"I believe her."
Julien wasn't the slightest bit surprised when he saw the monkey-like girl crumble before him. Without a change of expression, he motioned for one of his men to carry her away.
Mario swiftly appeared beside him like a ghost, voicing out his disbelief.
"Sir, do you perhaps… find her beautiful?"
Although his doubts were atrocious even to himself, Mario couldn't help but believe that it may be the case when he saw his master ignoring him. If not, what would be the reason behind his master's lack of madness upon catching sight of the girl's human facial features?
If it was any other day, he should be finding himself stopping the master from knifing the girl right there and then. Or, was it because of the dirt smeared all over her face?
Nevertheless, he needed to stop this other form of madness.
"Master, you mustn't be manipulated by her looks! She may look young—and a little cute too—but she's most definitely a sly little fraud."
In fact, Mario understood Julien. Despite the thick layer of mud and dust covering most of her face, it couldn't hide the charm of her clear round eyes that was unlike the others they had seen.
She had that certain kind of innocence that could move one's steel heart with just a bashful bat of her deer-like eyes. But that only made her even more lethal.
His Master, Julien, was unlike him, who had long been exposed to the world's hideous ways, with the most poisonous one being women and their trickery!
"A monkey."
"What?"
Mario was taken aback by his master's sudden comment.
"The girl looked like a monkey in my eyes. Where in my right mind would I find those hairy things cute? But she would suffice. Mario, have you seen the soles of her feet?"
Julien suddenly asked, the focus of his question stunning Mario.
"Feet?"
Of course he did. People like him who worked in this industry were the most sensitive towards the scent of blood. And that girl was definitely reeking of it.
Now that he put that trait into consideration, Mario soon reached a shocking conclusion.
Their men may have not recovered any body from the scene, but the report revealed a lot of blood and obvious traces of a cleaning attempt to erase evidence in the crime scene. There were no hints of any form of retaliation either.
They had assumed that the Madam had been one-sidedly annihilated, therefore concluding that she and her entourage's corpses had most probably been taken care of somewhere else.
But, what if that wasn't true? What if the Madam had survived somehow, even sprinting all the way to their place barefoot?
Mario recalled the dried, bloody scabs covering the entire soles of her little feet, his mouth moving on his own as if questioning himself.
"…Is she perhaps… the 17th Madam?"
"That will be verified by the Montclairs themselves. As for the others, we'll know once she wakes up. Before that—Mario. Arrange for our men to track back her movements, starting from the very spot she used to jump over the walls."
Julien shrugged, answering almost uncaringly.
"Also, get her a mask."
*10 Minutes Later*
"Sir, we found a body behind the shrubs near the gate. It's an old woman. Due to the continuous loss of blood and her weak constitution, her condition doesn't look good at all."
Receiving his men's report, Julien raised his eyebrows with slight interest.
"Arrange for the best doctor to nurse the two back to health. Also, track further. I want a full report on the route they took to get here."
"Yes, Sir."
***
Late at night.
Ruby stirred on the spacious bed, her rosy face restless. Extreme heat seemed to have gathered on the surface of her skin, prompting her to sweat buckets.
Hot.
Ruby felt as if she had been dumped into an oven, in the process of being roasted inside out. She shifted in discomfort, kicking up her blankets and even gasping for air when suddenly, her eyes shot open.
It was dark.
She stared at the ceiling blankly as if she hadn't expected it. The soft floral scent lingering in the air eased her nerves, telling her that she could at least relax for now.
'What happened?'
Ruby rose to a sitting position and grabbed her head with a hand. She rummaged through her memories to make sense of her situation.
Right. She was caught red-handed and there were guns everywhere. Then—what?
"You fainted."
A voice answered her from the corner of the room.
Right. Ruby nodded to herself.
She initially planned to play dead, who would've thought that she would faint for real? Nevertheless, she stayed and that's all that mattered. A small smile made its way to her lips.
"You looked satisfied. Is everything going as you planned, afterall?"
Ruby nodded once more then paused, thinking. Wait, who was she answering to again? Is it not the voices in her mind?
"It's me."
Ruby looked over to the direction of the voice, and what she saw nearly took her breath away.
The man's cold eyes shone against the dark, the viciousness lingering underneath sending shivers down her back.
It was as if she was being looked down like an easy prey by the strongest king of the jungle. There's simply no escape.
Who–
The man's silhouette shifted in the dark, lifting his leg to cross the other in a dominant manner.
"I'm Julien Sterling, the master of the house."
Ah. The fearful yet curious light in her eyes settled. But then, they were once more filled with accusations, eyeing the man within the shadows as if he was a monster.
Could he perhaps… read minds?
She hadn't asked anything and yet, he seemed to know whatever's going on in her head.
"No, it's nothing as complex as that. It's just that you happen to be very easy to see through, Miss Montclair."
'Miss Montclair!' Ruby ignored the jab in his tone and instead fixed her entire attention to the man's form of address, pleasantly surprised.
He had actually recognized her as Arabella Montclair! What a relief—What about Nanny Mandy?
The soft smile on her lips suddenly turned stiff as she questioned the man with her incredibly expressive eyes. They were so bright that the man's eyes started to sting from mere direct contact.
"This is getting harder to comprehend. Are you worrying about the person you've brought behind?"
'Bingo! Truly a sharp one!' Ruby furiously nodded, the twinkling light in her eyes full of praise.
"Cough. I don't like the look in your eyes, but I can assure you that the old lady is fine. In fact, she had woken up a few hours earlier than you. Though I question the logic behind it, let's not delve further deep into this matter."
"It's now my turn to ask the question and you answer."
The pair of cold eyes stared straight into the girl's bright and clear ones, the man's emotionless voice ringing crisply in the silent air.
"Why did they send you here?"