#82
Ersen quietly looked down at that hand, then gently tapped the back of it and answered.
“Don’t go around casually holding hands with people.”
“Ah, really!”
“Oh my, I’m serious though.”
At those words, Sercil pretended he could no longer suppress the emotions he had been holding back and spoke with a tearful expression.
“Why are you so affectionate, Your Highness?”
“Hm?”
“You treat me so affectionately, yet you keep your distance. I… have no idea what Your Highness’s heart is like.”
Ersen smiled without saying anything.
Then he said.
“My heart is exactly as I say it is. There’s nothing difficult about it.”
Those words were neither permission to keep him close nor rejection.
After a moment, Ersen gracefully leaped over the railing with cat-like movements, then winked at Sercil and said.
“Let’s go. We should sleep, Fairy-nim.”
Sercil watched that retreating figure, then slowly hardened his expression.
‘As expected, it’s not easy.’
And at the same time, he became convinced that Ersen’s affection was nothing more than pretense. If he had truly been affectionate, he would have easily opened his heart and begun sharing important things.
‘All the better.’
Sercil’s heart became considerably lighter.
‘Since you’re deceiving me, I won’t feel bad about deceiving you.’
Without noticing that this thought was, to some extent, genuinely an expression of his simple desire to become close to Ersen.
* * *
At the same time.
Skyle was organizing documents in his room when he suddenly realized he couldn’t sense Ersen’s presence.
As soon as he realized this, he immediately rose from his seat.
He put on his clothes while quietly whispering.
“Who might he be meeting today?”
Skyle, as well as Marcus and Theodore, already knew that a half-demon had begun visiting the Prince.
The Prince probably guessed that they knew too.
He wasn’t hiding it.
It was as if he was saying he wouldn’t do anything harmful to them.
So they were watching and waiting, but.
‘Most importantly, Theo’s curse is being resolved.’
Rather, it was Sercil who had been giving off suspicious feelings lately.
“One is an evil spirit, and one is a shadow.”
Skyle quietly raised the corner of his mouth.
* * *
The nights at Duke Marsien’s estate had been unusually quiet lately.
This was because the precious young lady had been ordered to stay in confinement following the incident where the Prince collapsed at the recent awakening ceremony. It was merely a moral measure—there were no rumors that the young lady was under suspicion or anything like that—but it wasn’t exactly something to be happy about either.
Especially considering it was that cruel young lady’s doing.
“Why did that bastard come to our young lady’s ball just to scatter ashes and leave?”
“Shh, watch your words, you fool.”
“No, damn it, he came without even being invited, caused trouble, and left. If his body isn’t well, he shouldn’t have come. How can someone of royal blood be so careless with their conduct? No wait, honestly, he can’t even act royal—”
“Won’t you really shut your mouth?”
“I’m scared, that’s why…! The young lady barely comes out these days.”
“Then that’s fortunate, isn’t it?”
“It’s the calm before the storm. Fortunate, my foot. Surely within a month, two or three people will die, right? I’m glad I’m not her personal attendant.”
“…She doesn’t kill people.”
“She just doesn’t kill them. And everyone knows, right? When you leave, you leave as a corpse. If that’s not murder, what is? Besides…”
Besides, every time she went to bring food to the room instead of the older maids lately, it was too eerie, the young maid said, trembling.
“Oh my.”
The elderly assistant cook half-listened to the maid’s words then sighed.
“You should know when to see and pretend not to see. What are you going to do if you keep acting like this?”
“I understand what you’re saying, mister. But it’s not a problem on that level.”
“What’s with bringing up levels now?”
“It’s true though…”
The young maid pouted glumly.
And she recalled the sight of Lady Isabella she had seen yesterday.
Standing in front of a broken mirror, rolling her eyes to look at herself—those bright red pupils.
‘The young lady had violet-tinged ruby-colored eyes. But yesterday they were definitely bright red.’
Like blood that had just been spilled.
Moreover, as soon as she saw her, the young lady had said quietly.
Not to touch even a single small piece of the broken mirror.
That if she touched it, she would experience pain worse than death.
It was eerily creepy because it was said in an uncharacteristically gentle tone for the young lady.
“Ugh.”
“Ah, why are you acting like this?”
“There’s something like that…”
The young maid sighed, unable to explain to the kind assistant cook.
As the mister said, she should pretend not to see even when she saw, pretend not to hear even when she heard. It would be better not to encounter such things at all if possible.
“Goodness, that girl.”
But yesterday’s young lady really seemed… not like the young lady.
‘Then who would it be? It’s the young lady. Ugh, this is why I have problems. I think too much!’
When she pressed her forehead against the table, the assistant cook lightly flicked her round head.
“Ow! Why did you hit me!”
“Tsk, get a grip, you fool. For now, try to have someone else deliver meals to the young lady’s room when possible. Got it?”
“…Didn’t you say to pretend not to know?”
“I didn’t mean to really not know. Whatever you saw, don’t let it out of your mouth and just quietly keep your distance. Understand?”
“Oh, um… yes.”
“…When will you mature? Sigh.”
“Ah, I got it. I’ll have Betty do it starting today.”
“…Ask a different friend, not the one with a child to take care of.”
“Ugh, why are you being scary?”
“Listen to me!”
The maid didn’t know until then.
“Yes…”
That this somewhat eerie advice from the assistant cook had saved her life.
* * *
In front of the broken full-length mirror.
Isabella stood quietly, gazing at her face abnormally reflected in the mirror fragments.
Long wine-colored hair and red eyes with a subtle violet tinge. On her jade-white skin, dark red blood was splattered.
“A different child came today?”
The child who had come before was a plump girl who looked perfect as a sacrifice, but unfortunately, perhaps due to a position change, a different maid had brought the meal.
Isabella—no, ‘someone’ wearing Isabella’s skin—licked her lips and muttered.
“Well, since I’ve successfully restored it. I’ll spare that child.”
Though the state of the full-length mirror looked as if it had been hit by a bomb to call it “restoration,” only satisfaction showed on ‘someone’s’ face.
There were rare moments when she became generous.
Like when a desired curse was cast stronger than expected, or when she finally obtained something she had long endured for.
The young maid was lucky.
“Now then.”
Quickly forgetting about the young maid, the woman opened her coral-pink lips.
As she exhaled white breath, things other than herself began to be reflected in the broken mirror pieces still attached to the full-length mirror frame.
The red-haired Crown Prince, the pathetic dark purple-haired Sword Master, and even the sky-blue-haired beautiful young man whom she became more convinced held something the more she dug into his mind.
But unlike them, the most troublesome enemy with platinum hair was rarely reflected.
“…Tsk, not quite there yet?”
Well, it didn’t matter.
Even with this highest-grade magical tool in mirror form, observing the Archduke hadn’t been easy from the start.
‘Someone’ turned her eyes away from the piece that repeatedly showed and hid the Archduke with crackling sounds, then glanced at a small mirror fragment that had fallen to the ground.
And she twisted the corner of her mouth.
Unlike the pieces of the previous four people, this mirror fragment smaller than a palm. A person was reflected there too.
Someone with black hair who should rightfully have an unsightly appearance.
He was the most clearly reflected among the five people being observed, but ‘someone’ only frowned slightly while looking at it.
“So he did inherit my blood after all?”
The woman muttered coldly in a tone that was seductive yet somehow vulgar in a way that couldn’t be pinpointed to any specific aspect.
A tone that the ‘body’s owner’ would never have used.
It bore an exact resemblance to the royal evil spirit that was said to have died long ago.
The woman tilted her head slightly, placed a finger on her chin, and raised one corner of her mouth.
Then she personally bent down to pick up the fragment reflecting Ersen Mayer, took it with her as she approached a table chair, and sat down crossing her legs.
“Hmm.”
For a while, she boredly watched a series of movements where ‘Ersen Mayer’ communicated with his surroundings.
And then.
“…This is getting annoying.”
Clearly, that thing was at the center of all the distortions.
Tap. Tap.
The woman’s eyes sank coolly.
Let’s think back.
The place where she had settled into a new body was a spacious hall decorated with splendid chandeliers.
‘Was it this body, Isabella Marsien’s awakening ceremony ball?’
How admirable that Lady Marsien, who had been just a little kid when she was alive, had grown up so properly to become a vessel.
‘Though for a while, the unstable state must be kept hidden.’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
