* * *
“Keugh, ack, heugh!”
My broked breath burst out violently.
I could feel a slight Trembling from the tips of Locke’s fingers as they pressed down on my tongue.
“Heugh, heugh!”
Saliva dripped down, but Locke did not remove his hand.
His breath brushed against my ear as he held my body tight.
My frame shuddered, and every nerve in my body stood on edge.
“Do you want it to not hurt?”
His lethargically whispering voice reached me faintly through my fading consciousness.
“Would you be okay with rubbing mouths with a beggar brat who used to wander the market floors?”
I was not originally an aristocrat; I was someone who couldn’t even afford a meal without working a part-time job.
What did the other person’s rank matter?
If it meant I could live, I would rub more than just my mouth.
I tried to answer “yes” without a second thought, but since my voice wouldn’t come out, I simply nodded my head repeatedly.
Tears that had pooled in my eyes rolled down my temples.
“Then, open your mouth.”
I relaxed my jaw, which I had been clenching to endure the pain.
“Good boy, my young master.”
The palm touching my neck was cold.
Before I could even feel the chill, a hot breath brushed near my lips.
“Since it’s interesting…”
Locke said something with a smile, but I couldn’t understand him because of the heavy panting pouring from my mouth.
As I groaned and trembled, a soft, supple sensation suddenly settled inside my mouth.
Warmth spread through my frozen skin, and my icy breath began to melt away.
“Hngh.”
Instinctively, I reached out both arms and hugged that warmth tightly so as not to lose it.
In my hazy, fading consciousness, I thought I caught a faint scent of roses.
—I… don’t know the feeling of… but… because it’s interesting… not…
Haah, haah.
It was definitely Locke’s voice, but it was so quiet and faint that I couldn’t make it out.
The strange, hot sensation as if he were searching through my mouth was so stimulating that all my focus went there.
I felt like my body was going to burn up.
Within those sharp sensations, the soft scent of roses scattered.
As the fragrance flowing through my veins soaked into my cells, a sense of peace slowly began to arrive.
By the time the scent drifted away, I regained consciousness.
‘Am I alive? Or am I dead…?’
I barely managed to lift my heavy eyelids.
In my blinking vision, a ceiling mural depicting heaven came into view.
It was a very familiar sight.
“Haah, I lived.”
My vision cleared, but I still felt dazed and lethargic.
Everything I had gone through felt like a past life.
However, the sensations I felt that day were still vivid.
“…Locke.”
While muttering the familiar name, I felt a tingling on my lips and frowned, tracing them with my fingertips.
‘It stings and hurts.’
I slowly groped across the table and picked up a mirror.
Looking at my reflection, sure enough, my lower lip was noticeably swollen.
I could see a small scar at the end.
Was it a scratch from when Locke pushed his finger into my mouth? I couldn’t remember well.
I jumped up and immediately checked the table.
The rose vase was gone.
It was true that I met Locke that night, but it seemed he hadn’t stayed.
‘Surely he didn’t leave without saying goodbye?’
After I held onto him so hard.
‘No, wait. If Locke had just left, there’s no way I’d be lying in this room.’
I didn’t know the details, but it was certain Locke had carried me to a place where I would be noticed by someone.
Suddenly, a terrifying thought occurred to me.
The person who killed the knight was one of the three who went hunting that day, and the culprit was too obvious.
Cassian must have killed the knight thinking it was the prey, and he clearly intended to frame Locke for it.
But if Cassian was the first to find Locke in the middle of the night…
My heart sank to my feet.
“Locke!”
I kicked off the bed and ran into the hallway.
“Where are you, Locke! Can’t you hear me? If you can, answer me!”
I ran down the long corridor and burst open the door to Locke’s room at the very end.
I desperately hoped to see those amber eyes looking at me, leaning against the headboard as usual, asking, ‘What brings you here?’
But my desperation did not reach God.
The inside was empty.
The neatly organized desk and bedding were no different from when he had first disappeared.
If he had simply left without saying goodbye, I would have been disappointed but moved on.
But being framed is another story.
After how hard I worked to repair my relationship with him.
If he ended up facing execution while trying to save me, Locke would never open his heart again.
If that happened, the Hestian family’s end would be the same as in my previous life.
It seemed this world still wanted to make me the bad guy who ruins Locke.
If this were my first life, I might have just accepted it
But I knew that even if I followed the story, Cedric dies anyway.
Now that I know that, why would I obediently follow the script?
I’m going to stop it.
No matter what, I will prevent Locke’s corruption!
I rushed to the third floor. On the way, I bumped into a servant coming down.
“John, have you seen Locke?”
“I haven’t, sir.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“It’s the truth. Did Locke return?”
A young master was carried in by a servant in the middle of the night, soaking wet from the rain.
If there was a rumor, it should have spread by now.
And yet he asks me so calmly? That had to be a lie.
‘Now that Cassian has taken the lead as the next head, no answer I like will come from the servants.’
It was frustrating, but I couldn’t blame the servants.
I suppressed my anger and asked again.
“Is Mother back?”
“She hasn’t returned yet.”
“Is Cassian in his room?”
He looked at me with wide eyes before bowing his head again.
“The eldest young master headed to the square as soon as he finished breakfast.”
He probably went to the forge.
Maintenance of the weapons used at the hunting grounds was part of his routine.
Now that Cassian was out of the house, this was my chance.
‘I have to find Locke and hide him somewhere else before Cassian gets back!’
From then on, I searched the mansion like I was hunting for a lost needle.
Just in case, I grabbed every servant I met and asked how I got back and where Locke was being held.
As expected, they all said “I don’t know” as if they had made a pact.
I was starting to get sick of the consistent lies.
I wanted to call all the underlings together and scream at them, asking if I wasn’t the son of Count Hestian, the head of the house.
“This is driving me crazy, seriously!”
When I, who rarely got annoyed, shouted, a flinching servant quickly ran away saying they had work to do.
In a way, it was a natural result.
While I was obsessed with my “missions,” Cassian must have been steadily executing his plan to become the head.
With my parents away, the mansion was already practically Cassian’s territory.
While running my hands through my hair in frustration, my eyes suddenly turned toward the window.
Under a cherry blossom tree, a black shadow was watching me.
‘Anna?’
As soon as our eyes met, she hid behind the tree.
Just as she had guided me to the dining room while avoiding people’s eyes, she might be trying to avoid someone’s gaze again.
I walked forward pretending not to see her.
However, I kept checking around the tree out of the corner of my eye.
As I reached the corner, her fingertips cautiously emerged and pointed toward the basement of the mansion.
‘What?’
I was horrified.
Nobles often punished servants or hired knights themselves if they made a mistake.
It was the same for spies or assassins.
Anyone who became a detriment to the family had to be removed, and that process always had to be quiet and secret. So that it wouldn’t leak outside.
For that reason, a secret place essentially existed in a noble’s mansion, and in the Hestian house, that place was in the basement.
“Cassian!”
I bit my lower lip hard.
Tack, tack, tack, tack.
I rushed up the stairs.
They were stairs that always felt burdensome, but right now, I couldn’t think of anything else.
‘Please let me not be late!’
Locke must have come down to the mansion for me even though he knew he’d be in danger, only to be caught by Cassian.
As the culprit who killed the knight.
If it weren’t for me, he would have left the mansion and found the path he was truly meant to take.
It was practically all my fault that Locke ended up like this.
So, I had to save him.
Bang!
I searched my mother’s room and found the key to the prison.
Then I ran straight to the basement.
As soon as I opened the old wooden door connecting the lobby and the basement, I couldn’t help but flinch.
Even though it was a space that should have no use, there were rows of lanterns lighting the inside.
I clenched my fists and stepped down the winding stairs.
At the end stood an armed knight.
He looked startled to see me, then his expression hardened again.
“I am sorry, you cannot pass beyond this point.”
“If you work in this mansion, you should know my face. Move.”
“It is an order.”
“Whose order?”
“That is…”
He probably couldn’t easily say it was Cassian’s order.
If he said that, it would identify the person who ordered Locke to be locked up here.
“Every knight in this mansion swore an oath of loyalty to my father. My father wouldn’t have given an order to guard this place, so who exactly gave it?”
When I tried to push past him anyway, the flustered knight drew his sword.
“Are you insane? You dare point a sword at me, who has Hestian blood flowing in my veins?”
I was inwardly shocked by the unexpected action, but I clenched my fists to suppress my fear.
If I backed down here, I couldn’t do anything.
More than that, I wondered how Cassian had manipulated him for a knight, who should protect the family members, to point a sword at the master’s son so easily.
“I am sorry. Since a heinous prisoner is being detained, there was an order not to let anyone approach.”
“I’m asking, who gave it.”
“…It was Lord Cassian.”
Good.
I’ve confirmed the identity of the guy who locked Locke up.
Now, is it time to persuade the knight?
* * *
