Chapter 7

* * *

Sienna was deep in a dream.

“Sienna... Sienna, I really hate you.”

Stop, Lorena. I know that now too. I’m so aware of that, I could die. Sienna wished to say that to Lorena, but her mouth wouldn’t open.

“Sienna, answer me. Are you happy now that you stole my place?”

What does that mean? It felt unfair. Sienna had never taken anything of Lorena’s, nor had she ever taken her sister’s place. She wanted to insist on her innocence, but the words wouldn’t come out. The Lorena in her dream began to cackle like a mad woman as Sienna silently grew pale. Suddenly she gasped awake, panting heavily as her eyes flew open.

Was that... just a dream?

She blinked a few times, then realized that she was surrounded by darkness. Her eyes managed to focus quickly as she adjusted to the dark room. As her vision cleared up, she began to recognize the familiar setting.

This is... Sienna stared for a moment, then gulped. Unless her eyes were mistaken, she was indeed in Lorena’s room.

“Lorena...”

As soon as she realized that fact, a chill coursed through her small body.

When she had arrived at the Underworld castle in her first life, Sienna had been assigned to a fairly ordinary room. That is to say, it was ordinary by the Nacht family’s standards. To Sienna—who had shared one small space of the orphanage with seven other young orphans—it was an impossibly wonderful accommodation. There was a desk, a mirror, a wardrobe, and a bed with a clean, fluffy blanket all for her. She was so happy that she would get to have such a room all to herself that she didn’t even notice that it was located in a dark corner of the castle.

While Sienna was assigned to such quarters, Lorena had been given the Cradle of the Moon room. The Cradle of the Moon was one of the best rooms in the castle, only surpassed by the grand duke and his sons’ rooms. It was also actually a set of rooms. Unlike the single room with a bed and desk that Sienna had first been placed in, the Cradle of the Moon had a personal study, a bedchamber, a sitting area, a dressing room, a bathroom, and of course, a small maid’s room for the occupant’s most-trusted maid.

Unlike Sienna—who was happy to accept whichever room she was given—on the day Lorena entered the castle, she begged to use the Cradle of the Moon, saying how much she liked it. The grand duke had no reason to refuse her request.

Looking back, Sienna realized it was probably that moment when she had quietly realized that her situation was different from Lorena’s.

So why am I in this room now? In Sienna’s mind, there was no way the grand duke would give her such a room, so she pondered different possibilities.

“Did I sneak into this room in my sleep?” she muttered.

She thought it highly possible that she may have done that. After all, she had spent more time in the Cradle of the Moon than in her own room. To be precise, she had spent most of the time in the little maid’s room attached to Lorena’s.

Although the bed was cozy since someone had placed a hot water bottle under the covers, and there was a fire crackling merrily from the fireplace, she began to shiver uncontrollably as if she had spent the entire day out in the cold. Sienna felt as though she could still hear Dream Lorena’s voice in her ears.

“Are you happy now that you stole my place?”

The room did not belong to Sienna. That room wasn’t the sort of thing she could ever dare to take herself. Sienna hadn’t agreed to go to the Underworld to steal Lorena’s place. She had no desire to challenge her sister or try to win against her. Nor did she want to take revenge.

I’m just going to get through a few years here quietly, then run off to the military academy. That was all she had in mind, so for her to be using that room made her feel uneasy.

Sienna quickly pushed the covers off herself.

I have to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings.

If anyone were to find her sleeping in that room, then everyone at the castle might think she was impertinent or that she was trying to live above her station. It should go without saying that she might have realized the truth of her situation had she stopped for a moment to consider the fact that there was a hot water bottle in the bed and the fire had been lit. Of course, the young girl had also just awoken from a nightmare and therefore didn’t have the capacity to think clearly.

Sienna leaped out of bed and struggled to remake it neatly in the dark, shuffling around the large bed in an attempt to make it look unused, before sneaking away wearing only her thin nightgown. She practically ran out of the room, not even thinking to take a single candle.

My room... That room I used to have...

Sienna’s small, bare feet ran down the cold hallway as she hurriedly searched for her old quarters. All the while, she worried someone might see her.

“Ugh!” She suddenly slipped on the bare floor and landed with a heavy thud.

Ow... She grunted as she held on tightly to her throbbing knee. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel blood. She knew there was no time to sit and tend to her injury so she sprang up as quickly as she could, then limped toward the corner of the castle where “her” room was located.

After turning here, I just need to go there, and... Oh! I found it.

Perhaps it was due to it being the middle of the night, or perhaps because she was in the body of an eleven-year-old child, but she finally managed to find her old room without being caught.

The door opened with a creak. It was a horrible sound, a clear sign of how neglected this corner of the castle was, but even so, Sienna was happy to hear it. Her mood improved considerably after finally reaching the correct room. She leaned against the door to close it before sliding down to the floor. There was a chill in the air as no one had lit a fire in there for quite a while. In a sense, the room itself appeared dead since a layer of dust covered the white sheets protecting all the furniture inside of it. Even so, the decrepit appearance didn’t put Sienna off one bit.

“It’s my room,” she whispered.

Her pounding heart soon began to calm slightly, perhaps because she was finally back in the place that had actually been hers for over ten years. As the relief washed over her, sleep began to weigh heavily on her eyes once again.

“Mmm...” she blinked slowly as she rubbed her eyes. She then climbed into the familiar bed as if the action was second nature to her. There were no cozy blankets, but when she pulled all the dust covers together, they provided a decent space for her to sleep.

She yawned softly, then fell asleep without another thought.

* * *

The next morning, the castle’s new head maid Deborah began her day rather early. She had heard something rather surprising from the butler some time ago.

“This for your ears, and your ears alone, Deborah. His Grace has decided to take in a beneficiary.”

“What?!” The head maid had been openly shocked. “S-So what you’re saying is that we will finally be serving the future Nacht grand duchess?”

“No, no, It’s not like that. This beneficiary is from the orphanage,” the butler explained.

“Oh... I see. So she’s an orphan.”

She had been rather disappointed. It could have been the perfect chance for her to make a good impression on the future grand duchess.

Deborah was a woman with great plans. She planned to serve the future grand duchess while she was still young in order to gain the young lady’s confidence, and then use that to wield far greater power as the head maid of the Underworld. Unfortunately, it seemed that her chance had yet to come.

The butler told her the beneficiary was a young lady who His Grace was deeply interested in, thus he had ordered Deborah to look after her closely as well.

“It seems she is a talented girl. After all, His Grace ordered me to place her in the Cradle of the Moon,” Austin later explained.

“What? The Cradle of the Moon?” Deborah had asked in disbelief.

She immediately frowned as she wondered how the grand duke could assign such exquisite living quarters to someone based solely on their talent.

That room is far more suitable for a noble lady. To give it to the likes of an orphan is...

She wasn’t happy, but there was nothing she could do since she had received her orders. Deborah had another maid prepare the room, then the orphan had finally moved in the day prior.

Tsk. I really had hoped to serve the future grand duchess...

Her annoyance aside, she was fairly curious about the orphan’s appearance and mannerisms, so she woke early and rushed through her morning chores, before practically running to the Cradle of the Moon.

“Ahem.” Deborah cleared her throat, then knocked on the door.

However, there was no answer.

Huh?

The orphan had been asleep when she arrived and hadn’t woken up at all. It seemed unlikely she would still be sleeping.

So this orphan is lazy to boot? Deborah’s expression became icy as she opened the door without further warning.

“Oh my...”

Rather than finding a lazy orphan, the maid found herself inside an empty room. The bed was even perfectly made as though a skillful maid had just set the bedding in place. The hot water bottle, which had been left neatly on top of an armchair, had also gone cold.

“What is going on?” Deborah quickly searched the room, but there was no indication of another person being there.

She eventually called upon the other maids to help her in searching the other rooms and chambers.

“There’s no one here.”

“No one here either. I even checked the empty boxes.”

The child had truly vanished like smoke. Deborah sighed in open exasperation. The girl was making things difficult for all of them first thing in the morning. But even if the head maid was angry, she couldn’t hide such a mishap.

“I should go find Mr. Austin,” she declared.

“What?! But Ms. Deborah... If you do that, then...”

“Why don’t we look for her ourselves a bit more, Ms. Deborah?”

“Have you all lost your minds?” Deborah glowered at the maids who were spouting nonsense. “The lady of the Cradle of the Moon is the same young lady who His Grace personally brought here last night. You want to hide the fact that she has gone missing when His Grace could easily ask to see her first thing this morning?”

No one could deny Deborah’s shrewdness.

“Oh...”

The maids quickly fell silent.

Deborah clicked her tongue at them. To think these twits are part of the Underworld when they don’t know their heads from their rear ends. Yet here they are serving His Grace...

No matter how she looked at the situation, she had her work cut out for her as the head maid.

First things first, I need to find that girl.

Deborah had no way of knowing where the child had burrowed herself away, but she silently prayed that they would find her safe and sound soon. She anxiously set to work.