I Reincarnated As A Villainess, But Why Did I Become A Cat Butler Instead? - Chapter 288

Chapter 144.2

Even though he was on the verge of tears, Avila cut him off firmly as if she had no intention of listening to his complaints.

“I didn’t come all this way just to hear your complaints.”

“Hmph, so heartless.”

“Enough about that. What happened to Tara? Why did she suddenly disappear?”

“I don’t know. She apparently suddenly submitted a leave of absence request. No one knows where she went, and no one has seen her.”

“Does it make sense that Tara submitted a leave of absence? She’s the kind of person who would keep working on magic research even if she were given a terminal diagnosis!”

“Exactly. That’s why I wrote you the letter because I’m curious too. You were the closest to Tara. Haven’t you heard anything?”

Avila shook her head.

“I haven’t spoken to Tara since I left the palace…”

“Hey, but you came all the way to the capital for something like this? I heard you’ve been staying in Blois these days. Isn’t that quite far?”

“Well, you know.”

Her expression, as she mumbled, wasn’t good. Heidel seemed to think that his senior, Tara, was on vacation somewhere, but she had a different idea.

‘There’s no way Tara would do that.’

She was someone who loved research far more than resting or playing.

Avila knew well how obsessed Tara was with magic. However, since she had worked as a junior research wizard and then quit, she didn’t know what the senior wizards were researching. Senior wizards often conducted research that was classified as a national secret, so everything was done with utmost confidentiality.

While she couldn’t guess what had happened to Tara, she remembered her last conversation with her just before quitting her job.

For some reason, Tara was very drunk that day. She was a person who didn’t like alcohol very much.

“Good thinking, Avila. Get away while you can…”

“Senior? You’re quite drunk.”

“When you can run away… escape…”

“What on earth are you saying? And I’m not running away, you know? I’m quitting!”

“Run away, Avila…”

“Get a hold of yourself!”

“While you can still get out alive… You’re still okay…”

At the time, she simply thought that Tara was overwhelmed with work.

‘But the Tara I’ve known since the academy isn’t the kind of person who would run away just because research is tough. She wouldn’t disappear so irresponsibly.’

Why did she keep getting this ominous feeling?

Heidel smiled and reassured Avila, who didn’t have a good expression.

“Hey, aren’t you taking this too seriously? If Tara saw you, she’d think she had been kidnapped or something. She just submitted a leave of absence and disappeared.”

Then, he sighed deeply.

“But it’s getting increasingly frightening as senior wizards keep disappearing like that. The higher you go up, the more overwhelming the work must be if even those obsessed with research are fleeing.”

“Heidel, when was the last time you saw Tara? How did she look?”

“Well, she did look anxious, like someone being chased by a debt collector, though she was always like that. Oh, and recently, she was always carrying a book around like it was a treasure.”

As if he had finally remembered, Heidel then went into another room and came back with a notebook.

“I ended up taking over senior’s work, and since she disappeared without any handover, all her belongings, even the junk, ended up with me. This is the book she always carried around.”

Avila glanced over the parchment book, which was entirely made of leather. At first glance, it looked like an empty book with nothing written in it, but she knew exactly what it was.

“Is this a magically sealed notebook?”

“It seemed like that. It looks like it contains research data that Senior was working on, but I don’t know why she sealed it with magic. I couldn’t open it with my own power.”

As she inspected the book from various angles, she discovered a faint diamond-shaped mark on the back of the book.

“This is a seal that can only be opened with a key. You need the key to unlock it.”

“A key?”

“Yeah. Didn’t she have something she always carried around? Maybe that’s the key.”

“Well, I’m not sure about that. Is it absolutely impossible to open it without the key?”

“We can’t open it.”

“Come on, maybe you can figure something out? Do you want to take it and study it? After all, if you can’t break the seal, you won’t be able to see it. I’m not knowledgeable about sealing magic, so I wouldn’t be able to do it even if I tried.”

Avila fiddled with the parchment book and then got up from her seat.

“For now, I’ll be going. Let me know if you hear any news about Tara. I’ll be staying in the capital for a while.”

Leaving Heidel’s house, Avila clutched the parchment book to her chest and headed straight to the Blois family’s townhouse. She planned to inform Rowaine that she had arrived in the capital and ask if she could stay with them for a while. However, near the mansion, she unexpectedly encountered someone.

“Oh my, Avila?”

“Uh? Your Highness?”

“Shh. Don’t call me that.”

Elaine, who was wearing a hood pulled down low, looked around and cautioned her. On her wrist, with her index finger raised, there was a dangling diamond-shaped bracelet glinting with a blue light.