I woke up early in the morning and Seth wasn’t there. On the days he’s not at the palace, he’s usually right next to me, poking me in the cheek until I wake up.

Well, he didn’t come in until after I went to bed last night in the first place.

I quietly went out of the room, and I could hear murmuring sounds for some reason.

Wow! There are people!

I tiptoed downstairs, feeling as if I had been stranded on a deserted island for about 18 years.

“Did you see her?”

“What, what, what, what was it?”

I couldn’t see their faces clearly, but judging by their voices, they seemed to be girls younger than me or around my age.

“I haven’t seen her before.”

“M-Mimi, have you seen her? The one from the guesthouse!”

“Yeah, quite a few times.”

An anxious voice and a subdued voice were having a conversation.

“I-I-I want to quit right now.”

“When you entered here, didn’t you take an oath that you can never quit?”

“But!”

“They said your mother has difficulty moving at home. Think about the salary. It’s three times more than elsewhere.”

A sobbing sound punctuated their conversation.

“And what you saw earlier, you must never speak about it. Otherwise, you’ll end up in the same state as that person from earlier.”

Listening to them, it seemed something had happened at the guesthouse near the forest where I often went. And for some reason, Seth isn’t with me.

Yeah, this is definitely not a good situation, so I shouldn’t go, right?

My internal warning bells are going “eep eep eep eep!”

“Damn it.”

My ominous premonition had never been wrong, but I quickly put on my shawl and headed towards the guesthouse anyway. My curiosity about what was happening outweighed my fear.

“Yeah, curiosity gets the best of you.”

Could it be that something worse has happened than the dark chancellor knowing my true identity?

Since I came to this mansion, it’s the first time I’ve seen so many people.

Near the entrance of the main building where I live, I saw a man bringing food, an elderly man who appeared to be a butler, and maids.

As soon as they saw me, they lowered their heads pretending not to see me, and I also refrained from speaking to them.

As I headed towards the guesthouse, I could spot the person I was looking for.

Seth, wearing a comfortable-looking white shirt, black pants, and boots of the same color as the pants, was undeniably a handsome man who looked more appealing to others.

Except for the fact that he was holding an axe, which didn’t suit him at all.

“Seth?”

“Master.”

Seth, upon seeing me, smiled broadly, and in an instant, I felt that something was wrong.

The red alert that had been quiet for a few days was now blaring, “Eeeng, Eeeng! Emergency, emergency!“

It’s very dire that the alarm is going off so often today.

“Oooh, good morning. Take care, I’m off!”

I quickly turned around to go back to the building, but Seth grabbed hold of me, and I spun around.

“Aren’t you wondering what I was doing here? Hmm?”

“Not curious,” I answered quickly.

“Really?”

Seth smirked. It was a smile that said, ‘There’s only one right answer, so give it.’

“I’m actually curious.”

“Because there was a servant who dared not listen to me, I gave him a punishment.”

Liquid dripped from the axe he was holding, as if it hadn’t dried yet. It even splattered on the floor.

And it was none other than fresh, red blood.

“I am someone who never lets go of what’s mine.”

His beautiful smile, like a blooming rose, didn’t match the blood staining his cheeks.

The servant lying before Seth as if asleep was none other than the gardener. He said that the gardener had made him do this because he didn’t listen to what he said. Killed him – just like that. 

Who could have snitched on the gardener’s work? The butler? The maids? There are many possibilities.

But for now, the more important thing is that such a situation has occurred.

What’s happening right now…

Is Seth’s warning to me. To listen to him. Don’t go against his will.

Because that’s the kind of person Seth Milan is.

“Ho, ho, ho. Is that so?”

I nodded my head as if I hadn’t noticed anything.

Perhaps I tried to reassure myself that it could be just a way to relieve stress. But I couldn’t erase the feeling that Seth was threatening me.

“Ho-ho, ho-ho-ho, then I’ll go in.”

It was a situation so stressful that fainting right now wouldn’t be strange at all. I turned around with a creaking sound, but Seth ‘s words caught hold of my ankle.

“You thought you’d done a good job of rearranging your clothes.”

I felt my expression crumbling at his sudden remark.

“Your clothes were surprisingly clean. But the shoes I gave you were made of an unusual material.”

“…….”

“If you apply a special potion on the surface, even invisible scratches become visible to the n*ked eye.”

I’ve been rummaging through the grassy fields and forests day after day. I even tried chopping down trees.

“It seems like you’ve enjoyed quite rough walks?”

“Hoho. Hohohoho. I’m naturally a bit of an active person!”

“Hmm, that’s true, but when you were living in the general store, you never came out of the store. You lived in a room in the store, didn’t you?”

He was indeed monitoring me, this guy.

Seth, who didn’t consider such things as crimes, didn’t blink an eye.

“The knot in your clothes the other day… He tied it for you, didn’t he?”

Seth, pointing to the bright young man who could no longer speak, had a twisted smile on his face.

“That’s the way he ties the knots.”

I thought it was a bit peculiar, but who can usually tell who made something just by looking at it?!

“How dare he approach my master? How audacious can he be?”

Seth seemed genuinely angry, so I couldn’t open my mouth recklessly.

“How dare you speak to my master?” He hissed at the corpse on the ground.

Rather than because he disobeyed orders, did Seth kill the gardener because he spoke to me?

“Tell me, my master. Ah, didn’t my master say something like that yesterday? ‘I am yours, but you are not mine’?”

…Am I mistaken about something?

There have been quite a few times now that I’ve offended Seth.

Talking back, hitting him in the jaw, saying no.

The reason why my neck is still attached is undoubtedly because he judged that I have “value” to exploit, so I’ve been trying to comply with him here.

Because I have to stay alive.

He’s only lenient with the female lead, after all.

“Yes, that’s right. Since you’re my master, I should endure whatever you say.”

But no. The fact that I took for granted is shaken. It’s like a few blocks have been removed from the neatly stacked tower.

“Answer me, my master. What do you think? Did you perhaps like that arrogant gardener?”

I couldn’t be overshadowed by Seth here. I took a deep breath.

“You’re the audacious one, Seth.”

“Hmm?”

“Who dares to mess with what belongs to the master?”

“Hmm?”

Even Seth ‘s tilting head felt like a threat, but he purposely crossed his arms and scowled.

“You’re the one who said that this mansion and everything here belong to me.”

Seth pretends to be a normal person and keeps his word unless absolutely necessary. Especially when he wants to extract something from the other person.

So, all I have to do is play along here.

“But why did you make me unable to move without your permission?”

I straightened my back and pretended to be confident.

“You’re audacious, Seth Milan.”

My opponent was strong, so I played tough. Of course, I was preparing to switch to a submissive attitude if Seth came out too aggressively.

Even then, I wouldn’t admit that I belonged to him until the end.

“Hahaha, hahahaha!”

A loud laughter burst out from the man’s mouth, and it was so unexpected that it felt incredibly unnatural in this situation.

“Ah, Master.”

After laughing for a long time, Seth wiped his eyes. It was so out of character with the drops of blood on his cheeks.

“As expected, no matter how many times I think about it, I must have the master.”

…A madman is doing crazy things in front of me and laughing maniacally.

This is a death flag, right? It is, right?

***