Freed silently followed her as she quickly left the ballroom, avoiding the eyes of the Marquis and others who were surrounded by many people.
It seemed like he had been waiting outside the whole time.
“Phiphi.”
When her mouth opened, the squirrel that had been occupying one side of the knight's arms jumped out.
“Tell Wood. Don’t leave Colin’s side tonight.”
Her eyes looked solemnly in one direction.
With his persistent gaze following someone's traces, Freed's eyes turned to the sky where Dorothea was looking.
What did she see in the pitch-black darkness where nothing could be distinguished?
The taciturn knight followed her steps without saying a word.
'There are more and more annoying things.'
There was anticipation in her eyes as she looked around.
Strange things were wandering around the outside of the mansion.
Beings who have a presence even though they are strangely lifeless. A human body couldn't be so lifeless.
The faint traces they left behind were as insidious and annoying as they were elusive for her to follow.
'They're not touching me right now, though.'
Gradually, the frequent appearances of such beings became very annoying.
For a dead ear to be wandering around this world, it did not have the weight of 'lingering affection' that spirits that often wander the human world must have.
If you were a light spirit without any regrets, you would have attained Buddhahood long ago, or you would have been caught by a reaper and taken to the place you needed to go. The things that were upsetting Dorothea right now were clearly something else.
When she placed her hand on the small side door next to the back door, the rusty door flap fell off and the door slid open.
Freed hesitated for a moment, but soon took the lead and raised the vine that covered her front.
The man who sent him to Dorothea ordered Freed to guard her but did not tell him to block or interfere.
“Let’s call a carriage.”
As soon as she got into the carriage, she immediately put on a dark shawl over her light-colored dress.
Then, with her lips licking, she folded a piece of yellow paper with a strange pattern drawn on it and placed it in Freed's arms.
The knight lowered his jewel-like eyes hidden under dark eyelashes and left her alone without saying a word.
Immediately after that, the carriage door opened and two people got out, but no passersby showed any interest in them. Everyone passed by her strangely dressed men and women in the middle of the night with indifferent expressions on their faces.
While Freed was paying the driver's wages, Dorothea, who had been waiting quietly next to him, suddenly raised her head.
It's here.
She was just following the traces, but she felt that ‘the presence’ was here.
Without a word, she passed the escort and ran into the building in front of her.
Then, passing through the noisy atmosphere typical of a bar, she went straight up to the upper floor where the guests were staying.
The escort who managed to catch up with him grabbed Dorothea's shoulders and made her stand behind him.
She opened her mouth after seeing the fraud rising in front of the door where the two people were standing.
“Open the door.”
Without a moment of hesitation, the knight followed her instructions and pushed the door open.
A terrible smell wafted in from beyond the open door.
The rotten meat, which gave off a terrible odor that could not be smelled anywhere else, was full of maggots.
Right next to it, there was another corpse of a man who had not been dead for a long time.
Freed, who was looking down at the two bodies that appeared to have died on different dates, quietly turned his head and looked at Dorothea.
“Did he leave a tail, or is it trying to confuse what I’m chasing?”
Will we be able to find clues in the remaining corpses instead of those that slipped away like loaches again?
Maybe it was left there just to annoy her.
It had been a while since the envoy had left, so the floating spirits that were supposed to be drawn to the corpse were nowhere to be seen.
Dorothea, who had been looking around as if trying to find traces of those who had hidden away, paused for a moment.
“I think it will be difficult to return home safely.”
“...?”
The moment Freed looked at her at the sudden remark, an unfamiliar figure approached behind him.
The clever knight quickly drew his sword and turned around.
In the doorway stood a pale, pale Dane, taking a step back after seeing the cruel scene in the room.
Dorothea, wearing a dress, jumped over the pool of blood and approached him, asking.
“Are you following me?”
Dane responded weakly, struggling to hold back the nausea rising to his throat.
“Because you left the mansion suspiciously.”
“Well, we’re in big trouble.”
Although she said that, Dorothea's face was relaxed and full of leisure.
Dane was faced with an innocent face as if he was saying hello and pulled out his hair.
“Hey, there’s a body in front of you now! When you speak so carefreely...”
“You came with your tail in your mouth.”
Even if Dorothea and Freed's presence was hidden, Dane, who followed like a tail, could not.
A master wearing a luxurious suit and heading to the lodging room without paying.
Wouldn’t it be a good idea to get reported?
As if her prediction was correct, the security team, who had received a report from the store owner, arrived and surrounded the three people.
Soon, the high, long scream of the bar owner, who had checked the condition of the room, shook the building.
***
“Go in here.”
The main character with a gruff voice drove them into an unfamiliar space.
The three people trapped in the narrow iron cage looked around.
“At least it was a convenience.”
This may be because they assumed they were nobles based on their appearance.
Dane sat down carefully on a hard, narrow chair that felt the cold air from the floor, and sighed as he looked at Dorothea.
There was a thick wrinkle between his eyebrows that made him look at least ten years older.
“What on earth were you doing there?”
“What are you doing?”
Dorothea frowned at him as if she was extremely troubled.
“It was Edwin’s first dance. At least if you started, you should have been with him until the end. What if he gets cheated because you made the wrong first move?”
Wasn't today actually the day he was going to look for a new bride?
“You spoke well.”
Dane growled.
He had forgotten for a moment that he was already hurt by the humiliation of what Dorothea had done.
“You want me to dance the tango with him? I’d rather tell them to go to the warehouse, scoop up water, and do an unknown dance like last time.”
“It was a simple ritual to wash away bad luck.”
“Whatever.”
Whether Dane was upset or not, Dorothea truly felt sorry for Edwin.
There is nothing as important as meeting a life partner in one's life, but when looking for a bride, he ends up leaving behind the person who should shine the most.
“Neither of us danced, so Edwin would have been left alone. If I had known it would be like this, I would have asked my grandfather.”
Dane snorted at Dorothea's words, which were spoken with a look of regret on her face.
“Grandfather wouldn’t want to dance the tango with his dark grandson. And the prom would have been ruined anyway. By now, everyone in the family must have been scrambling to find you, so what’s different about Edwin?”
“I feel empty. I wish I could eat something.”
All she ate all day was a few pieces of cake and tarts.
It would be nice if someone could give me some meat that could be eaten, or at least some hard bread.
Dorothea's voice seemed full of sincerity, and Dane responded to her words in a more subdued voice.
“Then why do you come out and go through all this trouble?”
When he saw Dorothea with her shawl tied tightly, he must have felt weak and soon began to offer words of comfort.
“There’s nothing to worry too much about. Your family will find you soon anyway...”
“Thea!”
All three people perked up their ears at the familiar voice coming from afar.
She saw a very familiar figure running towards her in a hurry.
“Thea, is that you?”
Even tigers come when you tell them to.
As soon as he finished speaking, Dane stuck out his tongue at the sound of a call.
Considering the family's hardships, he roughly expected that he would have left as soon as his letter arrived, but it had only been a few minutes since they first met.
"Grandfather."
The Marquis, who saw his granddaughter's face becoming scruffy in a short time, became furious and scolded the grandson next to him.
“Yes, you bastard! What are you doing with Thea now?”
“No, if you have common sense, think about it. I wonder if I brought her out, or if I followed her to somehow prevent her from going out on her own.”
Even while listening to Dane's bewildered voice, the Marquis stroked Dorothea's head with a trembling hand.
Felix, who was standing next to him, wrapped the blanket he was holding around Dorothea's body.
“Father, your son is here.”
Pretending not to have heard Dane's words, he took the thick gloves out of his pocket and put them on her.
Dorothea felt somewhat better as her ice-cold fingertips melted, and she smiled at her aunt and grandmother who arrived later.
In addition, he even asked Edwin, who arrived last, out of courtesy.
“So who did you end up dancing with?”
“I couldn’t dance with anyone, you troublemaker girl.”
Edwin, who came in with a surprised face, sighed in relief and spoke in a friendly voice when he confirmed that Dorothea was not injured.
“How can you suddenly run out of the mansion like that?”
Diana, who was looking at him with concern, agreed with her son's words.
“Yes, you shouldn’t leave without saying something properly. Plus, it's a murder scene. Why did you go to such a terrible place?”
Dorothea, who was blinking her clear eyes as if she knew nothing, turned her head and gave Dane a gentle look.
Then the others also silently turned their gaze to Dane.
“I was following her. Everyone shouldn’t look at me like that.”
Dane looked at her with a straight face, but their suspicions toward him, who had already tried to tease Dorothea several times, were not easily removed.
“Let’s eat this first.”
Regardless of whether it was right or wrong, Diana took out the snacks she had prepared for the trapped people.
Dorothea, who was handed delicious food through a narrow iron window, began to eat it like a crab turning a blind eye.
Eventually, the moment about half of the food disappeared, her hands, which had been constantly moving, stopped.
"Come on."
Dane looked very impressed when she handed him the remaining half of the food.
Not only that, she even showed kindness by gently putting a blanket on Dane's lap while he was holding a plate.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Has his inhumane cousin, who always thought only of herself, finally grown up? Has he finally made her human?
It was a moment when Dane felt a strange sense of pride and satisfaction in his heart.
“Come on, baby. Then let’s go home.”
“Yes, grandfather.”
Dorothea stood up with a perfect answer, and the locked door opened. Dane, who was eating food while holding a blanket, saw his eyes widen.
“Me, me?”
As soon as Dorothea came out, her mother, Diana, spoke in a friendly voice through the coldly closed door.
“You’re the one who beat the sentries guarding the back gate until they fainted, right? Thanks to this, the back door was wide open. And it wasn’t enough that you were racing around in a carriage in the middle of the night, the Lodriver even reported you because you didn’t pay the rent.”
“It’s all Thea!”
“Thea didn’t use violence against the guards at the back gate until she broke their ribs, and she didn’t leave the door open to come out.”
Even if you use a dog hole.
And the hole was closed tightly on the way out.
“I also paid the fair price for the carriage ride here.”
Freed was always drawn to Dorothea's eccentricities and was prepared for anything that might happen.
“Conclusively, in return for sending a letter to the mansion, you dragged a child who was wandering the streets into an alley and threatened him with his fists? He even had to pay compensation for psychological treatment to the child who was shaking because he was afraid of your fist.”
The mother smiled brightly as she looked down with loving eyes at her son, who had wandered around leaving traces of his crimes everywhere.
“It is not a crime to witness a murder, but many of the actions you committed are crimes, son.”
“...Aren’t there extenuating circumstances?”
Edwin whispered patronizingly to Dane, who was staring at Dorothea's back as she was already walking away.
“I’ll send someone later, so just wait a moment.”
“...”
Dane, who could not refute what he had done since it was clearly his own fault, was filled with resentment, wrapped himself in a blanket, and curled up gloomily.
“Why is she having accidents and cleaning up after them unnecessarily?”
He always gets scolded. Always.
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