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Knock, knock—
“Mr. Dioge, are you there?”
There was no answer.
The front door was so stripped of paint that it was hard to tell its original color, and the handle wouldn’t turn.
Curtains covered the glass, preventing any view of the interior.
“Is it empty?”
“Not sure.”
Kallix also covered his nose with a handkerchief.
The stench was growing worse by the second.
Mari looked around for something like a metal rod.
“Do you think there’s a tool to open the lock?”
“You trying to get inside?”
“Yes. Something seems off.”
“…Leave it to me.”
Kallix smashed the glass with the sword he was holding.
Clang—
The cheap glass shattered without resistance.
“Kallix…!”
Mari’s face went pale.
“What are you doing! You could get hurt!”
Kallix shrugged.
“It’s open now. I suppose we have to go in.”
“Still….”
Mari could only blink in disbelief.
Kallix reached through the broken window to turn the handle from inside.
“Be careful.”
The wooden door creaked as it slowly gave way.
Immediately, an unbearable stench hit them.
“Ugh…!”
Beyond the open door, the living room—or what should have been a living room—was revealed.
Mari was too shocked to speak.
“This is unbelievable…”
Trash was piled so high that there was barely room to step.
One false move and they could be buried under the heaps of stuff.
Judging by the smell, bugs were surely crawling in the piles.
“My goodness… Dioge might have hoarding disorder.”
Kallix asked again.
“Hoarding disorder?”
“Yes. People can’t throw away items they consider valuable, even if they’re worthless. They even collect trash from outside.”
“…Seems like the neighbors left because of the smell and pests.”
“If you make your living space like this, conflicts with family or neighbors are inevitable.”
“Conflicts? With the way he’s piling up things like garbage, a fire could start easily.”
“That’s true. Fires or falling accidents often happen in places like this. Not to mention the smell and health issues.”
From the smell, it seemed food waste was also collected inside.
Sometimes dementia causes people to lose the ability to distinguish trash from non-trash.
But usually, that’s more common in elderly people…
“With symptoms this severe, I guess no one helped him after Count Whitehouse.”
“Temporary stress or depression can also lead to this,” Mari added.
Kallix, who had been listening quietly, glanced at Mari with admiration.
“But… how do you know it’s hoarding disorder?”
“Ah, well…”
Mari froze.
In truth, she had never seen a house like this before.
But she had read articles about similar cases in newspapers.
Cases where welfare recipients living among heaps of trash were helped by local government cleaning services and public health offices.
‘That person even had alcoholism…’
The articles mentioned neighbors suffering severe mental stress from persistent stench and pests lasting over ten years.
‘Eventually, psychiatric care was provided and trucks were brought in to remove over three tons of trash…’
Of course, Mari couldn’t tell Kallix all that.
“Actually… there were quite a few professional books in the house. I learned a lot from them.”
“The auction must have taken most of your valuable materials. That’s unfortunate.”
“I still kept some of the books,” Mari said, recalling the secret compartment she had found in the library.
Except for a few books she sold early on to cover living expenses, she hadn’t touched much else.
‘I should take another look there when I have time.’
“Ugh…”
Mari covered her nose and stepped forward.
At that moment, Kallix grabbed her arm.
“What are you doing…?”
“We need to go in. That person might still be inside. They said they’ve been holed up in their house.”
“No.”
Kallix’s expression was serious as he turned to her.
“Eh…?”
Mari blushed.
His hand holding hers seemed unusually large.
Her gaze was drawn to the long fingers and the muscles on the back of his hand.
“But maybe the person I need is in there…”
All her attention was on the hand that held hers.
The warmth seemed to seep through.
It felt strangely ticklish.
Though they had touched lips before, this felt like the first time she had really connected with him.
“I can’t let you go in there.”
He blocked her path to the house piled with garbage.
His tone was unusually firm.
“…”
Mari was momentarily speechless.
It felt like he was trying to protect her.
As if she were too precious to handle the trash herself.
“Stay here. Leave this to me.”
His red eyes captivated Mari.
She felt her heart race for reasons she couldn’t explain.
“…Thank you, Kallix.”
“You’re welcome.”
Josh quickly jumped forward.
“M-Master, the knights and I will go!”
He looked panicked at the thought of his lord entering the garbage heap instead of Mari.
Josh and the knights covered their noses and mouths with handkerchiefs, but couldn’t hide their disgusted expressions.
“Goodness, Lieutenant Kelwin, I’ve never seen anything like this. This guy must be incredibly lazy and filthy.”
“Exactly. Is this a house or a garbage dump?”
Josh and one knight pushed their way through the trash.
“We found him!”
A short while later, a man was dragged out, arms held on both sides.
He was drunk, eyes half-closed, barely conscious.
“There was just enough space in the middle of the trash for him to lie down. Ugh.”
Josh shook his head and clicked his tongue, then shook his entire body as if trying to avoid picking up fleas.
“He seems to have drunk heavily.”
The smell of alcohol was strong.
Mari grimaced and covered her nose with a handkerchief again.
Honestly, she wanted to leave as soon as possible.
“What do we do now?”
Kallix asked, and Mari gave the dragged man a look of disdain.
She didn’t know how long he had been like this, but he had a solid build.
He just looked like a homeless man with brown hair and a scruffy beard.
“We need to clean him up before we can talk to him,” Mari sighed, looking back at the blue-roofed house.
“The house itself is more of a problem right now.”
“What’s the problem?”
“We need to clear out that trash.”
It was necessary for the man’s mental and physical health.
But convincing the owner to dispose of the trash would not be easy.
“If Dioge were easy to persuade, it wouldn’t have gotten this bad in the first place.”
“Seeing the neighboring houses empty, everyone must have eventually given up and left.”
The man, oblivious to the worried eyes on him, remained passed out drunk.
“We’ll have to wait until he wakes up… then carefully persuade him to clean the house.”
“…”
Kallix looked down at Dioge’s tangled, unkempt hair.
The vertical wrinkles between his brows were evident.
He seemed exasperated at the thought of Mari struggling with him.
“Mari, as I said before…”
“Yes?”
He let out a small sigh.
“Leave this to me.”
A short while later.
Josh returned to Dioge’s house with additional men.
“Has Lady Whitehouse left?”
“Yes. We sent her away by force.”
A crowd had gathered to watch.
“Wow, it’s Duke Bloodstone!”
They murmured about how Bloodstone would destroy even a commoner’s house.
“Destroying such a small house isn’t a big deal.”
“No, this is the person who could burn down the entire street!”
Kallix was used to situations like this.
He ignored the crowd and gave Josh instructions.
“Make sure he’s cleaned up before Mari meets him. Give him a haircut. Don’t let him hang around her looking like that.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kallix, without realizing it, covered his nose again.
Josh clicked his tongue and looked down at Dioge.
“As you said, the demolition preparations are done. But… how do we get his consent?”
Dioge was sitting helplessly, barely conscious.
“Well, what consent is needed to throw away trash?”
“Still… Lady Whitehouse said we must get his consent before disposing of the trash.”
Kallix made a troubled face.
“…Get his consent.”
“Eh?”
Josh tilted his head.
“Until when?”
“Right now.”
“How?”
But Kallix didn’t answer and walked away.
“Master…?”
Josh silently looked at Dioge.
With his head down, there was no chance he’d wake up today.
Watching his lord walk away, there seemed to be no alternative.
“Haah…”
Josh sighed and approached Dioge.
“Hey, let’s get rid of the trash. You agree, right?”
“….”
The passed-out man, of course, didn’t answer.
Josh shook his shoulders back and forth.
Dioge’s head flopped, nodding weakly.
“Ah, he agrees?”
Josh smiled and released him; Dioge’s head fell again.
Josh jumped up and shouted,
“Master, he agreed!”
