The Villainess Turns the Hourglass

Chapter 10

“We have arrived, my lady.”

While Aria was thinking about the past, the carriage had already pulled up to the general store. The newspaper didn’t seem to contain any useful information other than the feature about the kidnappings, so she put it aside and moved to enter the store.

The only people in the cramped shop seemed to be two male customers and an old man, the owner. Aria found the air stuffy as she entered with her entourage. While it was crowded, there was some wiggle room for them to move around, so it wasn’t unbearable.

The shop owner stared at Aria with wide eyes, apparently recognizing her. That was unsurprising, seeing as she had grown up in this neighborhood, and the only local people who had suddenly become nobles were Aria and her mother. Unlike the boutique, she had actually been in this store a few times before joining the count’s family.

As the owner’s social status was too low for him to address a noble first, he could do nothing but silently hand over the hourglass. His hands trembled, which made Aria think that he must have heard the rumors about her. It was strange and ridiculous that a mere girl of fourteen could instill so much fear in the man just because she had become a noble overnight. “P-please take a look,” he said.

Aria checked the hourglass for faults, making sure that the sand fell smoothly and that nothing was out of place. She was able to confirm that the hourglass had indeed been completely restored. “How impressive,” she said. “You managed to repair this hourglass so well despite it being shattered.” She was also very pleased with the box the owner had fashioned for the hourglass, with a space hollowed out in its shape and lined with soft fabric to protect it. If she kept it safely hidden away somewhere no one else was aware of, no one would be able to touch it.

Aria gestured to Jessie and had her pay twice the agreed-upon fee. It was a tip for a job well done, and the old man bowed profusely to thank her.

“Would you like to return to the manor now, my lady?” Jessie asked.

“No, I’d like to look around a bit first.” It felt like a waste to head back already, so Aria decided to browse through the store. Various strange items were on display, from crude dolls to large objects of unknown purpose.

Once upon a time, I used to adore these sorts of useless things, she thought. The things were so dusty that their color had faded. When she brushed a hand over a doll, its embellishments loosened as if they were about to fall off. How shoddy… And yet, she felt strangely entertained.

Aria walked around, slowly inspecting each item, before she noticed that the two male customers had been staring at the same item the entire time. They had been there when she had first entered the store, too. Before she knew it, she had drawn close to them. While she couldn’t say for sure, she had guessed from the cloaked figures’ tall statures that they were men.

As they stood stock still, staring at a display cupboard, Aria couldn’t even hear them breathe. She found herself holding her breath. She could tell that they were dangerous.

“My lady, let us return now.” One of her knights seemed to have sensed it too, because he quickly stood between Aria and the two men with a flustered expression. His hand was placed on the hilt of his sword at his side.

Aria gulped and nodded. She had been given a precious new chance at life and wasn’t about to squander it by diving headlong into danger. She turned on her heel and headed toward the exit. Her escort knights finally relaxed a little, and looking relieved, opened the door for her.

Just as she was about to head outside, she spared a glance to the owner at the counter and noticed a piece of paper in front of him. She paused for a moment before speaking up. It wasn’t her business, technically, but she wanted to thank him for fixing the hourglass so well. “You won’t be able to use that auction ticket. You should sell it to someone else,” she said.

“Wh-what do you mean?”

“You heard me. The rest is up to you, old man.”

While there was human trafficking occurring in secret in the basement of the casino, the establishment also auctioned out various items. Tickets to these auctions were too pricey for commoners, but there was always a long line for them days before their sale dates because of the rumor that rare items would be auctioned off for cheap. These items also often sold for a good profit. That was most likely why the old man had gotten his hands on a ticket, but since the crown prince and his knights would be raiding the casino soon, it would be closing its doors. The old man’s expensive auction ticket would become a useless scrap of paper, and he would undoubtedly sustain a huge financial loss.

The shop owner looked puzzled, but it was unlikely he would sell the valuable auction ticket based just on something a young girl told him. His craftsmanship is superb, but there’s nothing else I can do, Aria thought.

Just as she moved to leave the general store, one of the cloaked men, who had been standing motionless in the corner just moments before, grabbed her thin arm. The other swiftly drew his sword and stood in the way of her two knights. They had moved quickly. Before anyone could even react, Aria’s attendants were incapacitated.

Thud.

Jessie fell onto her backside and looked horrified, unable to scream as a sword was pointed at her. One wrong move, and her head could go flying. Having had just that experience herself, Aria shuddered visibly.

“Why did you say that?” asked the man holding onto her wrist. Black hair peeked out from under his hood, and his eyes were blue. Though he was tall enough to be considered an adult, his frame was slender and he looked quite young. He couldn’t have been any older than Cain. Aria narrowed her eyes, feeling like she had seen this man somewhere before.

His grip on her wrist tightened. “I asked why you just said that to the old man.”

“I-I don’t know what you mean!” Aria was absolutely bewildered. She glanced all around her, but no one was there to help her.

The man repeated, “Why did you tell him he wouldn’t be able to use that auction ticket?”

Right… How could I possibly know about something that hasn’t happened yet? It was then that Aria finally understood why the man was asking, but she couldn’t see why he had to be so forceful about it.

She looked him up and down, wondering whether he was planning to attend the auction himself. His cloak was mostly black and the little she could see of his clothes underneath it was black as well, so she couldn’t conclude anything about him from his garments. The only noticeable thing she recognized was that his skin was far too smooth and pale for him to have known a hard day’s work.

He must be a noble. Aria was convinced that he was some inconsequential nobleman, seeing that she didn’t recognize his face at all. She knew most of the capital’s nobles by sight since her past self had attended countless balls and banquets. This man had to be some countryside noble, here to participate in the auction.

When she came to this conclusion, everything seemed to add up. This man had evidently spent a huge sum of money to purchase an auction ticket and come all the way to the capital, only to overhear that it might all be for nothing. She couldn’t explain his incredibly fast movements or his entitled sense of authority, but no other possibility occurred to her.

“You’re hurting my wrist. Let go.”

“Answer me.”

“If you let go, I will.”

The man glared at Aria, still not releasing her wrist. He didn’t seem to believe her.

However, Aria had finally regained her composure. He seemed older than her, but she was sure she outranked him in social status. She might have wasted her first life chasing nothing but fun and pleasure, but her experience still allowed her to read someone quite quickly. Anyone with proper life experience wouldn’t demand an answer in such a crude fashion.

Aria gave the man who was threatening her a dubious smile and whispered, “You seem stronger than my escort knights. Don’t tell me you expect to lose sight of a young girl like me just by letting go of my wrist. Besides, it really does hurt.”

It was only then that the man looked down at her wrist. Her hand had gone pale and blue from his vice-like grip. He gave his companion a meaningful look before slowly letting go.

Aria’s knights were still unable to move, but while her wrist was now free, the man stood between her and the exit so that she had nowhere to run. She shook out her tingling hand a few times, clenching and unclenching her fist. It had gone numb from his strong grip. He had been incredibly rude.

“Now, answer me,” the man said.

“I heard a rumor.”

“What rumor?”

“That the casino would soon go bankrupt.” Aria had never promised to tell him the truth and had no obligation to do so, so she spun a lie without even blinking an eye.

The man’s face hardened at her reply. It seemed as though he really had purchased an auction ticket.

Aria decided to add some more embellishment to her lie. “I heard Viscount Lupre suffered a great financial loss from investing in too many different business endeavors. Apparently, it was so bad that he would need to sell the casino, give up his title, and make a run for it in the dead of night.”

Viscount Lupre was the owner of the casino. He was a nobleman whose whole family was fated for the executioner’s block because his human trafficking operation was about to be discovered. He had doomed his children by passing on his misdeeds to them as well.

Aria continued, “That is all I have to say, so please step aside now.”

“If your answer turns out to be a lie, I will not let you get away with it.” The man’s bright blue eyes were fixed on her. Pure malice was written all over his face.

A chill ran down Aria’s spine. She could feel cold sweat begin to form on her forehead. Though she knew he was bluffing, she couldn’t help but be intimidated by the wild beast threatening her in such close proximity. Unable to keep her lips from twitching, she gave him an awkward smile. “How are you going to check whether I’m telling you a rumor I heard or just lying?”

“You have a point.” He appeared convinced, but didn’t seem satisfied with her answer at all. He looked her up and down with vicious intensity, as if determined to get the truth out of her somehow. His eyes rested in particular on the ruby rose on her chest, and the clear look of recognition made Aria go pale.

I need to get away! I need to escape! She wanted to get away from this place immediately and never have anything to do with this man ever again. She had sensed great danger—a kind of danger she had never faced in her past life and which could end her current one.

“I have nothing more to say, so please let my knights go,” she said in a soft voice, as if she were about to faint.

The man gestured to his companion, who immediately stood aside and let the knights go. Despite being released, the knights didn’t move a muscle and simply eyed the man who had incapacitated them with great caution. Taking her useless knights and Jessie with her, Aria hurried away from the general store.

* * *

“What shall we do?”

The man who had managed to incapacitate Aria’s knights in the blink of an eye watched the carriage rattle away. “Is that House Roscent’s carriage?” he asked.

“It is.”

“Does Count Roscent have a daughter that age?”

“He has one daughter named Mielle. I did hear that he gained another daughter through marriage, but they say she is a complete shrew who doesn’t even know her manners. That young lady must have been Lady Mielle.”

“Mielle…” The name meant “honey.” It didn’t seem to suit the feisty young woman the man had just encountered. She had maintained her composure and even teased him, despite her initial shock. It was hard to believe this was a girl in her early teens.

The man looked down at his hand that had grabbed the girl’s wrist. Her wrist had been so thin and frail. Most young noblewomen her age were similar, of course, but she had seemed especially fragile.

What is this feeling supposed to be? His palm, still retaining the warmth of her skin, seemed to elicit another sensation. It was familiar, yet unfamiliar. He had felt it somewhere before, though only faintly. Where on earth… He had no connection to House Roscent, so he couldn’t see how she could seem familiar.

As he stared down at his hand in a daze, his companion spoke up. “What shall we do? Shall I have someone follow her?”

“No. We’ve found out whose daughter she is, so it’s fine. For now… we’ll raid the casino. If that rumor is true, the viscount is about to flee, so we must hurry.”

“But… We still don’t have much information, and our plan hasn’t been perfected yet.”

“An incomplete plan is better than letting him get away.” If Viscount Lupre were to flee abroad, things would get incredibly complicated. It was much better to lose track of him within the empire.

“Such a rumor could be nothing more than a trick played on a naive young lady.”

“Perhaps, but we must take all possibilities into consideration.” Even if this rumor was a lie and they raided the casino without complete knowledge and planning, things would only get slightly more complicated. There wasn’t much of a risk. However, if the young lady told the truth and the viscount got away while they were busy planning and gathering information, they would need to reach out to the neighboring nations for help. This would not only be an irritating and complicated process, but it would also be humiliating. It was best to take care of things within the empire’s borders.

Somehow, the girl had known about the casino falling to ruin in the near future. The fact that she knew about this, considering that the casino was still seemingly raking in money, was extraordinary. The man had been the only one aware of the casino’s doomed fate. Though the young lady had claimed to have heard the rumor about Viscount Lupre from somewhere, the amount of detail she was aware of indicated that she knew much more. He needed to hurry.

“When shall we proceed, then?” his companion asked.

“Today.”

“Today?”

“Yes. Gather everyone and get them in place within an hour. We will begin the raid at once, since the viscount might flee at any time.”

The man’s companion muttered something about how today wasn’t a good time for this, but as he saw the blue-eyed man’s expression, he quickly bowed his head. “Understood. I will start immediately.” True to his word, he quickly disappeared to fulfill his orders.

The man looked down at his hand again. The warmth that had lingered there was nearly gone now, but the girl’s expression was still clear as day in his memory.

I don’t have time for this, he thought. He could not get caught up in petty musings. He needed to capture the viscount as soon as possible and solidify his position. Having pushed Aria and her lingering warmth from his mind, he disappeared into the shadows.