Interstellar Beastworld: Raising A Cub With My Mummy System!-Chapter 58: ARE YOU HURT?

Lin Yue handed Auriel over carefully, her arms suddenly empty. She watched Mira carry him toward the nursery, his small face still pressed against the housekeeper’s shoulder, still sleeping.

[She knows something is happening. But she will not ask.]

"I know." Lin Yue turned and walked toward the east wing. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

The corridors were empty now, the staff retreated to their quarters, the lamps turned low. Lin Yue moved quickly, her footsteps soft on the stone, her breath shallow. She had changed into darker clothes, her hair tucked under a scarf, her shoes silent. Auriel was with Mira, safe in the nursery, and she had nothing to hold her back.

[Your senses are sharper now..]

She noticed it too. The darkness was not as dark. The sounds of the house were clearer, the creak of a door three corridors away, the whisper of wind through a window left ajar. She moved without thinking, her body finding the shadows, her steps falling in the quiet spaces between the floorboards.

She reached the east wing and stopped.

The corridor was empty. The locked door waited at the end, solid and dark. She approached it slowly, her eyes scanning for any sign of movement.

The key was still in the lock.

She stared at it, her pulse roaring in her ears. Selas had been in such a hurry to move the box that he had forgotten it. Or perhaps he had not expected anyone to be watching. Perhaps he had done this a hundred times and no one had ever been there to see.

[This is your chance.]

She reached out and turned the key.

The lock clicked open.

She pushed the door inward and stepped into darkness.

The room was small, windowless, the air stale. She pulled out her phone, the light cutting a narrow path through the gloom. Shelves lined the walls, stacked with boxes and crates. A desk stood against the far wall, covered in papers.

She moved to the desk first, her fingers trembling as she lifted the first sheet.

Invoices.

Years of them.

Payments to vendors that did not exist, orders for supplies that had never been delivered.

Each one was signed with the same name.

Selas Aegaeon.

She shuffled through the stack, her eyes scanning the numbers.

Thousands of khyrn.

Tens of thousands.

The amounts grew as the years passed, small at first, then larger, bolder.

[He has been stealing from Uriel for years.]

She opened the desk drawers next.

Receipts.

Bank transfer records.

A ledger with names and dates and amounts.

She recognized Lilia’s name, Elara’s, and a dozen others.

Each one marked with a note: Pay reduced. Budget adjustment. Do not question.

She closed the drawer and turned to the shelves. Boxes of unused supplies. Rolls of expensive fabric. Bottles of wine. Things that had been ordered and paid for, then hidden away.

In the corner, she found a box of data tablets, each one loaded with years of estate records. She opened one and scrolled through it. The accounts she had seen on the terminal, but here they were annotated, changed, corrected.

The real numbers, before the lies.

[This is everything. The proof you needed.]

She pulled out her phone and began photographing the papers, the ledger, the invoices.

Each image flashed in the darkness, a record of the truth.

A sound in the corridor made her freeze.

The footsteps were slow

Drawing closer by the second.

She stuffed the phone back in her pocket and looked around frantically.

There was nowhere to hide.

No closet, no curtains, no exit except the door.

The footsteps stopped.

She held her breath.

A voice called out, low and casual.

"Madam? Are you there?"

Selas!

She did not answer. She pressed herself against the wall, her hand on the edge of the desk.

"I know you are there." he said. "I saw you come in. The maid told me you were watching the door this morning. Did you think I would not notice?"

She said nothing.

"Open the door, Madam. There is no need for unpleasantness."

She reached for the key. It was still in the lock on the outside. She could not turn it from here.

The handle rattled.

"Madam." His voice was harder now. "Open the door, or I will open it myself."

She looked around the room again, her eyes searching for anything she could use.

A heavy box?

A roll of fabric?

The edge of the desk?

They were all useless until her hands closed around a metal paperweight.

The handle rattled again and the door began to push inward.

She raised the paperweight, her heart pounding, her breath coming in short gasps.

Then another sound cut through the silence.

Footsteps, running, from the main corridor.

A voice, sharp and commanding.

"Selas. Step away from the door."

She knew that voice.

Uriel.

She let out a breath, her knees suddenly weak. The paperweight slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor.

On the other side of the door, she heard a shuffle of feet, a sharp intake of breath, then silence.

The door swung open.

Uriel stood in the doorway, his face hard, his eyes fixed on Selas, who had backed away, his hands raised, his smile gone.

Behind him, two guards waited, their hands on their weapons.

Uriel looked past Selas, into the room, his eyes finding her in the darkness.

"Are you hurt?"

She shook her head, not trusting her voice.

He stepped into the room, past Selas, past the desk, and pulled her into his arms. She felt his heart pounding against her chest, his breath warm on her hair.

"I came as fast as I could." he said.

She clung to him, the fear draining out of her, the weight of the night finally lifting.

"I found it." she whispered. "I found everything."

He pulled back and looked at her, his gold eyes searching her face. Then he looked at the papers scattered across the desk, the open boxes, the stolen goods piled on the shelves.

He turned to Selas. "Guards. Take him to the detention room. I will deal with him myself."

Selas did not resist.

He let the guards take his arms, his face pale, his eyes fixed on the floor.

As they led him away, Uriel turned back to Lin Yue. He took her hands in his.

"Show me," he said.

She pulled out her phone and opened the first photograph. He looked at it, then at her, his expression unreadable.

"This is what you found?"

She nodded. "There is more. Years of it. He was stealing from you, from the staff, from everyone. He hid it all here."

Uriel looked around the room again, at the boxes, the papers, the evidence of years of betrayal.

His jaw tightened.

"You could have been hurt."