* * *

Normally, I wouldn’t go out of my way to pry into secrets that others wanted to keep.

But this time, it just so happened that the secret he was holding was exactly what I needed.

I had no choice.

I’d dig deeper, and if that didn’t work, well—then I’d have to strip that secret away with my own hands.

Before Asis could sense anything amiss, I closed my eyes and feigned sleep.

When I opened them again, an hour or two had passed.

I stared blankly at the ceiling, where a grand chandelier hung, then ran a hand down my face.

Strange. I definitely slept, yet I feel even more drowsy than before.

“There’s no answer.”

Whenever I slept alone, I always heard the echoes from that prison.

I thought maybe if I slept near someone, it would be different.

That’s why I tried sleeping in the same space as Asis… but it was no use.

I didn’t have nightmares, yet my mind—still trapped in that place—kept tricking me into hearing all those sounds again.

My memory, sharp in all the wrong ways, even reconstructed the prison’s humidity, the air, the stench.

Even though I know I’ve left that place, I keep locking myself inside it.

What would you even call this?

Most adults know that the happiest moments of their past are brief, and once that fleeting happiness ends, all that follows is hardship and responsibility.

And yet, even knowing that, they keep revisiting their past.

What I was doing wasn’t quite the same, but it was close.

I wasn’t doing it on purpose, but I kept shoving myself back into my own suffering.

The more I looked back, the more miserable I became.

And if I kept doing it despite knowing that… maybe I just wanted to be miserable.

Lost in thought, I leaned my head against the armrest, staring blankly into space.

“Asis.”

“Ah, yes. Lord Vivisian. You’re awake?”

“What time is it?”

“Um… just past 4 PM.”

“Time really isn’t moving today…”

I let out a sigh and sat up.

Having slept curled up on a tiny sofa, my whole body ached.

I rubbed my lower back, frowning.

“Have you eaten?”

“Ah, I forgot.”

“I told you to make sure you eat properly.”

“Well, you didn’t eat either.”

“I don’t die if I skip a meal.”

“So are you saying I would?”

His response carried a hint of exasperation.

That made me shift my gaze from the empty air to Asis himself, scanning him up and down.

He was shorter than me, but his body weight seemed about the same as mine after spending eight years in prison.

In other words—he was incredibly thin.

“You might not die, but you sure look like you would.”

I murmured with a faint smile.

Asis opened his mouth as if to argue, then shut it again after glancing down at himself.

“…I wasn’t always this thin.”

“I’m sure.”

“I mean it. It’s just circumstances right now. Normally, I don’t look like this.”

I had agreed sincerely, but Asis seemed to think I was just humoring him.

Seeing him look even more wronged by my response, I merely shrugged.

Still, I couldn’t exactly say:

‘I know you’re the head of an information guild, and that you’re disguised for an infiltration mission, so yeah, I believe you.’

Swallowing down words I couldn’t say was second nature by now.

So instead, I just gave him a meaningless, placating smile and turned my gaze to the window.

“Asis, do you still have work left?”

“Huh? Oh. Yes.”

“I’ll help you with it. But in return, if I mess up later, just let it slide once.”

“Alright!”

His easy agreement made me chuckle.

I took some of his work off his hands.

✽ ✽ ✽

That evening, I stared at the sky and muttered blankly.

“…I’m screwed.”

Since I’d slept all day out of boredom, I wasn’t sleepy when I actually needed to be.

So I sat on the open windowsill, letting the moonlight wash over me.

“I should avoid sleeping during the day tomorrow…”

If Haen found out I was napping in the daytime and staying up all night, he’d nag me to no end.

Just imagining it was exhausting.

I needed to fix my sleep schedule before that happened.

I was absentmindedly swinging my feet over the edge of the windowsill when—

“…A bird? At this hour?”

A small bird fluttered through the air and landed delicately on the window of another room.

It wasn’t quite 4 AM yet.

Birds flying around at this time was unusual, so I watched curiously.

The tiny, pure white bird tapped at the window with its beak.

Then, as the window swung open, a pale hand reached out.

At first, I thought someone had woken up from the tapping and was about to shoo the bird away.

But they didn’t.

Instead, as if this was routine, they fed the bird, then tied a note to its leg.

The moment I saw that, I searched my memory for the owner of that room.

“The room at the end… on the first floor.”

If I remembered correctly, Asis was staying in that room.

…Asis?

“Oh.”

I think I just witnessed something very important.

I had planned to ask Asis for a favor that only he could fulfill.

Which meant I had to expose his identity sooner or later.

I hadn’t expected the opportunity to come this quickly.

If I weren’t an Apostle, if I weren’t sitting here on the windowsill, I wouldn’t have seen this.

Guess I got lucky.

The window slid shut, and the bird took off.

I waited until it flew so high that an ordinary person would struggle to track it.

Then, once it was far enough, I flicked my fingers.

The bird, which had been gliding freely through the night sky, suddenly plummeted straight into my hand.

Its tiny body trembled in shock, its feathers ruffling.

“Hey there. I just need to check the message, then I’ll send you right back to your owner.”

Holding the bird in one hand, I unfolded the note.

As expected, it was filled with tightly packed lines of encrypted text I couldn’t read.

I didn’t need to.

A messenger bird appearing precisely when the guards had vacated their posts, delivering a note packed with code—that alone was enough to confirm his identity.

If he didn’t prove himself as the ‘Master,’ he’d be branded a spy.

And Asis wouldn’t want things to escalate that way.

With unhurried steps, I descended to the first floor.

I walked down the silent hallway until I reached Asis’s room.

Knocking lightly on the door, I felt the presence inside hesitate.

The footsteps inside drew closer, and then, slowly, the door creaked open.

I released the bird from my grasp.

As if it belonged there, it flew straight to Asis and perched on his shoulder.

“…What is this…?”

“Good morning, Asis. Lovely dawn, isn’t it?”

I greeted him warmly with a small smile. His expression stiffened.

Watching his reaction like it was someone else’s business, I lazily tilted my head.

“Ah, or would ‘Master’ be more appropriate?”

I leaned against the doorframe, smirking.

“I know requests should go through the guild, but as you can see, I’m not exactly in a position to leave the castle. So forgive me for being a little impolite and coming to you directly.”

“……”

“Could you take on a request for me? It’s nothing difficult. I’ll pay, of course. And don’t worry—your secret? It stays with me.”

Hearing my words, Asis—or rather, the Master—let out a small laugh, then pulled me into the room.

“…How did you know?”

“God told me.”

“Bullshit.”

“I swear.”

Thinking about how I came to know all of this as if it were a revelation, it wouldn’t be entirely wrong to say that a god told me.

The Master, who had been silently watching me speak so brazenly, shook his head and sent the carrier pigeon back.

“You mean to tell me that someone who’s been locked up in prison for years and was only released a few days ago managed to uncover my identity?”

Muttering in a tone that suggested he had wasted his life, he rubbed his forehead with a serious expression.

“How did you find out, really?”

“Hmm…”

I couldn’t exactly say, ‘I read it in the original novel.’

Unsure of what to say, I simply rubbed my chin, and the Master waved his hand dismissively as if to say it didn’t matter.

“You don’t have to answer. Well, they say apostles once spoke with the gods… Maybe you really did hear it from one. …Besides, uncovering truths that others try to hide is my specialty.”

For a moment, he mumbled in a tone that made it clear he didn’t believe me at all.

But then, his gaze turned sharp as he looked at me.

“So, what kind of request do you have?”

“Could you find someone for me? And pass on a message to them?”

“…Go on.”

“Find the butler who served both the previous and the one before that Duke. And tell him this: ‘The one who helped you commit your crime is dead. There’s no need for a confession…’”

I hesitated for a moment, aware that once a request was made, there was no turning back.

But after weighing my decision, I continued slowly.

“…You should live the rest of your life hiding the truth as well.”

The Master rolled my words around in his mouth as if trying to commit them to memory before nodding.

His unexpectedly quick agreement was reassuring, but just as I was beginning to relax, he suddenly asked,

“Mind if I ask you one thing?”

“Go ahead.”

“The Duke is still alive and well, isn’t he?”

His tone had turned sharp, a stark contrast to the gentleness he had shown when I was ‘Asis.’

Though the voice was the same, the shift in intonation made it feel unfamiliar.

That unfamiliarity made me blink before bursting into laughter.

“What? Hah! Of course. The one who helped the butler commit his crime wasn’t me, after all.”

“Then who was it?”

“Master, if you’re curious about what really happened, you should find out for yourself instead of asking me.”

I said it in the same tone one might use to humor a child, and in response, the Master scoffed.

“I’ll dig up everything and sell it for a high price, so look forward to it.”

His deep brown hair, the kind you’d see on any ordinary person in the streets, ruffled as he ran his hand through it.

His sharp gaze stayed locked on me, as if he were desperate to uncover my secret.

I had worried he might run away the moment my identity was exposed…

But it seemed his curiosity would keep him orbiting around me, just like in the original.

Until his questions were answered, he wouldn’t leave my side.

Since things had turned out this way, I might as well make good use of him.

Pressing my chest where a dull ache lingered despite the disappearance of the sealing spell, I winced.

The pain only subsided after a while, and that was when the Master, watching me, muttered,

“So… does the Duke’s ability let him see the truth or something?”

“Not a chance.”

I denied it with a laugh—then suddenly, something clicked in my mind.

“Oh.”

* * *