The job of head maid might seem like a comfortable position where you just need to manage maids with one hand, but it had its own set of difficulties.

It was an extremely tiring position where you had to pay attention to those above while also soothing those below.

The head maid laid down on her bed today, lavishing praise and encouragement on herself for another hard day’s work. And as usual, she should have fallen asleep right away… but somehow she felt an uncomfortable gaze.

There was no way anyone could be looking at her in her private room, but beyond her closed eyes, something seemed to flicker.

‘C-Could it be a ghost?’

Has the ghost said to be attached to the annex come to her room? The head maid clasped her hands together and squeezed her eyes shut.

But human nature is such that one cannot bear not confirming what’s in front of them.

Finally, as the head maid slowly opened her eyes, she let out a scream when she met three pairs of eyes staring down at her.

No, she tried to scream, but her mouth was immediately covered by a large hand.

“Mmph!”

The startled head maid rolled her eyes around. Thieves? How could thieves get in here?

As the head maid was thrown into confusion, one of the hooded figures covering more than half their face, a red-haired man, asked in a low voice.

“Where is the separate room?”

When the frightened head maid just trembled, the gray-haired man who was covering her mouth grabbed her by the collar and lifted her up.

“Guide us quietly. It’s better not to think about causing a commotion. If you don’t want to die.”

As the gray-haired man growled, the head maid desperately nodded. She put on the coat they handed her and led the way out of the room.

Perhaps because it was late at night, the maids’ quarters were quiet without a single person wandering around.

For a very brief moment, she considered screaming to call the palace guards, but she had a terrible feeling that her neck would be cut off before they arrived.

Especially, she was most afraid of the man who hadn’t said a word yet, more than the two thugs who were pressuring and threatening her.

Trembling and hurrying her steps, the head maid was followed by Cahirun and his knights.

It was a distance far enough that voices couldn’t be heard clearly, but if she tried to do anything foolish, it wouldn’t be difficult to silence her in an instant.

“I never imagined the palace would have such a terrifying custom.”

No wonder the maids who transferred were often expelled or quit on their own within a year. Certainly, if one were trapped alone in a dark room for days, they couldn’t remain sane.

Machi glanced at Cahirun.

He hadn’t said a word since hearing the whole story from the librarian, waiting until sunset.

Machi and Randolph, who had simultaneously stepped back a couple of paces from him as he silently followed the head maid, exchanged silent glances.

‘Is he angry?’

‘Extremely.’

Machi and Randolph kept checking on their furious master, worried he might reveal his identity.

Entering someone else’s palace without permission was a major issue. If the queen found out about this, she would surely make a fuss.

As their individual tensions ran high, they finally arrived at the underground separate room.

“Is this it?”

“Y-Yes. That’s right.”

The head maid quickly nodded at Machi’s question. Randolph strode forward to examine the door.

The iron door was solidly made so that it could never be opened by human strength. They seemed to have unnecessarily put their hearts into it, perhaps worried someone might break out.

No sound could be heard from inside.

“It’s quiet.”

“R-Really, it’s here! This is the place!”

The head maid cried out in fear. She was desperate, worried these men might harm her. But it would have been better not to say anything.

“She must have fainted! No one lasts a day locked in this room! Most people can’t endure it with their sanity intact!”

Oh dear. Machi and Randolph glanced at Cahirun. The head maid was already frozen. Because the man who had been silent until now was glaring at her coldly.

Cahirun strode past the head maid towards the door. Machi, who had received the key from the head maid, unlocked the padlock.

As the door slowly opened, the pitch-black interior was revealed. Just as Cahirun, frowning, was about to take a step.

“Hey, Ginger, you damned girl!”

Something that burst out from inside hit Cahirun squarely in the chest.

The wooden barrel that fell to the floor bounced a few times with a thud before rolling away.

Machi and Randolph, who were watching this scene, drew in a sharp breath and glanced at Cahirun.

“You, I told you I wouldn’t let you off if I got out.”

A familiar voice growled, grinding teeth.

“You’re dead…”

Reneola, who stumbled out of the room barely able to open her eyes, couldn’t finish her sentence and collapsed.

Cahirun caught the staggering Reneola in his arms. Her face had become very haggard in just a few days.

Still, it seemed she had endured to the end without losing her mind. And even managed to think of throwing something in the meantime.

“Indeed, she’s no ordinary woman.”

Cahirun’s lips curled into a slight smile. Then he lifted Reneola in his arms. Glancing inside the separate room, it was pitch black and nothing could be seen. To think she had been in such a place for days.

“What should we do with this woman?”

Randolph asked, pointing at the head maid. The head maid’s entire body trembled at the icy gaze.

“Let’s see how long an ordinary person can endure.”

After answering briefly, Cahirun turned his back.

“Gasp!”

I opened my eyes wide, drawing in a breath. As it had been lately, I thought I would still be in darkness even after opening my eyes, but it was a familiar space. I slowly looked around the room with dim lighting.

“…What happened?”

No, is that important right now? You’ve finally escaped that damned place!

Although I didn’t know how I ended up lying quietly in my room like this, I never knew that being able to see could be such a reassuring and happy thing.

Gasping for breath at the overwhelming sense of relief, I quickly turned my head towards Ginger’s bed. Looking at the clock, it was already past the time she should have come in.

‘Did she run away?’

Every time I felt suffocated in the pitch darkness, I gritted my teeth thinking of Ginger. I vowed over and over that I wouldn’t let that annoying face off easy once I got out of this room.

‘Just you wait till you come in.’

I cracked my knuckles waiting for Ginger. But after a while, the one who entered the room was not the awaited Ginger, but Silvia. As soon as she saw me, Silvia burst into tears.

“Lady Reneola! Are you conscious? Are you alright?”

Silvia, clinging to the bedside, examined me from all angles.

“I’d like to say I’m fine, but I’m not. Where’s Ginger? Hm?”

As I rolled my eyes and cracked my joints, Silvia flinched.

“I-I don’t know. She hasn’t been seen at all.”

“Is that so? If she can’t be seen, I should go find her.”

Intending to show a personal search service, I tried to get up, but Silvia quickly held me back.

“You shouldn’t get up from bed yet. You were locked up for three days and have been unconscious all day!”

“What? It’s been three days?”

In a place without a single ray of light, I couldn’t tell if days were passing. I thought a lot of time had passed, but I assumed it was because my senses had dulled in the darkness, but to think I had been locked up for three days.

‘Damn, so they really intended to keep me locked up until the day I go to the 1st Prince’s Palace?’

Ginger, you heartless thing. To lock someone up alone in such a dark place and not throw in a single morsel of food for three whole days.

‘If there hadn’t been water in the barrel, I couldn’t have endured.’

They probably didn’t really intend to kill me, but a weak-hearted person might have had a heart attack the moment they were locked in there. No matter how much she hated me, this time she crossed the line.

‘Wait, speaking of the water barrel, I feel like I’m remembering something.’

I suddenly recalled what happened before my memory cut off. There was a commotion outside, and thinking Ginger had finally come to open the door, I was waiting with the water barrel I had prepared in advance. And the moment the door opened, I threw it…

Because I had been in the dark and suddenly exposed to light, my eyes were dazzled so I couldn’t see properly, but the hand that caught me as I fell seemed far too large to be a woman’s.

The way I was lifted lightly also seemed like a man. I remembered the firm chest that touched my head.

“But who opened the door? It doesn’t seem like it was Ginger.”

“It was probably Sir Mathias. I asked him for help.”

Mathias? I couldn’t imagine that frail person lifting me so easily.

‘No, Mathias is a man too.’

I don’t know how he found me, but he must have used some method, being a nobleman from a prestigious family.

“I should thank him.”

If it had been just a little longer, I might have really fainted. Recalling the unbearable and horrific darkness, I clutched my arm. Silvia, looking at me with pity, smoothed out the blanket.

“For now, just rest. Ah, try eating this first.”

Silvia put down the tray she had brought in front of me. There was a bowl of thin soup. Seeing that, my forgotten appetite came rushing back.

‘Right, let’s eat first.’

As I was hastily spooning up the soup, I suddenly stopped moving.

“Wait.”

“Yes?”

Silvia, who was pouring water beside me, tilted her head.

“You said I was locked up for three days?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“And I’ve been lying down all day?”

Silvia nodded.

Clang. I dropped the spoon.

Damn, then tomorrow is the day I enter the 1st Prince’s Palace!