Chapter 484: Who Is There?

"Save me, please—I can't let Lady Tadvi get hurt!"

The cooks pinning the woman down exchanged uncertain glances. "What's she looking at?"

"She seems to be staring at the corridor... Is someone there?"

"There shouldn't be. Who'd be hanging around at this hour?"

"Exactly. She's always been off her rocker, talking to empty corners like it's nothing. You don't actually believe she sees someone, do you? With Lady Sharon's vision? In this darkness?"

But one voice wavered. "Still, she really does look like she's seeing something. Otherwise, how could she sound so sure... Wait—what if she's been secretly practicing dark magic behind our backs? What if she summoned a demon into the Kendya Manor?"

"Stop spouting nonsense! She doesn't have that kind of power!"

The plump head cook snapped irritably, cutting off the chatter. She jabbed a finger at a nearby maid holding an oil lamp. "You—go check the corridor. The rest of you, for God's sake, help me tie up Lady Sharon. And someone get a rag. Did you not hear me? Do you want to live or not?"

Except for the one singled out, the others eagerly helped the head cook bind Lady Sharon, even stuffing a rag into her still-wailing mouth.

But Arnell had no time to worry about Lady Sharon's predicament. The corridor she stood in was bare. The oil lamps overhead kept it from being pitch black, which meant Arnell could clearly see there was nothing to hide behind. If that lamp-carrying cook really came in, she'd be spotted immediately.

Oh, damn it. What a wretched situation.

Arnell bit her lower lip hard, pressing herself flat against the wall. But under the lamplight, it was utterly futile.

If that cook came in, it was all over.

The light from the kitchen doorway grew closer. Arnell's heart leapt into her throat.

Help! Someone, anyone—please save me!

"Squeak—"

Just then, Arnell's sharp ears caught a strange sound. She recognized it instantly: rats in the corridor.

Arnell had little experience with rats, but Master Anson and Dr. Pascal had once told her they were deeply sinister creatures. They carried disease, and in certain dark rituals meant to invoke curses, rats were often used.

Remembering the cook's earlier remark about Sharon possibly summoning demons through dark magic, Arnell knew such things were meant to deceive the ignorant. But in this desperate moment, she couldn't afford to be picky.

Taking a deep breath, Arnell lightly tossed the stone in her hand toward the source of the squeaking. Darkness obscured her vision, but she'd trained extensively in blindfolded attacks. Judging the rat's location by sound alone wasn't too difficult.

Sure enough, the rat let out a sharper shriek after being struck. Thanks to Arnell's cunning angle, it misjudged the direction of the attack and bolted straight toward the lamplight.

The cook outside barely registered the sound at first. But when several plump rats scurried past her feet and charged into the kitchen, all thoughts of checking the corridor vanished. Her face went white. She spun around, screaming as she rushed back inside.

"Rats! There are rats—!"

"Damn it, it's those filthy rats! Lady Sharon must've been summoning these evil things. She really has been practicing dark magic behind our backs!"

"Help! For God's sake, someone get these rats out of here!"

"Oh no—shut your frog-sized mouth! Do you want everyone in this kitchen to die with you?"

"Ahhh—!"

As chaos erupted in the kitchen, Arnell wasted no time slipping out of the corridor.

As for visiting Lady Sharon—Arnell swallowed the saliva that had pooled in her mouth from nerves. She decided to save that task for last. At least until she and Azrael confirmed everything about Lady Sharon's situation. If tonight's close call repeated itself, who knew if she'd be lucky enough to have rats come to her rescue again?

Originally, Arnell had planned to head from here to the tower where Noah Ditch was staying. Azrael and the others had told her that the Noah Ditch currently at the Kendya Manor wasn't the real Noah Ditch. This made Arnell recall their first meeting in the tower—the way Noah Ditch had looked at her, with eyes full of strange affection and longing. Yet that face had been completely unfamiliar, as if someone who'd been watching her all along had swapped faces, only to meet again when she thought they'd never reunite.

It was a dangerous line of thought. Especially since Arnell couldn't think of anyone she knew well enough who could carry out such a mission.

Someone from the Virlet family?

That was impossible. Arnell felt no sense of familiarity when facing Noah Ditch. In fact, she felt less at ease with him than she did with Azrael. So Noah Ditch's impersonator couldn't be from the Virlet family.

Arnell had originally planned to get answers tonight while infiltrating the Kendya Manor. But clearly, that opportunity was lost. Especially after the cooks mentioned that "young lady" had beaten Noah Ditch black and blue, even summoning Lord Azrael to treat him.

As for who this "young lady" was—the answer was obvious.

Mallory had only just arrived at the Kendya Manor today. And Azrael had said there were currently no young ladies from the Kendya family residing here. That meant the person who'd whipped Noah Ditch could only be that mysterious masked woman.

As for the matter of taste preferences, the cooks had also mentioned this masked woman came from the western part of the Soth Empire.

The west...

Wasn't that where the Bolivar family was located?

A plan began forming in Arnell's mind.

Though the west had many noble families, the Bolivars were a marquess house. They should have deeper knowledge of western nobility and power structures. If she could sketch that mysterious crest and deliver it to Marquess Bolivar or Lady Rosalind, perhaps they could uncover more information.