1An imperial prince had died in a fire. It was an incident that could have turned the family upside down and then some.

However, the Duke didn’t make an issue of this. He merely showed an attitude that it was an unavoidable accident and focused on managing the building that had been completely destroyed by the fire.

It was an unbelievably nonchalant reaction. It would be right to try to understand the Duke’s questionable behavior, but I couldn’t do that. With all contact with Zachary completely cut off, I didn’t have any emotional leeway whatsoever.

After the sudden loss of contact with the Princess, I tried everything to find out about Zachary’s well-being, but…

‘Is he doing well?’

As time passed endlessly, I started to worry whether Zachary would be safe.

Of course, I wasn’t anxious from the beginning. He is the protagonist of this world. If someone had tried to harm him, there’s a high possibility he would have awakened completely.

However, the last image I saw of him kept coming back to me. Every time I recalled Zachary sleeping as if dead with his sacred power sealed, my imagination kept spreading in a bad direction.

‘By now, all the spells must have been undone.’

I don’t know exactly how sacred power neutralizes spells. The Empire keeps everything about sacred power tightly under wraps.

But it was certain that sacred power and spells were opposing forces. That’s why the Duke had engraved a formation to block sacred power, and I also aimed to break that blocking formation first.

Zachary, who had returned to the Holy Empire, would have had the Duke’s spell formation completely dismantled by now. By now, Zachary would know everything that had been done to him.

Would he feel grateful to me? Or would he be angry that someone from House Serpentine, who had engraved the brainwashing spell, had taken care of him?

‘Either way, it’s not my concern anymore.’

There was a time when I would wake up with a start even while sleeping due to worry and anxiety. But when I thought about it coldly, my role ended with sending Zachary, the protagonist of this world, away from House Serpentine.

Now, the best I can do is cheer from afar, hoping he doesn’t become the ruthless disaster as in the original work.

Knock knock. I heard a knocking sound. I raised my body from where I was lying down. Curious about who it might be, I said to come in, and soon the door opened.

“Lord Oscar, I’m sorry to disturb your rest, but do you have a moment?”

It was the servant who had guided me earlier.

“Ah, yes.”

The servant stood there with an apologetic smile.

“There are documents that need your confirmation in the study. I wanted to explain them to you…”

Given that they came despite me saying I was resting, these documents must be quite urgent. I replied that it was fine and was then guided to the study.

“These are the list of servants and contents related to mansion management and assets. They’re waiting for final approval after the head butler’s review.”

“I see, I’ll look them over.”

“There’s quite a lot. Will you be alright?”

“That’s why I came here in the first place.”

“Ah, and also…”

Even as we walked, the servant’s explanations didn’t stop.

Working might clear my mind of distracting thoughts. Thinking this, I smiled, and the servant stared at me silently for a moment.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t asked the most important thing.

“Before we start work, could I get a tour of the mansion?”

“Ah, ah! Of course!”

The servant nodded repeatedly.

“I’ll start by introducing where you two will be dining from now on.”

And so, the servant began to lead the tour of the mansion.

I thought, how long could a tour take? But as I followed, I found the mansion was much larger than expected, with a lot to see. Moreover, I was even busier getting to know the faces of the servants who would be managing this mansion from now on.

Only after touring the entire mansion did I finish some simple paperwork. By then, it was late evening. Thoroughly exhausted, I barely managed to have dinner before falling into a light sleep as if collapsing.

The next day, the schedule became even busier. I had to endure a hellish schedule to clear the backlog of paperwork.

‘I guess I wasn’t as good with work as I thought.’

Ugh… I groaned as I looked at the paperwork that didn’t seem to decrease no matter how many pages I turned. Not only were there too many documents to review, but there were also too many calculations to make.

Buried in piles of documents as I worked, I nodded off and then woke up. I originally didn’t sleep deeply, but recently my insomnia had worsened, leading to poor sleep quality.

‘I guess it’s because my body is tired.’

It wasn’t just paperwork; during the day, I also re-examined various parts of the mansion guided by the servants. Not only that, today I even toured the garden, making me feel twice as tired as usual.

‘It’s too much to go to the bed…’

Although I wanted to go lie down quickly, my energy was so depleted that it was hard to even move a finger. Whether it was because of the unfamiliar sleeping place, or because my thoughts were racing despite the fatigue, I couldn’t sleep properly last night either.

‘Maybe I’ll sleep for a bit like this.’

It was natural to feel sleepy after working so hard. My insomnia had worsened recently, so I wasn’t sure if I could sleep again if I missed this chance. As soon as I decided it would be better to sleep properly and wake up, sleep overwhelmed me. I seemed to doze off for quite a while like that. My head, which had swayed a few times, fell heavily onto the desk.

‘Ah, I’m going to hit it.’

After trying to hold on somehow, I just let go. Maybe if I hit my head on the desk, I’d wake up. Above all, I just didn’t have the strength to hold on…

Thud. At that moment, a cool hand wrapped around my forehead.

The strong force firmly supporting my face as it fell towards the desk was too clear to be mistaken for an illusion. My mind, which had been trapped in drowsiness until just now, snapped awake. Then my calm heart started beating uncontrollably fast, as if caught in a rapid current.

‘…No way.’

There was only one servant who could touch me this closely.

Along with my rapidly beating heart, my face felt like it was about to contort strangely. Suppressing the rising expectation, I slowly raised my head as if in disbelief. It wasn’t an illusion, as a long, straight hand came into view. As I slowly raised my gaze, what I faced was…

“A Serpentine native being so unaware of their surroundings.”

Looking down at me with a smirk as if finding it absurd…

“You.”

It was Erhan Serpentine.

As if mocking the years that had passed, Erhan was exactly the same as if we had parted yesterday. His gray hair, neatly swept back, was still the same, and every time the candlelight flickered, the transparent ash-colored eyes in his distinctively long eyes absorbed the color.

If there was any change, it was only that he had become a bit more mature.

“…Er, han?”

The moment I uttered his name, my strength drained away.

‘What, why am I…’

A hollow laugh escaped me without realizing it. What had I expected? Why had I thought it would be Zachary, as if it were natural? There’s no way he could appear before me like magic when even news of him had been cut off.

My heart, which had been beating rapidly until just now, returned to its original pace. As if I hadn’t even known it was beating.

“This.”

Thud. He tapped the bridge of my nose with his fingertip.

“Speaking informally just because we haven’t seen each other in a while.”

I had unconsciously called Erhan by his name naturally.

“Elder Brother.”

As I hurriedly corrected my form of address, Erhan stared at me intently.

Something felt awkward. Erhan’s eyes, looking down at me as I sat, were strangely subdued. As I tilted my head, not knowing why, he suddenly smiled slightly as if finding it absurd.

“Why are you so indecisive? Keep going. It sounds nice to hear you call my name.”

His unique way of speaking was still the same. Fortunately, his friendly demeanor seemed to dissipate even the slight awkwardness that had been there.

Come to think of it, how long had it been? It seemed the last time I saw him was before I became an adult.

“How have you been?”

What reason could there be to get on the bad side of Erhan, the heir to House Serpentine? In response to my answer, Erhan let out a playful laugh and sat slightly on the desk, looking around.

“This is quite impressive. You really look like the head of the family, Oscar.”

I followed Erhan’s gaze. Indeed, since the study was a space where the master of the mansion stayed, it was undeniably made more splendid and grand.

Erhan took gloves out of his pocket. They were gloves familiar to me too. He slowly put on the jet-black leather gloves he used to wear as if they were part of his body, one hand at a time. Then he skimmed over the titles of the books placed on the desk.

He suddenly grabbed a book next to him.

“The Best Practical Guide for Asset Management? You’ve really become the head of the family, Oscar.”

He said with a voice tinged with laughter, then put the book down with a thud without even looking through a few pages.

“So you’re finally getting married.”

Erhan leaned towards me. The distance between Erhan and me grew closer.

His long eyes curved slightly, the corners turning up. The sight of a smile blooming on that seemingly cold face was quite captivating. I found myself staring, entranced without realizing it.

“Congratulations on your marriage.”

But could his face really be said to be congratulatory?

“Oscar.”

Unlike his smiling eyes, Erhan’s ash-colored eyes were cold.