125.
‘Disgusting bastard.’
Jinhyeon’s insides twisted at seeing Keith’s intention to use this opportunity to cling to Yu Jin. It was annoying that Keith only moved within the boundaries Yu Jin would allow, knowing that outright clinging would be met with resistance. In short, Jinhyeon disliked everything Keith did.
Eventually, Jinhyeon snatched the pudding from Keith’s hand and fed Yu Jin the snack himself. Yu Jin made an awkward expression and looked around cautiously, but when he saw Keith nod, he obediently ate it. Even knowing it was all an act, Jinhyeon’s dark mood refused to improve. Such incidents continued to occur. As the two conspicuous individuals behaved this way, rumors began to spread throughout the mansion.
“What’s really going on here?”
“I know, right?”
The maid helping hang laundry next to her senior also shook her head.
“I don’t understand how things are unfolding. But what’s certain is that there are two men attached to the master right now.”
“But Keith isn’t his lover, is he?”
“No, but don’t you think he might become one soon? Actually, it’s unfair to compare someone from the Colosseum slave background with Keith.”
“That’s true.”
Keith was not only a nobleman but had also been taking care of Yu Jin since childhood. As a result, many employees secretly supported him. It probably helped that Keith usually treated the employees well.
“Devotion should be rewarded.”
Some people thought this way. Consequently, on the surface, things appeared unfavorable for Jinhyeon. Although Yu Jin would secretly approach Jinhyeon to talk, there were limitations. After all, it had to appear to others that Yu Jin was falling for Keith.
“Are you okay?”
Jinhyeon answered Yu Jin’s question with a forced smile.
“I’m fine.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
He didn’t look fine at all, but Yu Jin decided not to dig deeper. Even if Jinhyeon was angry, there was no way to console him at the moment. As time passed, Keith’s actions gradually changed. His initially cautious touches became more natural, and light contact occurred more frequently. Every time Jinhyeon witnessed this, he would disappear to the separate training ground in the mansion.
Thwack.
After sending a training dummy flying with his sword, Jinhyeon closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. His skill was improving remarkably fast from swinging his sword every time Keith made his blood boil. At this rate, he felt he might really be able to behead a dragon someday, as Yu Jin had said. Though that wasn’t what he wanted.
“Bastard!”
Jinhyeon’s language became increasingly crude as the plan progressed. If only Leviathan would make a move, he could try to focus on that, but they were so cautious they showed no signs of moving. Even though they knew there was more than one infiltrator in the mansion.
Aksen carefully observed Lucid and made a decision at some point.
“I think it’s about time we can move.”
“You’re moving quite fast.”
When Rector, who had been twisting his body in boredom, spoke, Aksen frowned.
“We’re swallowing up Lucid, so we need to be careful. That guy is hopeless!”
Clicking his tongue, Aksen looked at the man bowing politely before him. His first disciple, Grey, was also involved in this matter, but they couldn’t insert him into the mansion. His face was already known from being with Lyunne. There were ways to disguise using magic or tools, but Lucid had shadows. If even one of them noticed Grey’s disguise, it would cause trouble. For this reason, Aksen decided to use his second disciple instead of Grey.
“Geren.”
“Yes, Master.”
Geren looked up at Aksen with a slight eye smile. Once appointed as Yu Jin’s butler, he was actually Aksen’s second disciple and one of the Leviathan members who had infiltrated Lucid.
“It’s about time for you to move.”
“It’s an honor. I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
Living as a faithful butler was too boring for Geren.
“What should I do?”
“You should know without me telling you.”
The immediate need was to manipulate public opinion within the Lucid mansion. But Geren was already doing that admirably. He had brainwashed some of the employee leaders and used them to spread favorable rumors about Keith. As a result, Jinhyeon seemed to be in a foul mood every day, but that was none of Geren’s concern. Once Keith had completely won over Yu Jin, the next step was to increase Leviathan’s numbers within the mansion, and personnel for that were already on standby.
“I understand well.”
After replacing most of the mansion’s staff, they would need to deal with the shadows. It was known that the shadows followed the master’s orders absolutely, but a closer look revealed something slightly different. Unlike knights who blindly followed the master, if the shadows felt something was off about the master, they would investigate. If they discovered that Yu Jin had been brainwashed, they would naturally start moving to free him. So Geren had to carefully adjust his surroundings while observing the situation.
“Trust me. Haven’t I always been your reliable disciple?”
Grey was sending an unfriendly gaze from behind Aksen, but Geren didn’t flinch. He intended to overtake even the first disciple with this opportunity. He felt he deserved it. Geren bowed gracefully and withdrew from Aksen’s presence.
Yu Jin was in Keith’s arms, getting his nails groomed.
“Isn’t this position uncomfortable?”
Keith chuckled as if tickled when Yu Jin whispered softly.
“It’s quite comfortable.”
Then he held Yu Jin’s hand and carefully trimmed his fingertips with a nail file. Keith clung closely, chatting about trivial matters and occasionally mentioning other people’s names. Some were familiar, while others were new to Yu Jin.
‘Geren was Leviathan?’
Geren, whom Ruhan had assigned to Yu Jin before he entered Lucid, had seemed like a typical butler. He was skilled at handling employees and moved diligently for Yu Jin’s convenience. Yu Jin had thought he was a good person, but Keith told him that Geren was affiliated with Leviathan.
“Then what about Farsen?”
“He’s not, but since he had opportunities to be close to Geren, he might have been brainwashed.”
There’s no one to trust in this world. Yu Jin suppressed a sigh that was about to escape. Meanwhile, Keith, having finished trimming all the nails, rubbed Yu Jin’s fingertips with an oil-soaked gauze. The flower scent that rose with each rub of the oil was quite pleasant. After all, Keith was the person who knew Yu Jin’s preferences most intimately. As a result, Yu Jin’s life had become much more comfortable since Keith started clinging to him under the pretext of brainwashing.
Occasionally, Haruna would look at the two with strange eyes, but it was probably out of concern. In fact, Yu Jin felt similarly to Haruna. While his life had become more comfortable, his mind was not at ease. It was visibly apparent that Jinhyeon’s condition was deteriorating as time passed. That’s not to say he looked like someone who was sick.
‘Rather, it felt more like a well-honed sword.’
As Jinhyeon’s aura grew increasingly sharp, it felt pressuring just to look at him. Seeing this, Farsen said that Jinhyeon seemed to have achieved another breakthrough in swordsmanship.
“His skill growth is truly rapid.”
He even went on to praise Jinhyeon, but Yu Jin couldn’t join Farsen in smiling.
‘Is there no way to meet secretly?’
It might ease his mind a bit, but it would be impossible. With the many eyes that had attached themselves to Yu Jin since he became the head of Lucid, secretly meeting with Jinhyeon was no easy task. Above all, if they were caught meeting secretly and the plan they had worked on until now collapsed, Keith would be in danger.
‘It’s not easy.’
Yu Jin swallowed another sigh that was about to escape. His nails, polished to a shine by Keith, gleamed like pearls, but inside, he was rotting black.
“Beautiful.”
Keith said this as he lightly kissed Yu Jin’s ear. It was affectionate, like towards a young sibling, but it would have looked different to the eyes of the maid inside. The maid’s cheeks turned slightly red. Yu Jin could guess what she was thinking. He hoped no incidents would occur until everything was resolved. But life doesn’t always go as planned.
In the dead of night, Yu Jin woke up sensing a presence. He discovered a large figure standing next to the bed.
“Jinhyeon?”
Startled, Yu Jin examined Jinhyeon, but his condition didn’t look good.
‘His eyes look crazed.’
Jinhyeon’s previously blank face now bore an expression. He seemed to be smiling quite affectionately, but the longer one looked, the more chilling it became.
“I was thinking,”
The large figure crawled onto the bed.
“Wouldn’t an abandoned lover be pissed off?”
Yu Jin couldn’t bring himself to agree.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
