The Countess's Body Has Disappeared - Chapter 36

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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 36
The next day, he was there again.
He stood by the Creek as if waiting for someone, smoking quietly. When Cecilia sighed and glanced down at her feet, Nagi—coiled in the grass—tossed her head in an encouraging gesture, as if to say, *go on*.
The small fish living in the Creek were never enough to satisfy Nagi. She couldn’t ask the maid who brought meals to the Cottage daily to supply snake food as well, so whenever Nagi grew hungry, Cecilia had to hunt for provisions herself.
Cecilia slipped off her shoes and studied the man’s silhouette in detail.
First, he was extraordinarily tall. His shoulders were broad enough that he resembled solid stone.
Black tattoos covered his left forearm where he’d rolled up his sleeve. They were rendered in geometric patterns, their meaning inscrutable.
Each time the wind caught his shirt, it clung to his body, revealing the stark definition of his back muscles with unmistakable presence. She swallowed dryly, her throat catching. Cecilia’s eyes lingered on his soft black hair before she moved forward slowly.
The man turned at the sound of approaching footsteps crunching through the undergrowth. His face came into clear view.
Even to someone who’d spent half her life in a Cottage, his features were strikingly handsome—the sort of male protagonist she’d daydreamed about while reading romance novels, brought to vivid life. Yet something about his piercing gaze and the tattoos imposed a weight, a formidable pressure that made him difficult to approach.
Cecilia set down the Basket beside him, cinched her skirt tight, and waded into the Creek.
She was raising the Spear high with both hands to plunge it into the water when—
“Why are you catching fish here?”
Oh.
Her torso lurched, and the fish slipped from her grasp.
“Are you practicing hunting?”
The man spoke in a deep, gravelly voice laced with rough breathing. He’d crouched down beside her—just as he had yesterday—watching her with undisguised interest.
‘Hunting practice?’
Her pale eyelashes framed eyes that blinked rapidly, betraying her confusion. She hesitated, unable to meet his gaze directly, before finally speaking.
“Food.”
“You’re eating those fish?”
“Not for me.”
“Then?”
His thick brows rose slightly, curiosity flashing across his features.
But when Cecilia offered nothing further, his curiosity hardened into irritation. He rose to his feet like some mighty oak, and drew a Revolver from his waistband.
Bang. Bang.
Two shots rang out, and dead fish bobbed to the surface. Watching the scene unfold, Cecilia’s expression darkened. She swept the shell-punctured fish into the Basket and left the Creek.
“Brutal.”
As her figure receded, Davion watched her retreating back with an unhurried gaze, muttering with a note of doubt in his voice.
“Isn’t the Spear more cruel than that?”
* * *
Cecilia cracked the curtain open and surveyed the area near the Cottage.
The dark-haired man stood by the Creek, smoking, his gaze fixed on the sky. The Revolver in his right hand caught the sunlight, gleaming with sharp brilliance.
Feeling her eyes on him, he turned his head.
Startled, Cecilia hastily drew the curtain shut before their gazes could meet. Her heart hammered with tension.
She lived in a modest two-story Cottage set on an endless Meadow beyond the Estate—a place that had once served as an abandoned salt warehouse, converted into a snug home so that her ailing nurse could spend her remaining years in comfort.
As Cecilia set the Basket on the kitchen sink, a python glided smoothly across the floor toward her.
She worked swiftly and skillfully, gutting the fish. When Nagi heard the casings clatter and clink, she flinched—but the scent of blood soon drew her, and she licked her lips expectantly.
“Hurry! I’m starving!”
“Our darling Nagi mustn’t go hungry. Here—tell me if you need more.”
“Delicious!”
She trimmed the fins from one fish for Nagi to swallow easily and set it on the floor. The other she slipped quietly into a Cloth Pouch, then knocked on the first-floor bedroom door.
“Grandmother, I’m here.”
Betty’s condition left her unable to climb stairs, let alone leave her bed without difficulty.
When Cecilia opened the door, Ruby—who’d been curled against Betty like a puppy—lifted her head sharply.
“Cecilia!”
The moment she leapt from the bed, Cecilia withdrew the fish, and Ruby spread both wings, shrieking with a sharp cry. Cecilia glanced at Nagi beyond the doorway, then quickly pressed a finger to her lips.
“Fish!”
“Shh. Don’t tell Nagi, all right? It’s our secret.”
“Fish! Oh, yes! Delicious fish!”
While Ruby savored the unexpected treat, Cecilia opened the window wide to release the stifling heat, then gathered a cloth dampened with cool water and settled on the bed.
Betty gazed at her with affectionate eyes as she gently washed her skin. The fine wrinkles creasing her face and her hair, now white with age, spoke to her advancing years.
“You must be suffering terribly in this heat?”
Betty sighed, worn down by the oppressive humidity, and Cecilia smiled tenderly, pressing a kiss to her forehead. Rather than harbor resentment toward the mother who had abandoned her, Cecilia lavished all that devotion upon Betty instead.
Blake had taken Cecilia in—though she was little more than a burden—on the condition that she serve as a maid at the Estate. In her childhood, she’d worked alongside the other servants, learning by observation, but now she stayed at the Cottage with Betty, devoted entirely to her care.
“You’re right. It truly is an unusually scorching summer. Look—sweat is pouring like water.”
“This heat is especially suffocating. I’m worried the food will spoil quickly.”
The Estate’s main house had two Refrigerators in its kitchen. Years ago, on the day the first one was installed, every servant in the household had rushed to gawk at it.
The way icy air billowed from inside that box with a door—it had been miraculous. In that moment, following the arrival of the automobile, she’d felt vividly why Magic itself had to fade from this world.
But naturally, there was no Refrigerator in the Cottage where Cecilia lived. The heat was so intense that she worried far more about the animals accidentally eating spoiled food than about herself.
“Well, this old woman knows a thing or two about keeping food from spoiling.”
“Really? What is it?”
Cecilia’s eyes widened, and Betty chuckled, waving her wrinkled hands through the air.
“Simple. Just eat it quickly and it’ll never go bad.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Cecilia’s shoulders sagged at the deflating answer. Though well past seventy, Betty’s smile held the mischief of a girl barely into her teens. She reached over and stroked Cecilia’s cheek.
“Share it with your animal friends before it spoils, dear.”
“Come to think of it, there’s always so much left over. Next time, I’m thinking of befriending a mother bear from the Rear Mountain.”
“A bear? In the Rear Mountain? The young master goes hunting for deer often enough, but I don’t recall him ever going after bears……”
“I was only joking. Truth is, I’m not entirely sure either.”
Cecilia giggled and nestled into Betty’s embrace like a child. But then, unbidden, the silhouette of that man by the Creek flickered before her eyes like a mirage.
Yet she had no desire to shatter this peaceful silence, so she said nothing. Instead, she squeezed her eyes shut and forced his image away.
He’d be gone soon enough, anyway.
Whoever he was, he was certainly just a passing visitor to the Estate.
But then something remarkable happened.
The next day, he was still there.
‘What on earth is he……?’
Having seen him only twice, it was astonishing how familiar that broad back had already become.
Cecilia sighed and gazed down at her feet. Fortunately, the sated Nagi didn’t urge her along to catch fish as he had yesterday. When Nagi sensed her gaze and lifted his torso as if to ask what she wanted, Cecilia shook her head gently.
Davion, about to light a cigarette, heard the sound of approaching footsteps and turned around.

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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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