Judith’s steps felt particularly light as she made her way to the Brix Baron’s estate for a delivery. It was all thanks to the smooth resolution of a recent issue.
After hearing Judith’s tip, Lila decided she had nothing to lose and dug into the Baroness’s affairs. As it turned out, the Baroness truly did have a much younger lover—none other than the Baron’s own aide.
When the Baron found out, he flew into a rage and threw the Baroness out. The shock was so great that he fell ill and had been bedridden ever since.
Because of this, Lila was appointed as the acting Baron, essentially inheriting the position of the head of the household.
Feeling pleased, she followed through on her promise and placed a large order for candles, even adding a generous tip.
“When money is tight, lips become loose.”
“Then I suppose my lips just became a little heavier, my lady.”
“You took care of the ring, didn’t you?”
“Of course.”
The ring had been entrusted to the same medium who had revealed its true nature and was disposed of accordingly. It cost extra, but she simply billed Baron Brix’s daughter, so Judith suffered no losses.
With her purse now significantly heavier, Judith stepped out of the Baron’s estate, her stride light—until someone called out to her.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes?”
The man addressing her had a rather rough appearance, perhaps due to a scar on his face.
“Could you tell me how to get to the plaza from here?”
“Just go straight and take a left.”
“Thank you. Ah, by the way—”
As Judith bowed slightly and tried to walk past him, the man stopped her.
“I don’t usually say things like this, but… you’ve got something ominous attached to you, miss.”
What was this eerie, yet strangely familiar feeling?
“If you ever find yourself in trouble, head to the alley near the Hos forge. There’s a tent decorated with red fabric. I’ll give you a reading for free, just for you.”
Oh, great. Another one of those ‘Do you know the way of enlightenment?’ types.
Judith simply nodded out of politeness and hurried away. If you’re a scam artist, sir, you’ve picked the wrong target.
She quickened her pace, putting distance between herself and the strange man. After finishing her shopping at the marketplace, she returned to the estate, where Erne had already arrived ahead of her, having gone to collect a forged identity document.
“You’re back, madam.”
“I see Sir Henry is here as well.”
“Well, we have to give the man a proper send-off, don’t we?”
Ever thoughtful, Henry hadn’t come empty-handed—he brought food and wine.
“All we need to do is plate the food. If you show me the kitchen, I can take care of it.”
“Let’s do it together, Sir Henry. I’ll just drop off my things and be right back.”
Judith entered her room, set down her basket, and put on an apron before coming back out.
“Alright, let’s go, Sir Henry.”
“Wait a moment, madam. This fell.”
Henry picked up a small yellow pouch that had landed near Judith’s feet.
“Huh? What’s this?”
“Isn’t it yours, madam?”
Judith narrowed her eyes slightly, tilting her head in confusion. That was odd. She was sure she had never seen this pouch before, yet somehow, it felt strangely familiar.
Something about this was unsettling.
“What’s inside?”
Henry absentmindedly shook the pouch before opening it to look inside.
A silence of about three seconds followed—then Henry screamed and hurled the pouch away.
“Aaaah!”
“Sir Henry, are you alright? What was inside?”
“B-Bugs…!”
“What’s going on?”
Hearing the commotion, Erne, who had been packing in his room, came over to see Judith and Henry. Henry, still catching his breath, pointed at the silk pouch on the floor.
“Sir Henry, are you afraid of bugs? This mansion has been abandoned for a long time, so of course there would be insects.”
Judith responded nonchalantly.
Erne, who had been silently observing the yellow silk pouch, suddenly asked a peculiar question.
“Have you ever actually seen a bug in this house?”
“A bug…?”
Wait—had she ever seen one? A question mark seemed to pop up in Judith’s mind.
When she first arrived at the Rainland estate, it had been remarkably clean. Not a single cobweb in sight.
Not even the usual cockroaches or fruit flies—she had never once spotted an insect in the house.
“Hmm, I haven’t seen any, but I’ve often heard the sound of something gnawing.”
“You heard… gnawing sounds?”
“Yes, like a scratching or rustling noise.”
She had always heard it—when making candles, when waking up in the middle of the night, even when she had trouble sleeping due to crying. The faint sound of something nibbling had always been there.
“Wait, that’s not the point right now. That thing inside the pouch—it wasn’t just a bug. I made eye contact with it.”
“Sir Henry, insects have eyes too.”
Though it might be rare, it wasn’t impossible for them to make eye contact.
“No, madam, that’s not what I meant! It actually had human eyes!”
“What?”
That didn’t make any sense. Judith picked up the pouch and opened it.
“Huh? It’s not a bug—it’s gold.”
Inside, there was a lump of gold about the size of Judith’s thumb. As the golden light shimmered and reflected in her eyes, the lump suddenly wriggled.
It lifted its head.
Black eyes—ones that looked exactly like Judith’s—stared straight at her.
Countless legs, a wrinkled body, and at the front, a human face.
“………!”
Judith was frozen, unable to tear her gaze away from the creature.
Just then, Erne snatched the pouch from her hands.
Only after the pouch was gone did Judith snap back to reality and let out a scream.
“Aaaah!”
“Don’t you think that’s a bit late for a reaction?”
Erne sighed, tightly closing the pouch before tossing it onto the table.
“Are you sure this is your first time seeing that?”
Judith bit her lip, rummaging through her memories.
Something about that yellow pouch and the lump of gold felt overwhelmingly familiar.
“Ah!”
She remembered now. The very first day she stepped into the Rainland estate.
While exploring the mansion, she had found a bright yellow silk pouch in Cedric Rainland’s room.
“Wow, it’s gold! Jackpot.”
She had been thrilled to find a piece of gold about the size of her finger, already thinking about keeping it as an emergency fund.
But what had happened after that?
She had no recollection. It was as if everything about the pouch had been erased from her mind.
“Weird… It was definitely gold back then.”
“It was never gold. It was always a bug—you were just seeing it as gold.”
Judith and Henry both turned to Erne, who seemed to know more than he was letting on.
“Sir Erne, do you know what that thing is?”
“A man-eating bug.”
“What?”
“I don’t know the details, but I do know that if you get infected by that thing, you die.”
Erne furrowed his brow as if recalling something from memory.
“First, you start getting nosebleeds, then you cough up blood. Eventually, holes form in your internal organs… and you die.”
“W-What did you just say?”
“Yeah. When I first heard about the frequent deaths in this mansion, I thought it was strange.”
The symptoms were identical to what had happened to Erne when he was infected by that golden bug. But at the time, he had dismissed the possibility.
“It wasn’t the mansion that killed people—it was that bug.”
“Wait, and you’re just telling us this now—ugh.”
Judith, pale as a sheet, was about to demand an explanation when she suddenly clutched her mouth.
She coughed violently, and when she pulled her hand away, fresh red blood stained her palm.
“M-Madam, are you alright?”
Of course, she wasn’t. How could she be, knowing she was about to die? Her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the floor.
“That man earlier said something unholy was attached to me.”
“Who?”
“Some man who asked me for directions. He told me I had something cursed attached to me and that I should come find him if anything happened.”
Wiping the blood off her lips with the handkerchief Henry handed her, Judith grabbed the silk pouch and shot up to her feet.
“I need to go find him.”
That man had realized she was cursed in just a brief moment.
Maybe, just maybe, he knew how to get rid of it.
“Where did he tell you to go?”
“He said it’s in the alley by Hos forge.”
“Madam, that area isn’t safe.”
Henry glanced out the window, which was now cloaked in evening shadows, and shook his head.
“It’s dangerous even during the day, but at night, it’s worse. Robberies happen all the time.”
Even the city guards avoided patrolling that area after sunset.
“But if Erne goes with you, you’ll be fine.”
Henry, watching Judith with concern, suddenly brightened as if he had a good idea.
Then, he turned to Erne.
“Why are you dragging me into this?”
“You may have been dismissed from the knighthood, but you should still uphold your chivalry, Erne.”
Henry grabbed Erne’s sword and pressed it into his hands.
“Think of it as one last good deed before you leave.”
Judith looked up at Erne with desperate, pleading eyes.
Her drooping gaze, her lips pressed into a small pout—she looked just like a rain-soaked rabbit…
‘What rabbit? They’d have all frozen to death by now.’*
Erne quickly pushed the thought away, but for some reason, he could never ignore Judith when she made that face.
Unable to look away from her deep, dark eyes, Erne let out a short sigh and stood up.
“Fine. Let’s go. Lead the way.”
🍓; *It’s just a way to deny or dismiss his own feelings of sympathy toward Judith.
