Three days had passed since Ries had started “training” with Hillein at the forefront.
—You’ve been keeping your distance from Justyn lately, haven’t you? …Is it because of me?
Cough.
Ries had now reached the point where he could maintain his manifestation even after hearing things like that said straight to his face.
Though a cough burst out before he could stop it and his fingertips trembled slightly, the figure in front of him remained solid. That alone was a noticeable achievement.
Even so, there was nothing he could do about this feeling of complete and utter mortification. He had no idea where she even picked up such talk.
More than anything—
…The choice of words, though.
Unable to contain it, his ears began to flush a soft red from the heat creeping up.
Even after acknowledging it, getting used to it was still no easy task. Ries rubbed his burning ears repeatedly. But he’d been through this enough times now—if he just took slow, steady breaths, the reaction usually faded quickly.
Just as he let out a soft sigh—
“?”
An odd sensation brushed past him, prompting Ries to glance down the stairs. The back of his neck tingled with that peculiar feeling—as if someone had just been watching him.
But even when he focused all his attention and peered intently below, there were no signs of anyone else. Sefiut tilted his head in confusion.
—What is it? Something wrong?
“I thought someone was watching me…”
—Hmm. I didn’t feel anything.
—Huh? Was someone there?
Apparently, he was the only one who’d sensed it. The two spirits seemed to have felt no disturbance whatsoever. Ries furrowed his brows slightly.
Even Sefiut didn’t feel it, let alone Hillein…
The scales tipped to one side. Was it just his imagination after all?
Seeing those blinking eyes full of innocent curiosity right in front of him only made his suspicions shrink further. In the end, he shook his head and dropped the thought.
“I must’ve been imagining things.”
I mean, who in their right mind would be snooping around the attic?
That was Ries’s first mistake.
In fact, he made two key mistakes here.
First: putting too much faith in Sefiut. After the Edler incident, Sefiut’s energy perception had weakened to the point he was barely distinguishable from a regular human. But Ries hadn’t accounted for that at all.
Second: he failed to acknowledge a universal superstition known across all time periods, cultures, nations, and races.
“It’s always the ‘no way’ that gets you.”
After finishing his short meeting with Hillein, Ries was walking back with Sefiut when he ran into a knight. A large man with a soft, potato-like face. Lately, he’d been running into this man often.
Judging by the faint scent clinging to him—fresh and warm, like sun-dried laundry—he must’ve just come from washing up after training.
He clearly remembered having several conversations with him while disguised as “Rienstine Elton.” If he remembered correctly, his name was…
“Derrick? Is something wrong?”
Ries recalled the name easily. Derrick’s flushed face stood out more than usual today, probably from running over in a hurry. But that wasn’t the only thing catching his attention.
There were a bunch of other knights bunched up behind him.
Judging by how they were half-hiding around the corridor’s corner, they’d tried to stay unnoticed. Tried being the key word—Ries was Beastkin. He might look human, but his hearing was sharp as a cat’s.
There was no way he wouldn’t notice them. Especially when he wasn’t distracted by anything else.
Should I let that slide or not?
A flicker of inner conflict crossed his face.
But his ghostly companion had no such intention. Without a word, Sefiut silently drifted low across the floor—and bam—appeared right in front of the hidden group.
—What’re you all doing here?
“AAAHHH!!”
“KYYYAAAH!!”
A chorus of pitiful screams echoed down the wide hallway. Thuds and crashes followed as tangled bodies rolled over the wooden floor. The whole mood instantly turned awkward.
Even Derrick, who had stood frozen in place until now, jumped in shock and turned to look behind him.
“I told you not to follow me!”
“N-no, we just… you know… we thought maybe you’d freeze up and wouldn’t be able to say anything, so we were gonna cheer you on… You get it, right?”
“Exactly! You weren’t saying anything just now!”
One by one, the flustered knights scrambled to their feet and spat out excuses like a bunch of kids caught snooping.
Derrick, caught up in their yelling, could only stiffly turn his head with a creak. His face had turned so red, Ries genuinely worried he might spontaneously combust.
His lips parted and closed several times before a timid stutter finally emerged.
“I-I-I-I, I…”
Then, in the blink of an eye, Derrick squeezed his eyes shut, spun on his heel, and bolted.
“I-it’s nothing at aaaaall!!”
“?”
“What a dumbass…”
Left standing alone, Ries could only stare blankly at Derrick’s retreating figure, accompanied by someone’s deflated sigh of disappointment. He could’ve sworn Derrick’s eyes looked all teary like a cow’s at the end—but maybe that was just his imagination.
Sefiut returned to his side just then.
—Geez, and here I thought he was about to spill some huge secret or something, the way he was acting.
Click click, went the tongue, followed by a voice dripping with disappointment. Clearly, Sefiut considered the whole thing a source of amusement. And he wasn’t the only one approaching.
“Um… Sir Elton? May I ask you something?”
A knight hesitantly trailed behind Sefiut, speaking in a voice that was barely audible. Judging by his wrinkled uniform, he must’ve been the one who rolled across the floor the hardest earlier.
Ries snapped out of his daze.
Right. These guys were here too.
He gave a nod for now.
“Yes. If it’s something I can answer.”
“Well…”
His voice was a whisper, but his eyes burned with curiosity. The other knights shared similar expressions as they watched from nearby, clearly listening in.
The man gulped.
“Is that rumor true?”
“…Rumor? What rumor?”
Ries didn’t have any particular guess in mind, but this was even more out of left field than expected.
Rumor?
His eyes narrowed in confusion. Based on how they were asking him directly, it was obviously something that concerned him. But he had no idea what they were talking about.
“You know, the one about you, Sir Elton—”
But before the sentence could finish—
“GHHK!”
“S-sorry! I’m so sorry, Sir Elton! Please pretend you didn’t hear that! So sorry for the rudeness!”
“W-weren’t you gone?! When did you—ack! C-can’t… breathe… air! I need air!”
Derrick reappeared out of nowhere like a damn comet, grabbed the whispering knight by the collar, and yoinked him away. Then he took off again, sprinting down the corridor like a man possessed, too fast to catch.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
Left alone once again, Ries stared blankly at the empty space before him.
—He’s got some speed. With a bit more polish, that’s a rare talent right there.
“……”
All that remained was Sefiut’s bizarre commentary. In the end, he never got to find out what the actual rumor was. He felt like a raccoon who just watched his cotton candy dissolve in water.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
—Hmph. Something’s off.
Sefiut was right—something felt wrong. Like he’d just missed something crucial. And it wasn’t the first time he’d felt this.
Ries went over everything in his head. More precisely, he retraced all the events and sights he’d seen on the way here.
Whispers, glances, vague tension. People hovering nearby as if they wanted to approach but didn’t quite have the courage.
It reminded him of when he’d first arrived as the Duke’s aide—but this was… different. An indescribable anxiety rippled just beneath his skin.
—Kid?
“Mrow. Myaaah!”
He glanced around to confirm no one was nearby, then immediately shifted form and took off on all fours.
There was no time to explain to Sefiut. In his Beastkin form, Ries bolted down the long hallway—far faster than any human body could manage.
He had to get back to the office. Back to Justyn. It wasn’t the usual kind of gut feeling that guided him this time—it was something deeper, and far more urgent.
“Lord Ries?”
And on his way back—he ran into someone. Perfectly timed.
Skrrt! He came to an abrupt halt. Seeing that familiar face weighed down with fatigue brought a fleeting sense of relief—but it didn’t last.
Those dark, obsidian eyes scanned the surroundings slowly. Ketir seemed to realize he’d just returned from a stroll. But his expression was off. Vague. Unreadable.
A face he’d seen before.
That knight from earlier looked exactly like this.
The one who’d been about to speak before Derrick dragged him away. As the thought clicked into place, Ketir looked at him and asked, with a hint of disbelief:
“I’d like to believe it isn’t true, but… with all the talk going around, I need to ask. Lord Ries—is that rumor true?”
“…Mrow?”
What rumor? That same question flashed through Ries’s mind for the second time.
And then, finally, he came face to face with the mysterious “rumor” that had been bothering him all along.
“There’s word going around that you’ve been sneaking off with some charming lady for secret trysts in a secluded part of the estate. I take it you haven’t heard?”
Just moments ago, he’d been desperate to rush back.
Now, his body froze in place like he’d turned to stone.
The cat before him stiffened in shock, unaware of how completely frozen he looked. Ketir, still looking utterly exhausted, continued:
“Sigh. I figured it was nonsense, but I’d appreciate it if you could put a lid on things before the estate descends into chaos. I mean, clearly it’s just a—wait.”
Only then did he realize that something about Ries’s reaction was deeply wrong.
His already pale face drained even further of color. A flood of terrible possibilities ran through Ketir’s head.
“…Don’t tell me?”
His gaze turned to the cat now frozen stiff.
But the answer came from somewhere else entirely.
—Ahem… looks like we’ve been found out.
