The Story of How I Pretended To Be A Boy and Ended Up Being Loved By A Mafia Boss - Chapter 10

From Anis’s point of view:

Two weeks have passed since we moved into the villa.

Mom and I have been spending our days cleaning the mansion, tending the flower beds, and repairing broken furniture.

We go shopping once a week at the bazaar in the villa district’s park to buy vegetables and fruit.

We’re paid 20,000 Regins a day, and since there’s no rent, it looks like the two of us can live comfortably.

Mom said we’re going to keep paying the rent for our house in the west district so we can return to it eventually.

Lord Ray has only come to visit once since then, and we had dinner together.

He brought some really high-quality meat, and I got to try something called “steak” for the first time.

The fat melted in my mouth, and eating it with rice—it was an unforgettable flavor.

After tasting something like that, I’m scared I’ll never be able to go back to normal life…

I told myself this was just a rare treat.

Life here is very comfortable, but the one thing that’s been bothering me is not being able to see Ryu.

I wanted to tell him that Mom came back.

I thought about asking Lord Ray if I could go to the southern district in his carriage, but if I did that, Mom would find out I’d been going there…

Sigh… I wonder what Ryu is doing right now…

****

Switch to Ryu’s point of view

Anis disappeared.

Even when I walked through the main street in the northern district, she wasn’t there in her usual spot.

I checked with the shop, and they told me she stopped coming about two weeks ago.

First her mom disappeared, now Anis too—Royden the Count might be involved.

I had already tracked down her mom to a room in the Count’s mansion, but I was struggling with how to get her out.

But now that Anis is gone too, I can’t afford to wait any longer.

I gathered about ten of my men and went straight to Count Royden’s mansion.

When I rang the bell, a man who looked like a servant came out to the gate.

“Wh-What business do you have here?”

“Is there a woman named Linne (Anis Mother) here?”

“Uh… um, well…”

“If you can’t answer, that’s fine. Go get the Count. Now.”

“A-And who may I say is asking? ”

“Tell him it’s from the Silver Dragon Den. He’ll understand.”

“W-What!? P-Please wait a moment! ”

The man hurried back inside the mansion.

After a while, a middle-aged nobleman came out, slightly overweight.

This must be Count Royden.

He looked nervous as he raised his eyes to face us in our black suits.

“W-What brings you to my mansion?”

“There’s a woman here named Linne, isn’t there?”

“Wh-What? Linne?”

“She’s not here?”

“W-Well, she was, but… the Duke took her away…”

“The Duke?”

“Yes. Duke Fury. He said she was an old friend of his.”

What the hell?

Duke Fury and Anis’s mother are friends?

“So he took her with him?”

“Yes. He had her board a carriage and left.”

What is going on?

Why would a duke know a woman living in the west district?

“I see… Sorry for the sudden visit.”

“N-No trouble at all.”

I immediately got back into the carriage and headed for the duke’s mansion.

I asked the servant at the gate to let me speak with the duke, but they told me he wasn’t home.

And apparently, they didn’t know where he had gone.

Was the servant ordered to keep quiet?

Or did the duke really leave without telling anyone where he went…?

That’s when I suddenly remembered that villa.

No way…

Did the duke set up that estate for Anis’s mother?

I don’t have proof, but if my gut is right, Anis might be there too!

I ordered the carriage to head straight to the villa district in the east.

Until now, whenever I wanted to see Anis, she was always there.

Her face dirty with soot, polishing shoes, and smiling.

I took her presence for granted—but now that I’ve lost sight of her, this overwhelming sense of panic is clawing at me.

The thought of never seeing Anis again terrifies me.

“Faster! Push the carriage harder!”

That few hours’ ride to the villa had never felt so long before.