Chapter 19
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: A Gentleman's Curiosity
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You want to ask me something? Not Ethan?
I looked back at Ethan again. Ethan, who had been glaring at Knox with displeasure, shrugged when our eyes met. It seemed to mean I should handle it myself. Besides, it's not like Ethan is my guardian, so it wasn't a matter to discuss with him.
I tried to gauge Knox's intentions, but it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. Behind that slick face, it seemed a hundred vipers were coiled.
After a moment of thought, I readily nodded.
“Alright. Would you like to come to my house with Sir Ethan?”
Anyway, this worked out well. I needed to silence Knox one way or another. While I'm at it, maybe I should try to scout him as a worker.
* * *
Knox walked leisurely behind Cherry.
Cherry was heading out of the outskirts of Brunel village and climbing a hill. She introduced the dilapidated-looking mansion in the distance as her home.
This was, without a doubt, incredibly interesting.
Cherry and Ethan, an unlikely pair, being in the same place was surprising enough…
But no one would have ever expected ‘the’ Cherry Sinclair to be living in a ruined house in a rural village like this.
“Come in.”
Cherry opened the heavy stone gate and spoke to Knox. They passed through the gate and crossed a wide garden.
Ethan was walking a short distance away from Cherry.
Publicly, Ethan's image was that of a reckless madman. On top of that, after becoming a police officer, he had apparently earned the nickname ‘the Mad Dog of Benton.’
There were even rumors that he tore into criminals like a dog.
But unlike his outward appearance, Ethan’s true nature was good and just. So much so that he had mercilessly abandoned his position as the Lancaster heir out of a sense of duty alone.
On the other hand, Knox, who was publicly known to be kind and gentlemanly, was not so good-natured.
To the point where if anyone asked how a life-saving doctor could be so, Knox could confidently admit that he was exactly that.
In any case, while he didn't know why that Lancaster was showing interest in Sinclair, Knox himself had a clear reason to be interested in Cherry.
Around this time last year, Knox had been at the scene where the Westmore urban legend had spread.
It was because he had heard that the Elpinus Herb was discovered in the abandoned house where human screams and animal cries were said to be heard.
Then, just like now, people ignorant about the Elpinus Herb had requested he test it for narcotics.
The Elpinus Herb was, of course, not a drug. But it was difficult to obtain, and even harder to manage and cultivate.
But the fact that such a large quantity of the herb was discovered at 10 Hague Street in Westmore was strange. That's why he had requested a narcotics investigator to trace the trade of the Elpinus Herb.
“It seems someone has been continuously buying and selling Elpinus Herb seeds. The last transaction traces to 61 Notium Street in the capital, Benton.”
He had heard this news through the narcotics investigator.
And that day, Knox witnessed a very surprising scene at the mansion at 61 Notium Street.
A great commotion seemed to erupt from the quiet mansion, and then a man burst out of the front door.
Following behind the man was an unidentifiable beast-like creature, and right after, a woman whose hood had fallen back ran out.
From where Knox stood by the wall, her face was clearly visible. Though she wore a mask, he distinctly saw her wavy pink hair and golden eyes.
The woman immediately pulled her hood back up, but Knox, with his sharp eyes, recognized her at once.
It was Cherry Sinclair.
“Aaaah!”
A scream came from in front of the gate. A passerby must have spotted the monster.
And Cherry, who had rushed out with quick steps, immediately swung an axe at the monster that had fallen to the ground.
Thwack—!
The axe blade embedded itself squarely in the monster's head, and a thick, green liquid splattered out.
Did I see that wrong?
For a moment, Knox wondered if he had mistaken someone else for Cherry Sinclair just now.
After all, there was no way that woman would come to a slum like this. Cherry Sinclair would never appear in a place like this alone, especially not in that kind of attire.
Besides, she was said to be so frail that she often collapsed, so killing a monster with an axe was out of the question.
“It’s dangerous! Get back!”
But the woman's voice he had just heard.
“Did you see a man run out of this house?”
“H-He ran that way.”
And the conversation that followed.
It was very similar to the voice of Cherry Sinclair that Knox remembered. If he hadn't seen her face when the hood fell back, it would have been difficult to be sure it was her by voice alone.
Knox noticed a box sticking out of Cherry's open belt bag. She shoved the box inside and fastened the buckle, but it was clearly a box of Elpinus Herb.
After the monster was dealt with, the one who appeared on the scene was the famous Ethan Duncan Lancaster. It seemed he was on patrol, responded to a report, and discovered the scene of the incident.
Cherry Sinclair, as if she had a guilty conscience, clutched her hood desperately before quickly fleeing. She was never caught.
10 Hague Street in Westmore.
61 Notium Street in Benton.
The Elpinus Herb was found at both mansions.
And Cherry had stolen the Elpinus Herb—the very herb even Ethan mistook for a drug—from 61 Notium Street. And she was planning to grow it in the garden of that ruined house, wasn't she?
Knox was convinced that the Elpinus Herb was also connected to the rumored ‘monster.’
‘Could she know something too? About the connection between the herb and the monster.’
That was right. He was currently gathering information about the monster.
Furthermore, Knox held a crucial piece of information. He knew which nobleman had pulled strings to keep information about ‘the monster's corpse from 61 Notium Street’ from leaking to the public.
‘Still, it doesn't seem likely that Cherry Sinclair is connected to that nobleman.’
Above all, considering that nobleman's disposition, it was unlikely he would have involved a young woman of common birth like Cherry in such a secret operation.
‘Then why was Cherry there, and what was her purpose?’ The question remained.
‘What if she's also hunting the monster? What if she's noticed the connection between all these incidents?’
From the moment he witnessed Cherry kill the monster with an axe, Knox decided not to believe the public's perception of Cherry Sinclair.
She could have run away, but she didn't. She risked danger to kill the monster and save someone. Perhaps she was a different person from the one Knox knew.
So, for now, he decided to watch her. It would be best to observe her for a while and figure out her objective.
<Cherry's Temporary Shelter, Happy House>
And he was also extremely curious about the true nature of this suspicious mansion that Cherry had purchased.
* * *
We entered the first-floor lobby of Happy House.
I never dreamed I would be bringing Knox and Ethan, the main characters of <Love in a Ruined World>, here.
Anyway, even in this awkward situation, my mind was completely preoccupied with thoughts of ‘how to silence Knox’ and ‘how to scout Knox as Happy House's dedicated doctor.’
…Of course, I knew the chances of achieving the latter were almost zero.
Knox took off his hat, clasped his hands behind his back, and slowly looked around the lobby.
“Hmm. Is this really the mansion where you live?”
Knox seemed a little surprised. It was, in fact, quite surprising. The mansion was in terrible shape. It looked as if it had been attacked by someone.
I had asked Vanilla various things about the mansion, but she didn't know the details either. Just as she'd said before, I only got the reply that she owned too many mansions to know much about this one.
A broken chandelier hung precariously from the lobby ceiling, and the paint on the walls was peeling off. I had swept and scrubbed diligently, but there was nothing I could do about the rusted molding.
On top of that, the built-in consoles and other furniture were also quite old and shabby.
Just then, Ethan spoke up.
“I had my suspicions, but I didn't think it would be this bad.”
This was the first time Ethan had seen the inside of the mansion. Perhaps that was why he, too, was diligently looking around. It seemed he wanted to find clues about the ‘illegal firearms’ he had subtly mentioned before.
‘So he apologized for the drug misunderstanding, but the firearms are a separate issue. How thorough of him.’
Then Knox, who had been quietly stroking his chin, turned toward me. He stared intently at my face as if observing me, then asked.
“Why on earth is a child of the Sinclair family living like this? There must be a reason for it.”
Would he believe me if I told him the truth? I quietly approached Knox and whispered to him.
“Please don't tell anyone I'm here. If you do, I won't let you leave this mansion.”
I gave him a light warning, sounding like the owner of a haunted house.
“Ah. And just in case you're wondering, I'm not joking.”
Wanting to get a firm answer from Knox, I emphasized my point again, and he nodded.
“I am not such a petty nobleman. I am a gentleman. I won't speak of it.”
“Thank you.”
“In return, you must answer me. The real reason you're here like this. What on earth did you do to have to hide here? Just tell me. I'll keep it a secret from Lancaster.”
Knox smiled with a gentle expression. Then, as if whispering a clandestine secret, he took another step closer to me.
“Let's make it a secret just between the two of us. You'd like that, wouldn't you, Miss Cherry? I prefer it that way too; it feels more intimate.”
…Huh?