Cold bedding wrapped around her back. Esperanza opened her stiff eyes.
Where is this?
An unfamiliar ceiling painting greeted Esperanza. It was late morning. Human living patterns are highly contagious, so while Esperanza succeeded in getting Cider to sleep early, she ended up sacrificing her own wake-up ti. Esperanza habitually checked the current ti displayed in her status window.
10:35 AM.
The dark sky made it feel much earlier than the actual ti. She had the idle thought of whether the sun would even rise.
Sitting alone on the wide bed and turning her head, she discovered a bronze ashtray on the table and only then rembered who the owner of this room was. And what had happened yesterday.
"Where did he go?"
She spoke aloud on purpose, but the sound hit the wide walls and died away. She roughly threw on a shawl and went outside. The mansion was sowhat chaotic. Annie, who spotted Esperanza, tried to say sothing but closed her mouth.
"Good morning, miss."
"Ah, yes. Good morning. Annie, but by any chance, is Cider..."
"If you an the count, I heard he went out urgently at night?"
"At night?"
She rembered embracing Cider, who was quietly shedding tears late in the evening, and falling asleep. She swore that was the end of it. She hadn't been drinking, so how could her mory disappear?
But he went out?
"Yes. Didn't you know?"
I didn't know! This is infuriating. And after that, he just left? Without saying a single word?
She looked around, but all the servants seed busy working and were nowhere to be seen. Only cleaning maids were flitting back and forth between rooms with cleaning tools. It didn't seem like asking them would yield answers.
"Where's Millen?"
"He went with him."
So that's how it is. Despite making a midnight escape, he had the leisure to take care of Millen.
"Then, um, what about Coleman and Mrs. Denver?"
Esperanza hesitated slightly when calling Coleman's na, but Annie, who didn't understand the situation, tilted her head and said:
"I heard he retired yesterday? He left in a hurry. Actually, a new butler ca this morning."
'He didn't have ti to wake
up right next to him and say a word about going out, but he had ti to hire a new butler?'
Isn't this going too far no matter what? Where on earth did he go? Esperanza went to find the only person who could explain this situation.
"Mrs. Denver!"
And the head maid, Mrs. Denver, was on the verge of losing her mind explaining the situation to an excited Esperanza while being caught in an already busy situation.
"Miss, so what I'm saying is."
Mrs. Denver, who had tried to calm Esperanza down, gave this explanation:
Cider Claiborne, this hateful and wicked human, had co out of his room late at night, called Millen to pack his bags, fired Coleman, installed Millen's father, who had been the previous count's attendant, as the new butler, and left on the morning train with just Millen.
Train? Train!
"Where did he go?"
"Well... I don't know either. Probably Nine Holder?"
"What ssage did he leave for ?"
"He didn't leave any with . Ah, but more than that, miss."
Mrs. Denver guided the dazed Esperanza to a well-dressed middle-aged man.
"It's my first ti eting you, Miss Esperanza. I'm Charles Millen."
The man who had aged gracefully had a face exactly like his son's. Dressed impeccably in senior employee formal wear, he bowed with the sa stoic expression as Millen. Of course, he showed no sign of doubting Esperanza's existence, which ca from who knows where.
"Nice to et you. But what's the situation..."
"Forr butler Coleman decided to retire due to deteriorating health. Since the situation wasn't good, I, who originally worked at this mansion, decided to take on the butler duties as a temporary asure, but I have many shortcomings. I ask for your understanding."
"That's fine. Where on earth did Cider go? Did you happen to receive any hint?"
"He left no words with . Perhaps he went to Nine Holder?"
It was the most reasonable deduction. The only place he could go by train imdiately would be the Avondale mansion in Nine Holder. But if that was the case, why did he leave without saying anything?
"Miss!"
Just then, Annie, who had co running with her skirt in one hand, pressed a letter into Esperanza's hand. The letter envelope, sealed with wax, had Esperanza's na written in cursive that was unmistakably Cider's handwriting.
"The kids cleaning the count's bedroom found it and I quickly brought it. I did well, right?"
Annie giggled, saying it was worth helping with odd jobs to befriend those kids. When Esperanza nodded with a brightened face, Annie winked smugly.
Butler Millen's gaze briefly sharpened. However, having just beco the new butler, instead of disciplining the employees, he finished his warning by placing his index finger to his lips while looking at Annie so Esperanza could focus on the letter. When Annie quieted down, Esperanza slowly tore open the letter.
The content was short. A few trivial greetings. A word of thanks for yesterday's comfort. And...
Esperanza bit her lips tightly.
It seed like a gentle yet strangely cold voice was reading it with lips against her ear. That made her even more heated. Who said anything about letting him die! How can he be annoying even in a letter? Esperanza spread out the paper she had crumpled as if to tear it apart. The last paragraph read:
He goes off sowhere unknown without a word and asks her to think of him? Is this supposed to be words right now?
Her gaze that seed to pierce through the letter paper instantly read down to the postscript.
"Go to Nine Holder...? Who decided that?"
The sentence itself was much softer and a roundabout suggestion, but for Esperanza to accept, it was no different from an order.
'If he runs off and then tells
where to go and where not to go through a letter, that's an order, what else.'
However, shortly after, Esperanza had to admit that was the best option. The only thing Esperanza could do at this mansion was lounge around in Cider's research lab.
"Annie. I'm going to Nine Holder. Butler Millen, it's really nice to et you, and please take care of things. But I think I need to go now."
Butler Millen spoke with a face that looked exactly like Cider's stoic and sohow slightly unpleasant attendant.
"I've reserved train tickets to Nine Holder. It's the 3 PM train, miss."
Five maids rushed to pack her luggage. Esperanza had less luggage than even the maids by lady standards, but her clothes had increased after getting winter clothes tailored this ti.
Soon Annie completed luggage consisting of two whole suitcases. Including her own, it was three suitcases. Esperanza dumped them all into her inventory. Except for one handbag each.
??????°??☆????°??????
The journey to Nine Holder was quiet. Butler Millen hadn't done sothing like reserving an entire first-class compartnt like Cider would, so Esperanza and Annie shared a compartnt with a quiet elderly couple.
Through the train window, quiet forest paths continued, then from far away, a city of clock towers and skyscrapers surrounded by factories revealed itself.
"Next stop is Nine Holder Central Station!"
A conductor in black uniform rang a bell while walking through the first-class corridor.
After the train stopped, they gathered their light luggage and got off. Steam puffed from the locomotive. The shoulders of people hurrying back and forth rcilessly knocked past the two. Esperanza, grabbing Annie and moving aside, turned her gaze toward the city outside the station.
It was Nine Holder. The very city where everything began. Perhaps even now, those culprits might be coiled up there, the pinnacle of civilization and the cliff of decline.
"Miss, please wait a mont. I'll catch a steam carriage."
"No. Let's take the streetcar. We don't have luggage anyway."
It was a strange feeling.
Steam carriages were expensive but would pass through Queens Central where Nine Holder Central Station was located and head straight to Upper Lane. In contrast, streetcars took a full 40 minutes even on the direct route from Queens Central to Upper Lane. This was because they had to pass through Queens Central, City Hall, Catholic Street, and Parliant before arriving at Upper Lane. In other words, they hit all the places where upper-class gentlen and ladies might set foot. Paradoxically, that's why upper-class gentlen and ladies rarely used them.
Esperanza was dressed in typical lady's autumn attire, so she would inevitably stand out if she took the streetcar. Yet the reason she insisted could only be explained as intuition.
Thanks to arriving before rush hour, they were able to secure two seats after just a few stops. Esperanza sat by the window and looked out at the streetcar that rattled to a stop every five minutes.
Queens Central was exactly as Esperanza knew it. However, after a few more stops, as people got on and off, and as they passed around City Hall where governnt buildings should be, Esperanza realized that the appearance of the streets was familiar in a different sense.
These were buildings she had never seen during this period. Though none were completed, the shapes drawn on the walls surrounding the construction sites were familiar. Buildings with purposes hard to guess, but extrely gorgeous and free-form structures. They didn't suit these rigid streets. However, they would suit perfectly the streets that would be bustling with freely-dressed mages in a few years.
'The buildings I saw in the ga...'
"What kind of construction are they doing all at once like this."
Annie grumbled. She was right. While it's natural for cities to change over ti, it's rare to tear down and rebuild so much at once.
This is just the beginning.
Considering the construction period, the buildings would be completed just before the ga opened. Since Daria had acquired the city hall-owned land a few months ago, if construction started imdiately, the timing roughly matched. Even though she knew it intellectually, she felt urgently pressed.
She could feel to the bone that the ti when this world would be reduced to a re ga board was not far off.
'And I need to return at least before then.'
She had generously estimated a year, but if she had to rebuild the machine itself rather than return directly with the return ticket, she also had to calculate the ti that would take. If Cider Claiborne put his mind to it, it wouldn't take too long, but how long would it take to persuade him? Before that, could she protect him completely?
Esperanza pressed her lips tightly. Unlike the City Hall plaza street where construction had just begun, the buildings on Catholic Street were already changing their signs. 'Hatter's Hat Shop' that would beco 'Hatter's Equipnt Store' and 'Windmill Bookstore' that would beco 'Windmill Magic Bookstore Specialty Shop.' Familiar nas she hadn't seen on Catholic Street before kept popping up endlessly.
Throughout the transfer to a carriage after arriving at Upper Lane, her stomach churned as if she had ridden a roller coaster. The ash-gray sky with low-hanging clouds seed to urge her to wake up from sweet dreams. The past few months had been sweet, comfortable, and lazy. But that shouldn't have been the case. Danger had now approached right to her nose.
And Cider wasn't by Esperanza's side.
So there was no ti to dawdle. Daria's plan was steadily taking shape. At most a month and a half until the new year. That's exactly how much leisure ti there was.
Getting off the carriage, the sa view of Avondale mansion as when she left filled her vision. She entered through the open door. Into the mansion that had once been ruins where weeds stung her ankles.
She didn't want this place to beco ruins again. That one thing was what she wanted most right now.
So then, what should she do from now on?
Esperanza, slightly lifting her hat, looked up at the tightly closed study window and thought.
I need to move.
Since I'm late, I need to hurry even more.
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