BID Chapter 95

Fortunately, Zachary didn’t persist any further. He obediently stood up at my words.

“No matter how much you clean, the floor is so dirty. Look at this. Your hands are already…..”

“Young master.”

Zachary, who had been watching me brush off my hands, called out to me. I felt puzzled by his voice that seemed to carry a little emotion, unlike the usual emotionless way he addressed me as young master.

“What?”

I asked back while blinking, but he didn’t answer right away. At that moment, he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled my body close. I could see the cloth sticking up along his well-defined nose bridge. As the cloth moved, his lips were slightly revealed and then disappeared.

“Are you going to take that to the bedroom too?”

What did he mean by taking it as it is? He couldn’t be referring to the key I was holding.

While I looked up at him in bewilderment, Zachary slowly caressed my waist. I flinched at the sudden contact, but his touch seemed to have a purpose of searching for a specific object rather than just contact.

Zachary, who seemed to be exploring my body, swiftly took something out and held it in his hand.

“Shouldn’t you throw this away?”

They were the invitations my mother had given me.

“Why would I throw that away?”

I looked at Zachary with a displeased expression, but he just stared at me while holding the bundle of invitations without saying a word.

“This isn’t what’s important right now. We don’t have time for this here. Give me that too.”

I reached out to snatch the bundle of invitations, but Zachary was faster. I tried to say something while looking at Zachary, who easily dodged my hand, but I held back.

Why do we have to engage in this meaningless argument? Seeing him act strangely, it doesn’t seem like he’s under a brainwashing spell again.

“There are too many eyes watching. Let’s go inside and talk.”

I managed to calm my emotions and spoke.

The area in front of my room wasn’t a passage frequently used by servants, but you never know when someone might show up. Above all, to check Zachary’s condition, we needed to enter the room as soon as possible.

Due to the pain in my ankle, I had no choice but to slightly lean on Zachary as I tried to unlock the door with the key. In this old mansion, even when you unlock the door with a key, it doesn’t open right away. After moving the key a few times, I finally heard the sound of it catching.

“Let’s go.”

Finally, the door opened. With my ankle in discomfort, I had to put strength into the hand gripping the doorknob. Zachary gently pulled my waist and supported me. Still, this level of support wasn’t too burdensome.

“Thank you.”

I was about to enter the room while expressing my gratitude, but I had to freeze and just blink my eyes.

‘It’s not moving.’

My body wasn’t budging at all. My head and upper body were facing inside the room, but I couldn’t move my lower body which Zachary was holding. I almost lost my balance as my center of gravity shifted, but thanks to Zachary firmly holding my waist, I didn’t fall.

“…… Thank you?”

Although the reason I almost fell in the first place was because of Zachary, I reflexively expressed my gratitude.

Zachary even slightly lifted my body so that I wouldn’t feel the pain in my ankle. As a result, we ended up in an embrace, facing each other.

Our bodies were close enough to feel a bit uncomfortable. Especially our lower bodies were pressed together as if entwined as one……

“You can let go now……”

Weren’t we too close? Although this had happened a few times while living with him, it was still embarrassing.

I tried to slightly push my body back, but the strength of his arms around my waist was strong. Even though I clearly used force to push, he didn’t budge at all, so I hurriedly put my foot down.

“Ugh.”

Zachary didn’t miss the moment I let out a small groan as I placed my foot on the floor in a clumsy posture. He lifted me up a bit more and hugged me tightly. Hanging like a doll, I panicked and struggled, asking him to put me down. The cloth covering Zachary’s face was half pulled off by my flailing hand.

“What are you doing right now? Put me down… right now……”

However, I couldn’t help but trail off. Our eyes met. Forgetting to even blink, I stared at Zachary’s exposed eyes as if entranced. His coldly settled eyes felt bluer than usual. Just as I thought they seemed to be emitting a blue glow, he abruptly dropped the bundle of envelopes he was holding.

The improperly tied envelopes all fell, instantly making a mess on the floor. Some slid under the bed, and some went under the narrow drawers. Seeing the invitations and letters scattered in disarray, I felt lightheaded.

When will I clean all of this up? I tried to escape from Zachary’s embrace but failed. He gripped my shoulders with a force that wasn’t strong but firm.

“What’s wrong with you since earlier? I’ve been worrying about you…!”

The anxiety and impatience I had been suppressing all along burst out at Zachary’s arbitrary behavior. After raising my voice in a fit of anger, I tightly shut my mouth and glared up at Zachary.

“Take it all off.”

Tak, I twisted my shoulders that Zachary was holding and pulled my body out.

Zachary, who had been staring at me blankly, brought his hands behind his back as if to take off his clothes. As soon as I saw that, I shook my head.

“Not the clothes, I mean all the bandages and cloth covering the spell circles. We need to check the spell, don’t we?”

At my words, Zachary slowly started unwrapping the magical tools wrapped around his legs first. I slowly opened my mouth as I saw the spell circles that were soon revealed.

‘Why… does the color keep changing?’

I couldn’t believe it. I was certain that I had destroyed the spell circles engraved on his arms and legs. However, the colors of the spell circles kept alternating between red and gray.

Moreover, the spell circle on his neck was the same as I had seen earlier. The original spell circle was a vivid red, as if it had never turned gray. Even the newly engraved small spell circle had a strange shape I had never seen before.

‘Could it be that he was caught by the Duke and fell under the brainwashing spell again?’

Well, with the Duke’s abilities, it would be possible to engrave a new spell circle in a short time. But judging from Zachary’s behavior so far, it doesn’t seem like he’s completely consumed by the spell……

‘The servants who would lay down like a carpet if I fell.’

For a moment, I froze.

At the same time as the image of the brainwashed servants I had frequently encountered as a child and while growing up came to mind.

‘And Zachary, who pushed his back under my feet.’

Zachary’s earlier actions overlapped with that image.

Can we really say that he has completely found his true self? He’s just a servant who can think a little more and speak.

‘No.’

I tried hard to stop my thoughts from turning negative.

The things that were glimpsed bit by bit in Zachary’s words and attitude were of a completely different kind that couldn’t be seen in a trained servant.

When my mind was so complex that it felt like it would explode, Zachary completely pulled the cloth with the ghost’s eyes drawn on it to the back. Only then, when I saw Zachary’s fully exposed face, I froze helplessly.

Zachary’s face was a complete mess. I couldn’t tell when he had been hit, but his bruised and battered eyes and mouth were terrible. Not only were his lips completely torn, but dried blood was also stuck to the inside of his lips, as if he had bitten his tongue.

“What happened to your face?”

I jumped up from my seat and approached Zachary right away. It was so shocking that I even forgot about the pain in my foot. When I urgently reached out and cupped his face, he let out a small groan as if in pain. I asked while loosening the strength in my hands.

“Were you hit?”

These weren’t wounds that could be caused by falling or rolling somewhere. However, no answer came from Zachary.

I stared at Zachary intently, to the point where it might be considered persistent. Then, after a while, he deeply lowered his head as if he couldn’t say anything. My heart ached sharply.

“You can tell me the truth. The Duke did this to you, so you can’t answer, right?”

As soon as I finished speaking, Zachary immediately lifted his head. His dark blue eyes couldn’t meet mine and stared at an ambiguous void.

“……”

Although Zachary didn’t verbally confirm my suspicion, his silence was as good as an affirmation.

Who else could engrave that small and intricate spell circle other than the Duke? Could it be that the Duke found out about the destruction of the spell, leading to a new spell being engraved on Zachary’s neck? I had expected it, but the more I thought about it, the more questions arose.

The Duke is a snake-like person. A person who embodies the symbol of the Serpentine family itself. The Duke I had observed so far was a prudent person, persistent to the point of slowly and surely coiling around and strangling his prey like a snake.

How did he manage to break free while dealing with such a Duke? The Duke wasn’t someone who would end things by just hitting a few times and engraving one spell circle.

‘Could it be……’

Zachary, who had no way of knowing my complicated thoughts, stood still with his messy face and pitifully lowered eyes.

‘He couldn’t have already awakened, right?’