The Countess's Body Has Disappeared - Chapter 9

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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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Episode 9
But the moment Davion was about to call out Cecilia’s name—
Someone else called to her first.
“Darling.”
A man stood at the top of the stairs, waving toward her. His face lay hidden in shadow, but Davion felt certain he wore a tender smile.
…….
Davion slowly settled back into his seat. The bartender across the table, who had been making drinks, watched him with an odd look.
“My apologies. I think the atmosphere got to me.”
It wasn’t Cecilia.
‘It wasn’t you…….’
With a sigh, Davion pulled another bill from his pocket and slid it across the table. Then, pressing his forehead with a weary hand, he muttered darkly.
“Keep the glass.”
* * *
Cecilia thought the inn seemed unusually crowded today.
Far off at the bar table sat a dark-haired man remarkably like Davion. Of course it couldn’t be him. The young master, raised with everyone’s affection and doting care, would never set foot in such a shabby place.
As Cecilia passed the man and climbed the stairs, Arcan appeared from above and waved warmly.
“Darling.”
He was leaning on crutches beneath both shoulders. While Cecilia had been out shopping, Arcan had returned from the hospital.
His complexion looked considerably better than before—perhaps he’d received an injection. As they walked back to the room in step, Cecilia grumbled under her breath.
“Anyone would think you were my real husband.”
“Did you forget already? I am your husband.”
Arcan flashed a sunlit smile and wiggled his left hand.
A cheap ring, hastily procured for the arrangement, gleamed on his ring finger.
“You’ll need to get used to it. If you react like that every time I call, even the most guileless person would start to suspect us.”
She knew it well. Every time Cecilia went out with Arcan, she suffered under a torrent of disapproving stares.
A man as fair-featured as an actor and a woman whose face was pocked and scarred—naturally people found it strange. As she took the key Ruby had brought, Cecilia asked through the corridor window.
“What did the hospital say?”
“For the time being, I’m not to use the muscles in my left leg. In other words, I need to use the crutches properly. Ah, and here—your change.”
As Cecilia turned the key in the lock, Arcan fished through his pocket and produced some coins.
The moment Cecilia entered the room, she tilted her chin toward the mantelpiece. There sat an empty tin can, set up as a sort of savings container.
Though they’d lived together less than a day, they’d already developed their own rhythms. While Arcan saw to the animals and tidied the room, Cecilia kept the household ledger and calculated what remained. With four of them now, expenses had run higher than expected.
“Tomorrow we should get identification documents and find somewhere a bit bigger. We need to be careful with money, but we can’t keep sharing one bed.”
“That’s a good thought. Still, don’t strain yourself too much, Cee.”
“Cee” had been her grandmother’s pet name for Cecilia. The name of the Countess of Winterhall was far too well-known to use as it was.
Arcan made a decent partner. The only information they’d gathered about each other was their names—excluding surnames—and even Cecilia’s name was false.
But Arcan never asked. Cecilia likewise made no effort to know him further. Tacitly, they honored each other’s secrets.
Besides, unlike Davion, he liked animals and didn’t mind Nagi or Ruby. Davion had raised his gun the moment he laid eyes on Nagi.
Snow had begun to fall again.
Cecilia checked that the window was sealed tight and peered outside. A dark-haired man passed along the sidewalk below the inn. The same one who’d been sitting at the bar table just before.
Standing at the road’s edge as if waiting for a taxi, his hands thrust into his coat pockets, white breath rose and fell across his face with each exhale.
After confirming the window was properly closed, Cecilia retrieved a bottle from her travel bag and tipped the pills into her palm.
As Arcan glanced over and began counting them, surprise registered in his voice.
“Perhaps it’s you who should have gone to the hospital, not me.”
“I’ve been taking these for a long time.”
Cecilia laughed self-consciously and began explaining each one.
“This is like a nutritional supplement for my stamina. I actually had rather major surgery not long ago. This one eases depression, and this is somnambulism medication. Especially this one—I have to take at least two a day without fail.”
The white somnambulism pill, rolled into a sphere, was too large to swallow easily. As Arcan listened to the explanation, surprise crossed his face again.
“You have somnambulism? Though I’ve never noticed—you sleep as quietly as the dead…….”
“I’ve had it for a while now. The doctor said if I’m under severe stress, I can fall into it suddenly. I’m much better now. Still, if I cry or shout in my sleep sometimes, don’t be alarmed.”
“Surely not because of your husband?”
Arcan’s expression darkened. In his imagination, Davion had become the lowest of human scum, a brute who’d inflicted violence on his ailing wife.
“I can only hope you didn’t bring him much of a dowry. Was it a political marriage, perhaps? Or a coerced one?”
“Nothing like that. We married for love.”
Cecilia rubbed her reddening nose and laughed bashfully.
But as she looked out the window again, her smile slowly faded.
“But people change as time passes…….”
It was because of her time with Davion that she’d changed—Cecilia had never liked snow. On a day when heavy snow fell in thick sheets, her mother had abandoned her at the mouth of an alley.
“Useless wretch.”
All she could do was watch her mother’s back as she walked away, leaving those words behind—a winter so harsh it cut to the bone. Cecilia had been barely ten years old.
But was it not evidence that the world was not entirely cruel?
Not long after, an elderly woman sought out Cecilia, who had been trembling from hunger and cold. Taking the small child’s hand in hers, she led her toward a grand manor belonging to a nobleman.
The old woman was a nanny of House of Sisseldown.
1-3. Charity Ball
“A-a Bag has gone missing?!”
Cecilia cried out, gripping the hotel’s reception counter.
The clerk behind the desk made an uncomfortable face and pressed both hands together apologetically.
“I sincerely apologize. The luggage looked similar, and it seems another guest mistook it for theirs and took it.”
She had checked out of her previous lodging and left her bag at the hotel; when she and Arcan returned from exploring the area—nothing but stunning silence met the news that the bag had vanished without a trace.
And it wasn’t just any bag—it contained hundreds of thousands of Burnet in cash. One might say it was everything Cecilia possessed in the world. At that thought, her nose stung and tears welled in her eyes.
What was she to do? Without it, she couldn’t even afford a single room right now……
“Look, then what are you going to do?! My clothes and everything else are in there!”
“Miss, I am truly sorry. I have no excuse.”
“How will you make this right? Do you understand how serious this is?!”
Arcan, who had been listening quietly beside her, cupped her cheek.
“Dear.”
His lovely face came into view. His deep amber eyes held a surprising calm.
“Getting upset won’t solve anything. Ruby and Nagi are right here, and I’ve kept my Identification Document and medicine in my hand bag, so we’ve avoided the worst. Besides, I put aside emergency funds.”
“Still……”
“Since the bags were switched, that guest will surely check what’s inside and come back here. Let’s step outside and get some air, yes? You’ll fall ill if we keep this up.”
Cecilia reluctantly nodded, but she didn’t agree with Arcan’s words. If anyone confirmed the cash inside, there was no chance they’d return it.
The hotel clerk was a woman who looked younger than Cecilia. She stood trembling, helpless, her eyes fixed only on her feet—it was pitiful to watch.
Yes, she couldn’t have anticipated something like this either……. Cecilia was angry, but she could understand.
As Cecilia wiped her face and tried to compose herself, Arcan tore a page from the reception desk’s notepad and scribbled something quickly.
“If the bag comes back but we haven’t come to retrieve it, please send it here.”
He handed the note to the clerk. Then, to her utter surprise, he winked at her discreetly and whispered.
“Where my parents work.”
When other guests began approaching the desk, Arcan took Cecilia’s hand and they left the hotel. He had caught the sound of someone clicking their tongue at the sight of the pockmarks on her face.

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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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