Kreek,Kreek,Kreek.
Isley Emers woke up to the sound of something scratching. I could see the legs of a small child, white and slender. He frowned as he stared blankly down at his pale pink knees, checkered overall shorts, and the white cloth that tickled his legs.
‘Huh? Where is this place? What was I doing right now’
Kreek,Kreek,Kreek.
I heard a sound I had heard before. Isley blinked his eyes a couple of times before raising his head. What opened in front of him was a table full of delicious food. A simple white tablecloth without any patterns made the food on it stand out. It was then that he realized the identity of the object in his hand. fork and knife. Dirty with brown sauce. In front of him was a steak cut into a mess.
‘Yes, I was eating.’
Kreek,Kreek,Kreek.
Isley turned to where the sound was coming from, to the chair where my mother was sitting. The duke wore a mask whiter than a white tablecloth. The mask covered the entire face and was too thick to see the expression behind it.
“Mom, why are you wearing a mask?”
“Mask? I don’t know what you’re talking about. My dear son, Izzy.”
“Huh? You’re wearing a white mask right now. Take that off right away. You can’t eat if you’re wearing a mask.”
“… Ha… Now I don’t need to eat. I’m full just watching you eat. And I’m not wearing a mask Haha, I see. Are you joking again? You cute naughty boy.”
Kreek,Kreek,Kreek.
“… And I think there’s a strange noise behind that mask…”
Kreek,Kreek,Kreek.
“… Can’t you just take it off?”
“What a funny joke! hahaha.”
Suddenly the Duke began to laugh. Isley felt goosebumps all over his body. Because he felt something was strange to her.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha”
… The laughter stops and the air changes. Cold, wet, and heavy.
“Wouldn’t you regret it?”
Isley grabbed his neck. Because as he breathed in the air, his throat hurt.
It’s painful.
“… Hah… Haah! regret it? I don’t understand what you mean.”
“You told me to take it off. It’s your fault. It’s all your fault. what you want you. you. you. you. you. you. you. you guys.”
“… Mother…? why… Yes. Cough! From before… I’m scared… No, I’m not saying I’m afraid of mother… that is… cough!”
The Duke slowly raised her hand and grabbed the mask.
Behind it were the octopus’s legs.
“Uh, mother…?”
What I thought was eight became ten, then twenty, two hundred, one thousand, no, countless, long, and thick stretches out and covering the entire dining room.
“Hey…! This is not my mother…!”
It’s a monster!
It is something that you cannot understand even if you know its identity. I’d rather not know. Strangely shaped legs began to rise above me. The sticky, disgusting, disgusting touch made Isley scream.
“… Ugh!”
And woke up
He couldn’t remember what kind of dream he had, but he only remembered the unpleasant feeling. So he frowned and spit out cursing.
Sunlight streams in through the closed curtains. The morning came again. Isley crouched and lifted his head slightly to look at the light shining on the floor before burying it again between his knees. A rumbling sound was heard from the ship. Contrary to the hum, I didn’t feel hungry at all. His gloom is so engrossed in his mind that he has no time to worry about anything else.
Then, someone knocked on his door.
“… Layla…?”
Every morning, noon and evening Layla came to clean his room. Recalling this, Isley’s face brightened a little, then darkened again.
‘No, it can’t be. She didn’t come yesterday. In the morning, at lunch, in the evening… Is she saying she doesn’t want to see me anymore?’
That expectation was not wrong. It wasn’t Layla’s high roaring voice, but a low, heavy voice that seemed to belong to an older woman came from outside his door.
“Master, I brought breakfast.”
“… Noisy… get off it. I said Iwant to eat. If you bother me more, I’ll cut off either your left arm or your right leg.”
“Are you still threatening other maids like that? Hah, if it wasn’t for me as the maid, everyone would have gotten scared and ran away. If you starve like this, you will hurt your body. The butlers, except for me, are worried a lot.”
From outside the door came the maid’s polite greeting to someone. The person, who was greeted, knocked on Isley’s door gracefully, and said in an irritated voice.
“Isley, stop and eat. Are you protesting like a child? I don’t know what’s going on… Don’t you think starving is stupid? Mother too… is worried about you.”
“… She must be very concerned.”
“… Noisy. A true nobleman would usually hand over a formal sentence.”
At Arthur’s hoarse voice, Isley let out a small laugh. He looked at the long sword that was leaning against the wall. It was an item that I had Layla bring from the smithy back in the day.
‘… Should I approach Layla first and apologize…? What if she avoids me…? What if she hates me more? No, I’d hate it even more if I just stayed like this. okay… Let’s meet first. Wait a minute, now that I see…’
Isley, who remembered something, got up from his seat and jumped up and opened the door. The door moved violently and crashed into the wall, and Arthur and the maid twitched, as if a little startled.
“Layla, my exclusive servant…? Has she already left the mansion?”
He remembered clearly that Layla would give her resignation letter and she would leave in three days. And today was the third day. At Isley’s words, the maid, Jean, struggled to swallow her sigh as she was about to come out, and Arthur frowned.
“Young master… The maid hasn’t gone out yet. She can’t go out.”
“… What are you talking about?”
“It’s embarrassing to even say this… Layla and her sister have been stealing things from the masters secretly. She was found guilty of that, and she is now in a dungeon.”
Isley raised the corners of his mouth, saying it was ridiculous.
“You are lying…? Why is she doing that? Layla is not like that.”
“……”
“Don’t play, just tell the truth!”
Arthur let out a short sigh and let the maid go.
“… I’ll explain. Calm down.”
He thought he should tell his brother how this happened. Arthur explained, succinctly and succinctly, what had happened to Layla.
“…it’s not that good way, but I don’t think it’s a bad way either… Isley…? Isley Emers!”
Arthur mistakenly mistaken Isley’s feelings for Layla as simple liking or curiosity, similar to his own.
So, as soon as Arthur had finished telling the story, he had no idea that Isley would find Osses and grab him by the collar.
Osses, who was heading to the duke’s office early in the morning, was suddenly struck by a human spirit that attacked him. A huge hand grabbed him by the collar, and at the same time, his body was lifted lightly and pressed against the wall. It was a formidable force. bang! With a loud noise, the back and the wall collide. Employers were startled, and those with a little more seniority looked for people in a position to put an end to the situation.
Osses grimaced at his piercing pain, then looked into his opponent’s face.
He realized the identity of the opponent from the moment he was grabbed by the collar. There are very few people in this family who can treat him like this. And especially those who can lift an adult man so easily. Osses made eye contact with Isley and smiled.
“… I don’t know why you’re so angry all of a sudden?”
“You don’t know, you said…?”
Isley growled as he walked up to the nose of his face.
“I heard everything from Arthur. brother… Osses, he said that you imprisoned Layla by doing something dirty.”
“… Stop making a fuss and let it go.”
“No.”
“… Our mother won’t like it if it’s loud. This is in front of mother’s office.”
“……”
“And, isn’t Isley the same anyway?”
From now on, there are no good things the employees have heard. Osses whispered in Isley’s ear.
“I have already heard that you took the fainting maid into the infirmary. I heard your expressions were really nice back then, didn’t you?”
The hand on the collar trembles finely. The same is true of the eyes facing each other.
“What did you do to the maid to make her faint? What’s that? What horrible thing did you do to her, Isley Emus? You can’t do this to others. And wouldn’t you like it if you could catch a maid like this? Why don’t you think about how to hold her”
Without saying a word, Isley loosened the strength in his hands. And he just stared blankly at the wall like a lost soul. Osses set his feet on the ground and turned around, contemplating his stupid face.
‘It’s annoying….’
Osses let out a deep sigh as he fiddled with the creases of his shirt.
He returned to his usual soft smile, but his heart, on the contrary, was full of irritation.
‘Emotional and ignorant. I really don’t like him being called a rare genius.’
Osses called the maid from afar.
“Isley doesn’t look very good, so take him to the doctor.”
And in order to solve the original problem, he lightly knocked on the door of the Duke’s office. Arthur, who came here late, noticed what had happened and frowned, but, turning around, he didn’t notice. Arthur got the duke’s permission and went inside. He greeted his mother, who was buried in the papers, softly.
“Good morning, mother.”
“Don’t make a fuss unnecessarily. It’s noisy.”
The duke, noticing the commotion outside, answered, sipping her coffee and scanning the documents. Papers are folded, swept, and sounds are heard in the quiet parlor.
“Yes, sorry…”
Osses opened his mouth to hand over the apple. At the same time, the duke put down her glass and said:
“Do you have a favor? Tell me.”
“You’re so quick-witted… Yes, that’s right. I’m here for business.”
“You can’t release the maids in the basement.”
“… Why?”
“It’s useful for this job. If it went well, it may solve the problem.”
“So you blocked the way to the dungeon?”
Osses remembered what happened yesterday. The dungeon couldn’t be entered. It was because the knights blocked the way, saying it was the duke’s order. If the duke ordered it directly, no one in the duke’s family could ignore it and act recklessly.
“Yes.”
“I didn’t know. I don’t think they have anything to do with mother’s work… Why didn’t you tell me? I thought I was involved in the slave auction to some extent.”
“I was going to tell you when I was more certain. All of them, including you. You guys also helped me quite a bit.”
Then a knock was heard again, and the knight came in with the duke’s permission. Hearing the story she whispered in her ear, she bluntly uttered her words of permission. And Yuria came in.
