“Several hundred years……? Managing this castle must be difficult.”

“Indeed. Hmm, anyway!”

“Yes, yes!”

The woman responded energetically, sensing that the main point was finally coming.

“Now let me explain the rule you must absolutely follow while staying here.”

Jerome raised his index finger, deliberately ignoring the feeling that the woman’s face and clothes didn’t match at all.

While trying to make the scariest face possible.

“There’s just one.”

“Yes, wh-what is it?”

The woman pretended to listen attentively with a tense expression.

“Never, ever enter the Ice Garden.”

“Ice…… Garden?”

“Yes. It’s a place in the northern tower area where His Highness takes personal rest. He absolutely hates being disturbed during his rest, so just don’t go anywhere near the northern tower. I take care of cleaning there.”

“Oh, yes! I understand.”

It wasn’t really a difficult rule.

Just don’t go where you’re told not to go, right?

But the woman clenched her fist and nodded resolutely as if receiving a life-changing order.

She looked as innocent as a child, but strangely not untrustworthy.

‘Usually when something is absolutely forbidden, human psychology makes you want to do it even more…… She doesn’t even ask why.’

Jerome appreciated the woman’s response, which didn’t question or challenge.

When there were still some servants left in this castle, quite a few had broken that rule out of curiosity.

“Any other questions?”

At Jerome’s attempt to wrap up the conversation, the woman raised her hand slightly.

“I have one.”

“What is it?”

“You keep referring to him as ‘His Highness’……”

At her hesitant mention of “him,” Evan’s face automatically appeared in Jerome’s mind.

“Is he perhaps the Em-Emperor?”

Emperor?

In his imagination, that exceptionally handsome but thoroughly indifferent face was crowned with the Emperor’s large crown.

Jerome, more surprised by the image in his own mind, jumped up.

“Goodness, that’s dangerous talk!”

The woman sensed something was wrong and covered her mouth with her hand.

“While our master is exceptional, saying such things in public could get us all dragged away for treason.”

“Tr-treason?”

A trembling voice escaped through her fingers.

“Don’t be that alarmed though. It’s just us here.”

The woman exhaled in relief as Jerome waved his hand with a disgruntled face.

Jerome began his explanation, wondering why he was sighing along with her.

“The person you asked about, whether he’s the Em-Emperor, is Evan Baltion. He’s the head of the Baltion grand ducal family. He’s a distant cousin of the Amazen imperial family currently in the capital. That’s why he inherited the title of grand duke and is called ‘His Highness.'”

“Oh…… I see.”

Her pink eyes sparkled brightly like those of a student attentively listening to a lesson.

She seemed pleased to have her curiosity satisfied.

“Now that you know, don’t make mistakes like asking if he’s the Emperor elsewhere. If it reaches the ears of Crown Prince Dain, the actual heir to the throne, things could get even more difficult than they already are.”

“More difficult?”

“Yes, there were already various issues in the capital, but the decisive reason His Highness came down here was because of Crown Prince Dain’s increasing pressure.”

“Why did he pressure him?”

“He was branded with the infamous title of ‘filthy beast who targeted the Crown Prince’s fiancée.’ Actually, it was the fiancée who followed His Highness around, but the Crown Prince made a huge fuss about it.”

The woman’s expression suddenly hardened at this unexpected story.

The face of the beautiful man she had seen earlier, Evan, naturally came to mind.

His beauty had seemed almost otherworldly.

“……”

She immediately understood why Jerome had called it infamy.

The phrase ‘filthy beast’ didn’t match at all with the impression of that fairy-like silver-haired man.

She momentarily wondered if she was judging too much based on appearance, but Jerome shook his head as if he had read her thoughts.

“Let me explain clearly. Crown Prince Dain disliked our master from the beginning.”

“He disliked him from the beginning? Why?”

“Because he’s too exceptional and popular! And then his fiancée happened to see His Highness and fell for him, following him around? So from Crown Prince Dain’s perspective, he finally had something to grab onto! He ran straight to the Emperor to tattle!”

Jerome was now fuming, swinging his fist in the air.

Reconsidering it seemed to have brought his anger to a boiling point.

“Anyway, thinking about how our master suffered because of that man’s jealousy really… Argh. Just let me see the Crown Prince and his fiancée again, even if I have to tear off my rank insignia, I’ll just—”

“Jerome.”

Jerome, who had been kicking the air, froze at the sound of Evan’s voice from the doorway.

It seemed he had been watching to see how far this would go when the noisy lecture sounds reached him through the open door.

“When did you get here.”

Jerome lowered his leg and stood at attention.

“You talk too much. Do you really want to die that badly, attacking after tearing off your rank insignia?”

Evan asked calmly with a face that was languid yet permeated with a chilling aura.

Thinking again that his appearance automatically made her mouth drop open, the woman quickly tensed her lips.

She couldn’t just stare blankly like an idiot again.

Jerome responded to his master’s rebuke with an indignant voice.

“No, I know the truth so it’s just too unfair, but Your Highness doesn’t try to clear up that misunderstanding. And anyway, no one cares what we do in this castle anymore, so what does it matter?”

Jerome seemed unfazed by the death threat, making excuses with practiced ease.

Evan appeared displeased that his servant seemed to have only grown more brazen.

“Enough, do your work instead of lecturing. So you’ll know how to chase away more spiders if they appear here.”

“……Yes, I understand.”

Jerome nodded with his lips pursed, and only then did Evan turn away.

Before completely leaving the doorway, he looked the woman up and down once.

The woman tilted her head. She might have been mistaken, but he seemed to frown slightly at her attire.

She examined the maid uniform she was wearing once more.

What’s the problem?

Is it dirty?

Jerome said he had washed it thoroughly.

As the woman fidgeted with her apron, feeling somewhat intimidated, Jerome whispered beside her again.

“Anyway, that’s why His Highness Evan and I have been here for five years now.”

The woman smiled awkwardly at Jerome, who immediately continued his story after Evan disappeared.

“The other servants all turned their backs on Baltion under pressure from the imperial family. Traitors.”

The woman sighed softly with a sympathetic look at those words. Jerome shrugged his shoulders.

“But His Highness seems to like it here. He doesn’t really want to return to the capital.”

Though Jerome explained casually, the woman thought his eyes, glancing briefly out the window, seemed to long for the warm capital.

“You and His Highness must have been very lonely and had a hard time all this while……”

The woman placed her hand gently on Jerome’s hand and looked at him.

When her already moist eyes gazed at him full of sincerity, Jerome felt his wariness crumbling.

Despite all the servants leaving because they couldn’t endure this harsh weather, Jerome had faithfully stayed by the Grand Duke’s side alone, true to his Taylor family heritage.

It was the first time someone had comforted him for his hardships all these years.

“We-well, as His Highness Evan said, the lecture ends here. Let’s clean now. Before His Highness throws both of us out. Please take care of the other guest rooms too.”

“Yes! Leave it to me!”

Looking at the brightly smiling woman, Jerome decided to think positively.

He had been struggling to manage this large castle alone anyway.

‘Right. Though she’s an unexpected maid, I can make good use of her until she finds her memories.’

With that thought, Jerome finally relaxed and smiled slightly.

Not knowing the h＊ll that would befall him in a few hours.