The Countess took a deep breath in and out, speaking with a biting sharpness.
“You wretch! Is that maid you keep by your side not the spawn of a devil? Did you not join hands with a vicious mob, cloud His Grace’s eyes, and seek to seize Richmond?!! Is that not why you threatened the maids the moment you arrived, using them to pry into Richmond’s internal affairs?!!”
“It is not so. My maid and I are by no means ‘the Unseen Ones.’”
At Grace’s words, Flora cried out.
“You killed my maids, and that’s all you have to say?!! How will you prove you’re not the Unseen Ones!!”
The Countess released Grace’s chin as if brushing it aside and rose from her seat.
“Empress Hetbiga, who serves as regent, has officially acknowledged the existence of ‘the Unseen Ones’ and declared them traitors. Over a decade ago, they assassinated Crown Prince Ares, the late Duke and Duchess of Richmond, and the late Duke and Duchess of Taylor.”
Grace’s pupils sank deeply. She spoke in a tightly locked voice, as if chewing and spitting out each word.
“I cannot be among those who killed Crown Prince Ares, the late Duke and Duchess of Richmond, and the late Duke and Duchess of Taylor.”
The Countess let out a deep sigh and shook her head.
“It seems you have no way to prove it besides worthless words.”
“…….”
“For the sake of His Grace’s dignity, I shall give you time to think.”
The Countess turned and ordered her ladies-in-waiting.
“Lock her in solitary. And bring the maid who came with her.”
“Yes, Countess.”
The maids forcefully lifted Grace. Then they dragged her down a corridor among the many connected to the hall that felt unusually dark. After descending slippery stone stairs covered in moss, again and again, a black door appeared.
A knight who had descended with them opened the door. An incomparable chill and damp moisture rushed out.
When Grace instinctively hesitated, a maid shoved her back with brutal force. The pitch-black room, devoid of even a sliver of light, was immeasurable in both width and depth.
The door slammed shut. When she turned around, even the door was submerged in darkness and invisible. Only through a narrow gap the width of a palm did a faint candlelight flicker. Through that crevice, a cold voice flowed in.
“No one who has been locked in that room has come out with their sanity intact. In exactly three days, she’ll lose her mind and babble confessions.”
“See? She should have kept her greed in check. This is what happens when you covet a station above your station.”
The maids threw mocking words over their shoulders and turned away.
The sound of footsteps climbing the damp stairs faded. When even the faint light that had served as a guiding star like the North Star vanished, perfect darkness descended.
The solitary cell without light or sound became an abyss.
Time and space shattered, and the boundary between heaven and earth disappeared.
Grace took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and sat down on the floor. As her body instinctively trembled and her heart pounded, she closed her eyes and desperately recalled her teacher’s words.
‘The beast you intend to catch, my lady, is larger than you. You must always be prepared to sacrifice an arm.’
At the same time, she seemed to hear a low, cold voice.
‘Then endure, Grace Taylor.’
Strangely, her surging heart seemed to calm more at that cold voice than at her teacher’s.
The day she first experienced the abyss where time and space shattered. The day she stood before the charred remains of her parents. She had endured by clinging to the illusion of a boy whose face she did not know. So something like this was nothing.
“Endure.”
Grace clenched her stomach hard and gritted her teeth.
＊ ＊ ＊
The Duke of Richmond’s castle was like a stirred-up beehive.
“Find her!!”
The knights and soldiers under Count Reuwen moved with perfect discipline from the remote corners of the garden to the interior of the building, searching for someone.
Walter crossed the rear garden as if walking against the current. Soldiers rummaging through the bushes saw him and quickly snapped to attention. The Duke passed them indifferently. As the wind raised by his passing faded, the soldiers subtly raised their heads to steal glances at him.
A man like a black rampart, like a great shadow, moved away at a pace neither slow nor fast. The expression glimpsed on his face was indifferent, impossible to read.
One soldier blinked uneasily and muttered.
“This… His Grace permitted it, right?”
“Who knows. It seemed to be the Countess’s order…”
Joseph, following behind Walter, clenched his molars and glared. From his throat to his heart, there was nowhere that did not burn as if he had swallowed lava.
But the soldiers scouring the garden were merely the tip of the iceberg. When they reached the corridor where the Chandelier room was, Joseph let out a hollow laugh. Knights bearing the crest of Richmond on their chests were ransacking the Chandelier room and using force without the Duke of Richmond’s order.
A dog had bitten its master.
Walter approached the Chandelier room as quietly as encroaching darkness. The knights guarding outside the room seemed to quickly salute him, but Walter did not acknowledge their greeting.
Inside, everything was scattered about as if thieves had broken in. Those examining Grace’s luggage on the floor quickly stood up and snapped to attention.
Without revealing any emotion, Walter pointed to the highest-ranking knight and commanded.
“Guide me to where the maids’ bodies are.”
The knight led Walter to the underground corpse storage. Nobles who had answered the Countess’s summons were already there.
They were gathered in a circle around the two corpses laid upon a rectangular stone pedestal. Some conversed in low voices from a distance, some examined the bodies closely, and some wore unpleasant expressions with handkerchiefs pressed to their mouths and noses.
When Walter entered, the nobles all stepped back two paces and bowed their heads to him. The Countess, standing at the head of the corpses, rushed to Walter with a worried expression.
“Your Grace! Are you alright?”
Walter stopped short and looked down at her with only his eyes.
“How shocked you must have been. Please do not worry now, Your Grace.”
The dog that bit its master was now acting concerned for its owner.
Walter passed her and approached the corpses. The Countess quickly followed, speaking.
“How terrified these poor souls must have been to leave suicide notes and take their own lives…”
The Countess’s words trailed off. Because Walter had begun examining the corpses himself. Joseph also approached and inspected the bodies. The gaze of the two examining the bodies was so cold that no one could bring themselves to stop them.
Then Walter, staring intently at the napes of the corpses, asked.
“They took their own lives?”
“Yes. When the soldiers discovered them, both were said to have hanged themselves.”
When a knight answered, Joseph raised his head and spoke immediately.
“But they didn’t take their own lives.”
At that, the Countess’s face contorted sharply.
“There were no fewer than five soldiers who found them hanged!”
As the Countess grew angry, Walter pointed out.
“These were not hanged by suicide. They were murdered by strangulation. The telltale marks of a strangled victim remain on their necks. Call a professional coroner and determine the exact cause of death.”
“…….”
The Countess fell silent for a moment. She clearly felt the gazes of the nobles pouring down behind her. It was a gathering of all the nobles except the knight families who would unconditionally take the Duke’s side. Among them were moderate nobles who could side with the Duke at any moment. The Countess put force into the back of her neck and assumed a sorrowful expression.
“Your Grace. A youthful romance is like a flame. Beautiful and splendid, yet it fades in the blink of an eye.”
Black eyes, dark as the underground gloom, pierced through the Countess’s eyes as if to bore through them. Her heart constricted instinctively, but the Countess endured. She raised her voice as if for all to hear.
“These maids claimed that the companion of Your Grace’s lover was one of ‘the Unseen Ones’!”
In that instant, the nobles gathered in the storage room murmured all at once.
“The Unseen Ones?”
“You mean they’ve appeared again?!”
Feeling the tide turning toward her, the Countess continued.
“More important than the cause of these maids’ deaths is that such an incident occurred the moment Your Grace’s lover arrived at the castle, and the possibility that she is involved in these deaths. It is time to see the situation clearly, setting aside emotion!”
Walter watched the agitated nobles quietly, then slowly ran his hand down his face. It was a very light gesture, yet the noisy nobles fell silent one by one.
The Duke was like a black sea whose depths could not be fathomed. For some reason, merely looking at him instilled a precarious fear.
“The Unseen Ones?”
“It was written so in the maids’ suicide notes. Over a decade ago, those who assassinated Crown Prince Ares, the late Duke and Duchess of Taylor, and Your Grace’s mother and father before vanishing without a trace!”
“Grace is one of them?”
“I regret to say you must prepare for that possibility, Your Grace.”
Countess Rinko spoke like a loyal knight.
A thorn-like silence prickled at everyone’s napes. Walter, who had held his tongue for quite some time deep in thought, closed his eyes and commanded.
“Stop the interrogation and search for Grace. Find those who had last contact with the dead maids and report the detailed circumstances.”