Felix’s words sent a chill down my spine.

Although there was no way I could be the Princess of Nuremberg, perhaps because I resembled her, it sounded as if he was saying he would kill me like that.

“You don’t mean you want to kill me like that, do you?”

“Why would I do that to my own?”

He said that with a laugh in his breath. I couldn’t tell if it was actually a laugh or a sigh.

“Head.”

“I’m stroking it gently. It’s just ticklish.”

His hair kept tickling my chest, making my body curl up repeatedly.

Felix seemed unbothered, as if he still thought of me as Reniel even though I appeared female.

“By the way, what is that curse?”

“I can’t sleep. So I have to take medicine.”

“Oh my. Is it a curse of sleeplessness?”

“Yes.”

He answered in a languid voice as he moved his ear that had been pressed against my heart.

I was usually sensitive to tickling, but now I felt several times more sensitive than usual. It felt strange as I felt his earlobe sliding across my skin.

I tried to gently pull away, but his arm around my waist tightened, preventing me from doing so.

It felt odd to feel the shape of his earlobe pressed against my skin.

Though I had never seen or touched the shape of an earlobe before, it felt ticklish as if I were tracing its shape with my fingertips while blindfolded.

“Why did you get that curse?”

When I asked that without thinking, he let out a sigh.

Felix’s body temperature was so high that it felt like I was embracing a stove.

It was early summer, but the nights were still cool. However, in his arms, I wasn’t cold at all, but rather hot.

“Do you think I’ll tell you?”

“Yes.”

I didn’t really think he would tell me, but I answered like that thinking it would make both of us feel better.

But he seemed to like that answer, as this time he laughed as if it was truly amusing.

“It’s the price for gaining power.”

“Power…? So you got insomnia in exchange for power?”

“Yes.”

“What does that power have to do with the Princess of Nuremberg?”

“The princess’s energy calms the magical power in my body.”

“I don’t understand what that means.”

“Those who have absorbed magic stones need purifiers. I’m the same. And to break that curse, I have to kill a purifier and absorb their ability.”

I didn’t understand what he meant, but I had seen him occasionally drink stabilizers to purify his magic before.

“So is the princess like a magic stabilizer?”

“You could see it that way.”

Soon after, he lifted his head again and moved it.

“Won’t you please stay still? My chest hurts from the pressure.”

At those words, he lifted his head. Then he moved his head, burying it between my breasts.

Thanks to that, there was less pressure on my chest, but the ticklishness doubled.

“Why are you trembling? Didn’t I make it not scary for you?”

“…When did you ever make it not scary?”

“Didn’t I answer all your questions?”

I couldn’t help but laugh softly at how ridiculous his words were.

“For that, you’re too big, Master.”

“…I see.”

“And you’re too heavy.”

“I see.”

“And your eyes…”

His gaze turned to me. His bright red eyes, nestled between my breasts, seemed to have lost their usual sharpness, so…

“They’re beautiful.”

I found myself saying that without thinking.

Perhaps I felt sympathy because he had readily told me about his weakness of being unable to sleep.

But a deer that feels sympathy for a lion will end up as nothing but prey.

“How impudent.”

He said that, but closed his eyes as if satisfied. Soon after, the arm tightly holding my waist loosened a bit.

Felix seemed to be truly falling asleep, breathing evenly. I stroked his hair more gently.

He stayed like that, as if truly enjoying the touch.

I was paying attention to any signs from outside, ready to put on the ring that was hanging around my neck at any moment.

It was really strange.

Most of my upper body was exposed to the cold night air, but perhaps because Felix’s body temperature was so hot, I felt hot rather than cold.

With every breath, I could feel his weight, which was uncomfortable, and yet…

“Reniel.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Stay here until morning.”

“…Yes.”

His sleepy voice seemed to infect me as well, and I started to feel more and more relaxed.

Like that, after a long time passed, his breathing changed as if he had fallen completely asleep. But I couldn’t let him wake up like last time, so…

Until I heard the bell signaling 5 o’clock in the distance.

I had to repeat falling asleep and waking up.

When it became 5 o’clock, I was able to slowly push him away.

I gently adjusted my clothes, put on the ring, and then left his room to tidy up the hallway.

****

“I’ve been seeing you often lately.”

It was when I was in the middle of cleaning the hallway.

Felix’s bedroom door was broken, so it was just propped up, and I couldn’t tell if the sound was completely blocked, so Ianathas’s energetic voice was very distracting.

“Shh.”

Without thinking, I gestured for him to be quiet like that with my index finger.

Ianathas imitated me, putting his index finger to his lips and smiling.

“Why are you doing that? The master would have taken his medicine anyway.”

Even so, Ianathas’s voice had become very quiet.

“Still. He seems to have fallen asleep, so we should be quiet.”

“But there’s no way he could have fallen asleep. He must just be lying still.”

Ianathas moved as if he didn’t believe my words. Most of the hallway was almost done being tidied up.

The problem was the Duke’s bedroom.

Just as I was about to mention the problem with the bedroom door, Ianathas spoke first as he opened the door.

“The lord has broken the door, I see?”

He said energetically as he opened the door.

And then he froze like a surprised person.

Just in case, I also approached Ianathas, and there was Felix, sleeping exactly as I had left him.

He was asleep with the sheet pulled up to his neck, and only the sound of his heavy breathing echoed in the silence.

“Impossible.”

Ianathas said that like a shocked person and turned to look at me.

“How did you do it?”

I gestured for him to be quiet again, and he closed the bedroom door again without making a sound, propping it up as before.

As if it had been closed like that from the beginning.

After temporarily closing the door like that, Ianathas turned and said,

“How did you do it?”

“I just… helped him fall asleep by his side.”

“But how?”

“I just… with my hand a little…”

“Did the master raise his hand?”

Then his gaze moved to my cheeks, neck, and limbs.

“Are you asking if I was hit?”

“Yes.”

“That’s impossible.”

At that, his expression twisted subtly before returning to a fox-like smile.

His brown hair seemed much darker than usual today.

“I see. For you, that’s impossible. I understand for now.”

He smiled again with a strange expression and said,

“Tell me specifically how you made him fall asleep.”

“In exchange, please help me get a new door.”

“If it’s that door, there should be a spare in the annex. He breaks it so often.”

“He breaks it often? Why is this my first time seeing it…”

When I said that in surprise without thinking, Ianathas laughed.

“I’ll bring the door. You do the rest of the work, Head Butler. In exchange, I’ll ask again later how you made the lord fall asleep.”

“Ah, yes! Thank you!”

I couldn’t help but smile brightly at those words.

I had been a bit despairing when I thought about how heavy the door might be and that I might have to carry it myself.

“Then I’ll see you later.”

“Yes!”

With that, Ianathas headed to the annex, and I had to repair the other parts of the third floor in advance and make it as if nothing had happened yesterday.

****

Ding-a-ling!

“Oh my.”

Just as I was resting in the night duty room for a moment, the bell rang loudly. It was telling me to come down to the Duke’s bedroom quickly.

Ding-a-ling ding-a-ling ding-a-ling ding-a-ling ding-a-ling ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling! Ding! A! Ling!

“Why is he like this today?”

The sound of the bell ringing was so noisy and incessant that I wondered why he was doing this. He usually only rang it twice and then stopped.

Ding-a-ling ding-a-ling ding-a-ling ding-a-ling!

“It’s like a wake-up call…”

My head was throbbing, so I shook it to try to relieve the headache.

I pushed the memories of my past life that were trying to surface to one corner of my mind and went back downstairs.

When I went to the bedroom, the door had really been replaced with a new one!

“Good morning, Master!”

I couldn’t help but smile brightly as I entered, relieved that the door had been changed.

Then I saw Felix, still holding the bell pull. He frowned at the sight of me and said,

“Why are you so late?”

“Pardon? It only took me 1 minute to get here from there…”

I had run here from the night duty room according to my training, so the time was accurate.

“Did I fall asleep yesterday?”

However, he ignored my words and went straight to the point.

“Yes, of course.”

He opened the cigar cutter as if he couldn’t believe it, cutting off the corner of a cigar.

Then he put the cigar in his mouth and naturally turned the wheel of the lighter and lit it.

And he frowned deeply and glared at me.

“Tell me the truth. How did you put me to sleep?”

Along with his voice, smoke wafted towards me. Perhaps because I had let my guard down and breathed in, I couldn’t help but try to hold back a cough.

“Cough, cough!”

“Is it painful?”

“I’m sorry. The smell of the cigar is unfamiliar to me.”

I quickly made that excuse.

He looked at me with a strange expression.

His gaze seemed to be scanning my hair, and despite it being short now since I was in male form, his gaze flowed as if measuring long hair falling over my chest.

He then extinguished the cigar he had been smoking by rubbing it against the newly changed crystal glass and said,

“Then quit.”