CH 76

They both stared at the open wall with surprised faces. Cersinia was so surprised that she forgot to breathe. Then she turned back to calm her beating heart. A maid was standing in front of her. The maid looked at her with a look that she didn’t like Cersinia. Looking at the surprised expression on her face, this person seemed to know the identity of the secret door for the first time today.

“What kind of…”

The maid muttered with a puzzled face. Beyond the door, there was deep darkness that’s good for hiding something secretive. It was impossible to tell what was in the darkness where there was not even a single light. At least two stairs were seen next the door under the dim light attached to the hallway. It seemed to go downstairs through this door. Since the current place is on the first floor, it must lead to the basement below.

‘A very deep, dark place is hidden so that most people cannot find it.’

A very deep and dark place, just like what Limapheus said. Cersinia’s crimson eyes sparkling seeing that.

‘This must be the place Limapheus spoke of.’

“W-What happened… Please leave at once. Outsiders are not allowed in this place.”

Now that the maid had come to her senses, she spoke with a sharp voice. Cersinia stepped down the stairs, ignoring the maid’s words. She came all the way here, so there’s no way she would just go back.

“I told you to get out of here!”

When the maid was ignored, she pulled Cersinia’s collar.

“Who are you to come into this place! Why are you pretending to be the hostess of this mansion!”

The maid used harsh words, perhaps because she had disliked Cersinia for all the time. Cersinia put up with it because she didn’t want to make things big while trying to push the maid from behind.

“I have something to check just for a second. I’m just going to see it and go out.”

“No, you can’t! You’re only a bitch who didn’t even know come from where!”

‘Bitch? I was just going to leave her alone.’

Cersinia turned around, annoyed by the maid’s harsh words. Then the maid, astonished that she didn’t know Cersinia would suddenly turn, let go of the collar she had been holding.

“Huh?”

Cersinia was perplexed. Her center of gravity was shaken, so when the maid let go of her hand, her body leaned back and floated in the air.

“Kyaaa!”

With the maid’s scream loud enough to tear her ears, Cersinia helplessly fell down the stairs.

Thud. Thud.

With a crashing sound, she slipped and fell. It happened so quickly that Cersinia herself couldn’t even react properly.

“Ugh!”

The stairs, which she couldn’t see properly because it was dark, were quite high, so she only reached the floor after rolling for a long time.

“Ouch. It hurts…”

A groan of pain escaped her mouth. There was no place where she didn’t get sore all over her body. She felt a tingling pain in her side, arms, and shoulders. It was difficult to find out where she didn’t hurt. Thankfully, she covered her face with her arms otherwise her face would have been torn and bruised.

“I-I didn’t do anything wrong! It’s because you suddenly turned around…”

Cersinia didn’t even say anything, but the maid shouted in fear.

“I won’t say anything, so just let me look here for a moment and go out.”

Cersinia rose from the cold floor. She sprained her ankle, and it hurt a lot.

“Don’t pretend to be generous. You don’t have the right to command me in the first place!”

Perhaps her words made the maid seriously irritated. The maid shook her fist and shouted out. Cersinia raised her head. Standing in front of the open door, the maid was fidgeting with what was going on. Their conversation has been going wrong since earlier. It was impossible to have a normal conversation.

“Yes, yes, I know.”

Cersinia ignored her because she no longer felt worthy of dealing with her.

“This is real!”

The ignored maid changed her mind as she tried to rush at Cersinia as she was angry.

“I can’t believe I’m looking over you just because of my master.”

Cersinia’s eyebrows wriggled at the words that touched her mood. The maid grabbed the place to close the door.

“Wait…!”

“That’s where you’re supposed to be.”

With those words, the maid pulled the doorknob as hard as she could.

Thud.

Unlike the appearance, the wooden door closed with a heavy sound, probably because it was thicker than it looked. The light coming through the open door disappeared, and the basement became dark. In the pitch-black darkness, it was so dark that you couldn’t even tell if your eyes were closed or open. Isolated in the basement, Cersinia widened her eyes.

“Huh…”

Soon after, a burst of laughter came out. It wasn’t because of the maid’s act of closing the door. She knew why the maid acted like this, and all of the time, she knew why the maid was staring at her distastefully. It was obviously jealousy. When Cersinia realized her own feelings, she could clearly feel the maid’s feelings.

‘Did I look ugly like that?’

She hoped that her own behavior in the past days wasn’t like that.

‘From Aronia to the maid…’

Anyway, she’s really guilty. She doesn’t know that there are so many people who like Ben. Cersinia grinned and stretched her hand out in the air. Because the light was needed in the darkness where nothing was seen.

Fwosh.

A flame quickly ignited in her palm. She roughly scanned the basement with the flame in her hands. Fortunately, candles were placed on the sparsely placed candlesticks on the wall. Without hesitation, she threw the flame at the candle. The flame fell on the candle without an inch of error, and the pitch-black darkness soon went away.

Cersinia shook off her dress and organized it. Since the door was already closed, she went around to take a good look. The closed-door will come off with just one kick, so she didn’t worry much about being trapped.

It was only after she had brushed her tangled hair roughly with her hands that she checked the stairs she had rolled. Each of them was quite high. Even if she roughly counted it, she could see more than 20.

‘I rolled from there, so it can’t be helped to get hurt.’

As she took steps, turning her still throbbing shoulders, she limped her throbbing ankle. Every time her shoulder moved, it was accompanied by a tingling pain.

“Fortunately, there is no one suffering other than me.”

Cersinia thought that she should take a steam bath first when she got back, then she looked back into the room. The room without a single-window was cold and humid. Drops of water dripped from the damp ceiling and made puddles on the floor. It was hard to believe that this place with an eerie atmosphere was located in the Grand Duchy. Even the servants who work in the mansion didn’t know about this room.

‘What is the reason for hiding it so hard that you can’t find it unless you look closely?’

Cersinia’s steps, who had been scanning the room with a serious face as if not missing a single thing, came to a standstill. She thought it was just an empty basement, but an unexpected room appeared in front of her.

“This…”

It made her astonished. A room where dozens of bars are rising out. It was a prison. The room where she stood was a hallway, and to her right were countless bars. The prison was divided into thick walls, and one prison space was about 3.3m². She grabbed the bars that tightly enough to fit a fist into it. The bars were so thick that she couldn’t hold them using one hand.

“Why is this place…”

‘Is it common for nobles with high status to have a prison in their mansions?’

‘I don’t know why Limapheus mentioned this place.’

She walked a little further forward. But the prison was empty as if it had never been used. But maybe she was still walking only in the middle of the hallway?

Unlike the prison that had been empty so far, a prison with an extra bed that was small enough for one person to lie down appeared. There was not only a bed but also a bathroom, and broken paper swords were strewn all over the floor, and chain shackles hung from the ceiling.

‘Shackles?’

‘Is it to tie up the sinner?’

Cersinia was confused and found something hanging next to the bars.

“Why a whip…”

A leather whip was hung on the prison’s outer wall, whether used to punish criminals. The long, thick whip looked like it would tear the flesh apart if hit once. Obviously, if you get hit with this whip, you will get a long wound… At that moment, Ben’s back, which had been wounded red, flashed like a flash of light in front of her. Cersinia covered her mouth with her pale hands.

“Don’t tell me…”

Her whole body trembled. Ominous goosebumps ran up her spine. The back of her back stood up crooked, and her blood cooled down. The wounds that filled Ben’s back. Dark red scars that looked like the claws of a beast had been scraped off him or had been scratched with a sharp, thick knife.

“It is a wound from training. It’s nothing.”

Ben spoke urgently. Like he just thought of an excuse.

“Cersinia, it’s really nothing.”

As she realized it, Cersinia grabbed her sleeve with an anxious look.

“It can’t be nothing.”

She distorted her face, holding back her throbbing chest.

“You devil who doesn’t even know grace. How dare you to Master, Master…”

The old man muttered, feeling the presence of someone approaching him, and opened his eyes. The old man, who met her eyes, which twinkled like a flame that couldn’t be hidden even in the dark, recited with a grin.

“Cersinia. You’re that Cersinia.”