9
Episode 9
* * *
"The Young Miss has arrived. She has requested to have lunch together."
"I'm already eating, send her away."
"Yes, I understand."
After the head maid, Mary, left with a satisfied expression.
The dining room, with only Chloe, became quiet again.
She cut into the completely cold steak, resting her chin on her hand.
The steak was definitely half-rotten.
She had lost her sense of taste and smell due to the Ability Outburst, but she could still notice that much.
A year ago, she would have called the maids and reprimanded them.
They were vermin who would quickly cower and obey if she got angry.
But it was not long after Coco's death anniversary.
'Everything is so listless and boring.'
She put down the knife she was using to cut the steak.
She was just going to go back to her bedroom and sleep more.
But then, she saw a white mouse gnawing at the wall of the dining room.
'Coco used to love playing with mice with her paws.'
She would press down on the mouse with her small paws.
'There was nothing as cute as that.'
Without realizing it, she was staring at the mouse.
And then...
The mouse, which had been clinging to the wall, was digging at something.
In an instant, a hole appeared in the wall.
'It's so old, they haven't been maintaining it.'
She was just thinking that when.
Soon after, a small ball rolled out of the hole.
A palm-sized, vermilion ball.
It looked like a common ball, but Chloe gasped.
It was Coco's favorite ball.
As proof, the label had the words 'Coco's' written on it by her.
Coco was greedy and always hid her toys.
Most of them had been lost.
"Why is this ball here..."
Looking at the ball, she recalled the past.
Coco loved playing with a hard ball that made a 'beep' sound when pressed with her paws.
Strangely, the surface of the ball was slightly cracked. If she put snacks in the crack, Coco would excitedly sniff around.
Recalling the memories, Chloe bent down and picked up the ball.
In the meantime, the mouse hid in the mouse hole.
"It smells like Coco."
Holding the small ball in her hand, she wondered if there was anything new.
Come to think of it, Coco had lost quite a few toys.
"I thought they were buried in the ground, but the mouse had them."
This was the Seahawk Manor she had designed when she was a child.
At that time, she had included several maze-like passages in the design.
Passages that she had forgotten about as she grew up.
Only Coco, who used to take walks in the manor, would know them all.
'I won't be able to find the other toys unless I search every nook and cranny.'
Still, it was good that she found the hard ball.
She was carefully putting it in her arms when.
The head maid, Mary, knocked on the door. When she answered to come in, Mary entered with a troubled expression.
"Chloe."
"What's wrong?"
"The Young Miss is refusing to leave. She insists she has something to tell you..."
Behind her, Coco peeked her head out.
The head maid said with an annoyed expression.
"Young Miss! You can't come in here!"
"...H-Huh! I have something to say!"
Chloe sighed as she watched Coco bow her head.
She didn't even have the energy to get angry anymore.
"Why are you here again?"
"I told you not to come every day... But I saw something amazing..."
Her voice was a little subdued.
Looking at the top of her bowed head, Chloe felt strange.
"Um, I saw a mouse carrying something amazing, so I came to tell you..."
"...A mouse?"
"Yes! It's something really amazing. Something like a squishy jelly..."
Hearing that, something clicked in her mind.
"...A bone shape?"
"Yes! Do you know about it?"
At that moment, a flicker of hope stirred in her heart.
Coco, the small dog who knew the structure of the manor better than she who designed it.
So Coco might have hidden toys somewhere Chloe didn't know about.
'There are still traces of Coco that I didn't know about...'
Chloe dismissed all the maids and stared at the child again.
"Tell me. The mouse, what?"
"Well! The mouse was carrying a squishy bone-shaped doll and hid it in a strange place! It was so strange and amazing that I came to tell you!"
"...Where is it now?"
"Um, it's hidden in a really strange place! You know, mice usually only come out at night when people aren't around!"
"So."
As the child continued to ramble, Chloe's expression grew more and more rigid.
"Actually, I'm really good at catching mice!"
"What are you trying to say?"
"But I can only catch them at night! Can I, can I just sleep here for one night?"
She stared at the child with chubby cheeks.
Both cheeks were flushed as if she had started an undercover investigation.
Her expression seemed to be pounding.
The sudden proposal, everything felt so out of the blue.
But...
"If I let you sleep here tonight, you can find the toy?"
"Yes!"
"...Then, you. Catch the mouse."
"Yes! Please watch me! Chloe, don't go to sleep first! That's how I can find the bone-shaped toy!"
"Just for today. I don't want you here after that."
"Yes! Wow! That's great!"
Even though she clearly said only for today, as soon as Chloe gave her permission, Coco started rummaging through the dining room as if it were her own home, without showing any disappointment.
She sighed deeply, saying, 'There's no sunlight, and the steak smells rotten...'
She suddenly pointed her finger and said, 'You bad guys!'
A suspicious little kid suddenly appeared and was rummaging through her Seahawk Manor.
But she had no choice but to accept the kid's proposal.
Because she wanted to see even that toy that Coco had played with a few times.
She missed that warmth so much.
* * *
That night, at Chloe Ardos's Seahawk Manor.
I hid in the darkness and scurried down to the basement.
Pretending to follow the mouse, pretending to crawl, I headed towards the path I knew.
After secretly passing through the winding passage!
A dark door leading to the basement opened.
'I finally got in!'
I could see a lot of dusty chests piled up.
I rolled my eyes around and looked around.
I could hear the maids chattering quietly in another room.
But I focused only on 'finding' what was in the room.
When I was a puppy. I played hide-and-seek with my sister in this Seahawk Manor.
So I knew everything about this Seahawk Manor.
It was a dark place, but I could see.
'I have to find the ledger with the apple drawn on the cover.'
An old ledger with a lot of worn parchment inserted and stained with fingerprints.
If I found that, I could kick out the maids.
I boasted my excellent sense of smell, a specialty of puppies, and started sniffing out suspicious smells.
And finally, I found a clue.
'That's it!'
I could see that the end of the wall full of chests was slightly empty.
I barely managed to move the large chest with my small hands.
I could see a small gap under the chest and a book inserted in between.
"Hu, huff."
It was so hard but...!
I was able to grab a very small book stuck in the crack in the floor.
'Mission complete! I found it!'
I slipped the thin book into my dress pocket.
'Now I just have to get out!'
I was just about to lift my heels again and start walking quietly, when.
Thwack!
With a cracking sound like a latch bursting, the door burst open with a thud.
The maids with familiar faces that I had seen at my sister's Seahawk Manor appeared.
"I heard a noise in this room."
"Looks like a rat has sneaked in."
I hid behind a box in the darkness and held my breath, "Huff."
Thump, thump.
The sound of footsteps was gradually getting closer.
But there was no time to hide my tension.
Just when I thought I had barely managed to hide behind the box.
Crash!