Chapter 3. Caught the Mouse, Part 1

“Yes, there’s still no word from him. I think it would be faster to go find him ourselves. Father, you need to send your strongest knight. Understood?”

Having said her piece, Nea turned to rush out of the room, then seemed to catch herself. She came back, gave Myr a small curtsy, and left the room with proper, unhurried steps.

With the boisterous Nea gone, an awkward silence settled over the room.

Myr sat with his eyes closed, tapping the armrest of the sofa with his fingers, while Viscount Deys, a collateral member of the Renat imperial family, waited quietly for Myr to speak.

The entire time Myr stayed at his home under a concealed identity, he had been in a constant state of tension.

“By the way, this woman Ophelia, is she a direct bloodline of the Lares family?”

“Ah, Ophelia is the daughter of Baron Jont, an illegitimate son of the Lares household.”

“An illegitimate son of the Lares family, you say…… Then sending Bella to the baronial household tonight should do nicely.”

“Ah, since Ophelia requested a knight, you mean to send Dame Bella?”

“That’s right. If we can build a connection with the Lares family, who hold considerable sway among the military, wouldn’t that make our work a good deal easier?”

Myr’s expression, grave until that moment, shifted, and he spoke with easy warmth.

“Then please call Bella for me right away, Viscount Deys.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Shortly after, a female knight with brown hair and green eyes entered the room where Myr was staying.

“Your Highness, you called for me.”

“Bella. Go to Baron Jont’s household tonight. Find out what is happening and help Miss Ophelia.”

From the day Bella had saved his life on the battlefield in their youth, she had stood silently at his back ever since. In a word, Bella was his.

“Ophelia is a daughter of the Lares family. Going through her may turn out to be a fine opportunity to make natural contact with the Lares household once we reach Asri.”

“Understood. Then I will leave Ron in charge of Your Highness’s guard for tonight and set out.”

❀❀❀

Meanwhile, at Baron Jont’s household.

Knock, knock. Bisha’s voice followed the sound.

“Miss, someone sent by Miss Nea has arrived. Jonathan is here as well and waiting downstairs.”

“I’ll be right down.”

Coming downstairs, Ophelia took in the sight of Jonathan and a brown-haired woman sitting with her back to her.

A female knight? The thought had barely formed when the large-framed Jonathan sprang up from the sofa.

“Miss!”

“Jonathan, thank you for coming. I needed the help.”

“Not at all. Miss, just give the word.”

Ophelia flashed Jonathan a bright smile, then turned toward the woman, who greeted her with a respectful bow.

“I am Bella, sent by Viscount Deys.”

“Thank you for coming, Dame Bella.”

A clear, bright voice rang out.

Bella lifted her head and looked at the woman before her.

Skin as pale and luminous as white jade. Long black hair that tumbled in waves like a night sky come to earth. She had thought it a common sort of beauty.

But those large violet eyes, reminiscent of amethysts, were uniquely deep and mysterious. They were eyes that held so many stories a person could fall into them and never find their way out.

While Bella studied her, Ophelia was quietly working to calm her own startled heart.

This was Bella Nevil, the personal guard knight of Crown Prince Myr Renat of the Apollos Empire.

Ophelia recalled their meeting in her past life.

It had been the summer of the year she became Albus’s mistress. His birthday party was held, but she had not been allowed to attend on the grounds that her reputation in social circles was poor.

Then word came that the Crown Prince of the Apollos Empire, said to be the greatest genius and most beautiful man in the world, would be attending the party. Unable to suppress her curiosity, she had slipped in disguised as a maid.

Peering at the guests from behind a pillar, Ophelia had been struck speechless at the sight of Crown Prince Myr.

The gods truly were not fair. A person who possessed beauty, wealth, and extraordinary ability all at once actually existed in this world.

Myr stood side by side with Albus, praised as the most handsome man in the Kingdom of Astra. He was every bit as beautiful as Albus, if not more so, and he shone with a brilliance that was almost blinding.

And Bella had stood beside Crown Prince Myr in that lively, festive hall, her face expressionless, together with the knight commander Louie.

If Bella is here, then perhaps Crown Prince Myr is too?

In her past life as well, Crown Prince Myr had visited Asri, the capital of the Kingdom of Astra. Then it was possible that at that time, the Crown Prince had traveled up to Asri from Naris together with Viscount Deys.

“Miss?”

Bella’s voice pulled Ophelia back to the present.

“My master told me to come to the baronial household and follow the Miss’s instructions. Please give whatever orders you see fit.”

“Thank you. That is truly a relief. Shall we get started, then?”

Ophelia’s large, deep violet eyes curved into a smile as she looked at Bella.

❀❀❀

Deep in the night, with a cuckoo calling at intervals, the back door of Baron Jont’s manor swung open.

Creak. Breaking the silence, the one who stepped out was the butler Samuel.

The moment Samuel appeared, a dark shadow surged forward as though it had been waiting. It was a rough-looking man with a scar cutting across half his face. He launched straight into complaints.

“Why did you call me out so urgently? Didn’t we agree to move in a month?”

“Keep your voice down. How many men did you gather?”

“Only five.”

“Can’t be helped. That Ophelia girl, for whatever reason, is insisting on leaving in two days with the Deys family. We have to move tonight.”

“With this many men?”

“If she leaves, we may never get another chance. Stop whining and follow me.”

Samuel led the scarred man and the thieves through the back door toward the underground storehouse of Baron Jont’s household.

The butler, who kept the storehouse key, opened the door and walked in as though it were his own home.

“No time to waste. Focus on the valuables and get out fast.”

The thieves handled the modest gold and jewels with glee, marveling and snickering among themselves.

Samuel was in the middle of irritably sweeping items into his pockets, visibly displeased with their behavior, when white smoke began seeping through a small gap in the door, curling slowly into the storehouse.

Fire?

The scarred man moved to check outside the door, but someone was blocking it. The smoke spread through the storehouse in an instant, and the men crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

A moment later, the door opened and Ophelia stepped inside, a handkerchief pressed over her mouth and nose.

“Prickly water lily works rather well.”

The prickly water lily was an herb that had played a major role in her past life, when Albus went to war and achieved a sweeping victory against an overwhelmingly larger enemy force. Burned from a distance, its smoke was more potent than any anesthetic.

She walked into the storehouse and nudged Samuel’s collapsed body with her foot.

Bella could only click her tongue inwardly at the sight of a noble lady catching thieves with medicinal herbs.

This is no ordinary young lady.

Bella made a mental note to ask about that herb when the opportunity arose. She had a feeling it would be of use to her master.

On Ophelia’s orders, Jonathan and Bella bound Samuel and his companions tightly with rope where they lay sprawled across the floor.

Ophelia dragged a chair in front of the men piled together like sacks of grain, leaned back in it, and sat.

“Jonathan, I was thinking it might be time to wake our guests up with a cold splash.”

Ophelia spoke calmly, keeping the anger rising inside her chest firmly in check.

Splash.

Jonathan doused the men with ice-cold water, and they thrashed back to consciousness like men hauled out of a river.

The suffering her family had endured because of Samuel’s thieving flashed through Ophelia’s mind.

How many tears had she shed when she realized her mother’s keepsakes were gone.

How much rage had she swallowed in silence, watching her father and brother be treated worse than servants at the main household, with not a coin to their name.

“Urgh……”

Samuel opened his eyes with a dazed expression. Everything had happened so fast that he seemed to have no grasp of the situation yet.

Ophelia looked down at him without a trace of warmth in her eyes. Meeting her cold gaze, Samuel finally muttered under his breath.

“Ha, you scheming little……”

Thwack!

Before the words were even out of his mouth, Jonathan’s large fist connected with the butler’s face.

Two bloodied front teeth dropped to the floor in front of his knees.

Only then did the butler flatten himself against the ground, trembling white with terror.

“Miss, Miss Ophelia, why are you doing this to me?”

“You don’t know why?”

“You shouldn’t be treating me this way. Don’t you know how hard I’ve worked for this household? When the master finds out, he will punish you severely.”

“How dare you bring up my father. Return every last thing you’ve stolen from our household over the years. Do that, and I’ll let that worthless life of yours continue.”

“Stolen, Miss? Please don’t misunderstand. These men are simply workers I brought in to sort through the luggage. And the Baron……”

“Enough. You’ll be talking freely soon enough, without me even having to ask. Jonathan, give them this.”

Ophelia cut him off without mercy and held out a vial of liquid.

What is that now. Bella watched the scene unfold with curious eyes, wondering what Ophelia was scheming this time.

Jonathan wrenched the men’s mouths open one by one and tipped the liquid in.

At first there was no reaction, but soon they were writhing and screaming in agony.

“Aaaargh!!”

“Hnngh, aaah!”

“P-please, spare us!”

“Aaah!”

Ophelia watched the men convulse in pain with calm, detached eyes.

“Jonathan, the item I asked Bisha to prepare?”

At her words, Jonathan drew three ledgers from inside his coat and handed them over.

“Shall we begin the accounting? I intend to get every last bit back.”

Samuel was baffled. How had Ophelia known about tonight? And those ledgers? His body twisted helplessly in pain and fear.

In her past life, Jonathan and Bisha had once run into Samuel at a market, selling the baroness’s jewelry.

Jonathan had taken the jewelry from Samuel and given him a thorough beating. He had then sent the pieces to Ophelia afterward.

Only then did she learn that Samuel had been selling off the baronial household’s meager assets and had even laid hands on her mother’s personal effects after her death.

If Ophelia had not come to stop the butler’s scheme tonight, everything would have unfolded exactly as it had in her past life.

“I…… I’ll talk. Please spare me. Aaaargh!!!”

Writhing in pain that felt like dozens of blades stabbing through his organs, the scarred man crawled toward Ophelia.

Bella glanced at Jonathan. Jonathan pressed his foot firmly down on the scarred man’s shoulder, keeping him from getting too close to Ophelia.

“Very well. Let’s hear it.”

“Y-you’ll spare me?”

“The antidote is right here. Whether you live or die depends on what you tell me.”

Ophelia produced the antidote and swayed it gently in front of the scarred man’s eyes.

“Ugh…… That man has been going in and out of the black market for years, s-selling jewels. And a month ago he approached me and proposed that I join him in a big job, hrrk…… I agreed.”

“Go on.”

“With the Baron and the young master away from home and the Miss’s acquaintances all leaving the city, hnngh…… he said we could take the valuables when the moment was right.”

“That much I already know, as you can see.”

Ophelia smiled faintly and spoke with lazy ease.

Sensing something different about their mistress, an eerie quality she did not usually carry, Jonathan quietly bowed his head.