Chapter 49
***
With the catalog rolled up in her hand, lody appeared behind Isaiah, her expression frightful even in Ronny’s eyes. Moreover, the way she swung her arm roughly and delivered a crisp slap to Isaiah looked quite valiant.
Whack!
After the clear sound of the hit, Isaiah, clutching his head, fell flat on the floor.
“Don’t make such a fuss over nothing, Isaiah!”
It didn’t seem like he was overreacting though. Ronny thought this but didn’t dare say it out loud.
Isaiah was right. lody, with the catalog in her hand, was truly terrifying.
***
No matter how scary lody was, the boys’ bet continued.
This ti, Isaiah brought the records from June of last year. Soon after, Ronny returned with records even older than those.
After a few more exchanges, the records started piling up thodically in lody’s room, becoming quite mundane.
Then it was Isaiah’s turn again.
By now, he had grown so familiar with Higgins’ office that he could find it with his eyes closed.
Arriving swiftly at the bookshelf, he crouched and began searching for the records from June five years ago.
“September, August, and…”
He skimd the spines of the books with the tips of his fingers, moving downward. After passing July, the label for May soon appeared.
“May?”
That’s strange.
Isaiah tilted his head slightly and examined the surrounding records once more, thinking soone might have misplaced it.
However, no matter how thoroughly he searched the bookshelf, the records from June five years ago were nowhere to be found.
“Isaiah.”
Perhaps worried about his prolonged absence, the door to the office cautiously opened, and lody peeked in.
“Is there a problem?”
“It’s good timing. Co here, l.”
He gestured for her to co over, but lody shook her head with a worried expression.
Entering the office space without permission felt like betraying the grace of the Duke’s family.
“There’s sothing strange.”
“Strange… thing?”
“Yeah, maybe a real thief has been here.”
With no choice, lody joined Isaiah by his side, crouching together. Of course, she didn’t forget to carefully close the office door.
“A thief?”
“Look at this.”
Isaiah pointed to the densely packed bookshelf he had been inspecting just monts ago. lody quickly realized that the records from June five years ago were missing.
“See, it’s odd, right? It’s definitely stolen, or maybe soone took it temporarily to read?”
“I don’t think it was taken temporarily.”
If soone had borrowed the records to check them, the bookshelf wouldn’t have been so densely filled.
They would have left an empty space to quickly find the spot to return it.
The notion that the records were stolen was even more unlikely. If such an event had occurred, additional locks would have been installed in the room. Therefore, the conclusion was one.
‘June’s records from five years ago are not stored here.’
Then, Ronny’s words from earlier that evening ca to mind.
“If it’s really precious and soone absolutely doesn’t want it to be seen by others, it would be well hidden.”
lody had thought it was a stretch, but now it seed his words might actually be true.
‘Right…’
lody fiddled with her hair for a mont, recalling the original story. People believed that there was friction between the Duke and his wife, leading them to live separately. However, the truth was different.
The couple had an agreent.
They would live together as the family desired for a few years, and after that, they would return to their individual lives.
But as with any contractual marriage in novels, the two gradually nurtured a romantic fondness and affection for each other.
And eventually, they ca to deeply love one another.
Yet, they still had to fulfill their initial promise of living apart after a certain ti had passed.
That sumr, five years ago.
‘Was it in June?’
If so, it made sense for the records of that particular month to be absent here. The Duke himself would have hidden them in a place only he knew.
‘Then, could it be that Ronny started this bet to investigate sothing about that ti five years ago?’
With the excuse of a ‘child’s prank,’ he could blur the fact that he was specifically targeting records from a certain period.
“What’s taking so long?”
Just then, the door to the office opened, and Ronny entered.
He seed to have co looking because he was worried, as both Isaiah and lody hadn’t returned for quite so ti.
lody observed Ronny’s expression carefully as he entered with a small lantern in hand.
“What’s wrong?”
However, she couldn’t sense anything particularly unusual in his expression. Maybe his pinpointing June was just a coincidence.
“Don’t dawdle here over nothing. This is a fair competition between that guy and .”
Ronny grumbled and opened the office door a bit wider. It seed like he was demanding lody to leave imdiately.
“Ah.”
lody’s expression tensed slightly.
“Why are you just standing there with your mouth open? Do you really want to help that guy find the records?”
Even as Ronny continued to grumble, lody’s expression remained peculiarly off.
“What’s wrong?”
Suppressing the unease in his heart, Ronny asked. But in truth, he felt like he already knew the answer.
Seeing lody’s gaze fixed over his shoulder, his suspicions grew even stronger.
Slowly, Ronny turned around.
Of course, Ronny, being a well-behaved child who believed in the divine, offered a quick prayer for lody, Isaiah, and himself in that brief mont.
‘Please let it be a generous servant standing behind .’
Especially a kind servant who felt pity for the young master whenever Mrs. Higgins scolded him.
“…!”
However, the divine did not heed his prayer. Rather, it seed a punishnt had been decreed. Standing behind Ronny was Mrs. Higgins, her eyes blazing and her face showing great anger.
In his panic, Ronny involuntarily pleaded in a heartfelt voice,
“Please… anything but carrots.”
Of course, his plea fell on deaf ears.
***
Under Mrs. Higgins’ supervision, Ronny and Isaiah neatly returned the records they had secretly taken.
Mrs. Higgins stood at a distance, arms crossed, so it seed she hadn’t noticed which records the boys had taken.
Their futile bet was thus brought to a permanent end. There could be no talk of a next ti, all thanks to Mrs. Higgins.
“If you make such a bad bet again, I’ll report it to the Duke and have him spank you until your bottoms are sore.”
The next day,
Ronny, with sleepy eyes, had to munch on carrots, trying his best not to taste them. lody found his efforts pitiable.
Moreover, as a condition for not telling the Duke about the whole affair, he had to massage Mrs. Higgins’ shoulders for an hour.
Fortunately, lody did not receive any punishnt. This was thanks to Ronny and Isaiah insisting that lody was innocent.
Yet, lody couldn’t shake off the feeling of being punished.
That sa afternoon, she ended up transcribing records in Claude’s room.
“This is strange.”
Claude suddenly spoke up while lody was silently copying records.
“What is… strange?”
“You, lody. You’re helping
too willingly.”
lody was indeed afraid to converse with him.
It was because of the conversation about Ronny and Jeremiah yesterday, which led to a misunderstanding that she knew about it thanks to Claude…
‘If Ronny told Claude about yesterday’s incident…’
Claude was a cautious and thoughtful person. He wouldn’t just accept a clumsy excuse and let it slide.
“I’ve just gotten used to this work.”
lody replied curtly and pretended to focus on the records again.
She clenched the pen tightly in her hand, waiting for Claude’s gaze to move away from her.
“Ah, I see.”
Fortunately, he quickly acknowledged her answer and looked away. lody barely managed to suppress a sigh of relief.
“I thought you were doing this because you were afraid I’d use you as an excuse.”
lody was startled.
“That was a misunderstanding.”
lody looked up cautiously. He continued to write sothing on his notebook without stopping.
“That, that was a misunderstanding by Ronny.”
lody began to explain, half-heartedly. She was worried that if she tried to ignore it, Claude might probe more persistently.
“Hmm, a misunderstanding?”
“Yes. Ronny seems to think you told
the story. I was about to deny it, but…”
Her voice trailed off, maybe that was why Claude lifted his head. She expected to see an angry expression, but surprisingly, he was smiling pleasantly.
“Ronny got excited and continued the story on his own?”
“How, how did you know?”
“It’s about my brother, so of course, I know. He gets slightly excited when it cos to family matters.”
“Slightly excited is an understatent!”
“I know, I understand.”
Surprisingly, the conversation flowed smoothly. lody felt a small sense of relief for not being falsely accused.
“Opportunities to talk about Jeremiah are rare, so it’s not strange for Ronny to get a bit excited.”
“He boasted to
a lot.”
“Well, he’s a brother to be proud of. But lody.”
Claude called her, his face montarily turning stern.
“…Yes?”
Of course, by the ti lody responded in surprise, his expression had returned to its usual gentleness.
“It might be good to think about why Ronny hasn’t had the chance to talk about Jeremiah.”
Was he hinting at so unspoken rule within the mansion?
“Even simple words conveying the truth can sotis hurt soone.”
The ‘soone’ he was referring to was probably the Duke. Even without considering the original story, it was evident.
Isn’t it clear that the entire mansion has agreed to silence for the sake of just one person?
Reviews
All reviews (0)