The Countess's Body Has Disappeared - Chapter 3

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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 3
‘Nothing.’
Davion hurled the File Folder onto the desk with a sharp crack, then closed his eyes, resting his forearm across his brow.
He’d reviewed the entry records from every Checkpoint in the city. Nowhere had he found a trace of Cecilia.
She wasn’t the sort to go unnoticed—not just because of her hair color, but because of that peculiar aura that clung to her. He couldn’t imagine a Checkpoint officer would have let her slip through.
‘Now that I think about it, I haven’t sorted through her belongings yet.’
Whether fortunate or not, he’d been too busy these past weeks to organize Cecilia’s things. She wasn’t one to keep records, but if he looked carefully enough, there had to be something that might serve as a clue.
Davion rose from his chair and made his way toward Cecilia’s room.
They had a master bedroom, but for reasons unspoken, they’d kept separate quarters for some time now.
Though scarcely a fortnight had passed since Cecilia left, the corridor leading to her room felt strangely unfamiliar. The world had undergone too great a change in those fifteen days.
The moment Davion reached the bedroom, he carefully pushed the door shut behind him.
It was a small room—converted from an old storage space—but all the better for letting the sunlight in.
Winter light poured through the blocky window panes, painting the reddish-brown floorboards with geometric patterns. Within those shafts of light, dust particles danced in peaceful suspension.
……
This place alone felt as though time had stopped.
The crisp, unwrinkled bedding struck him as almost obscene; his chest tightened at the sight. From the sun-warmed air came the scent of Cecilia.
Davion reached into his trouser pocket out of habit, found it empty, and sighed.
‘Damn it.’
He’d left his Cigarettes in the study by accident. The distance was too great to fetch them now, so he could only wet his lips with frustration and rolled up his sleeves instead.
He opened the wardrobe first.
Then he shut his eyes tight.
“This woman…….”
The wardrobe held no clothes—only garbage piled high.
She’d never had a talent for organization, even from the beginning. Davion let out a hollow laugh, closed the wardrobe, and reached for the top drawer of the dresser beside it—then froze.
Underwear and stockings, folded by color, lay in neat rows filling the drawer.
His gaze sank as deep and dark as the curtain of night.
……
Davion extended his hand and gently traced the seams of a plain undergarment. He remained lost in thought that way for a long moment, until a sudden footstep from the hallway startled him into hastily shutting the drawer.
Click.
“My lord. Are you in?”
A familiar voice of a servant drifted through the door. Davion coughed awkwardly, caught like a boy discovered in some illicit act, and opened the door only a crack.
“What is it?”
“The Duchess Thisledown has come to call. She’s waiting downstairs.”
“Mother?”
Looking out the window as the servant had suggested, Davion could see a familiar automobile parked outside.
A sigh rose to the edge of his throat, but he held it back. However close the bond between mother and son, an unannounced visit like this was never welcome.
“Tell her I’m coming down to greet her.”
Davion’s mother, Blake Thisledown, lived in a Penthouse in Riverside. It was only a thirty-minute drive from the Winterhall estate.
Davion thrust both hands into trouser pockets that felt unusually empty and walked toward the automobile with its engine still running.
As the window descended, the face of a captivating middle-aged woman—bearing a striking resemblance to Davion—came into view.
Davion noticed where his mother’s gaze had settled and calmly pulled down his sleeve to cover the tattoo. Perhaps it was for the best that he’d forgotten the cigarettes anyway.
“If you’d mentioned coming, I would have prepared an early supper for you.”
“Never mind. I’m only stopping by on my way to meet Everett’s wife.”
Her sharp, authoritative voice always made Blake appear as a woman of unyielding character.
Without stepping out of the automobile, she extended a tan Document Envelope through the window.
“I’ve arranged an introduction. Lose no time sitting idle, or you’ll be passed over in the marriage market before you know it. You must establish a new household while you’re still young.”
“Mother……”
Davion’s temples suddenly throbbed. He closed his eyes. But Blake didn’t so much as blink at her son’s plainly visible displeasure.
Unwilling to approach and thereby seem to accept her proposal, Davion stood rigid as a statue and spoke with quiet firmness.
“An introduction? It’s only been a fortnight since I lost Cecilia.”
“You know the woman well enough. Esmeralda—surely you remember? You were even engaged to her before you married that girl.”
Of course he remembered. Setting aside the fact that she’d once been his fiancée, Esmeralda was a celebrated actress throughout the nation.
Her father was a nobleman and statesman who had served the Emperor himself, and her mother was the cherished daughter of a magnate. Born into a family at the apex of the hierarchy, she’d caused a stir in the public eye during her theatrical career, mixing freely among men as she did.
To hear that name again—a name he’d nearly forgotten during his marriage to Cecilia—struck him with the force of realization: he was now, in legal terms, a widower.
“Esmeralda lost her husband recently as well. Isn’t she the very woman fate has destined for you? You could comfort each other’s wounds and build a harmonious life together.”
“A marriage with Lady Esmeralda has never been discussed, Mother. And she is a celebrated actress. If she remarries too hastily, society’s judgment will be harsh.”
“Since when have you cared what others think? If you’d worried about such things, you’d never have married her in the first place.”
“Mother.”
Blake had been about to say more, but seeing the expression on Davion’s face, she fell silent.
She narrowed her eyes and slowly withdrew the Document Envelope.
“Fine. Then I’ll hold off on the engagement question for now. But you absolutely must remarry. Promise your mother you’ll do your very best in your relationship with Esmeralda.”
“You still treat me like a child.”
“Become a parent yourself. Then you’ll understand my heart a hundred times over.”
Blake tossed the Document Envelope into the back seat and signaled the driver to depart. But before closing the window, she let out one final complaint to her son.
“Oh, and the street checkpoints have been absolutely insufferable. Must it be this difficult for me to see my own son’s face? They stopped the car three times on the way here.”
“I apologize. There’s a scammer operating in the city at the moment.”
“A scammer? I haven’t seen anything about that in the newspapers…….”
Blake’s eyebrows, drawn as if by a fine pen, rose at an angle, demanding explanation.
There is such a person—an unspeakably audacious scammer who played dead and extorted one million Burnet from me.
Swallowing an answer he could never speak aloud, Davion forced a careful smile and tried to maintain the expression.
“I have their personal information, so we’ll apprehend them soon enough. Don’t worry, Mother.”
* * *
Cecilia gazed deep into the mirror with satisfaction.
“Oh, this is devastatingly effective…….”
The woman in the mirror had become someone entirely different. Her face was swollen like the full moon, and both cheeks were mottled with what looked like deep pockmarks.
At first glance she seemed to suffer from a severe skin condition, yet strangely there was no pain. Only the smell was a problem—well, actually, quite a substantial problem.
Ruby skittered over and opened her beak wide.
“Wow! You really do look like a diseased human, Cecilia!”
“Do you think he’ll recognize me?”
“Not a chance. You’re absolutely hideous. I doubt that dark-haired male would have any idea it was you.”
“Is that so……?”
Then all was well. The objective had been achieved.
Now that her face was altered, it was time for the next phase.
Cecilia hid a Travel Bag and cash beneath the bed and in the bathroom, then layered on thick undergarments. She already knew well how brutally cold the Back Alley could be in winter, where sunlight never reached.
Finally, she hung the bedroom key on the outside of the building—Ruby would retrieve it later—pulled her hood down low, and stepped out of the Inn.

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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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