Chapter 71: Secrets
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 71: Secrets
A young Blair craned her neck, her eyes fixed on the spot where Esmeralda had just been standing.
Only moments before, she had watched Esmeralda pry open a floorboard and hide something underneath.
“What did you hide under the floor?”
“...You saw that, did you?”
“Is it... a treasure hunt?”
Esmeralda burst into laughter at Blair’s serious, thoughtful guess.
“Well, yes. Something like that. It’s very important to me.”
“What is it?”
“It’s a secret. Because it’s so important.”
Esmeralda raised a finger to her lips in a hushing gesture.
“So, can you keep what you saw a secret for me?”
“A secret?”
“Yes. Don’t tell your mother, your father, or your brother. And of course, you mustn’t tell anyone else. Not my ladies-in-waiting or the maids.”
“A secret that only I know?”
“That’s right. It’s a secret that only you know, Blair. Not even Herdin knows.”
Blair’s eyes sparkled. Sharing a secret meant becoming closer, and this meant she was now someone truly special to Esmeralda.
“Can you keep your promise?”
“Of course! I’m really good at keeping secrets. I haven’t told anyone about Anna’s secret, or Karen’s secret either.”
Esmeralda smiled fondly at Blair’s confident declaration and held out her hand.
Blair understood immediately, linking her small pinky with Esmeralda’s.
“Promise!”
“Yes, promise.”
After they sealed the promise with their thumbs, Esmeralda chuckled softly and stroked Blair’s hair. Her touch was infinitely tender.
As Blair basked in the gentle touch, her eyelids grew heavy and began to droop against her will.
The warm gaze watching her drift off flickered for a moment, then vanished as her world faded to black.
* * *
“Gasp—!”
Blair woke with a gasp. Outside, darkness still reigned. It was the ambiguous hour just before dawn.
Her gaze trembling, she looked down at her own hands.
Esmeralda’s gentle hand, the warmth in her eyes as she caressed her hair... it was all still so vivid.
How could I have forgotten this?
It wasn't a memory of the accident itself, yet she had forgotten it completely.
The hypnosis must have triggered the return of a memory she had lost for years. There was no other explanation.
Whatever the cause, the memory pointed to one undeniable fact.
Her Majesty left something behind in the Empress's Palace.
It could have been a cherished personal item or some emergency funds, but she had a strange premonition. She felt certain that whatever lay beneath the floor of the Empress's Palace was crucial to understanding the fire from ten years ago.
There was no evidence. It was purely instinct.
I have to find what Her Majesty left behind.
Esmeralda’s former residence, the Empress's Palace, had been left abandoned ever since the fire. Katrina, who became Empress after her, refused to use the building, claiming it was cursed. With no immediate need to repair a palace without an owner, it had been left to rot.
If she went now, she could surely find what Esmeralda had hidden.
But if I go during the day, Mother will find out.
Blair stared out the pitch-black window, her expression hardening with resolve. She rose from her bed.
The pre-dawn hours, when even Katrina would be asleep—this was her only chance.
* * *
As the first faint light of dawn broke the horizon, a carriage from the House of Delmark bearing Blair came to a halt before the Imperial Palace.
The Imperial Palace guards, yawning to stave off their drowsiness, were startled by her arrival.
“My lady, what brings you here at this hour?”
“I have urgent business with my mother.”
The guards wondered what could be so urgent, but they had no reason to stop a daughter from visiting her mother.
The carriage passed swiftly through the gates. It did not, however, head toward the Palace of the Grand Empress Dowager. Instead, it turned toward the abandoned Empress's Palace.
Blair stepped down, ordered the coachman to wait, and stood alone before the entrance.
She was back at the Empress's Palace for the first time in ten years.
It was time to finally face the memories she had spent a decade running from.
Blair stared at the door for a long moment before her resolve solidified. She pushed it open and stepped inside.
Creeak—
The building had been neglected since the fire, and soot still clung to the walls.
Blair followed the faded path of her childhood memories up the stairs to Esmeralda’s bedroom.
As she climbed, it was as if a phantom of her younger self—visibly thrilled—ran past her up the stairs.
She followed the memory of that girl, who skipped lightly down a familiar hallway. But unlike the scene in her mind, this hallway was covered in black scorch marks, exuding a desolate, eerie atmosphere.
The vision of young Blair stopped before a door and vanished through it. The adult Blair, who had been following the ghost of her memory, stopped as well.
This was Esmeralda’s room.
She opened the door and stepped inside, only to be met with a scene vastly different from the peaceful, tidy room of her memory.
Everything in the room, marred by scorch marks, was frozen in time, exactly as it had been on the day of the fire. It was a bizarre feeling, as if she were the only one still caught in the flow of time.
Blair stared blankly for a moment, then, recalling the dream that had brought her here, she approached Esmeralda’s bed.
It was around here.
Based on where her younger self had been lying in the dream, Esmeralda must have hidden it nearby.
Blair tapped the floor with the heel of her shoe. Sure enough, one of the marble tiles made a slightly different, hollower sound.
Running her fingers along the edges, Blair noticed the gap around this tile was slightly wider than the others—just enough to fit a lever.
She scanned the room for something to use. After trying a comb and a hand mirror, she finally managed to pry the tile open with the base of a heavy candlestick.
Beneath it lay an iron box with a keyhole.
“It really... was here.”
Her relief that it was still here, just as she remembered, was short-lived. She had no idea where the key was.
Where would she have kept the key?
Blair tried to think like Esmeralda. She had said only Blair knew about the box. In that case, she wouldn't have left the key where a maid might find it during her duties. It had to be somewhere secret, a place no one would think to clean.
Blair scanned the charred room when another detail from her dream flashed through her mind.
Back then, Her Majesty realized I was awake and came right over. But when she stroked my hair, her hands were empty.
She must have hidden the key somewhere between the bed and where she'd been standing.
Could it be...?
A sudden thought struck her. She knelt and reached under the heavy bed frame, feeling along the underside.
A key on the floor would be easily found by the maids. But attached to the underside of the bed frame? It would be completely hidden from sight unless someone knew to feel for it.
Her fingers swept across the rough wood until, just as she'd hoped, they brushed against cold metal. Blair pulled it free.
It was a key.
Taking a shallow breath, Blair slid the key into the lock. It was stiff at first, but with a little pressure, it turned with a satisfying click. The box popped open.
Inside was a single document. Blair pulled it out.
The darkness had not yet fully lifted, making the words difficult to read, but the unique pattern on the first page was unmistakable.
A magic circle...?
Beneath it, a single sentence was written in Esmeralda’s familiar hand.
[There is rumored to be a black magic that can fulfill the Second Condition of the long-broken Divine Beast's Contract. Perhaps...]
As Blair held the paper to the faint morning light, she was startled by the distant tolling of a bell.
Six o’clock.
Dawn will break soon. Once it did, news of her visit would surely reach Katrina. She couldn't linger.
Besides, if this was related to her family's power, Herdin would know more about it than she did.
Blair decided to return to the Ducal Mansion. She couldn't take the heavy box, so she closed it, taking only the document and the key. Before leaving, she glanced back at the desolate room.
She had hoped that returning to the scene of the fire might trigger more memories, but nothing else came to her. The room remained just that—a place of memory.
Thinking of the traces of Esmeralda that lingered here, Blair made a silent promise.
I won’t run away this time, Your Majesty.
She turned, left the Empress's Palace, and climbed back into her carriage. The coachman, who had been dozing after the early summons, jolted awake and quickly set the carriage in motion, speeding away from the Imperial Palace.
Blair unfolded the document once more. She tried to read the other pages, but the swaying of the carriage made the words swim before her eyes.
Giving up, Blair folded the paper and fell into deep thought.
Why was she researching the Second Condition of the Divine Beast's Contract? And why hide the document so secretly?
As far as she knew, there was no connection between the Delmark family's Divine Beast's Contract and the fire. She began to wonder if her intuition had been wrong.
Still, I should show this to Herdin.
Just as she tucked the document away—
CRASH!
A violent impact slammed into the carriage, throwing Blair hard against the wall. A wave of suffocating pain washed over her, and she lost consciousness.