Chapter 8

* * *

“Say that again.”

The grand duke’s stare turned cold when he heard the child had gone missing.

“I have no excuse, Your Grace.” Deborah bowed deeply at the waist as she spoke.

“That child disappeared from... my castle?” The grand duke’s sigh seemed as heavy to the head maid as a pile of bricks. “Just how lazily do you intend to fulfill your duties? Do I have to actually give the order for you to have someone stay by her side at night? Isn’t that something you can think to do on your own before I tell you to do so?”

The grand duke had never been the sort to dwell on others’ mistakes, but for whatever reason, he was treating this incident quite differently.

“I... have no excuse, Your Grace.” Deborah had anticipated that he would give her a hard time about the situation, but his chastising made even her break out in a cold sweat. If he was reacting that harshly, then the orphan had to be much, much more important to the grand duke than the staff had first thought. As soon as she realized that she fell to her knees in an instant. “I truly have no words, Your Grace! The servants are currently searching every inch of the castle, so I assure you that we will find her soon.”

The grand duke sighed to himself. The main section of the Underworld castle was rather old since it was built in ancient times of peace and prosperity, and had only recently been remodeled for more modern use. Dangerous magic and spells hibernated here and there within its walls, and most of them were not fully understood. It was no place for a child to wander around alone.

“I shall go as well,” he said as he stood up.

“P-pardon, Your Grace?” Deborah whipped her head up as she questioned the grand duke’s announcement.

Do my ears deceive me?

“I said I’m going to look for her as well.”

It was a true emergency. It had already been an extreme matter when the maid had first noticed the girl was missing thirty minutes prior, but at that moment the gravity of the situation was clear.

* * *

While Deborah had gone to report to the grand duke, the servants had followed the butler’s orders to turn the castle upside down in search of the girl.

“You don’t think she may have taken a wrong step and gotten herself dragged into the soul prison, do you?” one maid asked.

The butler shook his head. “Impossible. If she did, then the guards would have found her by now.”

“I believe it would be best to look around the Cradle of the Moon first, sir.”

“I think it would be best to search the room itself. I mean, it is rather big, s— Agh!”

The servants, who had been prattling on in a rather unseemly fashion, were shocked to see the grand duke also searching for the girl.

The butler Austin was about to scold them before he also noticed the duke and blurted out, “Your Grace!”

“His Grace has declared that he will be looking for the young miss as well,” Deborah announced.

Austin was slightly surprised, but the experienced butler smoothly maintained his composure. “All of you! Do not lose focus. Do whatever it takes to find the child!”

Hearing the order to “not lose focus” left many of the servants turning ashen in the face.

Just who does that orphan think she is? Is she a secret child of the imperial family or something? They aren’t acting like she’s an ordinary orphan… Some of them began to think even more ridiculous things since the grand duke would never have searched for an ordinary orphan himself.

“Your Grace? Where are you going? We still haven’t searched the third flo—”

“Shhh...” Deborah shushed the butler, then the two went quiet.

The grand duke strode forward without a moment’s hesitation. He approached the innermost corner of the third floor until they could hardly hear the commotion coming from the servants still in the central hall’s entry. It wasn’t that he knew for certain where he was going, but he moved forward based on a feeling that he needed to go in that direction.

How odd. Quite odd indeed... He had experienced the same feeling when he had gone to inspect the orphanage. The feeling of his feet getting pulled forward by a strange, yet powerful force. It was too vague for him to call it foresight, yet too clear to deem it a hunch either. I felt this way when I first saw that child as well. A feeling that seemed to resound in his mind, she’s the one, when he first saw her despite her face being hidden. His heart had felt as though it were falling into place after rolling down a cliff for what seemed to be an eternity.

“Your Grace! I shall accompany you as well.”

He didn’t even spare time to think about stopping or silencing the people trailing noisily behind him. As they arrived at the end of the third-floor hallway, the grand duke slowly opened the door. The old door opened slowly with a creak.

The group stood in the doorway and stared at the small space, which appeared to have not felt the warm flames of its fireplace in several centuries. A chill emanated from within and seemed to rebound off its walls down to the floor. There was a crumpled pile of dust covers on the otherwise bare mattress as if someone had used them as a quasi-blanket in order to keep warm in the frigid room.

The child was here.

He had given her the best room out of all the ones available, so he couldn’t imagine why she had chosen to sleep in such a secluded space. The grand duke bit his lip without realizing he was doing so. He found himself imagining the child sleeping in the dust-ridden room and felt... odd.

My chest… If he had to describe it in greater detail, the feeling was akin to having a great deal of force compressing him entirely. It was such a heavy sensation that he noticed his breath had hitched for a moment.

“Wait.”

There was an unusual mark on the dusty, white sheets collected on the bed.

Blood.

He imagined the child must have been injured.

“Call the others here right away. Search this room and the area around it as fast as you can.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

* * *

The grand duke and Austin left the room to go and help search the rest of the third floor. Deborah also turned to follow right after them, but then she heard the creaky hinge of the wardrobe door.

The tightly closed door was suddenly opening slowly right before her eyes. As she stared at the old dresser...

“M-miss...?”

“Shhh...”

Slowly, the orphan poked her head out from inside the wardrobe. Her scarily calm emerald gaze appeared even more unsettling as she brought her finger to her small mouth.

“I’m hiding, so could you speak a bit more softly?”

“But why are you hiding in here, miss?” Deborah asked quizzically.

“Because I’m sure you’re in a difficult position due to my going missing. I think things will get worse if His Grace finds me though.”

Sienna realized things were not what she had initially thought as soon as she woke up. There was no doubt that she was in the room she had used in the past, but no matter how she looked at the situation, it had not been readied for immediate use.

How strange... The grand duke offered to bring her to the Underworld twice, so she was doubtful that he would lay her down to sleep in such an unkempt room.

Oh!

It was then that she remembered her nightmare from the previous night, which resulted in her waking in Lorena’s room. The entire ordeal had prompted her to return to the room she had originally used.

Sienna grumbled. “I overreacted a bit...”

She supposed the head maid would never see her in a good light in the first place, so there was no way the older woman would be happy about her disappearing without a word or sleeping in a room that she hadn’t officially been assigned to.

I have to stay on good terms with the head maid if I wish to stay here quietly.

Sienna had initially thought to hurry out of the wardrobe to confess, but upon hearing someone yell “Your Grace!” she decided to hide inside. She had no time to consider all of her options as her only concern was to hide before the grand duke found her. Thankfully, Sienna knew how to conceal her presence as well, although she lacked the ability to do much else.

I found a way out of similar situations a few times in the past when I wanted to avoid people. So she had hidden herself safely in the closet and waited quietly. She was willing to do anything to make it seem as though the head maid had found her.

“Please just wait a bit, then take me out there. You can say that you found me,” Sienna explained softly.

“Could it be that you’re trying to help me, miss?” Deborah asked.

“No.” There was no chance of Sienna doing such a thing purely to be kind. I just want to avoid having Ms. Deborah outwardly hate me is all. The girl was doing her best to focus on remaining purely calculative.

The head maid gave no answer apart from the odd look on her face. She then sighed lightly and nodded.

“Very well. That isn’t a terrible idea.”