Chapter〈003〉
They’re going to find me! I’m not a jiangshi, so holding my breath won’t stop them from noticing someone’s here…
“That’s the best plan we have—stall for time and wait for reinforcements.”
…Huh?
The man’s voice, which had seemed to be coming closer, was now fading. I cautiously opened my eyes, only to find that the man who’d been right in front of me was gone. Instead, his voice echoed from the staircase I’d come up from.
Did they really walk right past me?
The two men had already gone by. Sure, it was a dark hallway and I was standing in a shadowed corner, but how could they miss a fully grown woman just standing there?
Wait… is it because I’m an extra?
Suddenly, a thought flashed through my mind. Extras, by definition, weren’t supposed to have a presence. They were there but not really there.
Even in the middle of a fight between protagonists, they’d just stand back and watch without interfering. Villains could share secrets in public, and male and female leads could kiss in the streets—because extras were meant to be invisible.
I survived because I don’t have presence…
Just as I lowered the hand covering my mouth and tried to relax—
“Who’s there!”
A cold, sharp blade was suddenly pressed against my neck. And in the darkness, eyes as piercing as the blade glared at me.
“I said, who are you?”
“Eek!”
When I didn’t answer, the man pushed the sword even closer. A stinging pain pricked at my neck. Terrified and trying to get away from the blade, I instinctively lifted my chin. It was a pointless effort, but fear made me act.
“Could be a spy.”
“N-no! I’m just an ordinary baron’s daughter!”
What, did you want to see someone get their head chopped off?
Hearing the man next to him whisper to the swordsman, I panicked and shouted out.
“Don’t be fooled, Lord Winchester. For a Sword Master like you to not even sense her presence—that’s no ordinary person.”
Lord Winchester? So… he’s Daniel’s father? The one who didn’t give a damn about his own daughter? That bastard?
“No! This is a misunderstanding!”
Finding out the one threatening me was that guy only made me feel more wronged. Honestly, if anyone deserves a blade to the neck, it’s the jerk who neglected his daughter and tried to marry her off to some degenerate!
“Then how did you manage to hide your presence so well?”
“That’s, um…”
Because I’m an extra and I have no presence…—would he believe that? No way. And if I said this was all a novel, I’d probably end up locked in a mental institution. There was no way I could say I was just an “extra.”
“I don’t really know. I just got lost wandering around…”
“Ha! Even if Camellia Mansion is large, are you saying a noble lady familiar with such places got lost inside a building?”
Whoever you are, could you not chime in right now? My life is hanging by a thread here!
“Lord Winchester.”
I calmly called his name, but his gaze didn’t change. He still stared at me with cold suspicion.
“If you doubt my words, feel free to send someone to Baron Pomotz’s estate to confirm. The baron’s second daughter was invited to tonight’s ball, and she came to attend. That would be me.”
Every time I spoke, the sharp blade grazed my skin. Still, I ignored the pain and stared directly into Lord Winchester’s eyes.
Eyes that glowed icy blue in the darkness.
“…”
The sword remained at my throat. His piercing blue eyes continued to glare at me. The air between us was so heavy I could hardly breathe. More than the blade, the pressure from his presence was suffocating.
I couldn’t even blink. I simply stared at him.
He didn’t blink either. He stared right back.
Our gazes locked, tension thick between us. My palms were slick with sweat. He had me completely trapped.
“…Doesn’t seem like she’s lying.”
At last, the sword was withdrawn—just when my limbs were so numb with tension they were starting to go paralyzed, and my head was spinning from lack of air.
“Haah!”
“Lord Winchester!”
As I gasped for breath, the other man snapped at him.
“She could still be a spy!”
“She’s not.”
“How can you be so sure? She was secretly hiding and eavesdropping on an important conversation!”
“She was scared pale and shaking, yet still clearly stated her identity.”
“So what?”
“If she were a spy that frightened, she’d have confessed or taken poison by now—not insisted she’s innocent.”
Sliding his sword back into its sheath, Lord Winchester replied. He sheathed it as quickly as he’d drawn it.
“But still—”
“Edan. Go write down what I told you earlier and deliver it to the palace.”
The man called Edan tried to argue further, but Lord Winchester cut him off with an order.
“Yes, understood.”
Though Edan still looked suspiciously at me, he left to carry out his orders.
“I apologize for the disturbance.”
Lord Winchester said, without the slightest trace of an apologetic expression.
“Not at all. I’m the one who was in the wrong for wandering off.”
And he didn’t deny it, either. He had held a sword to the throat of a lady he’d just met and even left a scratch—but didn’t seem the least bit sorry.
But why does that suit him?
Now that the threat to my life had passed, I could finally get a proper look at Lord Winchester’s face. As my mother had said—he really was handsome.
Once the murderous gleam left his eyes, what remained was a strikingly good-looking man. Under his thick, masculine eyebrows were sharp, refined eyes. Even without the hostility, those icy blue eyes still seemed to pierce right through a person.
His lower lip was fuller than the upper, drawn into a firm, stubborn line. The arrogant curve suited him perfectly.
“I’ll call someone to treat your wound.”
“Oh, no, that’s really not necessary. It’s just a scratch.”
The bleeding had already stopped.
“Then I’ll call someone to escort you home.”
“That’s all right as well. The carriage I arrived in should be waiting for me.”
“Please don’t disregard my sincerity.”
In that moment, I sensed the pressure behind his words. It dawned on me then—he wasn’t asking. He was commanding. And he didn’t fully trust me yet.
He was likely sending a trusted aide to confirm I really was going back to the Baron Pomotz estate.
“Yes. Understood, Lord Winchester.”
* * *
Just like Edan said—she was suspicious. But the way she looked him straight in the eyes and explained herself had felt honest.
Eyes devoid of emotion.
Most people couldn’t hold Lorinus’s gaze. They’d flinch or look away, even brave knights or trusted comrades.
“If you look into Lord Winchester’s eyes, you feel compelled to confess even if you haven’t done anything wrong.”
Even the Crown Prince, whose rank was higher, had once half-jokingly said that to Lorinus.
It wasn’t hard to guess what he hadn’t said aloud:
“Otherwise, it feels like you might die.”
But that girl had met Lorinus’s eyes directly. Not only that—she had clearly pleaded her case.
She’s strange.
Lorinus trusted his own judgment over the situation. On the battlefield, where life and death were decided in an instant, it was his instincts that had kept him alive. And those instincts were telling him: she was telling the truth.
Still, just in case, he ordered someone to confirm her identity at the baron’s house and started heading back to the ballroom.
As he was descending the stairs, Lorinus noticed a slightly open door. Light was spilling from the gap.
“…”
He paused to look at it, then walked over and opened the door.
Inside stood a small child.
“Ah…!”
The child’s wide eyes looked up at him in shock—as though he were the last person she expected to see. Those round blue eyes…
They resembled someone he had once loved.
Someone he had failed to protect.
