Saving The Villainous Monster From The Male Lead-Chapter 22 - 21: Heirloom
Caelestis remained calm and didn’t move his eyes from his incomplete plate of breakfast. He filled his mouth with the thick soup that couldn’t find any way to get through his throat.
"I wanted to know how she was after the incident, so I visited her boutique but she wasn’t there. Furthermore, Baroness Stella’s assistant said she hadn’t come back from the banquet at all." Eleanore got out of her seat and glared at Caelestis. "Brother said you took her with you. Is she here?" She asked.
"She is not here, Lady Eleanore." He lied.
"I see." She sighed and left the room after bidding farewell to her fellow lying childhood friend.
She knew Caelestis would never tell her where Stella was, but she wanted to check. How much does this man, who suddenly acts nice, trusts her?
And the answer she received was—not even a tiny bit.
Due to the untimely breakfast, Eleanore decided to skip lunch and instead wandered around to find clues. Where could Caelestis hide Stella? Was the only question roaming in her mind.
"My Lady, take me along." Marina suggested.
"Like I said, I want to be alone. You have work. don’t you?" Eleanore tried to evade her maid.
"But—-"
"Marina! This is an order. I am going out for a few minutes. I want to see my room clean and organized when I return. Understand?" She ordered in a stern voice.
Marina couldn’t argue anymore, she quickly made her way to the cabinet and pulled out the cleaned up asthma pump. She handed it over to Eleanore.
"The jewels that I have removed have been safely stored in your jewellery box." Marina said.
"They are yours. I gifted them to you."
Marina bowed. "You are extremely generous, my lady. Thank you!"
For hours now, Eleanore was roaming around in the humongous mansion. Her feet were throbbing now from the shoe bite that those high, messed up heels she was wearing. Honestly, she hated these attire and fashion of the ancient time. The corset was killing her.
’Why should an asthma patient wear a corset? Damn it!’
She had been through every room on the third and second floor. Now, she was wandering around on the first floor. Turns out the first floor is the largest of the other floors. While both the second and third floor had about five rooms, the first floor only had two and a huge corridor at the end of the second room.
While she traced down that long corridor, she came across a small passage in the corner end. There stood a single wooden door at the edge and a window at the end of it. The sun rays from the open window were falling on the sunflower set there in a vase.
The only room left on the first floor that she could access, was right in front of her, yet she hesitated. For some reason, she was getting very weird vibes from that wooden door, decorated with pure gold.
Whatever is behind the door is something so big that it took the space of three rooms and a few meters of extra space that the other floors didn’t have. She tried to go through the map she had in mind, but found no information of this place. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
"Did the original owner of the body never visit this place? Or was it off limits for her?" She questioned her memory. "But if this is off limits, then should I even enter here?"
She contemplated for a while on the question she asked herself, then argued.
"This must be a precious place. Could it be that Stella is here? He would definitely not hide her in a place I can reach." She wondered, as her feet unknowingly started walking forward, close to the old yet mesmerizing wooden door.
She placed her hand on the knob and pushed it down but the door didn’t open. "It’s locked! She is definitely here—"
Suddenly the door swung open smoothly, like it was oiled almost everyday, so much so that it didn’t create a single sound.
Eleanore entered this mysterious room. Instead of darkness she found brilliant light brightening the white room. It had a golden chandelier hanging down the ceiling that was reflecting perfectly on the clean white marble below.
"This is no old room." She commented as she walked further in, getting attracted by a shiny object in the middle of the room. This room had hundreds of shelves, containing thousands of artifacts that probably belonged to the Lancaster Family.
Once, Eleanore was close enough but at an arm’s distance to that object, she could see a large necklace that could cover one’s whole neck. It probably had a platinum base and blue gems, which she remembered were called ’Sea drop Jewels’ in the Web Novel ’Revenge Is Her Only Desire.’
The color of these gems matched perfectly to Stella’s eye color, as if it was made for her and only her. The Web novel had mentioned this as the most supreme heirloom of the Lancaster family. One that is passed on to the Dutchess of the household, for generations.
Eleanore sighed on realizing she was not in the right room, however before she could turn around to leave the room, a strong arm pulled her close to him by twisting her wrist behind her back.
A sharp pain forced her to close her eyes shut and once she could bear it, she opened them again. Only to find that Caelestis’s blood red eyes staring right into hers, ready to devour her.
He had clenched his jaw in anger and his fingers were dogging deep into Eleanore’s soft skin. She removed her hand from his chest; she had accidentally touched; to his fingers behind her back. She tried to force them out of her skin, but couldn’t match his strength.
"Caelestis! You are hurting me!" She said in a shaky, painful voice.
"What are you doing here?" He asked in a stern voice, enough to scare Eleanore that she started shaking in fear and agony.
"Ah! — I was just roaming around and got curious about this room, so I—"
"Lies!" He yelled, twisting her wrist behind her back more painfully, bringing her in closer to him.
Eleanore’s hands landed once again on his chest, but her eyes couldn’t look away from his rageful, fierce gaze.
"You are here for the necklace."
"Nonsense. I— I had no idea your heirloom was here!" She explained but instead angered him more.
"How do you know that that necklace is our heirloom?!" Not many knew about What the Lancaster family’s heirloom was.
"I—" Eleanore could feel the pain increasing in her wrist. If he twists it anymore, it will break!
"MY BROTHER TOLD ME!!" She yelled and pushed him as hard as she could. "LET ME GO!! YOU ARE HURTING ME, CAELESTIS!!" she screamed in pain to bring him back from his rageful land and let her wrist go.
But he didn’t move. Eleanore landed heavy blows on his chest. She stomped on his leg with her heels that had been torturing her for hours. She continued to twist her heel on his feet, until he felt the pain surging in, making him let go of her wrist.
As soon as her wrist was freed, she pushed him hard enough to lose his balance and fall on one of their artifacts standing on a feeble table. Eleanore quickly rushed out of the room in fear that he might catch up to her again and hurt her more.
Caelestis, grabbed his forehead, regretting his action of hurting her once again yet feeling no remorse for it. While he could have filled his heart in guilt, his mind filled it with disappointment and betrayal. He felt that she was acting about letting him go all along. Probably, she was here to steal the heirloom, not willing to accept her defeat to Stella.
"Is that why she asked about Stella?" He murmured. "This woman is a snake, she can never change. I must not fall for her schemes." He started back out and on his way dug a hole into the wall of the room, to vent out his anger.
Hours later, Eleanore, who was extremely angry at what had happened in the afternoon and gravely injured, was standing shamelessly in front of the door to his study. The Hunt for the clues must go on and for that she needs to sleep and this is the only place she could get that.
She pushed the doors open and walked inside ignoring Caelestis’ distinctive glare similar to the one yesterday. She threw her pellow on the neatly made bed and then slept without batting an eye to him.
***
|| Chapter 2: The Shatter of Stella’s Pride
Caelestis felt like the only way left to have Stella by his side, went ahead and confined her in a secret room of the Lancaster Mansion. His intention is to shatter Stella’s Pride and hope, so that she has no one else to rely on. Once achieved, he would go ahead to marry her, leading to the downfall of Stella.
Quest 1: Find Baroness Stella
Task 2: Gather clues
Do you accept the task?
Yes/No
Note: Reward: + 1000 coins
Penalty: -1000 coins
Total Reputation: -200,000
Total Coins: +90,100 ||
