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Chapter 7
The office, as always, was quiet.
In that silence, Gerald was battling unbearable pain.
The corridor had black curtains hung as a warning not to approach, forming a kind of boundary. However, such boundaries could not extend beyond the castle walls.
The sound of servants walking hurriedly, kicking up dirt. The crash of dishes falling and breaking. Lively conversations. The chirping of insects. The neighing of horses. The sound of wind. Kay’s faint breathing.
All these noises sharpened like needles and pierced into his ears, tearing at his mind.
A dreadful headache surged.
“……”
Gerald picked up a thin silver letter opener from his desk and, without hesitation, pierced his ear.
“My lord!”
Due to his condition, Kay, who tried to speak as little as possible, called out urgently in a low voice.
“I only pierced the eardrum.”
“……”
Only after forcibly injuring his ear did the headache subside slightly.
However, once his hearing was numbed, his sense of smell began to dominate.
Kay’s sweat smelled overwhelming, intensifying the pain in his head.
“Kay. Step away for a moment.”
Kay’s movement as he shook his head was conveyed through the air.
Gerald issued a firm command.
“Now.”
Kay silently lowered his head and disappeared.
The stale air drifting through the office stung his nose. A wave of nausea rose, and he held his breath.
“Damn it.”
Gerald closed his eyes, struggling to suppress the other senses that were going wild.
“Pardon? You want me to go back?”
Marlene’s firm resolve from the previous day was rendered meaningless as she immediately faced a crisis in employment.
At the shocking words, her light green eyes trembled.
She had arrived right on time at the office, yet she was being told to leave.
“I’m sorry.”
“You’re seriously telling me to go?”
“Yes. Please return home today.”
Olive awkwardly avoided her gaze.
“Just for today, right?”
Marlene asked, seeking reassurance.
“Well…”
Olive glanced at the office door with a troubled expression and trailed off.
“I can’t accept this! How did I even get here? And now I’m being kicked out after just one day? I’ll die here if I have to!”
Marlene collapsed onto the red carpet in the hallway, clutching it tightly with a resolute expression.
“Miss Marlene, I think there’s been a misunderstanding. It’s not that you’re being kicked out—”
Flustered, Olive reached out a hand as if asking her to get up.
“You told me to go back!”
Marlene looked up at her with a resentful gaze.
This job had been so hard to obtain. She couldn’t be fired after just one day.
“No, that’s not it… Let’s talk somewhere else first.”
Just as Olive kept glancing nervously at the office—
“Come in.”
A heavy, cold voice echoed from inside the office.
Startled by the unexpected voice of the duke, Marlene’s eyes widened like a frightened rabbit.
“The duke is inside? Was I speaking too loudly?”
Olive sighed deeply, wincing in discomfort.
“Sigh… let’s go in first.”
Marlene stood up, deflated like a frightened puppy.
Olive lit a candle and entered the office. Marlene followed closely behind him, trying to stay hidden.
Then her steps suddenly halted. Even though Olive, her only cover, moved further away, she couldn’t move.
Her instincts were warning her. Danger.
With a tense expression, Marlene slowly scanned the office.
Thick black curtains on each window. A mahogany desk. A thick red carpet. And the duke, exuding presence even in darkness.
The office was just as dark and bleak as the day before.
However, something felt subtly off.
She flinched. Realizing one difference from yesterday, her shoulders stiffened.
A faint smell of blood mixed into the stale, unventilated air.
Marlene’s head suddenly spun, and nausea rose.
The neighing of horses. The smell of damp earth. Drops of blood falling before her eyes.
No. She couldn’t collapse here.
Forcing herself to breathe deeply, she pushed away the lingering fragments of memory in her mind.
She clenched and unclenched her cold hands to restore warmth. The effort worked, and the dizziness soon faded.
Steadying her trembling legs, she stood behind Olive again.
Why does it smell like blood?
Due to her past trauma, she could detect the scent of blood like a ghost. It was faint, but unmistakable.
Her light green eyes darted around anxiously.
“Did someone die here?”
Her imagination ran wild.
She had thought she would just read reports to the duke like reading a book.
But… would she have to risk her life? Should she run away now?
She wanted to turn around and flee immediately, but her frozen body refused to move.
“You look resolute.”
A low predator-like voice came from the darkness.
“I-I’m sorry.”
Marlene apologized with trembling lips.
“You said you’d die here?”
“N-no!”
She quickly denied her own words. She had no desire to die.
This office, faintly smelling of blood, felt more like an execution ground than a workplace.
The swords mounted on one wall flickered in candlelight, gleaming sharper and larger.
Forcing her gaze away from the swords, Marlene looked toward the duke shrouded in darkness.
“Are you… a spy, by any chance?”
“W-what? Hic—no!”
A chill ran down her neck.
She barely restrained the urge to grab her throat, answering while trembling with fear.
“Then why insist on dying here?”
The duke’s emotionless tone sounded even more terrifying.
“T-that’s not what I meant. It’s a misunderstanding! I meant I really want to work. Hic. I truly don’t want to die. Hic.”
Her words came out disjointed due to the hiccups that always appeared when she was nervous. Being mistaken for a spy and killed would be unbearably unfair.
“Olive.”
The target shifted.
Olive lowered his head with a somber expression.
“I apologize. Because it was difficult to speak of His Grace’s condition, I failed to explain properly and asked her to leave. It seems she misunderstood it as being fired.”
At those words, Marlene’s light green eyes shook like an earthquake.
He should have explained properly! Instead of abruptly telling her to leave the moment she arrived.
“Miss Marlene, I’m sorry. His Grace’s condition must be kept known to only a select few. I couldn’t quickly decide whether or not to inform you, given that you’ve just started.”
“Ah… I see.”
After hearing Olive’s explanation, she understood.
Who was the duke?
He was like a king ruling the western region. And the condition of someone in such a high position was strictly confidential.
“So that’s why things seemed noisy?”
The duke’s voice rang out coldly.
“I apologize.”
Olive bowed deeply.
“I’m sorry.”
Marlene also followed with a timid apology.
“Report.”
“Are you sure? You haven’t received treatment yet…”
Olive’s voice was filled with concern.
Treatment?
Marlene looked back and forth between Olive and the duke with wide eyes.
The smell of blood wasn’t from someone being killed—it was because the duke was injured?
“Olive, are you a doctor?”
The duke asked lazily.
“I’m his aide.”
Olive corrected calmly.
“Then assist. Report.”
“I’ll bring it.”
Olive bowed slightly and left the office with a gloomy expression.
Now only Marlene and the duke remained in the room.
Realizing no one had died here, her tense body relaxed slightly.
She cautiously observed the duke, but his face remained hidden in the darkness.
Marlene hesitated before speaking.
“Your Grace…”
“……”
There was no response.
“I’m really not a spy.”
Marlene shut her eyes tightly and mustered the last bit of courage she had.
“Have you ever seen a spy say, ‘I am a spy’?”
A faint trace of mockery could be heard in the duke’s low voice.
