Chapter 22: Volume 4 - CH 1

P. 8

***

P. 13

The platform of Victoria Station was filled with passengers and people who were seeing them off. 

Peddlers with massive loads of luggage, families who were saying their farewells to loved ones, and dignified gentlemen and their ladies departing off to spend a small vacation trip. 

In between all those people who had all kinds of different reasons and climbing abroad the train, Lydia was nodding to the words of her father who was saying the same thing that he had been repeating for who knows how many times. 

“Lydia, be careful by yourself while I’m gone.”

“Yes, father.”

Lydia’s father, a professor in mineralogy had been invited to take part in an academic conference that was going to be held in Paris. He was just going to be away from London for a mere two to three weeks, and yet, as he kept checking the time, he seemed like he didn’t want to part with Lydia.

“You don’t have to be so worried; haven’t I’ve been living by myself all this time in Scotland.”

“Over there we had familiar faces all over town and it was a peaceful place, wasn’t it? But London is dangerous.”

“We have a housekeeper and I’ll be working at the earl estate, so there’s nothing dangerous at all.”

“The earl…., oh, yes, the earl. I guess he could be reliable….”

But he is the most dangerous, she thought he mumbled to himself. 

Lydia was a fairy doctor. She could see fairies and talk with them. The earl who hired her as his private fairy doctor, was Edgar Ashenbert, who had the title of Earl of Ibrazel (the fairy realm.)

P. 14

Just as his name, the earl from the past generations all had an estate in the fairy world, and as they got along with the fairies, they were said to be acknowledged as a dignified figure amongst them. 

Even now, the name of Blue Knight Earl that was associated from the family ancestors was the most renowned human name amongst the fairies.

However in the present times, not long after the earl family bloodline had died out, because Edgar, who had inherited only the title for various reasons, didn’t have the magical powers in order to communicate with fairies, he had hired Lydia.

Putting that aside, what Carlton was worrying about was the earl’s personality. 

The rumor about him being a philandering lady’s man was the absolute truth. He was sure to be worried to leave behind his only daughter who was of marriageable age. 

“I’ll be fine, Father. I’m not that slovenly of a daughter.”

“Of course I know that. Oh, yes, I wanted to give you this before I depart,” as Carlton said that, he took out a small box from inside his coat and handed it to Lydia. 

“Your mother made him look after it before she passed away. After you grow old enough, she wanted you to have it when you turn to an age when you would start to think about marriage.”

Lydia grew uneasy when she heard the word ‘marriage’ from her father. 

P. 15

Oh, no, he doesn’t know, does he?

“I-I have no such plans.”

“Your mother said that I should maybe hand it to you when you turn sixteen or seventeen. I thought it was too early for you, but you are working as a fairy doctor, so I really shouldn’t treat you as a child forever.”

It was just a month ago when Lydia was asked for her hand in marriage by a fairy and left the human realm. She immediately came back, but for Lydia who had the power to be able to communicate with fairies, she was not the ordinary daughter. As long as she dealt with fairies, who didn’t understand the normal acceptable human practice, and was asked for his bride, then as her father, he wouldn’t be allowed to give any time to give her his blessings. 

Carlton was taught that and so he must have been mulling over until today and he thought he should finally hand over the item that his wife had trusted him with. 

With mixed feelings, Lydia opened the box.

There was a pendant in it which dangled a clear gemstone with a faint blue hew. 

“It’s a gemstone called aquamarine.”

“It’s like….., the color of the ocean water.”

“Your mother said that she was handed this down from her mother around your age. And her mother from her mother…., well, it’s that kind of thing.”

Lydia didn’t know about the homeland of her mother who left her house as she had pretty much eloped with her father. 

P. 16

But when she heard the story he told her, it was strange as she felt a faint nostalgia to the island she never say located in the far north.

“Thank you, Father. I’ll treasure it.”

“Well, then, I’ll be off now.”

“Take care.”

She kissed his cheek goodbye and watched her father climbed abroad the train.

The steam train left Londonjust as scheduled as it headed off towards the English Channel.

Inside the box along with the pendant, there was a letter from her mother.

[My dear Lydia, I wonder how you are when you are reading this letter. You said you wanted to become a fairy doctor like mother, so I wonder if that came true. A fairy doctor is quite a unique profession, so no one will lend you their hand. I worry that that doesn’t put you through any painful paths, but before you are a fairy doctor, please don’t forget that you are a young woman. Someone who stay by your side and support you will be your treasure.]

It was a short letter, but she was filled with happines from her mother’s love. 

Lydia wondered if her mother thought she was also in love with someone just like how her mother and father met. 

Or perhaps, since it was an era when people didn’t believe in the existence of fairies, her mother might not have wanted her to be fixated on being a fairy doctor and desire happiness as a normal young woman. 

P. 17

“Maybe Mother thought I wasn’t suited in being a fairy doctor….”

P. 30

*

In the members-only high-class club, which was the social gathering spot for the gentlemen, the night was filled with laughter and commotion as the men with leisure played throughout the night.

There was spirits and tobacco and opium. They were free to enjoy themselves in the comfortable, lavish room with games and gamble and even discussions with their friends. Out of all the pleasures in life, the only thing missing might be the women.

In club houses like these, normally women weren’t allowed. The English fancied just gathering with men, which was incomprehensible to Edgar.

However, there was a necessity to come to this club tonight. After he was passed into one of the private rooms, the owner of the club Slade and the painter, Paul were waiting for him.

“And so my lord, how was the spiritual ritual last night?”

“Did you find out about anything on the spiritualist?”

With a quick greeting, they rushed into questioning him. The ones who brought the information about the spiritualist was these two, in order words, the secret organization ‘Scarlet Moon’ that were members of. 

The two of them looked so serious that he wanted to play with them first.

“Yes, she was quite the beauty. She had her face covered with a veil, but I’m sure of it. Her figure was perfect as well.”

P. 31

“Uh-huh….. That’s not what I meant, my lord, what on earth were you looking at. That woman might possibly be working under Prince….”

Slade was starting to get heated up from irritation and Paul was trying to calm him down by his side. Edgar was satisfied that he was able to anger the short-tempered man and so he got to the point.

“There’s no mistake that Prince is involved. As for them, I can guess they cleared their first step in their plan to lure me out.”

The one named Prince they were talking about was Edgar’s nemesis in America. The man had killed off his family and kidnapped him when he was still a child and made him his slave. 

Although, Edgar was able to escape from Prince’s hands, he didn’t imagine that he would be allowed to continue on like this.

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It wouldn’t be strange if they were going to launch some plan they set for him pretty soon.

He had every intention of taking up that challenge and even planned to destroy that organization along with that man eventually.

In order for that, he was proceeding with an investigation with the help of the ‘Scarlet Moon’ which was an organization that also held hatred for Prince.

And through that, they came up with the conviction that someone sent in from America by Prince was starting to work in London.

This someone at hand went with the name of Ulysses. This man had accepted a massive amount from a money lender who did business with Prince.

P. 32

What ever he was planning on doing, it was sure to be money that he was going to use for his next plan. 

The name Ulysses sounded familiar when Edgar was being under the capture of Prince. He never saw the man’s face but he anticipated he was one of the most looked-upon subordinates.

However, they weren’t able to get the exact whereabouts of Ulysses himself as he didn’t make an appearance anywhere. They had no information of what kind of person he was.

What they were finally able to find out was the existence of a spiritualist that Ulysses if being the patron of. 

They didn’t know yet what Prince’s subordinate was going to start doing using the spiritualist. 

However this spiritualist went around announcing that she was an acquaintance of Earl Ashenbert and made contact with members of the upper-class who loved the occult, so it seemed like they had the intention of luring out Edgar. 

To that, Edgar purposefully made his appearance. Even if it was a trap, he wanted to make the point that he wasn’t hiding in fear of Prince. 

He thought that if there was a way for them to win without going as the enemy planned, then the first thing was not to be afraid of the enemy.

“I was told that it was to choose a bridegroom for the ghost daughter.”

“Yes, she made her choice.”

“What, so you met the ghost?”

“I didn’t meet her, so to speak…, it’s unclear. For now, there are four men, including myself that were chosen as candidates. They’re going to call us back on anther occasion. In the other three, there was a man who went with my name of Earl Ashenbert.”

P. 33

“Could he be Ulysses?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

As he said that, Edgar remembered about the spiritual ritual. 

With the invitation to the London city Association of 

the Spiritual and Psychic that the ‘Scarlet Moon’ obtained in his hand, Edgar 

attended the spiritual ritual using an alias of Viscount Middleworth. 

The room he was lead to had all of its windows covered with thick curtains and there was a large round table placed in the middle of it. The carpet that was laid out on the floor erased any kind of footsteps and so the room was severely quiet even though there was a number of people gathered in it. 

In the dark, gloomy room that had only one lit candle, it was hard to decipher the faces of the invited gentlemen, but according to the report that was done beforehand, none of them were people who were acquainted with Edgar in the ton.

The ton was a costly place. The nobles gathered here were ones who couldn’t afford that. 

After a while, the door in the back of the room opened and a small old woman came walking into the room. 

「Gentlemen, thank you so much for your patience. We would like to start the ritual so please have a seat.」

Everyone did as she said quietly and after they all sat around the round table in a circle, a woman who wore a veil entered from the door that the old woman entered from.

P. 34

The spiritualist wore a black dress and a black veil. Since her face was covered, her looks and age couldn’t be guessed. Edgar thought by looking at the faint line of her face that she appeared to be on the slimmer side and quite young.

After she sat down on the only vacant chair, she slowly took a look at the faces that gathered in the room from under her veil. 

It could have just been his imagination, but he felt like her eyes stopped to linger like a panic when they hit Edgar. 

The spiritualist must have been unable to bear under Edgar’s piercing glare and so never looked over to his direction after that. 

「Is everyone ready. The one who we will be calling tonight is the daughter of Mrs. Collins here, the ghost of Miss Teresa Collins.」

The one who opened her mouth was the old woman who stood behind the spiritualist.

*

「Earl Ashenbert, his next lover is a ghost daughter」

A title that would make one frown was boldly printed on the cover of the tabloid papers again.

When Lydia commuted to the earl house, it was laid out on the table of her office. Lydia crumbled it up into a ball and threw it into the trash bin.

“Nico, don’t make me look at the gossip papers everytime.”

“I thought you would be curious.”

Nico, who loved drinking tea, would always arrive at the earl house a little earlier than Lydiaand had an expensive tea imported from Ceylon poured for him and was currently, enjoying his tea time with a satisfied look.

“I said that it has nothing to do with me!”

P. 41

“Then don’t get so angry every time. I’m just keeping my eye out on that earl to make sure to see if he isn’t plotting some kind of scheme.”

Keeping your eye on him, more like you just like to read about gossip. Even if Edgar was plotting something, Nico was easily bribed with food or wine. He was Lydia’s partner but he was absolutely unreliable.

But then, Lydia just thought of something and walked over to Nico who was having his heart content in smelling the aroma of his tea as he gracefull held it up in his hand.

She cleared her breath before she asked him.

“So you read it?”

“Ah? Well, just skimmed through it.”

“What did it say?”

“If you’re curious, you read it.”

“……It’s not like I’m particularly that curious. Just only that, I have a lot of opportunities to be with Edgar. You don’t know when and how we’ll be seen under the wrong impression, so I thought I should just make sure and avoid any situations that could be used for a gossip article.

“Don’t you think you’ll be all right? Since you haven’t been used for an article even once all this time.”

Lydia felt a little irritated at being declared by Nico even that she and him didn’t look like a couple at all. 

P. 42

Well, it’s all right that we are seen like that.

She was just worried that she didn’t have any attractive appeal at all and that she might not be able to go through the normal experience of falling in love. 

Yes, that was all, but it would be helpful to know just for reference. 

Lydia carefully picked up the tabloid paper that she threw into the garbage bin.

She pressed out the crinkles and picked up the printed words. It wrote that the wife of a wealthy man held a spiritual ritual in order to find a marriage partner for her daughter who passed away. And it said that Earl Ashenbert had participated as a bridegroom candidate. 

It said something about he had set his heart on the beautiful ghost. 

“……Unbelievable.”

She couldn’t help but gasped in horror. 

She knew he didn’t hold any indiscrimination on women, but to go this far. 

“Why, this is good timing, don’t you think. If he’s intending on marrying with a ghost then I’m sure he’ll let you go.”

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