The Villainess Lives Twice: Butterfly's Dream (IF Story) - Chapter 21
Artizea knocked on the cabinet door, startled. But perhaps thinking it was too loud, there was a heavy kick against the door from the outside.
Bam!
“Eekk!”
Artizea flinched, curling her body tighter. She was scared.
Bam!
Once again, the door was kicked hard. The whole cabinet seemed to shake. Artizea, knowing that when she was punished, staying silent was the best way to endure, clenched her teeth and stayed still. She knew that crying or shouting would only make things worse.
When she didn’t react, the person seemed to lose interest, and soon she heard footsteps walking away.
Artizea trembled inside the cabinet. Being trapped in a small, dark space wasn’t something new to her. She’d been locked in an attic before and even got stuck inside a linen closet once.
She knew she wasn’t trapped forever. She convinced herself it would be fine.
‘Lord Pavel will come to find me.’
After all, he promised he would.
‘And Lord Cedric will come too for dinner.’
If he knew she was missing, he would definitely come looking for her.
Still, the thought of there being someone here who disliked her made her feel even worse.
She was scared.
Before she realized it, tears started to form, and Artizea sniffled quietly, wiping her tears away. But she quickly told herself not to cry over something so small.
She took out her handkerchief, which smelled warm and comforting, freshly washed and ironed by Marie, and wiped her tears with it, reluctant to let the fabric touch her tears.
Footsteps were heard. But since no voice followed, she couldn’t tell who it was. Artizea thought it might be the person who had locked the door, so instead of calling for help, she held her breath, staying silent.
The footsteps soon faded and never returned.
Artizea didn’t know how long she had been in the dark. It probably wasn’t very long.
But for her, it felt like an eternity.
The exhaustion from the tension and the brief crying weighed heavily on her body. She tried to keep her ears alert, but before she realized it, she had fallen asleep in her curled-up position.
* * *
“Tia’s missing?”
That day, Cedric finished his studies early and, on his way back to the quarters, came across the commotion. In a rarely used room, Pavel was nervously peering under a sofa.
When he saw Cedric and turned pale.
“Ah, well…”
“What’s going on? What were you doing?”
“We were playing hide and seek…”
“And?”
“No matter how much I searched, I can’t find Tia. She didn’t go outside, I’m sure.”
Cedric frowned. Pavel quickly added as if trying to explain himself.
“I told her not to leave this floor. She wouldn’t have gone anywhere else. Tia always listens, but she won’t come out when I call her.”
“Wouldn’t it be obvious if she’s hiding in there?”
Cedric asked, incredulous. The space under the sofa was wide open, so there was no need to even look.
Pavel stood up embarrassed.
“Well, that’s true…”
“Where did this all start?”
“In the Jordyn sisters’ room.”
“Follow me.”
Cedric led the way, leaving the room.
As Pavel had said, Artizea was generally obedient. If he told her not to leave this floor, she wouldn’t have disobeyed.
On the way to the Jordyn children’s room, Cedric ran into Kissel, who looked pale, just like Pavel. Hayley and Lysia also came out of different rooms. They were all dirty, having searched in the corners, looking for Artizea.
“Apologies, Young Lord.”
Kissel immediately apologized.
They hadn’t wanted to make a big deal out of it, so they hadn’t informed the butler or anyone else and were searching on their own, but they didn’t expect to run into him.
This was clearly her fault as the governess. She had failed to properly look after the children and had tried to hide it.
But Cedric didn’t want to get into assigning blame at this moment. He simply nodded to Kissel and walked into the children’s room.
As expected, Aubrey was there, looking relaxed and chatting away. When she saw Cedric, her face lit up and she ran toward him.
“Lord Ced! You’re here?”
For a moment, Cedric was speechless. He couldn’t decide how to respond. He didn’t want to engage with her, but asking her directly was quicker.
It wasn’t right to confront a child without evidence, but Cedric abandoned his rational approach.
“Where is Artizea?”
“What?”
Aubrey’s eyes widened as if she didn’t expect the question. She didn’t act like she was pretending to be ignorant. She genuinely didn’t understand why Cedric would ask something like that.
Cedric didn’t want to be angry with the child, but he was genuinely upset. He swallowed his frustration and asked again.
“Where is Artizea?”
Seeing the anger on Cedric’s face, Aubrey flinched.
“I don’t know. Why are you asking me about that…?”
“I’ll ask you once more. What did you do with Artizea?”
At this, Aubrey’s lips began to tremble. Frustration and injustice quickly filled her eyes with tears.
“Why are you doing this to me? What did she do that Lord Ced and Lord Pavel were always on her side?!”
Aubrey shouted angrily. The terrified Kissel rushed to cover her mouth, but Aubrey struggled, biting Kissel’s hand desperately.
“Ah!”
Kissel screamed as she let go of her hand. Aubrey stomped her feet and shrieked in frustration.
“Why should that ugly girl matter? I’m far prettier and more precious than her!”
“Are you out of your mind?!”
In shock, Hayley yanked Aubrey’s arm violently. What kind of absurd words were these in front of the Young Lord?
Cedric could no longer contain his anger and shouted. Pavel, who rarely saw him angry, anxiously called out to him in a small voice.
“Hey.”
But Cedric ignored Pavel’s call and turned to the servant behind him and spoke in a cold voice.
“Go get Count and Countess Jordyn.”
“Yes!”
The servant rushed out in a hurry.
“Bring her here.”
Cedric gestured toward Kissel to take Aubrey. The trembling Kissel grabbed Aubrey, who was still stamping her feet angrily. With the authority of Cedric’s command, Kissel tightly held Aubrey and dragged her along.
Cedric walked out and into the next room.
Artizea had disappeared during the game of hide-and-seek. She must have gotten stuck somewhere like a wardrobe. Kissel or the other children hadn’t thought someone would lock her up on purpose and were just calling for her, looking around.
Cedric went into the first room and opened all the furniture doors. He did the same with the second and third rooms.
“She’s not here. I’ve already looked.”
Pavel said, but the fourth room’s cabinet door was still closed.
Cedric approached the nightstand and opened the drawer. The keys to unused rooms should have been inside the nightstand, but there were no keys there.
He turned to Aubrey and reached out his hand.
“Give it to me.”
“Wh, what?”
At this point, Aubrey was trembling in fear. Cedric glared at her and spoke again.
“If you don’t hand it over, I’ll have you searched. If it’s not there, I’ll search your room, and then the house.”
“Uh… uuh…”
Aubrey started to sob. Hayley immediately dashed over and reached into Aubrey’s pocket, pulling out the key with a pale face. She placed it in Cedric’s hand.
Cedric used the key to open the cabinet. Inside, Artizea was curled up, fast asleep.
He carefully knelt down, reaching out his hand and calling her name.
“Tia.”
“Uung…”
Artizea mumbled in her sleep, grabbing his hand.
She must have been crying, there were traces of tears on her face.
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