The Countess's Body Has Disappeared - Chapter 15

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 15
After the event ended, thanks to the servants having cleaned the Manor thoroughly, everything was pristine. Just as Liam had said, the travel bag that had been placed in Cecilia’s tomb was now sitting on the desk in the study.
How had it come back? He couldn’t believe it. Davion immediately opened the bag and checked first for anything like bloodstains.
Wrinkled clothes tumbled out, followed by the romance novel book she loved to read, and treats for the animals she cherished like children. At the very bottom was a bundle of money tucked into a paper envelope.
No bloodstains, at least. No bandages or medical supplies either.
She was alive. It was truly a mercy. Awash in overwhelming relief, Davion buried his face in Cecilia’s blouse.
He could feel her warmth. He could catch the soft scent of her skin. It was a fragrance he had missed terribly.
The family seal attached inside the bag seemed to have played a crucial role. Davion had no doubt that it was thanks to this that the bag had found its way back to his Manor.
Later, he counted the money inside the paper envelope. It came to roughly 950,000 Burnet. He had put in 1,000,000 Burnet as traveling funds, so one could safely say everything had been returned.
If he had lost this, he would be nearly destitute now…….
Less than a minute after his relief, he found himself gripped by deep anxiety once more.
Cecilia’s health had suffered from complications of her surgery. The last memory he had of her was her lying in a sickbed. If an emergency arose that required an urgent hospital visit, and he had lost the money——
He didn’t care where she was; he wanted nothing more than to send this money to Cecilia just as it was.
“My Lord.”
Liam entered and quietly closed the study door behind him.
Davion had not even realized the door had been open until now. As he was neatly organizing the bag’s contents, Liam approached and drew a slip of paper from his pocket, handing it to him.
“I’ve obtained the hotel address from the postman—the place where the bag was sent from.”
This spared him a trip to the post office. Davion immediately closed the bag and made ready to depart.
“I’m leaving now.”
“You should eat first, my Lord. And you’ll want to tidy your appearance. Officially, you’re searching for a woman, after all. If you go out looking like that, people will certainly get the wrong idea.”
With that, Liam pointed to his own chin. Following his gesture, Davion rubbed his face with the back of his hand and let out a belated sound of realization.
He felt the rough stubble. He didn’t need to check a mirror to know how disheveled he must look.
Lately I’ve been showing Liam nothing but my worst side. Embarrassed, Davion pressed his palm to his forehead and walked silently toward the bathroom.
* * *
By around eight o’clock, the two men were driving together toward the address written on the slip of paper.
It was not the sort of upscale hotel that wealthy people would frequent. Perhaps because it was early morning, the area around the reception desk was quiet, with only dust stirring in the air.
A middle-aged man who looked to be the manager was counting money behind the reception desk. His eyes lit up the moment the two handsome men crossed the threshold. Both Davion and the overcoat Liam wore were of the finest brands.
Davion placed Cecilia’s bag on top of the reception desk and immediately fired off a question.
“Do you remember what the owner of this trunk looked like?”
Realizing they were not guests, disappointment fell across the manager’s face. In an instant his manner turned indifferent, his tone suggesting he found everything tiresome.
“I don’t remember.”
Davion pulled a photograph of Cecilia from his inner jacket pocket and thrust it forward.
“Look carefully, please. With white hair, she must have stood out.”
“Our staff changes every day of the week. And we have so many guests—I can’t remember them all.”
“Then could I meet someone who works on a different day?”
“Of course. Just come back tomorrow.”
Liam, listening from behind, placed a hand on Davion’s shoulder and shook his head. If the manager was this uncooperative, there was little hope of getting anything useful, no matter which day they returned.
Money could move mountains, certainly. Davion fingered the bills in his pocket. But before he could withdraw them, the hotel door opened and a family with three children entered.
Liam picked up the bag from the reception desk instead and whispered near Davion’s ear.
“We should probably get out of the way.”
Without thinking, Davion had been reaching for a cigarette when his eyes met those of one of the children, and he withdrew his hand from his pocket. But as he stepped outside the hotel with Liam, someone called to him from behind.
“Excuse me.”
It was a small woman in a black skirt. The fact that she was holding a mop made it clear she was the building’s cleaning staff.
“I remember the white-haired woman. You’re talking about the woman with a scar on her face, right?”
A scar?
Davion’s brow furrowed, and Liam stepped forward with a warm smile. True to his background as an accomplished lawyer in the capital, he was quite skilled at reading people’s intentions.
“Yes, that’s right. It seems the postman mixed up the address, and we ended up receiving the bag that woman lost. We wanted to return it to her.”
“Oh, you can just leave it here then. Her husband comes by from time to time asking about the bag.”
……Her husband?
Davion’s expression grew considerably harder.
It couldn’t be. The silhouette of the woman he’d seen at the inn flashed through his mind again. He had been certain she didn’t have a husband, but could it really have been her?
It hadn’t been that long since she left home. Had Cecilia already remarried in the meantime……?
“Forgive me, but I have one more request.”
At last, his patience exhausted, he pushed Liam aside and cut into the conversation. He quickly scribbled a memo on the slip of paper where the hotel address had been written, then pulled out a thousand-Burnet bill from his pocket and pressed both toward the cleaning woman.
“If her ‘husband’ comes by, could you give him this?”
It was a request more desperate than any he had made before.
* * *
“Cecilia! Your husband’s here again!”
Someone shouted from outside the break room.
Cecilia, who had been sitting at a folding table tearing into bread with her coworkers, immediately leaped to her feet and gathered her things. As she hurried outside, her young colleagues eagerly followed in her wake.
“Darling!”
Arkan, sitting on the steps at the entrance of the Performance Venue reading a newspaper, waved toward Cecilia.
Cecilia’s face turned crimson in an instant. Behind her, a chorus of whistles erupted along with shouts of “He’s handsome!” As she helped Arkan to his feet, she shot a glare at her coworkers and growled at him.
“I told you not to come! I just want to earn money quietly!”
Angry as she was, Cecilia looked exactly like a scrappy young hyena. Arkan, his crutch wedged under his arm, immediately broke into an anxious sweat.
“I’m sorry. But I can’t just sit in the hotel room like some husband eating away the household’s fortune. I had to do something.”
Arkan took Cecilia’s handbag from her. She shot him another look, then broke into a bright smile and waved to her colleagues seeing her off. They didn’t stop their shouts and fawning until he’d rounded the corner of the alley.
A month had already passed since Arkan had been with her. His injuries had healed considerably, and by now he could walk easily with just a single crutch.
To minimize contact with the constables patrolling the city, they used the back alleys’ shortcuts almost constantly.
Cecilia pulled out a coin rolling around in her coat pocket and handed it to an old woman sitting in a damp corner. The old woman, who had been dozing in the cold, took the coin with wrinkled hands and spoke.
“Thank you, miss.”
Cecilia smiled and absently touched her left ear. The moment they returned to the main street, Arkan asked the question he’d been holding back.
“It seems you have trouble walking past unfortunate people, doesn’t it? You give money to vagrants almost every day.”
“No, that’s not it. I used to be quite a miser, but I changed after living with my husband. He grew up without want, so he knows how to be generous.”
The moment he heard this answer, Arkan’s expression darkened.
……A domestic abuser who helps beggars?
Someone so at odds between appearance and reality. He didn’t know who the man was, but if he ever happened to run into this woman’s husband by chance, he found himself thinking he’d like to beat him so badly his teeth fell out.
“What kind of work did your husband do? You don’t have to answer if it’s uncomfortable.”
“Oh, he’s a soldier. He’s been deployed twice. To the Kalita Region.”
“What? K-Kalita deployment?”
Arkan nearly stumbled backward. He spun to look at Cecilia, his eyes widening as if they might burst from their sockets, and cried out.
“I served there too!”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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