Chapter 72

The carriage raced northward.

How long had they been riding?

Louise was leaning her head on Alec’s arm with her eyes closed, while Alec gazed out the window, absentmindedly brushing his face.

“Alec, do you think Cathy’s grudge is gone now? With what happened to Julia, she must feel less wronged, at least from heaven, right?”

“……”

Louise had sought revenge on Julia for Cathy’s death.

Although Alec didn’t know exactly who Cathy was, he had pieced together that she was one of the servants.

From the conversations between Louise, Eloise, and their mother, it seemed Cathy had died because of Julia.

But why did his chest feel so heavy?

It was as if he had experienced the events firsthand, so deeply did he feel Louise’s emotions.

The night before, Alec had sent Cassdain to further intimidate Julia.

After hearing Louise’s story, he couldn’t help but give Julia one final warning.

‘Ha.’

Letting out a deep sigh, Alec closed his eyes tightly and pressed his temples.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that he was getting more and more involved in this family’s life.

The memory of kissing Louise still lingered vividly on his lips.

The weight of her sorrow felt personal, as if it was his own.

Was this right?

He didn’t know when he would return to his original world, so was it okay to grow so attached?

The very idea of “getting attached” seemed wrong to him. He wasn’t someone who easily resonated with others’ emotions.

Alec subtly lowered his gaze and looked at Louise.

Her face was smooth and glossy like fine porcelain, her lips shining like cherries.

Her noble yet alluring appearance made Alec bite down hard on his lip before turning his gaze back to the window.

It was strange to him, remaining still for hours, unable to move for fear of waking her.

Before he knew it, the carriage had traveled all day and entered the northern region.

They were now racing through a vast, empty field, with not a person or house in sight. The temperature had already dropped well below freezing.

Suddenly, the carriage stopped, and a knock came at the door.

“We need to rest the horses for a moment, My Lord!” It was the coachman, Pedro.

There were five other carriages following them to the north. Aside from the one carrying the luggage, the others were for the servants.

Jane, the head maid, James, the head footman, and Albert, the head cook, along with Mrs. Greta and a few other servants, had set off ahead with them.

Knock, knock.

“May I open the door for a moment, My Lord?” came the voice again. It was James.

“Come in.”

James cautiously opened the door, then noticed the sleeping Louise. His eyes widened slightly, and he whispered softly.

“Oh, I just wanted to check if you needed anything.”

“…We’re fine.”

“Understood. If you need anything, please let us know before we depart again.”

“Thank you.”

James quietly closed the door.

The servants were also bundled up in thick fur cloaks, just like him and Louise.

With the return of the servants, much had changed around him.

Until now, it had only been Louise, her mother, and Eloise, but from now on, he would have to interact with many more people.

The problem was that none of the servants appeared in the cast list of characters.

Alec had to be careful not to reveal that he had no idea who they were.

He had gone to great lengths to avoid arousing suspicion with every word he spoke.

Fortunately, the servants were already treating him differently, due to the drastic change in his demeanor and mannerisms.

‘At this rate, it won’t be long before I’m suspected of something.’

Alec pressed his forehead again.

The servants had been around Alec for a long time, just like the other family members.

Soon, their numbers would grow to dozens, even hundreds, and it was hard not to feel concerned.

‘Maybe I should just say I lost most of my memory after nearly dying?’

The thought crossed his mind, but he didn’t like it.

Telling a lie didn’t sit well with him.

When they reached the outskirts of Kanak, Louise awoke and began to take in the view.

The northern dawn was bitterly cold yet strikingly clear.

Before long, they arrived at the entrance to the road leading to Wiltsbrook Castle, and in the distance, a pointed castle appeared, no larger than the size of a palm.

The coachman had followed the route Alec had mapped out before they set off.

“Alec! Look at that!” Louise exclaimed in awe, pressing closer to the window.

She stared at the castle in a daze for a while before speaking.

“It’s amazing. I had only seen it in drawings and imagined it, but is that really Wiltsbrook Castle? It’s much more impressive than I thought.”

“It’ll look even better up close.”

“I think so too. I can’t wait to get inside…”

Louise seemed to have higher expectations than he thought.

He also gazed at the small castle visible through the window. Wiltsbrook Castle was larger and more magnificent than any ancient fortress he had seen in photos or videos.

Now that the road had been cleared, the castle’s grandeur was even more emphasized.

And the interior…

‘The system made it spotless without a speck of dust.’

It felt like they were setting him up for suspicion—how could a castle abandoned for centuries be spotless?

Unfortunately, Alec didn’t have the ability to intentionally make things dirty. He could only hope that the dust had accumulated as much as possible during the last few days of neglect.

Suddenly, Louise seemed to notice something strange and asked, puzzled,

“Alec, doesn’t the carriage feel a little smoother? Why does the road suddenly feel so even?”

“Oh, this road was originally built by the Lord of Wiltsbrook, who gathered master craftsmen from across the land,” Alec replied.

“What? Really?”

As Louise stared at him in disbelief, Alec rang the bell to stop the carriage.

When they stepped out, the other servants in the carriages followed suit.

Surrounded by low rocky hills and dense forests, a geometric pattern of stone pavement lay beneath them—wide and smooth. Most of the path was covered in snow, making the original road hard to see.

Louise, her lips slightly parted in amazement, knelt to touch the ground. She too was wearing leather gloves, like Alec.

“This… was here the whole time?”

“It seems so.”

“When was this made?”

“Hundreds of years ago.”

“My goodness, a road this well-crafted, hundreds of years ago…”

The servants were equally astonished.

Louise stood and gazed wide-eyed at the expansive road.

“With a road like this, why couldn’t the nobles who were sent to the castle make it back?”

“…Who knows? Perhaps they didn’t find this road.”

It had been buried until recently.

Still, the road had survived for centuries thanks to a unique construction technique.

The stones weren’t laid down as thin slabs. Instead, massive boulders had been polished smooth and sunk deep into the ground.

Hundreds of years ago, Cassdain had quarried the stones from the nearby marble-rich mountains, where the rocks shimmered with an aurora-like glow.

“But how did you find this road, Alec?” Louise asked, her eyes filled with wonder as she looked at him.

One of the expected questions.

Even the servants were staring at him in disbelief.

Alec stroked his chin for a moment before lowering his hand and answering,

“…I read about it in a very old book.”

“Of course.”

Louise clasped her hands together in admiration, her eyes shining.

The servants couldn’t hide their awe either.

“No one in this world reads more than you, My Lord. You truly are blessed to have all this knowledge come back to you,” remarked Mrs. Greta, smiling warmly.

Alec couldn’t bring himself to meet their eyes and subtly averted his gaze.

Louise and the servants trusted him too easily.

‘Could this all be part of the system’s design?’

He couldn’t help but wonder.

Once they reached the castle, they’d be confronted with even more unbelievable sights—how would he explain those?

No one would believe he had cleaned the entire castle by himself.

He considered saying that he had hired people to remodel the place in advance but decided against it. One lie would only lead to more lies.

The carriage began moving again.

Louise sat gracefully, her hands clasped, looking a little dazed by the wonder of it all.

“Alec, I’m nervous. My heart is pounding. Am I really going to Wiltsbrook Castle?” she murmured.

“…”

“I was sure it would be filled with bats, snakes, wild animals, or spider nests. But hearing you say it’s all clean makes me excited.”

“…Castles in such cold regions, if sealed tightly, don’t accumulate much dust.”

“Is that so?”

“All the doors were closed. I had a hard time finding the keys.”

It wasn’t entirely untrue.

While it wasn’t a big ordeal, it did cost him some blood along the way.

“Where did you find the keys?”

“…On top of the castle gate’s pillar.”

More precisely, he had been standing atop the pillar when he found the lord’s master key on his way down.

“On top of the pillar? You thought to look up there…?”

“….”

Feeling a little awkward, Alec turned his gaze back to the window.

Maybe Louise was already suspecting that something was off about him.

Suddenly, Alec recalled a completely different side of Louise, a memory from Reverend Hall.

*Smack!*

“Yes, a handshake is too dull for us, isn’t it?”

Even now, the memory of that fiery slap made Alec inhale sharply.

Louise might be far more fearsome than he’d originally thought.

Her determination to quietly reclaim her status was one thing.

But slapping a crazed woman without batting an eye, knowing that the woman had poisoned her drink, only to pretend to drink it—that was beyond surprising.

And hadn’t she fulfilled her vow of revenge against Julia?

If Louise ever discovered that Alec had deceived her and kissed her without permission, it wouldn’t just end with a slap.

A shiver ran down his spine at the thought, just as the carriage drew even closer to Wiltsbrook Castle.

TL NOTE: More advanced chapter of this story is already up to the site. Visit dusk blossoms for more advanced chapters and stories