“Lies!”

It was a scream-like cry. Turning toward the sound, I saw a young girl with straight black hair hanging loose.

“Lies… Madame Poporani… That’s impossible. It makes no sense… Why? Why… Oscar can but I can’t… Why only me… Why am I… considered poison?”

I remembered. That day. The first day I ever met my mother.

‘You haven’t opened it yet, Brote.’

That night when I heard those words from my mother. The memory of that night.

That night, immediately after my mother left, I searched the entire mansion for the book she had left me. I didn’t hesitate to enter the Count’s study, a place I’d been too afraid to approach before—literally turning the entire mansion upside down.

Then I discovered the book, sitting alone in the corner drawer of Oscar’s desk. That book now lay in the young girl’s hands.

The child bit her lip hard, unaware of the blood droplets forming, and lay flat on the floor. She flipped through the book with nervous, quick motions. Her long black hair veiled her face like a curtain, hiding her expression, but I remembered.

‘Witch. Lady Brandon is a witch. Just like the mansion servants said, that woman is a witch! The black-haired witch! The witch who threatened Madame Poporani! The bewitching witch! The devil!’

The child was filled with indignation. She couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to believe it. So she threw the book away like discarding trash.

The book hit the wall with a thud and fell to the floor with a loud noise.

Her small back heaved roughly as she breathed heavily. Though her expression remained hidden behind the long black curtain of hair, I could tell what she was thinking. I could feel the shattered face, the raw emotion. Undoubted, deep anger.

The girl slowly turned around.

With her face contorted like a demon, looking like a sage who had alone awakened to the world’s tragedy, she walked past me.

Behind me, I heard the door slam shut.

I knew well that her face would soon be stained with regret. If possible, I wanted to erase today’s events from her memory.

If so, even if it meant being pointed at by everyone, rather…

Behind the short curtain, I saw young Brote disappearing across the desolate front yard where sand and wind swirled.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, it was already a blue night.

A darkened room. A bed with long drapes. An empty space beside me.

Without a trace of warmth, completely empty.

Blinking my eyes, now fully adjusted to the darkness, I tried to piece together my memories.

The long two-week journey. The Northern mansion we finally reached. The head butler who shared Miriam’s name, and the blue-green maze garden that seemed to devour half the sky. The Duke’s bedroom where I would live from now on, which I was guided to past the servants carrying luggage.

I had entered that room, soaked away my travel fatigue in hot water, and changed clothes with the head butler’s help. And then…

Blinking, I slowly raised my body. I pulled back the drapes and lowered my feet to the floor.

The room was simply quiet, dark, with faint blue light rippling through it. Through the window, I could see the maze garden bathed in moonlight. The maze formed four squares of different sizes, resembling a giant butterfly.

There was no painfully vivid red color anywhere.

Sitting in place, I scanned the room. No one seemed to have entered while I slept; the room appeared exactly as before. At least, that’s how it looked to me.

…Had he passed by because I was asleep?

Or had he not yet come?

I stood up, trying to calm my anxiously churning insides.

The room spun before my eyes.

My eyes felt hot, like I had a fever. No, that couldn’t be it. My hands exposed outside the negligee must have grown cold from the North’s chilly air.

My throat burned with thirst.

There was a teapot on a small table in one corner of the bedroom. Too distracted to look for slippers, I felt the soft carpet against my bare feet as I poured water into a teacup.

The once-hot water had grown cold. My head still throbbed and my chest felt tight, but that single cup of water helped clear my breathing.

I trudged back along the path I’d come and slipped my feet into white slippers. With that, the world around me changed.

The moonlight was exceptionally clear tonight.

…Just one lap. I wanted to circle the open main building just once. That seemed reasonable enough. The night was deep, the mansion quiet, the servants absent.

At this late hour… it seemed unlikely that the Duke would come looking for me now.

I left the bedroom, navigating past haphazard piles of luggage into the corridor.

A pungent, sweet yet bitter scent suddenly invaded my nostrils.

To the left of the main building stood a forest hanging like a curtain; to the right rose the spire.

A tall, black silhouette appeared, consumed by deep shadows that seemed to avoid even the moonlight, or perhaps embodied the moon’s dark side. Even the gloomy blue light appeared swallowed by that profound darkness—just endlessly tall and black…

Tilting my head back to gauge its height, I found myself walking toward the spire, entranced.

It had been this way since I first entered the Winter territory.

Whether corroded or painted by someone, from the very first day I entered the North, that unusually tall spire had caught my eye.

Winter territory, Manderley Mansion. Queen Manderley. A place that was merely a mansion yet torturous for those sensitive to mana.

I thought perhaps that spire might be the center of all those stories. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be so captivated by a tower without a single window, remarkable only for its height.

Woof! Grrrr—

I startled, withdrawing my extended foot.

The sound of an animal crying came from somewhere. Leaves rustled against each other despite the absence of wind.

I was surrounded by forest. The maze garden towered over me, and tall, massive trees encircled the back of the spire.

The entrance to the main building was already far away, small as a dot.

‘That must be Mike, my lady. He’s the mansion’s guard dog. He must have caught your unfamiliar scent.’

I raised my arm and buried my nose between the folds of skin. There was only the sweet scent of perfume lingering between my skin and the thin negligee. Nothing seemed strange.

No, I couldn’t sense anything strange.

…A guard dog, she had said.

At most, I was now just a stranger who had just arrived at Manderley Mansion. The beast with glowing yellow eyes hiding somewhere in the bushes and I had never faced each other. Just as I didn’t know the beast, it didn’t know who I was.

…I had been careless.

I decided I needed to run and hide inside either the spire or the main building. My thin negligee had no space to store a proper weapon, so I had no means to protect myself. My exposed neck would certainly not withstand the beast’s bite. I could only rely on my legs, and I regretted coming out in slippers.

One step, just one step forward, and again—woof!

Woof woof! Rustle, crack. Awoooo— The sound of the beast howling and branches breaking filled the air. My mind kept warning me to run, to escape, but my body wouldn’t obey.

My legs trembled. Goosebumps rose on my exposed neck. My mind was going blank. At that moment, a faint warmth touched my forearm.

“Ah!”

“…My lady.”

“H-Head butler?”

“Yes. It’s Miriam, my lady.”

“You…”

Why?

I couldn’t hide my confusion and could only blink. At the same time, I felt deep relief. Trying to soothe my racing heart, I slowly caught my breath. Miriam draped a shawl over my shoulders.

“Are you all right, my lady?”

“Ah, just… I’ll be fine after a moment’s rest.”

The sound of the beast’s footsteps had already quieted. Miriam raised her clear yet hazy gray eyes and quickly surveyed our surroundings.

“To ensure Mike doesn’t make the same mistake again, it would be best if you showed yourself to the mansion staff tomorrow.”

“…Yes. That would be wise.”

“…My lady. Are you feeling unwell? Your complexion…”

“No, no. I’m fine. I’m fine.”

I merely tried to back away from Miriam’s approaching hand, but my legs gave way, and as I tried to turn back…

“Oh my, my lady. You have a fever. Let’s get you inside and call for the physician…”

When I opened my eyes again, I was once more in bed.

I could see the pale, faded ceiling above. Red sunset light penetrated the drapes, dyeing everything in my vision a deep crimson.

Cool fingertips brushed my forehead. Something damp and chillingly cold covered my eyes. I heard a voice growing distant.

“Beautiful lady. Please… my… lord… rest well.”

With those words, I once again lost consciousness.