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The Villainous Noble Who Kept Rewinding After Death: The Story Somehow Changed When I Committed Suicide

Chapter 203: House Sitting

“Good morning.”

The next morning.

Iris and the others were already eating breakfast when Sharueina arrived late to the dining hall, sitting down next to Miria with a weak voice.

“Are you okay, Narushe?”

“Haha. Thanks for worrying, Lily. I’m fine.”

To not worry Iris, Sharueina forced a smile, but her usual energy was missing, and there were faint dark circles under her eyes from what seemed like a lack of sleep the night before.

“For now, everyone is here, so let’s reconfirm our plans moving forward. First, in the morning, Mīze will go to the room where Ronī is resting and collect the evidence he gathered about the guild’s misdeeds. Lily, I’d like you to go near the venomous snake clan’s hideout and keep an eye on them.”

“Understood.”

“Leave it to me.”

“Meanwhile, I’m sorry, but I’ll need to rest. I didn’t get much sleep last night after using detection magic.”

“Of course. Thanks to Luna last night, we were able to rest well, so just leave it to us and get some rest.”

“Thank you, Lily. From the looks of Narushe, you seem to need some rest as well, so please take it easy in your room.”

“But…”

“Narushe, you’re looking worse than you think. There’s nothing that can be entrusted to you in your current state, so you don’t have to worry about anything.”

“…I got it.”

Given the situation with Rogurando, Sharueina seemed to be lacking concentration.

There was nothing she could manage right now, and it was better for her to stay in her room to avoid disrupting things needlessly.

“And tonight, we’re going to take down the clan and the guild. Our knights should arrive in this town by tomorrow morning, so we can leave that to them. I’ll discuss the details again once everyone is gathered. Any questions?”

“None.”

“No problems here.”

“Okay, then. If anything comes up, release some magic power to notify me. I can respond even while sleeping, thanks to Lily and Mīze’s magic.”

“Fufu. Hearing that makes me happy.”

“I’ll do my best!”

Iris didn’t seem to understand what was so enjoyable, but her cheeks flushed slightly as she smiled happily, and Miria answered with a more spirited tone than before.

“Let’s disperse then.”

As I said that, Iris returned to her room to prepare, and Sharueina, looking tired, followed her upstairs.

“Mīze.”

“Yes?”

“Come over here for a bit.”

Miria stood up to head towards Ronī, but I called her to stop before she returned.

Then, as Mīze approached, I leaned in close and gave her instructions in a whisper, so no one else could hear.

“…Understood.”

“Alright then. I’ll take a bit more sleep.”

I yawned once, then stood up and returned to my room, collapsing right onto the bed.

“Ah~, the bed is the best.”

Sleeping on a water cushion isn’t too bad, but since it’s magic created by magic power, I always feel fatigued afterward.

However, the bed is a supreme existence that heals that fatigue, and its softness wraps around me gently—an experience that never fails to delight.

“Sigh. If only I had Fiera’s tail, it would be perfect…”

Fiera’s tail is incredibly fluffy and pleasant to touch, and being able to sleep with it is my greatest comfort in this life; with the bed and that tail, I’m confident I could sleep forever.

“Well, I still can’t die forever yet…”

As I closed my eyes, indulging in such self-deprecating thoughts, I slowly let consciousness slip away.

“Luna… Luna…”

“Mmm…?”

I woke up to the familiar voice, meeting Miria’s gaze, who seemed to have finished what I asked her to do and returned.

“Good morning.”

“Oh, good morning. Have you finished already?”

“Yes. I collected the evidence without any issues.”

“I see. And Lily?”

“She joined us midway, and now we’re waiting in our room for Luna to arrive.”

“Got it.”

I got off the bed, letting Miria brush my hair as I got ready, and moved to the room where Iris and the others were waiting.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“It’s okay, we weren’t waiting long. By the way, did you manage to rest well?”

“Yeah, thanks to you. And you did great work, Ronī.”

“No, it was thanks to Mīze’s magic that we could collect this evidence without any problems. Thank you.”

Beastmen have high physical abilities but can’t use attribute magic, making it hard to act without being noticed.

So, this time, Mīze must have used wind magic to make herself and Ronī invisible, allowing them to collect the hidden evidence without being found.

And Sharueina, still lost in thought regarding Rogurando, quietly took her seat.

“So, is this the evidence Ronī gathered?”

“Yes. This document lists all the connections between the guild and the clan, as well as their ties to the knights.”

I picked up the stack of papers on the table, flipping through each one.

It detailed how the guild master was colluding with a criminal organization, arranging for their leader and several cohorts to be handled as adventurers.

It also mentioned that they were selling the town’s poor and novice adventurers as illegal slaves somewhere.

Various misdeeds were documented, including bribing the knights to look the other way.

“Huh. This is darker than I imagined.”

The fact that they arranged a criminal organization as adventurers probably relates to the venomous snake’s claws, suggesting that the clan members joined to survive in this town centered around that criminal organization.

And the illegal slaves referred to the ones being passed to Saramāju—how they got connected is unclear, but it seems they were handing over the poor and powerless novices to Fūshiru, those who wouldn’t be missed.

(That artifact’s space definitely had other entrances. Which means there are towns connected through those entrances outside of this town. Probably, they were gathering all the captured humans in that space and Fūshiru was collecting them regularly.)

That artifact created a space that presumably lessens the distance; regardless of how far away they are from Saramāju, one could shorten the distance by passing through that space.

Simply put, it’s like creating a new path where none existed. For example, if you needed to cross a large chasm between point A and point C, it would normally take ten days to go around it.

However, using that artifact would be akin to creating a bridge labeled B across that chasm, thereby reducing the travel time from ten days to three.

(Well, I don’t need to worry about other towns; if they search for the entrance of that artifact, they’ll find out what’s connected anyway.)

Deciding to leave the handling of other towns to my father and the local lords, I turned to hear Iris’s report.

“The venomous snake’s claws seemed quite chaotic. With more than half their members dead due to the attack by Mīze, there was no evidence linking to the attackers, and there were no testimonies about having seen them. Some were trying to escape in fear of their sudden losses, but when a figure resembling the leader appeared, that chaos was silenced in an instant.”

“I see. They must have charisma. Well, it could be that they’re trusted because they have skill.”

“I believe it’s the latter. From what I saw, they had an aura akin to an S-rank adventurer.”

“S-rank, huh? Any other features?”

“The weapon was a sword probably hanging at their waist. They appeared more skilled in close combat rather than magic. They were female, with distinctive green hair.”

“Huh. So the leader is a woman?”

I had assumed the leader would be male, but it turns out it’s a woman, which was a little surprising. But since my tasks remain unchanged, I won’t dwell on it.

“I understand the situation now. There’s no need to wait any longer, and we’ve obtained the necessary evidence. As planned, we’ll go take down the venomous snake’s claws tonight. But first…”

I paused, and in an instant, Mīze moved silently, slipping behind Sharueina and poised a dagger at her neck.

“? What’s the meaning of this, Mīze?”

“I’m sorry. But this was Luna’s order.”

“Luna’s?”

Sharueina looked at me wide-eyed in shock, but I ignored her and signaled to Mīze to let her sit down, then sighed deeply and began explaining our plan.

“This operation will split into two teams. Mīze and I will head to take down the clan, while Lily and Ronī will go to the guild. Lily, you can keep anyone from leaving the guild with water magic, right?”

“Of course.”

“Then make sure not a single one escapes.”

“Understood.”

“Alright, that concludes our strategy meeting. Just keep alert and rest your bodies in preparation for tonight.”

“W-Wait, Luna!”

I intended to head back to my room to rest a bit longer once the discussion wrapped up, but I was called back hurriedly by Sharueina, whose name hadn’t come up for either operation.

“What about me? Why wasn’t my name included in either group?”

Seeing Sharueina flustered was rare, and it almost seemed like she genuinely didn’t understand why she was being excluded.

Sigh. “If you don’t understand why, then let me explain. Right now, Narushe is not fit for use. If I take you along in this state, you’ll undoubtedly become a liability and put everyone else at risk. Just now, you couldn’t even react to Mīze’s attack, right? Normally, you’d have been able to notice and counter. If you can’t even react to that, then honestly, it’d be a hindrance.”

What I’d tasked Mīze with was very simple—it was to confirm whether Narushe was in a mental state that allowed her to participate in the operation.

I instructed Mīze to conceal her presence just enough for Narushe to notice—typically, she would have been aware of something like that.

However, in this case, Narushe couldn’t avoid it, much less notice, and was easily caught off-guard.

“I understand why Narushe can’t focus, but I can’t take you along under these circumstances. So please stay put and wait here. Ah, don’t worry. When we leave in two days, if you say you want to come, I’ll take you. But just know, if you die, I won’t be responsible for that. Think carefully about your choice.”

I had said it was a hindrance if she hesitated yesterday, but if she insisted on coming along, I would take her.

Even if it meant her death, it would be a choice she made, her own responsibility.

I would just have to let her accept that this was her fate in this life.

Of course, I had no intention of asking Sephiria to resurrect her when that time came.

After all, it was a result of her own choices.

“Well then, let’s disband for real this time.”

Saying that, I left the room and returned to my own, where I spent my time leisurely reading until the night of the operation began.

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