Shun POV:

“Master Shun, are you sure you want to leave these flowers with me?”

Rollo failed to hide the wide smile on his face as I pushed the vase towards him. I couldn’t store them in my room since Chloe would find out about them, and that would ruin my whole plan.

“Y-y-y... Ugh...”

I shifted my gaze down towards the small table in embarrassment. I made an effort to talk as much as I could, but it seemed to only worsen the symptoms I was suffering from.

“Your condition... Has gotten worse.”

The corners of his mouth dropped as a disheartened sigh escaped his lips. He leaned back in the wooden chair and stared at the ceiling for a while.

“Does... Lady Chloe know?”

“...”

I shook my head, and his hand slammed down onto the table. His eyebrows hung over his light blue eyes.

“What do you think you’re playing at? If your health has deteriorated this far, don’t you think your other half deserves to know?!”

My arms rested on the table as I gripped my broken mind. Blood gushed out of my nose, and Rollo shouted to one of the workers to bring him some tissues.

“Just... Just what is wrong with you...? We need to get a doctor here now. This has gone on for long enough.”

I clenched my fist and bashed it against the table. A doctor wouldn’t help me because the root cause of all of this was her: Chloe Ravendawn. Unsurprisingly, none of them knew what she was truly like, which meant outside of the bedroom, she was clearly an exceptional figure.

My eyes swivelled towards Rollo, and I glared at him through gritted teeth.

“N-n-n... N-n... No...”

A sharp pain pierced through my head as I finally forced out a word against the will of my body. Rollo examined me, and after a few seconds, he returned to his seat.

“Tell Lady Chloe the truth. I’ll give you one week, and I’ll hold on to the flowers too. If you’re giving her Reverie, then it’s clear your feelings for her are pure. This will make her truly happy.”

He smiled while gazing at the Reverie. I wanted to throw up everywhere, but I had to endure it. I had to play my part well because the day would come when I would finally escape this hell.

‘...I’m going to kill her.’

I was unable to hide the smile that spread across my lips as I envisioned myself strangling the life out of her. I wanted to see the moment her limbs went limp. The moment the twisted light in her eyes vanished for good.

“One week, Master Shun. One week.”

Rollo wagged his finger in the air, snapping me out of the crazed delusion I was falling into. I bowed my head lower than before to show my gratitude before moving on to the next step of the plan.

“...”

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. I contemplated on whether I should write in English or Japanese, but considering I had been using English this whole time, it made more sense to stick with that instead.

I grabbed a spare ink pen and wrote down my thoughts on the paper. Rollo moved the vase to the side of the table as I pushed the piece of paper towards him.

His cheeks turned rosy, and a hearty laugh soon left his mouth.

“A special cake? Hm, hm. Lady Chloe definitely loves cakes.”

‘...’

He failed to hide the wide grin plastered across his face. I knew Chloe loved cakes; it was obvious from how she stuffed down that large one she had brought for me on my birthday. However, this cake needed to be extravagant—it needed to be unique.

I sketched out what I had in mind on another piece of paper. The cake would be exactly 3 layers, with each one getting smaller in size. I wanted greyish flower petals to adorn each layer, and I wanted a large red heart to rest against the first two layers. Her name would be written on it in a bold pink colour.

“...I didn’t know you were so good at drawing? Haha, maybe you should do her portrait while you’re at it!”

The muscles around my mouth pulled away, forming a half smile as my fists shook underneath the table.

“Alright, I’ll do it for you! Come back in a few days, and it’ll be ready!”

He slapped his stomach while wearing a jolly expression on his face. I bowed my head again and exited the kitchen. Rollo had given me one week, but little did he know that one week from now...

I would no longer be here.

My lips spread into a slight smile as I ignored the throbbing of my head. Justice was coming soon.

***

‘...’

I opened my eyes and dropped Rollo’s name in the ‘against’ category of the table I visualised. His attachment to Chloe was clearly a lot stronger than Herb’s, and it was made more evident by his choice of words.

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‘...Other half. Pure feelings. Truly happy. Do a portrait of her.’

Everything always came back to Chloe Ravendawn when dealing with Rollo. He didn’t care about my health because he cared about me; he cared about my health because it would affect his ‘Lady.’

However, that made Rollo easy to use. It meant that he would assume any action I wanted to take towards Chloe would be done out of the goodness of my heart. From his perspective, I was a pitiful commoner trying his best to let a noble, on the level of royalty, know how deep my feelings were for her.

‘...Dumbass.’

Slipping the extract into the cake wouldn’t work. Chloe was a big eater, so it was wiser to assume that she had an excellent sense of taste. The possibility of her being able to differentiate between the ingredients used in the cake was, as a result, relatively high.

This was fine too. The main purpose of the cake was to spur on her feelings, creating an opening for me to act upon later. So far, everything was going according to plan.

‘...Mildred and Camille.’

My gaze rested on the names of the two housemaids, and my eyelids fell over my eyes once more.

***

“Master Shun, what is the meaning of this?”

I grabbed hold of Mildred’s arm, threw her into a nearby room, and locked the door behind us. A faint shade of red flickered across her cheeks as she held up the palm of her hands, stopping the advance she thought was going to come.

‘...’

I pulled out a piece of paper and pushed it into her hand. She opened it up while a sigh of relief, mixed with a hint of dejection, slipped out of her mouth.

“I understand. Please take a seat.”

I sat opposite behind the table as I wrote down a few more words on the brownish paper. I didn’t need to write what I was currently writing, but there were a few things I wanted to check.

Mildred reached out for the paper once I was done, and her cheeks went a dark shade of red. She ripped the paper into tiny pieces and put it in the bin.

“Please keep your thoughts to yourself...”

Complimenting her beauty had a stronger reaction than I thought. Unlike Camille, Mildred seemed much more aware of the scary side of Chloe, so perhaps I could regard her current behaviour as somewhat genuine.

I placed another piece of paper in front of her, but this time, her eyebrows quivered. The shade of red spread across the bridge of her nose, and she rose from her seat. Mildred shredded it into dust, placing its remains inside the bin near her.

“...It would be wise... For you to stop. I don’t know what’s bothering you, but complimenting me so intensely will do you no good.”

She bit her lip before turning around. I caught a glimpse of loneliness in her eyes before her normal, refined demeanour returned.

“M-m-m... M-m... Mildred...”

Her eyebrows curved inwards while the corners of her mouth trembled at the sound of my baby-like voice. I wiped the blood away from my nose as I observed a few tears pool at the sides of her eyes.

“...Master Shun. You... Can no longer talk properly?...”

I nodded my head in embarrassment while clenching my teeth.

“...How did this happen? I assumed you were just the shy type, but did you already have a pre-existing condition before encountering Lady Chloe?”

‘...’

That confirmed it then. It matched up with Rollo’s bewilderment at the slow decline of both my mental and physical health despite being ‘fed’ well.

“Eh? Why’s the door locked?”

‘!’

My gaze shifted to the door that swung open before I could give Mildred an answer. Camille stood in the doorway; her gaze switching between Mildred and me as a slight smirk formed on her lips.

“Mildred, Mildred, Mildred. You’re supposed to be setting an exam–”

“Sit down, Camille.”

“...Yes, Mildred.”

She let out a helpless sigh as her head slumped forward. Camille closed the door behind her and took a seat at the table.

‘...’

I wrote down some words on the paper and slipped it in front of the two of them.

“Wow~ how romantic. Can’t believe you were asking Mildred for advice instead of me though?”

Mildred’s eyebrows twitched, and seconds later, Camille’s head crashed into the table.

“I was just joking...”

She pursed her lips while rubbing the back of her head. The two of them seemed more like sisters than work colleagues; under normal circumstances, I’m sure I’d find their interactions quite amusing.

“Master Shun, why not get her a necklace? We can put an order in for you by talking to Sir Nicholas.”

‘!’

I shook my head. He was the last person I wanted to know about my actions.

“A necklace? Hmm... The Ravendawns are super rich though, so what would be the point of that?”

“Money isn’t the issue. Even something cheap can hold much more meaning compared to something expensive when given to you by your loved one.”

Mildred placed her hand on top of her breasts while casting her gaze down on the table. Her small lips spread into a melancholic smile, seemingly remembering the past before snapping out of her memories.

“You’re right. If it was me, I’d be happy with my man bringing me home a bouquet of flowers. I like simple things like that.”

Mildred nodded her head with a pleased smile as Camille pressed her hand against her cheek and stared at me. It didn’t seem like they had any other ideas for a gift, but that was fine because my original intention wasn’t to get another gift in the first place.

“Camille, step aside for a moment. There’s something I’d like to say to Master Shun in private.”

“Ehh... Alright, alright.”

She got up and closed the door behind her while grumbling away. Mildred took the pen out of my hand, scribbled something down on the paper, and pushed it in front of me.

‘No matter what, you are a wonderful person. I know this after observing you for the past month, so I pray that your condition improves and that you can live a happy life here.’

I looked back at her as she smiled. She took the paper out of my hand and added a few more lines to the bottom of the page.

‘Thank you for your compliments. I don’t know if you meant it or not, but I am truly grateful for it. Lady Chloe is lucky to have someone like you; I am envious, but it is my duty to support her in all things.

While I do like you, please remember not to get any ideas. Don’t cross the line and devote yourself solely to Lady Chloe. I don’t think I need to say this since I’m sure you just wanted to cheer me up, but it gives me peace of mind nonetheless.’

A faint shade of red flickered across her cheeks as she bowed her head. She took the paper out of my hand, ripped it into tiny pieces and placed it neatly in the bin.

‘...’

If I had met Mildred on my first day here, things would have been a lot different. A woman like her would have made me realise that this world is real and...

‘Pointless.’

Such thoughts only served to destabilise the delicate balance my mind was in right now. I needed to stay focused. I needed to kill Chloe Ravendawn.

“Master Shun, you look tired. I recommend you get some rest.”

Mildred dipped her head and left the room. I could make out Camille’s pestering voice, questioning what the two of us had spoken about as Mildred proceeded to give her another lecture about privacy.

***

‘...’

I dropped Mildred in the ‘against’ category and placed an asterisk next to her name. Camille also fell into the same category.

In the end, the two housemaids were completely loyal to Chloe. Mildred had drawn the line despite having some feelings of affection towards me, which was rather surprising in the first place.

If she saw me escaping, she wouldn’t turn a blind eye to it. I could already see the conflicting emotions on her face before ultimately deciding to carry out her ‘duty’. On the other hand, Camille had already gotten in trouble with Chloe once, so I knew she didn’t want to go through a worse experience next time.

‘Interesting.’

The silver lining to that conversation from earlier was that all orders seemed to have to go through Nicholas. That explained why Herb gave me two spare extracts rather than ordering more. I contemplated whether I should shift Herb to the ‘pro’ category, but in the end, I figured him staying in ‘neutral’ was for the best.

My gaze shifted to the next name on the list: Nicholas Webster.