Translator: Nox

36 - The Time of the Blind Beast (15+ Revised Edition)

Chapter 36

Recently, subtle things had begun to bother me. They weren't glaring problems, but the kind that pricked at my mood like a hangnail.

"Rose. Did someone enter the bedroom?"

It happened again.

Rose looked around the bedroom. To her eyes, nothing had changed, yet for the past few days, Ezekiel had pointed out that the room felt somehow alien.

"Perhaps they came to clean. I asked about the time earlier."

But Ezekiel shook his head at Rose's guess.

"That's not it. It's subtly different from how you or the others tidy things when you clean."

Even after Ezekiel's explanation, Rose could barely perceive the difference. It was natural. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't match Ezekiel's intuition, honed by a lifetime of detecting and analyzing enemy traces with his life on the line. He alone sensed a disturbance that most people wouldn't even notice.

"Was there a break-in?"

"Surely not. Nothing is missing."

It was more likely that an employee had accidentally brushed against the furniture while cleaning, rather than a thief. But Rose didn't voice her own guess. After all, the possibility of 'what if' always existed.

If someone had truly searched the bedroom, how could they be caught?

"This floor?"

"I'll ask Madam Serva to confirm. She checks the valuables every day."

Despite her aching knee, Madam Serva diligently managed the valuables kept on this floor, tapping her cane. Furthermore, the fact that she hadn't said anything by evening meant that all the items were safe. Ezekiel knew this best.

Therefore, while suspecting an intruder, he also acknowledged the probability of it being a trace left by an employee and withheld judgment.

"Lemon tea again today?"

"Yes."

Rose expertly brewed the Lemon tea and handed it over. Ezekiel accepted and drank it with practiced ease.

"It's getting tastier, isn't it?"

Mid-sip, Ezekiel tilted his head.

"Was it not tasty before?"

"It was tasty. Now it's even tastier."

She knew it was a polite falsehood. Still, she was glad that this man, who had lived his life without needing to consider others' feelings, showed such consideration.

She shouldn't feel this way, but her heart kept drifting in an uncontrollable direction. She understood why people said they didn't know their own hearts. Rose picked up the remaining Lemon tea after making it for Ezekiel and took a sip.

It was cold.

It was sweet.

It felt just like her own feelings.

"To be enjoying a late-night tea time so comfortably, I never could have imagined it before."

Setting down his teacup, Ezekiel let out a light laugh.

"It's all thanks to you, Rose. When I fled down to Derosa in the dead of winter, I thought I was being exiled. Now, it seems I was on vacation."

Danger comes from unexpected directions when one is off guard. Ezekiel learned this through Achenaus. And he learned that flowers could bloom even in despair, thanks to Rose.

His desires grew.

When he had first pressured Dr. Briman into a reluctant promise to treat him, he had been determined to settle the score with this tiresome darkness, even if it meant taking a gamble.

But now, he desperately wanted to regain his sight. He had too many wishes he wanted to fulfill.

Ezekiel imagined himself with his sight restored.

The day his vision returned, he intended to rip down all the black curtains in this mansion. So that Rose could witness him standing tall in the light.

And then, looking her straight in the eyes, they would make love, and he would capture every facet of her that he had only been able to perceive indirectly through hearing, touch, or taste.

Looking back, it had been a truly messy winter. He had met Rose while drunk and drugged, and then neglected himself for a while. He had been consumed by self-loathing and despair, acting weak and pathetic. He now regretted his past powerlessness.

"I never knew a day would come when my heart would feel this peaceful."

He sat on the bed and pulled Rose closer. As she came willingly, he lifted her and sat her on his lap.

"Rose. You make me want to be a good person."

He wanted to be a good man for her.

He wanted to find a new school not too far from home, with a better teacher, where she could finish her interrupted studies.

He wanted to caress, examine, and apply medicine to the body that must have been covered in bruises and wounds from nursing him.

Just as she had done for him all along.

Ezekiel embraced Rose's back and head with both hands and leaned back, lying down on the bed. Even though the period of suffering withdrawal symptoms had passed, Rose's weight showed no signs of recovery. He couldn't grip her firmly for fear of hurting her if he applied even a little force.

Even just holding her forearm was like that. She hadn't been this thin before; now, she was so slender he could feel her bones.

As he held her arm and pulled her closer, Rose, who had been lying on top of him, slid up. Ezekiel pressed his forehead against hers.

"You're not going to get so thin that you suddenly disappear like smoke one day, are you?"

Feeling a sense of precariousness, he frowned and complained lightly.

Rose let out a soft laugh.

"How could that happen? How can a person disappear like smoke?"

"You're getting so thin that Madam Serva seems to regard me as some kind of beast."

"...That seems to be true."

Rose agreed cautiously. There were days when she worried if her efforts at contraception would be in vain, but ultimately, it had been a needless concern. Contraception was always, always necessary.

"A beast."

Ezekiel repeated the word.

Suddenly, Rose flinched inwardly, recalling his nickname that had once swept through the area. As dismissed employees spread malicious rumors, Ezekiel was branded a beast, and this mansion, the beast's mansion.

Had she said something offensive?

To her brief worry, the man instead broke into a wide smile.

"Yes, eat well so I can act like a beast without restraint. Madam Serva told me you don't eat much. If you can't eat a lot of rice, at least eat plenty of your favorite fruits."

Honestly, her inability to gain weight was likely a psychological issue. Even though the quality and taste of the food were incomparably better than during her time at Milena Girls' School, it simply wouldn't go down her throat. Sometimes, she experienced inexplicable indigestion.

Instead of answering, Rose was about to bury her face in his neck when she suddenly lifted her head.

...Fruit?

Rose glanced at the lemon slice left alone in her teacup.

---

"Aren't you mocking people? Leaving a note with only 'Eight o'clock' written on it, beneath a bottle of Merlo wine with a single rose tucked in, is quite the jest."

The doubt she had harbored ended up being confirmed.

Rose watched the man who visited the mansion every other day under the guise of delivering fruit. The merchant, whose name sounded the same as Merlot, a grape varietal used for wine, understood the meaning of the note she left and appeared at the designated time and place.

"Why do you test people like this?"

Even as he grumbled in a petulant tone, his expression wasn't truly displeased. It was closer to amusement.

Rose replied with a calm demeanor.

"To find out who sneaked into Major Valdemara's bedroom, and for other reasons."

There was no need to narrow down suspects.

Ezekiel had started feeling a disturbance in his bedroom only after Merlo began visiting the mansion. Moreover, Rose had witnessed the man sneak into the drawing-room. The culprit was so obvious that she hadn't considered anyone else.

In fact, the wine bottle and the note were placed in Ezekiel's bedroom. It was safe because most employees who entered for cleaning couldn't read, and if Madam Serva entered, it was intended to appear as a moderately romantic gesture.

Thus, Rose deliberately left a message targeting the merchant, and the merchant showed up as if on cue.

Merlo chuckled playfully.

"You have sharp eyes, young lady. I tried very hard to be discreet."

"I didn't know. Major Valdemara noticed."

"Ah, as expected. 'Major Valdemara of the 37th Regiment' is not just a false reputation."

Even after hearing the warning that Ezekiel had detected a trace, the merchant showed no particular agitation.

"But what if I couldn't read and hadn't understood the message you left?"

"Why would such a hypothetical be necessary? You read it."

"What if I pretended not to know?"

"It wouldn't have mattered. I thought about it... and I figured out who sent you here."

And, judging that he wouldn't harm her at the very least, she summoned the merchant.

"Who is it?"

Rose took a couple of steps back from Merlo, establishing a safe distance.

"Achenaus Valdemara."

She finally spoke the name of the sin she could not escape.

"He's the one who sent you, isn't he?"