Chapter 72
Still, she couldn’t go against the Grand Madam’s will.
Clara slipped her eyes away from Lucy and changed the subject.
“Erm… instead of just waiting for Sophie… let me look around for treatment things too. Even if it doesn’t hurt, it should be tended.”
“…Go ahead.”
Lucy smiled wryly as she watched Clara disappear out the door.
“She sets up this chance and then leaves me alone.”
Hadn’t she planned to do something when the two of them were together?
Whatever she was preparing, now that Clara was gone, this felt like the chance.
Lucy quietly rose from her seat.
“Hm.”
She turned her head and saw the vanity and display cases she’d had her eye on.
‘Surely there’ll be something.’
Her mouth watered at the thought of getting the material.
As she went over and looked, she came to a natural conclusion.
‘This was definitely a high-ranking person’s room.’
The west wing was grand, inside and out, but this room was grander still.
The chandelier, the soft, fine carpet on the floor, all of it.
And the marks of maids’ recent sweeping and polishing were still everywhere.
As if the room had been used until just lately.
“Good.”
That meant traces of its occupant would remain all the better.
Lucy fiddled with the things on the vanity.
“…Found it!”
And before long, she’d found a single strand of hair caught in an ornate comb.
A long hair that looked to be a woman’s.
Duller than Edward’s, streaked with white, but gold all the same.
In the ducal castle, gold hair belonged only to the ducal family.
‘This is probably the Grand Madam’s.’
The prize, won far easier than she’d thought, filled her with pride.
Lucy stared at the strand in her hand.
Maybe because it was gold, though a different shade, it reminded her of Edward’s hair.
When Edward had carried her into the sky, and she’d clutched at his head in fear.
The hair that slipped between her fingers…
‘It was so soft.’
Unlike the dry, brittle strand in her hand, Edward’s hair had been so soft and fine.
Like holding bits of gold. It seemed to break apart like gold dust in her palm, shining.
‘How does he manage it?’
His eyelashes were probably soft too.
‘No, all the hair on his body…’
“Ah.”
She’d almost gone somewhere dangerous.
…Having already seen him in the bath, it came back in a flash.
‘This isn’t the time.’
Lucy fanned her red face and got her wits back.
‘Clara could come back any moment. I have to hurry.’
She pulled out a handkerchief, wrapped the hair, and tucked it into her pocket.
“One strand isn’t enough to be sure.”
Then she searched the room more busily.
‘I just need a few more. Not many.’
She was poking about, moving like a mouse digging a burrow.
Click.
“Hm?”
She’d been crouching, pressing at the base of the vanity.
A lock clicked inside.
Lucy froze for a second, then felt for what her fingers had found.
“This is…”
A round button hidden out of sight.
Hard to press by accident, but easy for anyone who knew it was there.
“Wait. Could this be.”
Lucy’s heart began to thump.
“A secret device? Like in the books?”
Hidden chambers and secret locks from the stories flashed through her mind.
Lucy pushed the button harder.
Click, click, click.
The button sank inward, and the sound of gears turning followed.
And then…
Clunk.
The wall behind the vanity split open.
Lucy’s eyes lit up at once.
‘…Jackpot.’
She felt like she’d won the lottery.
Not first prize. Maybe fourth or fifth.
She didn’t know yet what the passage was for.
‘Still, finding something important in a place like this is practically law.’
And to stumble on it by accident.
Her luck today was so good she ought to buy soup for everyone.
‘Wait for me, Duke Edward Le Thesseron.’
The contract was signed.
Soon, instead of soup, she’d serve up a hot incarnation ritual.
Lucy clenched her fist with grim resolve and slipped through the narrow gap.
‘What could be in here?’
Once inside, there’d be a long, winding corridor. She’d have to be careful not to get lost…
“…No need, it seems.”
The passage ended far sooner than expected.
A few steps in, and a door leading to another space appeared.
Her excitement deflated for a second…
“…This really is something.”
Then Lucy grew even more thrilled.
An iron door, heavy enough to need several men to open.
Hinges and locks all over it, and a small hatch at the top to see out from inside.
The kind of door she’d seen in spy films.
And on the handle, chains wrapped around and around.
‘Anyone can see something big is in there.’
And lucky, maybe.
The locks and chains were all undone, and the iron door stood just barely ajar.
‘I don’t have to pick it open!’
Even so, the gap wasn’t wide.
A normal adult would find it hard to slip in…
“This body is optimized for escape.”
But for small-framed Lucy, the gap was wide enough.
Lucy squeezed herself in.
…And then her stomach caught, just a little, and she frowned.
Edward had been feeding her well lately. The soft belly stuck out.
“…Not yet, not yet!”
Luckily, a little wriggling got her through without much trouble.
Whoosh.
A magic orb in the ceiling sensed her and lit up, flooding the dark with white.
“Ack, so bright.”
While her eyes adjusted, Lucy imagined the room.
‘What kind of room is it?’
If it was hidden this tight, it had to be something out of the ordinary.
The little hatch for checking who was outside gave it the feel of a secret club.
‘A club.’
…Maybe it was the duchess’s secret room, for gathering people and playing at debauchery.
Like a room where the duchesses brought their lovers.
It wasn’t a baseless thought.
‘This is an R-19 dark romance.’
So all kinds of wild and heated things could happen.
A hidden space like this would be perfect for such secret, lewd acts.
‘And calling a lover to a secret room is less likely to be caught than the duchess going out.’
If Edward heard that, he’d frown and demand to know if she planned to do the same.
Still, Lucy’s mood lifted.
‘Then all sorts of things must have gone on here.’
This position, that position, this touch, that touch…
The lewd devil bouncing in her head didn’t matter.
If this place was that private, then the traces left behind would be endless.
‘No matter how well you clean, there’s a limit.’
She didn’t want much.
The hair she’d been looking for. Hair. Hair.
That sort of thing must be scattered in every corner.
‘Just have to be careful not to mix it up with anything else.’
Just as she thought it, the room’s outline came into view.
The moment she stepped inside…
A cloud of dust burst up, unexpected.
“…Achoo, achoo, aaa… sneeze!”
Lucy stifled the sneeze as best she could, shook her head like a dog, and looked up.
“Huh?”
And her eyes went wide at what she saw.
