Chapter 36
Chapter 36: Piano Room
***
“Valarr… why? Have we ever mistreated him? Why would he do such a thing!”
Madam Catherine bit her pearly teeth, her face full of resentment, clearly unable to understand Valarr’s behavior.
The Duke took it much more lightly.
“That’s something we’ll have to ask him personally… Charles.”
He beckoned toward the door, and the butler named Charles walked in.
“What is it, Your Grace?”
“Go tell the hunters outside to have Hoover notify Bella to see if Valarr has returned to the workshop. If not, have people search the entire city. Once found, keep watch over him, then report back to me.” The Duke lightly tapped the table, pondered for a moment, then added, “This matter needs to be handled quickly, we absolutely cannot let him leave the city. After this is done… tell Hoover to come find me in the study.”
“Yes.” The butler bowed deeply, and after receiving his orders, quickly walked out.
“Why not arrest him directly?” Catherine was clearly dissatisfied with the Duke’s handling of the matter, her almond eyes wide as she looked at the Duke.
“Ah, don’t be hasty. Catching Valarr isn’t difficult, but he has no reason to assassinate Miss Sylvia. There must be a mastermind behind this, and finding that person is what’s important.” At this point, the Duke let out a light cold snort, “To dare assign my own people to assassinate my guest in my territory, how bold.”
He turned his head toward me, a slight smile appearing on his somewhat stern face.
“Miss Sylvia, as a Pontifical Knight you may not fear these people, but I still hope you won’t concern yourself with anything and just wait quietly for the results.”
The Duke appeared quite composed at this moment, showing no particular emotion in his expression.
He wasn’t the kind of person with a gentle countenance. Although he often wore a smile and always maintained an approachable demeanor, that aura of authority was carved into his bones in every gesture.
Such a person could never be considered easy to get along with, yet somehow I had an inexplicable trust in him.
“Mm.”
I nodded, just about to say something polite.
Growl——
My stomach chose this inopportune moment to make an unruly sound.
“Oh my, look at us, we’ve just been talking here and completely forgot about dinner… You must be starving? I’ll go get you something to eat, it’ll be right here.” Madam Catherine gently patted my head and turned toward the kitchen.
Looking at her quickly departing figure, then seeing the Duke’s half-smiling expression, my face grew slightly warm as I lowered my head somewhat awkwardly.
Probably noticing my embarrassment, the Duke intentionally changed the subject.
“Miss Sylvia, do you like music?”
Music? In my previous life I very much enjoyed music, but since coming to this world I had barely heard the word mentioned.
Probably because Carlos was someone without much artistic sentiment.
“Yes.”
“Do you play piano?”
…This world has pianos too? That was actually the instrument I was most skilled at. However, I didn’t know if the pianos in this world were the same as the ones I knew about, so I couldn’t answer his question and could only shake my head.
“I don’t know.”
But the Duke clearly misunderstood my meaning.
“Ah, I almost forgot you don’t remember your past.” He paused, seemingly casually glancing at me before continuing, “There’s a piano room in the castle, right next to the bedroom you’re staying in now. That’s a room I had specially made for Peylo. She was quite fond of the piano, and played very well. In the past, whenever I encountered something unpleasant, she would drag me over there to listen to her play some pleasant pieces.”
Hearing this, I raised my head, looking at his face with surprise, those seemingly knife-carved features now appearing somewhat soft.
Then he smiled and waved at me.
“Haha, don’t mind it, I’m just rambling. If you like music, you might want to go take a look, try it out. I always feel that with beautiful slender fingers like yours, it would be a shame not to play the piano.”
These words seemed casual, but there was a hint of expectation in his eyes.
“…Mm.”
Not knowing how to respond, I could only give a light acknowledgment.
After a moment of silence, the Duke brought up another topic.
“Miss Sylvia, it hasn’t been half a year since you lost your memories, has it?”
“No.”
“You don’t remember anything from before? I heard from Carlos that the Church found you in a village, what were you doing there?”
“I lived there… for a while. Later, encountered the Abyss.”
“You don’t remember anything before that? Like how you ended up in a small village in Sylgaria.”
I fell silent.
In my heart, I didn’t want to deceive this person, but naturally it was impossible for me to be frank and say “actually I’m a monster from the Abyss.” After hesitating for a moment, I finally slowly shook my head.
“…I see.” The Duke muttered.
“Haha, sorry for asking such strange questions. I was thinking, since you don’t remember anything and have been moving around with that boy Carlos all this time, you must be quite confused about many things? I know that boy is a man of action, and teaching others is what he’s worst at.”
These words hit right at my heart, and I immediately nodded.
“In that case, after dinner, why don’t you visit the study? There are some books from my collection there, you can pick a few to read.”