Chapter 5 - Spring blooms in winter's pavilion (4)

The body of a seven-year-old child couldn't control its joy.

Then, what to eat… No, I was caught up in very happy worries that I hadn't even thought about until a while ago about what to do and where to go.

But Peina, who hugged me more closely, suddenly opened her mouth with a solemn face.

"Can't you all stop?"

The surrounding area became quiet in an instant.

Soon she continued with an extremely serious and tough attitude.

"It's my job to take care of the lady. Don't steal it."

and hugged me more tightly. Immediately, maids complained around us.

"Oh, Peina!"

"You're so mean! You're always hugging the lady!"

"It's only natural that I'm above all of you as a Head Maid. If you have any complaints, get promoted!"

Peina's laughter that follows is somehow creepy. All the maids have their eyes wide open. 'If I get promoted ······!' And then began to murmur.

"What are you all doing there?"

A voice came from behind.

Peina looked back, hugging me, and a young man with a nice blonde combed hair was approaching. It was the butler.

I lifted my head and looked up into the sky.

The sun was bright just now, but before I knew it, there's already a cast of shadow from dark clouds as if there will be misfortune waiting and ominous air lingered.

From afar, a rain-stricken wind was pouring in.

"I was showing the Lady around the garden. If there's something wrong..."

"You'd better get in, then."

The young butler's face was as stark as ever, but he had an even darker face today.

I had a premonition that something something sinister will happen.

"The Lord has returned."

The servants and maids all went quiet.

The dark clouds were now making a mountain of stream, and were pouring out the ominous atmosphere from early on all over the place.

"The aide told me that the Lord was in a very bad mood. I think we'd better send her back to her room first."

Peina and the maids rushed me to the room. The butler followed suit.

Something serious seemed to be going on, but the fact that Henriette was coming back right away seemed like a big problem to me.

Immediately after returning to the room, I overheard conversations outside the room between Peina, Butler and people who appeared to be other servants.

"I was going to report something to the Master again….."

"It won't be possible right now. This time, he hasn't slept a wink all the way to the Ecliptic."

Apparently, a close acquaintance who had left for the Imperial City with Henriette came with him. The Butler continued.

"But it was a good idea to spread the story of your death in prison. Thanks to this, while your position was vacant, you succeeded in ousting the group that hid their claws and sought rebellion. We've achieved our goal."

"Yes, so as soon as he went to the Imperial City, he purged the heads of dozens of families..."

"However, I guess he couldn't touch one of the counts, whose the original purpose of faking death, for some reason. It's the family of the one who was originally in the master's command, but I don't know the details."

"…the story of his death has been spreading all over the years, which will cause chaos….."

"Thanks to that, the Master is very sensitive right now. And he were threatened with assassination while he were in the Imperial City.…"

Adults talked for a while, and began to talk about strengthening the defenses of the castle and dealing with the remaining tasks.

I see, they deliberately spread false rumors that Henriette was dead to oust the rebels.

But apart from the story, my heart was pounding wildly. I heard maids whispering outside.

"What can I tell him about the lady?"

"Yeah, he's not in a good mood, but he cares….."

"He probably don't know the scars on the lady's body.... from what I've seen for a few days, she seem to have been serving as a servant, and I have to tell him that….."

"Not for now, wait until the master calms down….."

They also seemed to be afraid of Henriette. It was the same for me because he was scary.

What if Henriette comes to see me all of a sudden?

Didn't he ask me to behave before he left from the castle?

Listening to the maids, Henriette didn't even seem to care about me, but since there was an order left in advance, I thought he might come to me suddenly.

I looked into the full-body mirror in a hurry.

My face with slightly raised eyes looked like a cute, stubborn girl. The golden eyes shine brightly, and the curly light pink hair resembles the color of the summer rose.

I couldn't get enough of my face. In addition, I gained a little more weight than before, so my cheeks were round.

First of all, it was a pretty face for me. All my maids said I was so pretty.

But it doesn't looks like it to Henriette's eyes.

Count Semond's maids always look at me and say that I look like a thief cat because I have a fierce eye, and they didn't like it.

What if I look like that to Henriette, and I still doesn't look better.

Will you try to kick me out because you don't like me…..

"·······Let's hide."

Other than that, there was no immediate way that come to mind.

As soon as it became quiet outside the room, I opened the door slightly.

Everyone seemed to be talking about Henriette for a long time, but no one was standing outside the door. Do you think we should go to our own business?

Exclusive maids sometimes left for personal work or other work, and they did.

As soon as I went outside, I looked for a place to hide.

I knew there were many empty rooms on the third floor, but I hid on the floor where my room was located, and it was obvious that I would be caught soon.

So I hurried down to the second floor.

Thanks to Peina and other maids, the structure was as familiar as the third floor.

But when I came down, something was a little strange.

"Huh? Was this the way it was ·······?"

The second floor was dark brown wallpaper, decorated with masterpieces and tapestries on each wall, and when I stood on the last compartment of the stairs in the center, there was a different view from what I remembered.

It was a corridor filled with dark wallpaper with gold statues and ornaments.

The ceiling was engraved with masterpieces against the blue sky, and sometimes on the walls were painted something magical.

Feeling at odds, I came down the stairs completely and looked around, at the end of the hallway, I saw that the door of a room wasn't closed.

"Oh, why is that….."

Did the servants forget to close the door while cleaning?

I pushed through the heavy door, push it back and closed it again. Up to that point, enough energy was consumed.

Thanks to this, I wiped the sweat flowing over my forehead with my sleeve, and it smelled like herbs.

Now I can see the internal structure. The bookshelf was filled with parchment of old books written in a language I didn't know.

Several bundles of rolled papers were piled up randomly in the corner, and right in front of them was a large wooden table scattered randomly.

An old flag pen that glows blue were soaked in spilled ink, glass bottles full of jewels, round metal plates with moon and sun and randomly torn pages.

A bundle of dried herbs hung from the ceiling along with several glass spheres.

It looked very colorful outside, but this place makes anyone dizzy as if someone had just been using it and it's even plain.

Finally, I checked the brazier on the wall to the boiling iron pot, and I was sure.

'Is this the workshop of the sorcerer?'

There is also a wizard in the Count Semond, I have only seen it once. It was also bigger here than there.

Then, an unfamiliar voice came in with an echo.

-You can't just walk in here.

Surprised, I narrowed my shoulders and looked around, but I saw no one but myself anywhere in the workshop.

I felt a sense of nervousness from the neck to the top of my head.

"W, who·····."

I didn't hear it wrong. With such certainty, I murmured a question.

Then again strange voices poured down.

– We are the servants of reason. Even though I'm just a ghost who can't belong between people anymore.

– I've always been watching you. I'm sorry I couldn't say hello.

-If you can hear our voices even though there's no magic and we haven't been allowed to show up yet, you might be able to see us soon.

The resonant voices were both women's, men's, and turned into those of a young man's. It was heard all at once.

In other words, there are not one or two ghosts in this room.

My face turned blue and I started shaking like a quince.

"I, I, I don't want to!"

What nonsense is this seeing a ghost!

As I hurried to turn the door knob of the room and ran outside, the voices of the ghosts quickly faded away.

They shouted that I would get hurt if I ran, and that I should be careful not to fall, but I didn't mean to stop.

There hasn't been that much running around in the meantime. But I fell down not long after.

"Ouch!"

Tears welled up when my forehead hit the floor.

I sniffed and looked back with fear because maybe they weren't gone yet. Somehow the ghosts, didn't seem to have followed me. No more voices were heard.

But when I stood up in tears while rubbing my sore forehead and looked back, the scenery seemed to have changed before entering the room.

"…huh?"

I'm sure I went into the room through the hallway, so if I come out of the room again, the hallway should be spread out.

What I see in front of me now was an unusual, garden scene.

"W, what is this..."

*tweet

....Somewhere in the garden, I heard a sound of birds crying.

I stood up and looked around, shaking off the dirt on my dress. I was a little far from the castle.

Now that I'm focused, I'm not looking for anything.

Was there some magic in the castle? Like magic to confuse intruders.

Or maybe the ghosts pulled some strings.

Once I took a step back to the castle.

Suddenly, I noticed that this place was very close to the greenhouse.

"Why didn't I think of that?"

If it's a glass greenhouse, it's perfect to hide. It's spacious, it's complicated, it's full of trees.

Earlier, the interior was decorated like a forest, so I thought Henriette wouldn't be able to find me if I was hiding in it.

I headed straight to the greenhouse.

Peina said there was something dangerous deep and I shouldn't go in, so I decided to go only where Henriette would find it difficult to find me.

Even though it was filled with the scent of green grass, which grew thicker as I went deeper, there were no weeds or fallen leaves.

Instead, lush jewel leaves glistened with sunlight.

'Will I get caught immediately?'

I was scared for a moment, but I shook my head quickly.

Henriette is a wizard, so he probably doesn't even know that I hid in the greenhouse.

As I entered a little deeper than Peina had taken me earlier, a beautiful lake appeared.

"Wow."

Strangely enough, the glass greenhouse continued to widen as I stepped inside, but I didn't know there would be such a large lake.

In the middle of the lake, a small sculpture boat floated with white petals.

The sculpture boat had been left unattended for a long time, and green mosses were seen in places.

On the other hand, the water was very clear. As I approached and lowered myself, something glistened in the water.

I thought it was shining in the sun, but when I looked closely, I thought there was something inside.

"What is it?"

I think I can tell if I look a little closer.

It was a moment when I sat down and tilted my head closer to the lake.

*splash

A splash of water rose in front of my eyes in an instant.

As I recoiled in surprise, several opaque, white forearms stretched straight over the white bubble immediately overtook my view.

"Argh!"

*thump, I was dragged straight into the water, held by pale hands sticking out of the lake.