Inside the dark dungeon, the sound of water dripping could be heard regularly from somewhere.
It sounds like someone screaming, or like the wind shaking tree branches.
This was due to the nature of the dungeon, where sound did not escape well and echoed ceaselessly within the narrow, long passages.
The reason it was built that way was to prevent outsiders from hearing the screams coming from the dungeon, but there was a bigger reason.
"If you keep hearing things Iike this, you'll go crazy in four days. Even if you don't do anything."
Armin Wilhelm, his face half-submerged in darkness, snapped his fingers as he spoke.
In front of him sat a woman, her hands and feet bound in chains and her mouth gagged.
It was a measure to prevent people from biting their tongues or ingesting any poison that might be hidden in their mouths.
"So there isn't much left?"
Armin smiled and lowered his head to look at the woman.
At those words, the woman gasped as if she was out of breath.
Armin Wilhelm did nothing for the woman who had been locked in the dungeon for a week.
So this was the first interrogation in a week.
The woman, who had been struggling at first, gradually became quiet after three days, and from the fourth day on, she began to go to a corner and stretch her hands into the air as if she was hallucinating.
As Armin Wilhelm said, the woman was slowly going crazy.
Was the poisoner afraid of dying?
Nо.
Were you afraid of extreme torture and pain?
No way.
What's more frightening than that is living in this darkness forever.
Slowly fading away in a place where no light comes in and you can't tell if time is flowing or has stopped.
And thus, it is a curse to have a sound mind.
Armin, who was well aware of that fact, deliberately mentioned the time unit.
Four days.
But in reality, it's been a week since this woman was caught.
A woman who doesn't know that would truly go crazy.
It feels like a long, long time has passed, but only four days have passed.
Armin laughed heartily and ordered the guard to bring him some oatmeal porridge.
"Take the gag off."
"But..."
"Even if you cut off her tongue, it's fine as long as you can keep her life. If her tongue falls off too, her time here will be even more terrible. I won't even be able to hear the voice coming out of her mouth."
His smile was so cool that the adjutant, Paris, who was standing next to him, flinched.
Hannah, standing next to him, didn't even blink an eye.
The woman who had bravely attempted to poison the master of the Wilhelm Castle let out an animalistic moan at those words.
Tears fell from the woman's eyes.
Amin looked at the woman's face and threw the oatmeal the guard had brought in front of her.
A woman who had been fed only herbal water dripped through her gag instead of proper food for a week began to gorge herself on oatmeal.
Armin said, looking at the sight.
"Yes, then let's start now."
At those words, the woman who was hastily eating her porridge raised her head.
The woman looked up at him with a pale face as if her soul had been sucked out of her.
"Yes, I made a mistake!"
The woman's face glowed brightly under the torch held by his adjutant, Paris.
The woman's face was completely different from before she started eating the oatmeal.
A hungry, frightened, beastly face.
Hannah's face crumpled when she saw that face.
The moment the eyes on that face turned to Hannah, Hannah turned her head.
Paris looked at Hannah as she frowned.
But she quietly left the dungeon, avoiding even Paris' gaze.
"Please save me...!"
A scream followed her behind.
She walked without stopping.
She got to the end of the tunnel and she spat out what she had in her mouth...
She held on to the hallway wall and climbed the stairs.
She finally crawled back to the ground and slumped against the wall.
"... F**k..."
A swear word came out of her mouth.
A pure white half-face floated before her eyes, illuminated by the torch.
The moment she saw that face, she felt something unbearable welling up in her chest.
The reason was simple.
"Do you see this face?"
At that moment, a sharp voice was heard from behind...
When Hannah turned around, a man with a languid face was looking at her with a cigar in his mouth.
The lord to whom she swore loyalty.
It was Armin Wilhelm.
She had no intention of telling him even the slightest lie.
"She was the daughter of the nanny who took care of me at the Marquis Lochen's house."
Aemin's eyes narrowed as he took out a match at Hannah's words.
But soon his face returned to a languid state, he struck a match and lit a cigar.
White smoke flew out of his mouth as he took a long sip.
"Marquis Lochen. This is getting interesting."
His golden eyes sparkled.
Hannah shivered slightly at the sight.
How long has it been since she last saw her lord's eyes shine?
"Is it fun for you too?"
Hannah bit her lip.
Armin twisted his mouth as he looked at Hannah who didn't answer.
"Why? Even if it's just a family in name, can't you be related by blood?"
Hannah answered those words without hesitation.
"It won't be easy to hold the nobles of the Kingdom of Mylene accountable for something like this. Cutting off trade right away won't be enough revenge."
"Yes."
"I was thinking back to when we sent reinforcements to Lochen to help stop the monster attacks. There must be a reason we sent soldiers to the Bjorn Mountains."
Bloodline, huh?
Hannah considered those words to be nothing less than an insult to her.
[Hannah Lochen. What do you think you could do without that name?]
Her brother's face used to laugh at her.
Hannah spat out the dirty saliva that remained in her mouth as she recalled that face.
"I will find out what is going on. Let me get my hands dirty, my lord. I know all about the weaknesses of the woman inside me."
"..."
Armin made a subtle face as he watched Hannah's purple eyes shine.
"Didn't she say something about maybe using a face-deforming scroll?"
That woman.
Hannah nodded at those words.
She's talking about the newly arrived Grand Duchess.
Armin Wilhelm personally carried the Grand Duchess, who was vomiting blood, out of the bedroom and checked on her well-being only once.
[Is she Dead?]
Check life or death.
That was it.
After hearing that the crisis had passed.l, although the problem of waking up still remained. Armin did not ask about the Grand Duchess any more.
Of course, Diana also didn't ask about Armin.
Rather than saying they aren't interested in each other...
'It seemed as if he naturally believed that she was still alive.'
Hannah wondered where such a strange belief came from, but decided not to ask unnecessary questions.
"This is interesting....l"
Armin furrowed his brows again, blowing out smoke.
Hannah looked at her master's expression and then opened her mouth as if a memory had just occurred to her.
"There's one more thing that came out of the bedroom that day."
Hannah took a dagger out of her bosom and offered it to Armin.
"Is this the maid's belongings?"
Armin took the dagger with both hands, a cigar in his mouth.
He spoke, holding the hilt of the dagger in one hand and a cigar in the other.
"Well, I'll look into it. You just focus on what you can find out from that maid."
At those words, Hannah bowed h ler head in agreement with the order and returned to the dungeon.
As Hannah's back was enveloped in darkness, Armin lifted his dagger and held it up to the moonlight.
"It's strange."
It's really weird.
This dagger, and that woman.
Armin felt a very faint black energy flowing from this dagger.
The blade was curved and the pattern was crude, and it looked like it had been made by a blacksmith's assistant, not a master swordsmith.
But despite that outward appearance, there is actually a dark energy flowing through it.
That same dark energy flowed from that woman.
Wasn't this strange in the first place?
That black energy flows from people.
Beneath his drooping eyelids, a faint red shadow from the dagger flowed across his golden pupils.
***
"My name is Esben Michelsen, Head Butler. I have come to brief Your Highness on the affairs of the castle."
After lying in bed for a full week, I took over the household affairs as soon as I recovered.
Esben Michelsen.
From what I remember of Diana Isla, he was quite a grumpy old woman.
In a way, it was natural.
He had been the first Empress's attendant since he was six years old, lived in the palace his entire life, and served Armin after he was born.
'This man also stayed by Armin's side when Wilhelm Castle fell.'
'He wouldn't have survived.Obviously.'
Thinking about it that way, I felt strange.
It seems like only the ghosts of dead people are wandering around this castle.
'Except for that drunkard.'
"First of all, this is a ledger that records the castle's overall expenditures and income."
Esben, as befitting his meticulous personality, thrust a meticulously written ledger in front of me.
The numbers aren't that difficult.
When my father ran a blacksmith shop, I sometimes kept the ledgers.
Unusually for a commoner, my father taught me numbers in preparation for the day when I would run the blacksmith shop.
I flipped through thick paper, trying to figure out the flow of money coming and going from Wilhelm Castle.
Wilhelm Castle's income wasn't too bad.
The abundance of timber from the forests and the high-quality iron ore from the Bjorn Mountains caught my eye.
'Especially iron.'
The iron in the Bjorn Mountains was famous.
When I was making Gram, I also ran around trying to get iron from the Bjorn Iron Mine.
But it was too expensive so I couldn't buy it.
But something was strange.
So much money is coming in...
"The deficit."
The money kept leaking out somewhere.
As I summarized the characteristics of this ledger in one word, Esben's expression distorted with confusion.
"You're quick at figuring out numbers, aren't you?"
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