CH 182

“…”

I awaken from my slumber.

When I slowly open my eyes, the room is pitch black. I cannot even see the ceiling.

Lately, feel this pattern happening all night. Will there ever be a night when I can sleep soundly again?

I picked up Shion, who was sleeping on his stomach as usual, and looked toward the door.

And “she” disappears behind the door like before.

“I guess I still have to go…”

Yesterday I left Shion behind, but today I’m going to take Shion with me. It would be hard as the previous morning if Shion and I were out of rhythm in our lives.

I put Shion in my hood and use [Magi Location] before leaving the room.

She went down the stairs, entered the courtyard, stopped at the tile in the corner inside the pavilion, and slowly sank down the stairs, unlike yesterday.

“Huh?”

Yesterday, she disappeared here completely, but today, the [Magi Location] shows that she is in a hidden passageway under the tiles.

What does this mean? I don’t know what it is, but I have to go anyway. I open the door to the hidden passageway and follow her, so I don’t lose her. The cobwebs in the hidden passageway were removed yesterday, so today will go smoother.

I caught up with her at a brisk pace so as not to make any sounds with my footsteps and proceeded through the hidden passageway for a while, but at about the halfway point, she disappeared without making any prior movement, and my voice leaked out, “What?”.

If it were a horror movie, she would have appeared from behind the next moment and I would have said, “Waa!” But I thought it would be okay because of the trust I had built up with her over the past few days. As I approached the place where she disappeared…

“Nothing?”

There is nothing strange reacting to [Magi Location] around this place. Or rather, I had already noticed something here yesterday.

“Hmm… Light, illuminate my way [light source].”

I didn’t use [Light Source] at night because it would have made me conspicuous, but I guess it would be okay in here.

A white ball of light like a fluorescent lamp appears in the pitch-dark hidden passageway and illuminates the surroundings. It was as if color and texture were being added to a place where previously only the shape of the surroundings can be sensed through [Magi Location.

Visually, I check the hidden passage covered with grayish stone blocks.

“Hmm?”

The ground at the end of the passage. I saw something half-buried in dust and soil.

I bent down and picked it up with the tips of my fingers.

It was a square piece of cloth, about 30 centimeters on a side, covered in dust. A handkerchief?

Why is there a handkerchief here? Where did it come from? Considering the amount of dust and cobwebs, it seems to have been here for more than a year or two…

“To the impure, may your soul rest in peace, [Purification].”

The handkerchief was a bit dirty, so I applied purification to it and examined the whole thing.

The handkerchief is made of high-quality fabric and feels like silk to the touch.

…I wonder if there is silk in this world. Surely silk is a silk moth-in short, it must have been made from the thread produced by some caterpillar, and it shouldn’t be strange if there is something similar in this world… Well, even if there is, the size of the silkworm might even be a thousand times larger, so I really hate the thought of it.

When I turned the handkerchief over and checked it all over up to the corner, I saw a small embroidery. When I focused on it–

“Well, Lu… Lucille? … Huh, Lucille?”

The characters sewn spelled “Lucille”. I know only one person named Lucille.

No, there must be many others named Lucille. I am sure that Lucille is not the only Lucille there is. Maybe the Auntie in the cafeteria is also named Lucille…

As I began thinking about nonsensical things, I realize my pathetic imagination grows.

This hidden passageway connects the Clan House to Schumer’s mansion. This place is covered in cobwebs and has not been used for many years. There must be only a few people who know of the existence of this hidden passageway, and it is possible that only the members of the Schumer Family know of it. And then there was the handkerchief… the one with the name “Lucille” embroidered on it that had fallen here.

I then remembered something from a few days ago from my mind.

As I recall, Lucille said, “My mom didn’t tell me anything.” In other words, nobody knows who Lucille’s father is. If the reason Lucille’s mother didn’t talk about her father is that “Her father is Lord Schumer.”

“Isn’t this more dangerous information than I imagined, especially if it is true?”

If I handle this wrong, I may get caught up in some feud within their family…

Taking the ring out of my pocket and holding it over my [Light Source] to look at it.

This ring might be something that Lucille dropped. As I recall, the day I picked up the ring, I invited Lucille to join me for drinks at the diner, and she returned to her room before I did. At that time, she went through the courtyard and she might have dropped the ring, and then I went through the courtyard and picked up the ring. That sounds plausible.

“So, ‘she’ is Lucille’s…”

In a horror movie, this might be the scene where “she” suddenly appears from behind me, but she doesn’t show up.

I felt relieved and a little disappointed that I couldn’t confirm the truth.

The next morning, I felt a little somber.

What should I do today? Should I look into Lucille after all? But what would that get me?　Even if I find out something, how should I tell anyone?

I was unable to think of anything else, and I hugged Shion tightly.

“…Maybe I should go to the guild for a change?”