‘So I’m the one harming her….’

The servant said the opposite—that he was the impurity. Standing at this collision point, Dominic’s gaze lowered. He didn’t believe Johan’s words at face value. He was still skeptical. However, if what he said was true….

Was it right to leave her behind? And if he left the mansion now, could he avoid the unpleasant discomfort… another kind of guilt?

Dominic easily confirmed his answer to that. If he turned around and left now, that memory would keep resurfacing for an indefinite period of time.

And knowing that, leaving May’s side would be a foolish act.

After maintaining silence for a moment, Dominic spoke quietly,

“I tend to collect as much evidence as I can without omission.”

“And?”

Looking at Johan who squinted his eyes defiantly, Dominic added with a cold face,

“You’re saying you’ll continue to show me evidence to make me believe that absurd story, so I have no reason to leave.”

“…Why bother?”

“Coming here in the first place was already ‘bothering’ for me. I won’t interfere with you for now. So don’t interfere with me either. Of course, I intend to step in if I find something strange.”

The two men’s gazes clashed strongly. After a brief silence, Johan was the first to speak,

“Is it my imagination? Your words sound a bit strange….”

“Strange? The help you can provide… I don’t think there’s anything I can’t provide myself.”

“……”

“Distinguishing between fake and real… you don’t need to worry about that. Just as you told me the truth, let me tell you one truth as well.”

I know May better than you might think. Perhaps even things she doesn’t know about herself.

* * *

“Ah, let me ask one more thing. Does May know everything you’ve told me? She doesn’t seem scared enough given the situation.”

Dominic asked as if flaunting the fact that he knew May well.

He seemed to have judged that a timid and fragile woman couldn’t be fine knowing something was inside her body.

“…No. Making the lady aware of its existence would be dangerous for her.”

“So that’s the ‘risk’ you mentioned earlier. I understand. I’ll pretend not to know as much as possible.”

With that, Dominic moved as if he had finished assessing the situation and said all he needed to say. Johan irritably thought while looking at the back of the man’s black head,

‘…So I’ve just added an unnecessary complication.’

Moreover, from what May said, Aiden hadn’t completely left either. So before the situation became more complex, he needed to quickly find the thought-form’s original vessel.

It would be good if he could ask May directly…. But he couldn’t ask hasty questions in front of the thought-form that wasn’t hiding its presence.

Recalling the woman who had been feeding boiled corn kernels to birds in the garden, Johan finally began to walk with a sigh.

The only plausible clue he currently had was that May had discovered the compass in the ‘storage room.’ Given that her body became strange after touching the compass, the thought-form’s original vessel was likely near the compass. And there were two places in the mansion where junk was gathered.

If it was an object that contained the thought-form, it would give off a slight sense of dissonance. Moreover, seeing that the thought-form had escaped, it was highly likely that the object was broken or cracked.

Johan opened the door to the first storage room while narrowing down the range of objects he needed to find in his mind.

* * *

At the same time, Aiden was mulling over the news Derrick had brought.

“My bird brought me an interesting piece of news, Aiden.”

Your maid, with her innocent face, seems to be living a more interesting life than expected? You might have reason to be jealous. While you were away, the number of people staying at that mansion increased to two.

Including the maid, that makes three. Since they’re not people directly imprinted on the magic bird, I can’t tell you their exact appearances, but the two take up quite a bit of space…. Derrick said with a smiling eye.

“I told you to take her as a concubine, but have you become the concubine instead? Impressive.”

‘What nonsense….’

There’s no way May would fool around with multiple men. She was a woman who had never even had a proper meeting with a man in the first place.

Though he knew this, anxiety and irritation rose within him. He had clearly warned her not to let others into the mansion. Where did that foolish girl pick up something strange again?

No, come to think of it, such things tended to cling to May even when she did nothing. As if she had some magnetic force attracting idiots. And the things that circled around May approached her quite boldly if not constantly watched.

‘Like that cult bastard.’

That’s why he had no choice but to drive them away himself.

“…D*mn it.”

One of the two was certainly that pagan priest. Aiden was easily convinced.

He felt like rushing to that mansion right away. But Duke Hale had shown quite a stern attitude toward his youngest son who had ignored his disciplinary confinement and even ran away, warning him to see what would happen if he did such a thing again.

“Aiden, you’re not unaware that despite being born lacking, you’ve taken more than your brothers? As a member of the Hale family, you must contribute your fair share for what you enjoy. In other words, you owe more to the family than anyone else.”

After saying this, Duke Hale gestured to the aide standing beside him, and the stern-faced man presented a thinly bound stack of documents.

“These are the personal details of the young ladies you should pay attention to at the banquet. Creating formal matchmaking opportunities would lead to unnecessary speculation and useless articles, so I’ve arranged for you to greet them as naturally and un-vulgarly as possible. …Have that taken to Aiden’s room.”

The aide bowed at the additional instruction and left the room first.

When the door closed and only the two of them remained in the space, Duke Hale held his head as if it were a headache.

“Why are you becoming more troublesome by the day?”

Of course, Aiden stubbornly kept his mouth shut. Seeing this, the duke sighed and said irritably,

“I intend to give you the right to choose. However, if you act as you please like before, I’ll have no choice but to step in…. The young ladies have good conditions. Your mother personally selected those with docile and not too aggressive personalities, and since they’ve all cultivated refinement at the academy, they should be wise.”

“……”

“Aiden, I’d like to stop making unnecessary admonitions at this point. I sincerely hope you’ll at least take care of yourself now.”

Recalling those words mixed with a sigh that suggested he wasn’t asking for much, Aiden thought irritably,

‘I’m not asking for much either.’

All he wanted was to receive his maid’s clumsy service without noise or interference. Recalling how her small hands had tidied his bangs not long ago, the pomade-fixed hair began to feel stifling. There’s no way he could feel the weight of mere hair oil….

That stuffiness soon became heavy enough to weigh down his mind. When it finally led to a headache, his already low mood hit rock bottom. Aiden raised his sensitive gaze to look out the window.

Instead of the vast sea he had seen until recently, the perfectly landscaped garden was deeply imprinted in his blue eyes. It was a place where the ducal household’s gardeners meticulously managed even a single leaf every day.

Visitors to the Hale family praised that garden as beautiful, but to Aiden, it was just a place that felt suffocating. In fact, everything in this mansion, where not a single thing could be less than perfect, increased his fatigue.

However, instead of turning his gaze away, Aiden stood up and moved closer to the window. He soon recalled the moment he first met the small maid in that place that always seemed suffocatingly perfect.

The unpleasant taste of the mulberry juice she had poured into his mouth on her own. Her stupidly smiling face. The irritating voice that tickled his ears. Her impertinent concerns and laughable advice….

He chewed over and over on all of those things until the irritation enveloping his entire body subsided.

‘…How should I pull you back to my side again.’

The unconscious thought was quite gloomy. His blue eyes were brimming with a sticky possessiveness that even he didn’t notice.

When he first decided to possess May, Aiden had appointed himself as her creditor. He had used the debt left by the maid’s dead parents.

He had paid off her debt, but instead of canceling it, he had written his own name as the creditor. Because of this, he thought he had quite firmly mortgaged her insignificant life….

But debt wasn’t as strong a leash as he had thought.