Soon, we arrived at the young viscount’s room.

The marquis took a small breath, exhaled, and then raised his hand to knock softly.

Knock, knock.

“Jerry, it’s your father. I’m coming in.”

With that, the marquis opened the door. The white door swung open silently.

The first thing that caught my eye as the door opened was a large window covering one wall of the room. Beyond it lay a vividly blue lake and a lush green forest.

In front of the large window stood a boy, staring blankly outside.

‘Ah.’

I almost let out a sigh. Unconsciously, I bit my lip gently.

<That child…>

Rick sighed sympathetically. The marquis approached the boy and spoke to him.

“Jerry, Lady Everdeen has come to see you because she wants to be your friend.”

The boy, who had been staring blankly out the window, slowly turned his head at those words.

On his shoulder was the head of a leopard with eyes that seemed to blaze.

Seeing a head attached to his shoulder without a body sent a shiver down my spine.

“…Ghost?”

The boy, Jervis, widened his eyes at the sight of the Duke standing next to me.

Under his red eyes, so similar to the marquis’s, were dark circles.

The marquis glanced at the Duke in response to his son’s words. The Duke let out a small sigh and picked up a pen and paper.

“I’m Valerian Everdeen. The young viscount hasn’t seen me since he was a baby, so he probably doesn’t remember.”

Jervis tilted his head for a moment, then muttered softly as if he understood.

“Oh, dad’s friend…”

“Who’s calling him a friend? I’ve never had a friend like that.”

The marquis retorted sharply to Jervis’s words. The Duke shook his head slightly with a look of distaste.

Finally, Jervis’s gaze shifted to me.

His strangely lifeless eyes met mine directly.

<At this rate, he doesn’t look like he’ll live long.>

Rick mumbled softly from within my arms. I silently agreed with him.

‘He’s worse off than I thought.’

It seemed the demon named Haures had more power than I had anticipated.

I thought he would still be in decent condition since it had only been about half a year, but Jervis looked pale and frail, as if he could collapse at any moment.

In contrast, the aura from the demon on his shoulder was intense.

Perhaps because it was a demon that devoured humans, its presence was more menacing than what I sensed from Selena.

‘Can I… do this?’

I swallowed nervously without realizing it. But I quickly shook my head to dispel my anxiety and opened my eyes wide.

No, I can do this! I have to do this! Let’s go!

I steeled myself and walked briskly toward Jervis.

He remained still as I approached right up to his face.

I stopped in front of him and, with a bright smile, extended my hand.

“Nice to meet you! I’m Teresia Everdeen. What’s your name?”

His eyes scanned my face as if examining me, and soon he replied.

“…Jervis.”

It was a short answer, but at least it was an answer. I smiled even brighter.

“That’s a nice name. Do you have any friends?”

“…No.”

“Then let’s be friends! I don’t have any friends either!”

<Don’t you think that’s a bit odd for someone trying to make friends?>

Rick commented in a disgruntled voice.

As if he had any friends himself. Bah.

“Why me?”

Jervis was not easy to deal with. He blinked at me with suspicion in his eyes.

Oh no, when asked like that, I didn’t know what to say. What should I say?

After some thought, I counted on my fingers and blurted out an answer.

“First, you’re my dad’s friend’s son, your house is right next door, and you’re handsome!”

“Cough.”

<What did you say?>

I heard the Duke behind me gasp, and Rick interjected with a somewhat fierce voice.

‘Why’s he acting like that all of a sudden?’

I had chosen reasons that seemed the least suspicious.

Besides, it was an objective fact that Jervis was handsome.

He had red eyes like the marquis and light brown hair. Although largely because he was sick, his skin was as clean and white as flour. His features were delicate and refined.

I thought he would grow up to be quite handsome, maybe not as much as the Duke, but still.

But this wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. I cleared my mind and focused solely on the boy in front of me.

“…….”

Jervis’s red eyes seemed unusually deep for a ten-year-old.

Under his light brown eyelashes, his eyes met mine steadily, as if trying to see into my soul.

I blinked innocently, as if I had no other intentions.

How much time passed like that? Jervis seemed about to say something, his lips moved slightly.

His eyes suddenly widened.

“Cough!”

Thud!

Jervis suddenly reached out and pushed me roughly away.

He bent over and coughed hard. Dark red blood splattered onto the floor from his small mouth.

“Jerry!”

“Terry!”

The marquis and the Duke both rushed towards us in alarm.

The marquis caught Jervis’s collapsing body, while the Duke steadied my staggering form.

“Where’s the doctor? Call the doctor immediately!”

“Yes, yes, sir!”

“Call the doctor!”

At the marquis’s urgent shout, the butler and servants moved quickly, screaming.

“Jerry, stay with me. My dear!”

In that brief moment, Jervis’s face had turned even more deathly pale than before, and he was breathing heavily. His eyelids remained motionless, as if he had lost consciousness.

Meanwhile, the Duke, who had been holding me in surprise, kept glancing at the marquis while scribbling a note.

“We’ll wait outside. If needed, I’ll call the Duke’s physician, so just say the word.”

“…Thank you.”

The marquis looked at the paper the Duke handed him with a dazed expression, then murmured in a choked voice.

The Duke immediately picked me up.

As I was carried out of the room, I couldn’t take my eyes off the demon visible over the Duke’s shoulder. More accurately, I couldn’t look away.

‘This is insane…’

My mouth fell open.

I could see the demon’s head, which had sunk its teeth into Jervis’s neck, writhing slightly and gradually growing larger.

‘There’s not much time left.’

It was an instinct.

The demon would become a ghost by tonight at the earliest, or by tomorrow at the latest.

And Jervis would lose his life.

The situation was more urgent than I had anticipated.

I clenched my teeth as I watched the marquis’s physician rush into the room and the white door close.

The image of the boy, whose gaze I had briefly met, lingered in my mind.

* * *

“At this rate, Jervis is going to die. We have to end that monster by tonight at the latest.”

As soon as I was left alone in the room assigned to me at the marquis’s house, I spoke seriously.

Selena and Leila nodded with troubled expressions.

Leila spoke.

<Let’s go over the plan again. We’ll enter the young viscount’s room, and Terry, you’ll use your ability to see ghosts to lure the demon away from the young viscount, and Selena will grab it the moment it detaches.>

“And Leila will finish it off.”

<Alright.>

We each nodded with determined expressions.

I didn’t have the ability to destroy or do anything like Leila.

But the demon didn’t know that, so if I provoked it well enough, it would likely come after me.

“Alright. Timing is crucial in this plan. If we’re even a little late, everyone, including the young viscount, could be in danger.”

<Leave it to me.>

Not long after, I received word from a maid sent by the marquis that Jervis had passed the critical stage and was resting.

But that was only from a human perspective.

They say that just before death, a person can suddenly seem healthier.

Jervis was exactly in that state. He was on the brink of death.

‘Aside from everything else, he’s the Duke’s friend’s son. I can’t just let him die…’

Meanwhile, Rick was surprisingly the only one among us who wasn’t keen on this plan.

I placed Rick on the table and sat in a chair facing him.

Originally, I had been holding him, but he had been flailing his limbs in frustration, so I had no choice but to put him down on the table.