Chapter 9
“The little lady has arrived. She asked if she could have lunch with you.”
“I’m already eating, so send her away.”
“Yes, understood.”
After the head maid, Mary, left the room with a satisfied expression,
the dining room where only Chloe remained became quiet again.
As she cut into the completely cold steak, she rested her chin on her hand.
The steak was definitely half-spoiled.
She had lost her sense of taste and smell as a side effect of her ability going out of control, but she could still notice something like that.
If it had been a year ago, she would have called the maids and given them a proper scolding.
They were nothing but useless creatures who would quickly lower their tails and obey if she got angry.
But it had not been long since Coco’s anniversary of death.
Everything feels so pointless and boring.
She put down the knife she had been using to cut the steak.
She was simply thinking of going back to her bedroom and sleeping some more.
Then she noticed a white mouse gnawing at the wall of the dining room.
Coco used to love playing with mice using her paws.
She used to press them down with her tiny paws.
There was nothing cuter than that.
Without realizing it, Chloe quietly watched the mouse.
But then…
The mouse, which had been clinging tightly to the wall, began digging at something.
In an instant, a hole appeared in the wall.
I suppose it has become terribly worn because I haven’t maintained it.
Just as she was thinking that,
a small ball rolled out of the hole.
A reddish-orange ball about the size of her palm.
It looked like an ordinary ball at first glance, but Chloe held her breath.
It was Coco’s favorite ball.
As proof, the label had the words “Coco’s” written on it in her own handwriting.
Coco had always been greedy, so she constantly hid her toys.
She had lost most of them, though.
“Why is this ball here…?”
Looking at the ball, she remembered the past.
Coco had loved playing with a hard ball that made a squeaking sound when she pressed it with her front paws.
Strangely, the outer surface of the ball was slightly cracked. Whenever Chloe put treats inside that crack, Coco would excitedly sniff around for the smell.
Lost in her memories, Chloe bent down and picked up the ball.
Meanwhile, the mouse disappeared into a gap in the mouse hole.
“It feels like it smells like Coco.”
Now that she was holding the little ball, she wondered if there might be other things as well.
Come to think of it, Coco had quite a lot of toys that she had lost.
“I thought I had buried them in the ground, but the mouse had them.”
This was the mansion Chloe had designed when she was young.
Back then, she had included several maze-like passages in the design.
Passages she had completely forgotten even existed as she grew older.
Only Coco, who used to play walking games around the mansion, probably remembered all of them.
If I don’t search every corner, I probably won’t find the other toys.
Still, finding the hard ball was something.
Just as she was about to carefully put it into her arms,
the head maid, Mary, knocked on the door. When Chloe told her to come in, Mary entered with a troubled expression.
“Lady Chloe.”
“What is it?”
“The little lady refuses to leave. She says there is something she absolutely has to tell you…”
Behind her, Coco peeked her head out.
The head maid spoke with an annoyed expression.
“Little lady! I told you it would be difficult for you to come inside!”
“…H-huff! I have something to say!”
Seeing Coco bow her head, Chloe sighed.
She no longer even had the energy to get angry.
“Why did you come again?”
“I know you told me not to come every day… But I saw something strange…”
Her voice became quieter.
Seeing the top of the child’s bowed head, Chloe felt strange.
“I-I saw a mouse carrying something strange, so I came to tell you…”
“…A mouse?”
“Yes! It was something really strange. Something soft and squishy like jelly…”
At those words, Chloe had an idea.
“…A bone-shaped one?”
“Yes! You know it?”
At that moment, hope flickered in one corner of her heart.
A little puppy, Coco, who knew the structure of the mansion better than even Chloe, who had designed it.
So perhaps Coco had hidden her toys somewhere even Chloe did not know about.
There are still traces of Coco that I didn’t know about…
Chloe sent all the maids away and looked at the child again.
“Tell me. What about the mouse?”
“It was like this! The mouse was carrying a soft, bone-shaped toy and then hid somewhere strange! It was so strange and interesting, so I came to tell you!”
“…Where is it now?”
“Hmm, it hid in a really strange place! You know, mice usually come out at night when there aren’t any people!”
“So?”
As the child continued rambling, Chloe’s expression gradually became stiff.
“Actually, I’m really good at catching mice!”
“What are you trying to say?”
“But I can only catch them at night! So… can I sleep here for just one night?”
She stared at the chubby-cheeked child.
Her cheeks were flushed as if she were about to begin some kind of undercover investigation.
Her excited expression,
and even her sudden proposal,
all of it felt completely out of nowhere.
But…
“If I let you stay here tonight, you can find the toy?”
“Yes!”
“…Then you. Catch the mouse and bring it to me.”
“Yes! Please watch me! Lady Chloe, you can’t go to sleep first! That’s how we’ll find the bone-shaped toy!”
“Just tonight. I don’t want you to come again after this.”
“Yes! Wow! I’m so happy!”
Even though Chloe had clearly said it was only for today, the moment she gave permission, Coco began running around the dining room as if it were her own home, without showing the slightest disappointment.
There’s no sunshine, and the steak smells spoiled… she sighed heavily.
Then she suddenly pointed around and said,
These bad people!
A suspicious little child who had suddenly appeared and was running wild through her mansion.
But Chloe could not help accepting the little girl’s proposal.
Because she wanted to see even that toy Coco had only played with a few times.
She missed that warmth painfully.
That night, at Chloe Ardos’s seaside mansion.
I hid myself in the darkness and tiptoed down to the basement.
Pretending to follow the mouse, pretending to crawl around, I headed toward a path I already knew.
After secretly going through the winding passage,
a dark door leading to the basement opened.
I finally got in!
I saw a huge number of dusty chests piled up.
I rolled my eyes around and looked at my surroundings.
I could hear the maids talking quietly in another room.
But I focused only on the thing I had come here to find.
When I was a puppy, I used to play hide-and-seek with my sister all over this mansion.
So I knew everything about this mansion.
It was a place filled with darkness, but I could still see.
I need to find the ledger with an apple drawn on its cover.
An old ledger filled with worn-out parchment and covered in traces of people’s hands.
If I found that,
I could drive the maids out.
Using the excellent sense of smell that was my specialty as a puppy, I began sniffing out suspicious scents.
And finally, I found a clue.
There it is!
I noticed that the very end of the wall packed with chests had a small empty space.
With my tiny hands, I struggled to move the huge chest.
Underneath it, I saw a small gap and a book wedged inside.
“Hu, huff.”
It had been incredibly difficult…!
But I managed to grab the tiny book stuck in a crack in the wooden floor.
Mission complete! I found it!
I slipped the thin book into the pocket of my dress.
Now I just have to get out!
I lifted my heels again and began walking quietly.
And that was when—
BANG!
With a sound like a latch breaking, the door flew open with a loud crash.
The familiar maids I had seen at my sister’s mansion appeared.
“I hear there was a noise coming from this room.”
“Looks like some rat has sneaked in.”
I desperately hid behind a chest, buried in the darkness, and held my breath.
Thump. Thump.
The sound of footsteps gradually came closer.
But I had no time to hide my nervousness.
Just when I thought I had finally hidden behind the box—
CRASH!
