“Oscar?”

As I stood there frozen, Erhan, who had already gotten fully dressed, looked at me with a puzzled expression. I knew I shouldn’t be worrying about the snake’s passageway with Erhan in front of me. However, it was difficult to ignore my hand that kept trying to slip out.

I abruptly got up from my spot. It was an action driven by the thought that I shouldn’t be wasting time like this, but the result wasn’t good.

Having injured my ankle, I stumbled badly. As I stood up, grimacing from the pain shooting up from my injured ankle, Erhan reflexively approached as if to support me.

“What’s wrong with you?”

He stared at me strangely for suddenly moving.

After looking at me with a perplexed expression, Erhan seemed to have realized something and suddenly furrowed his brows before turning around.

No…! A scream nearly escaped my lips.

Usually, when I leave the room, I place a tall potted plant in front of the snake’s passageway entrance. But because Erhan had shown up unexpectedly, the entrance was now clumsily concealed. The hand poking out through the gap would catch Erhan’s eye in an instant if he looked closely.

I reached out with a pale face and immediately grabbed Erhan.

“Brother.”

Fortunately, he turned to look at me.

Now it was up to me. Zachary’s presence in the snake’s passageway must not be discovered here. If asked why Zachary was there, I had no excuses to offer.

Thinking about it made my hands tremble with tension. Striving to forcibly relax my stiff body, I opened my mouth to speak to Erhan.

“Thank you for helping me study today. Actually, I wanted to talk a bit more, but….”

“…..”

“My condition is really bad right now. Could we possibly study together again next time?”

Right now, I needed to check on Zachary’s condition immediately. My mouth felt dry from the urgency.

Erhan’s gaze lingered on my lips. His eyes then slowly swept over my face, as if licking it with his tongue. His gaze, scrutinizing me as if dissecting me, was relentless. Was I mistaken due to being pushed to the edge?

He quietly stared at me like that for a long time, then slowly rose to his feet.

“…Okay.”

From his perspective, how ungrateful must I seem? He had helped me study and treated my injured ankle, only to be abruptly kicked out.

But at the moment, I had no room to consider Erhan’s feelings in detail.

‘Why is his hand sticking out? The door shouldn’t open unless it’s knocked six times, so how did it open? But can I even say it’s open? Then how did the gap appear in the first place?’

Complicated thoughts chased each other in my mind. Then, seeing Erhan’s back as he was about to leave, I hastily gathered my thoughts and got off the bed. The moment my foot touched the floor, a sharp pain shot through, but I still tried to get up and see Erhan out.

“Then maybe tomorrow….”

Erhan, who had turned around to say something to me, suddenly frowned.

“Are you crazy? Why are you getting up?”

His momentum as he approached me irritably was quite fierce.

Even though my ankle hurt, I had no choice but to do this. I had to block Erhan’s view in case he discovered Zachary’s hand.

“I was going to walk you to the door. I wanted to say goodbye properly.”

I also felt uncomfortable sending Erhan away like an unwelcome guest after he had helped me all day. I at least wanted to see him off to the door.

Erhan looked at me as if I were foolish. But he didn’t let go of my arm that he was holding. He roughly pushed me, whom he had been supporting, onto the bed. As I sank into the bed, he stood in front of me and spoke.

“Do it here.”

His furrowed brow looked menacing.

He must be displeased by my sudden request for him to leave.

“…Okay.”

Still trying to ignore Zachary’s hand sticking out, I fixed my gaze on Erhan.

“Thank you so much for the book today. You went through a lot of trouble because of me, and I’m sorry for suddenly kicking you out….”

“Is that all?”

What more should I say? As I stared blankly, Erhan spat out as if dumbfounded.

His eyes showed disdain. After staring at me oddly for a while, narrowing his eyes, Erhan’s expression gradually began to crumble.

“Just to say that….”

He then closed his eyes as if appalled and let out a long sigh.

After intently staring at my leg for a moment, Erhan suddenly changed the subject.

“By the way, where is your servant now?”

It was an unexpected question.

I was startled because I hadn’t expected him to bring up Zachary so abruptly.

“I thought he never left your side before. I noticed he wasn’t around since I entered the mansion.”

The sharp Erhan must have noticed Zachary’s absence from the beginning.

In a way, it made sense. Zachary was a conspicuous servant. Moreover, it was only natural for Erhan, who knew his identity, to be curious about Zachary’s whereabouts.

What should I say, how should I say it to divert Erhan’s attention? But there was no time for lengthy contemplation. I had to make sure Erhan’s gaze never left me. And Zachary’s hand, which had been moving well until a while ago, now hung limply as if drained of strength. I needed to make an excuse quickly and send him out.

“…Brother, you said before that my servant was strange.”

Suddenly, the incident in the greenhouse came to mind. The way Erhan had been wary of Zachary.

“I also found him a bit strange recently. So for the past few days… I’ve been keeping him in the kitchen and having him work there. I haven’t been letting anyone into my room lately since I’ve been studying alone a lot.”

I tried my best to remain calm while lying.

Of course, Erhan was not a pushover who would fall for a clumsy lie, so I had to be more careful. To hide my agitated eyes, I focused my gaze on my foot. To conceal my nervousness, I deliberately frowned as if feeling pain in my ankle and fiddled with the bandage. After a moment, Erhan’s voice was heard.

“…Is that so?”

It wasn’t a voice completely devoid of suspicion, but it would be difficult for him to interrogate me further.

“Yes. I’ll have to bring him back soon though.”

That would be the case.

If what I saw earlier was Zachary’s hand, it meant he had woken up.

Even if Erhan doubted my words, he wouldn’t go looking for Zachary right away. So from now on, my task was to bring Zachary back to my side as quickly as possible.

“Then you don’t have anyone to support you.”

As expected, Erhan’s reaction was more nonchalant than I thought.

See, Erhan also….

“Huh?”

What do you mean? Belatedly understanding Erhan’s words, I was surprised and abruptly raised my head.

“Wasn’t he the only servant who could touch your body? How will you get around with an injured foot?”

“This, I can just….”

“What time do you have breakfast?”

I couldn’t gauge the flow of the conversation. As I stammered and roughly answered around 8 o’clock, he lightly nodded and turned around. With wide strides, he quickly reached the door and turned the handle to open it.

With a creaking, eerie sound, the door swung wide open. Before stepping into the corridor, Erhan turned to look at me, who had a clueless expression. Then he tapped his head with his fingertips.

“I’ll come pick you up tomorrow, so wait for me.”

As if telling me to remember, Erhan said those words and let go of the handle. In an instant, Erhan went out the door. Before I could even react, the door quickly closed.

Erhan said he would come for me.

Why was he doing this? It definitely wasn’t just an empty promise.

It made sense because Erhan was someone who didn’t know how to make empty promises. Didn’t he suddenly say he would return before and indeed swiftly come back to the family not long after?

‘This isn’t the time for this.’

There was no time to be lost in idle thoughts. I abruptly got up from the bed and immediately stepped down.

It hurt. The pain in my ankle was so intense that a groan nearly escaped through my clenched teeth.

I was so eager that I wanted to run right away, but it was impossible with this ankle. However, I couldn’t just sit still. Enduring the surging pain, I barely moved.

The more urgent, the more composed I needed to be. I limped over to the closed door and locked it by engaging the latch. Then I headed towards the snake’s passageway, where the hand was still sticking out.

First, I grabbed the hand. The large hand was cold and limp, as if I were touching a corpse.

As I was about to withdraw my hand, thinking I should hurry and open the door….

“…You!”

Zachary’s hand tightly grasped mine.