Chapter 109
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 93
Chapter Title: The Man with Pink Hair
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Like I said before, the original novel never mentioned where Ezra had been all this time.
As a side character, I had no chance of meeting Ezra, nor did I have any way of finding him.
‘Ezra was said to have been trapped somewhere before escaping… But nothing else was revealed before the series went on indefinite hiatus.’
Lost in thought, I walked in silence, holding the lantern. Ethan, following close behind, asked me a question.
“Will you be sad that I am leaving?”
Ethan asked from behind me. He glanced at me as he spoke, his eyes seeming to anticipate a certain answer.
What was this about? What answer was he expecting?
After a moment's thought, I shrugged and replied.
“It’ll feel more like having a bad tooth finally pulled.”
“...That’s just another way of saying you’ll be glad I’m gone.”
“Hey, I wouldn’t go that far.”
But I did expect to feel a sense of relief. Having him here had been a constant source of worry for various reasons.
Even though I had twisted the original plot from the very beginning, the situation in the capital seemed to be following the novel's script.
When Aurora said on the phone, “they’ll find out,” she might have been referring to Prince Lloyd's faction.
Right. For now, I’ll stop worrying about that and…
“I can’t imagine who would build such a passage, or for what purpose. And it doesn’t seem to have been made that long ago, either.”
Hearing Ethan’s voice from behind, I stopped walking and turned to look at him.
“You think it was made recently?”
When I asked, Ethan nodded and slowly ran his hand over the dirt wall. Then he picked up a bit of soil and rubbed it between his fingers.
“Look. The soil is soft, isn’t it? As if it was dug out not long ago.”
I followed his lead and touched the dirt wall. It was solid, of course, but just as Ethan said, the surface felt slightly soft and damp.
“Vanilla said she didn’t know about the underground passage. In that case, the previous owner of this mansion might have built it.”
“Either that, or Baron Ruskin could have built it without Lady Ruskin’s knowledge.”
That reminded me that the village chief had always handled property sales in town, so it would be a good idea to ask him. Fortunately, the chief was still alive.
‘I should ask Vanilla to bring the sales contract from her room at the inn.’
According to Vanilla, there might be records in her room from before Baron Ruskin purchased Happy House.
While I was lost in thought, Ethan took the lantern from my hand and began to walk ahead. After a long, silent march, he finally stopped.
“The path splits in two here.”
I stopped behind him and finally looked up.
Just as Ethan said, the path forked. It was pitch-black, and I couldn't see an inch in front of me. Standing before two paths that led to who-knows-where gave me the chills.
“I wonder how many paths there are. This place is designed like a real maze.”
“One moment, Miss Cherry. Do you see this?”
Ethan shone the lantern on the wall between the two paths. Just as he said, something was written there, like a white chalk mark.
On the left was the number 2, and on the right, the number 3.
“Huh? This is…”
“Aren’t these the numbers that were written on the back of the mansion’s blueprint you showed me?”
1 is Brunel, 3 is the spring, 6 is Haig, 8 is Notium.>
That’s right. It was definitely written on the back of the blueprint! Racking my brain, I nodded vigorously.
“Yes. One of the numbers listed under ‘Things to remember’ was ‘3, the spring.’ And Miss Ruskin was certain it was in the Baron's handwriting.”
“Which means… Baron Ruskin knew about this underground passage. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean he was the one who built it.”
That was true. I stared at the numbers written on the wall.
Come to think of it, those white chalk marks… There was definitely a piece of chalk on the fireplace grate.
The scrap of cloth and the chalk I found in the ashes weren’t very old. That would mean Baron Ruskin was the one who wrote the numbers on this wall and marked the blueprint.
‘Is Vanilla really not involved? Is it possible she truly knows nothing?’
When I asked her about the map, she looked like she genuinely had no idea.
Lost in thought, I looked at the numbers and then pointed to the 2.
“Number 2 wasn’t on the blueprint.”
“Then let’s try the path that was on the blueprint first.”
Ethan said, pointing toward path number 3. I nodded, and we headed down the left path together.
But we didn’t get far before we found this path was also blocked. It looked like we would need to dig our way through with a shovel again.
So we returned to the fork and tried path number 2, but it was blocked as well.
“It seems like the paths were blocked on purpose.”
Ethan said, crouching in front of the dead end and touching the soil.
“To avoid being discovered, maybe?”
If these paths lead somewhere, like the one to the Brunel police station, that means someone could come through from the other side, right?
“At present, that is the most likely possibility.”
“Hmm. Should we head back for now? It’s getting late, so it would be better to do the digging tomorrow.”
Ethan agreed with me. It was already dinnertime. Since Ethan was scheduled to leave tomorrow, tonight would be our last night together.
‘Right. I’ll talk about the underground passage with Harrison.’
With that thought, I headed back the way we came with Ethan. He kept looking at me as if he had a lot to say, his lips parting and closing, but in the end, he remained silent. It was quite unlike him.
* * *
“How was it? Did you find anything?”
Vanilla and Amy, who were waiting at the entrance, asked us. I shook my head.
“The path is blocked. It looks like we’ll have to dig through it again.”
“Again? It really doesn’t look like a collapse; it seems intentional. There’s no way only the entrances would be filled with dirt like that.”
Amy answered insightfully, then grumbled about having to dig again. I smiled and patted her on the head before turning to Vanilla.
“Miss Ruskin. Are you sure you don’t know anything about the passage? There were numbers written in chalk at a fork in the path. The same numbers Baron Ruskin wrote on the back of the map.”
“I wish I knew. But I don’t know anything about the mansions my father left behind.”
Vanilla replied, looking frustrated. She ran a hand through her hair and sighed, her expression pained.
“To be honest, my father left me with a mountain of debt and a bunch of worthless mansions, so things have been very difficult. What’s the point of being a noble if you’re poor?”
“So that’s why you love money so much, sis.”
“I had to sell all the mansions to pay off the debt.”
Amy looked at Vanilla with a fair bit of sympathy. But I was stunned by what she said next.
“My father was the victim of a real estate scam.”
‘My goodness. A real estate scam.’
I couldn’t help but sympathize, remembering how my own father had been scammed while trying to buy land for a farm in my past life. Vanilla suddenly started pouring out her woes.
“Like a fool, he was tempted by the idea that he could buy dozens of mansions and live off the rent.”
Hmm, so he dreamed of being a landlord.
“But it was a scam. All the mansions he was tricked into buying were just like this one.”
Vanilla said, gesturing to my “Happy House.”
“That’s why I was so puzzled. To think the famous Sinclair heiress would buy such a useless mansion.”
I had no response to her words. It was true that if I hadn’t been preparing for the apocalypse, I never would have bought Happy House. As the villagers said, it was practically a ruin.
“What happened to the person who scammed him?”
If that scammer was the owner of this mansion, maybe we could find out something from that?
But in response to my question, Vanilla shook her head grimly.
“I don’t know. I think I heard he was a noble, but whenever I tried to ask, my father would get evasive… He kept trying to protect the person who scammed him.”
Something was very suspicious. It seemed Baron Ruskin was so good-natured he was treated like a pushover.
“The only thing I remember is his hair color from the one time he visited the Ruskin mansion. He was completely covered by a robe, so I couldn’t see anything else, but I saw that he was a man with long, dark pink hair. He was about the same age as my father.”
Huh? Wait. Dark pink hair, long, and a middle-aged man? That’s a very unusual combination.
That was a perfect description of my father.
‘No way… Still, my father wouldn’t commit fraud…’
No. If it was my father… the Chairman Sinclair I knew… The chairman of the corrupt Sinclair Corporation…
I suddenly grew flustered and quickly shut my mouth.
“But dark pink hair… that’s the same color as yours, Star Candy sis?”
Amy voiced the chilling question. But Vanilla replied nonchalantly.
“It’s an uncommon color, but you see people with pink hair from time to time, don’t you?”
But for some reason, I felt extremely uneasy and uncomfortable.
‘Something’s not right.’