Small Mechanisms

"I apologize, but I'm just that popular with the young ladies."

Molly's face remained expressionless. She simply nodded slightly to indicate that she understood and continued to eat her meal at a leisurely pace. In contrast, the maid across from her was eating much faster, as she had less to consume, mainly liquids, which naturally made her quicker than Molly. After finishing her meal, the maid noticed that Molly hadn't yet finished and even paused to wait for her.

The maid considered urging Molly to hurry but thought better of it, understanding that Molly was human, and it was only natural for her to eat slowly.

After a while, Molly finally finished her meal. She placed her tray in the designated spot and followed the maid to the second young lady's room.

The structure of the second young lady's room was identical to Adele's. Upon entering through the large door, there was a reception room, much larger than the ones at school. Further inside was her living area, which also included a bedroom and a dressing room.

The maid stopped in front of the dressing room. When Molly pushed the door open, she saw the second young lady being attended to by several maids. The second young lady was very young, only six years old. It was said that soon she would go to the human cultivation institution to choose her own human maid—though calling them maids felt more like calling them blood banks. Only a vampire like Adele would resist drinking human blood altogether.

The second young lady certainly had the demeanor of a noble from the Thirteen Clans, needing three maids to attend to her hair alone. When she saw Molly arrive, the second young lady raised her hand, dismissing the maids, and then gracefully leaped from her seat, walking over to a small table. She pulled out a chair and sat down, her actions smooth and elegant, before calling Molly to sit across from her.

Molly didn't hesitate and sat down as the second young lady requested. The young lady had a maid prepare a cup of red tea, taking a sip only to quickly set the cup down. Although she pretended as if nothing had happened, Molly knew the young girl had likely burned her tongue. Like her sister, she had a cat's tongue, easily burned by hot things.

But from a young age, the second young lady had been taught noble etiquette, so even if she burned her tongue, she would act as if nothing had happened in front of so many people.

After a brief silence, as if trying to intimidate Molly, the second young lady finally spoke, "How is Adele doing at school…" Her words became slightly slurred at the end.

It was clear that she had burned her tongue and wasn't fully recovered yet.

After all, she was still a child, and her healing ability wasn't as extreme as an adult's. It was perfectly normal for her to struggle through a long sentence and bite her tongue, leaving her eyes brimming with tears.

Molly looked expressionlessly at the second young lady across from her. The young girl had indeed bitten her tongue. Already burned, and now bitten, she must have been in quite a bit of pain, enough to bring tears to her eyes. She looked as pitiful as she did yesterday when scolded by her elder sister.

To avoid wounding the young lady's fragile pride, Molly pretended not to notice, calmly answering her question, "Lady Adele is doing very well at school. Since I only see Lady Adele after classes, I can only speak to what happens after school. Lady Adele eats well, sleeps well, and even gave a speech as the top student during the entrance ceremony, earning first place at the end of the term."

"Upon leaving school, she was admired by the other young ladies for carrying her luggage and giving a noble lady's speech."

The second young lady seemed very interested in this, her teary eyes brightening. Despite her swollen tongue, she insisted, "Oh? What happened, tell me more." Molly nearly broke character at this, but her years of maintaining an icy facade allowed her to quickly regain composure and respond expressionlessly, "It went like this…" She recounted the scene that occurred before leaving the school.

The maids behind her seemed somewhat disapproving, but the second young lady's eyes sparkled with admiration, even if she tried to remain haughty and reluctant to acknowledge Adele. "Hmph, her actions truly do honor the Black family name. As the family's eldest daughter, she must lead by example!"

After this brief conversation, the second young lady's speech had clearly improved, though she still stumbled over the word "eldest daughter," pronouncing it as "eldesht." After chatting a bit longer, the young lady, having exhausted what she could glean from Molly, began to play her role as the second young lady and gave her orders, "You've done well. Continue to serve Lady Adele properly at school, or I won't go easy on you!"

"Yes, Second Young Lady, I understand."

The young lady put on a serious face, nodded solemnly, then waved Molly off. As soon as Molly left the second young lady's room, she was immediately caught by Adele. Unlike her sister, who sent someone to summon her, Adele had come directly to fetch her.

Adele inquired about her clothes, to which Molly could only internally curse. She hadn't cleaned Adele's room in ages; how could she possibly know where they were? But in truth, Molly did know where Adele's clothes were because the maids wouldn't alter the layout of her room when cleaning it. Whatever Adele's room looked like before she left for school, it would still look like that now.

Molly's memory was excellent, and she immediately recalled where Adele's clothes were.

But she couldn't appear too confident, so she hesitantly suggested, "Could it be in the second shelf of the wardrobe?" Hearing this, Adele, still claiming not to know where her clothes were, dragged Molly to her room. Molly found the clothes Adele had been searching for and left the dressing room ahead of her. When Adele finished changing and emerged, Molly looked at her.

Adele was quite fond of Gothic clothing, though she didn't wear it at school, opting instead for practical attire. While Gothic outfits were beautiful, they were too complicated and cumbersome for easy movement. But there was no denying that Adele looked perfect in such dark attire. With her long, silver-white hair, paired with this outfit and the accessories in her hair, she resembled a doll in a display case.

Adele was about to say something to Molly when the second young lady's voice came from outside, "Adele, you haven't forgotten, have you? Father wants us to have dinner with him today!"

Of course, she hadn't forgotten. She just wanted to spend a little time with Molly first. Hearing her sister's reminder, Adele could only tell Molly, "I'll come find you later, Molly. I'm off to dinner now." Molly nodded, and after Adele left the room, she began to ponder.

The Black family head had returned? That likely meant the matter had been resolved, or perhaps… the white werewolf had already been brought to the castle and was now being tortured in some dungeon. Molly couldn't smell anything from the basement, mainly because the scent there was too overwhelming, with many different species locked up there. The thick stone walls were meant to prevent other keen-nosed creatures from coming to the rescue.

Molly thought for a moment, realizing that with the family head and the young ladies dining in the hall, she now had some free time. Once Adele and the second young lady were far enough away, she left the room, returned to her own, wrapped herself in a disguise with silk threads, and slipped out the window. She avoided the vampire guards' patrols, confirmed that the family head's room was empty, and stealthily slipped inside, landing softly on the floor.

Molly knew the family head's room well, having visited many times before, often stealing information to pass on to the human military, which was of great help. She loved sneaking into the family head's room and never left empty-handed.

Sure enough, she found a letter on the family head's desk, but she knew it was just a decoy.

The Black family head was a cunning old man, somewhat paranoid, always suspecting someone was out to get him, so he often set up elaborate deceptions. To be fair, it wasn't entirely paranoia, because Molly really did frequently sneak into his room to rummage through his things. Although the family head had no evidence, his sixth sense told him something was amiss.

Unfortunately for him, Molly considered the family head's little tricks insignificant. She had seen too many of these scenarios in novels and TV shows in her past life and even occasionally watched him set up his traps. She knew them inside out.

This time, she found the mechanism quickly. It was a simple setup but challenging to locate, a classic trap she had seen before. The real letter was hidden in a compartment within the drawer. The family head had added a false bottom to the first drawer, with a small hole below to push up the false bottom. If someone simply removed the bottom panel, it would trigger a small switch and start a fire that would burn the entire drawer.

The hole below required the quill on the desk to push the panel up, allowing access to the letter.

"Who would have thought, at your age, you're still quite the trickster." Molly only found this switch because she had seen the exact same mechanism in an anime before. Her keen observation skills, coupled with her sharp sense of smell, led her to detect the magical stone hidden in the drawer. In this world, there was no gunpowder, so using a magical stone as an ignition device was a clever idea.

But magical stones were expensive, and the family head was wasting them.

If Molly weren't worried about the family head noticing the stone's removal, she might have taken it for herself. She retrieved the real letter from the hidden compartment and, after confirming it had been opened and not resealed, she muttered to herself, "You're too confident. If you had set up a few more layers, I might have fallen for it," while opening the letter.

As expected, it contained a report on the recent airship incident. The report indicated that the non-humans' goal was the high bounty on the heads of the Thirteen Clans' members. However, one detail caught Molly's attention: the report mentioned suspicions that someone within the airship company had been bribed by non-humans.

Black Family Head: You can't guard against betrayal from within.

Molly: Ha! These traps? I've seen better in anime!

Adele: Molly, you're amazing!

Black Family Head: ?