MTMD 3

Chapter 3

The Baroness Flodel, who had burst in, cried out.

“An opportunity has come to salvage even a little of the family’s image and fortune that you’ve been squandering for the past twenty-some years. Surely you won’t refuse?”

If it had been the Eloise of the original work, she would have nodded without even understanding what was being said—but this one was different.

Eloise knew what was coming, so she kept her mouth shut and waited.

Then the Baroness, apparently thinking she had been cowed by her momentum, lifted her chin slightly and spoke as if pronouncing a sentence.

“You will become Marquess Eden’s mistress, as of today.”

It was the moment Eloise’s plan—something the Baroness could never have imagined even in her dreams—began.

To be precise, she said it was becoming his second wife.

But the Baroness Flodel, who had not hesitated to use the word “mistress,” also made no bones about saying filthy things—that the “use of a mistress” was only one thing.

Those words, which she would rather not recall, made her doubt whether Eloise was even truly the Baroness Flodel’s biological daughter.

Is there some secret about her birth, perhaps?

How can someone say such things to a person? And to her own daughter, no less?

While Eloise received crash-course instruction on her “use as a mistress,” the maids rushed at her and plastered her with all sorts of adornments.

“Do take note that Marquess Eden likes mature women.”

He likes mature women—yet who could understand why he’d keep a mistress twenty years younger?

Clunk!

The carriage she boarded in that “mature” appearance was the most lavish carriage among those that Eloise Flodel’s body remembered.

If she were being dragged off and married into the Eden household like this, it would be utterly miserable, but……

[I have received the letter you sent.

As this is the first time I have received a letter arriving by such a unique method, I find myself at a loss as to where to apply the proprieties.]

Before boarding this carriage bound for the Marquess’s household—

Eloise had received Duke Edgart’s reply.

The letter, which seemed tinged with the temper of a man known to be irritable, carried a sharp tone even while observing courtesy.

[However, the story you conveyed is more interesting than expected, and I find myself wanting to make time for it separately.

I hear you are going to the Marquess’s household before long. If you need an opportunity that day,]

Eloise pressed her forehead as she recalled the sentence that followed.

[Shall I kidnap you?]

……I’m heading in the right direction, aren’t I?

I’m not going from avoiding one calamity to someone even worse, am I?

To the Duke’s confidant, who had infiltrated as a Flodel servant to deliver that letter, she wanted to ask—if rudely—whether his master was in his right mind.

But instead, Eloise said:

“……I don’t need a kidnapping, so could you relay to him to follow the carriage from a distance?”

She needed to show her ability.

She had to become a useful card for the Duke.

That was the calculation behind her words.

“What did you say?”

To the man who faithfully pretended to be a Flodel servant and answered rudely, Eloise spoke openly.

“I know you came from the Duke’s household. Just relay it as is. As for the letter—forgive me, but I’ll burn it.”

Fwoosh!

Perhaps even the letter paper was taken aback—the words [Shall I kidnap you?] caught fire last.

Watching the burning letter, the Duke’s confidant in servant’s disguise asked.

“……How did you know?”

“Shall I call it my intelligence network?”

If it were Edgart’s intelligence, they would know at least that this side was a family that saw ghosts—but there was no need to reveal all of that.

At her words, the Edgart confidant’s expression turned serious.

People who couldn’t even see ghosts could never know just how much ghosts were capable of, so it was only natural he’d turn serious.

But the true meaning of that “intelligence network” was……

“Hey, this one’s not a Flodel family person, is he?”

“I saw him infiltrate from outside.”

“I heard from the ghosts who followed him in—he came from the Edgart side.”

……It was the chatter of the ghosts in the mirror.

The ghosts, who wanted Eloise’s reactions, enjoyed gossiping near her.

Thanks to that, this carriage was also full.

In the hand mirror she held, of course.

“Move over a bit, it’s cramped.”

“If overlapping bothers you, just cling to the roof of the carriage and fly alongside.”

The ghosts squabbled because they disliked overlapping with one another.

Anyway, the confidant who nodded at Eloise’s answer and disappeared seemed to have relayed her words to Duke Edgart Castian properly.

“Is the Duke following?”

When Eloise asked, a few ghosts slipped out of the carriage.

And a few minutes later, they returned and said.

“He’s not so much following as watching from a distance.”

To think he’d already arrived.

But with that, half the plan was a success.

The worst-case scenario was the Duke ignoring her proposal.

“Tell me when he’s closest.”

Eloise closed her eyes to calm herself.

According to the plan, she had to escape the carriage as quickly as possible and meet the Duke.

Otherwise……

It was when she was tensing up.

“Tell you when he’s closest?”

The ghost that had gone out and returned earlier spoke.

“If that’s what you mean, it’s now.”

Eloise opened her eyes.

“What?”

“Now, I said.”

He was a Duke who didn’t even give her time to tense up.

Without even a moment to deliberate, Eloise stared straight at one ghost in the mirror.

“Then I’ll be counting on you.”

It was a ghost whose entire body shimmered with silver light.

If she borrowed that one’s power, this time her whole body would ache—but there was no helping it.

They say one of the most severe pains a human can feel is the sensation of burning, don’t they?

Having personally felt through her eyes and ears what the author had merely written as “a burning pain washed over her,” she felt faint.

But Eloise had to use that power once more.

Even if it hurt like death—she didn’t want to become the mistress of a lust-ridden Marquess, suffer, and die helplessly!

Eloise unconsciously clenched her fist.

Whoosh!

And the moment the ghost was possessed and its power settled into her body.

It felt as though her entire body had become light as a feather in an instant.

The ghost—clearly a wielder who had used martial arts in its past life—brought astonishing strength and physical sense.

Her vision became far clearer, and she could sense the presence of those around her keenly, of course.

Beyond that, it instinctively told her where to break things to escape this place most wisely.

Click.

Eloise first opened the drawer beneath the carriage seat.

When she pulled out the drawer that was made to be pulled open, inside it she saw an iron rod that had been fashioned so the drawer could slide out silently.

This is the only thing you can use right now—the ghost’s memory told her so.

Kkijik!

Eloise, putting strength into her fingers, easily ripped it out.

Normally, it was something she wouldn’t even have attempted.

Clunk! Thanks to the carriage happening to shake at that moment, the sound of something breaking didn’t leak outside the carriage.

Having obtained a weapon that was not a weapon, she swung the iron rod in her hand a few times.

“Fuu.”

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

Once she left the carriage, she had to run without a moment’s rest.

What she needed to confirm for that was the exact route and field of vision.

Perhaps because the memory of the ghost whose power she’d borrowed was guiding her, even in this unfamiliar situation, what she had to do came to her clearly.

To secure those two things—

Having finished her thoughts, Eloise swung the iron rod sideways with all her might.

And then.

Kwaang!

The carriage was half-destroyed, and the outside scenery traced horizontal lines as it flashed by—but only for a moment.

The ground beneath her feet shook violently, and she heard the startled horses rearing.

Pat!

Of course, by that time, she had already kicked off the carriage and leaped into the air.