“Oh my, wait a moment, girls.”

Julie, a maid who had just finished cleaning the master’s bedroom, stopped abruptly in the main hall lobby.

“I think I left my cleaning cloth in the room. Would you mind going ahead without me?”

She looked quite embarrassed. The master’s woman was still sleeping in the room. Though the master was out, she would surely be scolded by the head maid if anyone discovered she had left something like a cleaning cloth in the master’s room.

“You and your absent-mindedness. Fine.”

“Hurry up, it’s mealtime. I’ll save you a seat.”

Julie nodded and turned to go back up to the fourth floor when her colleagues called out to her.

“Hey! Julie!”

“Y-yes?”

“You need to take this. The door is locked. The master ordered it to be locked whenever he comes and goes.”

“Ah! Right. Thank you.”

Julie took the key bundle and hurried toward the bedroom.

Click—Julie entered the bedroom and quickly looked around. The master’s woman, Vivianne, was sleeping with her back curled. As she’d always felt during cleaning, the woman’s motionless form looked just like a corpse. It gave her chills every time she saw it.

Julie retrieved the cleaning cloth she had deliberately left in the corner and went to the bedside table. On it sat a water pitcher that Vivianne supposedly drank from in her sleep.

She needed to finish quickly before Vivianne woke up. Julie’s hand trembled slightly as she pulled a small paper packet from her sleeve. Just as she hastily sprinkled the powder into the pitcher—

“…Who ordered you to do this?”

Julie froze in place.

“Probably… Kian’s fiancée, right?”

It was Vivianne’s voice. As Julie turned to flee, she felt something cold press against her back.

“I’m sorry, but this is a knife. If you move carelessly or try to run away, I’ll stab you.”

“P-please, s-spare me.”

“Is this poison? The kind that kills when ingested?”

“I-I don’t r-really know th-that much…”

“You’re trying to harm me. Or is your goal to harm my baby?”

“I-I don’t know anything. I-I’m just doing what I was t-told. Really.”

“I know. You’re merely following orders. If you don’t reveal who’s behind this, you’ll be the only one to take the blame and die. It was Penelope who ordered this, wasn’t it?”

“……”

“Answer me before I stab you. If you don’t want to die.”

Julie frantically nodded her head.

“Then go and tell her this. She must have heard about the shackle. The truth is, I want to leave this place too. So if she truly wants me to disappear from Kian’s sight, she should stop these shallow tricks and help me escape instead.”

Vivianne pressed the knife closer and issued another threat into the trembling Julie’s ear.

“I’ll give you until tomorrow. I need a carriage and money.”

“A c-carriage and m-m-money?”

“Yes, otherwise I’ll tell Kian everything.”

Vivianne nudged the back of Julie’s knee with her own.

“If you understand, then leave. Julie.”

The trembling Julie hurriedly left the room.

After the maid left and the door closed, Vivianne’s legs gave way and she sank to the floor. She took deep breaths to calm her trembling. Perhaps because she had never threatened or intimidated anyone in her life, her heart pounded violently, ready to burst.

Had she gripped the knife too tightly? Her pale hand was shaking violently. As she looked down, her grip loosened. Clang—the knife clattered to the floor.

Did she look as nervous as she felt? She found herself pathetic for trembling while holding a knife.

Judging by how effective her clumsy threat had been, Julie must have been more frightened than she was, or lost her composure at the sight of the blade.

Even to herself, the change in her behavior was surprising. But for the sake of protecting her baby, she could do even more than this.

How little they must think of her, to try poisoning her water right beside her bed. Thanks to that, she caught them in the act and gained an opportunity to escape, so it turned out well.

To escape, she needed a carriage and money. If she tried to flee alone with nothing, she wouldn’t get far before being caught. She would need to escape to somewhere distant and find work. Somehow, she would give birth to and raise this child. There had been no plan for staying at Larson in the first place.

Initially, she had considered asking Matilda for help, but if Kian discovered Matilda had aided her escape, he wouldn’t let her off easily. She didn’t want to cause her any harm.

Whether her impulsive threat would work remained to be seen, but if Penelope had ordered it, there was no reason for her not to help Vivianne disappear, which was exactly what Penelope wanted.

* * *

“…Matilda.”

Her voice was slightly hoarse, indicating she had just woken up. Matilda had fallen asleep with her in the master’s bed after Vivianne had insisted they sleep together.

“Vivi, why are you awake?”

“I wanted to chat with you.”

“At this hour of the night?”

“Yes. Do you mind?”

Vivianne nuzzled her forehead against Matilda’s chest. The thought that this childlike woman would soon have a baby seemed unreal, yet somehow touching.

“Of course not. I’d love to, Vivi.”

“Hehe.”

Matilda hugged Vivianne tightly and planted a soft kiss on the crown of her head.

“I wish Kian would never come back so we could sleep together every day.”

“What about the baby?”

“I’d raise it alone, of course.”

She must still harbor many resentments. Her pouting and grumbling looked adorable.

“What shall we chat about? Would you like me to tell you an old story?”

“I’ll do the telling.”

“You will?”

“Yes. I have a story I want to share with you, Matilda.”

“Go ahead, then.”

At first, Matilda thought she might recount a fairy tale she had enjoyed reading. In the past, Vivianne would often reminisce with a dreamy face about stories where princesses and princes lived happily ever after.

But the story Vivianne told was completely different.

“Actually… I was a mermaid.”

“What? A mermaid?”

“It’s okay if you don’t believe me. I think it would be hard for me to believe too.”

A mermaid, out of nowhere. It sounded preposterous to anyone.

When Matilda expressed surprise, Vivianne calmly acknowledged it.

“Still, I wanted to be honest with you, Matilda. Among everyone I’ve met here, you’ve been my greatest support.”

Her voice, already a whisper, became even more choked. Though the story sounded like a lie, somehow it didn’t feel like she was lying.

“Don’t worry. I believe you. I’ll believe anything you tell me, Vivi.”

“Thank you, Matilda.”

Her faintly smiling face was already wet with tears. Matilda wiped Vivianne’s eyes and listened carefully to her words.

“I came to the surface to see the moon. That’s when I saw Kian at the coral beach. I fell in love with him at first sight. I desperately wanted to approach him, so I asked a witch to give me legs. I thought that if I just had legs… if I could have Kian’s baby, I would be happy.”

“And you did get pregnant. You won, Vivi.”

“Yes. But I don’t think I’m happy. No, I’m not happy.”

Her face became wet again as quickly as Matilda wiped it.

“Vivi, did you tell the master about this too? That you were a mermaid?”

Looking back, it made sense now—her use of terms like “mating” as if she were an animal, her complete ignorance of worldly matters. If Vivianne really had been a mermaid, these things were understandable.

But Vivianne clearly had a human body. Even if Matilda believed her, most people naturally wouldn’t.

“Yes. I told him, but he didn’t believe me. I understand. It sounds like a lie even to me.”

Vivianne, seemingly tired of crying, rubbed her eyes vigorously with the back of her hand. Then she pulled something out from under her pillow.

“This is my treasure. I don’t remember exactly, but I’ve had it since I was little, and I cherished it. I want to give it to you, Matilda.”

It was a golden compass with a lid.

“This? For me?”

“Yes. It’s a compass. They say it shows you which direction to go.”

And the needle of that compass had always pointed toward Kian.

“Now I want to determine my own direction.”

* * *

“Pregnant?”

“Yes. The doctor says she’s been experiencing morning sickness.”

The aide delivered the news from Larson. Kian’s eyes widened slightly as he reclined on the sofa, reviewing his upcoming schedule.

He hadn’t used any contraception since the woman had desperately expressed her desire for a child. Moreover, until quite recently, he had poured his seed into her until it overflowed onto the sheets, so this was perhaps to be expected.

He was familiar with early pregnancy symptoms. But given the circumstances, he had assumed her illness was due to distress, never imagining she might be pregnant.

“That’s good news.”

Kian merely uttered this brief exclamation, without any noticeable change in his expression.

His first emotion upon learning of the pregnancy was an ironic sense of relief. Whether she was a mermaid or human, this was definite proof that her body, at least, was human.

Who would believe the talk of being a mermaid? They would think it madness. Whatever the truth, that was enough. Eventually, the woman would give up her insistence.

Moreover, this gave him a reason to keep her. The life in her womb would become a substantial shackle. In her condition, unable to take care of herself properly, she wouldn’t even dare think of escaping while pregnant with his child.

Even to himself, these thoughts seemed despicably petty.

“Well, for someone else… this might be unfortunate news.”

How would she react to learning she was pregnant?

She had said she hated him. She had tried to stab him with a knife, and often trembled and cried, saying how horrible he was. She would flinch in fear at the slightest movement.

It must have been disgusting for her to lie with such a man every night. Now she was pregnant with his child as well—how pitiful her situation had become.

If she were to wail in despair over her predicament, he very much wanted to see it.

Kian tapped the schedule for after the imperial banquet with his fingertip and handed it to his aide.

“Check if there are any more appointments that can be canceled here. No… cancel everything. Make preparations so we can leave immediately after the banquet.”

“Sir?”

“I need to go home. She’ll be waiting.”

Even if that expectation was merely his own wishful thinking. How delightful that there would now be not one but two beings attuned to his footsteps.

Could anything be more pleasing?

Though he tried to maintain his composure and appear unaffected, a smile kept spreading across his face.