The Countess's Body Has Disappeared - Chapter 31

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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 31
A bone-cutting cold swept through the passageway in a sudden gust, carrying warmth from somewhere deeper within. The two men exchanged a reflexive glance, their breath clouding white as they peered together past the heavy iron door.
Sunlight never reached this corridor—only a chilling silence pervaded the eerie space. Beyond the grimy windows, marked with fingerprints, vagrants drifted like ghosts.
Davion soon grasped what this place was: a side passage connecting the Theater’s western back alley, fitted with a small door.
“This area doesn’t seem to be cleaned,” Liam observed.
“Hmm?”
Frowning as he watched the vagrants, Davion turned to look where Liam was pointing.
An overturned metal trash bin lay sprawled pathetically at a corner of the corridor. From the garbage spilled across the floor came a acrid stench.
When he spotted a shattered syringe and empty cans among the refuse, Davion’s expression darkened considerably.
Broken glass crunched beneath his polished shoes. Now he noticed that rubbish wasn’t scattered just around the overturned bin—it littered the edges of the entire corridor.
“The Theater’s maintenance is deplorable.”
A black wig and a broom lay among the debris, curious in their own right, but a distant melody announcing the start of a performance drew his attention away before he could linger. Liam, hugging himself with both arms and trembling against the cold, spoke.
“Even if the lady were here, I doubt she would come to a place like this…”
Davion rolled up his formal sleeve and checked his wristwatch.
Five minutes until the performance began.
“We’ll be late if we don’t hurry.”
He cast one final look down the silent corridor, then exhaled a sigh tinged with disappointment.
“Let’s go find our seats.”
* * *
Cecilia crouched at a corner of the corridor, holding up a glass fragment to eye level for closer inspection.
‘What am I doing down here in the first place…?’
From a distance it had seemed unlikely, but there was blood on the broken edge.
Ugh. Cecilia felt her stomach turn and hastily tossed it into the dustpan. The bloodstained shard was just one among many bizarre items already piling up in the pan.
She wedged the broom briefly against her ribs and fished out the Performance Schedule that Esmerilda had given her from her back pocket.
Looking at it, she realized that past midday, one of the Small Theater performances had already ended.
The moment that thought crossed her mind, she heard the excited laughter and bustle of departing audience members. Despite being under the same roof, their commotion felt distant, dreamlike.
Cecilia tucked her right ear and peeked around the corner. Except for the vagrants outside the window, the corridor remained utterly deserted.
She rolled up both sleeves to steel herself, and began humming a famous Lismir lullaby to fill the emptiness. But her hands, moving the broom back and forth, soon slowed again.
A faint crease formed between Cecilia’s brows.
At first she thought it was an echo of her own voice. But listening more carefully, it was not. Someone else was humming the same melody.
The realization sent a chill down her spine.
An unfamiliar voice. She recalled a colleague’s remark about outsiders occasionally finding their way in.
After repeatedly checking that the Pocket Knife Arcan had given her was properly secured in her sleeve, Cecilia rose onto her toes and moved toward the source of the humming.
And there, while cleaning this place, she encountered a human head from behind for the first time.
It belonged to an elderly woman with a hunched back.
Gray hair bound in a single knot was streaked with salt-and-pepper wisps that spoke of her age. She continued humming on her own even as Cecilia’s song had ceased, rummaging through the trash bin.
Cecilia glanced urgently around, but there was no security guard to be seen.
The old woman was barefoot and her hands seemed empty enough to pose no danger. The saying went that caution itself could be fatal. The thought of running for security and bumping into Davion—her blood ran cold at the prospect.
Yes. Even if she were a vagrant, just one old woman hardly posed a serious threat.
After positioning the broom against her ribs, Cecilia approached the woman with a friendly smile and tapped her shoulder.
“Excuse me.”
The humming cut off abruptly. The old woman turned her body from her stooped position, her eyes fixing on Cecilia.
“You can’t be doing this here. If the security guard comes, he’ll report you and chase you out.”
Her face was deeply wrinkled and covered with age spots. Cecilia’s mouth went dry when she met those clouded, unfocused eyes. Even as she forced her lips upward to disarm the woman’s wariness, an inexplicable dread began to seep through her.
“The exit is that way.”
Cecilia pointed toward the side door. The old woman’s thin lips worked silently as she stared at the girl for a moment, then turned away and resumed her humming.
Thump.
The trash bin she’d been half-buried in searching finally gave way under the weight and toppled over. Garbage tumbled to the floor with a sickening stench as rank liquid spilled out alongside it.
‘I’m going to have to clean all this up…’
Further words seemed pointless. Better to clean elsewhere and come back later.
As Cecilia turned away from the unsettling old woman and padded down the corridor, applause suddenly erupted loudly overhead. A Small Theater performance had just concluded.
‘About two hours before the Grand Theater show ends, then?’
From the tension, her breath visible in the bitter cold, beads of sweat began to form on her brow. She carefully dabbed them away with her sleeve to avoid smudging the medicinal paste, then resumed cleaning at the corner where the glass fragments had scattered.
She was crouched down, gathering shattered liquor bottle remnants into her hands, when it happened.
An unfamiliar light suddenly glinted off a triangular shard of glass at her feet.
Realizing what that light was, Cecilia froze, her breath catching. She’d heard no approaching footsteps, yet now that low humming could be heard directly behind her.
‘Ah…’
Cecilia slowly turned her head to look up.
“I know where the exit is, young lady.”
The old woman stood looming above her, silhouetted against the blinding backlight.
He raised the liquor bottle high above his head.
* * *
The Grand Theater, when they arrived, was already packed with patrons wall-to-wall.
Davion and Liam made their way toward the VIP Seating, located just a few meters behind the stage. Since the performance was about to begin, all the other spectators were already seated, and the two men had to squeeze past unfamiliar knees while offering repeated apologies.
Between the crush of bodies and the heat radiating from the stage lights, Davion was soon drenched in sweat. He exhaled heavily.
Liam seemed to be suffering similarly. He loosened his necktie and settled into his seat, his eyes scanning the theater’s vast interior with a worried expression.
“The fire safety equipment here is up to code, isn’t it?”
If even a small fire broke out, there would be casualties.
Davion’s mind drifted to Cecilia for a moment before he belatedly registered Liam’s question. Deliberately, he pushed thoughts of her aside to focus on the present.
“As it happens, I heard they did renovation work on those systems not long ago. All theaters look like this. Didn’t you ever catch any shows when you lived in the big city?”
“I was working without rest, even on weekends back then…… I simply didn’t have the time.”
“Sounds like you had quite a lot of clients demanding your attention. Wasn’t your university nickname something about a dragon born in a ditch?”
Liam rubbed the back of his neck and laughed sheepishly.
“I was merely fortunate.”
As Davion was adjusting his posture, his gaze happened to meet that of a young woman seated beside Liam.

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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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