Lutis kept watch over him for a while, then slowly walked away and left the basement.

When he came outside, the sky was already dimly brightening to welcome him.

After that.

“…My lord.”

“……”

As days passed, was there anything he could have done during that time?

He thought about going back to the basement, but he couldn’t bring himself to take a step and remained in place.

If there was one thing that changed since Aeli’s death anniversary…

[Oh my! Please play with me.] [Umm… I want to eat a snack and go outside.] […You keep ignoring my words. I said I won’t play!]

Lutis watched the child more closely than before.

He hadn’t intended to do so when leaving the basement, but a report that came in around noon that day made it impossible to ignore.

On the morning of the dawn when Lutis headed to the basement, the child woke up and cried hysterically saying something was missing.

Based on the circumstances, it was around the time he had heard the voice in the basement.

At that, Lutis recalled an incident from a few months ago.

The day he received a report from the head butler that the child seemed to be seeing things.

Around the same time, Lutis also had a dream but dismissed it as a delusion due to his weakened state.

‘For this to happen not once, but twice.’

Was it really a coincidence as he had assumed?

Except for that day, Lutis never heard hallucinations again, but even that was no longer something to laugh about.

It made no sense for father and son to take turns going mad.

There was another reason he had to keep thinking this way.

It was something he hadn’t noticed until recently…

“……”

There was something by the child’s side.

It was impossible to identify exactly what it was, but Lutis now had suspicions about the subtle changes that occurred when the child went somewhere alone.

It was a difference that would be hard to notice unless one was looking for it with an implausible assumption in mind, even if it seemed strange.

For example, shoulders that were subtly neat despite clothes being stained with grass as if rolling in the garden.

Or messy hair that looked as if it had been ruffled and played with thoroughly in places the child couldn’t reach before being straightened out again.

It was at a level where it wouldn’t be strange to attribute it to coincidence or mood.

But as it accumulated, who wouldn’t become suspicious after dismissing it as a delusion a few times?

‘Unless someone was holding and touching from behind…’

If so, he needed to find out the identity of this ‘something’ that stayed by the child’s side without causing harm.

An existence that seemed to not want others to know of its presence there, except for the slight traces.

[Please, Lutis. Our child is sick.] [Adi… Adi must not…]

“……”

But what if it turned out to be what he was thinking?

It was then, as Lutis was self-deprecating even after briefly contemplating something so absurd.

“My lord, Your Grace!”

Lutis lifted his head, stopping midway through rubbing his brow with his elbow resting on the desk in his office. He belatedly reacted to the voice calling him.

Lutis let out a deep sigh and slowly opened his mouth.

“…What is it?”

“I have something to report regarding the embezzlement of personal funds you ordered us to look into previously.”

“……”

Go ahead. Lutis straightened his posture and looked at the head butler. His brow was furrowed in displeasure at how long it had taken to find out that one thing.

Under Lutis’s gaze, the head butler bowed his head and spoke.

“The first thing discovered was that the previous head butler submitted a resignation letter before Your Grace’s departure for the campaign. However, confirmation was delayed as that part was rejected.”

“…Continue.”

Lutis said. He remembered there had been a request that was denied.

With the campaign approaching, he wasn’t keen on changing the overall manager of the mansion, nor on things becoming more unsettled after sending away nearly half the servants upon hearing there could be spies.

Considering the time remaining until his departure from the capital, it was an essentially impossible request, so he didn’t allow it.

As he was recalling the hazy memory, the head butler paused before speaking again.

“…As the resignation letter submitted by the head butler at the time had already been destroyed and the reason was unknown, I inquired with the mansion staff to investigate. In the process of compiling information, I heard that the head butler’s son had been seriously injured…”

“……”

“It seems he had brought up retirement a few times before as well, since his wife’s health was not good.”

The son who was said to be injured had also worked as a servant in the mansion like the former head butler, and it seemed the servant acted dazed for a while, perhaps due to great distress.

The servant quit his job, and the former head butler grew more haggard by the day before finally deciding to devote himself to his family and submitting his resignation.

With no clear evidence or parties involved, all they could do was piece together information and speculate.

Lutis let out a groan as he listened to the report. The head butler continued speaking.

“From what I heard, it seems the former head butler had forced his son to work as a servant, and because of that incident his son became lame—”

“…Wait.”

“Yes?”

“Say that again.”

“Ah, yes. The former head butler had forced his son to work as a servant—”

“No, after that.”

“…He became lame, they say. I heard he had other dreams originally, but they were frustrated by the injury.”

“……”

Hearing those words, Lutis recalled what his aide had told him.

Before the private audience with the Emperor who had heard news of the campaign, when the former head butler, who was still alive at the time, was nowhere to be seen, he had asked his aide.

[The head butler is not here.] [He took leave last week and has not come in since the day before yesterday.] [He never took time off even when told to, what’s with the sudden change?] […He said his son was badly hurt and needed care. He was treated at the temple but became lame…]

He submitted his resignation letter after that, so instead of approving it, I extended his leave period a bit…

As it turned out, the reason his son became lame was because he was injured while working at my mansion.

‘Even so, I don’t recall him being the type of person to do something like this.’

It was strange.

As far as Lutis knew, the former head butler would have come to him directly to ask for his son’s leg to be healed, rather than torment an innocent infant.

Knowing this, he had kept him on as head butler even after succeeding to the title of Duke.

‘At the very least, for the child’s sake…’

…Ah.

At that thought, Lutis naturally held his breath. There was one person who came to mind.

He didn’t receive reports on every single servant quitting their job.

But wasn’t there someone who had been injured in the leg by an assassin who barged in while caring for the child around that time?

There was an incident where that person had quit and left before he could find out who it was, so he had just let it go.

Lutis looked at the head butler and asked.

“You said the former head butler’s son was not in his right mind when he quit?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“…Is he still like that?”

“He lived that way for a few years, but I confirmed that he came to his senses around last year and is fine now. He went down to the countryside to recuperate and recently came back up to the capital.”

“……”

Taking into account compiling all this information and tracing the whereabouts of the former head butler’s son, it was somewhat understandable that it had taken this long.

Lutis rubbed his brow with one hand as if he had a headache and opened his mouth.

“Did you confirm his residence?”

“Yes. He is living in a private home on the outskirts of the capital.”

“Guide me there, I’ll go myself.”

Lutis said as he stood up from his seat.

He had doubted it, but there was no way to know without seeing for himself.

If his expectations were correct, the former servant would have to be dealt with according to imperial law.

Even if he had been injured in order to save the child in the past, Lutis had no intention of overlooking it now that he had caused greater harm, let alone if he had known nothing about it.

So he was planning to just quickly assess the situation and return.

Slam!

“……”

“Papa… where are you going?”

Despite deliberately moving quietly, the child somehow knew and opened the bedroom door where Lutis had stopped to change clothes, looking up at him.

Seeing the child clinging to his pants leg and throwing a tantrum to be taken along, as if he had already heard about it from somewhere, Lutis looked down at him and said.

It was not allowed.

“It’s too early for you to go out when you’ve only recently started moving around the mansion. It’s dangerous, so no.”

In truth, he didn’t mean the outing itself was dangerous.

With the former head butler having done such a thing, there was no guarantee his lame son wouldn’t harm the child.

That was the concern behind his action.

“It’s not dangerous… really…”

“……”

“If I can’t go out, you can call him here…”

Since he was wary of the person himself, of course calling him was also impossible.

Lutis was determined not to indulge the child’s wishes this time, as it was a matter of safety.

“Th-that… Could it be the red-haired big brother?”

“…I don’t remember that much, but the former head butler’s wife did have red hair. Now I need to get going, so—”

“T-take me with you!”

If not for the sudden thought that the child’s current attitude was also suspicious, unlike his strange behavior of talking to thin air, he might have.

It was certainly strange for him to show fondness for someone he shouldn’t even know.

After deliberating, Lutis finally decided to summon the former head butler’s son to the mansion.

He hoped to learn even a little about what the child was hiding from him.

[This is the timeline separator]

He didn’t want to know facts like this though.

“…What is this…”

“I’m here! If you give me paper and ink, I can make a con-con? Contract!”

Lutis’s eyes widened as he saw the light emanating from the child’s hands.