Chapter 175
The morning of the day Monica and Bridget were to infiltrate Duke Clockford's mansion.
Monica and Bridget boarded a carriage and went to a room at an inn near Duke Clockford's mansion, where they prepared for the infiltration... or so they were supposed to.
"Have you never seen a gardener before?"
Bridget cast a sharp remark at Monica, who had changed into trousers and a shirt for gardening.
Monica took another look at her clothes.
Trousers with suspenders and a well-worn shirt. With a hat on top, Monica thought she looked like a gardener from every angle, but Bridget was frowning.
"Where in the world is there a gardener with skin that pale?"
"...Oh."
Come to think of it, it was indeed unnatural for someone who worked in the garden to have no tan at all. Even the beautiful Thorn Witch had a healthy tan.
As Monica fretted over this belated realization, Bridget took a jar of greasepaint from her luggage and set it down on the table with a thunk.
"First, rub this into your skin. Not just your face—your neck and hands too. Everywhere that will be exposed."
"Y-yes!"
As instructed, Monica scooped up some dark greasepaint with her finger and tried it on the back of her hand. As she rubbed it in thoroughly, her bluish-white skin turned a sun-tanned reddish brown.
While Monica applied the greasepaint, Bridget changed out of her beautiful dress and into a worn shirt and trousers. The boots she put on were likewise thoroughly muddied and showed signs of hard use. She was nothing if not thorough.
Bridget then tied back her beautiful golden hair and tucked it into her hat.
But no matter how well she hid her beautiful hair or covered her skin with greasepaint, she could not conceal her striking beauty.
Monica was thinking that perhaps even Bridget couldn't pull off an infiltration when Bridget took some cotton from her luggage and put it in her mouth.
Finally, when she took out and put on a pair of dowdy glasses, her entire impression changed.
"How's this?"
Bridget's voice was muffled and carried a distinctive lower-city accent.
"...Um... Are you... Bridget-sama?"
Monica let out a helplessly bewildered sound, and Bridget snorted.
"You are an intelligence agent of House Kerbeck, are you not? How can you be surprised by something this minor?"
"S-sorry..."
Monica knew Bridget was good with languages, but she had never imagined she was versed even in lower-city accents.
As Monica marveled, Bridget took out two thick gardening gloves and thrust one at Monica.
"And do not take off your gloves under any circumstances. No matter how you alter your coloring, one look at the condition of your hands will tell people what class you belong to."
Monica felt ashamed of herself for ever doubting whether Bridget could manage an infiltration.
Bridget was far more thorough than Monica.
＊ ＊ ＊
When Monica and Bridget arrived at Duke Clockford's mansion, the Thorn Witch, Raul Roseberg, was there to greet them.
"Hey there! Perfect day for gardening!"
Rosy, curly hair and deep green eyes.
When that face, beautiful enough to be mistaken for a fairy prince's, broke into a cheerful smile, his white teeth flashed brilliantly.
Raul's looks were every bit as striking as Felix's or Bridget's, yet today he was dressed in his usual work clothes. He also had a shovel balanced on his shoulder for good measure.
Bridget whispered in Monica's ear.
"...Who is that absurdly handsome gardener who looks so out of place?"
Apparently, even Bridget hadn't realized that he was the Thorn Witch, one of the Seven Sages. Then again, Monica was one of the Seven Sages herself.
"Um, er... He's our... c-collaborator."
Monica had told Raul beforehand that Bridget would be accompanying her and asked him to hide the fact that she was the Silent Witch from Bridget.
Raul had accepted readily without probing too deeply into Bridget's identity, saying, "So she's Monica's partner, huh? Of course she's welcome!"
In addition to Raul, there were about eight servants of House Roseberg on-site. They were all presumably skilled at gardening. Every one of them was deeply tanned, and Monica realized once again that Bridget's judgment had been correct. If Monica alone had had pale skin among them, it really would have looked unnatural.
"I'll give you a quick rundown of today's schedule. We work through the morning. The flowerbed crew will mainly sow seeds and plant seedlings. The tree crew will prune the trees. I'll be directing everyone overall. You two are technically assigned to the flowerbeds, but feel free to break away and move around once you've done enough. Though it might be better to wait until noon before investigating inside the mansion."
"...Um, is there something happening at noon?"
"The butler consulted me about flowers to decorate inside the mansion. I said I'd like to see the rooms where they'll be displayed, and he agreed to show them to me around noon, once the work has settled down. So if you come along with me then, you'll be able to look around inside the mansion without it seeming strange."
"Then... please let us accompany you. I-I'll be counting on you!"
"Sure! Leave it to me!"
Raul thumped his chest, then went to fetch the seedlings loaded onto a cart, humming, 'Gardening, gardening...'
Watching him go, Bridget muttered with a suspicious look on her face.
"...He's in charge of not only the gardens of Duke Clockford's mansion, but even the flowers displayed inside? What is that man...?"
"Ah, haha..."
To reiterate, he was neither a gardener nor a florist. He was the country's foremost mage.
＊ ＊ ＊
Even Monica knew that Duke Clockford was the most powerful high-ranking noble in the country.
So she had imagined that his mansion would be lavish, splendid, and covered in gold, but the duke's mansion was far more refined than Monica had expected and, above all, had an air of history about it.
Its stately appearance, with every ornament on the building conveying a sense of history, overwhelmed visitors in a way entirely separate from glamour or opulence.
The grounds were simply enormous, making it easy to understand why so many people were needed to maintain the gardens.
Once Raul moved into the garden, he gave the servants of the duke's mansion a friendly, "Hey there, how's it going?" while issuing orders to his subordinates.
Seeing how busy he was, Monica began to fidget, thinking she ought to help too, but Bridget leaned over and whispered to her in dismay.
"Have you already forgotten why we came all this way?"
"Aah..."
When Monica faltered, Bridget exhaled through her nose with an exasperated look and called out to Raul.
"Head gardener, we're gonna go weedin'."
"Sure, go ahead!"
Bridget nodded once at Raul's reply, then took Monica by the hand and started walking.
"Come on. We're starting our investigation from outside the mansion."
"Y-yes!"
Bridget was an exceedingly reliable young lady. If she had not been there, Monica might well have been swept up in the atmosphere and ended up devoting herself to helping with the gardening.
Bridget seemed to believe that the real Felix was being hidden somewhere on the mansion grounds. Apparently, she had already narrowed down the likely location.
"The likely hiding place is one of the rooms on the second floor or higher. The first floor has guests coming and going, so it's unlikely they'd hide him there. We'll circle the mansion from outside first and examine the windows. If you see a room with curtains drawn in an unnatural manner, consider it suspicious."
"I-I see..."
Monica wanted to investigate the connection between Peter, the mastermind behind the cursed dragon incident, and Duke Clockford, but for now she decided to prioritize Bridget's objective.
Bridget looked up at the windows and murmured quietly enough that no one nearby could hear.
"There is also someone among the mansion's servants whom I wish to contact."
"...Someone you wish to contact?"
"He was Prince Felix's attendant when His Highness was still young. He is probably around my age, or a little older. He has blond hair and a scar near his right eye that he used to hide beneath his bangs. You'll recognize him as soon as you see him."
Bridget broke off, closed her eyes once, then slowly opened them.
"That man was the only person in this mansion who was on His Highness's side. I do not know whether he is still here, but if he is... he must know something."
With that, Bridget started walking again. There was no hesitation in her step. She had probably visited this mansion several times before.
"B-Bridget-sama, you're amazing..."
Whether it was disguising herself or planning the investigation, she was far more capable and thorough than Monica.
Bridget, walking in front, glanced back at Monica and snorted.
"...How many years do you think I've spent laying the groundwork?"
There was weight in those words.
Bridget had surely been searching for her prince ever since the day Felix's personality changed.
...Unable to tell anyone, all by herself.
"This is my first and last chance. If I let it slip away, another opportunity will surely never come... Of course I would prepare as thoroughly as possible."
Suddenly, Bridget cut herself off and stopped. Her gaze was fixed on a small hut ahead and to the right.
"...I don't recognize that hut."
It was a small hut built in a small clearing behind the mansion. Though hardly brand-new, it looked relatively new compared with the duke's mansion, which had an air of history about it.
"You don't know this hut either, Bridget-sama?"
"Back when I used to come and go here as a child, there was only a much shabbier storage shed. ...This must have been rebuilt sometime after that."
Beneath the glasses she wore as part of her disguise, her amber eyes gleamed fiercely.
"...Suspicious. Let's investigate."