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Book 13: Chapter 9: Infiltration

"Have you ever seen a gardener before?"

Monica, dressed in work pants and a shirt for gardening, was met with a cutting remark from Bridget.

Monica looked over her attire again. Pants with suspenders and a well-worn shirt. She thought that with a hat on, she would look like a gardener from any angle, but Bridget had a frown creased between her brows.

"In what world is there such a pale gardener?"

"Ah."

Indeed, she realized, it was unnatural for someone who works in the garden to be completely un-tanned. Even the beautiful Thorn Witch had a healthy tan from the sun.

As Monica became flustered upon realizing this, Bridget took out a bottle of grease paint from her luggage and placed it heavily on the table.

"First, rub this onto your skin. Not just your face, but your neck and hands too, everywhere that\'s exposed."

"Y-Yes."

Monica scooped up the dark grease paint with her finger and tried rubbing it on the back of her hand. As she thoroughly spread it, her pale skin turned a sunburnt reddish-brown.

While Monica was applying the grease paint, Bridget had changed from her beautiful dress into a worn shirt and pants. The boots she swapped into were also well-used and stained with mud. Her thoroughness was evident.

Moreover, Bridget tied back her beautiful blonde hair and tucked it into a cap.

However, no matter how much she hid her beautiful hair or applied grease paint to her skin, her striking beauty couldn\'t be fully concealed.

Monica thought it would be impossible for Bridget to infiltrate but then Bridget took some cotton out of her luggage and put it in her mouth. Finally, putting on a pair of unfashionable glasses changed her impression drastically.

"Howfur aboot this?"

Bridget\'s voice was muffled, now with a unique downtown accent.

"Uh Lady Bridget?"

Monica couldn\'t help but let out a dumbfounded voice, to which Bridget snorted through her nose with a laugh.

"Aren\'t you a spy for the Count of Kerbeck? What are you so surprised about for something of this level?"

"I\'m sorry"

Monica knew that Bridget was fluent in languages, but she hadn\'t expected her to master the downtown accent as well.

As Monica was impressed, Bridget took out two pairs of thick gardening gloves and handed one to Monica.

"Also, make sure you never take off these gloves. No matter how much you change the color of your skin, the condition of your hands will give away your social status at a glance."

Monica was now ashamed of herself for doubting whether Bridget could handle the infiltration. Bridget was far more thorough than Monica.

As Monica and Bridget arrived at the Duke of Crockford\'s mansion, they were greeted by the Thorn Witch, Raul Rosenburg.

"Hey there, what a perfect day for some good ol\' gardening!"

With his rosy curls and deep green eyes, Raul\'s beauty could rival that of a fairy tale prince. His smile revealed dazzling white teeth, and despite standing next to Felix and Bridget, Raul\'s appearance was equally captivating. Today too, he was dressed in his familiar work clothes, complete with a shovel over his shoulder.

Bridget whispered to Monica, "What\'s with that ridiculously good-looking gardener who seems so out of place?"

Even the well-informed Bridget didn\'t seem to realize that he was one of the Seven Sages, the Thorn Witch. Though, Monica was also one of the Seven Sages.

"W-well, y-you see h-he\'s our h-helper for this operation," Monica stuttered.

She had informed Raul beforehand that Bridget would be accompanying them and asked him to keep her identity as the Silent Witch a secret. Raul didn\'t pry too much into Bridget\'s background and readily agreed, saying, "She\'s a friend of Monica\'s, right? Of course, she\'s welcome to join us!"

In addition to Raul, there were about eight servants of the Rosenburg family at the site. They were all skilled in gardening, their faces tanned from working under the sun. Monica realized once again that Bridget\'s judgment had been correct. If Monica were the only one with pale skin among them, it would indeed look unnatural.

"Let me give you a quick rundown of today\'s schedule. We\'ll be working until noon. The flower bed team will mainly be sowing seeds and planting seedlings. The tree team will be pruning. I\'ll be overseeing everything. Monica and Bridget, you\'re officially on the flower bed team, but feel free to take breaks and move around as you like. However, it might be better to wait until after lunch to investigate the mansion."

"Um, is something happening at lunch?"

"I\'ve been asked by the butler about the flowers to decorate the mansion. I told him I wanted to see the rooms where they\'ll be displayed, and he said I could take a look after the morning work was done. So if you accompany me then, you\'ll naturally get to see the inside of the mansion."

"In that case, I\'d like to accompany you then. T-thank you very much."

"No problem, leave it to me!"

Raul thumped his chest confidently and went to fetch the seedlings on a cart while humming a tune.

Watching him go, Bridget muttered with a puzzled expression, "He\'s not only in charge of the Duke of Crockford\'s garden but also the flowers inside the mansion? Just who is that guy?"

"Ha, ha, ha"

To reiterate, he was neither a gardener nor a florist. He was one of the top magicians in the country.

Even Monica knew that the Duke of Crockford was the most powerful noble in the country.

Therefore, she had thought that his mansion would be splendidly decorated and glittering with gold, but the duke\'s mansion was much more elegant than Monica had imagined and, above all, had an air that spoke of history. The dignified appearance of the building, with its historical details in every decoration, overwhelmed the beholder in a way that was different from its splendor and magnificence. The grounds were incredibly spacious, and it was understandable why so many people were needed to maintain the garden.

After moving to the garden, Raul greeted the servants of the duke\'s mansion with a casual, "Hello, hello," while giving instructions to his subordinates.

Seeing how busy he was, Monica couldn\'t help but wonder if she should also help, but Bridget whispered to her in exasperation.

"Have you already forgotten why we came all this way?"

"Ugh"

As Monica faltered, Bridget snorted in exasperation and called out to Raul.

"Head gardener, we\'re going to pull some weeds."

"Sure, just do whatever you want!"

Bridget nodded once in response to Raul\'s words and started walking, pulling Monica along.

"Come on, let\'s go. First, we\'ll investigate the outside of the mansion."

"Y-Yes, ma\'am."

She truly is a reliable young lady. If Bridget hadn\'t been there, Monica might have gotten carried away by the atmosphere and ended up focusing on helping with the gardening.

Bridget seemed to think that the real Felix was hidden somewhere on the grounds of the duke\'s mansion. She already seemed to have an idea of where he might be.

"The most suspicious places are the rooms on the second floor and above the duke\'s mansion. The first floor is where guests come and go, so it\'s less likely. First, we\'ll go around the outside of the mansion and check the windows. If there\'s a room with curtains drawn unnaturally, consider it suspicious."

"I, I see"

As for Monica, she wanted to investigate the connection between Peter, the mastermind behind the cursed dragon incident, and the Duke of Crockford, but she decided to prioritize Bridget\'s objective for now.

Bridget looked up at the windows and muttered in a voice too low to be heard by those around her.

"Also, there\'s a servant in this mansion that I want to get in touch with."

"Someone you want to get in touch with?"

"He was a personal servant to Prince Felix when he was a child. He\'s probably about my age or a little older. Blond hair. There\'s a scar near his right eye, and he used to hide it with his bangs, so you\'ll know him when you see him."

Bridget stopped talking there, closed her eyes once, and then slowly opened them.

"That man was the only one in this mansion who was on Prince Felix\'s side. I don\'t know if he\'s still in this mansion, but if he is he must know something."

With those words, Bridget started walking again. There was no hesitation in her steps. She must have visited this mansion several times before.

"L-Lady Bridget y-you\'re amazing"

Whether it was her disguise or the way she planned her investigation, she was much more efficient and thorough than Monica.

Bridget, who was walking ahead, turned back to Monica slightly and snorted.

"How many years do you think it took me to prepare for this?"

There was weight in her whisper.

Surely, Bridget had been searching for her prince ever since the day Felix\'s personality changed, all by herself.

Without being able to confide in anyone.

"This is my first and last chance. If I miss this, there probably won\'t be another opportunity It\'s only natural to prepare meticulously."

Suddenly, Bridget stopped walking. Her gaze was fixed on a small cottage to her right and slightly ahead.

"That\'s a cottage I don\'t remember."

It was a small cottage built in a slightly open area behind the mansion. It wasn\'t exactly new, but compared to the historic duke\'s mansion, it looked relatively new.

"Even you don\'t know about this cottage, Lady Bridget?"

"When I used to come and go from this duke\'s mansion as a child, there was a much more rundown storage shed there. It was probably rebuilt after that."

Under her glasses for the disguise, her amber eyes shone brightly.

"It\'s suspicious. We\'re going to investigate it."