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Chapter 17
Until now, Aletheia had described her mind-reading ability with the awful word “curse,” which made Mio completely misunderstand, thinking they were talking about kleptomania. When Mio realized this, she thumped her chest in frustration. Aletheia’s eyes widened as she tried to stop her.
“Stop it. That hurts. I know it’s hard to believe such a thing all at once, but there isn’t a shred of falsehood in the fact that I am cursed.”
“Who said I don’t believe you? And why is it a curse? That’s an unbelievably enviable ability!”
“Uh…?”
“Sigh. No, what I mean is, it’s not your incredible ability that matters right now, it’s my…”
Mio tried to shout bluntly, “Where did you hide my bag?!” but her words got stuck. She had a fleeting vision of the crazy guy who would propose publicly six years later, staring blankly at Aletheia.
‘Hold on. Who knows when that memory will return.’
If that madman’s memory returned before she found the contract, he’d have every reason to take revenge for any carelessness.
‘Then I’ll have no choice but to hold that madman’s hand and be dragged to the wedding…’
Thinking of a funeral-like wedding march made her head go icy cold. Mio took a deep breath and spoke calmly.
“Aletheia, actually… I lost something here. That’s why I thought you were deliberately hiding it to trick me.”
“Trick you? Why would I…? And lose something? What is it?”
“My bag.”
Mio said “bag” deliberately, staring straight at Aletheia. She observed him closely without blinking, but Aletheia remained calm.
“A bag, huh. I don’t remember seeing one. Check with Jamie or Simon,”
Just then, Jamie entered carrying a tray with a teapot and teacups. Aletheia asked him,
“Jamie, have you seen a bag inside the mansion that Mio lost?”
“A bag?”
Jamie set the tray down on the side table, looking puzzled. As Mio suspected, it didn’t seem like it had been tidied away during cleaning. She glanced between Jamie and Aletheia with a serious expression.
‘You’re saying Aletheia didn’t do this?’
Then who on earth did? She had definitely seen it under the bed that day.
Thus, Mio’s missing bag case sank deeper into mystery. Jamie came closer and handed her a warm teacup.
“Drink some tea first. You seem frail as it is; worrying too much over trivial things isn’t good for your health.”
“…I’m healthy.”
Jamie took her answer as a cute little protest and started asking about the bag.
“Hmm, what does the lost bag look like? You might find it somewhere unexpected later. Lost items always have a way of moving, don’t they? Sometimes I feel like things have legs themselves.”
Imagining a bag with legs, Mio described its size and color. Jamie laughed and said he’d inform Simon and Filippo and issue an immediate search order before leaving.
Mio took a sip of the tea to calm her confusion. Jamie’s advice worked. The warmth eased her mood, and her racing thoughts began to settle. That was when Aletheia, who had silently stayed nearby, spoke slowly.
“Is that… something precious?”
Mio looked up at Aletheia, who avoided her gaze as she spoke.
“If it’s just a bag, I can buy you a new one. I just don’t want you to ever feel afraid to tell me anything.”
A new bag? That was tempting, but Mio felt she couldn’t let this pass quietly. Maybe Aletheia was lying.
To show her determination to retrieve her bag, Mio said,
“I treasure all my things. Everything. I always will.”
Aletheia quietly nodded, oddly blushing. Before Mio could comment, he suggested she rest and left. Watching him dash away, Mio silently cheered. She had an unannounced chance to search.
“Ugh… huff…”
Even if the room didn’t have much, moving everything around was exhausting. The thought that Aletheia could return at any moment made her even more breathless. She couldn’t lock the door of the ownerless room.
‘Sigh. The plan was to put Aletheia to sleep and use the foxes to read her mind.’
But since she had the chance to search herself, going the long way around seemed ridiculous, so Mio quickly got to work.
“…Damn, there’s nothing here.”
The more she searched the mansion, the more disappointing it became. She leaned against the massive fireplace mantle. It was cold, suggesting the fire was only lit at night.
“What the hell. Where did my bag go? And the contract… there’s not even similar trash around…”
Even the few books in the study were fruitless. Aletheia’s desk drawers were empty—no papers at all. It felt like returning to the time she opened every door in the mansion.
“This is just ridiculous.”
How could not a single similar item appear? Mio flopped down in front of the fireplace, muttering. The gray ash scattered slightly.
Cough.
As she flapped her hands, the contract she had tucked inside her sleeve fell onto the ashes. Startled, Mio quickly picked it up.
Brushing off the ash, she stared into the fireplace. A thought occurred.
‘No way… the contract didn’t fly into the fireplace and burn, did it?’
Ha. No, that would be absurd. There’s no such coincidence.
“….”
Mio finally reached into the ashes. Sitting there in Aletheia’s mansion like this was more absurd than anything else. She wanted to at least recover a charred corner of the contract and return to the Celtic Duchy with peace of mind.
But the deeper she dug, the more regret she felt.
“Tch, I knew it. There’s really nothing… huh?”
Suddenly, something long appeared among the vanishing ashes. Lifting it, it was an absurd item to come out of the fireplace.
“This… is a key.”
Why was a key in the ashes? What does it open? And it felt familiar. Where had she seen it? Mio tilted her head, trying to recall.
“…Ah! Auction item!”
It was one of the auction items that Aletheia had snatched during a bidding war: the so-called “mystical household set.”
The set consisted of the main safe, which this key belonged to, and a single stone. Mio had been after the famous artifact—the stone—for resale, so she knew little about the safe, only vague information from the auction.
“What was it… the safe recognizes its owner, wasn’t it?”
As the ridiculous name suggested, the auction wasn’t a legitimate one. It wasn’t regularly held, and rare items weren’t exchanged. It was just a place that dressed up odd items with fancy words to take coins from the guests’ pockets.
Of course, buyers only purchased items for fun. Essentially, it was a shady auction masquerading as a black market. Naturally, none of the claims—“mystical household set,” “owner-recognizing safe”—were to be taken seriously.
