The Countess's Body Has Disappeared - Chapter 30

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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 30
The table in the Green Room had become a tower of congratulatory gifts and flower bouquets. The bouquet Liam had brought soon joined the pile.
Esmeralda gazed at the table with satisfaction, evidence of her own popularity, then turned to the mirror and opened the drawer where she kept her cosmetics. She reached for the Mascara, but her hand slipped and it tumbled from her grasp.
“Oh, how careless of me.”
The Mascara rolled across the red carpet and bumped against the tip of Davion’s shoe.
Bending slowly, he picked it up and handed it back to her, his voice carrying an unmistakable edge.
“So you’ve already contacted your mother, then.”
The tone was clearly barbed.
Esmeralda blinked her heavily made-up eyes, then deflected his accusation with a light laugh.
“I assumed the Count wouldn’t mention it himself. You know how sharp noble ladies are—if you’re going to deceive them, you’d better do it properly.”
She tilted her upper body toward the visibly displeased Davion, her chin raised high as she applied Mascara to her lower lashes in the mirror.
“Never mind thanking me. Until you find your wife, we’re on the same team—we’ve shared secrets twice now, haven’t we?”
Same team indeed. When she winked, Davion sighed and turned away his gaze, regret blooming inside him over having told this tactless woman that Cecilia was alive.
His eyes drifted to a makeshift wardrobe set up in the corner of the Green Room.
The wardrobe drawers hung wide open, and various Wigs lay scattered about on the floor. It seemed the cleaning staff didn’t have access to the actors’ Green Room.
As Davion recalled the woman who had brushed against his chest moments earlier, deep lines formed across his brow.
‘The cleaning staff…….’
Cecilia, who had lost her bag, was currently penniless.
Without lodging, she would surely be staying at a hotel or inn, which meant she needed money for rent. But Cecilia was the type who refused to incur debt, so it was unlikely the man masquerading as her husband would provide funds in her stead.
Which meant, at this very moment, she was earning money somewhere in this city with her own hands.
The cleaning staff he’d passed moments ago were all roughly her age. If he were Cecilia, he would have taken work somewhere that required no specialized skill, where women of similar age blended in without standing out, and where disappearing one day without warning would raise no eyebrows.
Somewhere exactly like this theater.
‘How could I have missed this line of reasoning?’
It was as though Davion had been struck by lightning—his mind suddenly blazed with clarity.
The Green Room door swung open and an actress thrust her head inside.
“Esmeralda, Lindsey wants to run through the final lines one more time…….”
Her words faltered as her gaze fell uncertainly upon the two visitors.
Esmeralda switched off the mirror’s bulbs and rose, bowing gracefully in greeting.
“Thank you so much for stopping by to say hello. I do hope you both have a wonderful evening.”
Soon after the two actresses left, a usher who had been waiting in the Corridor reappeared, preparing to guide them to the Grand Theater.
But now that Davion had grasped this crucial revelation, how could he simply return as planned? He stepped out of the Green Room and gestured down the now-quieter Corridor.
“Excuse me, but before we head to the theater, would it be all right if I used the Restroom here? The Lobby Restroom seems rather crowded.”
“Of course. Shall I show you the way?”
“That’s not necessary. I noticed where it was on the way in. It would be a bit embarrassing to accompany a stranger to such a place…….”
He buttoned his jacket and offered a gentle smile.
The usher, whose nose had flushed slightly and whose wits had scattered momentarily, blinked and stepped aside with a belated murmur of assent.
“Sir, the Restroom is actually back the way we came.”
Once he had put some distance between himself and the usher, Liam, who had been following, gestured toward where the Restroom actually was and spoke quietly.
Davion cast him a pointed look demanding silence and flagged down a young staff member carrying Props nearby.
“Excuse me, but I’d like to ask you something if I may.”
“Y-yes? What is it?”
The formally dressed man had spoken to him so suddenly that the staff member couldn’t help but tense. Davion maintained his courteous smile, and it occurred to him that he might have a talent for acting after all.
“It’s nothing significant. I was simply wondering—do the cleaning staff here receive their wages on a Daily Wage or Weekly Wage basis?”
“Wages?”
The question was so trivial compared to the oppressive atmosphere he’d created that the staff member relaxed, nodding.
“As far as I know, they receive payment for the previous day’s work when they clock in the next morning.”
“I see. And would you happen to know roughly how many cleaning staff work here?”
“I’m not entirely certain about that……. But with a space this large, surely well over a hundred? And since the cleaning staff works Shift Work, there could easily be more.”
Over a hundred. Then it was possible Esmeralda wouldn’t have noticed after all.
“Thank you for your help.”
The staff member nodded awkwardly and hurried away as though fleeing. Liam, still oblivious to Davion’s intentions, checked his Wristwatch and betrayed his nervousness.
“It’s nearly one o’clock. Shouldn’t we head back and take our seats soon?”
The Exclusive Passage, accessible only to staff and performers, twisted like a maze through every corner of the theater.
Mapping the structure in his mind, Davion turned his direction toward the stage.
“You go ahead and get seated. I’ll take a quick look around and join you.”
“What? Count……!”
As Davion made his way toward the Backstage of the Grand Theater, he carefully scrutinized the faces of everyone who passed him.
In the meantime, Liam, now certain he’d missed something, mentally replayed the conversation with the staff member he’d overheard. Realizing Davion’s intentions belatedly, he hurried after him, already several meters behind.
Before the performance began, the staff in the Grand Theater were in the midst of final checks.
“Have we finished confirming the lighting status?”
“Yes! Everything’s in order!”
“Move the Ladder over next to the Lift beforehand!”
They were hauling Props with sharp calls, when suddenly a man tore back the curtain and stepped through. Everyone froze, their minds going blank as they stared at him.
From somewhere came a murmured “What the—?”
‘No one.’
Davion studied each staff member’s face beneath the bright lights, committing them to memory, then slipped away without a word. His stride carried him toward the Small Theater with unhurried certainty, and Liam, sensing what was to come, rushed after him in alarm.
“Sir, I understand your purpose, but if we get caught doing this, they’ll throw us both out. We could be charged with breaking and entering—or interfering with operations!”
“You’re a lawyer. If we get caught, just argue our way out.”
“No, it’s been—how long has it been since I left the courthouse? More than two years now!”
His voice rising in protest, Liam watched as Davion’s face twisted into something darker, and he stopped dead in his tracks.
Liam flinched, thinking his own anxious outburst had provoked it. But that wasn’t why Davion had halted at all.
“Wait.”
Davion raised one finger to his lips, calling for silence.
“Did you hear that? A woman’s scream, just now—didn’t you hear it?”
Liam blinked like a fool.
“…A scream, sir?”
He held his breath and strained to listen. But all he caught was the heavy scrape of Props dragging across the floor and the rough shouts of staff between labored breaths.
“I’m not entirely certain, but…”
The moment Davion heard the uncertainty in Liam’s voice, the crease between his brows deepened.
‘He didn’t hear it.’
Yet what had reached Davion’s ears—faint though it was—had unmistakably sounded like a woman’s cry.
With a gesture for Liam to follow, Davion strode forward through the narrow Corridor in long, measured steps. Liam hurried after him, noting how the flow of staff thinned visibly the farther they moved from Esmeralda’s Green Room.
Though Davion moved with the certainty of someone who knew exactly where he was going, Liam himself had no idea. He asked nothing.
Years of experience had taught him this much: Davion possessed an instinct—something feral and primal—that a man who had spent his life holding only a pen could never fully understand.
‘Is this the end of it?’
Davion pulled open the iron door at the far end of the Corridor.

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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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