Amanda asked through the small window at the front, but there was no answer at all. In fact, as the carriage continued to shake even more roughly, Amanda needed to return to her seat.

“Excuse me!”

Amanda managed to shout out as she held onto the handle, but still silence was all she got in return.

“Amanda, what’s going on?”

“I have no idea either…”

Amanda and Vivian were both taken aback, before locking into each others’ eyes.

They haven’t heard anything about this ever to happen. As such, Amanda and Vivian quickly grasped onto each other’s hands with their faces painted with anxiety.

At the moment that the carriage had finally managed to stop after running continuously, Vivian quickly opened the door. Just when she tried to escape before she was sent to somewhere strange, Vivian was halted by the coachman who stood in front of her as soon as the door was opened.

“Where is this place?”

“You will find out once you have entered.”

She tried to stay calm and firmly questioned the coachman, but he only bowed his head in response.

Vivian scanned through Amanda, who seemed to be trembling in fear before looking at the building that was in front of her.

The building was not that big and all of its curtains were draped as well. Also, the exterior wasn’t all that eerie, but still it was hard to discern the purpose of that said building.

Vivian held on to her fears as she firmly pressed her hat on. Her appearance was still that of ‘Alexia’, not ‘Vivian’. Therefore, it was obvious that no harm could come on to her as long as she was aware of that fact.

When she had opened the gate and entered, Vivian was immediately greeted with the dark interior. As soon as she went up to the second floor with Amanda, towards the door that was directed by the coachman, she could already hear the creaking close of the gate.

“Vivi…”

“It’s okay, Amanda. Everything’s going to be just fine.”

She clasped on the hands of Amanda, who was still scared as they stood before the door. Vivian then knocked on the door, but she couldn’t hear anything from the inside.

Did we get the wrong door? However, no matter how much she tried to recall, it was evident that the coachman’s fingers were pointing precisely here.

As Vivian carefully turned the handle around, the door began to part as though it had been waiting all this while.

The moment she stepped into the room, she was suddenly greeted with the tip of a sharp sword that was aimed straight at her neck. When someone had come into her line of sight, Vivian was quickly brought down to her knee, breathlessly.

“You didn’t get caught, did you?”

Vivian could only bite her lips at how amused Alexia had looked like when she was speaking. In the first place, it was actually quite easy for her to realize about the person whom the carriage and the coachman had belonged to. She tried so hard to endure the curses that were bubbling inside of her towards Alexia, who didn’t inform Vivian at all.

“Where is this place, really?”

“This is one of the things which I bought at a whim. I purchased it out of boredom and I never knew that I’ll be using it in this manner.”

Vivian knelt in reflex at her sudden appearance but she still could not grasp the whole situation entirely. As she thought back on the sword that had directed at her neck, Vivian could only shudder in fear like aspen trembling in the breeze.

“You didn’t think of returning home like that, do you? What are you going to do if you run into other people?”

“If you just had told me in advance…”

“Then, would it be just as fun?”

She looked down on Vivian, mockingly.

“Don’t you worry now. Stop trembling because I don’t even want to eat you up. There are still a lot of things that you have to do.”

Alexia lifted Vivian’s chin with the toe of her shoes. Her bright red shoes had shone a stark contrast to Vivian’s face.

“How did you feel, meeting the Grand Duke in my place?”

“…He seemed quite different from how he was rumored to be.”

“Is he now? On what basis?”

Vivian pondered for a while at the question that was uttered by Alexia. Unlike the rumors that had been going around, the monstrous Grand Duke didn’t seem like someone who either enjoyed human flesh or even manslaughter. Nevertheless, his temper was quite relentless.

After much consideration, Vivian finally came up with one answer.

“His looks were completely different from the rumors.”

“Really? I guess how rumors had him to be hideous was in fact, a lie.”