Arabella calmly went out into the hallway, and casually took a tour around the second floor, pretending to be uninterested.

‘Nothing!’

Nowhere could she see Isabella’s figure. No signs of life were heard from Isabella’s room, and the firstfloor room that Lucrezia temporarily used was quiet.

She hovered around the sitting room for the girls and the master bedroom on the second floor that her mother originally used, but neither her sister nor mother were there either.

‘Then it’s done, I’m going in.’

After carefully checking for the last time whether there were any maids, Arabella slipped into Isabella’s room.

These days, Isabella had been wearing a simple dress and light makeup, but old habits die hard. Her dressing table was still filled with expensive cosmetics and intricate makeup tools.

‘Really beautiful!’

Arabella, forgetting the purpose of infiltrating Isabella’s room, picked up a rose cheek rouge placed on Isabella’s dressing table. Arabella applied the rouge haphazardly to her lips and admired its delicate color.

The reflection in the mirror seemed a bit like her sister Isabella, and somewhat like a grown lady, which she quite liked.

‘No, no, this isn’t it.’

Arabella, who had been fascinated by her reflection in the mirror for a while, suddenly came to her senses. Then she started busily rummaging around Isabella’s dressing table. Her hands remembered the order in which things were taken out so that they could be put back in place exactly as they were.

‘Let’s see, it was around here……’

In Arabella’s hand, who was going through the boxes stacked under the dressing table one by one, was caught Isabella’s partial wig.

‘Found it!’

At the end of the bright flaxencolored human hair wig, which was exactly the same color as Isabella and Arabella’s hair, was a soft iron clamp made to secure the wig near the scalp.

Arabella held up the iron clamp to the light. The color was dull, but the part that received the light was unusually white. Arabella bent the iron clamp and then straightened it back out.

‘Primarily made of silver… mixed with lead?’

The piece of metal was unusually heavy for its size. It was characteristic of when lead was added. The softness of the metal was almost the same as what she had seen in Ariadne’s room.

‘This seems to be right. I have to bring it to Ari!’

Arabella, thinking of Ariadne who would be happy to see the iron clamp, felt happy herself.

Because the indoor dresses worn by the precious young ladies didn’t have pockets, Arabella held a piece of the human hair wig with the iron clamp in her palm and was swiftly putting Isabella’s things back in place.

Just then, a high, cunning voice echoed against the ceiling from behind.

“What are you doing here?”

“Ah!”

Surprised, Arabella turned around. There stood Isabella, looming over the crouched Arabella.

“You traitor. If you’ve gone over to a rolling stone, you should stick to it. Now you sneak into my room like a rat and rummage through my things?”

Feeling a cold sweat trickle down her spine, Arabella hunched her body. It would be useless to try to explain. The best thing to do when Isabella was this furious was to run away as fast as she could.

“I, I’m sorry… I won’t rummage again.”

It was an apology she would never have made ordinarily. Because she was certain she would rummage again. There was no need to lie among family, right?

But now that her distance from Isabella had grown, her elder sister felt a little like a stranger. Objectively speaking, going through someone else’s belongings was a bad thing to do. So, Arabella felt like she had to make an apology like that.

Perhaps Isabella felt something strange from Arabella’s unusual apology, she scrutinized Arabella from head to toe like a snake.

“What were you trying to steal?”

Normally, when Arabella went into Isabella’s room, she would sweep the cosmetic shelves. The color cosmetics were Arabella’s top priority.

Today, Isabella’s cosmetic shelves were relatively clean. Except for the rose cheek rouge that had been opened and closed, nothing had been touched.

“A, nothing.”

Arabella pointed to Isabella’s cosmetics shelf with a chin gesture.

“It’s clean.”

Isabella looked back and forth at the cosmetics shelf and Arabella with suspicious eyes.

Arabella decided to quickly run away while Isabella was hesitating.

“I, I have to go. Sorry, sister!”

As Arabella quickly got up and ran towards Isabella’s door, Isabella’s voice full of suspicion stung Arabella’s ears.

“Wait, what’s that in your hand?”

A few strands of hair were sticking out from Arabella’s tightly clenched left fist. The bright golden hair shone brilliantly in the light. Arabella’s pupils widened with tension.

‘Should I just hand this over?’

Arabella, who had hesitated for a moment, shook her head.

If she left like this today, there was no promise that she could sneak into Isabella’s room again. Moreover, even if she handed this over, Isabella wouldn’t let Arabella go easily.

At least a few hours of punishment and tantrum would be required before she let go. Rather than that…