, which is real?

Anyway, it occurred to me that it would be much better to lie than to physically hurt someone.

“It’s better to lie or act, so don’t use such extreme methods. That doesn’t mean you should lie.”

After thinking for a while, Reynold nodded his head as if he understood.

“You’re right. I apologize for pushing you away.”

“…Yeah, thank you for your apologies.”

“I won’t do that next time.”

At Reynold’s words that continued, I firmly shook my head.

“There is no next time. I said during the day that I have no intention of having anything to do with the Collins.”

“…”

“Look for another kid to be your friend. For me to be friends with you… I think I have a higher rank than you.”

He was as mature as me, so I thought that if I had said this much, he would have understood.

Reynold, who was staring at me, smiled for a moment before opening his mouth.

“You really didn’t understand what I showed you.”

“You pushed someone into the lake all of a sudden, what do you want me to know??”

Hearing my words, Reynold narrowed his brows.

Reynold is the villain of this world, that’s why those reasons were all just excuses, and there was a possibility that he pushed me into the lake for no reason.

…Anyway, there was something even weirder than that.

How did Madam Collins find out that Reynold had pushed me when no one was watching us.

The lake was located right in the middle of the garden, so it could never be seen from inside the mansion.

But maybe, someone was watching us from a place we didn’t see.

Of course, it wouldn’t change anything if I knew how Madam Colin knew it.

After all, I have no intention of forming a relationship with Reynold, nor did I want to visit this place again!

I waved goodbye to Reynold and shook his hand.

“Goodbye, Reynold. Let’s never see each other again.”

As if he had understood my words, Reynold waved at me with a strange expression.

***

It pricks my conscience a little to be so hard on an eight-year-old, but I had reasons for that.

Of course, it’s also because my ending is to die because of him.

The title of the novel I entered is [Marionette in a Cage].

As you can tell from the title, this novel was an R-19 tragedy reverse harem novel.

As the title suggests, the events in this novel are devastating. I could get caught up in those incidents somehow, so it would be nice to avoid the main characters as much as possible.

The main characters are Gloria, the female lead, and four candidates for the male lead.

[Marionette in a Cage], like other reverse harem novels, develops as the female lead gets involved with the male lead candidates.

The first half of the novel is the Academy, and the second half is a story after graduating from the Academy.

Academic related works are usually lively, yet the keyword of this novel includes tragedy.

And as if following the keyword, on the day of the Academy graduation, Reynold kills his childhood friend, Danae.

From then on, Reynold, who seemed to be out of his mind, went so far as to annihilate the other three male leads.

If that wasn’t enough, Reynold destroyed the world I live in. I have never seen such an ending.

There were a few more IF endings, perhaps because the ending was so terrifying that they made no sense, but the ending was so intense that I only remembered that one.

Still, there was a little reason why I read this terrible novel several times.

Except for the ending, the style and atmosphere were all perfect.

I was one of the readers who read it several times until that point without seeing the ending.

And the supporting character who was quite popular in this novel was Danae, whose body I own now, and she certainly deserves to be popular.

First of all, she has the position of a childhood friend of the villain, yet she was alluring both in appearance and atmosphere, so there were many people who thought she got along well with Reynold.

There was talk of connecting Reynold and Danae, then Gloria being the other person, thus we’re done.

In fact, from my point of view, Gloria got along better with one of the sub male leads, not Reynold.

She thought, of course, that she would be with him, but she never dreamed that she would see the ending where she died.

To think that the killer who killed his childhood friend is one of the male leads.

To be honest, I still don’t understand why Reynold did such a thing.