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Chapter 1
1-1. The Wicked Con Artis
I’ve never written a will before, so I don’t know if this is how it’s supposed to be written. Anyway, this is Cecilia’s will, so DO NOT THROW IT AWAY!
1. Please bury my body in the cemetery without embalming it. Refer to the address on the back.
2. Please bury me without a coffin, with my face turned upward. I would like the soil covering me to be as light as possible. I’ve always hated sleeping under thick blankets.
3. Please put the travel bag under my bed and 500,000 Burnets in it as traveling money for the afterlife. You may check the travel bag, but DO NOT TAKE OUT the romance novels inside.
Oh, and the traveling money is a ‘MINIMUM’ of 500,000 Burnets. The more you put in, the better.
4. Do not put a title such as ‘Countess’ on my tombstone. No fancy words, either. Do not leave any trace of the Winterhall family on my tombstone.
5. Finally, to my husband. Don’t even think about raising my animals. Set them free in the forest around the cemetery. You don’t like them anyway.
That concludes my will.
Then, goodbye to this shitty family and
my selfish husband.
Goodbye to everyone.
* * *
“Cancel your entire schedule for the next three days.”
Davion burst through the door and strode quickly across the study.
Liam, who had been working in his place, hurriedly stood up and took his outer coat.
Davion then unbuttoned the collar that had been choking his neck and rolled up both sleeves, revealing a black tattoo covering his muscular left arm.
The tattoo was made up of geometric patterns that looked either like blazing flames or the scales of a snake.
Shaking the rainwater from his wet hair, he habitually took out a cigarette and put it between his lips.
“Strengthen the checkpoints around the city. Show the city guards a picture of my wife and tell them to hold anyone who looks similar. And bring me the entry and exit records from the checkpoints. I’ll check those myself.”
“Do you think the Countess has left the city?”
“No. She should still be here for now. But there’s no harm in checking.”
There was no need to rush.
Davion pulled out a chair and sat down as he thought.
Stupid woman.
She was probably enjoying herself somewhere, convinced that she had escaped perfectly.
He had never imagined that she would dig herself out of her grave just two weeks after her funeral.
Davion was about to light his cigarette, but quietly lowered the lighter.
Still… I thought it really was the end and granted her wishes…
Was that a mistake?
As he imagined Cecilia casually walking away with the travel bag and bundle of money, he felt his head growing slightly hot.
There was no point asking someone who wasn’t here anymore why she had done it. And since this wasn’t simply a case of running away from home, frustration was overshadowed by complicated thoughts.
“You made sure that boy and the residents will keep their mouths shut, right?”
“Yes. They seem like simple, honest people. Ah, but should we tell the Duchess of Sisledown about the Countess’s ‘resurrection’?”
Davion had been born as the second son of the Duke of Sisledown, and after serving in two military campaigns, he had been granted the title of Count of Winterhall.
So the Duchess of Sisledown was his mother.
In other words, she was also Cecilia’s mother-in-law.
“My mother doesn’t believe in magic or ghosts. Unless I show her my wife in person, she’ll probably have all of us admitted to a mental hospital for having lost our minds together.”
“Ah…”
“Tell her I’ll arrange the transfer of her remains after winter is over. For now, let’s deal with the fire that’s burning right in front of us.”
Davion took Cecilia’s photograph out of a drawer and placed it on the desk.
It was a solo photograph that had been taken by chance before their marriage.
In the photograph, Cecilia seemed unfamiliar with the camera. She had clasped both hands together and was awkwardly staring into empty space.
Compared to the lively woman she had been when she recently decided to escape from this mansion, she looked fresh and full of life.
Especially in those days, her cheeks were round and plump, giving her such a lovely appearance that any man would have fallen for her at first sight.
Looking back, many things had happened since then, but the day the photograph was taken still felt as though it had happened only yesterday.
Davion quietly stared at his wife trapped inside the black-and-white photograph before leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes.
“She probably thought she could leave my protection and live well on her own, but Cecilia has basically never lived outside before. She’s nothing more than a weed that grew inside a greenhouse.”
Liam silently agreed and cautiously took the photograph.
By then, a confident smile had appeared on Davion’s lips.
“She’s definitely curled up somewhere crying by now.”
* * *
“…Ahhh!”
Thud.
“Ah, that feels great!”
So this… is the taste of freedom?
Who would have believed that the woman greedily wiping the foam from the corner of her mouth while giggling was the famous Countess of Winterhall until just two weeks ago?
Davion’s prediction had been correct.
Cecilia had been taking her time instead of leaving the city.
After all, everyone thought she was dead. There was no reason for her to hurry.
In fact, the one million Burnets Davion had given her as traveling money was not a particularly large amount, objectively speaking.
She had no idea how the situation would unfold, so she needed to save as much as possible for now.
For that reason, Cecilia was currently wandering from one old, cheap inn on the outskirts of the city to another with her travel bag.
It had been quite some time since incandescent light bulbs had been introduced throughout the city, but most places still stubbornly used oil lamps.
Even though she had covered her face with a cloak, Cecilia still attracted people’s attention.
It was only natural. A woman sitting alone among a group of rough-looking men was bound to stand out.
A man who had been sipping whiskey at the end of the bar table slowly approached her and struck up a conversation.
“Miss, is something bothering you? Why are you drinking so much?”
Ugh.
The moment Cecilia smelled cigarette smoke, she instinctively covered her nose.
“I’m not a miss. I’m a married woman. And I’m not upset. I’m in a very good mood.”
“In a good mood?”
Cecilia nodded.
She lowered her upper body and looked around.
Then, with a sly smile, she whispered,
“Today is exactly two weeks since I died.”
She’s completely drunk.
The man secretly signaled to his companions beneath the table.
Cecilia finished her last glass of beer, then took two silver coins from her pocket and placed them on the table.
She could sense several people following behind her, but she merely patted her stomach and headed upstairs, letting out loud, drunken burps.
A few seconds later, a sharp scream rang through the darkness.
“Where the hell did this crow come from?!”
A crow as large as an eagle-owl flapped its wings threateningly as it attacked the men’s heads.
They were the men who had secretly followed Cecilia.
Now!
Taking advantage of the chaos, Cecilia quickly slipped into her inn room, locked the door, and pushed a chair against it for extra security.
Since there was no one around to complain about the mess, the room was practically no different from a pigsty.
She kicked the objects scattered across the floor out of her way and approached the window, carefully watching the evening sky.
Before long, a pitch-black shape rapidly crossed the sky.
It changed direction and slipped neatly through the window.
「Good work, Ruby.」
A strange language flowed from Cecilia’s lips, one that an ordinary human could neither hear properly nor understand.
The crow lightly flew around the room once before landing on the nearest clothes rack and beginning to preen its feathers.
It, too, spoke in the same language and scolded her in an irritated tone.
「Please be careful, Cecilia. The males downstairs were staring at you like crazy.」
「I know. I guess they realized I’m staying here alone. I’ll stay only until tonight and move to another inn first thing in the morning.」
As she spoke, Cecilia pulled the travel bag out from beneath the bed and began throwing her belongings inside.
Ruby also strutted around the room on its little feet, helping her tidy up.
Ruby was now a dignified crow capable of intimidating humans, but when it had been young, it had spent all day in its nest with its siblings, mouths wide open as they waited for their mother to bring them food.
Back then, while its mother had gone out to find food, a snake had climbed the tree and threatened the nest.
Cecilia was the one who saved Ruby from it.
Afterward, all of Ruby’s siblings left on a long journey of their own.
But Ruby chose to remain by Cecilia’s side and become her family.
「So when are you planning to leave this city?」
「Once I decide on a specific destination. I can’t just get on a train without knowing where I’m going.」
「I like the south. I want to go somewhere warm.」
「Let’s first find out whether there’s a train going south. And whether they’ll allow a crow to ride with us.」
In truth, Cecilia had never left this city even once in her entire life.
She might have seemed relaxed on the surface, but deep down, she was also afraid of going somewhere unfamiliar.
Still, I have to go.
Even if it was only to make sure she never had to face Davion again for the rest of her life, she had to leave this place.
After tossing in her favorite romance novel, Cecilia closed the travel bag.
Her drinking session was over for the night.
Thinking that she should go out early tomorrow morning and find out more about the surrounding cities, she went to bed early.
But just like her relationship with Davion, Cecilia had a strange tendency to put the first button on wrong in almost everything she did.
This plan was no exception.
Everything began to move in a strange direction.
