The gaze was so blatant that it was impossible to avoid. Because of that, I also ended up intently staring into Erhan’s eyes.

Suddenly, I thought that the color of his eyes was truly fascinating. The gray that seemed endlessly bright and dazzling inside the banquet hall now appeared dark and subdued.

However, the color of Erhan’s eyes wasn’t important to me at the moment.

“Tell me honestly.”

I looked up at Erhan with a stiff face. My voice and expression were filled with fear, causing his face to stiffen as well. As he silently gazed at me, as if wondering what I was talking about, I slowly opened my mouth.

“In our mansion… could there be something even stranger than what’s already here?”

Just imagining it made my face turn pale.

Serpentine House is already strange. Its very existence is bizarre, and now Erhan, who comes from such a household, is saying there’s something strange enough for even him to find it odd?

“Seriously, how strange is it?”

What could possibly be stranger than what’s already here?

I’ve lived in Serpentine mansion for over a decade, but I’m still scared of the Duke’s workshop. If there’s something even more eerie than that, what am I supposed to do?

“Is it really strange? Is it dangerous, and that’s why you don’t come home? Where is it?”

No wonder Erhan doesn’t come into the house. So this is the reason.

If it’s frightening enough for someone of his size to be scared, just how terrifying could it be? As I looked at Erhan, my face drained of color, he seemed a bit dumbfounded. Whether Erhan was surprised by my reaction or not, to me, this was a matter of survival.

“Is it alive? If it’s alive, how many years old is it?”

Oh my goodness, it can’t be hundreds of years old, right?

“It doesn’t have legs, does it? Wait, does it have eyes?”

“Uh…”

In a place where there are servants walking around with their heads cut off and bandages with mouths, it wouldn’t be strange to have bizarre creatures inside the mansion.

Despite much time passing, the one thing that remained the same was my fear. Erhan’s words were enough to make my mind go rigid. Unable to manage my expression, I asked question after question with a frightened face, but for some reason, Erhan only answered intermittently with a dazed look.

“…Of course it’s alive. It doesn’t seem to crawl around since it has legs. Eyes? Eyes.”

Erhan, who had briefly paused, stared at me blankly.

“They’re nicely and prettily attached.”

His gaze directed at me was so straight. I flinched unintentionally at that direct gaze, but it only lasted for a moment.

Because I soon realized that I was truly fucked. Erhan wasn’t teasing me. Judging by how specifically he was describing it, it was definitely not a lie. Then that meant there really was a monstrous creature in the mansion. Could it be…?

“Those eyes… How many eyes does it have?”

As I asked the question, my face grew even paler, and I slowly opened my mouth.

I pondered deeply. It must be underground. The basement with the attached warehouse, where only the servants come and go, is a place I have no particular reason to visit. No wonder it felt especially scary when walking through the corridors at night. Sometimes, I could hear loud noises coming from below.

Damn Serpentine House. This is why they’ll eventually face ruin…

“What?”

However, Erhan’s reaction was unexpected. Erhan, who had been looking at me as if dumbfounded, burst into loud laughter as if he couldn’t bear it any longer, even throwing his head back.

“Ah, ha, haha!”

Is it funny? I’m being serious, but you find this amusing?

I looked at Erhan with an expression that seemed to say, “How can you laugh at a time like this?” but Erhan still seemed too busy laughing. Seeing Erhan laughing like a madman reminded me of an old memory.

‘It’s perfectly creepy!’

His face from back then, when he laughed so hard he almost suffocated at my slip of the tongue, overlapped with his current appearance.

“I’m joking, it’s a joke.”

Erhan, who had been laughing with his head thrown back for a while, shook his head and said. Of course, I didn’t believe him.

Where’s the lie in that? The descriptions Erhan had listed were too specific to be a lie. It was the tone of someone reciting details about something that definitely existed.

However, I couldn’t pry further. Seeing Erhan laughing so intensely and brushing it off as a joke made it highly likely that it was something he wanted to keep hidden.

‘I still have to use the passageways a lot.’

It wasn’t that I didn’t ask because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to set foot in the Snake’s Passage if I heard more and got too scared. It can’t be a centuries-old snake or something, right? If it has multiple eyes, seriously…

“So you won’t come back to the mansion anymore?”

I wanted to change my train of thought. To stop my imagination from running wild, I asked Erhan, and he raised his eyebrows in surprise before lowering them.

“I wonder if the mansion is still the same.”

“It’s similar.”

How could it change? It still doesn’t get any light, and the bizarre statues have only increased, never decreased.

When I spoke in a nonchalant manner, Erhan chuckled and spoke as if reading my thoughts.

“It’s always dark at night without a single light, so you can’t even walk around without a lantern. The sun doesn’t seem to shine much, but strangely, the moonlight enters well.”

Did I say my thoughts out loud instead of just thinking them?

I looked at him in surprise, and Erhan continued speaking with a hint of laughter.

“Especially on nights when the moon is full, the moonlight illuminates the mansion with an eerily blue color. The statues bathed in the blue moonlight seem to come alive, which is quite frightening. And the servants standing motionlessly between the statues all look the same and emit a strange smell. It would be better if they were just statues, so they wouldn’t give off a rotten stench…”

His gaze as he spoke was exceptionally direct. However, I couldn’t meet that piercing gaze for long. It was disconcerting because he expressed exactly what I had felt.

Erhan had also experienced those sentiments. Even though he doesn’t seem like the type to know fear, it almost perfectly matched the feelings I had as a coward.

‘He wasn’t even in the mansion. Why is he saying such things?’

As I reflected on Erhan’s words, a strange, tingling sensation arose from deep within my heart. It felt as if someone had spoken aloud the thoughts I had only kept to myself all this time. If I kept listening, it seemed like I would end up pouring out all the stories I had kept bottled up inside to Erhan, so I tried to think about something else.

‘Isaac?’

Just then, I spotted Isaac fidgeting in the distance.

His movements, as if searching for something, caught my eye. Come to think of it, I wasn’t able to properly finish our conversation because Isaac got swept away by the crowd…

“But why are you suddenly asking about that?”

“…”

“Do you miss being alone without me?”

“…A little.”

That’s right, probably. Staying alone without being able to talk…

‘Huh?’

While looking at Isaac, words slipped out of my mouth without me realizing it.

Belatedly realizing the meaning behind my answer, I had to widen my eyes. I quickly raised my head and covered my mouth as if to block it. Erhan’s gray eyes were also wide open, staring at me.

‘What did I just say?’

It was a momentary slip of the tongue. So much so that even I was taken aback.

Do I miss not having Erhan around? No way. I don’t miss Erhan not being in the mansion. On the contrary, if he’s not there, my range of movement within the mansion becomes wider, and I can save time trying to look good in front of him…

“Oscar?”

Why did I give such an answer without realizing it?

I spent most of my time alone in the large and scary mansion, but I was fine.

Because I had a lot to study and things to do. And if I wanted to, I always had someone to talk to. Mother and the duke, of course, and Zachary was by my side. I…

“…No. It was a slip of the tongue.”

Distracting thoughts are just unnecessary elements. What I said just now was simply a verbal mistake. Don’t think about it.

I quickly corrected myself. This was definitely a mistake. It must have been words that slipped out by mistake.

And even if it wasn’t a mistake, I knew well that emotional words to someone you’re not close with can become poison. I shook my head firmly.

“I was spacing out, and the words just came out wrong.”

I hope Erhan won’t misinterpret it.

It would be extremely awkward for anyone to hear their step siblings, with whom they are not close and have no interaction, say they missed seeing them. Especially for Erhan, who seems to dislike flattery even more.

Worried that it might have come across as me trying to flatter him, I raised my head with a serious expression.

“I’ve been doing really well all this time.”

What’s there to be lonely about? I have a mountain of things to do. Indulging in such emotions is a luxury.

I tried hard to think that way as I spoke, and Erhan opened his mouth as if to say something but then firmly closed it. In the quiet night, a cool breeze passed between us, as if brushing through. He silently gazed at me for a while before opening his mouth.

“You’re not going to ask me again?”

“…Ask what?”

“If I’ve been doing well.”

At the sudden remark, I even forgot the situation and stared at Erhan like a fool.

A cliché question people usually ask when they haven’t seen each other in a long time. It was a question I had already asked Erhan as soon as I met him. But instead of answering, he had taken a different action.

As I looked at Erhan with a puzzled expression, he chuckled and reached out his hand. His outstretched hand was still wearing gloves. Erhan, who had reached out his hand, suddenly stopped and frowned at the gloves he was wearing.

Clicking his tongue, Erhan took off the gloves without hesitation. As the black gloves were removed, revealing his white hands, there were very faint burn marks. And those marks were something I was familiar with.

“Burn marks…”

“Yeah.”

Hearing my words, Erhan intently looked at his own hands. He then spread his hands wide, clearly revealing the burn marks.

“You remember.”

As if showing them to me.