Chapter 237

Tara enlists some unexpected allies while the Countess's nefarious plans move into motion...

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Episode 237. About 10 months (114)

Helen was speechless when Tara entered her room. Tara smiled brightly as if she had anticipated Helen would react this way, and casually introduced herself to Helen's close friends.

"It’s rude to intrude like this in the middle of the night, so I apologize in advance. I am Tara Elias, the fifth child of House Elias."

Tara greeted them with her best manners, however, dressed in a maid's uniform she fell short of being the picture of a perfect noblewoman.

Helen's friends glanced at Helen, asking for an explanation, but she simply shrugged.

"I thought today's visit would be interesting, but I didn't expect this... I'll listen to your explanation first, Lady Tara."

"You will find out shortly regardless, so I'll tell you all in advance. Before that, however, I must change my clothes. Please, give me five minutes."

10 minutes later.

Tara told them the whole unbelievable story with a grave expression on her face.

Helen clenched her teeth in anger after hearing her explanation, while her friends appeared shocked.

Several arguments were made in protest, but in the end they arrived at the same conclusion. Helen's acquaintances refused to believe, however, that the wife of a prestigious Count would ever do such a thing.

"I can't believe it. Not just any noblewoman, but the Countess..."

"If the young lady's claim is true then this is a heinous crime that should be reported to the Ministry of Public Security!"

Helen's close friends took turns asking questions, and Tara explained why she couldn't report it right away.

Opinions remained divided, but Tara soon settled the issue.

"Something will likely happen tonight, but if nothing happens by dawn, I'll officially apologize to you all later, and all of you will have a chance to scold me for my misjudgement to your heart's content."

And so, Helen and her friends decided to spend the night in their old friend Navienne's room, accompanied by her granddaughter.

While they all waited for something to happen, or possibly, not happen, Tara taught them all how to play games they had never heard of before.

***

Chloe's room on the third floor was the second room on the right side of the central staircase.

Chloe was troubled by her dreams. She couldn't stand to lie down anymore and wanted to get out of bed. For a moment, her head throbbed.

It seemed that the migraines that occasionally tormented her had started again because she was overworking herself these days.

When she lit a lamp, she saw it was 2:30am. After gulping down a headache pill from the medicine box on her bedside table, she got out of bed.

In this condition, she wouldn't be able to fall asleep even if she stayed in bed longer.

She packed up some of the documents she had brought home yesterday.

The room right in front of hers was her personal study. As she grabbed the doorknob to open the door to the hall, she muttered to herself without realizing it.

"Ah. Tonight, unlike usual, there are guests who might see..."

There were indeed a lot of guests here tonight. She only had a single, long robe on top of her pajamas. Usually, on mornings when she woke up early, she would wear the robe while she visited her study for an hour or two.

Of course, there were no guest rooms on the 3rd floor, so the probability of an outsider coming here was slim, but, nonetheless, she didn't want to risk damaging the reputation of the Elias family.

Chloe decided to change into clothes.

***

It was just past two in the morning.

By the time he and his men made it to the mansion, Donnie's rugged subordinate, Ferrero, had gone over the plan five times. He took a deep breath, and they passed by the second floor and proceeded up the stairway to the third floor.

As the client's maid had promised, the two knights assigned to guard the interior of the main house had been rendered unconscious after consuming punch laced with sleeping pills. The maid had served it to them shortly after their 1:30 a.m shift began.

The maid had then quickly concealed the incapacitated knights in an empty room she had prepared in advance.

The easiest way to complete most jobs was to have a collaborator on the inside.

It was easier, however, this did not mean that Ferrero was happy about this job.

Ferrero tended to refuse commissioned work if he got a bad feeling about the request. In those cases Donnie would openly complain, but find another subordinate to do it instead.

Ferrero had approved this request at first, but the plan had changed four days ago, and he knew a sudden change in operations like this meant that the risk must be high.

When Ferrero told Donnie he was no longer willing to do it, Donnie told him he would reduce his own cut of the commission to 20%, despite the fact that Donnie usually took 40% of every job.

Donnie's unusual attitude had only unsettled Ferrero further, but he had accepted the request in the end because his cut of the commission would be equivalent to what he usually earned in an entire year.

Afterwards, Donnie had passed all of the responsibility onto him and left for a long business trip.

"Come on... Let's go and get this over with quickly!" Ferrero hissed under his breath.

He opened the door to the room where the target was located, using the key he had been given. The room was pitch black, without a hint of light.

He waited for a moment to let his eyes adapt to the darkness. Gradually, he could begin to make out dark silhouettes as the objects in the room became more visible.

"Hehe, as expected, the room of a Count's daughter sure is fancy!" Bobby sniffed, currently disguised as a servant.

"Shh, shut up, Bobby."

"Pfft, I'm not that scared. The amount of sleeping pills she ate could knock out a giant bear for an entire week. So stop being a scaredy cat, Tom."

"That's true. But isn't it unusual for the boss to use such expensive medicine for a job like this, Ferrero, Sir?"

"This commission is valuable. Bobby, you go over there and open the bed curtains. Tom, get out the sack you brought in. I'll go out through the terrace and check if the carriage is waiting at the promised location. Oh, and neither of you even think about touching her. Especially you, Bobby."

"Hey, what kinda person do you think I am? Hehehe," Bobby replied.

As instructed, Bobby moved to go close to the canopy curtains on the bed, while Tom pulled a large sack out of the front of his shirt and dragged it to the side of the bed. The bag was large enough to easily fit a human body

Bobby gently lifted one of the curtains and mumbled to himself.

"Haha, let's get a look at this sleeping lady of ours... Ugh!"

The sudden groan made Tom glance towards the bed. The curtains were completely lowered and Bobby was nowhere to be seen.

"Bobby. What are you doing? You weren't supposed to touch her!"

Tom opened the curtains and what he saw made him stiffen, his mouth hanging open.

A large, muscular man was clutching Bobby and holding his mouth shut. He stared fiercely at Tom.

Bobby's eyes rapidly drifted closed. He was either unconscious or dead.

Tom stepped back toward the terrace, where his brother had gone.

"Aagh...!"

The man jumped off the bed and whispered with his index finger to his mouth.

"Shhh! Do you want to be found out?"

Then he slung the sharp axe he had placed next to the bed over his shoulder and approached Tom.

"Uh uh... B–B–Brother?"

Tom ran to the terrace to find his brother, but was shocked to see the situation there was even more serious.

Among them, Ferrero was the strongest and the best at fighting, but he was being very thoroughly outmatched.

Punch! Thud! Thump! Pow!

"... Oh My God!"

His enemy delivered each blow easily, as if he was hardly exerting any effort, but the sound of the blows hitting body made it clear they were very strong, fast, and painful.

Ferrero fell to his knees, as if he had already lost his will to fight.

"S–St–Stop! Stop please... that's... that's enough...!"

Tom raised his hands in surrender.

10 minutes later.

The three intruders had all been tied up and forced onto their knees.

The man who had beaten Ferrero interrogated each of them one by one.

Whenever Ferrero hesitated to answer, he was inevitably struck by a fist or elbow, and would eventually spill his guts.

Tom also ended up confessing what he knew, but Bobby remained unconscious. Tom felt rather envious of Bobby

Then, suddenly, the questioning came to an end.

Tap! Tap! Tap!

A knock on the door. This wasn't a signal that Ferrero or the others had been expecting, so the two of them glanced at the door in surprise.

One of the men who had attacked them put his finger to his mouth,

"If any of you make a sound, you die."

As the man with the axe slowly headed to the door, the man with most of his face covered except for his eyes slowly opened the terrace door.

***

Lloyd could feel drowsiness creeping in despite his effort to sleep well in preparation for tonight.

He forced a smile for the sake of his remaining guests, thinking to himself that he could stand to bear this much drowsiness.

He hadn't been pleased when Victoria decided that Tara's birthday should be celebrated in a grand style. If it had been Isabelle or Tara's idea, he wouldn’t have minded, but it was Victoria who had been the most eager.

However, having now enjoyed the party himself, he thought it was actually quite nice.

The guests included the Capital's most prestigious families, and everyone who saw Tara in person after hearing all the rumours surrounding her had been quick to compliment her.

‘I should have done this for her earlier...'

In addition, Victoria, who had always acted so selfishly until now, had soothed his disappointment by acting admirably in her capacity as the hostess of House Elias.

‘Indeed. The aristocratic woman I have come to know, who has been leading the internal affairs House of Elias for more than 20 years, is nowhere to be seen.'

Even just after 3 a.m., about 20 guests remained to play cards, drink and socialize.

Lloyd looked around for any guests that he had not yet spoken to properly.

A man sitting at the bar with a glass of whiskey caught his eye.

He had a thin build and gave the impression of having a calm smile and polite attitude. Even though the birthday banquet was officially over, he decided to head over to the young guest.

"... I was unable to greet you properly during the official event. Is there any way I can make up for any inconvenience?"

"It's fine. I am honoured that the Count himself wishes to take care of me. Ha ha ha."

"I was not in charge of most of the invitations, so forgive me for my ignorance…?"

At Lloyd's euphemistic request for his identity, the young man glanced up and stared at Lloyd for a moment. Then he lightly lowered his head in greeting.

"I'm an employee of the Ministry of Finance, from House Button...!"

The young man's words were abruptly cut off.

Every person in the first floor drawing room turned to the door in unison at the sudden noise, including Lloyd.

"What on earth...?"

Unaware of what was going on, people began screaming.

Shortly afterwards, Dixon rushed in to determine the cause of the noise.

"Sir! There seems to have been a fire. On the third floor!"

"… Something must have happened. I must go."

The man in front of Lloyd responded to his dazed reaction with a calm voice.

"Oh... Yes, yes. Of course."

Lloyd rushed out, and the remaining nobles hurried out alongside him.

***

I had been playing games with Duchess Helen and her friends in my grandmother's quarters for three hours. All of us were taking a break because I was exhausted.

Helen and her close friends were still bursting with enthusiasm, they were all accustomed to banquets like this, and it was only me who was fighting drowsiness.

Then, at some point, a commotion started outside the door.

Was it starting?

I opened my eyes, and the Duchess of Helen and her acquaintances shifted in their seats.

I immediately raised my hand to stop them.

"Not yet. Not yet!"

Yes, it wasn't time yet.

When the moment was more dramatic. Only then would the effect be maximized!

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