Chapter 10
……With a loud crash, the box in front of me was sent flying helplessly.
“I found you, you little rat.”
“……Gasp!”
A rough hand lifted me up.
My body floated into the air as I was grabbed by the back of my neck!
“Ah!”
With one sharp movement from the large maid, my body spun 180 degrees.
Round and round.
“Get out, you little rat.”
I was thrown out of the basement in an instant.
Before I knew it, the door slammed shut with a loud bang.
Because of their hands, my back hit the door hard.
“Coco is not a little rat!”
A group of tall and strong maids were glaring at me.
“Haa, how did you sneak into this basement?”
“We were definitely guarding the basement door.”
“Go and bring Mary here quickly. We need to discuss with Lady Mary what to do with this little brat.”
I pouted as I remembered how hard they had pressed down on my shoulder.
My vision became dizzy, and it felt as if my feet were slowly sinking into a swamp.
Feeling the hairs on my body stand on end, I swallowed nervously and stared at them proudly.
“I came to get my squishy toy, so what’s the problem!”
“……Huh. What? A squishy toy?”
As soon as I finished speaking,
with a tiny rolling sound, the little mouse in the distance threw the squishy toy toward me.
I tightly held the squishy toy in my hands.
“This bone-shaped toy!”
“Why would you find this here…….”
And as if the words ‘bone-shaped toy’ were a switch—
Bang!
The entire hallway shook violently, and I heard the clicking sound of someone coming down the stairs.
Then, my older sister appeared, holding a small lantern, with a terrifying expression on her face.
“What is everyone doing here?”
The reason I wasn’t scared of those maids!
My sister had told me that I could freely walk around the mansion. And if I found my toy, I was supposed to shout, ‘Bone-shaped toy!’
‘Then she said she would come to get me no matter where I was!’
The startled maids loosened their hands, and I safely landed on the floor with a quick plop.
‘My sister never enters the basement where the ledgers are hidden.’
Then I could find the ledger and give it to her.
I stuck out my tongue at the confused maids.
Then I ran toward the door where my sister was standing.
“You know, the mouse moved through a really amazing passage!”
“……Did it?”
“So I curled myself up into a little ball and came all the way to the basement!”
There was only one reason I had lured my sister here.
She had probably wanted the toy I had hidden in the mansion.
“And while I was picking up my toy, I found a very, very suspicious book!”
“A suspicious book?”
“Yes! It says something like embezzlement? Embezzlement? Anyway, it says something like that!”
Yes, it was the embezzlement ledger.
It was objective evidence that could get rid of the bad maids who were friends with my sister’s stepmother, Lucretia!
I proudly straightened my shoulders and smiled.
My sister carefully took the squishy toy, while casually taking the ledger.
“……We’ll talk about this later.”
“Yes!”
“And you maids.”
My sister’s voice became cold and frightening, like she was passing a death sentence.
“All of you, follow me outside.”
“Is it fun? Gathering in the basement every night to plot together.”
“That…….”
“You didn’t do this thinking I wouldn’t know, did you?”
“…….”
Mary, the head maid, bit her lips tightly.
Chloe never entered the basement filled with moss-covered stones.
So they had boldly used the basement as their own hideout.
It was also true that they had plotted there to siphon off the budget.
‘But why is she suddenly doing this? She never cared about it before.’
Head Maid Mary was even more confused because she could not understand Chloe’s intentions.
“You shouldn’t have crossed the line.”
Chloe waved the embezzlement ledger Coco had given her.
“The embezzlement.”
“…….”
“You kept very good records.”
The head maid, who had remained silent the entire time, bit her trembling lips and murmured,
“Is there a reason you are suddenly doing this? I believe you already knew about the embezzlement.”
“How arrogant of you to dare ask your master for a reason.”
In truth, Chloe had never cared about what the maids were doing. She had simply been waiting for the toy that the child would find.
But……
She remembered Coco’s bruised shoulder.
And the way her little body had been roughly thrown around.
“I suppose being treated leniently made you too bold.”
If she left them alone, it was obvious that something more troublesome would happen. So, no matter how troublesome it was, it would be better to get rid of them before that happened.
The head maid lowered her head.
“……Understood. I will leave and return to my original master.”
The head maid remained calm, as if she had something to rely on.
“You think getting caught doing something wrong will end with resignation?”
“As you know, the full authority to punish the head maids of each separate residence belongs to Duchess Lucretia Ardos. Since Her Grace is currently away at the temple, that authority belongs to Lady Terezia, who is acting in her place. Therefore, I will receive my punishment directly from Her Grace or Lady Terezia.”
“We’ll see.”
Chloe grabbed the head maid’s wrist as she tried to leave.
“You don’t remember the family laws properly.”
“That can’t be.”
“Article 1, Section 10, Additional Clause. It says this: ‘According to the special nature of the family, servants may be punished individually through the use of supernatural abilities.’”
Chloe tightened her grip around the head maid’s wrist and whispered,
“As punishment for being insolent in front of me, I will take away your sight.”
After she finished speaking, the vision of the head maid and the other maids was swallowed by complete darkness.
“In this dark basement.”
“W-What is this……?”
“Struggle until tomorrow morning in this cold darkness where you cannot see anything.”
Just like someone who had once been trapped underground.
Chloe maintained her arrogant gaze while hiding her trembling fingertips.
“Ah, aaah!”
“L-Lady Chloe. Th-This……!”
The head maid collapsed to the floor and desperately felt around with her hands.
She was trapped in a nightmare in the darkness.
“I-I can’t see…… S-Save me!”
“A m-monster……!”
“H-Hic, p-please save me, s-save me……!”
Some felt auditory hallucinations in the terror of being unable to see. Others suffered from terrifying hallucinations.
Watching them twist and thrash around wildly as they tried to avoid invisible attacks was almost funny.
She had properly dealt with Lucretia and Terezia’s pawns.
Now that she had evidence, she could at least put a small crack in the reputation of that mother and daughter.
She casually flipped through the embezzlement ledger made by the head maid.
‘I suppose I’ll have to bring in new maids, even though it’s troublesome.’
People who were capable, had no connection to Terezia, and would not cause her trouble.
For the first time in a long while, she felt a little refreshed.
But as Chloe tried to leave, she staggered.
A side effect of dark magic called ‘delusion’ came to her mind.
“Our Coco has such pretty little feet.”
“Mung! Mung!”
“Oh my, did you bring me a flower? To show your sister?”
“Mung!”
“Good girl, my baby. You’re the prettiest in the world. Right?”
For the first time in a very long while, Chloe smiled softly.
It felt as though Coco’s warmth was touching her fingertips.
But the warmth lasted only for a moment.
The warmth suddenly disappeared, and icy pain spread deep into her bones.
It was a side effect that occurred when she used more dark magic than her abilities could handle.
It caused her to repeatedly hallucinate happy memories,
and when those memories disappeared, terrible pain followed.
But……
‘What is this?’
Chloe opened her eyes.
The pain was gone.
Strangely, this side effect had ended extremely quickly.
‘What on earth caused it?’
