Chapter 9
The person who spoke to me was a woman.
She had light blue hair, sharp eyes, and grayish eyes. The woman had a cold-looking face. When our eyes met, she narrowed her brows and suddenly said,
“You’re incredibly beautiful.”
……Was that really something she had to say while making such a stern expression?
However, she soon returned to her normal expression and held out her hand to me.
“I came to give you the keys. My name is Vanilla Eddy Ruskin. I’m the owner of the mansion.”
She looked incredibly cold, but her name was very soft.
In fact, she had only appeared a few times in the novel, so I did not know much about her either.
I stood up and took her hand.
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Ruskin. You received the sales contract, right? Then, as of today, I’m the owner of the mansion.”
As I shook hands with Vanilla, Eden suddenly asked me,
“The mansion on the hill? You’re buying that abandoned house? Why would the Sinclair heiress want a mansion like that?”
I was startled and turned toward Eden.
“Shh. Keep your voice down. Do you think I’m going to advertise that I’m Cherry Sinclair?”
“Is that not allowed?”
It wasn’t that it was forbidden, but it would become troublesome if people found out about me!
While I was whispering with Eden, Vanilla let out a deep sigh and spoke to me.
“I know you’re Cherry Sinclair. Your name is written on the sales contract. And I don’t care who you are. The only thing I care about is money.”
Vanilla said it so firmly, as if telling me not to worry, that I felt a little embarrassed.
‘That’s right. I had to put my name on the sales contract.’
At that moment, Eden, who had been quietly listening to our conversation, pointed toward Vanilla’s waist.
Something was hanging from her waist.
“What is that?”
“Birds.”
……Did I hear that correctly?
Birds?
Only then did I notice two birds hanging upside down from Vanilla’s waist.
Beside them was a holster holding a hunting rifle.
How had I only noticed them now when they stood out so much?
“The village chief asked me to catch a few, so I went hunting. The pay is quite good.”
……I think I finally understood why Vanilla had been able to survive alone for six months in the novel.
It seemed it was not simply because the mansion had excellent defenses.
For some reason, I suddenly wanted to recruit her for the shelter I was going to build.
“Take the keys.”
She placed the keys in my hand.
Then she gave me one final warning.
“Brunel is a remote countryside village, and as you’ve seen, the mansion is in a very isolated location. The repair costs alone will be enormous. It is under my name, but I only inherited the mansion because of my father, so I told you beforehand that I really don’t recommend it. The fact that you went ahead and bought it was your choice, Ms. Sinclair.”
Was this how Eden had felt earlier?
I was briefly flustered by the words pouring out one after another and nodded.
Vanilla continued with her cold expression, without changing her face even once.
“I’ll be staying in this village for a while, so call me if you need anything. However, I charge travel expenses.”
She adjusted her monocle and spoke to me with a serious expression.
I nodded with a slightly confused look.
Travel expenses?
“Even though Ms. Sinclair is very pretty and cute, I can’t give you a discount.”
What was she talking about?
Vanilla also handed me the blueprint of the mansion.
I quickly unfolded it and glanced at it. Then I stopped Vanilla as she was turning away.
“Wait, Ms. Ruskin.”
“Yes, what is it?”
Vanilla answered, but contrary to her words, she took out a pocket watch and even checked the time.
She seemed to hate wasting time.
“Is there anything unusual about the mansion? I was wondering if there might be some hidden facilities suitable for living self-sufficiently.”
Vanilla looked at me as if wondering why I would ask such a ridiculous question.
But in the novel, the mansion had clearly been introduced by saying, ‘She said this mansion was special. She also added that it was optimized for survival.’
“Well, I’m not sure. The garden would be good for turning into a vegetable garden, and there’s a well, so it would be easy to get water. Other than that, I don’t know much either. I manage quite a lot of mansions.”
I carefully watched Vanilla’s expression, but she really seemed to know nothing.
So I was a little disappointed.
I guess the mansion’s good location and suitability for self-sufficient living were its only advantages.
Actually, saying it was suitable for self-sufficiency was one thing, but I still needed practical skills to live that way. That worried me.
After sending Vanilla away, I left the restaurant.
Then I headed toward the hill on the outskirts of the village, where the mansion was located.
Eden continued following me.
While climbing the hill, I suddenly stopped and turned around.
A man dressed neatly in a police uniform was slowly walking up the hill with his hands in his trouser pockets.
“Why do you keep following me?”
When I asked accusingly, Eden stopped while looking around.
He took his hands out of his pockets, rubbed his chin, and looked at the mansion over my shoulder.
“The mansion is in a very isolated location. It looks like a perfect place to secretly bring in firearms and hide them. It also looks like a good place to hide after embezzling business funds. Ah, I’m just talking to myself.”
He answered calmly and smiled at me.
Why was he suddenly talking about firearms?
And what did he mean by embezzlement?
Was this because of the money I had borrowed?
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about. You seem very interested in the mansion. If you really are, then you can look around the mansion before you leave……”
I spoke irritably, but my voice faded away and I stopped.
‘Wait. He said firearms, right? And illegal firearms.’
Eden was not the kind of person who said unnecessary things.
There was no way he would bring that up for no reason.
“……All right, I understand. What specific types of weapons do you want? I’ll also send a teacher who can teach you how to use them.”
“Swords, crossbows, axes, things like that. All kinds! But Harrison, I don’t need a teacher……”
“Miss. I cannot compromise on this.”
All kinds.
Come to think of it, I realized that if it was Harrison, he was exactly the kind of person who would send all kinds of firearms if I told him to send different types of weapons.
Damn it.
“It seems there’s a problem with me looking around the mansion.”
Eden spoke after watching me hesitate for a moment.
There were reasons why Eden could not look around the mansion.
But there were also countless reasons why I could not get involved with him.
On top of that, the Sinclair family was not exactly clean, so there were plenty of things that could come back to haunt me.
I couldn’t go to prison before the destruction, could I?
“Th-Then of course! It makes no sense for a strange man to enter a house where a woman lives alone!”
“I’m not a strange man. I’m a police officer……”
“Aren’t police officers strange men too? A man is still a man.”
“That’s true, but how did the conversation suddenly become about……”
“If you don’t have a warrant, you’re all strange men and beasts!”
“B-Beasts…… What?”
Eden stared at me as if he could not believe what he had just heard.
I proudly put my hands on my waist and shouted,
“Therefore, if you follow me, you’re a beast.”
“That logic is strange.”
“Oh? If you come any closer, there’ll be trouble.”
The expression on Eden’s face as he looked at me after hearing my childish logic was quite impressive.
What an utterly dumbfounded face!
While he stood there blankly, I quickly ran up the hill.
I opened the mansion’s front gate with the key and went inside.
Then I firmly locked it with the latch and let out a sigh.
I guess I needed to call Harrison in the capital.
No matter how much I searched the large mansion, I could not find any firearms.
Of course.
How long had it been since I bought the mansion?
There was no way Harrison would have already sent firearms.
Still, just in case, I wanted to call Harrison.
Unfortunately, the only telephone in this small village was at the police station.
‘I won’t run into Eden again, will I?’
I stood in front of the police station and thought about it for a long time.
If I wanted to find another telephone, I would have to go all the way to Kintne, and that was annoying.
‘All right. Let’s just go in.’
Hoping that Eden had gone out on patrol, I carefully opened the police station door.
Then a bizarre sight appeared before my eyes.
A man in a terrible condition was lying face down on the floor.
His clothes were completely torn and had become rags.
And Eden was sitting on his back.
He was even casually drinking milk.
Eden looked up at me with a puzzled expression.
His police uniform jacket was nowhere to be seen, and three or four buttons on his white shirt had been undone from the top.
More precisely, they looked like they had been ripped off.
“Ugh.”
The man underneath Eden groaned.
Eden drank the milk in his hand in one gulp.
Then he placed the empty glass on top of the fallen man’s head.
“Hey, if you drop this and break it, you’ll die.”
After speaking threateningly to the man, Eden asked me,
“You were so cold and pushed me away earlier. What brings you here?”
