Episode 62
The place Lillian took Theo to was a separate building.
‘Here…’
Theo also remembered the walls of this place quite well.
Right in front of him was the bench where he had recently hugged Lillian when she fled from the banquet hall.
But where Lillian was taking him this time wasn’t just a bench.
“Why here?”
“Just wait.”
Lillian pushed the bench aside and removed a few stones behind it.
Then a hole big enough for a small person to pass through appeared.
After clearing the bench aside, Lillian passed through the hole and put the stones back in place from inside the wall. Then the wall returned to its original state. Although the bench had moved to the side, most people wouldn’t notice such a small change since they hardly knew there was a bench here in the first place.
Click, clack.
Quietly, Lillian opened an iron gate from inside the wall to let Theo enter.
It seemed like she was quite skilled at it, more than just trying it once or twice.
“You… How many times have you been here?”
Lillian didn’t answer. Theo couldn’t tell whether she was deliberately ignoring his question or if she had come here so many times that she couldn’t count them, but he decided it was the latter. Eventually, as Lillian skillfully opened the locked door of the separate building, Theo was sure her skill at this wasn’t just from trying it once or twice.
Click. Lillian picked the lock with a hairpin and said as she opened the door to the separate building,
“Take off your shoes before coming in from here. We don’t want to leave any footprints for no reason.”
Theo followed Lillian’s instructions. As he bent down to take off his shoes, he realized something.
‘This place… It’s being maintained regularly.’
The floor was polished, and the furniture didn’t have much dust on it, as if the owner would come and use it anytime soon. If it weren’t for the lack of signs of use, Theo would have believed that someone was living in this house.
The separate building was larger than it appeared from the outside. Inside, there was even a small training ground for practicing swordsmanship, and the carpet in the living room seemed larger than the room Theo had been assigned.
‘Has Lillian been hiding here all this time?’
So that’s why no one could find her when Lillian decided to hide.
In the rather luxurious yet eerie atmosphere of the uninhabited house, Theo found himself wandering around without realizing it. But Lillian, as if she had no interest in such things, headed straight for somewhere.
The innermost corridor on the second floor.
As they reached the area covered by curtains, Lillian turned on the lights on the wall and spoke.
“I have something to show you.”
Then Lillian reached out and pulled a cord. The curtain rolled up, revealing what was hidden behind it.
Behind the curtain was a portrait of a person.
A portrait of the deceased Duchess Maynerd.
* * *
After seeing the portrait, Theo finally understood why the people of the Maynerd estate would think of the deceased Duchess when they saw Odile. Odile truly resembled Agnes.
‘No… I should say Swan resembles the Duchess.’
Odile had stolen Swan’s face, as he looked like Swan grown up. Ultimately, it was Swan who resembled Agnes, not Odile.
And Lillian sat in front of the portrait, gazing at the face endlessly.
For hours. As if she could continue forever.
It was only then that Theo realized what Lillian had been doing every time she disappeared without a trace.
‘She came here.’
She came here and looked at that portrait.
On days when she felt so lonely and empty that she couldn’t shed tears, on days when she might forget what she should do, Lillian would sit here every time and endlessly trace Swan’s traces.
That’s how Lillian emptied herself and filled the void with Swan to endure loneliness or agony. If you were to turn Lillian inside out, nothing but Swan would come out.
It was truly a desperate love.
Upon realizing that fact, Theo couldn’t help but feel angry.
Occasionally, he would get angry with Lillian, and this time was no different.
It was a feeling of frustration when he realized that, despite facing each other and conversing, Lillian’s gaze always seemed to be fixed on Swan.
Theo was definitely a bit short-tempered, but somehow he felt he could easily find the name of this emotion.
‘Jealousy…?’
Come to think of it, it had always been like this. Lillian always acted as if she needed nothing but Swan. He used to just find it annoying, but why was he getting angry about it now?
Theo stopped deepening his thoughts. If he enjoyed pondering, he would have become a scholar, not a knight.
He was more of a man of action than a thinker by nature. Theo plopped down beside Lillian. Although she said he could leave anytime he wanted, saying so made him feel like he had already lost.
“Lillian, look at me.”
“Why?”
While Lillian answered with her mouth, her eyes still seemed reluctant to detach from the portrait, as if two more ratchets needed to roll after the second before she slowly turned her head.
And then Theo kissed Lillian.
Tick, tock, tick.
Only the ticking of the grandfather clock filled the annex. After the third tick, Theo slowly pulled away from Lillian. He hadn’t done anything besides touching lips, but his heart felt like it was about to burst, as if he had spun the wheel of fortune a hundred times without a break.
But was it just Theo who felt that way?
Lillian had a stiff expression. She looked at Theo’s lips and then covered her own with the back of her hand, seeming puzzled.
“What was that for?”
For some reason, Theo felt a sharp pang in his chest at her indifferent reaction.
He thought at least her face would turn red like his, but Lillian was too nonchalant. Theo felt pathetic in front of that fact.
“What… you don’t even react when I kiss you.”
“It didn’t mean anything special.”
“Yeah, I heard kissing works best when consoling a girl. So, I tried it too.”
Lillian’s expression then became peculiar.
“Did I look like I needed comforting?”
“Well, you brought me here because you needed comfort, didn’t you?”
Theo thought that Lillian would acquiesce, but what came back was unexpectedly negative.
“No, I wanted to do something bad.”
“What?”
“I’m a bad kid. You know that too. I have a bad personality.”
“I know. Everyone in this mansion is fooled by you.”
It was Theo’s attempt at a joke, but instead of laughing, Lillian gathered her knees and sat down.
“This is where the Duchess stayed until she died. For some reason, she liked the annex more than the main mansion. That’s why the portrait is here, and her usual belongings are still here.”
“So the Duke locked this place up?”
“Probably.”
Preserving the place where his wife died, allowing only a very small number of people to come and go. Among the unauthorized individuals who could set foot here, only Lillian, the rightful heir of this house and Swan’s successor, had the right to be here.
So Lillian had never thought of bringing anyone here.
This was a place only she could come to, a secret she alone held, a precious place for Cedric.
But with Theo’s arrival and the sight of the Duchess’s portrait, the secret was revealed.
“Okay. You wanted to make me an accomplice.”
“Probably.”
It wasn’t clear if this was resentment towards Cedric or if Theo wanted to be reprimanded, but instead of reproaching Lillian, Theo kissed her.
‘It was probably a meaningless gesture.’
Lillian didn’t mind that.
