TCBD 3

<3>

‘She’s not here.’

Thud.

Davion threw the file onto his desk and rested his arm against his forehead, closing his eyes.

He had checked the entry and exit records of every checkpoint in the city. But there was no trace of Cecilia anywhere.

Cecilia was a woman who stood out even when she did nothing. Not only because of her hair color, but also because of her strange and unusual atmosphere. So Davion did not believe that the checkpoint officers had simply missed her.

Come to think of it, I haven’t gone through her belongings yet.

Luckily—or perhaps unfortunately—he had been so busy that he had not had time to sort through Cecilia’s things. She was not the type of woman who liked keeping records, but if he searched carefully, there had to be something that could give him a clue.

With that thought, Davion got up and went to Cecilia’s room.

They had a bedroom for the married couple, but for some reason, they had been sleeping in separate rooms for a long time.

It had only been fifteen days since Cecilia disappeared, but the hallway leading to her bedroom felt unfamiliar. The world had changed so much in those fifteen days.

As soon as Davion reached the bedroom, he carefully closed the door.

The room had once been an old storage room that had been remodeled. It was small, but because of that, sunlight came in very well.

Winter sunlight entered through the square-shaped window and painted the reddish-brown wooden floor. Dust danced peacefully in the sunlight.

“……”

Only this place seemed as if time had stopped.

The perfectly smooth blanket on the bed felt strangely out of place, making his chest feel tight. The warm air from the sunlight still smelled like Cecilia.

Davion instinctively searched his pants pocket, then realized it was empty and sighed.

Damn it…

He had accidentally left his cigarettes in his office. Going back would take too long, so he had no choice but to resist the urge and roll up his sleeves.

First, he opened the wardrobe.

Then he squeezed his eyes shut.

“No, this woman…”

There were no clothes inside the wardrobe.

Instead, it was completely filled with trash.

She really has never been good at cleaning…

Davion gave a dry laugh and closed the wardrobe.

Then he opened the top drawer of the cabinet beside it.

But he suddenly stopped.

Inside were neatly folded underwear and stockings, arranged by color.

His eyes became dark and deep.

“……”

Davion reached out and gently touched the rough seam of a piece of underwear.

He stayed like that for a long time, lost in thought.

Then he suddenly heard footsteps and quickly closed the drawer.

Click.

“Count, are you there?”

A familiar servant’s voice came from outside the door.

Davion cleared his throat like a boy who had been caught doing something secret. He opened the door only about a hand’s width.

“What is it?”

“Count, the Duchess of Sisladown has arrived. She is waiting downstairs.”

“My mother?”

Just as the servant had said, Davion looked outside the window.

A familiar car was parked there.

Davion held back the sigh that was rising all the way to his throat.

Even though she was his mother, an unexpected visit was naturally not very welcome.

“Tell her I’ll come out to meet her.”

Davion’s mother, Blake Sisladown, lived in a penthouse beside the river. It was only about thirty minutes by car from the Winterhall mansion.

Davion put both hands into his unusually empty pants pockets and slowly walked toward the car, whose engine was still running.

The window came down.

The face of an attractive middle-aged woman who looked similar to Davion appeared.

Davion noticed where his mother’s eyes were looking.

He calmly pulled down his sleeves to hide his tattoo.

He did not need to hide the smell of cigarettes, so perhaps this was actually a good thing.

“If you had told me you were coming, I would have prepared an early meal.”

“No need. I only stopped by for a moment while I was on my way to meet Mrs. Everett.”

Her clear and commanding voice always made Blake seem like a woman who was not easy to deal with.

She did not get out of the car.

Instead, she handed a brown envelope through the window.

“I found someone for you to meet. If you do nothing, you’ll be left behind in the marriage market in no time. You should start a new family while you’re still young.”

“Mother…”

Davion suddenly felt a headache and closed his eyes.

But Blake did not even blink at her son’s obvious displeasure.

Afraid that walking closer would look like he agreed, Davion remained standing like a statue and quietly but firmly objected.

“A meeting? It’s only been fifteen days since I lost Cecilia.”

“You know this woman well. Esmeralda Renee. Do you remember her? You were even engaged to Esmeralda before you married that girl.”

Of course he remembered her.

Even apart from being his former fiancée, Esmeralda was a famous actress known throughout the country.

Her father was a noble-born politician who had once served as an attendant to the Emperor, and her mother was the daughter of a very wealthy family.

She had been born into one of the most powerful families in the country. At one point, the public had criticized her because she joined a theater group and worked closely with men.

Davion had forgotten her name after marrying Cecilia, so hearing it again like this made him truly realize that he was now a widower on paper.

“Esmeralda also lost her husband recently. Isn’t she the person fate has chosen for you? You both have the same kind of wound. You can comfort each other and live happily together.”

“Mother, it’s not as if my marriage to Lady Esmeralda has even been discussed. And she is a famous actress. If she remarries too soon, people around her will not look at her kindly.”

“Since when did you care about what other people think? If you cared about that, would you have married that girl in the first place?”

“Mother.”

Blake was about to say something more, but she looked at Davion’s expression and stopped.

She narrowed her eyes and slowly took back the envelope.

“Fine. Then I’ll put the meeting on hold. But you must remarry. Promise your mother that you will do your best with Esmeralda.”

“You still treat me like a child.”

“You’ll understand my feelings a hundred times better once you become a parent yourself.”

Blake threw the envelope onto the back seat and signaled the driver to leave.

Before closing the window, she complained one last time to her son.

“Oh, and the street checkpoints are far too strict. Is it really this difficult for me to see my own son? On the way here, they stopped my car three times.”

“I’m sorry. A scammer is currently moving around the city.”

“A scammer? I didn’t see anything about that in the newspaper…”

Blake’s carefully shaped eyebrows rose sharply as she demanded an explanation.

There is such a person. A horrible scammer who shamelessly pretended to be dead and stole one million Burnet from me.

Davion swallowed the words he could never say out loud.

He carefully smiled and tried to keep his expression calm.

“We know her identity, so we’ll catch her soon. Don’t worry, Mother.”

Cecilia stared deeply into the mirror and smiled in amazement.

“Oh, this works really well…”

The woman in the mirror looked like a completely different person.

Her face was swollen like a full moon, and both cheeks were covered with ugly red bumps and marks.

She looked like someone suffering from a serious skin disease.

Strangely, though, it did not hurt.

There was only a little smell…

No.

Actually, it smelled very bad.

Ruby came over quickly and opened her beak wide.

「Wow! You really look like a human who has a disease, Cecilia!」

「Can you tell it’s me?」

「No. You became incredibly ugly. Even that black-haired male probably wouldn’t recognize you.」

「Really…?」

Then that was good.

It meant she had achieved her goal.

Now that she had changed her face, it was time for the next step.

Cecilia hid her travel bag and money under the bed and inside the bathroom.

Then she put on several thick layers of underskirts.

She already knew how cold the back alleys could become during winter, especially when there was no sunlight.

Finally, she hung the bedroom key on the outside wall of the building.

(Ruby would come and take the key later.)

Cecilia pulled her hood deeply over her head and left the inn.