The next day. Isaac removed all the picture frames hanging on the stairs, saying, "What the hell is this, a ghost?"
After I had removed all the magic items that had been attached to the frame.
'What about ghosts?'
It was just a lump of magic.
When magic attaches itself to an object and forms a mass, it mimics its shape, and sometimes it can be faintly visible to the human eye.
It wasn't a common occurrence.
It was a phenomenon that occurred when several conditions coincidentally met.
I was able to artificially meet those conditions.
I, who heard about the commotion last night from Anna, snorted in amusement without anyone knowing.
Isaac and Penelope were unable to raise their heads in the mansion for a while.
Fortunately for Penelope, the attention of the employers was focused on Isaac's lower body.
"I thought that woman must be really great because she keeps falling asleep like that every night."
It wasn't just me who suffered every night.
No employee did not notice the secret love affair between the master and his mistress.
The butler just disciplined his employees and made them pretend not to know.
"What are you doing with an earthworm?"
"Acting must have been harder. Phew!”
"Ahahaha! It's my belly button. Hahahaha!"
The sound of loud laughter kept leaking out from the employees' break room.
The butler was the only one who had a hard time keeping his voice down.
Isaac knew that his employees were secretly gossiping about him, but he gritted his teeth and pretended not to know.
'Because it's dark! They must have seen it wrong because it's dark!'
It was unfair, but it was just a miserable outburst since he couldn't show it.
Isaac cried a little.
From that day on, the nights at Winston Mansion became quiet.
I suffered no more.
***
Then one day, while Isaac and Penelope were out of the mansion during the day, someone knocked on my room.
"Lady."
It was Butler Cedric.
"Did you get a call?"
I asked, quickly hiding Cedric inside the room.
In fact, Cedric was not bought by Penelope.
"That woman tried to bribe me with this, Ma'am."
Cedric confessed, placing the jewel Penelope had given him in front of me.
"You could have just taken this, why are you telling me?"
"I don't want to work for people like that."
It was the impact of Isaac's public remarks that disparaged the personalities of his employees.
Isaac ended up going along with my plan to bring Penelope into the mansion and expose the two of them.
From then on, Cedric, who had been feeling skeptical about working under Isaac, no longer had any sense of loyalty.
Cedric was contemplating whether he should leave Winston Manor after accepting Penelope's offer.
But he had been working here since before the Winston family bought the mansion.
Among the butlers, some have remained loyal to only one family for generations, but there are also those like Cedric who have settled down in one mansion and have passed through several masters.
It wasn't easy for him to leave the place he had worked his whole life just because he didn't like Isaac and Penelope's behavior.
That's why he came to see me.
"What should I do, Madam? I will do as you say. Should I go and refuse?"
"No, don't do that."
"Yes?"
"Take this jewel and do whatever Penelope asks you to do."
"But!"
"I don't need any invitations from other people. Feel free to bring them to Penelope. Just tell me one thing, if you hear anything from the Countess Spencer, just let me know."
"...I understand, Ma'am."
And Cedric kept his promise, I opened the letter he had sent.
As expected, there was a note written in Millea's neat handwriting asking me to come to Count Spencer's mansion for help.
"I have to go out."
"I guess I have to keep this a secret from my Master. Will it take long?"
"It won't take that long."
"I will make sure to explain it well."
The more Isaac and Penelope looked disgusting, the more Cedric's heart leaned towards me.
Just before leaving the room, he hesitated for a moment and then asked.
"Are you just going to leave the master and the woman like this?"
Cedric knew how I was being treated.
Although it has stopped now due to the last accident, the nightly acts that Isaac and Penelope did in the mansion were actually malicious acts directed at me.
Cedric, who didn't know that it was me who planned the accident, couldn't understand why I left the two alone.
"You know she's doing it on purpose. She believes that you are helpless and can't do anything. She wants to confirm her influence. She's very arrogant. You never know what she'll do next to provoke you."
"Of course I know."
"But why..."
I smiled quietly.
The butler looked a little surprised at the look in my eyes.
There was no feeling of helplessness, sadness, or anger.
Although my expression was unreadable, it was clear that what was happening right now was not causing me any confusion or pain.
There was a determination in my eyes that had never been seen before.
"I see you have some plans."
Cedric realized that it wasn't just because I was weak and feeble that I left Penelope alone.
"It won't last long. She'll soon learn that this kind of behavior won't get her anywhere."
Cedric watched the situation and was a little surprised that I seemed to be secretly plotting something.
'Was this the kind of person she was?'
He always thought Bridget was young and fragile, but when did she become such a strong person?
Cedric thought that Bridget had been looking different for some time.
And that was quite a comfort to him.
He felt less skeptical about his current life if he thought that he was staying in the mansion for Bridget rather than to serve someone like Isaac.
"Please let me know anytime you need my help."
"Thank you, Cedric."
Cedric bowed politely and left Bridget's room.
A flush of excitement appeared on Bridget's cheeks as she was left alone.
'Finally, Millea comes to me."
***
"Welcome Viscountess Winston."
Arriving at the Spencer Mansion near the palace, I was greeted by a gaunt Millea.
She must have been going through so much mental anguish that she looked ten years older than at the last party. But her hair was still neatly styled so that not a single strand was out of place, her clothes were clean, and her elegance was still intact.
"I heard you needed my help."
"Is it so."
Millea told me the story of her son.
"I just wish you could help him sleep comfortably for one night."
Although her tone was calm, she couldn't hide the trembling in her voice.
As far as I can remember, Millea was a strong person.
But now that she was worried about her son, she was just an ordinary mother caring for her child.
"I've been to many doctors, but there's been no improvement. My son hasn't slept properly since he came back from the battlefield."
"Don't worry. Everything will be okay."
Even after calling me, tears welled up in Millen's eyes as she worried whether I would be able to do what the doctors could not do.
Although she was never one to shed tears in front of others, my words of assurance that things would be okay were a comfort.
I was guided to where the patient was.
Actually, I could have found it even without guidance.
As I approached where the patient was, the magic energy became thicker, and when I stood in front of the room, it surrounded me on all sides to the point where I could hardly see even an inch in front of me.
"Come in."
Millea, whose magic was invisible to the eye, entered the thick fog-like magic without hesitation.
I stopped as I entered the room.
'A lump of magic..."
A mass of magic that had thickened and even taken shape was stuck to the ceiling and all the walls.
Somehow, it felt like only this room was filled with cold air.
It was something between a liquid and a solid, making a sticky sound and constantly forming shapes.
A human head would pop out of the black mass and then disappear, and hands and legs would pop out and then disappear.
'It's imitating the patient's appearance."
Magic that mimics the appearance of objects has little influence.
At best, It is enough to surprise people.
However, magic that attaches itself to a person and imitates that person is dangerous.
It calls for death.
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