Chapter 3
Seeing no intention to open the door, I quietly lay down inside the wardrobe. There was no need to force my way out and upset Dedrick. As a wardrobe monster, being locked inside wasn’t scary—rather, it felt cozy and comfortable. With my body and mind at ease, I drifted into thought.
‘Why is Dedrick so wary of me?’
…The answer was simple: because he didn’t know me. Of course, I never explained who I was to him.
People naturally become cautious around the unknown.
So, maybe I just needed to explain myself.
Then, wouldn’t it be fine if I just explained who I was?
Anyway, the wardrobe door was closed, and it seemed like he could hear me even if I kept talking, so I decided to give a full-on speech about myself.
It was time for a proper introduction. I should’ve done this when we first met.
Sitting up, I looked at the closed wardrobe door and began my introduction.
“Hi, Dedrick. I’m a wardrobe monster.”
“……”
“I may be a monster, but I don’t go around eating people. I just live quietly inside wardrobes.”
I didn’t need to eat anything to survive, but…
“If someone offers me food, I’ll eat it. I can still taste things, you know.”
It was quiet, but I noticed the faint scratch of his pen stopping every time I spoke. It seemed like he was listening.
“Earlier, I really wanted some of that meat…”
“……”
Oops, that just slipped out. The thought of thick cuts of meat drizzled with sauce made my mouth water, but I quickly shook it off and continued my introduction.
“I can move between wardrobes, but only the ones I’ve seen before. So, I can pretty much roam around most of the grand manor except for a few places.”
“……”
“I can come out of the wardrobe, but sometimes I get pulled back in, like earlier. When that happens, I end up back here in this wardrobe, which is kind of like my main base.”
“……”
“I can’t be seen by most people, but you seem to be an exception. I’m not really sure why. Still, I can touch things, so it’s not like I’m a ghost.”
Because I wasn’t a ghost, I could handle objects without my hands passing through them. Though sometimes, when I touched things in front of others, it looked like they were floating in midair, which tended to freak people out a bit.
That had accidentally happened a few times before…
“Were you the one behind the ghost incident the other day?”
He asked me! I didn’t want to ruin this moment by getting too excited, so I answered as calmly as possible.
“Yep, that was me!”
“……”
Maybe I sounded a little too eager.
“I didn’t mean to scare anyone. It’s just, every time I was holding something, I’d accidentally run into the servants…”
The sound of his pen resumed, but my introduction wasn’t over yet. I picked up where I left off.
“I like staying inside wardrobes. If I spend too much time outside, I start to lose my strength. I even need to sleep inside the wardrobe. Otherwise, I get really weak!”
Hmm, what else should I explain?
“I don’t know how old I am. I can’t see my reflection in the mirror, so I’m not even sure what I look like. All I know is I have gray hair and small horns. But I think I’m about the same age as you?”
Dedrick was fourteen. Because he wasn’t eating well, his growth was slower than other kids his age. He was much shorter than his peers and painfully thin. However, as he grew older, he would eventually be taller than most adult men and be known across the continent for his stunning looks. I was already looking forward to that day.
I smiled at the thought and continued my explanation.
“I don’t even know when I first ended up here. At some point, I just knew I was a wardrobe monster and that this wardrobe was my home.”
And that’s pretty much it… If he was curious about anything else, he could always ask later.
“That’s all about me. I’m definitely not the kind of monster that would hurt you. I don’t eat humans.”
Despite my long-winded introduction, Dedrick remained silent. But then, I heard a clunk, and the wardrobe door creaked open slightly.
I gently pushed the door open a little further and saw that he had used a long wooden stick to prop it closed. He was retrieving it now.
Staring at the back of his round head, I called out,
“Thanks, Didi!”
“……”
I called him by his nickname, but he didn’t say anything about it.
Since he didn’t seem to mind, I decided to keep calling him by that nickname.
It might help us get closer.
After watching him all night, I was relieved to see that Dedrick didn’t seem to fall ill.
‘I was a little worried when I told him to eat the meat…’
It seemed like the food hadn’t been poisoned after all.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I kept staring at him as he read his book.
It was still before dawn, yet Dedrick woke up without any sign of fatigue and opened a book. He was so diligent.
‘Doesn’t this kid ever get sleepy?’
I rested my cheek on the table and yawned. Even if I didn’t eat, I still needed to sleep. Normally, I’d be asleep by now, but I’d stayed up all night watching over Dedrick.
My eyelids drooped as I struggled to stay awake, but eventually, I couldn’t fight it anymore, and my eyes gently closed.
“……”
“……”
As her breathing became steady and regular, Dedrick quietly put down the book he’d been holding. The pages hadn’t changed since he first opened it.
He’d been distracted by the girl who had been watching over him all night. Dedrick had noticed her cautiously sneaking out of the wardrobe, checking on him late into the night. Sometimes, she’d put her hand on his forehead, only to groan in frustration because she couldn’t tell whether he had a fever or not.
‘I can’t tell if he has a fever because my hands are too warm!’
Because of that, he ended up staying awake through the night as well.
Rubbing his sleepy eyes, Dedrick recalled what the girl had said the previous day.
“I have to sleep inside the wardrobe. If not, I’ll lose all my strength!”
“…That’s what she said, right?”
After hesitating for a moment, Dedrick glanced at the wardrobe, which was now wide open.
Cautiously, he picked up the girl in his arms. She was small and incredibly light—so much so that, despite Dedrick’s small figure, she still fit perfectly in his embrace. Her warmth, soft and comforting, was something he hadn’t felt since his mother passed away. It was so unfamiliar yet so soothing, that Dedrick bit his lip, trying to suppress the emotions stirring within him.
“……”
He clenched his hands tightly, but he made an effort to relax them.
With great care, Dedrick gently placed her inside the wardrobe. As he brushed aside her messy gray hair, he could see her long eyelashes.
His gaze wandered, and it landed on the little horns on her head.
The small red horns that poked out from her hair were so cute that he couldn’t resist his curiosity.
He hesitated for a moment before lightly touching one.
Tap.
The horn twitched ever so slightly.
Startled, Dedrick quickly withdrew his hand and slammed the wardrobe door shut. He rushed back to his desk, flipping open his book. But even as breakfast time neared, the pages remained untouched.
“I didn’t notice whether they put something strange in your food since I was asleep.”
“……”
“I’m sorry.”
Being the youngest, Dedrick was the last in line for succession.
To make matters worse, with his mother’s passing, there was no one left to support him.
His mother had been the daughter of a fallen noble family, so there was no external support to turn to either.
In this grand duchy, the only person Dedrick could rely on was himself.
‘But now, he has me too.’
Feeling a sudden urge, I sidled up closer to Dedrick and glanced at the table. The meal laid out before him was far from anything you could call a proper breakfast, and a sigh escaped from my lips.
The servants were too busy staying on the duchess’s good side, Delani, since she despised Dedrick, a child born out of wedlock. Naturally, this meant Dedrick wasn’t treated well.
‘On top of that, Somerset and his younger brother, Axel, loved to mess with his food.’
But I wasn’t going to play along with their cruel pranks anymore.
“They probably didn’t poison it. It’d be a bit too tasteless to do that first thing in the morning…”
“……”
“Then again, they’re the type who could.”
“……”
“I’ll taste it for you. Even if there’s some mild poison, I can detoxify myself! I won’t die from it.”
It might sting a little, but if I spent the day cooped up in the wardrobe, I’d recover quickly. Unless someone set the wardrobe on fire or smashed it to pieces, I couldn’t die. That was something I instinctively knew when I reincarnated as a wardrobe monster.
‘Although, I’m not sure if it’s reincarnation or possession.’
The only memories I’d recovered were from a previous life, were the long and grueling years of illness. So I wasn’t sure if I had finally died and moved on—or if there was something else going on.
‘My memories are all jumbled…’
I didn’t know where I had come from or why I had been born as a wardrobe monster. Maybe, like fairies, I’d just spontaneously appeared.
“I’m serious.”
But Dedrick remained silent.
Fine. If you won’t give me the food, I’ll lick it!
‘Dedrick can’t afford to get sick!’
I stuck my tongue out playfully and began to move an inch closer to the plate. Seeing this, Dedrick hastily reached out to cover the plate with his hand. As a result, my tongue accidentally brushed against the back of his hand.
A startled yell escaped from Dedrick’s lips.
“Ah!”
