The person whom I thought had intentionally pushed Arielle had been caught trying to flee the country.
Interrogations revealed that someone had blackmailed her into pushing Arielle down a flight of stairs. She herself did not think that Arielle would fall in the way she did and would die as a result of her actions. Having been caught, she was scheduled to be execute by hanging within a few days. Her entire family was also supposed to die with her, but was pardoned because she decided to reveal the name of her co-conspirer.
The name being revealed was a familiar name that I had heard of before.
"I am so glad that you came to visit me, Lady Charlotte!" she said excitedly.
"...Why did you do it, Noel Lowell?" I asked.
"Why would I do anything if it is not for you?" Noel asked.
"...Why are you so obsessed with me?" I asked.
"Obsessed? That is an understatement of what I feel for you. I adore you and want to make your dreams come true," Noel said.
"...All of this...everything...is out of your twisted sense of adoration for me?" I asked. "I don't even know you well!"
"You may not know me personally, but I have always known of you from a young age. You may not remember meeting me, but I remember watching you from afar. You were surrounded by several scholars and could even talk on parr with them. It was so admirable that even people our age found it difficult to talk to you, and when someone did, Lady Charlotte would brush them aside just like trash. At such a young age, you were already cold and ruthless. No one could even touch you," Noel explained.
"If you liked me so much, why did you have to ruin the lives of the people around me?" I asked.
"I idolized you and wanted to continue watching you shine from afar. At some point, you stopped shining. I wondered why...why you were no longer shining in my eyes. You stopped caring about your studies and actively participating in social events when those should have been your shining moments in acquiring more power for yourself. I wondered why...why...and why you would give up everything. You were my ideal and then suddenly disappeared from the world without an explanation. I learned later that Lady Charlotte has become taken with A woman and spent all of her free time with her while even ignoring her own lessons. Such blasphemous rumors...There is no way that you would degrade yourself for another woman. Someone as perfect as you would never do that. That is why I went around punishing people who tried to damage your brilliance with unsavory rumors, but that one woman was so damn persistent on being with you...calling Lady Charlotte her important friend," Noel said.
Was Arielle being bullied and never said anything to me because she was worried about me?
"...You witch," I said quietly under my breath.
"I gathered girls upset about Lady Arielle being nominated as the Crown Prince's fiancée and tortured her quietly from the behind the scenes, yet she stood resiliently as if nothing fazes her. Even after threatening her that her support as future Queen would be removed if she did not remove herself from your side," Noel explained.
"...How did she respond?" I asked.
"Lady Arielle said that she had no greater support than having Lady Charlotte as a friend," Noel answered.
"Arielle..."
"How ridiculous...Lady Charlotte does not have any friends! We are all just tools to make yourself look better! I had been waiting all my life to be a useful tool for you, but you never reached out to me even though I am the one who cares the most about you! Not her! If I was with you, I would not make you attend charity events or make you talk to those dirty Commoners whom are clearly way beneath you. It is all her fault that you changed and became kinder. You became weaker. Lady Arielle infected Lady Charlotte with her saint like qualities and changed you to be more like her," Noel said.
"...It is not like that at all," I said as I covered my eyes shedding tears. "It was not like I changed my priorities. It was just that I found a way to be happy with being beside someone I cared for. Why is it so wrong for me to be in love with someone?"
"...I was right to kill that woman...Unforgivable! Unforgivable! Unforgivable! She polluted you to this point," Noel said as she began grabbing at her own hair and messing it up. "You are not the kind of person who is easily swayed by feelings. You are cold and unemotional. That is who you are...who you are supposed to be! That is why I had to get rid of her! I lured a girl I could use and asked her to push Lady Arielle from a height that I knew would kill her. It was so satisfying watching her fall to her death. That moment made up for the several years of hatred I had for her. I was also able to be of use to you, Lady Charlotte. I was able to liberate you from her parasitic grasp, and now you can return to who you were before...who you are supposed to be!" Noel said.
"Arielle did not deserve any of this! If you had any problems with me, you should have taken them up with me and not her!" I screamed.
Arielle was meant for so much more, but why is it that she had to lose her life over me?
"She did! For changing you and making you weak! She deserved to die!" Noel screamed back at me.
I dropped my hands from my face and thought I heard the sound of a rope snapping.
Either way...it marked the end of my sanity.
"...I...can't....breathe!" Noel said as she scratched my arm.
Her words brought me back to what I was currently doing to her. Unbeknownst to me, I had found myself on top of Noel Lowell and strangling the life out of her with my bare hands. I oddly felt calm after realizing what I was doing and exhaled deeply before putting my focus back on strangling her.
More...more...
"In our previous lives, I promised to wring your neck out...so just die already!" I screamed as I increased my grip over her neck.
She continuously flailed her arms and scratched my arms and even my cheek with her long nails.
I slowly felt Noel Lowell lose a little bit of life in her body with every passing second until she stopped moving all completely.
"Stop, Charlotte Castile!" Garett shouted as he pulled me off of Noel Lowell's body.
Prince Erik arrived not long afterwards and went to examine the body with Garett by his side.
"...She is dead," Prince Erik said.
I chuckled softly.
"I see...That insufferable girl is finally dead. That is great news," I said smiling as I stood up.
"...What did she say to you?" Prince Erik asked.
"...She said that Arielle deserved to die," I said as I pulled out my concealed knife from my dress.
"What are you doing?" Garret asked.
I pointed the knife at my throat.
"Stop! Duke Maddox just lost his life. You also just took in his people right afterwards. Do you intend to abandon them right after they have lost two of their masters?" Prince Erik asked.
For the person who killed me in our previous life to want to save me right now...People oddly become better people in Arielle's presence.
"I cannot return after having killed Lady Lowell. My reputation as a murderer will hurt them and my family as well. Furthermore, my parents and other siblings have already long agreed to the people from the Maddox Family. What I am doing now is for my own selfish desire of wanting to die," I said.
"No one will be happy with your death," Garett said.
"Right...but I will and maybe be even able to change this tragedy from happening yet again," I said as I poked my neck with the blade. I soon turned to Prince Erik. "Let me apologize to you first, Your Highness. I said hurtful things to you before just so that you would kill me because I was too weak to do the deed myself. I am aware that it was all my fault back then and now...I can never forgive myself for being the reason Arielle dies yet again."
I then kept the knife stable by lodging it within one of the cracks of the cement brick wall and used the force of my head swinging back to force the knife through my throat.
The next moment I opened my eyes, I found myself returning to my body as a child ten years ago once again.
I cried in misery once again...
.