Chapter 27
A few days later, Joe brought Helena some welcome news.
“My lady, we’ve finally finished cleaning the second floor. Starting today, we plan to begin on the first floor. Once that is done as well, at the very least you’ll be able to stay in the main castle without discomfort.”
Helena brightened immediately.
“That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day. First, let’s get rid of those cobweb-covered chandeliers and the webs in the hallways. At this rate, I’m going to become emotionally attached to the spiders.”
“As you wish.”
Following Helena’s request, the workers decided to lower the chandelier in the central banquet hall first.
They gathered up old ruined carpets and piled them thickly beneath the chandelier’s landing point.
After that, they slowly began operating the pulley connected to the chain holding the chandelier.
The rusted chain creaked loudly, producing a roar so terrible it sounded as though the ceiling itself might collapse.
And it wasn’t just the noise. As the chandelier moved, years of accumulated dust poured down from above like snow.
“Eek!”
Helena shrieked and hurried out of the way.
As she dusted off her shoulders, Joe came running toward her with wide eyes.
“My lady, my lady…!”
“Joe. What is it?”
“There’s a strange room on the first floor. I think you need to see it…!”
At the mention of a strange room, Helena’s eyes widened.
She gathered up her skirts and followed Joe.
“My lady, this may shock you.”
Standing before a small door, Joe gave that warning before slowly opening it.
The moment Helena saw the inside of the room, a scream escaped her instinctively.
“Aaaah! M-monsters!”
The dark room was filled with monsters.
Joe hurried to calm her down.
“My lady, I checked already. They’re all fake.”
“What? Fake…?”
Pressing a hand against her pounding heart, Helena cautiously stepped into the room.
The room appeared to have once been a study. The only difference was that the shelves lining both walls were filled not with books, but with horrifying monster figures.
“My goodness… what is all this?”
Helena stared around the room in a daze.
Looking closer, the things she had mistaken for monsters were actually intricately carved monster sculptures.
Some were full-body miniatures, while others consisted only of heads or hands.
Most appeared to be carved from wood and painted with dyes, but some seemed to be made from bone, horn, or even leather-like materials.
Helena felt herself growing increasingly confused.
What on earth is this? Come to think of it, the butler said strange things about this family being cursed. Is this related to that? Or could it be that suspicious group Her Majesty mentioned… some kind of cult that worships monsters?
Pulling herself together, Helena tore her gaze away from the monster carvings and looked around the rest of the room.
The room was dirty, but unlike the other abandoned rooms in the castle, it did not feel eerie. Instead, it looked as though someone had been using it until just yesterday.
There was a half-finished cup of something on the desk, and beside it were unfinished wooden carvings and piles of sawdust scattered messily around.
Helena walked over to a shabby armchair whose leather covering had become completely worn down from prolonged use.
“Goodness. Why is this chair in such terrible condition? And what is this?”
Using only the tips of her fingers, she picked up the tattered outer garment hanging over the chair.
Without exaggeration, it was the strangest article of clothing she had ever seen in her life.
The color had perhaps once been green, but after fading again and again, it had become a bizarre grayish green. Thick padding had been quilted tightly inside the ragged fabric, making it look almost like some sort of shell.
“I thought it was monster hide.”
She dropped the garment as though throwing it away and looked around again.
Every place within arm’s reach of the chair had something stuffed into it. Without even pulling them out to check, she could tell the larger items were shirts and the smaller ones were probably socks.
Helena finally realized something.
Ah. So this must be Benjamin’s workshop… or something like that.
If so, these sculptures must have been made by Benjamin.
She picked up one of the unfinished wooden carvings and examined it.
The completed sculptures were so grotesque she did not even want to touch them, but an unfinished block of wood was easier to inspect.
Fortunately, this unfinished carving was not of a monster, but of a certain mansion.
And the sight was deeply familiar to Helena.
This is… the Winston estate in Hodlin.
A strange sense of discomfort crept over her.
Ordinarily, she would not care if someone drew or carved a model of a mansion.
But seeing it surrounded by all these dreadful monster sculptures made her uneasy.
I should confiscate it later. Or destroy it.
Helena set the carving back down and turned to Joe.
“This seems to be the Count’s workshop. Whatever the Count wishes to do is his own business, so let’s leave it alone.”
Joe had been just as shocked as Helena, but he quickly nodded in agreement.
Whatever the Count did was not something a mere head servant could interfere with.
Carefully hiding his alarm, Joe bowed his head.
“My lady is correct. We shall do as you say.”
Together, Helena and Joe left Benjamin’s workshop.
Once they escaped the room filled with monster sculptures, even the ordinary air outside somehow felt fresher.
“Joe, strange rumors might spread, so make sure the workers don’t enter that workshop—”
Helena was in the middle of giving instructions when someone called out to her.
“My lady.”
This time it was Wesley.
Approaching Helena with an unusually flustered expression, he asked,
“Did you perhaps… invite guests?”
Helena immediately shook her head.
“No. Why would I do that? What’s happened?”
“We have visitors.”
“What?”
Helena’s eyes widened.
“What visitors?”
“Well…”
Wesley cleared his throat before listing them off one by one.
“Countess Bryce, Viscountess Batch, Lady Roderick. And…”
He squeezed his eyes shut briefly before opening them again.
“…Duchess Meriel Lucell and her maids as well.”
Helena suddenly remembered Benjamin mentioning guests a few days earlier.
Her mouth slowly fell open.
Meriel Lucell realized something.
This is a trap.
Although she was called a duchess and wore an elegant velvet dress with her golden hair styled gracefully, she still looked far too young to truly seem like a dignified duchess.
It couldn’t be helped. She had only come of age a year ago.
“My goodness, just look at the state of the gardens!”
Countess Bryce burst into laughter as she gazed out the carriage window at the gardens of the Isphern Count’s estate.
With her dazzling silver hair, Countess Bryce ruled southern high society through both her beauty and status.
Her maiden family was the most powerful house in the southeastern region, while the Bryce County governed Lillo, the center of the south.
As someone who had only recently married and stepped into southern society for the first time, Meriel could not afford to neglect such an important connection.
That was why she had recently been staying in Lillo to grow closer to Countess Bryce.
However, Meriel had never imagined that her visit to Lillo would somehow lead her all the way to the Isphern Count family estate in Burwood.
The beginning of it all had been that letter.
“Oh my, look at this!”
Viscountess Batch, who had also been staying at the Bryce estate to entertain the duchess, waved the letter around excitedly.
The letter itself was astonishingly short.
[By all means.]
Meriel could make no sense of it.
Countess Bryce kindly explained.
According to her, ever since Benjamin Isphern became the new Count of Burwood, he had never once appeared in southern society or sent any news of himself.
Feeling a sense of responsibility as a member of southern society, Countess Bryce had consistently sent letters expressing her wish to visit the Isphern family.
And at long last, she had finally received a reply from Count Isphern.
Declaring that she could not let this opportunity pass, Countess Bryce proposed they depart for Burwood immediately, and the other ladies—who had long been dying of curiosity about Burwood—eagerly joined her.
And since Meriel had been staying in Lillo, she had no choice but to accompany them.
During the short journey, Meriel learned many things.
She heard about the dreadful incident that had struck the Isphern family five years earlier, about the new Count of Isphern having once been a mercenary, and even about his recent marriage to a northern woman named Helena Winston.
And then Meriel understood.
So that’s why they all mobilized the moment they heard Burwood’s new mistress was from the north.
