Secrets: Priestess

Chapter 114 Childhood Lullaby
into the night.

Everything was silent.

Claire wandered the streets outside the Count Meazza's palace in Queens.

"Ma'am, you can't stay on this street late at night." The patrolman wearing standard police equipment warned Claire with a dismissive attitude.

A carriage with a noble family crest printed on it sped past in the middle of the road.

Her coat rustled in the wind. Claire took out her ID badge from her pocket and tossed it to the patrolman for inspection.

The patrolman who had received Claire's ID badge looked at her curiously, though he thought it was covert, and gave her a stiff, cold smile. "Ma'am, do you need any assistance?"

Claire put away the badge and waved her hand, saying, "No need. Go and do your thing."

After the patrolman left, Claire lifted the hair that fell beside her ear and gently patted the nightmare doll at her waist.

The street under your feet is paved with a sea of ​​flowers, and the surrounding houses have turned into green forests in an instant.

This is Jessica's dream as she lives in the Meazza Palace.

There is breeze blowing in the forest, birds singing and flowers blooming.

In a clearing in the emerald green forest, amidst a sea of ​​flowers, Claire saw the figure of a plump, mature woman.

The figure leaned against the sea of ​​flowers under the tree.

There was also a petite little girl lying on her lap, drooling from the corners of her mouth, sleeping sweetly.

That was Jessica, and Claire when she was little.

Jessica patted Claire's shoulders gently and sang soft poetry.

“Ask yourself and reflect deeply on yourself.”

"With great ambitions in mind, my soul is obsessed with dreams."

"There are endless sad songs along the way."

"In the promised land, we will surely gather together."

The poem had a familiar melody in Claire's memory. It was the lullaby Jessica often sang to Claire when she was a child, soothing her lonely and closed heart at that time.

Claire walked across the sea of ​​flowers and came to Jessica's side. Her voice was flat and emotionless. "Have you been in contact with Beth recently?"

"Yes." Jessica's eyes were empty, but her voice was as gentle as ever.

Viscount Greylint's information was accurate... Claire's heart sank, and she asked, "Why did you contact Beth?"

Jessica's expression showed confusion and a little pain. "Beth always makes people happy and makes me forget a lot of things."

Claire asked again, "Did you know that Beth is a Beyonder?"

Jessica's voice gradually became ethereal and disembodied. "I have a guess... Beth possesses a special ability to make women look radiant, so she has extensive connections among the noble ladies. This is something only Beyonders can accomplish."

An ability that could make someone more beautiful? A witch's Beyonder trait? It didn't seem likely...were there other ways to achieve beauty? Claire had seen the term "goddess of beauty" in mythology before, but she wasn't sure if it was some kind of potion sequence.

Claire looked at Jessica's gentle face with a complicated expression: "Then do you know why Beth wanted to contact you?"

Jessica nodded stiffly. "She wants my body and the Meazza family's influence... Beth has a morbid love for mature and beautiful female bodies. This is an open secret among Backlund's aristocratic women."

Claire frowned and asked, "Isn't anyone bothering Beth?"

Jessica said calmly, "A woman who keeps herself clean won't come into contact with Beth. And a woman who comes into contact with Beth will become younger and more beautiful...who would bother her?"

After asking the questions she wanted to ask, Claire did not disturb Jessica's dream. Instead, she used her nightmare ability to carefully protect Jessica's dream.

In the end, Claire, in her cruel heart, disappeared from Jessica's fantasy dream of the past.

In the shadows of the street, Claire raised her lowered head.

A moment later, as another carriage sped past her, she leaped high into the air and landed lightly on top of the carriage, enjoying a "ride" in the cold night wind.

The night was deeper.

Claire stood in a dark alley on Williams Street, looking at Beth Lyonness's mansion not far away.

Using her nightmare ability, she saw many dream fragments in the mansion.

Those were the dreams of the servants who fell into deep sleep in Beth's mansion.

Claire patiently contacted each servant one by one, trying to find out about Beth from their dreams.

There was not a single male servant in Beth's mansion, only maids.

In the maids' dreams, Beth has almost no other shortcomings except her strong sexual desire for the older maids.

Beth paid them higher salaries than other nobles, was gentle to them, and tolerated their minor mistakes in daily life.

It's a pretty perfect employer.

The maids who still stay in the mansion are all very satisfied with their current lives.

But Claire also discovered that the rules in Beth's mansion after dark were very strict.

The maids were forbidden to approach the main building of the mansion at night.

The maids replied that there were often distinguished female guests who stayed overnight, and the maids' activities would offend these distinguished ladies.

Because of the unsuccessful dream entry experience last time, Claire did not rashly invade Beth's dream this time in order not to attract Beth's attention. Instead, she summoned the "white paper".

The "white paper" floated into the main building, which was prohibited from entering after dark, and soon found Beth in a room on the second floor.

Two female figures entangled with each other.

Claire recognized one of them as Viscount Kolev's wife.

This lady looked even more beautiful and younger than in Claire's memory.

Neither of the two people who were exercising noticed the "white paper" floating into the room.

In the dim light of a special candle, Claire saw a finished oil painting in the corner of the room through her "white paper" vision.

The woman in the painting is Viscountess Kolev.

The woman in the portrait is full of vitality.

As if alive.

Claire asked the "white paper" to observe carefully.

Suddenly, the woman in the oil painting and the "white paper" made eye contact!
This feeling of eye contact only lasted for a moment, but Claire, with her photographic memory, was certain that it was not an illusion.

There really is something wrong with Beth's oil painting!

But even the most discerning eye could not find any more problems in this painting.

The two people in the house were trying various tricks with great energy. Claire asked "White Paper" to carefully explore the various hidden corners of the house, but she only found some toys.

After all the effort, nothing was achieved.

Claire could only send the "blank paper" back to the spirit world in frustration.

In the shadows of the alley, Claire sighed softly, "Beth Lyonness... If you don't mess with Jessica, I won't mess with a troublesome person like you who hides secrets."

　The four-character lyrics are a translation of Spirited Away's "Forever Together."

　　
　
(End of this chapter)