IKMHITM 8

࣪ ִֶָ☾. Chapter 08 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

It was a night where sleep refused to come. Eve, pulling the blanket up to her chin, cast a sidelong glance at the painting hanging on the wall.

The ornate gold-trimmed frame was stubbornly exposing its plain wooden backboard. It was because Eve had flipped the portrait around.

Do I not even have the courage to face his face calmly……?

Just recalling Gain’s head spinning wildly made her marrow run cold. She hadn’t dared to tear the frame completely off the wall, but turning it around was the bare minimum she had to do.

She had even sneaked a peek to see if his true name was written on the back. Naturally, she couldn’t get off that easy.

I can’t fall asleep.

Naturally, Kamien crossed her mind. The words he had spoken kept lingering in the back of her heads.

Could it really be true? It was hard to accept it purely at face value.

Should she test it out?

No. It might be dangerous. Besides, she didn’t exactly have anywhere else to go anyway.

Eve tossed and turned with her eyes half-open. Every time she blinked in the darkness, her red, scraped palm came into view.

The color, starting from the yellowish-red of blood vessels, gradually deepened until it matched the color of Kamien’s eyes. And then back to the memories of the dream where their skin had pressed together against skin…….

Ah. This was bad. Her heart was hammering so hard she couldn’t catch any sleep.

In the end, Eve spent the entire night wide awake until dawn.

It was a space bathed in crimson moonlight. A man stood there, his back turned at a slight angle.

Shoulders as broad and straight as if drawn with a ruler, a waist tapering smoothly from a wide ribcage, and lower body and long legs with solid, powerful lines……

Could a man’s body truly be this magnificent? It looked as though the most meticulous artisan had measured the most perfect proportions over and over again, pouring their heart and soul into sculpting him.

Overwhelmed by the sheer pressure, she held her breath. The man’s gaze slowly turned toward Eve like a leaf drifting on a breeze.

“I’ve been waiting.”

Her waist was gripped, and her body was hoisted straight up. Catching her in his arms like a child, the man lightly bit down on her shoulder.

A sharp sting followed by a wave of thrilling electricity.

“Why are you so late?”

There was no real need to answer. The man’s crimson eyes, with his gaze lowered, drew closer.

Pressing one side of his face right against Eve’s racing heart, he listened intently.

Her breathing, quickened as if she had just run a sprint, and the frantic pounding of her heart. He read every physical response like a secret code to listen to her innermost feelings.

“Were you looking forward to it? So much you couldn’t even sleep?”

The world shook. No, the body holding her was trembling lightly from laughter.

She wanted to cover her face out of sheer embarrassment. Yet there was no way to hide her own heart.

Even a liar cannot tell lies in their dreams. And in a dream, the man was the closest thing to an omnipotent being.

Perhaps because of that? The man who wore a high-collared uniform and spoke with polite formality under the sunlight had stripped away both his clothes and his manners beneath the moonlight.

His raw, exposed desire completely mesmerized Eve. She was left as immobile as prey struck by a spider’s paralytic venom.

“Tell me. You were waiting for me, too.”

Every place his skin touched felt as though it was melting away. Her arms instinctively wrapped around the man, clinging to him.

Gladly accepting the embrace, the man pressed his lips against her delicate wrist.

The breath trailing upward bit by bit grew scalding hot.

The palm that had captured his lips burned with heat. It tickled so intensely she wanted to dig her fingernails into it and scratch wildly, yet it was also so sensitive she wanted to cover and wrap it up so nothing could ever touch it again.

Slurp, slup. Kissing her palm until a wet sound echoed, the man finally pulled his lips away. The mucous membrane, looking even more moist and smooth than before, swelled softly.

“Don’t get hurt.”

“If you get hurt again, I’ll punish you.”

……..!!

Kicking off the blanket, Eve sat up and gasped for air. Her face was flushed to the point of bursting, and her heart hammered wildly.

Conversely, the atmosphere wrapping around her room was infinitely quiet and serene.

The warm afternoon sunlight filled the bedroom, and the breeze blowing through the open window carried the sweet scent of flowers.

Only then did Eve fully realize she had woken up from a ‘dream’.

She stretched out the hand that had been gripping the blanket. The palm that had felt so sore and stinging right before she fell asleep was completely fine.

“Ah. Seriously.”

The palms cupping her burning face grew hot all over again.

And it wasn’t because she was hurt.

“Are you awake? You sleepyhead of a master!”

Startled out of her wits, Eve hurriedly pulled her hands down. Gain was grinning brightly from the portrait on the wall.

“Isn’t it a bit too late for morning greetings? But I understand. Beauties are always sleepyheads, after all.”

Gain tossed out the cheerful joke as if nothing had happened. Thanks to that, Eve was able to ignore the sight of Gain’s neck spinning half a circle around.

Eve had a habit of drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning. It was a trivial habit, but in Belper Mansion, even that was dangerous.

It’s that kettle again!

The sparkling silver kettle was always half-full.

The real question was, was it safe to drink the contents?

Well, I did drink it last time.

And nothing particular happened.

Really?

Was it really fine?

Trying her best to keep her hands from trembling, Eve poured a cup. She took a tiny sip just to test it—hm?

“Hot chocolate?”

Though it looked entirely like water on the outside, it carried the sweet taste and aroma of chocolate. It suited her palate far better than expected.

The boy was watching Eve from inside the shimmering kettle.

“Um. Thank you. It’s delicious.”

At Eve’s awkward greeting, the boy let out a huffy snort and vanished.

“Andy is quite cute, isn’t he?”

“Yeah. But I shook him up terribly last time. I feel a bit sorry about it.”

“You shouldn’t do things people hate, you know. Are you a bad person, Master?”

Eve bit down hard on her lower lip. She remembered how, in her panic, she had repeatedly bashed Serian’s head in with whatever kettle she could grab.

Although he was a ghost story, Andy looked young. She felt guilty for turning the kettle he resided in into an instrument of bloodshed.

Especially since ‘shaking’ was an action Andy notoriously despised.

“Don’t let it weigh on your mind. No matter how he looks, Andy is still a ghost story, you know? Is he going to pass up an opportunity to taste human blood?”

That was a relief to hear, supposedly.

However, Gain’s words didn’t just bring reassurance. Eve suddenly felt a wave of sharp alertness.

‘Even if he looks young, a ghost story is still a ghost story.’

For all she knew, he might actually be far older than her.

If he set his mind to it, he could inflict harm on her at any moment.

“Master. You’re going to shake the kettle, aren’t you? You’re going to make Andy motion-sick, right? You’re going to become a bad person?”

Just as Gain suggested, Eve found herself pondering.

Would it be safer to subjugate Andy into the Record of Ghost Stories?

“You’re going to be a bad person, right? You’re going to be a bad person, right? You’re going to be a bad person, right? You’re going to be a bad person, right? A bad person……”

“No. I won’t do that.”

Eve recalled her first wedding night, when she had almost been murdered by her ex-husband. In that moment of crisis, Andy had accidentally fallen off the table and struck Serian right across the eye.

Yet, did things like ‘coincidences’ really exist in this mansion?

Thanks to that, Eve had managed to save her own life.

‘I can’t repay a kindness with evil.’

“Understood!”

Gain’s voice instantly turned bright again.

“Then hurry up! Beauties may be sleepyheads, but you still need to wash up and put on some clothes!”

“Yeah.”

“A guest has been waiting to see you for a while now.”

“A guest?”

Who on earth would come looking for her? Surely it wasn’t her family.

Eve walked over to the window and looked down. She could see the sprawling garden far below, and parked beyond it was a single silver-white carriage.

Recognizing the crest clearly emblazoned on its door, Eve’s eyes widened.

‘Arno?’

Before leaving Belper Mansion, Reina had issued a warning.

It had been a strange thing to say.

Reina was the former Marchioness of Arno. Even if her husband died, she should still technically remain an ‘Arno’.

Yet the tone Reina used when mentioning ‘Arno’ had drawn a clear, sharp line—as if she were desperately severing herself from that very name.

“I am the Arno Persona.”

The elderly noblewoman introduced herself as such after receiving Eve’s ‘permission’ and being guided into the drawing room.

“Pardon me, but did you say your surname is Arno?”

Eve asked back in surprise.

“Not your family name?”

“As I mentioned, I belong to the Persona family. Though it may be unfamiliar to our new master, I have served for many long years as the administrator of Belper Mansion.”

Naturally, she hadn’t known.

“Only one person per generation is permitted to work as the administrator. In the Persona family, there is a traditional custom of bestowing the name ‘Arno’ upon that qualified individual.”

“Why is there such a custom?”

“Because doing so increases the probability of completing one’s service in the mansion ‘safely’.”

Was it some kind of deception, then? Using a name as a shield.

“So, Lady Persona. What brings you to visit today?”

“I have come to arrange a match with a gentleman fitting the new master’s standing.”

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･