Chapter 21: 21

Hiiiiing!

At the sudden cry of a horse, Grace was startled awake.

Just a while ago…

She and Lucas ran through the garden in the rain, so her whole body was drenched.

The maids of House Blacke quickly led Grace to the hot bath. They said that they prepared the hot water as soon as they noticed the rain falling.

So taut with nervousness and anxiety all day, Grace practically melted as soon as she entered the warm water.

And as the temperature rose further, Grace unknowingly dozed off.

In the meantime, the rain fell harder and harder. It’s impossible to ride a carriage in this weather.

It was just as Lucas Blacke said.

‘…Well. Whatever happens, happens.”

After her bath, Grace entered the guestroom that Lucas had prepared for her, and she laid down on the bed. She felt herself come loose.

The sound of the rain served as a good lullaby, and soon enough, she once again drifted off to slumber.

As if waiting for this signal, Julie promptly covered Grace with a blanket. She also took off her shoes first before she headed out the room.

Grace fell so deeply asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

 

 

“How long did I sleep…?”

Murmuring in a drowsy voice, Grace sat up and rubbed her heavy eyes.

She didn’t know what time it was. There wasn’t a clock here, and she couldn’t guess the time because it was so dark around her.

Hiiiiing!

At that moment, she once again heard a horse’s whinny.

‘…But a horse’s cries, so suddenly?’

Feeling that it was strange, Grace got out of bed and walked up to a window.

She then opened the tightly closed curtains, then looked outside towards the dark expanse.

She couldn’t see very far ahead because the rain was blocking her view.

‘Or is there a stable nearby?’

With this thought in mind, she was about to turn her head, but then a flash of lightning suddenly broke out.

And so, with her field of vision brightened, she found something there outside.

“……!”

From that momentary flash of light, Grace saw a massive black horse.

It had a silky, shiny black mane, shining blue eyes through the darkness, and a massive body unlike any other she saw.

The horse was enormous, yet beautiful. It also looked powerful and fast.

“Oh my goodness…”

It was such a beautiful horse.

As if it was the famous stallion of the legends, the black horse ran through the garden of the Blacke mansion’s garden, galloping vigorously.

Grace murmured quietly, totally enraptured by the figure of the black horse.

“…Is it His Excellency’s horse?”

She had never seen a horse that looked so precious.

No other horse could compare to its splendor, be it in any of the equestrian clubs, or in any of the stables of all other high-ranking nobles.

How could that horse be so free?

How could it be so full of vigor?

She wanted to watch it run freely even more, but the black horse quickly disappeared, buried in the darkness.

Mesmerized, her eyes were fixed towards the direction in which the horse disappeared.

“It’s gone.”

Grace stared at the dark expanse in front of her for a very long time, even after the horse had already disappeared. She waited, but it did not show itself again.

Feeling regretful, she turned her head away.

And belatedly, she began to worry about the safety of that horse. It was galloping so rapidly through the heavy rain.

Even though it was an animal, it must be feeling cold…

‘Will it be alright?’

Was that horse running back to its stable?

Or was it originally a horse that just ran freely outside?

No, but what if it broke out of its stable?

She pondered to herself whether she should inform the staff of the mansion about this.

At that moment, she saw Lucas’ aide rush out of the mansion.

‘Ahh, it seems he’s gone out to look for the horse.’

This meant that she didn’t need to do anything further.

Grace turned away from the window, feeling relieved.

She went back to the bed again and lay down, but since she had woken up, it was difficult to fall back asleep.

Besides that, she was still worried about how the horse ran out earlier.

Didn’t it look like it was purebred?

She was taught horseback riding before, but she had never truly ridden a horse.

She was just allowed to bring it to a slow walk, as if hovering in the same place.

‘…Like my life.’

But that black horse earlier seemed to be the kind of horse that wouldn’t only walk like that.

It was such a creature that must run vigorously across a vast land, like how it did in these plains, with those thick and robust legs.

How would it feel if she were to ride it and run fast against the sharp wind?

‘Wouldn’t it feel incredible?’

Even as she had been lying down all this time, Grace kept thinking about what she saw earlier. She tapped her forehead, then soon sat back up.

“I need a glass of water.”

Grace tried to pour a glass for herself, but she belatedly remembered that she had already emptied the pitcher out last night—or rather, earlier in the night.

Her body had felt hot from the back, and her throat was parched, so she drank it all before she slept earlier.

“Huhp.”

Eventually, she rose from her seat. She’s about to get some water for herself.

She didn’t want to wake up Julie or any other employee of the mansion at this time of the night, and she also would just want to go to the bathroom later.

Grace slid her feet into her slippers and put on a robe over her nightgown. Then, she opened the door.

Creeeak—

She poked her head a little out the door and looked outside.

Fortunately, the corridors were well-lit with bright lamps.

There was a gloomy atmosphere during this hour—not even daybreak yet—but not to the point of stopping her from walking outside.

‘I’ll just hurry up and come back.’

She finally got to check the time when she saw a clock on her way, and she found out that it was just well past midnight.

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The morning sun wouldn’t rise until a few hours later.

‘As soon as people wake up, I’ll go back to the manor. I’m sure I’ll get an earful from Father, but… it couldn’t be helped.’

She thought it was lucky that she asked Julie about the location of the kitchen before she went to bed.

Pressing a hand over her pounding chest, she entered the kitchen, which was near the entrance hall on the first floor.

Fortunately, there was drinking water ready.

She poured a whole glass for herself, gulped down the water, and left the kitchen.

She hurried back to her room, but along the way, she saw a few paintings at the entrance hall that she didn’t notice before.

‘Are these all the predecessors who protected House Blacke?’

This household seemed to have such great filial love.

There weren’t many households that would respectfully display family portraits of their predecessors like this.

Even House O’Ellin, which was known to be a historic household, would change the portraits that were being displayed, depending on who had inherited the title during that generation.

However, this mansion seemed to have all the portraits from several generations back.

‘…Oh, these people resemble His Excellency quite a lot.’

The most recent portrait depicted a middle-aged man, who looked a lot like Lucas Blacke, and an elegant woman with black hair.

Grace unconsciously took a step forward, her gaze lingering a little longer on this couple’s portrait.

“Is it because their family crest has a black stallion…? There are so many paintings of horses, too.”

More than half of the twenty portraits included horses.

There was also one portrait that depicted only a horse without reins.

Unless they were really fond of horses, they wouldn’t have had a portrait drawn of a horse, and even hung it in such a huge frame.

‘So cool.’

The horses in the paintings looked so beautiful, massive, and free.

The color of their coats, and the color of their eyes—almost all of them differed.

Even if there were some huge horses, there were also a few small horses, and even breeds that she had never seen before.

They were all different, but there was one thing that’s common between them all—they’re all confident and beautiful.

She was filled with delight just admiring them.

Momentarily forgetting her phobia, Grace walked down the dark corridor, looking at the paintings hung along the way.

And as she was about to turn the corner leading up to her guestroom,

…Thud.

One of Grace’s feet caught on something.

“Hmm? What’s this?”

Grace reached down to pick up the item that had rolled next to her foot.

“…A riding crop?”

With a long shaft, it was a riding crop that’s made from thick leather.

It looked like a dye had been used to write something on it, and there was a red pattern that was sleekly shining on the riding crop’s handle.

“Oh? This isn’t just a pattern, is it? It looks like a word in the archaic language.”

Since she was interested in archeology during her academy days, she taught herself many words of the archaic language.

The archaic language was also called ‘ancient language’.

Learning it made it easier to study the records left behind by alchemists, magic scholars or witches of the past.

The only problem was that… it’s too difficult.

Incredibly enough, just 4,500 years ago, alchemy and magic definitely existed.

But at some point, the magical power that existed in the atmosphere had disappeared, and the people who were once called wizards and witches had disappeared.

Still, it’s said that there were a few artifacts left from that era, and they expressed a truly strange power.

Most of them were being kept by the royal family, so they’re very difficult for an ordinary citizen to see.

“So, these characters…”

Feeling quite amazed, Grace looked closely at the shining characters of the archaic language.

Although her memory was vague, this word was one that she clearly knew.

Right. This character meant ‘destiny’.

Then, the characters after that meant ‘follow’, ‘adapt’, and ‘embrace’.

Proud of herself for remembering the characters, she read words of the archaic language aloud for the first time in a while.

“La d’oro… lezio.”

Then, at that moment.

A blinding light flashed from the riding crop that she was holding.

Startled, Grace dropped the riding crop.

However, the light that was coming from the riding crop had already climbed up the back of Grace’s hand, then started to go around her wrist.

“Ugh…!”

Where it glowed, her skin started to feel too hot.

Grace was confident enough about how high of a level her pain tolerance was at, but this time, she couldn’t help but groan.

But luckily, the pain went away in an instant.

Just as suddenly as it had appeared, so too did it disappear in a flash.

The pain and heat that had come over her felt as if she was being stabbed by tens of thousands of needles soon disappeared, but it left numbness in its wake. It was on her wrist, just below the back of her hand.

“Mmph.”

Grace firmly held the trembling wrist with her other hand.

‘It hurts— It hurts so much.’

To the point that tears welled up in her eyes.

She clenched her teeth tightly, enduring the pain of her numb wrist the best that she could. But then—

“……?”

The pain went away.

As if nothing at all had happened. It disappeared entirely.

Previously shut tight, Grace opened her eyes and looked at her wrist, where the light had touched.

Her purple irises trembled wildly.

“W-What’s this?”

The archaic words that were on the handle of the riding crop, which she read earlier, were now tattooed on the back of her hand.

With her eyes still heavily quivering, Grace looked at the riding crop that had been dropped near her feet.

And with as much shock she felt right then, her heart pounded greatly.

Compared to her now tattooed hand—

“…What is this.”

—the shining words that were supposed to be on the riding crop were now completely gone.

 

 

t/n: i’m uuuhhhh not really sure if those ‘archaic words’ were actually just italian words…… please take my translation of that phrase with a grain of salt lol

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