“First of all, you surely know already that your hair is light blonde… and you must know your eyes are a pale green, right? Your nose is small and straight, and your lips are plump and red. Oh, the tips of your ears are quite distinctive. They’re slightly pointed. Were you born that way?”
Tilda said as she touched the tips of my ears, then moved her hands to examine my face more carefully.
“Hmm… looking at it this way, you truly are pretty.”
I smiled with satisfaction at her verdict, yet at the same time I felt a twinge of regret that I could not see my own face with my own eyes.
Truth be told, there was another face I sorely regretted being unable to see.
“…Tilda, tell me then. What does Lord Callius look like?”
“Lord Callius? Oh, my. So that’s what you were really wondering about all along, wasn’t it?”
Tilda asked in a teasing tone.
‘Yes, I’m dying of curiosity!’
I answered inwardly, keeping any hint of yearning from showing on my face.
I had reincarnated inside a novel, yet I couldn't even enjoy the male lead’s breathtaking looks… How that felt was something Tilda wouldn't understand even if she rose from the dead.
“Well, it must certainly be frustrating not to know what the master you serve looks like.”
Tilda conceded, and then she began to describe Callius’s features to me.
“Hmm… the young master takes after his father completely, with moon-white silver hair and blue eyes. As for his beauty, they say he inherited it from our late lady.”
“Ooh.”
“And also…”
Tilda paused for a moment as if pondering her next words. Unable to endure that brief hesitation, I cut in.
“Are his eyes sharp? And his jawline refined? His forehead must be handsome and well-proportioned too, right?”
“…How could you pick out the young master’s features so precisely? It’s as if you’ve seen him with your own eyes!”
Tilda asked in astonishment.
“I’m only guessing.”
I replied, rather than telling her I knew it all from the book.
“Well, in any case, our master’s beauty has been the talk of the town for ages, so you must have heard about it somewhere.”
Tilda remarked, her tone utterly devoid of suspicion.
“On top of that, he’s only fifteen, yet he’s remarkably intelligent. It was as though the dignity of the future duke was apparent in him from an early age.”
She spoke with a voice brimming with pride in her master.
“Because of that, he sometimes felt difficult to approach. But, well, that’s how all high nobles are…”
Hmm, an unapproachable aura? Like an ice prince? That was wonderful!
I compared the descriptions from the original novel with what Tilda was telling me, letting my imagination run wild.
Even without seeing him with my own eyes, one thing was certain: Callius’s beauty was already breathtaking, even before the novel’s actual plot had begun.
“He truly was like that…”
Suddenly, Tilda’s voice was tinged with unmistakable sorrow.
“Yet for reasons unknown, he no longer takes a single step out of his room… Good heavens. Whenever the young master’s screams echo through the mansion, my heart trembles with fear. I can hardly believe a person could change so much in a mere six months.”
Tilda clicked her tongue in pity.
Photophobia was also known as the ‘Devil’s Curse’ because of its peculiar nature, which inflicted excruciating pain whenever the sufferer was touched by light.
Naturally, nothing good could come of announcing that the duke’s son was afflicted with such an ominous malady.
Because of this, the Duke took great care to keep it an absolute secret, and none of the servants knew the truth of the illness except for the Head Butler and the Head Maid.
In fact, they hadn't informed me either, even though I had been brought in specifically to attend to Callius.
Moreover, my contract included the following clauses:
First: Asking about the young master’s condition is strictly forbidden.
Second: Inquiring why no fire or light is lit is strictly forbidden.
Third: Disclosing any word overheard inside the young master’s bedroom, anywhere at all, is strictly forbidden…
For these reasons, most of the servants, unaware of the truth, could not fathom the sudden change that had overtaken the young master and were left only to wonder.
“Ah… how long will he keep himself locked away inside that room? It won’t be like this forever, will it?”
Tilda concluded her words with a question that sounded almost like a whisper.
As someone who had read the original novel,
my answer was, ‘No, it won’t.’
It was true that it would take time, but Callius would eventually emerge.
That was thanks to long, grueling training through which he gradually grew accustomed to the pain.
And though it was called training, in reality, it was nothing more than enduring agony through sheer willpower.
After those harrowing years, when he turned twenty, Callius was finally able to stand beneath the sunlight.
Yet his joy at stepping outside was short-lived.
For he discovered that his father, whom he had trusted, had long since abandoned all efforts to cure him, and had even brought a substitute heir into the mansion.
Enraged by the betrayal, Callius killed his father and assumed the title of Duke himself.
Then, pressured by the Emperor’s decree to carry on the family bloodline, he was forced into a political marriage with the daughter of a marquis’s house…
And that bride was none other than the heroine, Helena.
Because Callius had shut his heart tight, their married life did not seem likely to be easy, but… wasn't this a romance novel world after all?
Blessed by the Lord, Helena awakened as a Saintess and succeeded in curing the photophobia that all other methods had failed to heal.
With her endearing warmth and innate gentleness, she melted Callius’s frozen heart, and in the end, they became a true married couple.
…And that was the summary of the original novel, The Duke in the Darkness.
Meaning, even if Callius was presently confined to his room, unable to move…
In the future, he would meet the heroine, discover true love, and find salvation from his illness and a happy ending awaiting him!
“At any rate, is your curiosity satisfied now?”
Tilda brought me back to reality with her question.
“Yes, thanks to you.”
“Then let’s get up. Sitting around for too long will only earn us disapproving glares.”
Tilda gathered the remaining cleaning cloths into the basket and rose to her feet.
Then she added in an admonishing tone,
“From now on, stay alert. I don’t want to see you passing out again from a flying vase.”
“Yes, I’ll remember that.”
Though being alert alone was hardly enough to dodge vases thrown at random.
I swallowed my parting words and followed Tilda out of the break room.
The next day.
I deeply regretted not reporting the other maids’ negligence to the Head Maid from the very start.
After Mary and Dorothy said they would go fetch bathwater and return, they vanished into thin air without a trace.
‘The nerve of them. Are they openly pushing their work onto me now?’
They surely knew I hadn't been here long, and that being blind made it hard for me to find another job.
And they certainly thought I wouldn't dare tell the Head Maid, just so I wouldn't cause strife with the rest of the maids.
Standing alone in the hallway, I let out a deep sigh.
‘I still haven’t memorized the entire layout of the mansion, so I can’t go recklessly wandering around looking for them.’
In the end, I gave up on waiting for the two of them and headed toward the young master’s room.
Knock, knock.
I knocked on the door, then opened it quietly and stepped inside.
Even with someone entering the room, Callius showed no reaction and did not get out of bed.
Today, however, I had to get him up myself, no matter what.
For today was his scheduled bath time.
Last week, he had insisted on bathing alone without anyone’s help, only to end up collapsing onto the floor.
He had been severely bruised, and ever since, he had stayed lying in bed without washing.
“My lord…”
I approached the bed and called to him in a soft voice.
“The bathwater is prepared.”
He wouldn't throw something else just because I spoke to him, would he?
I waited on pins and needles for his response.
Yet what happened next was entirely unexpected.
A soft rustling came from atop the bed, and then the young master rose from his place with complete compliance.
