Chapter 116 – Fever (3)
Tap, tap, tap-
The gatekeeper, who had been staring blankly into the darkness, turns his head at the sound of horses’ hooves heard in the distance.
It was not difficult to find the source that broke the silence of the night. Now that the night was dark, there was only one carriage coming through this main gate.
“What time is it?”
The gatekeeper asked the assistant gunner next to him in a sleepy voice.
“It’s past twelve o’clock.”
“It’s curfew.”
After hearing the second officer’s answer, the gatekeeper chuckled and muttered. He didn’t have a very good personality. Refusing entry by internally laughing at those who arrived at the outskirts of the city after curfew was a favorite way to relieve the frustration and fatigue of being assigned to night shifts.
“When you come, tell them it’s past curfew.”
“Yes!”
As the carriage, which looked like a dot in the distance, soon approached, the deputy commander walked away and raised his back to signal a stop, and soon the horses leading the carriage began to trot and slowed down.
While the gatekeeper was once again staring blankly into the darkness and thinking about something else, the coachman and the co-driver began to talk about something. The gatekeeper laughed heartily as he thought about their reactions. I expected to see the coachman get angry or beg to be let in just once.
So, the sight of the second-in-command running towards him in a hurry was unexpected and made him quite embarrassed.
“… “What, why?”
“Well, I have to go in now.”
“What? Where is something like that? Are you carrying an urgent messenger or patient?”
“Well, that’s not it-.”
The moment the assistant commander was about to answer his question, the gatekeeper waved his hand and frowned. He lifted his back against the wall. He approached the driver of the carriage with an expression full of irritation and fatigue.
“Good night. It is now an impassable time, so you must wait for an urgent messenger or until 6 o’clock when the curfew is lifted again, or you must return.”
When I gave a greeting that was not at all sincere and gave directions that were now stuck in my mouth, the coachman shrugged his shoulders and nodded toward the cabin of the carriage.
“Well, talk to the lady inside. The lady inside would know the purpose of the visit better than I would.”
The gatekeeper’s already crumpled expression became even more distorted as he spoke to the coachman. He took a deep breath and headed towards the window of the guest room, knocking on the closed window.
Druk-
A small sliding window opened and a woman’s face appeared inside. With her red hair and freckles, the woman wasn’t ugly, but she wasn’t an outstanding beauty either. Just as the gatekeeper was about to say something about the curfew again,
Zech.
The woman handed a letter through her small window. Although the gatekeeper was a man with dark eyes who could not read letters and was blind to the latest news, the pattern on the letter revealed in the light of the lantern hanging on the carriage was a pattern that even he could not have recognized.
It was the emblem of a businessman who had recently invested heavily in the city and was building many commercial districts and factories. It was also rumored that he had a close relationship with the city’s mayor.
“This is an urgent messenger addressed to Mr. Gordon.”
The doorkeeper was troubled by the woman’s cold voice. Normally, they are not allowed to enter, but if they bother people who have a strong relationship with the market for no reason, there may be some repercussions.
In particular, I recently heard that he had been awarded a plaque of appreciation by the city in recognition of his contribution to the city’s economic development, so blocking the passage of this carriage was quite a burden.
Finally, after thinking for a moment, the man motioned to the second-in-command, who received the gesture and pulled the signal cord to signal the door to be opened.
Kwii Iik-
Hearing the sound of the heavy wooden door opening, the doorkeeper handed the letter back with a shocked expression. The woman who returned her letter closed the window without hesitation, and soon the carriage entered the city with the sound of her coachman’s whip.
The doorkeeper, who had nowhere to relieve his frustration from the pointless night shift and nothing else to do, mumbled and returned to his original position, leaning his back against the outer wall. I hope there are no more annoying visitors.
The city at night looked very different from the small town where Jennifer was born and raised.
Streetlights stood up neatly next to the brick-paved road, and the lanterns inside them were lighting up the night. The night street, illuminated even in the darkness, became strangely lively, and people were busy coming and going, each with their own purpose.
The city seen through the open sliding window was a sight filled with heterogeneous beauty. The colorful colors and the sight of so many people moving around at night were all things Jennifer had experienced for the first time.
But she was surprisingly calm at the moment. Previously, she would have been delighted by the novelty and excitement, but she was amazed by the visual information that was captured in her eyes, but that was it.
I didn’t feel envious of the beautifully dressed people, nor did I wonder what stories they had.
Even I felt that she had changed so much.
I was no longer confident in my own life. Only she moves in accordance with her Isabella, whom she serves, and her own mood is determined by her Isabella’s mood, and it becomes her own wish that she achieve her goal.
Jennifer smiled involuntarily and closed his sliding window. The noise and light pouring in from outside died in an instant. Jennifer stared quietly into the darkness, listening only to the sound of the horses’ hooves and the regular sound of wheels rolling.
Suddenly, she felt more comfortable in this silence than with her bright face.
-Whoa, whoa!
Since entering the city, the sound of soothing horses running somewhere continued, soon followed by the carriage slowing down, the carriage stopping completely, and a little later a knock on the door was heard.
-We have arrived!
Jennifer held the letter Isabella had written in her hand, then opened the door, got out, and looked at the building in front of her.
It was a large building comparable to Isabella’s mansion, but it was clearly far from her beauty.
The building had a rough and dull appearance, as if it had been made of rough bricks, and had several identical chimneys on top. And even though it was night, the chimney was busy spewing smoke, and a regular noise that I had never heard before was echoing.
Frowning slightly at the acrid smell that hit her nose, she walked up to the building and pulled the signal cord next to her door.
_Rrrr!
The sharp, ear-splitting alarm sound startled me for a moment before the door opened, and a man came out. A man dressed similarly to Germaine in the mansion looked at Jennifer with a puzzled look.
“Nice to see you. Welcome to Mr. Gordon’s factory. Your name is… ?”
“My name is Jennifer Robinson.”
She handed over the letter she was holding in her hand along with her answer. The man accepted the letter Jennifer gave him and looked at its condition. He then looked at the pattern and nodded slightly.
“It’s a letter from a young lady. “I will deliver it to the owner.”
“The lady ordered me to deliver it directly.”
The butler, who was about to go back inside the building, tilted his head for a moment at her words, then opened the door brightly for her to enter.
The first thing she felt upon entering the building was the warm heat that enveloped her body.
Druk- Boom, Druk- Boom!
Next, an unpleasant noise from outside the building pierced her ears. The noise was so loud that it felt as if a vibration was transmitted through her body every time it rang out.
The last thing that surprised her was the crowd of people inside her huge building and the giant machines moving regularly.
“Please follow me carefully!”
Even though the man was shouting right next to her, it sounded like he was speaking from far away, so Jennifer had to read the shape of the man’s mouth and nod his head.
After following the man, I passed through a narrow passage, climbed the iron stairs, and avoided the low-hanging lights. I arrived in front of a room closed by a thick iron door, and in front of the door was a sign that said “Office.”
“Please wait a moment.”
When her man approached her politely and knocked on her door, a voice came back from within her to come in.
The man pushed the door, which seemed quite thick, with all his might, and soon the door opened, revealing the inside, which was different from what she expected.
Just like Isabella’s mansion seen in her mansion, Mr. Gordon’s office was quite narrow and messy, as if to mock her for expecting her to be well-ordered, if not extravagant. No, to be honest, it would be more correct to say that it was messy.
Documents and writing utensils were scattered around the large desk, and clothes were hanging haphazardly on the chair. It looked like a combination of a room and an office, with a closet on one side and a cot on the other side.
“… “What’s going on at this hour?”
A low voice full of discomfort caught my attention. The man who was sitting by the small lamp in front of the desk, looking at the documents, had a deep look of fatigue in his eyes. It wasn’t until that moment that Jennifer realized that, although she had been working at her mansion for some time, this was the first time she had seen her real employer, Mr. Gordon.
And Jennifer, facing Gordon, could see that the features that could be called Isabella’s characteristics were inherited from her mother.
Gordon’s eyes, unlike Isabella’s, were a shade between dark gold and brown, and her hair was also blonde, a far cry from the ebony hair. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any similarities at all. Not only did she have an outstanding appearance, but the cold atmosphere she gave off was clearly the same as Isabella’s.
“It is said that the young lady delivered the news in a hurry.”
As the man who entered her room with Jennifer spoke, he brushed her hair for a moment and then looked at her with her body frozen.
“… “Isabella?”
As the fatigue in her eyes disappeared, his eyes sank even deeper. It was the familiar look in Isabella’s eyes that she would sometimes see when she was lost in thought.
Jennifer stepped forward and bowed her head.
“Nice to see you. “I am Jennifer Robinson, Lady Isabella’s exclusive servant.”
“… Yes.”
Gordon’s answer seemed somewhat calm yet confusing. As if this was the first time Isabella had delivered news like this.
Looking back, it seems that Lady Isabella never once spoke of her father. Could it be that the relationship between the two is bad? I can only guess that.
“The young lady told me to deliver urgent news, so I came here.”
“… “What’s the news?”
At his words, the man next to him handed the letter he was holding to Gordon. Gordon peeled off the wax from the letter and began to read it slowly.
And at a similar time.
A letter that arrived at the capital investigation team was causing a small stir.
