#56

“Cersia!”

“Lady Cersia!”

I heard voices calling after me one after another, but I didn’t stop running. I dashed ahead, not caring who was around me.

After all, even if I kept running, it was still within Jabis Castle, so there was no real danger. I had been running for quite a while.

Once my stamina began to wane, my speed naturally slowed down. Only then did I start to notice my surroundings.

“Huh?”

I suddenly stopped in my tracks. In my frantic running, I had ended up somewhere unfamiliar.

“Where is this?”

Jabis Castle was so vast, surrounded by a dense forest, that it was easy to lose one’s way. Normally, I would have stuck to the paths I knew, but my emotions had been running too high for me to notice where I was going.

“Looks like I came too far.”

I retraced my steps, but I couldn’t be sure of the way I had come.

“Ugh, how foolish.”

Letting out a deep sigh, I decided to at least leave the forest. Once I was out of the woods, I figured I would find a familiar path.

After walking through the dense forest for a while, a wide field appeared.

“Huh? What’s that?”

I noticed an oval-shaped black door standing alone in the field and tilted my head in confusion.

It was literally just a door, standing upright with no walls attached. The space around it didn’t seem to have any particular devices or mechanisms.

It looked like some sort of gateway one would pass through before entering a temple. The door had what seemed to be the Jabis insignia engraved on it in relief.

Since it was inside Jabis Castle, it certainly wasn’t just some random object.

For some reason, I had a strong feeling that there was something dangerous beyond that door. At the same time, I had an inexplicable urge to open it. It was as if the door had called me to this place.

“Is it a secret vault?”

While I was hesitating in front of the door, I suddenly heard a voice from behind.

“What, are you trying to break in again?”

Startled, I whirled around to see Zerakiel standing there with his usual calm expression.

“Gasp!”

My heart raced as if I’d been caught in the act of doing something wrong.

“Make some noise next time! You scared me!”

“I’ve been following you for a while now, but you didn’t notice at all.”

“Oh…”

“Well, I was curious to see how far you’d go, so I hid my presence in the end.”

It seemed that my mind had been too preoccupied with Zakari to notice Zerakiel’s approach. And if Zerakiel had deliberately hidden his presence, there was no way I could have sensed him.

His gaze soon shifted toward the black door.

“Are you trying to go in there?”

Though his question was casual, there was a subtle tension in his voice. I pointed at the door and asked,

“Do you know what this is?”

“Did you forget that I’m the master of this place?”

“That’s exactly why I’m asking. You’d know what it is.”

At my bold reply, a faint smile appeared on Zerakiel’s face.

“Of course I know.”

His sleepy-looking eyes gazed at me steadily, as if he were debating whether or not to tell me.

After a brief pause, he finally spoke.

“That place…”

Zerakiel took his time, drawing out the suspense, making me gulp nervously in anticipation. Then he said,

“That’s the Jabis family tomb. The resting place of the previous heads of the family.”

“A tomb?”

I had never heard of there being a cemetery inside the castle. And yet, beyond the door was nothing but a field. It seemed that once the door was opened, a different space would unfold.

“It’s called the Secret Garden of Jabis.”

“Ah.”

At the mention of the Secret Garden, I recalled the garden from the original story. In that garden, withered flowers were stored in glass cases, but there were no coffins or gravestones.

‘Now that I think about it, the names of the direct descendants of Jabis were written beneath the glass cases holding the flowers.’

Even the flower Zerakiel had been looking at bore his name. At the time, I had thought it was just a flower he was tending to.

But a tomb for the Jabis family…

In the original story, the flowers Zerakiel had been staring at were, in fact, funeral flowers offered in advance for his own death.

Instead of gravestones, they planted flowers. Dead flowers, at that.

Why would they do such a thing?

I was baffled by the strange custom.

As I stood there, lost in thought, Zerakiel took a step closer and whispered,

“Do you want to go inside?”

“You said only direct descendants are allowed in.”

“Technically, it’s anyone with the pheromones of Jabis.”

His gaze shifted toward my wrist. When I instinctively moved to hide my wrist, he continued,

“That’s the reason my father never fully imprinted on my mother.”

Imprinting.

It was the act of permanently leaving one’s pheromones on their partner to mark them as their own.

In other words, the Secret Garden, which only direct descendants of Jabis could enter, was accessible to anyone who bore the family’s imprint.

“He was scared. Afraid that Mother would go in there and learn everything. And that she would end up like Grandmother.”

For some reason, the look in Zerakiel’s eyes as he stared at the door seemed unusual. Was the reason he had followed me in silence and only now revealed himself to stop me?

But if that was the case, Zerakiel’s expression was too composed. It almost seemed like he wanted me to know about the place.

Or more precisely, like he was testing me.

I quietly gazed at the door. Beyond it lay the secrets of Jabis. And they say, if I want to, I can enter.

Such an opportunity wouldn’t come easily. Yet for some reason, it felt wrong to go in now.

Up until a moment ago, I had been filled with the desire to go inside, but looking at Zerakiel’s expression made me hesitate.

Then Zerakiel flashed a grin and said something chilling.

“Most people who went in there died miserable deaths.”

“…”

“Still want to take a look?”

His tone was clearly meant to scare me. But oddly enough, it didn’t feel threatening.

Rather, it seemed more like…

Like he was scared. He blamed Zakari, but I suddenly thought that perhaps Zerakiel was the one afraid, and that’s why he was blocking my path.

I stared at Zerakiel, sensing a fleeting emotion, as if trying to understand the intent behind his question.

“And what about you?”

“Huh?”

“Do you want me to go in there?”

“What?”

I stepped away from the door and took a step closer to Zerakiel. Instinctively, he took a step back.

Ignoring his retreat, I extended my wrist toward him and asked,

“Do you regret imprinting on me?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

“I don’t know, it just seems like you regret it.”

At my probing remark, Zerakiel’s face showed a brief flash of surprise.

So, that composed façade of his—it had been an illusion. I hadn’t noticed immediately because his expression was usually so indifferent.

Zerakiel had a tendency to suppress his emotions too much. When his feelings were on the verge of overwhelming him, his expression became even more detached and cold.

Just like Zerakiel standing in front of me now.

He was particularly sensitive to the idea of me running away. He had noticed I wanted to leave long before I had even voiced it as a joke.

At the time, I thought he was just perceptive, but after hearing the full story from Rachel, I saw things differently.

‘He instinctively senses when he’s about to be abandoned.’

Someone who has experienced abandonment is the first to notice when someone is preparing to leave them. And they protect themselves using their own defense mechanisms.

Perhaps Zerakiel had imprinted on me instinctively—to keep me from escaping.

And now, he was terrified I might enter that door.

Was it because he still hadn’t matured?

Unlike the Zerakiel from the original story, the one in front of me didn’t seem used to completely hiding his true feelings.

If it were the original Zerakiel, he wouldn’t have revealed his vulnerability so easily. Instead, he would’ve found a way to trap me using the imprint, scheming to control me.

He might have even shown me the Secret Garden on purpose to fill me with fear.