The following evening, Beka carefully opened her door. Amy’s face appeared through the narrow gap.

After quickly glancing up and down the corridor, she slipped inside.

“Something’s definitely strange. The way she acts, and everything else…”

At mealtimes, Beka would linger in the dining hall, moving around as though she were royalty.

Amy had always found this irritating.

But now, that very habit was working in her favor.

‘At least I have an hour.’

Amy quickly scanned the room, judging the time.

It was small and sparsely furnished.

There was a narrow bed. A wardrobe. A mirror hung on the wall, with a worn chair set in front of it. That was all.

She stepped towards the wardrobe and pulled its doors open.

The familiar scent of roses drifted out.

Amy breathed it in faintly and reached for the perfume bottle tucked into one corner.

The bottle itself was exquisitely crafted, resembling a work of art rather than an item for everyday use.

“She said she bought this on the street? That it was cheap? She should at least try to make her lies believable.”

It was absurd.

Yes. Beka lied easily.

The excuses she made to wriggle out of trouble never quite aligned.

‘How foolish does she think we are, telling lies that obvious?’

Amy scoffed as she shook the perfume bottle, causing the rose-shaped lid to slip from her grasp.

It rolled across the floor and disappeared under the bed.

As she dropped to the floor to retrieve it, she caught sight of something beneath the bed — a small object that flashed in the light.

“What’s that?”

Although partly obscured by the bedpost, the shape of the blade was unmistakable.

One edge curved smoothly in an arc.

Just as Amy crawled further under the bed to get a closer look—

“What are you staring at?”

“……”

She hadn’t heard the door open.

Suddenly, Beka appeared, lightly tapping Amy’s foot.

An instant chill shot up her body from her toes to the crown of her head. It felt as though her scalp was prickling with sweat.

Trying to calm her racing heart, Amy tightened her grip on the perfume lid.

“I’m sorry, Beka!”

She apologized first, before anything else.

As Amy scrambled to her feet, a dark glare bore into her.

“You smelled nice, so… I just wanted to try your perfume secretly. But I dropped the lid.”

Beka narrowed her eyes.

Her expression was so vicious that Amy felt the blood drain from her face.

“Don’t ever pull something like this again.”

“I won’t. I’m really sorry!”

“Get out. Now.”

The words lashed out crudely.

Clenching her fist, Amy hurried into the corridor, the perfume lid concealed tightly in her palm.

“Wait.”

“…What?”

Beka moved swiftly to her side and shut the door in front of her.

A sharp smile curved at the corner of Beka’s lips.

***

Though the night had grown deep, Beth could not sleep.

“That damned Amy definitely saw the knife.”

Amy nodded obediently when Beth stopped her from leaving and dumped her share of the laundry on her.

But Beth had clearly seen the fear in her eyes.

Those who were afraid were easily betrayed.

‘And traitors must be killed.’

This meant that Amy deserved to die, too.

However, Beth could not bring himself to kill her.

The risk was too great.

One laundry maid had already died.

If another maid died, especially one who was paired with her, it would only invite suspicion.

“What do I do now…”

Anxiety swelled in the cramped room.

Beth sprang to her feet and pulled on her worn shoes.

She was determined to find Amy and make her pay.

If she jeopardized the girl’s livelihood, she would certainly protect the secret at all costs. But when she entered Amy’s room, she found only an empty bed.

“She always sleeps by ten…”

Had she gone to report her to the head maid?

“D*mn you, Amy.”

Beth had never imagined that the girl, who hated getting caught up in trouble, would react so quickly.

Her instincts screamed at her: Run! Now!

Deciding in an instant not to return to her own room, Beth headed towards Sveta’s bedchamber instead.

If she was going to flee in the dead of night, she might as well strip the place of jewels first.

‘Money is a lifeline.’

This was the harsh lesson that Beth had learned from living as a fugitive.

No matter where you went, money was essential.

Without it, you were reduced to washing other people’s laundry for a living.

‘I will never live like this again.’

Fortunately, Beth knew where Sveta kept her jewelry.

Perhaps because they were trying to hide the duke’s madness, there was no one guarding the area near the bedchamber.

Beth slipped into the room that Sveta had once used without difficulty.

Lighting a small candle without making a sound, she used its faint glow to search through the drawers.

“This is strange. It should be here.”

The drawer was empty.

The red velvet lining inside seemed to flick its tongue at her in mockery.

“Where did all those jewels go? There were too many to count. Where—”

“Looking for this?”

At the low, hoarse voice that suddenly breathed against the back of her neck, Beth collapsed to the floor.

“Beka Smiden.”

A massive silhouette shifted in the darkness.

Beth hastily extinguished the candle with two fingers.

As her eyes adjusted, she could make out the Duke holding a pearl bracelet.

He took a heavy step forward.

She scrambled backwards on the floor to increase the distance between them as he closed in.

“H-how…”

“Did you come to steal jewels?”

“What? N-no! Of course not! I haven’t touched anything!”

“……”

His ragged breathing echoed through the darkness.

Her stomach tightened with dread.

She could still hear Amy’s frightened voice recounting how the maid had been mercilessly beaten and thrown out the day before.

Had that fear taken root in her as well?

She could feel panic rising.

Proving her innocence was the only way to survive.

Drawing in a sharp breath, she sprang to her feet and hurried to light another candle nearby.

The thought of not revealing her resemblance to Sveta was pushed aside.

“L-look, Master. It was empty to begin with!”

She pulled out each drawer one by one, pleading.

“Even so, it does not change the fact that you entered to steal jewels.”

The coldness in those green eyes tightened around her throat.

Words tumbled from her mouth in frantic denial.

“N-no! I didn’t come to steal.”

“You are lying.”

“I’m not. I just… I missed the young lady who took her own life—”

“……”

The duke’s eyes trembled violently.

As if struck by shock, he let the bracelet fall.

“…Took her own life…”

For a moment, he looked as though his soul had fled his body. He drew harsh breaths, then staggered into the adjoining chamber.

‘W-what? What’s wrong with him? Has he truly gone mad?’

Beth froze for a moment as she quickly did the sums.

The moment she left this room, she would leave the estate.

She would take the narrow path leading into the Revenew Forest. No one would scour the vast forest just for one maid.

If there was one thing she could rely on, it was her ability to run fast.

‘At least I should take that bracelet.’

Grabbing the pearl bracelet, Beth had just begun to rise—

A rush of wind tore through the darkness, and a cold blue aura struck without mercy.

“Ah—!”

Her body went rigid.

A blade stopped just short of her throat.

“I-I’ll give it back. I’m sorry, Master. I was just going to put the bracelet on the bedside table. Truly!”

“You said she took her own life.”

“Yes, so I was putting the bracelet— Wait, what?”

The conversation no longer aligned. It was as though they were speaking of entirely different matters.

“How dare you defile her death.”

“……”

The realization struck her like a bolt of lightning.

This man had not gone mad because she had tried to steal. He had gone mad because she had dared to speak of Sveta’s death — of that so-called worthless girl.

When Beth failed to answer immediately, the man could not tolerate even that brief silence.

The blade pressed more firmly against her throat.

Its tip grazed her hair.

With a soft slicing sound, a lock of hair fell away.

***

The maid, who had collapsed and begged for mercy, was quickly dragged away from him.

Alone, Aiden stared at the bracelet lying on the floor.

He could still hear the maid’s shrill, quivering voice from a moment ago when she had clung to the bracelet.

“I missed the young lady who took her own life…”

It had been a lie, an excuse spoken in panic.

Then why did it tear so mercilessly at his chest?

“Took her own life…”

The thought that Sveta had chosen the same path as his mother, who had borne him by force and then taken her own life, hit him like a massive iron hammer.

Aiden had never before considered Sveta’s death in this way.

Yes, she had jumped from the cliff.

But he had always believed it was an accident.

“I’m leaving you. Because I want to live.”

Had she not said that?

My beloved Sveta had wanted to live.

His gaze drifted to the empty jewelry drawer.

The jewels that had once filled it were gone.

See? She took them all to survive.

This proved that the maid’s words were a blatant lie.

“Ha…”

A hollow breath escaped from his chest, which had been hollowed out.

As he bent down to pick up the bracelet, something black entered his field of vision.

a lock of hair.

It had been cleanly cut by a sharp blade.

It resembled Sveta’s.

Especially the way it had been cut off.

Aiden’s eyes narrowed.

“Something is… strange.”

He rushed back into the bedchamber, having forgotten the bracelet entirely.

Hundreds of pale yellow candles flickered.

He lifted the bundle of Sveta’s hair that he had placed on the bed.

The strands were bound together and carefully combed to an even length.

Not torn.

They had not been partially digested in a beast’s belly.

They had been cut cleanly in a single stroke.

“…Could it be?”

His heart pounded.

It felt like the first breath of a newborn baby.

Like someone who had sunk into the abyss and was finally breaking the surface. His shoulders trembled.

Perhaps. A fragile possibility shook him awake.

Immediately, Aiden summoned the butler.

Despite it being well past midnight, the butler arrived without delay.

“You called, Master?”

“Bring me the receipts for every jewel the ducal house has purchased.”

“I shall deliver them to your bedchamber immediately.”

“No. To the study.”

It had been three months since he had last left the bedchamber.

Surprise flashed across the butler’s face when the study was mentioned.

Only for a moment.

He quickly lowered his gaze.

“Yes. As you wish.”

“Wait.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Bring the jewels Henrik Meriner claimed to have found as well.”