The impact of the words Vilred casually threw was significant. Idel felt her mind becoming tangled and squeezed her eyes shut. Ah, what should she do?
Though she managed to escape this time thanks to the punishment, she couldn’t keep doing this every time.
Even if she deliberately caused a disturbance and received another punishment, there was no guarantee that it would be as advantageous to her as this time.
“What excuse should I make to avoid their eyes…?”
Idel, mumbling her thoughts without realizing it, tightened her grip on the hand she was holding.
She heard a small groan, and soon Sigmund’s voice, mixed with irritation, tickled her ear.
“Miss, is there a need to break someone else’s hand? Just say you have someone you want to see—a friend or something like that!”
“Huh?”
Idel stopped all her actions like a broken clock.
After a moment, as if recalling something, she blinked her eyes and quickly turned her head towards Sigmund.
For the first time since entering the duke’s mansion, a bright smile spread across Idel’s face.
“Hey, you’re quite the capable one, aren’t you? Thanks!”
“…Ugh.”
Sigmund’s face twisted at how surprisingly pleasant her smiling face was.
Momentarily, he felt ashamed of himself for thinking the crazy girl who suddenly head-butted him was appealing.
Whether Sigmund turned his head like a broken doll or not, Idel was satisfied. Escaping the Duke’s house was worth it.
She released Sigmund’s hand and jumped down from the chair, then spoke to Vilred.
“I’ll give you the stolen goods in several batches so that you can sell them at a reasonable pace. It seems easier for both of us this way, both for me to give them to you and for you to sell them.”
… does anyone at that age know this kind of thing?
Vilred was intrigued but quickly cleared his thoughts. Well, it’s good if they understand each other.
“Do it as you see fit. Anyway, according to the contract, I will only receive half of the compensation if I succeed in lifting the curse.”
“Well, that’s right. Then I’ll stop here for today and go back.”
“Sigmund’s hand isn’t going to wear out. It’s fine if you hold hands a bit longer.”
“Why does the master get to decide that?”
Before Idel could answer, a sharp voice popped up next to her. She lightly shrugged her shoulders.
“It’s okay. He seems to be running out of patience anyway.”
Vilred, after glancing at Sigmund, silently agreed with Idel’s words.
Indeed. He’s like a crazy dog.
With a small sigh, Vilred handed Idel a small ring. It was a plain silver ring.
“When meeting the client, special preparation is required. The location might not be here next time. Rub this ring three times the day before you come. Then, on the day the customer comes, I’ll send Sigmund to the place with the double crow symbol.”
“Got it. What about the time?”
“Well, I’m not the one who’s supposed to be waiting around with bated breath for the customer; that’s Sigmund’s job.”
“Did you eat something rotten somewhere?”
Ignoring Sigmund’s curse, the two neatly wrapped up the conversation and lightly shook hands.
“Oh, by the way, if the surface of the ring turns black, it means the message has been delivered.”
“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind. Then I’ll see you next time.”
“Yes, see you next time. Ah, client, be sure to rest well today, okay?”
Idel nodded as she pulled the door handle.
It was now really time to go back. Even if things were okay now, staying here any longer would surely get her caught.
☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
‘Okay now, you say?’
Idel scoffed at her past self, who had thought that.
“Miss Idel!”
“Miss Idel, where are you? How is it over there? Did you find anything?”
“No, she’s not here. What about your side? Did you find any traces?”
“Yeah, nothing.”
Look, is the situation in front of her really okay?
Idel hid between the bushes, in a spot where only a child could fit. She closed her eyes tightly.
The situation was more chaotic in the Duke’s house than she had expected.
The quiet garden, where you couldn’t see an ant during her confinement, was now full of people.
All of them were servants mobilized to search for Idel.
“Sigh… It doesn’t seem like she left the annex, so where on earth did she go?”
“That’s right. Even the duke and duchess are personally searching for her.”
“Since she suddenly disappeared, they must be worried that she might have gotten into some kind of trouble.”
Are they saying that even the duke and the duchess are out searching for her?
Idel bit her lower lip tightly and swallowed her saliva.
No matter how much she thought, she couldn’t find a way out of this predicament.
‘Now that the duke and duchess are involved, it’s only a matter of time before I’m discovered.’
Isn’t the note that Gianna gave her in her room? The one that kindly marked the shortcuts and hideouts.
With the duke and duchess taking the lead, Gianna wouldn’t be able to keep her mouth shut.
“Hey! Over by the statue!”
“What?”
“I think Miss Gianna said while she was crying that she might have gone up the mountain. There’s a shortcut behind the statues, beyond the bushes, where Jacob and she used to play. Perhaps she got lost on the mountain.”
As expected.
Realizing that her suspicion was correct, Idel calmed her mind.
It would be better to make a new plan, even if it’s clumsy, assuming that she will get caught.
‘Pretending to be asleep is probably the best option.’
It’s easy to make an excuse that she fell asleep from fatigue, and it also fits the image of ‘Idel’ that she has built up so far. Particularly, her tendency to act solely based on her desires, disregarding the opinions of others, exemplifies her self-centered nature.
After quickly finishing her calculations, Idel curled up her body as much as possible between the bushes and closed her eyes.
‘…It’s okay; trust the reputation I’ve built up so far.’
As Idel reassured herself internally and prepared to focus her hearing once more,.
– Rustle.
In a place where he had not felt any movement at all, he heard the sound of bushes rustling, and at the same time, a shadow appeared above his head.
“Found you.”
A familiar voice and familiar words.
The one who uttered the same words that Gianna had said a few days ago was Duke Clementine.
Recognizing the owner of the low-pitched voice, Idel crouched down even more, pretending to be asleep.
It was an effort to somehow hide her rapidly increasing heartbeat.
‘That startled me.’
She almost let out a sound.
Swallowing her saliva discreetly, Idel slowly regulated her breathing.
No, weren’t the servants chattering around here just a little while ago?
‘I thought I’d be discovered soon, but why does the duke himself have to come looking?’
A red light briefly flashed in her mind.
In the worst-case scenario, she might be confined to her room and not be able to take a single step outside.
Raising the crisis alert level, Idel tried to calmly organize her thoughts.
‘Even if I give up the information about the shortcut, I have to hide the fact that I successfully escaped and left the duke’s mansion.’
She had to cleverly mix truth and lies.
‘It’s true that I used the shortcut, but it was because I went to the hideout and there was no one there, so I got angry and stumbled into the bushes. It’s also okay to say that I was enraged that I cried myself to sleep.’
And then, she could also start distrusting Gianna’s words.
Having finished her thoughts, Idel buried her face deeper into her knees, pretending to be tossing and turning in her sleep.
It was to hide the movement of her eyes beneath her eyelids.
Meanwhile, Vincent Clementine, who found the child curled up in the bushes, immediately bent down and touched the child’s forehead.
The body temperature he felt on his fingertips was fortunately not hot.
‘Her breathing is even, and there are no injuries on her body… Her forehead seems to be a bit swollen. But it’s not severe enough to make her collapse. She must just be asleep.’
His dark, sunken gaze fell on the crouching child.
“Ah…”
As he watched the child sleeping obliviously, as if the commotion outside was not her fault, all kinds of emotions surged within him.
A sense of relief that it was not something like a kidnapping, anger at the child who had selfishly caused everyone trouble, the discomfort of the unwanted truth that she was his own child, and the pain and regret that stemmed from it.
“Mm…”
The child, wearing the clothes she had apparently received from Gianna, shifted her body slightly. This revealed her dirty face, covered in dirt and dust, as well as a swollen wound on her forehead.
“What on earth were you thinking, doing this?”
Vincent muttered softly, narrowing his brows as he coldly looked down at the child.
Suddenly, the image of his wife, who had been suppressing her emotions, seemed to overlap with Idel’s face. Her pleas to him also resurfaced.
‘Don’t be too harsh on Idel, Vincent. She’s just getting hurt more and more. The child, you, and even me who sees it.’
He knew in his mind that the one most confused right now was none other than Idel.
But he was also human. He knew it, but he couldn’t control his emotions, and this was the best he could do, being a flawed person.
Especially since Idel seemed to do only the most unlikable actions. She had spilled food on Rowena’s clothes, tried to raise her hand against her own daughter, Gianna, and bullied the servants.
And here she was again. Instead of showing remorse for her misdeeds, she was definitely causing trouble for everyone.
‘…How should I deal with you?’
Just as he was thinking that, a voice calling him from behind was heard.
