The Countess's Body Has Disappeared - Chapter 66

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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 66
“I understand about the mansion and the automobile appearing. But it’s a mansion where you’ll live with Mother, and it’s an automobile you might have to ride in together. She clearly won’t allow it, so please don’t do this.”
Davion’s brow furrowed slightly.
He set down the pillow and drew Cecilia toward him, seating her at his side. Taking her hand in both of his, he held it gently and spoke with tenderness.
“If Mother finds it burdensome, we can look for a place of our own. Somewhere with a wide yard, where your raven and serpent can live comfortably too.”
“So you’re planning to commute here by automobile every day?”
Davion lifted his shoulders in a shrug.
“Why not? I love driving.”
Instead of answering, Cecilia fixed him with a cold stare and pulled her hand free. As she began to rise, Davion caught her arm in desperation.
“Cecilia, right now you’re an even greater obstacle than Mother. Honestly, I thought you’d accept my proposal immediately. It was truly arrogant of me to think that way.”
“It’s all for your sake.”
“What would be for my sake is if you’d marry me!”
Cecilia looked down into Davion’s dark eyes, where pleading light had welled up, and asked directly.
“What is it about me that you like so much?”
In that moment, Cecilia saw his Adam’s apple move prominently.
When he couldn’t answer, his tongue moistening his dry lips instead, Cecilia sighed and moved to pull away. But before she could, Davion wrapped his arm around her waist and drew her close, whispering.
“You have a beautiful face.”
He reached out and began to gently trace her features.
Cecilia thought his fingertips seemed to tremble slightly as they brushed the bridge of her nose. She didn’t bother hiding her disappointment, lowering her brows.
“So in the end, it comes down to my appearance…?”
“I love the dimples that appear when you smile. Your white hair, these eyelashes, your singing voice, even that grumbling nature of yours—it all enchants me. You are the ideal I’ve dreamed of my whole life.”
Cecilia’s face gradually flushed pink.
Davion, who had been smiling while stroking her lower lip, wrapped his hand around the back of her small head and tilted his face toward hers. But before their lips could meet, a knock at the door jolted Cecilia back to reality, and she pushed against his chest roughly.
She hastily rose and fled to the window. Davion, watching her retreating figure with his hand pressed to his forehead, ran his fingers through his hair and unfastened a few buttons.
Making no attempt to hide his displeasure, he opened the door slightly.
“What is it so early?”
“The mistress is asking for you. It seems something has come up for an outing this afternoon.”
Meanwhile, Cecilia busied herself fanning her face frantically, pretending to clean the window. With his arm leaning against the doorframe, Davion glanced at her sideways, then answered in a voice tinged with drowsiness.
“Tell her I’ll come in thirty minutes… or an hour.”
* * *
Cecilia slowly withdrew her index finger from beneath Betty’s nose.
Since Betty slept so motionlessly, this had become her routine way of checking. After pulling the blanket up to her collarbone, Cecilia quietly lifted the lid of the waste bin near the bed, peering inside without waking her.
……
There it was—a medicine envelope she hadn’t seen before.
Cecilia squeezed her eyes shut, then open. Holding her breath so as not to disturb Betty, she closed the bin lid and left the room, with Nagi quietly following behind.
While Cecilia had checked Betty’s breathing, Nagi had climbed onto the bed to confirm her condition as well.
“Cecilia.”
The moment they left Betty’s room, Cecilia stood vacantly staring into the darkened living room. She forced a smile and turned to Nagi.
“The scent has changed. You need to prepare yourself now.”
Though she had expected it, hearing it directly from Nagi was an entirely different matter. Cecilia’s trembling hand flew to her mouth.
“But surely until this winter…?”
“No. She’s barely holding on as it is. In her current state, she could die any moment—even today wouldn’t be surprising.”
“Nagi! What are you saying?!”
Hearing those words from upstairs, Ruby came diving down to the first floor in alarm and tried to cover Nagi’s mouth. At that, Nagi straightened her spine and bared her sharp fangs, crying out.
“Hiding it is worse!”
Cecilia left them to their struggle and entered the bathroom, slumping into the bathtub. She twisted the faucet, but not a single drop fell.
She couldn’t cry inside the house. Before something she’d been holding back could burst forth, she hurriedly gathered her toiletries and slipped out of the cottage.
But there was an unexpected visitor waiting in front of the cottage.
Davion was sitting by the stream, leisurely smoking a cigarette while gazing at the stars.
He smiled and waved at Cecilia. Her brow slowly narrowed. Wondering if she was seeing things, she went back inside to check the wall clock, but it was unmistakably midnight.
“…Why are you smoking here again?”
It was a blessing that Ruby wasn’t playing in the field at that moment. Otherwise, his head might have acquired a hole in the shape of a raven’s beak.
Davion turned his head, showing his right cheek.
“See this? I tried to smoke inside, but Mother hit me with her lipstick.”
Indeed, as he said, a red mark remained above his cheekbone.
Cecilia could picture the scene and, lowering her head, let out a small laugh. Davion smiled gently in response.
Setting her shoes neatly to the side, Cecilia carefully dipped her feet into the stream. The water’s coolness made her frame shiver involuntarily.
As the night breeze blew, Davion’s dark hair fell gracefully around his face. The thin negligee Cecilia wore also clung softly to the curves of her body.
Tilting his head slightly upward, Davion gazed at her intently and said.
“You’ve lost weight.”
As he drew on the cigarette, red embers flared roughly to life. Cecilia kept pace with him along the deeper channel of the stream, watching him with narrowed eyes.
“That won’t work anymore.”
“I only meant you should eat properly, that’s all.”
“Don’t lie. I know you’ve got other motives.”
Davion’s eyes narrowed.
“Fine. The truth is I want to hold you and kiss you until you can barely breathe.”
“You’re a pervert. And at your age, you should start acting with some decorum.”
“Then marry me. I’ll be decent, I promise. Just marry me.”
Cecilia splashed water at him in irritation.
Davion yelped in surprise, arching backward, then laughed for a long while. Cecilia shook her head, exasperated, and spoke.
“I wish you’d just marry that actress already. At least then both of us could lose hope.”
That won’t happen, Davion answered silently to himself—and in the same instant, Cecilia’s weary voice continued.
“Grandmother… I don’t think she’ll make it through the autumn.”
In that moment, smoke caught in his throat and Davion sputtered into a cough.
He quickly stubbed the cigarette out on the wet grass. Cecilia dropped her gaze, pressing her trembling hand to her forehead.
“And here I was, outside, meeting men like it was nothing. I’m utterly pathetic.”
“Cecilia.”
As Davion rose, she turned away hastily, unwilling to show him her tears.
“I’ll tell Betty I need to take some time off work. I can’t… what if Grandmother passes while I’m not there……”
Betty would certainly be angry, but this time Cecilia was resolved not to yield. Davion struggled for words for a moment, then spoke gently as he removed his jacket.
“If you had even one photograph of your grandmother… or one of you, perhaps? Do you have any?”
“A photograph?”
Cecilia turned to him with a sniff. Through the sorrow that shadowed her face, a faint smile emerged as she answered.
“We don’t have things like that, fool.”
Before her words had even finished, Davion waded into the stream with long, splashing strides.

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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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