My Disfigured Duke Husband Helps Me Plot My Revenge
Chapter 284: A Fight Bigger than Her

Chapter 284: A Fight Bigger than Her

The mentality of Leonor against the Buriens felt very real as she snuck to the stable to find tools that would help her with her sister’s locked door.

Even though she once possessed the name "Burien" she never felt part of the family. It didn’t help that her father alienated her and acted as if she wasn’t his problem in the first place.

With her heart racing, Leonor rushed to her sister’s room with a metal tool hidden in her sleeve as she went. The maids looked at her suspiciously but she paid them no mind. She wasn’t there to establish a reputation with them. They already found her fussy if they were new and had preconceived notions about her if they had been maids for Burien Manor for a long time.

After a few glances down the hall and rushing to the top of the large staircase that would take her down to the main level, she was sure her sister would be away and the maids wouldn’t bother so she went ahead and began working on the lock.

If she could get the tool underneath, she was certain she might be able to use her mana to manipulate it enough to pop off of the door. She knew that she would be caught because the only option was to break the lock, but if she could gather evidence to get to the bottom of the uncertainties she was facing, it would give her ammunition moving forward.

After prying the lock for a while, she wasn’t all that surprised to find it wasn’t put on the door very well as if her sister had done it herself. It further raised her suspicions that something was amiss considering if her sister put the lock on it might mean she didn’t want anyone in her room at all.

"What are you hiding, sister?" she uttered to herself as she turned the tool and shielded it with her mana.

The lock snapped and the wood of the door was dented but it was enough that the entire mechanism slid off. She had to catch it so it wouldn’t fall to the floor and alert the maids that she was meddling.

Without another thought, Leonor swiftly opened the door and closed it behind her as quickly and quietly as possible.

Once inside, the awful scent hit her and she had to place a hand over her mouth and resist gagging.

The smell was what bothered her most about the situation. Why did the maids seem indifferent to it? Were they really so loyal that they wouldn’t mention when something awful like that was lingering in the house?

Finding her bearings, Leonor went further into the room and began looking for clues that her sister was up to something out of the norm.

However, it wasn’t difficult when there were papers with strange notes and symbols scattered all over her desk.

Leonor kept one hand over her mouth and the other pushed around the papers as she explored her sister’s normally neat writing. Her scrawls were unrecognizable almost as if she hadn’t even done them herself.

There was a symbol on the bottom of the stack of papers that Leonor recognized but she wasn’t entirely sure where it came from. Even though it was against her better judgment, she slid the paper into the pocket amongst her skirts.

Her wandering continued as she went to her sister’s shelf and a gasp escaped the duchess’ lips as she saw the shelves lined with books about magic. They weren’t just any books but the very ones Leonor thought her father got rid of because he wanted nothing to do with magic once her mother was deceased.

It didn’t make sense that the daughter who didn’t have any mana inside of her at all would have those books. If anything, they were purposefully left by Jara for Leonor.

The thought made her dizzy. Could her younger sister really be so cruel to take something just because she didn’t want Leonor to have it?

However, she tripped over the edge of a large rug as she backed away.

Realizing she had kicked the rug over, she went to fix it, but there was something red on the wood floor and Leonor pulled the rug further rather than fixing it as she first intended.

As much as she was certainly there intending to uncover whatever her sister was so defensive about, she had secretly hoped she would find nothing. All she wanted was for them to be cruel yet boring people and she could be rid of them as she intended to before.

Yet she saw a symbol that seemed to be painted with blood and she could no longer push away the suspicions she had been slowly forming upon arrival in that place.

The scent was starting to make sense as well. It was an eggy, sulfur smell that she should have been able to recognize in the first place.

"Black magic," Leonor whispered in disbelief.

Tears stung her eyes. If her sister was caught doing black magic, she could very well be put to death.

Was her father involved in it? Was he a victim?

Regardless of whatever it was, she needed to get out of there quickly considering black magic was a natural force that opposed naturally formed mana in the Earth and inside of mages.

Rushing out the door with little evidence, she realized she should have left the moment she smelled such an awful stench. It wasn’t a problem she could solve by herself. If her father was infected with something to do with black magic, he didn’t have long left.

To her horror, as she made it to the hallway, her sister rushed down with a man beside her who wore a dark grey hood he kept over his head.

"That’s her!" Anna cried. "You must stop her!"

Leonor was more than familiar with the lies Anna Marie always crafted to harm her reputation. She didn’t have many friends despite the nobles Burien Manor was constantly full of while they were growing up and there was a reason for that.

It seemed she had another person on her side in this.

Knowing she had to run to preserve herself, Leonor threw a shield backward and started rushing down the hallway but her only option left was going back into her father’s room.

She slammed the door behind her and went for a window but it was no use.

A force hit her that drained her mana and she fell to the floor in a useless heap.

With tears in her eyes, her last thought before darkness was hoping that Eve would return to her soon. She could really use help with her mana.