I ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED A DUNGEON

They stopped in front of the towering iron gate, and beyond it stretched a wide green lawn, the manor itself rising gold and imposing at the far end, sunlight catching along its polished windows. Felix reached through the bars and knocked, and one of the guards patrolling the grounds turned at the sound.

"State your business."

"I’d like a word with Lord Sterling."

The guard swept his eyes over Felix once, head to boot, clearly unimpressed. "Lord Sterling isn’t home. Try again some other time."

"Any family member would do just fine."

"Didn’t you hear?" The guard’s hand dropped to his blade, drawing it halfway free. "No one’s receiving visitors today."

"Easy, easy. Bad for the heart, carrying that much temper around." Felix’s smile stayed easy "I’m here about Marisol. You know her, I’m sure, worked here for years."

The guard’s brow shot up, head snapping back toward the manor. "Luka! Go tell Lord Sterling some punk’s out here asking about Marisol."

The second guard, Luka, glanced between them once before jogging off toward the entrance without a word.

"How exactly do you know Marisol?" The first guard’s eyes narrowed, blade still half-drawn.

"Better than you’d probably guess." Felix lowered his voice slightly, letting it hang there. "I even know exactly where she is right now."

"Tell me." The guard’s grip tightened around the hilt. "Now."

"Down in the underground cellar of this very manor."

"You bastard." The blade came fully free this time, the guard’s face twisting with fury, feet shifting into a stance like he might actually swing. "I’ll gut you right where you stand."

Felix let out a short laugh, entirely unbothered by the threat. "Relax. Looks like your friend’s already coming back."

"Let him through!" Luka called out from the entrance, already jogging back their way.

The guard sheathed his blade with obvious reluctance, jaw still tight, and hauled the gate open. Felix adjusted his collar as he stepped through, unhurried. Beside him, Dune’s eyes stayed fixed on the guard the whole way past, her hand curling into a slow, tight fist at her side.

They crossed the yard, Luka walking a few paces ahead, glancing back every so often like he still didn’t trust them behind him. Felix let his gaze wander instead of acknowledging it, drifting toward a smaller building tucked into the far right corner of the grounds, plain and functional compared to the rest, likely a servants’ quarters. He filed that away, thinking he might ask to check it if the opportunity came up naturally.

Luka pushed the front door open and stepped aside, waving them through. Felix walked in first onto white marble flooring, a chandelier hanging overhead, catching light from Numen stones set into wall-mounted lamps, glowing steady and warm.

A maid crossed toward them at once. "This way, sir."

Felix followed, unhurried, glancing around as they moved through the entrance hall and into a lounge room off to the left. His eyes landed on an older man, well past fifty, seated on a cushioned sofa, a well-dressed woman beside him, presumably his wife, and a third figure standing further back, head bowed slightly, a housekeeper by the look of her uniform.

Felix crossed the room without waiting for an invitation and dropped himself onto the nearest sofa. "Could I get some water? Just plain’s fine."

"Yes, sir." The maid who’d led them in turned and hurried off.

Felix’s eyes settled on the older man. "One question to start. Where’d you take Marisol?"

"That’s a rather absurd way to open a conversation." Marcus Sterling’s tone stayed flat, unbothered. "We have no idea where she’s gone. We’ve been searching for her ourselves, as it happens."

"Why bother? She was just a maid. Not hard to find another one."

Felix gave Dune a small nod, and she began writing without being asked twice.

"She stole the necklace." The woman beside Marcus spoke up sharply. Eleanor Sterling, Felix guessed.

"Why would she do that? Wasn’t she being paid well enough already?"

"That’s precisely what I can’t understand either." Eleanor’s mouth thinned. "We were more than generous with that woman over the years. Overlooked it whenever she seemed homesick, gave her extra when she asked for it, even let her live under our roof. And still she had the audacity to walk off with jewelry that wasn’t hers."

"That’s certainly not a good look for her." Felix nodded slowly. "Tell me, how was she acting these last few weeks?"

Eleanor glanced back toward the woman standing quietly behind them. "Fiona."

"Yes, my lady." Fiona stepped forward, closer to the sofas. "Marisol was excellent, all these years. Followed instructions well, learned quickly, rarely made mistakes worth mentioning. These past two weeks, though, she seemed constantly on edge. Barely spoke at all. Dropped several plates, tripped more than once. I asked if she was feeling unwell, and she insisted she wasn’t. Eventually she stopped breaking things, but her expression never changed back, distant the whole time. She kept to herself more than usual, and I noticed her wandering near Lady Sterling’s room several times, more than her duties would’ve required."

"That lines up with everything else I’ve heard so far." Felix nodded slowly, filing it away. "Now tell me about this necklace. I’m sure a house like this has dozens of them."

"So it’s not about the money. Good to know." Felix’s eyes flicked toward the maid, setting a glass of water down in front of him. "What did the necklace actually look like?"

"A chain of platinum, with a single red stone set at the center. Cut narrow, almost teardrop-shaped, and sit right at the base of the throat when worn." Marcus answered before Eleanor could get a word out.

"That description accurate, Lady Sterling?" Felix’s eyes shifted to her directly.

"It is—"

Felix raised a hand toward Marcus without looking at him, cutting the older man off before he could add anything further, keeping his focus locked on Eleanor. "Was that description correct?"

"Y-yes." Her voice wavered slightly. "It’s correct."

Felix kept his hand raised toward Marcus, holding him still in place, and reached into his pocket with the other, pulling out the earring. He held it up between two fingers toward Eleanor. "Recognize this? Part of the same set, maybe?"

Eleanor studied the small dangling piece carefully, platinum, a tiny red stone, close enough in style that her breath caught for half a second. Her eyes darted toward her husband on instinct, but Felix’s stare held her too fully to look away for long.

"It...it isn’t. There was never a matching set."

Felix shrugged easily and tucked the earring back into his pocket. "Fair enough. Bought this off a market stall yesterday for two silvers, honestly. Cheap metal, painted over, glass pebble glued in the middle." He let his gaze drift toward Marcus, watching the older man’s face closely for a beat longer than necessary, then slid the water glass forward across the table. "Here. Drink up."

Marcus lifted it and drained the whole thing in one go, throat working steadily until the glass sat empty in his hand.

"Any other questions?"

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