A Mad Lady’s Confession - Chapter 47

She felt a chill run down her spine for a moment. Madam Carnival prided herself on having experienced all kinds of things, yet even she felt goosebumps rise along the back of her neck.

If she had been in her right mind and not intoxicated by the scent, the lewd noblewoman would have recognized that as a warning and stepped back. No matter that he had accepted the invitation, the man before her was Matthias Nielsen. Not someone to be handled carelessly.

But tonight, the woman was deeply intoxicated. By the fact that he had finally accepted the invitation.

The man who always maintained his refinement was now standing in this garden, right before her eyes, and she could see with her own eyes the body of Matthias that had only been spoken of in hushed gossip.

Those thoughts had already heated her to the point of no return. She was truly not in her right mind.

“Do you know this?”

She moistened her dry lips.

“Among ladies like me, sketches of your naked body circulate.”

“….”

“It’s not some fantasy someone made up either. There are quite a few people who’ve actually seen your bare body.”

That would be true. In his youth, his academy friends would have seen it, and in his territory, he had bathed with knights or soldiers after waiting days in contested zones.

He had plenty of pride, but he never insisted on dignity everywhere just because he was a lord or a noble. At least in places where life and death were equally at stake, he acted simply as a man and a knight. Among men, seeing each other’s naked bodies wasn’t anything unusual.

Madam Carnival placed her hand on the hooks running down the front of her dress. It was clearly designed to be easy to take off from the start.

“If you don’t want to, you don’t have to touch.”

Click, click, each time the hook-shaped fasteners came undone, the ripened flesh of the woman revealed itself little by little.

“It’s fine to keep this distance. You can just take off your clothes. While I feast on you with my eyes, you can do the same to me, hm?”

So she was suggesting they use each other as visual stimulation and masturbate. A smile formed on Matthias’s lips as if it had been drawn there.

“Are you that curious about my cock?”

The vulgar word coming from the mouth of a beautiful, abstinent-looking man was thrilling. It made her want to become even more obscene and filthy. She wanted to crush that proud man beneath her.

“I told you, I am. Leave it to me. Once you know what my lips can do, you won’t be at a loss either. After all, the upper and lower lips gain their skill through experience, don’t they?”

A laugh like a sigh slipped from the man.

“If I agree, what will you give me?”

“Take me as well.”

“I don’t need that.”

She’d expected it. A man in the prime of his youth, handsome, capable, and born with everything to captivate women, would have no reason to want a middle-aged woman like her.

Even so, she had been confident. She was undeniably seductive, and she believed this night she had prepared would stir him. At least for one night.

Her wounded pride etched displeasure between her brows.

“Then what do you want?”

“Well, what would be good…. The list of people who accepted the invitation?”

“What…?”

“And in addition, detailed personal information on the servants hired for tonight’s party as well. Down to the smallest detail.”

“…That’s absurd.”

The strict guarantee of secrecy was the greatest advantage of this orgy party. She had no intention of stopping this amusement in the future either.

“Listen, Duke Nielsen. It seems you’ve come all this way because of that gossip called The Paper or whatever it is, but do you really think I’d hand something like that over?”

Madam Carnival slowly pulled the loosened dress down below her shoulders.

“Don’t talk nonsense and try forgetting your headaches for a moment, hm? If you take a deep breath, you’ll probably feel even better.”

“I’d feel better if you disappeared from in front of me.”

“Come here…, right now. Or I could have someone do it for me?”

If it came to it, she intended to use a few men. No matter how much he was Nielsen, how much more could he do once restrained? Besides, this would become a fatal scandal for Nielsen as well, so he wouldn’t be able to do anything further.

“Now then, so just obediently enjoy this night—”

Thud, with a sound, Madam Carnival’s body disappeared from sight in an instant.

An attack. Matthias lowered his gaze, following the figure that had leapt up from the bushes like a swift cat.

A man with brown hair curled like a dog’s fur, and beneath him, Madam Carnival lay unconscious.

“…What is this?”

Before he could even finish speaking, the man who had risen to his feet grabbed Matthias’s wrist and began to run. Though the grip was weak enough that he could easily shake it off, Matthias’s feet moved as if bewitched, matching his stride with the bear mask.

Huff, huff, huff.

The man in the bear mask ran ahead, breathing in short bursts. Even so, he held tightly onto Matthias’s hand without letting go.

It was a desperate run, like a real beast fleeing to survive, to protect something weaker than itself. They went deeper and deeper into the maze.

Only when there was no longer any sign of others did they finally stop. The man in the bear mask held his chest as he caught his breath.

Matthias, who had steadied his breathing in just a few breaths, looked at his wrist still being held and spoke in a low voice.

“Did you hunt me as well?”

At the sound, the man in the bear mask turned, his gaze immediately dropping to the arrow-shaped brooch pinned to his chest. He soon checked Matthias’s brooch as well, then flinched and quickly let go, stiffening his shoulders.

“Did you want to devour me?”

The bear shook his head vigorously from side to side. The drooping mustache fluttered along with the motion.

The type that plays coy, perhaps.

“Why? Didn’t you also want to see my cock get hard at least once?”

“….”

“You must be disappointed, but I have absolutely no interest in fucking a man.”

The bear mask slowly nodded as if he understood.

That easy retreat instead stirred Matthias’s suspicion. Wearing a mask and attending a vile party like this, and yet….

Just a few minutes ago, he had seen him throw himself forward to knock out a rival to claim the prey he had set his eyes on. Compared to that obsessive movement, he backed off far too easily. No matter how one looked at it, it was strange.

It was just as the man in the bear mask hesitated, stepping back cautiously.

“Stop right there.”

“….”

“Stop, take off your mask, and show me your face.”

There isn’t only Matthias’s newspaper company in Römern. Of course, the newspaper he publishes is the most widely read in the empire, but to avoid having its tail caught, it would make sense to use other publishers. In fact, a few severed tails had been caught before.

However, from beginning to end, The Paper had targeted only Matthias’s newspaper.

It was enough to suspect that someone held a grudge against Matthias Nielsen, or that perhaps it was someone connected to him in some way.

For example, it was worth checking whether the bear mask in front of him was somehow related to it.

“Take off your mask and show your face. This is your last chance.”

“….”

Even standing still, he could clearly feel the other’s anxiety.

Just as his suspicion was about to deepen, the bear suddenly darted away.

In an instant, the roles of hunter and beast were reversed.

The large man wearing a bird of prey brooch began to chase closely behind the smaller figure with the sharp arrowhead pinned to them.

Was it because he was smaller and lighter? The bear ahead moved more nimbly than expected. But against a man with long legs and wide strides, he couldn’t help but be caught quickly.

Matthias reached out and grabbed the back of the bear man’s neck. Whether his footing slipped, the recoil sent the smaller body tumbling to the side, and Matthias’s body also went flying into the bushes.

“Hk-!”

Matthias quickly climbed on top of the bear man’s body. Just as he grabbed his collar to threaten him, something caught his eye.

Beneath the thick, curly brown hair that had looked oddly unnatural, the mask had shifted slightly as he fell, and through the gap, he saw a familiar color.

“…Eleanor?”

So naive and gentle that when her name was called, she didn’t even think to hide it, the small body flinched obviously.

As an incredulous gaze fell on her, the small figure seemed to give up, letting out a breath as she removed the wig and mask.

The pale face he had seen at the breakfast table that morning was there. The pink wisps of hair, the rounded forehead, the flushed lips gasping for breath were all the same. Only her gaze, blurred as if in a dream, was different.

“What are you doing here?”

“…Hh.”

“And what is this outfit?”

The clothes hung loosely on her frame. The awkward shoulder pads meant to make her shoulders look broader, the trousers dragging clumsily.

He couldn’t understand the situation at all. Meeting someone he hadn’t expected in a place he hadn’t expected made his thoughts run in a completely different direction.

Could it be that Eleanor was somehow connected to The Paper?

“Speak, Eleanor. What are you doing here?”

“…Hh… I-I just… came for socializing….”

“What kind of socializing would you—”

“Matthias….”

At being called by his name instead of a title, he flinched. The woman was still breathing heavily. Her chest rose and fell without rest, and her unfocused eyes looked pained.

“Something’s… wrong with my body….”