/
A few days ago—
“Miss Leticia!”
When she saw him approaching Leticia from behind her, the maid had gone as white as a sheet as though she’d seen a ghost.
Before this, she had disappeared with all sorts of excuses spilling out of her lips, but she suddenly came back. It’s as if she had belatedly realized that she left Leticia alone with him.
“E-Excuse, me. Miss Leticia, please, with me, come… Please come with me to the kitchen.”
“Why? Did something happen in the kitchen? I need to clean up a little more here.”
“Urgent! It’s really urgent. We have to go. Now.”
“Right now?”
“Right now! Hurry!”
Frantic, Hilda had stomped her feet as though she was standing over fire. Whenever she felt Adrian’s gaze on her, she would only sneak back a glance at him and tried not to make any eye contact.
He could still hypnotize someone without having to look into their eyes anyway. So, Adrian stared at her wordlessly and used his power of hypnosis, just as he usually did.
‘Look at me.’
“Miss Leticia, hurry!”
He hypnotized her just as he did with other humans, but there was no change. If the hypnosis worked properly, then she should have paused and stared back at him with an empty look as if she’s entranced.
‘Say that you’ll stay in the room.’
“Come on, I’ll carry the curtains!”
Even when he tried to hypnotize her again, it didn’t work. It’s like all of his suggestions were being warded off by an invisible wall. The maid’s frantic steps grew faster and faster, so it was getting noisy.
…Look here.
“Goodness, fine. You’re strong anyway. Young Master, I apologize. As you heard, there’s a commotion in the kitchen, so… I’ll take a look for a moment and I’ll come back up to continue cleaning.”
“…Okay, go ahead.”
“Quickly, quickly!”
As if she was being chased by death, she dragged Leticia out the room, and until the very end, she never made any eye contact with Adrian at all. He tried to hypnotize her one more time before she left, but she didn’t even take one glance behind her.
“…Now isn’t this unusual.”
Adrian stared at the closed door. What’s unusual wasn’t limited to just his hypnosis not working on her.
It was the way she was treating him. Her attitude towards him had become extremely different, so it was inevitable that he’d notice it.
If this maid was someone who had just started working at the mansion, he would have taken this in stride and just brushed it off. In a way, he’s someone who could control his own life, and it was warranted that humans would be scared of him.
But Hilda was different. This had never happened before for as long as she had been working in the mansion, and it was easy enough for her to do her task of bringing his medicine.
Yet right now, she was avoiding him, and any chance that she failed to avoid him, she would flinch and jump frantically as though a devil had appeared from the netherworld.
This right here, didn’t it seem like she’d become a completely different person?
Did she notice that some of the people who had disappeared from the mansion had died in his hands? No, that couldn’t be the case. He hid his actions very well so that no one could know, but suddenly he’s been caught?
That’s ridiculous.
On top of that, why wasn’t his hypnosis working on her?
She was easy enough to handle in the past, so he never found the need to hypnotize her before this—that’s why it’s also difficult for him to compare since there’s no point of reference.
As he thought back to this unsolved puzzle, his appetite gradually declined. Today, the steak that had been so tenderly cooked felt quite tough. Adrian set down his fork, but at this, Alvan was at his side right away.
“Have you finished your meal, Young Master?”
“Mmh.”
“You didn’t eat much.”
“Clean this up.”
Adrian rose from his seat and went straight to his room.
He wondered if his hypnotic powers had weakened, but when he used it on a servant who was passing by, it worked without a hitch. Like a puppet hanging from strings, he made the servant walk at will, make a face, and even stand on the windowsill. He couldn’t make the servant jump out the window however.
That wouldn’t be fun.
He ordered the wobbly servant to go down from the windowsill and made him go on his way again. On a normal day, he would walk along the mansion’s tranquil darkness, head back to his room and listen to an opera record. But because his thoughts were all tangled up, he couldn’t unfurrow his brows either.
Did she notice his past murders? Or was she the ‘natural enemy’ that Lilith referred to in the curse? It was only a guess, but there’s a good chance that this really was the case. The line ‘will not be able to kill’ could be interpreted as him not being able to use his powers on her.
What to do. If she’s his natural enemy, then rather than killing her, he should let her stay by his side. The wisest move here was to end his ‘world’.
But then all Hilda did was to run away from him and flinch at any given time. She didn’t even try to talk to him or stay longer in his room.
How could he make such a woman stay still and talk to him?
As he reached his door, he was still lost in thought, but it was at this moment that he paused because he suddenly felt someone else’s presence inside. The servants would usually clean the room or change his bedding while he was away, but they always left before it was time for him to return.
This had never happened before, but he could clearly feel someone else inside the room that he had previously left empty. It could be surmised that the one staying inside had a different purpose.
Had Lilith’s remnants come to him?
Heightening his senses, he grabbed the doorknob and twisted it. This situation was something he was displeased with, but if this was a slim chance of regaining his original strength again, it would be possible to drag it out. His hypnosis would also be a great help.
Creeeaaak.
At last, as soon as the door opened, a loud, unimaginable sound broke out.
Zzzzzz.