chapter 21

After separating ourselves from Daisy’s group, we headed straight to the library.

I piled up some magic-related books and sat down to go through each of them. I had been helping Logan to look for clues about magic like he mentioned for about a couple hours.

Logan sat in front of me with only one book in hands, perhaps it was for the purpose of focus…

“Did you find any clues, Logan?”

“No, not yet.”

Sometimes he kept staring at me. Everytime like that, I thought that he had found something useful, but it turned out it was just false hope.

Then why did he keep looking at me? I could not concentrate on the book because I could feel his constant gaze.

Eventually, we parted with the promise of our next meeting.

***

And a few days later today, I got a letter from George.

[It was nice to be able to see Lady Moore’s lovely face often but,… I can’t see her anymore.]

From the first line, I could already sense his melancholy. After Daisy ran into George a few times, she had seemed to change her favourite hang-out places.

I knew Daisy had little interest in George, so how am I supposed to make this work? There was a limit to how much I could help. If it had been in the past, Daisy would have already sorted out her marriage proposals, which meant she was somewhat irresolute about her decision. Even if there was a tiny ounce of doubt within her, I would make sure to make good use of that chance.

I was reading the letter infuriatingly until one sentence caught my attention.

[By the way, is Miss Moore coming to Count Parker’s ball this time too? I haven’t got the chance to dance with her yet… ]

I did not read what was written after that. My whole mind only revolved around the phrase ‘Count Parker’s ball’ now.

“Count Parker…?”

After a brief search through my recollection, goosebumps arose all over my body, the surroundings suddenly became oddly cold.

The fire incident at County Parker.

It would happen soon.

How could I forget this? I opened another letter that Nancy had placed on the silver tray. It was the very invitation to Count Parker’s ball. It was the same ball that took place in my previous life around this time, fortunately, I did not attend it.

I could not believe that I was holding that invitation…! My hands could not help but to tremble slightly.

As I recalled, the incident happened when I was 18 years old. Even now, when I thought of Count Parker, the word ‘fire’ first came to mind. Back then, one person died and more than ten were injured.

Surely, such a huge commotion was published in newspapers. I did not attend, but I read about it through the newspaper.

I also heard about the situation at that time from a witness at the scene.

“I was abruptly told to evacuate. I was scared to death because of what was happening!”

It was from Daisy. Of course, someone like Daisy would not miss a single ball or social gathering. Her body was shaking as she said.

“Sienna, I’m so glad you didn’t attend it. Otherwise, wouldn’t you be in big trouble too? How on earth did such a hazardous situation occur…?”

But the incident was going to repeat this time. I had not even paid much mind about it until now, but I feel bad about the future that was to come.

How could one not care if somebody were to die? If my memory served me right, the person who died then was…

I could easily recall the victim’s identity. How could I forget, it was a face I had met several times at tea parties. As a matter of fact, I had just seen that person at the salon a few days ago.

The victim was none other than the young Baroness Coventry.

Her name is Heidi, and she’s the same age as me and one year younger than Chloe. Considering that Baroness Coventry was a descendant of the Duke of Grint, it was only natural that Heidi was a relative of Chloe.

What should I do? I fell into agony for a while. Was I supposed to just stand by and watch? Then Heidi would die.

How surprised I was when I first heard that she was dead. As I returned to reality, I could not help but be shocked. It was hard to accept that a person I had encountered multiple times would die in the upcoming event. I did not want to go through that experience anymore.

It was then that it hit me. Could I perhaps…stop it?

I hardly exchanged any words with her, but it would be inhumane to pretend not to know and leave her life at stake. I would definitely feel guilty afterwards if I were to let things proceed along the original timeline.

“…”

After much consideration, I finally made a life-changing decision, and it was not only for me…

Let’s save Heidi.

The cause was unknown, but I did know what time the fire started. I also knew roughly where the fire started. Let’s just go ahead and block the fire and save Heidi. But as they said, it was easier said than done, so hopefully nothing would go wrong.

And I asked Daisy to join me at the ball, continuing with the act as her friend as naturally as possible.

I still had to pretend to be her friend to crush her with the sense of betrayal that I used to feel. How painful would it be to get bitten by that one docile dog she thought to be taking advantage of?

Anyway, it would be much easier to read her innermost thoughts when she was around.

That was how I decided to attend this ball.