Chapter 67: Cradle (Requesting Monthly Votes)

Looking at the man in the photograph, Lyra said as if thinking:

We delayed our departure by two days after receiving the distress letter to gather relevant intelligence.

“Mrs. Pualis’s full name is Pualis de Rocafort, correct?”

She paused before saying:

“We investigated the Rocafort family in Dariel and found no one named Pualis.”

In Intis, women after marriage may retain their maiden names, especially if their name contains “de,” indicating noble lineage.

——“de” in Intis means “from,” and the following surname refers to the original fief.

“None?” Lu Mi was genuinely surprised.

He knew Mrs. Pualis had problems—and serious ones—but he hadn’t expected her identity might be forged entirely!

Ryan Cos nodded:

“In Dariel, Rocafort is a large clan with many members, even producing a provincial councilor. We were pressed for time and couldn’t conduct a deeper investigation; we could only preliminarily confirm no Pualis exists, though there is a man named Prit who has been missing for over a year.”

“Prit?” Lu Mi asked as soon as the name came up, “What’s his connection to Mrs. Pualis? It sounds familiar.”

Ryan Cos shook his head:

“Insufficient intelligence to speculate.”

“What we know is that Prit de Rocafort followed Trill’s most popular ‘Dantiism,’ fathered many illegitimate children, and was hated and despised by many—perhaps that’s why he had to leave or was forced out of Dariel.”

“Dantiism?” Lu Mi found the term unfamiliar.

Aurora’s subscribed magazines and newspapers were either female-oriented, story-driven, or focused on national affairs, with only a few occult publications—hardly touching on men’s fashion trends.

Lyra laughed and said:

“Simply put, it’s a dandy: fashionable in appearance, elegant in speech, and reckless in behavior.”

“Trill people really know how to play—turning adultery into a philosophy, a doctrine, a trend.” Lu Mi sighed in amazement, adding a mocking remark.

When it came to the self-discipline of adultery, Trill people remained the masters; even parish priests were mere children beside them.

…………

Inside the semi-subterranean two-story building, Aurora sipped her Marquis’s black tea and spoke to Mrs. Pualis, Nalaizha, and others about the latest trends: “In recent years, Trill has built many arcades. What is an arcade? It’s a street sealed off, covered with glass overhead, paved with marble, lined on both sides with elegant, luxurious shops. By day, light pours down from above; by night, gas lamps illuminate it. Carriages are forbidden. The most famous is the Opera House Arcade Street…”

Mrs. Pualis held a white-glazed porcelain teacup, her bright brown eyes fixed on Aurora, smiling as she listened.

“It sounds so appealing…” Nalaizha murmured.

It evoked a direct sense of elegance, fashion, cleanliness, and brightness.

Learning from Aurora about Intis’s latest trends was the main reason they accepted her invitation for afternoon tea.

After a while, the conversation turned to Aurora’s works, focusing on matters of love.

“Love is truly unfathomable, impossible to grasp…” Mrs. Pualis seemed to speak from deep feeling.

So this is why you have affairs with so many men? Aurora couldn’t help mentally scoffing.

Mrs. Pualis turned to her, lips curved in a faint smile, sighing slightly as she said:

“Sometimes, you get angry because he made a mistake—you wish he’d die, you want to kill him—but when he truly faces death, you can’t help but save him, and you won’t even tell him. Perhaps… this is love…”

…………

In the master bedroom of the administrative officer’s residence.

“Perhaps Mrs. Pualis once fell in love with Prit, a follower of ‘Dantiism,’ and had a forbidden romance—so the family stopped mentioning her, and she married someone at random, using family connections to secure him the position of administrative officer in Keldu Village.” Lu Mi formed this theory based on the stories and plotlines his sister had written.

This could explain why Administrative Officer Beoster held such a low status at home.

“Possibly,” Ryan Cos replied simply, then added, “Continue searching, but don’t attempt to open safes or locked items—risk triggering some alarm.”

Lu Mi and the others immediately scattered to search other areas.

Using his “Hunter” ability to observe minute traces, Lu Mi still found nothing.

Lyra and the others found nothing either.

Reluctantly, they shifted to the study and other rooms, patiently searching.

As time slipped away, the four reached the end of the corridor, where a closed room stood opposite an open sunroom, with stairs leading to one of the towers beside it.

Ryan Cos, having finished searching the sunroom, turned his gaze to Lyra.

Lyra raised her hand to touch the silver bells hanging from her veil, murmuring to herself as she walked toward the opposite closed wooden door.

This time, none of the four bells rang.

Lyra exhaled softly, gripped the handle, and gently pushed the wooden door open.

It was a vast, empty room. In the center stood a rocking cradle.

The cradle was made of brown wood, mounted within a wooden frame, lined with clean but aged white cotton swaddling, entirely empty.

If this had been the nursery for Mrs. Pualis’s two children, the room held no toys—only scattered grains of wheat, barley, rice, rye, and oats on the floor, looking deeply strange.

Moreover, these grains were well-preserved, as if brought in only days ago.

Valentine’s body shimmered with a faint glow as he entered the room and circled it.

Soon, he returned to the doorway and shook his head at Ryan Cos and Lyra:

“No evil aura.”

“Alright,” Lyra looked at Lu Mi, “Next, the tower?”

Lu Mi had always been curious about the castle’s two towers—never expecting today to get a chance to “visit” one.

After Valentine left the strange cradle room, Ryan Cos gripped the handle, preparing to close the wooden door and restore its original state.

At that moment, Lu Mi unconsciously glanced inside once more.

The brown-wood cradle began to sway gently!

But all windows in the room and the opposite sunroom were tightly shut, and no wind blew through the corridor!

“This…” Lu Mi’s pupils dilated instantly.

Noticing his anomaly, Lyra turned her body, peering inside.

The cradle still swayed gently, as if an invisible, intangible infant lay within the white cotton swaddling.

Instinctively, Lyra raised her right hand and pressed her fingertips to her brow, as if trying to relieve eye fatigue.

She was preparing to activate her Spirit Sight to see what lay hidden.

At that instant, the four silver bells on her veil and boots rang out sharply—clanging wildly, as if about to explode!

Ryan Cos’s expression hardened; he barked:

“Leave this place!”

As he spoke, he lunged two steps into the sunroom and turned his body to slam into the floor-to-ceiling window.

He meant to break open a direct escape route from the castle!

Crash!

Ryan Cos crashed into the window—but no shattering glass sounded.

Instead, translucent faces of small children emerged on the glass—some appearing to be infants.

Their faces were pale with a bluish tint, unnervingly eerie.

After being “struck” by Ryan Cos, they all opened their mouths and wailed, “Waaah!”

With their cries, the third floor of the castle darkened drastically; translucent children’s faces now surfaced on every wall and pane of glass.

Some screamed, others turned their eyes, staring blankly at Lu Mi, Lyra, Valentine, and Ryan Cos.

Merely being stared at this way, Lu Mi felt his body turn icy, trembling uncontrollably, his heart flooded with fear.

The next second, Valentine’s body blazed with dark gold light.

The light flowed like water, expanding rapidly in a ring, swiftly enveloping Lu Mi, Lyra, and Valentine.

A warm sensation rose—Lu Mi’s internal chill vanished instantly.

He stopped trembling, his heart filled with courage; he drew his iron-black axe in one swift motion.

Simultaneously, Ryan Cos seemed to grow taller, his clothes stretched taut.

Around him, faint rays of dawnlight emerged, coalescing rapidly into a full-body suit of silver-white armor, forming a broad, heavy sword of pure light in his hands.

Ryan Cos raised the sword high and brought it down like a giant upon the window before him.

The pale, bluish children’s faces screamed as they dissolved into blue smoke beneath the blade of light.

But the glass did not shatter—more translucent faces emerged, their piercing wails tormenting Lu Mi and the others’ ears and minds.

“Who has entered the castle?”

A high female voice rang out, echoing in layers.

Almost simultaneously, Lu Mi saw a figure appear at the other end of the corridor, coming up from the second floor.

She was in her forties, with brown hair and brown eyes, her face still smooth and attractive—she was the woman who had delivered Louis Lund.

Now she wore a gray-white long dress, holding a pair of enormous shears that looked capable of severing a human head, as if she’d just returned from pruning the garden.

She stared at Lu Mi and the others and said coldly:

“You deserve to die!”

…………

Inside the semi-subterranean two-story building.

Mrs. Pualis suddenly froze, her expression shifting slightly.

She set down her white-glazed porcelain teacup and smiled at Aurora:

“I’m so sorry, but I just remembered something urgent at home—I must return immediately.”

“Ah?” Aurora was startled.

Mrs. Pualis rose with a look of regret:

"I originally planned to stay after afternoon tea to continue discussing your work and the beautiful, brilliant loves within it."

"I welcome it," Aurora responded immediately.

"No," Madame Pualis shook her head, "that matter concerns my children."

PS: Please vote for monthly tickets~

(End of chapter)