Chapter 56
At the sudden demand, Chloe blinked her eyes wide and looked at him. The dark expression had vanished without a trace, and he had returned to the usual indifferent Ian.
Since Ian MacMilden usually showed little change in emotion, the fact that emotion showed on his face meant he was that angry. So she was bracing herself, but since he returned to normal, she was bewildered.
“Weren’t you…… angry?”
Chloe asked cautiously, gauging Ian’s mood.
“I am not. However, if you wish, I can get angry.”
One corner of his lips, having answered briefly, pulled tight like a bowstring.
“Phew, surely not. Please calm down.”
Although Ian MacMilden’s personality was somewhat nasty, he wasn’t the type to say empty words. Therefore, the statement that he wasn’t angry must be true.
Chloe felt deeply relieved but at the same time puzzled. If he wasn’t angry, then why did he chase her?
When she tried to guess, it seemed related to his suggestion to talk for a moment, but that was it. She couldn’t guess at all what he wanted to talk about, so she was curious yet anxious.
“It seems the conversation will be quite long, so let’s go to a tea room.”
“Ah, no!”
Because her anxiety was greater than her curiosity, Chloe looked appalled and waved both hands.
“I’m sorry, but I have a prior engagement. It’s a shame, but let’s talk next time…….”
“I heard that Lady Bianca Lloyd’s maid was murdered.”
Ian spoke in a monotonous voice as if reading a book, but it was enough to stop her as she was slowly inching back.
“However, the Police Station is concluding that the maid committed suicide and is trying to close the case.”
“……How do you know that?”
“I heard it from Sir Mars Elena.”
At those words, Chloe recalled the fact that Ian and Mars had come out of the tea room together.
She had already thought it was strange that the two were together…… Surely Mars, that brat, she didn’t think he would tell Ian everything.
“He said he received a request from Chloe but it was hard to solve with his own strength alone, so he asked me for help.”
As Chloe’s face gradually distorted, Ian added an explanation.
Thanks to that, Chloe, whose anger toward her damn third brother subsided a little, let out a deep sigh. Mars’s effort to grant her request somehow was commendable, but she didn’t like that he had asked Ian MacMilden of all people.
“At this level, it seems more important than Lady Lloyd’s prior engagement, doesn’t it?”
“…….”
At the undeniable fact, Chloe bit her lip tight. While it was uncomfortable to have an unwanted conversation with him, on the other hand, anticipation welled up.
At the thought that he might have found a clue to the culprit that no one else could find, or perhaps the culprit themselves, she swallowed her reluctance and nodded.
* * *
There were decent tea rooms on the street where they were, but Ian MacMilden insisted on going to a tea room he knew. Since he said it was a good place to talk in secret, Chloe followed him without a word of complaint.
……Though she didn’t know he would bring her to the very tea room he had come out of with Mars. It was a high-end tea room where piano and cello music flowed gently.
“This is the place.”
The waiter who guided them to the room left after saying to call him when they decided on the menu. The door closed, and an awkward silence flowed in the room where only the two remained.
Chloe hoped he would tell her immediately what he had found out or who the culprit was, but seeing that he just stared at her, he seemed to have no intention of doing so.
“There is a weapons shop over there.”
His gaze was stinging, and thinking she should order tea first, Chloe, who was diligently looking at the menu, looked out the window at Ian’s words. The weapons shop she had seen earlier was on the opposite street.
Is he trying to say something about the strange noise I made in front of that weapons shop? Now of all times?
Strength went into the hand holding the menu. Chloe clutched her pounding heart and looked at Ian. The golden eyes facing her were significant.
“They were selling a bow made of Audrey wood at that weapons shop. Did you happen to see it?”
A bow made of Audrey wood. Just hearing it made her heart flutter, and Chloe’s face brightened instantly.
“Of course I know! I was actually looking at it earlier. A bow made of Audrey wood is hard to find even at auction houses, so I was very surprised to see it displayed right there in the show window. It is authentic, right?”
The tone of her voice went up significantly too. Ian, who watched her thoroughly excited face for a moment, lifted his water glass and spoke in a monotonous tone.
“Lady Bianca Lloyd has a lot of interest in bows as well.”
At those words, Chloe realized her mistake and bit her lip inward. Usually, women of high society were not interested in weapons like bows or swords. Of course, there were exceptions like her, but generally, it was so. Yet she showed immense interest in a bow, so it was understandable that Ian would think it strange.
“I became interested while talking with Chloe.”
The fortunate thing amidst the misfortune was that she had set the relationship with Chloe as friends. When she said she heard about the Audrey wood bow from her too, Ian nodded as if he understood.
“Chloe also really wanted to have a bow made of Audrey wood.”
“That’s right.”
“So I intend to gift that bow to her.”
What kind of absurd talk is this now? Chloe, who stared at him dumbfounded, confirmed that he was sincere and let out a deep sigh.
“I recommend you don’t do it. I guarantee, even if you gift it, you will only get sworn at.”
It would be a lie to say she wasn’t tempted. Since she didn’t know when this opportunity would come again if she missed it, she wanted it unconditionally. However, she didn’t want to receive another person’s help. Her pride would not allow that.
“Absolutely do not do it.”
As Chloe firmly drove the point home, Ian MacMilden’s eyes narrowed. Anyone could see his eyes were full of dissatisfaction, but she didn’t flinch or avoid his gaze. She had done nothing wrong, so she faced him straight on.
“Ha…….”
As Chloe’s image overlapped once again over the confident figure of Bianca Lloyd, Ian let out a ridicule close to a sigh and rubbed his face with his hands.
Chloe Elena and Bianca Lloyd might be the same person. The absurd hypothesis swelled up like a balloon filled tight with air and filled his mind. He couldn’t think rationally at all.
“Are you really…… Bianca Lloyd?”
That was why. Why he asked such a crazy question.
Thump thump, hoping the sound of the beating heart was hers and not his, Ian looked at her face. To be precise, he looked under her eyes. The place that naturally trembled when she lied.
Seeming flustered by his question, her scarlet eyes trembled slightly, but she soon regained her composure. Lowering her gaze for a long moment to look down at the letters on the open menu, she moved her gaze back to Ian and answered.
“You are asking something obvious.”
It wasn’t a lie. Because this body was indeed Bianca Lloyd.
“But why do you ask such a thing?”
Could it be he noticed that I became Bianca Lloyd? Or does he have another intention?
Chloe was genuinely curious. Either way was equally troubling, but the latter was better than the former. She didn’t want to get caught that she had become Bianca Lloyd due to black magic. She absolutely must not get caught. Not by Ian, nor by anyone else.
As anxious and nervous as she was, she wanted to hear the answer quickly, but Ian said nothing. As Chloe also shut her mouth not knowing what more to say, an awkward and heavy silence flowed between them. For some reason, the piano and cello music stopped, aggravating the silence even more.
Up to there, it was fine. What made it unbearable for Chloe was his gaze. Facing eyes that seemed determined to dig up everything about her, her heart beat faster and faster, and her fingertips stiffened cold. Because she was harboring a huge secret, she was even more anxious.
“Are you…… not going to answer?”
For the same reason, Chloe, who really wanted to know why Ian MacMilden asked such a question, mustered up courage and asked.
Then the fixed golden eyes dropped. His gaze slowly went down, passing the menu opened on the table, the vase, the table with delicate lace embroidery, and reached the window. Their figures were reflected blurrily in the clean glass window.
At the time she answered, the area under her eyes did not tremble. In other words, it meant she hadn’t lied.
Even though he confirmed that, why couldn’t he shake off the suspicion?
“……I don’t know.”
Ian spoke as if muttering, looking at Bianca Lloyd reflected in the window, the woman who for some reason kept looking like Chloe to him.
“I…… don’t know either.”
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