“Father has been on edge lately because of Yerka. He’s already got a headache, so it’s understandable he might be mistaken after hearing such nonsense constantly. Isn’t that right, Your Highness?”

Laila did not believe his words.

“If that’s the case.”

She said. Karshu looked at Laila with a strange and unpleasant smile. Her red eyes glinted sharply.

“What about what your mother saw?”

Karshu laughed with a sound like whistling wind, then spoke after a moment.

“My stepmother, well. I’m a bit embarrassed to say this to Your Highnesses, but… shall we call it a family trait?”

“Family trait?”

When Eustar asked again, Karshu nodded and looked back and forth between the two.

“I’m not sure if you’ve met Yerka.”

When Laila said she had met her, Karshu continued, shrugging his shoulders.

“Then you’ll know. That child is a bit…”

As he trailed off in a mischievous tone, making a circling motion with his finger by his head, Laila’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Eustar also didn’t look particularly pleased, but he decided there was no need to cause a commotion before conducting a proper investigation.

Eustar said:

“So you’re saying you don’t believe the rumors about the mansion at all, and you’ve never seen this employee either. Is that correct?”

Karshu’s mouth twisted crookedly.

“That’s right, Your Highness. Why don’t you return instead of wasting your precious time on baseless rumors?”

Eustar replied:

“I appreciate your concern. Let’s go back, Laila.”

The two turned around, deliberately ignoring Karshu who was still standing there. They heard him turn to leave behind them, and Laila unconsciously looked towards the deep forest.

At the edge of the forest full of fir trees, oddly enough, there were three apple trees lined up in a row. Even though it was winter and they were desolately withered, Laila instinctively knew they were apple trees.

Why would they plant apple trees in such a place? Laila thought with a puzzled expression. As she stared blankly at the gaunt, twisted branches, something flickering yellow caught her eye.

‘An animal?’

No. Laila firmly denied the thought that had popped into her mind, as if driving a nail into herself. Whatever she had just seen, it certainly couldn’t have been an animal. It was too high up to be the eyes of a four-legged beast…

“What’s wrong, Laila?”

Even though Eustar’s voice was close by, she felt an unbearable chill for a moment. When she turned completely towards the forest to face the apple trees, the pair of yellow lights she had seen were gone.

“Laila.”

Eustar placed his hand on her shoulder. Laila briefly caressed his fingertips, which felt slightly feverish, then shook her head.

“It’s nothing, Eustar. I think I just saw something wrong.”

While Laila and Eustar were having a not-so-pleasant conversation with Karshu in the forest, Muge discovered an old storehouse in a secluded corner of the mansion’s garden.

There were several employees walking around the garden, but their faces showed no signs of liveliness or vigor. Everyone seemed to be afraid of something, and it appeared they even avoided making eye contact with each other.

‘What a strange place.’

Muge had an exceptionally keen intuition compared to others. She could sense unusual and bizarre things, even the faintest energies that magical instruments couldn’t detect.

It was the same now, but this feeling was unlike anything Muge had ever experienced before, causing her some confusion and irritation.

‘It’s not a magical beast… Not an ordinary ghost either. But then what is it? It feels like something’s crawling underfoot. Unpleasant…’

The unpleasant feeling grew stronger as she approached the storehouse. The wooden door had a shabby padlock on it, but it was completely rusted, suggesting it hadn’t been properly maintained for quite some time.

Muge firmly grasped the bottom of the padlock, looked around, and then twisted her hand. With a snap, the lock broke, and rust powder fell like ashes.

Opening the door and entering, the smell of dust irritated her nose. However, she could feel a draft coming from somewhere.

Muge looked around the dark storehouse and noticed a faint gap in the back wall. When she pushed it, a space large enough for one person to crawl through opened up.

‘I see. They locked the front door… and made a place like this in the back, hidden by the forest. Whoever enters and leaves this storehouse, whatever their purpose, they’re not up to anything praiseworthy. I should tell Eustar…’

At that moment, something made a squeaking sound under her feet.

Muge looked down and discovered a metal protrusion slightly raised from the floor. Lifting the part covered with old cotton cloth and carpet scraps revealed a round handle. There was no dust on that part, and there were traces of someone having touched it recently.

“Suspicious activities always happen in basements. While breathing in black mold…”

As Muge gripped the handle and applied force, the floor opened. Seeing the damp, dark stairs leading down, she sighed, adjusted her monocle, and began descending into the darkness one step at a time.

As Laila and Eustar entered the mansion, they saw Yerka sitting on the railing upstairs.

Her two feet dangling in the air were still white, and under the cold gray sunlight streaming through the window, she looked as if she might disappear at any moment.

Eustar said:

“The young lady seems to quite enjoy dangerous situations.”

Yerka, who had been swinging her legs, gave them the same bold look as before.

“I like things that are risky, Your Highness.”

Laila, who had been looking up, said:

“We’d like to have a conversation with you, but it seems rather inconvenient to talk when you’re in such a place.”

Hearing her words, Yerka chuckled.

“You use quite archaic language, Your Highness. Is that the etiquette of royalty?”

Laila rolled her eyes as if it was none of her business.

“Well, I don’t know much about royal etiquette and I’m not interested. My mother taught me how to speak.”

“I learned how to speak from my nanny. My mother didn’t teach me such things.”

Yerka, sliding off the railing as if gliding, gestured as if calling a friend.

“Come up, Your Highness. Your Highness the Prince as well. Please grant me the honor of serving you tea in my room.”

Laila led the way up the stairs, with Eustar following behind. The thin sunlight shining on the curved staircase cast their shadows crossing each other.

Laila occasionally turned her head as if to check if Eustar was following well, and each time, he smiled faintly and touched her fingertips.

“Don’t worry.”

Laila recalled the pair of glowing yellow eyes she had seen in the forest. As time passed and she pondered more, the fact that it was something’s eyes became firmly established in her mind.

But she couldn’t tell what those eyes belonged to…

Eustar grasped Laila’s hand as if he understood her unease. Just as Laila stopped and turned to look at him, taking a light breath:

“Why don’t you come in already?”

Yerka’s bold and clear voice interrupted what Laila was about to say.

The two entered her reception room, and at the same time, an employee with her hair braided in two entered carrying a teapot wrapped in soft cloth and teacups filled with hot water at the bottom.

Tea was poured into the cups placed in front of the three. The light peach-colored tea emitted a sweet fragrance that tickled the nose.

Yerka took out three sugar cubes with small red specks from the porcelain sugar bowl and put them in her tea.

“What are these red things?”

To Eustar’s question, Yerka replied:

“It’s dried and ground cherry powder. We mix it with sugar when making it. It’s a method passed down in my mother’s family for generations. My father once wanted to present this sugar to His Majesty the King.”

“Is there a reason he didn’t?”

“I wouldn’t know, Your Highness. I’m like a prisoner in this mansion. With my eyes covered and cotton stuffed in my ears. The chickens in the coop are better off than me.”

Eustar and Laila, who had been smelling the tea, simultaneously turned their gaze to Yerka. She was casually drinking the tea with three sugar cubes in it, raising her bright blue eyes.

“You look like you don’t believe me.”

Laila said:

“I heard that Count Halliwell cherishes you very much.”

Yerka laughed sharply.

“Everyone in this household would say that. As if they had made a pact. But Your Highness, do you believe those words?”

“The truth is often elusive. That’s why we’re sitting here to find out. Eustar and I are curious about both the young man named Wells and about you. So, as you said, we’d like you to tell us about Wells.”

Yerka’s red lips twitched slightly. She looked as if she might burst into laughter at any moment, but the next instant, she looked down at the swirling tea in her cup with a very sorrowful and sad expression.

“He was a pitiful person. Wells, I mean. His death was unjust. It shouldn’t have happened.”

“He didn’t die here, did he?”

Yerka stared at Laila.

“That’s right, Your Highness.”

Eustar said:

“I heard he was an employee working for Count Halliwell. What happened that you say he died unjustly?”

Yerka’s gaze sharply scanned the table, then the scenery outside the window. For a moment, she seemed to have suddenly departed to another place and time, not here.

As if buried in some scene from the past, it felt as if a huge swamp had suddenly appeared around her, swallowing Yerka whole.

She, who had been silent, said:

“Wells tried to take me away from the mansion. He tried to save me from my father, from my mother, and from the creepy Karshu Halliwell. But his wish couldn’t come true. It was because of Karshu.”