“Laurel loved it most when I acted out this scene. Loved it most. Even when people threw bottles, she would stand up straight and applaud. She was someone who was there for me anytime, anywhere!”

Troy’s distorted face was soaked with tears. His face quickly reverted to that of a small child as he sobbed loudly. I had been widening the gap between my wrists, but finally couldn’t hold back and opened my mouth.

“And what did you do for her?”

“What?”

Troy looked up, sniffling. Finding it absurd, I raised my brows and asked,

“Laurel was there for you anytime, anywhere. She earned money for you, borrowed money for you. She didn’t shy away from dangerous tasks to become a head maid for you. And she died doing that.”

Saliva dripped through Troy’s widely parted teeth. His eyes were rolling wildly, but I couldn’t stop speaking.

“What did you do while she was doing all that? You’ve been doing drugs and drinking, and you have the nerve to ask me to bring Laurel back to life?”

One wrist slipped free as I struggled. While removing the string from my other wrist, I threw words at him like sharp wedges,

“Even if I had the power to do so, I wouldn’t. I don’t want to see her living for you in exactly the same way after being brought back to life.”

“You demonic wench, I’ll kill you!”

Troy growled and charged with a beast-like face. With a split second to spare, I drew a dagger from my chest and shouted while swinging my arm.

“Don’t come any closer!”

Seeing the flashing blade, he flinched and stopped. I aimed at him with one hand while pulling at the rope binding my feet with the other. It wouldn’t come loose easily.

“You had that? I should have searched your body.”

After staring at me blankly, Troy laughed with a relaxed face again. He was definitely not in his right mind.

I watched him warily as he casually turned around and brought over a lit candlestick, grunting with effort. I immediately stopped moving when I saw Troy sitting in the chair and holding the edge of the ledger to the candle flame.

“You need this, right? Then throw the knife over here.”

For a moment, I considered abandoning the ledger. After all, if Kirhin had met Tom because of this incident, he would have become suspicious of Nina. There could be other ways.

But…

There was no guarantee I’d be safe even if I rushed at him now. After weighing various possibilities, I bit the inside of my lip and slowly threw the knife toward his feet. Troy bent down and picked up the knife, examining it from different angles.

“An expensive item. I could pay off my debts and even buy a theater with this.”

“What are you planning to do?”

I asked while wondering what I would do if he demanded the knife in exchange for the ledger. Troy raised his eyebrows.

“I’m sick of money now. The world without Laurel is too frightening. And there’s nothing I can do for her.”

His lips curved ominously. I watched as he raised his hand and set fire to the ledger. His voice rang out, emotionlessly subdued.

“I don’t want to live anymore.”

“No!”

I managed to stand up, bracing myself against the floor, and lunged toward the ledger that had started to burn at the edges. At that moment, I sensed Troy swinging the knife, but I had already changed direction. As I squeezed my eyes shut, I heard something being cleanly sliced, sending a chill down my spine.

“Argh!”

A heavy weight fell on my back, and I collapsed forward. Breathing heavily, I checked my body for sensations but didn’t feel like I’d been cut. Confused, I blinked, and suddenly noticed someone’s shoes in front of me.

“What a sight this is, Miss Lucienne.”

It was a voice I’d heard before, but I couldn’t immediately recall who it belonged to. As I struggled and twisted my body, the man pushed away the weight pressing down on me with his foot. Troy had collapsed.

The strong smell of blood slowly rose. As I struggled to lift my gaze, I was shocked to discover an unexpected face. A kind-looking man with narrow eyes was smiling.

“How did you……”

“I happened to notice while passing by.”

It was such a half-hearted answer that I couldn’t even laugh. I stared at him with my eyes wide open.

It couldn’t be a coincidence. How much did he know? Had he been following me? Since when?

He was probably connected to Count Balshwin. Among the Bickman family’s affairs, the only one that would involve such a suspicious character was the trade deal with Freemont.

“If you were watching, why didn’t you rescue me a little sooner?”

The man with loosely tied long hair simply gave a quiet eye-smile. Since he wasn’t holding any visible weapon in his hands, I couldn’t tell what he had used to cut Troy.

Ah, Troy.

Belatedly looking down, I saw him lying motionless. I hurriedly untied the rope around my ankles and asked,

“Did you kill him?”

“Not killing people is quite difficult.”

The man shrugged.

“He’s still breathing. But he might be better off dying now. After all, he kidnapped and tried to kill a Baron’s daughter—could he really be buried with his limbs intact?”

His voice contained not a hint of sympathy, but rather a light amusement. Feeling a chill run down my spine, I looked away and noticed my dagger on the floor. Next to it was the partially burned ledger.

The man followed my gaze and bent down. While I quickly lunged to grab the dagger, I saw him pick up the ledger. I calmly sheathed the dagger in its holder inside my clothes and held out my hand.

“Give it to me. It’s what I’ve been looking for.”

This man was dangerous. Naturally, he would be if he was one of Count Balshwin’s people, but beyond that, he didn’t give off a human-like presence, which instinctively made me wary.

With someone like him, I must never show weakness. The moment he sensed my fear, I felt I would collapse like Troy, not even knowing what had cut me.

The man stared blankly at my confidently extended hand, then broke into a good-natured smile. Tilting his head slightly, he flipped through the pages and said,

“You really don’t know how to stay put, Miss. Why does a head maid matter? Servants looking after their own interests through backdoor dealings happens everywhere. I’m saying Nina isn’t particularly bad.”

Ha.

I let out a laugh of disbelief. It gave me chills to realize he knew what I was looking for and why. That meant he had been watching me from closer than I thought.

Did he know about Lars too? How much? Shouldn’t that be kept secret? It seemed Lars was hiding his identity to avoid being discovered by people like this.

“You know a lot. Maybe even more than I do.”

“Servants are always desperate to badmouth their masters but can’t. Especially when drunk or in bed.”

The man bowed forward as if he had received excessive praise. I stared at him with sharp eyes and spoke,

“Nina killed someone to hide it. If that’s not bad by your standards, I wonder what would be.”

A slight smile appeared at the corners of the man’s mouth. He blinked innocently and said,

“I killed someone to protect you, Miss. Well, he’s still alive for now. The fact that I killed someone remains the same, but does the reason change the crime? Then killing people for a more noble purpose wouldn’t be a bad thing.”

His argument was similar to the thesis in Partione’s “Origin of Sin” that I had recently studied. I took a deep breath. The air in the warehouse had already been significantly diluted.

“One thing I know is that I wouldn’t want to live in a world seen through eyes like yours.”

The man hesitated at my quietly spoken words. His pitch-black eyes seemed to waver. I waved my extended hand again.

“Are you going to give it to me or not?”

The man’s expression, which had seemed somewhat rigid, soon relaxed. Wrinkling his nose bridge, he grinned and placed the ledger in my hand.

“Of course. I’m just a worthless man who has come to admire you, Miss.”

Admire, indeed. Barely suppressing the urge to shudder, I rolled up the ledger and tucked it inside my clothes. My wrists and ankles, which had been tied for a long time, were numb and painful, but I moved calmly. I wanted to get outside.

As I staggered out of the warehouse, my chest finally felt open. The dark night sky was filled with stars that looked ready to pour down.