CHAPTER 43….
While sleepwalking, Linaria would either stare blankly out the window as she did now, or sit curled up in front of the door.
Sometimes, she would simply sit there and cry quietly.
“The symptoms first appeared around her last birthday. The young lady seems to think it’s just that she can’t sleep well, though.”
Anna gave a bitter smile.
“The duke knows about it too. He found out later than I did… but he’s doing his best to protect her.”
In a corner of the hallway, an assassin’s arm lay sprawled out.
A thick shadow swept over it as if to erase all trace of it, and in moments, it was gone without a sign.
“I don’t know the exact cause of the young lady’s sleepwalking. But it’s not because of an assassin.”
Anna looked at Kaas.
Her gaze was cold enough to tear someone apart.
“The assassins only started attacking after you arrived. Before that, there was never anything like this.”
Recently, Duke Obel had regained much of his health.
That meant his watchful gaze could reach anywhere there was shadow.
If the assassins had been second-rate, they wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere near Linaria; Dante’s divine beast would have dealt with them.
But lately, Kaas or Anna often had to deal with them personally.
“They’re after you, not the young lady, aren’t they?”
“Probably.”
“Probably? The young lady is in danger, and that’s the careless answer you give?”
“The person who sent the assassins is the only one who knows their true intent.”
It was vague, but without any concrete information, it was the only answer he could give.
Anna frowned.
Perhaps it was because she had already taken a dislike to Kaas; he simply felt irritating to her.
“Assassins hide their traits so they can’t be tracked. But if they belong to the same organization and received the same training, you can tell just from their gait.”
Anna’s maid uniform, usually pristine without a wrinkle, was stained with blood.
It had splattered during a fight with an assassin.
“The one behind this is only hiring assassins from the group ‘Lambda.’ It’s an organization with a base in the Leviathan Duchy, but nothing else is known about it.”
“…”
“Does that ring any bells?”
At the mention of Leviathan, Kaas’s eyes twitched ever so slightly.
“So it does. And you still say ‘probably’?”
“You seem to know a lot about assassins.”
Kaas knew that even though Anna wore the plain garb of a maid, she kept sharp daggers hidden beneath it.
“Don’t change the subject.”
As a mere commoner, she couldn’t use the power of a divine beast.
But she was skilled enough to take down one or two assassins on her own.
With what she’d just said, she had more or less admitted to once belonging to Lambda herself.
Even so, she stayed by Linaria’s side, pretending to be an ordinary maid.
The reason was simple—she was putting on an act.
Just like he was.
“I take back what I said about you being helpful. I only suffered because of you in the first place, so why did I even thank you?”
Kaas ignored her.
In the end, Anna’s temper flared.
Thinking back, she was still annoyed about him slyly ending up in the same bed as the young lady.
‘Some of us were busy cleaning up the wreck of a bedroom after the assassins wreaked havoc, and you were slacking off?’
The bedding had been soaked in blood, so she’d temporarily moved Linaria to Kaas’s room for safety.
But in that brief time, he’d done something underhanded.
To Anna, Kaas was like a sly cat pretending to be well-behaved while already perched on the stove.
“I won’t ask what kind of person you are. Honestly, I’m not curious. But I will say this—”
“…”
“I want you to leave the young lady’s side.”
Anna was serious.
Even now, she thought so: if Kaas hadn’t been here, would assassins have even attacked the mansion?
From her perspective, they’d chosen the wrong bodyguard—someone who had brought assassins down on them and dragged the young lady into it.
It might have been presumptuous of her.
After all, he was someone the young lady herself had brought in. For a mere servant to tell him to leave was clearly overstepping.
It was also an act of defiance against her mistress’s decision.
But there was one thing she was certain of—enough that she couldn’t keep silent.
His presence threatened the young lady’s life.
Even if he never raised a sword to her throat, he was still dangerous.
“I’m wearing a collar. One that can’t be removed unless my master allows it.”
“The young lady is willing to give you freedom anytime, and she has already freed you once. But you put the collar back on yourself.”
Kaas turned his gaze toward Linaria.
Beyond the window, the garden shone as brightly as moonlight.
“I saw the light.”
The day Linaria made a deal with Duke Brimstone—
It wasn’t just Duke Brimstone who had witnessed the bluish light that drove away the darkness.
Kaas had watched her, standing with her back to that miraculous brightening of the night.
Of course, it wasn’t only that day she shone so brilliantly.
From the moment they first met until now—
Every time he faced her, it felt like reaching the end of a long, dark tunnel.
Anna’s expression hardened.
“You seem to be under some huge misunderstanding, so let me explain. Since long ago, the young lady often took in abandoned or injured animals—dogs, cats, or sometimes birds.”
“…”
“When I asked her why, she said their situation was a lot like her own. So she couldn’t just turn away.”
That was why Anna hadn’t been surprised when Linaria brought home not an animal, but a grown man—and a slave at that.
The only thing that had changed was that it was a human instead of an animal.
“To the young lady, you’re like an abandoned dog.”
She deliberately used harsh words to hurt him, thinking that would make him give up.
But Kaas didn’t so much as blink.
“Before you came, there was a nanny who had cared for the young lady since childhood. She was driven out.”
Anna hadn’t wanted to bring this up.
She hoped Kaas would take the hint and give up.
“That nanny was cruel. She not only mistreated the young lady, but also hated it when she brought home animals.”
“…”
“So one day, she killed a cat the young lady had rescued. It had recovered thanks to the young lady’s care, and would have lived fine if left alone. But she killed it mercilessly, as if to snuff out the last breath of something barely alive.”
Young Linaria had to see the cold corpse of the life she’d saved.
Meryl then scolded her, telling her never to bring such filthy things into the house again.
And the body was thrown out of the mansion—
She couldn’t even bury it herself.
“That must have left a deep wound in her heart. After that, she would treat injured animals, but never take them in. She said she wouldn’t keep them near her if she couldn’t take responsibility.”
Anna closed her eyes tightly, then opened them again.
The memory of the day she first met Linaria had come back to her.
“I don’t take people in. If they stay with me, they’ll only meet a cruel fate.”
“I don’t care. As long as I can be by your side, I’m satisfied.”
“People or animals—it’s the same thing. Why would someone who was almost engaged to the Crown Prince love a man like you?”
“…”
“Now you understand, right? Maybe not today, but one day, you’ll be abandoned.”
Anna didn’t want Kaas to misinterpret Linaria’s “love.”
That love wouldn’t be romantic.
“So you’re saying she took me in because she pitied me?”
“…Did you even listen to what I just said?”
Whether Anna was exasperated or not, Kaas’s mind held only the image of Linaria.
Hearing Anna’s story, he thought he might understand a little of what she meant by love.
“…!”
Kaas drew his sword.
Anna tensed immediately at the sudden movement.
But he didn’t point it at Linaria or Anna.
The blade—
“If I wound myself like this… will that keep me from being abandoned?”
He sliced off his own left arm.
The wound was entirely self-inflicted.
“Madman.”
Anna muttered in shock.
And she realized there was no way to talk him out of this.
If she had known he was this far gone, she would never have spoken about the young lady’s past.
As she glared at him, not even bothering to staunch the bleeding, Linaria began to collapse.
Anna rushed toward her, smacking away Kaas’s outstretched hand without mercy.
“You’re covered in blood. Don’t you dare go near her like that.”
In the end, it was Anna who caught the falling Linaria.
