“How could you move me into such a fraudulent property!”

I concentrated all my strength on pinching Kashar’s cheek.

“Ah, that feels good.”

Although it must be a dream, after shaking vigorously, I felt a bit of my resentment dissipate.

At least, until I heard someone else’s voice.

“Um, Miss Hallen. Please calm down.”

“…Pardon?”

When I turned my head towards the voice, I saw Dracu.

He was fidgeting, unable to do this or that.

“…Butler Dracu?”

“Yes, yes. It’s me. So, um… I think it would be best if you let go.”

“Let go of what?”

“What you’re holding right now.”

Naturally, my gaze turned to my fingertips.

My determined fingers were still pinching Kashar’s cheek.

‘This is strange.’

The soft sensation felt too vivid.

As I blinked, Kashar gently curved his eyes.

I removed one of my hands and moved it to my own cheek. Then I pinched it.

“Ouch!”

It hurt enough to snap me back to reality. Then.

My trembling eyes turned to Kashar. As I removed my hand from his cheek, Kashar grinned.

“Did you sleep well, beautiful?”

“Eek-!”

As I tried to push him away in disgust, the arms holding me tightened their grip.

After struggling in Kashar’s embrace for a while, I eventually grew tired and went limp.

“…Um, hello. Your Grace?”

“What’s with the ‘Your Grace’ between us?”

He let out a deflated laugh as if he had heard something ridiculous.

“I’ve told you before, lovers should call each other by name.”

Why does his affectionate tone sound so scary?

My gaze remained fixed on his cheek. I must have pinched it quite hard, as it was very red.

“Uh, right. Lord Kashar…?”

“Drop the ‘Lord’ too.”

“Kashar.”

As the desired answer came out immediately, Kashar looked satisfied.

‘This isn’t a dream.’

This was still the duke’s castle, and Kashar and Dracu were real too.

The fingers that had pinched him seemed to throb.

‘I’m dead now.’

As I turned pale, Kashar’s gaze turned to Dracu.

“What exactly happened? I told you to prepare to welcome my lover.”

“…Well, we certainly prepared, but…”

What does this mean now?

The conversation between the two seemed ominous.

As I unconsciously leaned in to listen, Kashar asked Dracu an incomprehensible question.

“Human style? Or Ma-in style?”

“…Ma-in style, sir.”

Dracu lowered his head as if ashamed.

My mouth itched in the silence.

Finally, unable to hold back, I asked.

“Um, by any chance… the garden. Did you decorate it because we were coming?”

You mean that garden full of crosses and tomb-like mounds, with fountains spewing green water?

At my careful question, Dracu’s face brightened.

“Of course!”

“Even the black skulls decorating the stairs…?”

And the blood-soaked carpets, purple wallpaper, and black curtains?

As I asked point by point, Dracu’s eyes welled up with tears.

He looked genuinely moved.

“As expected! You weren’t surprised even after seeing me, a Ma-in! You must know our culture well!”

Excited, Dracu began to explain the Ma-in concept of beauty one by one.

“We Ma-in consider black, red, and dark purple to be the most noble and beautiful colors.”

“Is… is that so?”

“The water spewing from the fountain in the garden is very good for health. Aren’t the statues very cute? They’re stone reproductions of the most popular beasts in Barahan, commissioned from sculpture masters!”

Ah, now I understand.

Through this lengthy explanation, I realized there was a problem with this castle’s hospitality.

‘It was a cultural difference.’

Every country has different cultures.

The aesthetic standards of humans and Ma-in were as different as heaven and earth.

But there were a few things that survived in this castle.

“Then what about the children’s and my rooms?”

“The master personally directed all the rooms you’ll be staying in. I heard he even handpicked the furniture.”

So that’s why they were spared.

If the rooms had been Ma-in style too, I might have really broken the window and run away.

“Dracu, my lover and the children are not Ma-in, as you can see. When I said to make it ‘livable for humans,’ I didn’t mean this.”

“…It was my misjudgment. I sincerely apologize.”

Dracu readily admitted his mistake.

But there was something strange here too.

“Um, excuse me for interrupting, but the expression ‘livable for humans’ is…”

“Ah, that. Originally, this place was the Black Castle, but when we heard that the master’s lover and children were coming, we were told to redecorate the castle anew.”

So, the Black Castle was Kashar’s taste, and when the red-black Ma-in culture was added to it, the current Demon King’s Castle was born.

‘This is driving me crazy.’

It was truly insane.

“The master was staying elsewhere due to external schedules. Moreover, since he usually doesn’t say much about Ma-in culture, I unconsciously thought it was natural.”

Kashar was so nonchalant about it that he forgot the guests would be human.

Having explained the situation, Dracu sincerely apologized to me.

“I’m truly sorry, Lady Hallen.”

He apologized so politely that I felt sorry instead.

‘Still, the shock was a shock.’

As someone who nearly fainted at the sight of the castle, I couldn’t bring myself to say it was okay.

“It’s a cultural difference.”

“Thank you so much for understanding…!”

I meant it as more of a roundabout way of speaking, but his grateful response made me flustered.

‘Come to think of it, didn’t I faint earlier because of Dracu…?’

Seeing him in the light, he didn’t look at all like someone who would drink human blood.

“Um, you were vomiting blood often earlier… Are you alright now?”

“My goodness, you were worried about me.”

Dracu’s eyes widened in surprise.

Soon after, he rummaged through his chest and pulled out a bottle from his inner pocket.

‘It’s blood.’

The color was exactly the same as the liquid I saw and fainted from earlier.

I wanted to run away right now, but I was in Kashar’s arms with no way to escape.

‘He’s definitely going to drain my blood.’

This must have been his plan all along when he asked us to move in.

This wasn’t the time. I suddenly started worrying about the princes’ and Emma’s safety.

“You should behave.”

A low chuckle sounded above my head, as if he found my struggling amusing.

‘Stop laughing and let me go!’

Kashar’s cheeks were still red.

As I couldn’t even open my mouth due to my guilt, Dracu revealed the truth.

“There seems to be some misunderstanding, but what I vomited wasn’t blood.”

“…Pardon?”

“Could you look at this for a moment?”

Dracu opened the bottle cap and showed me the inside.

Just as I was about to close my eyes tightly, thinking he might try to feed it to me, the smell rising from the bottle stimulated my nose.

It wasn’t the smell of iron.

This was.

“…vegetable smell?”

Yes. Haru X vegetable. It was exactly that juice smell.

“It’s a drink made by grinding a plant called Kashara. I really like it, but I’m not supposed to drink it…”

What does that mean?

‘As far as I know… Ma-in only eat meat?’

Barahan, the black land where Ma-in live, was extremely barren and cold. Perhaps because of this, meat-eating Ma-in didn’t even consider vegetables as food.

However, the butler shattered all my common sense.

“I’m a vegetarian.”

Dracu, also being a Ma-in, had only eaten meat for a long time.

He never imagined that the vegetable he tasted just once would completely change his diet.

“It was so delicious. Vegetables are the best.”

Dracu gave a thumbs up. He looked like a lion praising the taste of grass.

“…Is it okay to only eat vegetables? You seem to vomit often, so it doesn’t seem to agree with you.”

“In Barahan, it would have been fine due to the dark energy, but it’s difficult to maintain a vegetarian diet here. My body keeps rejecting it, so I’ve been spitting out the juice.”

The dark energy rising from the land of Barahan was like a protein source that Ma-in could absorb through their skin.

Because of this, Ma-in enjoyed eating meat but didn’t necessarily have to eat it.

But outside of Barahan, it’s a different story.

‘So, it’s like a lion getting weak from only eating grass?’

Earlier too, he collapsed because his body rejected the vegetables.

The blood vomiting and drinking human blood were all my misunderstandings. Thinking about it now, I just felt dumbfounded.

‘Should I be relieved about this or not.’

It felt strange to be reassured about someone who keeps collapsing due to their diet.

“I told you to eat some meat.”

“But it doesn’t taste good.”

“Isn’t it better than looking like a patient?”

“But…”

Although Kashar scolded Dracu, the vegetable-loving butler just hugged his bottle of vegetable juice preciously.

Watching this hopeless situation, I suddenly felt extremely sleepy.

‘Come to think of it, where am I?’

I fainted in the dining room earlier, but this place was filled with a large bed and luxurious furniture.

‘Somehow it looks similar to my room.’

It’s particularly glamorous too.

Well, regardless of who owns this place, I just wanted to go back to my room quickly.

‘I’ll figure out why there’s a Ma-in by Kashar’s side later.’

For now, I felt like I needed to sleep.

After rolling my eyes around, I carefully opened my mouth.

“Um, Kashar. I think I need to go to sleep.”

Kashar looked down at me and generously allowed it.

“Alright. Sleep.”

But his arms holding me remained in place.

“Um, don’t I need to go to my room to sleep?”

“Why go far? This is your lover’s bedroom.”

Excuse me, you need to add ‘fake’ in front of that lover.

Soon his arms loosened, and my body tilted towards the bed.

Thud. The soft sensation of the bed embraced me along with the pillow.

“He-hello?”

A dark shadow fell over my face. Kashar was on top of me.

“Ahem, I’ll be taking my leave now.”

“Goodbye.”

Kashar waved to Dracu, who was backing away.

Eventually, the door closed.

In the duke’s bedroom, there were only the two of us.