The water I drank before bed was definitely the problem. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have woken up in the dead of night when everyone was fast asleep.

“I should have gone easier on the water…”

Normally I would have gone to the bathroom without a care, but the Herlin household where I worked had one strange rumor.

“In Herlin Manor, no matter what happens, you must never walk the hallways at night.”

At first I thought it was just a joke, but that wasn’t the case. I had already witnessed it several times myself.

For example, someone who used to share my room had once bolted upright from a sound sleep. Then, like she had been enchanted, she tried to leave the room with dazed eyes.

Something felt wrong, so I tried shaking her body to snap her out of it, slapping her cheeks, and blocking her from leaving. But she pushed me away with monstrous strength and left the room anyway.

And she never came back. She disappeared, leaving all her belongings behind.

Because of this, some people pointed fingers at the Herlin manor, calling it a cursed mansion, while others whispered together that the master of the manor had become a specter and was devouring people.

Most who heard the rumors wouldn’t even come near Herlin Manor, deep in the mountains. Only people like me who were desperate for money or had nowhere else to go ended up gathering at the Herlin household. Because there was nowhere else that paid so generously for simple labor.

I too had many family members to feed, so for over six months I had worked at the Herlin household and never once wandered the corridors at night.

But today, I was on the verge of breaking that rule.

“This is all because head chef Ralph gave us spicy and salty food. If not for that, I wouldn’t have had any reason to drink so much water.”

Even when I tried to close my eyes and go back to sleep, my mind only became more alert. I tried to hold it in somehow, but even that wasn’t easy.

Instead, the urge grew stronger, like I might have an accident any moment. Should I give up human dignity and relieve myself in the blankets? Or should I risk danger and go to the bathroom? 

I agonized over this for a long time. Finally, I had no choice but to throw off the covers and get up.

“Rebecca is already giving me death glares, saying I’m flirting with Charles… If I make this kind of mistake, she might try to get me kicked out immediately.”

I rationalized in my head that I would be different from the others, trying to calm my anxiety.

‘But I’m not under a spell like those people were, right? I just urgently need the bathroom, so if I go really quickly, it should be fine.’

When the blanket that had wrapped my whole body disappeared, my body began to shiver. I couldn’t tell if it was simply because the weather had gotten cold or if I felt that way more because I urgently needed the bathroom.

I threw on an outer garment and crept out carefully so as not to wake the people in the room. I closed the door tightly and hurried toward the bathroom.

Unlike the bright daytime, the mansion’s landscape under the fallen darkness and silence felt unfamiliar. It seemed like scary things of unknown identity might jump out from the dark places beyond my sight.

For a moment I thought about going back to get the lamp I’d left in the room, but I figured it wouldn’t be good for others to see me wandering the corridors at night. 

So I relied on the reddish moonlight streaming through the windows as I went to and from the bathroom, when I heard voices from somewhere.

It sounded like someone talking, but also like sharp screams. Puzzled, I stopped walking and focused on the sound.

‘Huh…? That sounds like Rebecca’s voice. What is she doing at this hour?’

The sound came from a room not far from here. As I moved a little closer, the faint sound became clearer.

“Haah… Ha… Hngh…”

It was too strange to dismiss as simple whispering. The voice seemed to carry a sticky, thick heat.

I crept toward the small gap in the door where dim light was leaking out. Then I carefully peered into the room. There was Rebecca, completely n*ked, with her face buried between a man’s legs.

Looking more closely, I could see the red flesh she was holding in her mouth. Even more surprising was the man’s unfamiliar face.

‘That man isn’t Charles…!’

Rebecca and Charles were the official couple of our mansion. When Rebecca first saw Charles, she fell for him at first sight and confessed, but Charles rejected her, saying he liked me. But eventually, Charles’s heart was swayed by Rebecca’s persistent courtship, and they developed into lovers.

She used to brag endlessly about how in two months they would take their saved money, settle in another village, and live together. Yet here was that same Rebecca doing such things with another man – I couldn’t help but be shocked.

‘What… is this….’

Even while I was thinking this, Rebecca moved her lips and tongue greedily, like tasting sweet candy. She would wrap the flesh with her tongue intermittently, making slurping sounds, then repeatedly take it fully into her mouth and pull it out.

When the man’s member slipped out of her mouth, thin saliva stretched between them. Whether her body was getting more heated by this sight, Rebecca rubbed between her legs and trembled. Her snow-white, voluptuous br*asts rippled like waves.

“Ahh… Hngh… Master, please… do something…”

Her face, ecstatic beyond measure, cried out in pleading. But the man’s golden eyes looking down at Rebecca’s state were indifferent to the point of being cold. His expression contained not a speck of emotion, like looking at a stone on the roadside.

Leaving Rebecca burning with desire, the man blinked very slowly once. His lips below his sculpted nose moved arrogantly.

“Pathetic. You can’t even think straight, like a beast in heat.”

Despite his tone suggesting pity, a twisted smile sat at the man’s lips. He watched Rebecca’s pleading appearance quietly, then roughly rubbed her private parts with the tip of his shoe, mocking her. Even at that small gesture, Rebecca let out a soul-shattering moan and swayed her body.

“Aah, mmnh…!”

“If you want my c*ck, you need to move my heart. Not with shallow pity.”

At his words, Rebecca moved her lips even more violently. But seemingly unsatisfied with that, the man grabbed the back of Rebecca’s head and shoved his member into her mouth.

“Ugh…!”

Rebecca gagged, but the man didn’t care. Rather, he looked down at her with a deeply furrowed brow, seemingly annoyed.

“I’m starting to get bored with this act.”

I watched them with held breath when the man suddenly turned his head toward the gap in the door. He looked barely of age – quite a youthful face.

The golden eyes that met mine rippled like waves. His flowing silver hair, the prominent nose that cast beautiful shadows, and his lips stained red like blood were like a work of art.

No, even a work of art couldn’t be this beautiful. I stared at the man like I was under a spell. I couldn’t dare look away. Even though I was seeing him with my own eyes, I felt regret that this moment was passing. I wanted to fill everywhere my eyes could reach with this man.

When I was caught in abnormal desire, like I had become someone else, I heard Rebecca’s rough breathing.

“Mmph… ngh!”

Fortunately, that sound awakened me. My head felt stuffy like it was full of water, then I was suddenly thrown back to reality. My stomach churned terribly. It was hard to come to my senses. 

I couldn’t breathe well, like I had sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

At my appearance, the man raised one corner of his mouth. But his gaze remained cold like bitter winter. An unknown eeriness filled my head with the instinctive thought that I had to run away. I quickly moved my trembling legs somewhere.

I ran and ran like that, and at some point my consciousness became distant.

***

“Eliat, wake up! The morning sun has already risen!”

“Mmm…”

“You usually wake up so early, but why are you oversleeping today? If you keep this up, Ralph will scold you.”

At Emily’s ear-piercing voice, I lifted my heavy eyelids. Then I saw her with her eyes narrowed in annoyance.

“Emily…?”

“Yes, you sleepyhead. You wouldn’t wake up no matter how much I tried, so I was worried you’d get in trouble and even did the breakfast duty for you. Got it?”

Emily’s freckled nose twitched – she was quite angry.

“Where… is this?”

“Don’t tell me you’re still in dreamland? This is obviously our dormitory.”

“What? Why am I here?”

The last point where my memory was cut off was definitely somewhere in a corridor lit by a red moonlight. But looking around, this was definitely the dormitory where I stayed. The pillow I was using, the blanket covering me, and even Emily’s bed next to mine – everything was the same.

‘What happened? Was last night just a dream?’

Everything was too vivid to dismiss as just a dream. Rebecca’s sticky moans, the breathtakingly beautiful man’s appearance, and the chilling sensation that ran through my whole body when our eyes briefly met.

I hesitated several times before finally parting my lips.

“Have you… seen Rebecca today?”

“…Why are you asking about Rebecca all of a sudden?”