Odalisque - Chapter 243

Following Demus to his hotel room was a rather impulsive choice.

Well… Liv did pull him into her arms and kiss him on her own, so the rest that followed was probably a given, but… Liv’s mind was not completely sorted, at least when she first left Adelinde. It remained so after she arrived in the capital.

That was also the reason she hadn’t bothered to contact Adolf, Charles, or any of the other aides who would be following Demus. Because she hadn’t fully decided how she felt even as she went after Demus.

Liv recalled the large crowd that had gathered in front of the courthouse. In front of the tightly closed doors of the court, people were talking about Demus. About his great looks, his veiled backer, and the way he handled the big names so casually.

It was the kind of thing she’d heard quite often in Buerno. About “the unreal Marquis Dietrion,” whom she thought would never have anything to do with her.

Listening to the conversations floating in the air, Liv suddenly felt unfamiliar with Demus. It was hard to believe that the man who had clung to her in Adelinde’s mansion was the subject of all the conversation now.

If Demus hadn’t found Liv first, she wouldn’t have bothered to greet him. Even now, after being led by his hand to the top floor of a luxury hotel, it still didn’t feel real.

Liv rubbed her forearm absentmindedly, and only then did she look around the room she’d entered. She didn’t have to look closely to see that it was filled with all sorts of gorgeous, luxurious things.

As she moved across the plush red carpet into the inner room, she saw a long, large velvet sofa, a table, and a burning fireplace. The cabinet was filled with expensive-looking liquor bottles and glasses, and there was a large, beautiful tapestry on the wall.

After passing through what looked like a lounge area, she reached a room with a large piano. A piano in a hotel room for overnight stays? Perhaps it was meant to provide music to accompany the scenery.

As Liv absentmindedly touched the piano keys, a memory of a day in the past flashed through her mind.

She remembered how she nervously and clumsily tapped the keys, the man’s hand on her back, her clothes falling down, and the performance that she continued while being naked…

She quickly pulled her fingers away from the white keys and cooled her heated face with her hands as she walked quickly to the next room.

She thought she was going to find a bedroom this time, but again, a sofa appeared. Unlike the sofa in the lounge she’d seen earlier, this one was covered in colorful embroidery, and near the wall was a table lined with decorations.

As her eyes wandered over all the glittering ornaments, Liv suddenly stopped in her tracks.

At first glance, it looked like a water bottle. But the handle, which was shaped like a swan’s wing, the unusually narrow spout, and the thinness of the object, which looked like it would shatter if she touched it, made it clear that it wasn’t meant to be a water bottle, but rather a decoration.

There were also finely inlaid jeweled ornaments above the geometric patterns engraved on its surface, and on the pedestal that extended downward was the signature of the craftsman who had made it.

“Do you like it?”

Liv, who had been standing there in a daze, snapped out of it and attempted to turn around, but a thick, solid arm snaked around her waist before she could.

“Every ornament in this room is a scarcity. There’s no harm in buying them.”

They weren’t artwork, but each was valuable in its own way. Feeling the man’s presence close behind her, Liv muttered to herself.

“Because it’s the work of craftsmen who have passed away?”

“I didn’t expect you to recognize it at once.”

Demus’ words sounded like a compliment in her ear. Liv replied without taking her eyes off the ornament.

“At least I know the ones who made that one are dead.”

The movement of the man at her ear and the nape of her neck stopped. Regardless of what he did, Liv’s eyes lingered on the signature engraved at the bottom of the ornament.

“… It must be the work of Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes.”

“Yes.”

Liv’s mouth quirked vaguely.

“My parents made it.”

Liv’s expression changed strangely. She didn’t expect to find traces of her parents in this place.

The hotel was actually quite old. It had been in operation since Liv’s childhood, so it had been around for at least twenty-five years.

The top floor, in particular, was rumored to be the place where all the big names stayed at least once, and it was said that the rooms were decorated with the work of the best craftsmen to fit their standards.

Liv’s parents had talked about it, too. She remembered them saying, half-jokingly, that one day they would send something signed by them to this room.

“I didn’t think I’d run into a trace of my parents so soon.”

Liv Rhodes was born in the capital.

She had lived all over the capital until she started boarding school. Despite being from a middle-class family, she had a prosperous childhood, thanks to her parents’ good income, and every neighborhood she visited in the capital was full of memories. She had nothing but good memories of the capital until her parents’ carriage accident.

The reason she ended up wandering across the countryside with Coryda was because she couldn’t bear the memories.

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