Johan had received the compass from May early in the morning. He had already restrained the struggling, rebellious object with thinly drawn magical threads.

Nevertheless, his eyebrow rose crookedly at the golden light bursts that kept popping like protests, refusing to give up.

“…Does even a guardian spirit have preferences?”

At Johan’s incredulous question, the compass spun its needle around. It was impossible to tell whether this was affirmation or denial, but Johan arbitrarily took it as confirmation.

After all, the compass clearly showed strong affection only toward Dominic among those around May. Despite the stoic lawyer still not having completely shed his doubts about May’s condition, still muttering about evidence and such.

It seemed not to mind his attitude of ignoring it when it hovered nearby. There were even times when it seemed to be trying to bring May and Dominic closer together.

‘Like some kind of matchmaker.’

“It, it looks like a bracelet….”

“It’s more like handcuffs.”

“…What are you two doing?”

“Ah, the compass is playing tricks….”

When they saw it using its thread to tightly bind their wrists together, they were even dumbfounded.

“Why don’t you behave? The lawyer is going to leave soon anyway.”

In response to Johan’s words, a burst of light popped out as if snorting.

“Ha….”

Though slightly annoyed, Johan soon contained his emotion and restrained the compass more strongly.

Although he knew it wasn’t an evil thought-form, that hadn’t greatly changed his perception. In other words, he had only changed its good or evil attribute, but his thought that it was a supernatural being rather than human remained unchanged.

His grandfather and father had excessively revered this as an object of the divine, but….

‘Honestly, that’s ridiculous.’

At best, it’s just a superior version of a sacred object.

Resting his chin on his hand, Johan carefully observed the compass. The reason he had taken it from May was none other than this. Following his father’s advice, he wanted to check if he could more effectively perform the purification that needed to be done on May—that is, diluting the malignancy permeating her body.

Owners who keep thought-forms nearby naturally become tainted by their malignancy, and such phenomena do not immediately disappear even if the thought-form itself is eliminated. Their negative energy remains in the body for a while, like the lingering scent of perfume.

Usually, the purification to erase this lingering effect comes after eliminating the thought-form. Because without removing the source that continues to overlay the scent, erasing the lingering effect would be meaningless.

But Haviér had said that in May’s case, since the thought-form had settled inside her body, it would be better to consistently work on diluting the malignancy even if it hadn’t disappeared.

Even if such work was like pouring water into a broken glass.

“It’s a rare good energy.”

Having overheard the conversation between his grandfather and father, Johan intended to use this compass as a sacred object to enhance the quality of the purification. After all, prayers infused with holy power exert greater strength when performed with mediums such as sacred objects or holy water.

After returning to the mansion, he had been observing without performing purification, concerned about stimulating the thought-form whose energy had grown….

But seeing the compass that sprayed its energy on May day and night, it seemed appropriate to begin taking action in earnest now.

It was evident that the purple thought-form couldn’t assert itself thanks to the compass. Perhaps because of this, May was becoming increasingly free from experiencing unnecessary heat.

‘The situation isn’t as bad as I told the lawyer.’

To the extent that they didn’t necessarily need to join bodies.

On the first day, its influence seemed to have grown quite fierce, but the compass appeared to be suppressing it quite strongly. It also seemed to help that all the mirrors had been removed early.

‘So it’s better to make it unable to exert its energy at all before it runs wild.’

If he utilized the compass’s energy, the purification would apply not simply as dilution of the malignancy but as a greater pressure.

Having completed his thoughts, Johan withdrew the magical threads and closed his eyes while holding the struggling compass in his hand.

Soon, a humming vibration began to resonate with the prayer he was whispering.

‘It seemed to be resisting, but it still helps with this.’

After all, is it because it’s May’s guardian spirit? The corner of Johan’s mouth formed a faint curve. It would be better if they found the thought-form’s original vessel, but… this method wasn’t bad either.

Johan recited the prayer quite diligently. However, his quiet voice faded with a strange energy that was suddenly felt.

“……”

His golden eyes, which sank instantly, turned toward the second floor.

* * *

The caresses that had continued like torture seemed to have exhausted her body. May fell into sleep as if losing consciousness simultaneously with Dominic’s ej*culation.

The man cleaned her body thoroughly and then put his shirt on her. He intended to take her to her room and lay her down, as she wouldn’t be able to get up for a while.

And what greeted him when he opened the door was Johan holding the compass.

“…This feels much dirtier than I expected.”

“……”

“You tell me to restrain my personal desires, and yet….”

His eyes briefly flicked to May’s legs exposed beneath the shirt. The white skin was covered with marks left by Dominic.

They were all left from the act that continued after May had cried. Certainly, it couldn’t be considered restrained.

But Dominic didn’t feel anything particular seeing him. He was already aware that he hadn’t exercised restraint. The strange thing was that when it threatened using her body, he had said he would follow its will as little as possible, but….

Johan was right. After all, despite everything, it was May whom he was embracing.

Dominic slowly opened his mouth, recalling the black eyes wet with tears.

“I plan to exercise restraint from now on.”

It was a brazen response, as if saying he could do it but Johan couldn’t. Johan burst into laughter at this audacity. Then, clenching his teeth until his jawbone protruded, he spoke in a grinding tone.

“First put the lady down, then come to the first floor.”

Dominic nodded indifferently at that voice, which sounded like a challenge to a duel.

* * *

Johan frowned as he watched the man who finally appeared on the stairs. And before he could even finish coming down, Johan asked in a sarcastic tone.

“How have you managed to hold back until now?”

“…Well, to be accurate, I haven’t really had to hold back or not until now.”

“F*ck, your wordplay is….”

“This is also for her sake, yet you’re excessively angry.”

“It would be strange not to be angry when the woman I like sleeps with another man.”

Dominic’s eyebrows twitched at the emotion conveyed without any concealment. Johan looked at him more irritably and said.

“…Just explain what the situation was.”

His attitude suggested that while he was angry, he would endure it to some extent since it was an unavoidable situation. To this, Dominic, who had been silent for a moment, answered in a calm tone.

“As you said, it threatened me.”

“……”

“It acted as if it would stab its own neck with a paper knife.”

“Damn it….”

“Even when her cognitive abilities somewhat returned and she spoke to me normally, her hand remained the same. As if she would stab immediately if I didn’t give her what she wanted.”

A shadow instantly fell across Johan’s face.

Was it a mistake to leave her alone, trusting the compass? No, perhaps the problem was thinking she was getting better in the first place.

And suddenly struck by a thought, Johan hurried to the second floor and cursed when he saw, as expected, the door of the end room standing open.

‘…It was careless to think it was an unused room.’

It seems he shouldn’t have been reassured by merely locking it with a key.

“But it was different from before.”

Johan was repeatedly rubbing his face in frustration at his own mistake when he swallowed a heavy sigh at Dominic’s voice, who had belatedly followed him.

“What do you mean by that?”

“May had been making such demands to me continuously even before you returned.”

“And?”

“Back then, she simply wanted the act.”

As if she didn’t care what happened to her body. As if she just wanted him to thrust his c*ck in recklessly.

“But today….”

She wanted affectionate touches. She even cried when he was rough without showing care.

Johan deeply furrowed his brow at the statement that her feelings had eventually stopped the act. It was more painful than he expected to hear detailed accounts of May’s intimate acts with another man.

‘…F*ck.’