Night had grown deep, and the lights inside the mansion were beginning to fade one by one.
Thanks to taking a brief nap... or rather, accidentally falling asleep at my desk, my head felt refreshed. The fog of exhaustion had lifted somewhat, leaving my thoughts clearer than they'd been in hours.
Because of that, my vision was also somewhat clearer. My eyelids weren't drooping naturally anymore, fighting to close with each blink. The heaviness that had weighed on them for hours had finally lifted.
Having finished the cleanup and completed the reports—my hand cramping from all the writing—I now walked alone through this pitch-black corridor. My footsteps echoed softly against marble floors, the sound swallowed quickly by the oppressive darkness.
The atmosphere of the western-style mansion didn't help; it felt eerily similar to the haunted spots from my previous life. I wouldn't even be surprised if some half-transparent person floated out and whispered "Urame~shi~ya…"—though, I guess that's not exactly how Western ghosts behave.
While thinking such trivial thoughts to keep myself company in the darkness, I arrived at my destination: Erica's bedroom, as promised.
It was the time of night that straddled midnight—that liminal space between one day and the next, when the world felt suspended and strange.
I worried she might have already fallen asleep. The hour was late enough that most sensible people would be deep in dreams.
In case she had dozed off, I wanted to avoid waking her. So quietly, gently, I knocked twice on the door before me—knock knock—a light, cheerful sound that seemed too loud in the silent hallway.
No response.
Just as I thought—a bit too late after all. Well, this was past her usual bedtime... way past, actually. The manor felt abandoned, every other soul asleep.
If I apologized tomorrow and offered to sacrifice my free time during breaks, would she forgive me? Maybe I could take on some of her less pleasant duties as penance.
Such thoughts crossed my mind, but just to be certain, I moved to knock on the door once more. Better to try twice than give up too easily.
However, at that moment—
"Whoaaa!?"
The door suddenly burst open.
Something grabbed my foot—a sensation like cold, strong fingers wrapping around my ankle—and yanked hard.
That something dragged my body, pulling me into the room like I weighed nothing. The world tilted sideways as I lost my balance completely.
This all happened in mere seconds.
By the time I realized what happened, I was on the floor just inside the doorway.
(What the hell was that!?)
I tested the leg that had been grabbed.It seemed free now, with no particular pain.
But when I looked down—
Something entirely unnatural came into view.
"A… black tentacle?"
Something black, wiggling and rippling like waves, was sprawled across the floor around my feet.
I pushed myself upright and quickly pulled my legs back, staring at the thing in shock—really because I had no idea what else to do.
Even so, the black tentacle didn't attack or react. It simply continued its sluggish, sinuous wriggling. Not like an animal, more like… an animated mass.
"No seriously, what is that…?"
This was probably the thing that dragged me inside. But why was something like that in Erica's room?
...!
(Erica!?)
The thought that something dangerous might have happened to her raced through my brain like lightning. Reflexively, I whipped around to look at the interior of the room, scanning for threats, for her, for any sign of what was happening.
What dominated my vision were long, slender, white... things that looked like legs. Pale skin catching what little starlight filtered through the windows.
And they were impossibly, uncomfortably close.
"Uwaaah!?"
Without any restraint, I let out an absurd shriek and scrambled backward while still sitting down, my hands scrabbling against carpet for purchase. The movement was graceless, panicked, entirely undignified.
After putting some distance between us, I finally became certain they were someone's legs—actual human legs, not some monster appendage.
Timidly, fearfully, I raised my gaze upward. As expected—or perhaps inevitably—there was the face of a person looking down at me from above.
But I couldn't make out their expression. Their face was painted over by shadows of darkness, a silhouette that watched me wordlessly. The effect was eerie, unsettling, like something from a nightmare.
If I could have drawn my sword or chanted a spell at that moment, it would have been cool. But I was like a frog paralyzed by a snake's gaze—unable to move my body even a millimeter. Unable to do anything except exist in that frozen moment of terror.
Not even able to blink.
I remained like that for some indeterminate amount of time, my breath shallow and my heart hammering against my ribs.
The other party moved first.
Suddenly, those pale legs bent, bringing their eye level down to match mine. The movement was fluid, controlled, deliberate.
What are they planning to do!? I couldn't even finish the thought before the person before me—now at my eye level—opened their mouth and spoke in that familiar voice I knew so well.
"...Liam?"
"...E-Erica, milady."
Her expression looked puzzled, almost hurt by my reaction. And behind her back, I could see black tentacles writhing and undulating—extensions of her own cursed magic, I realized belatedly.
＊＊＊
"It was supposed to be magic that automatically welcomes whoever knocks... but it seems it was a bit too rough."
She said this with an apologetic smile, her blue eyes reflecting the candlelight she'd lit after my dramatic entrance.
"That's putting it mildly! I made such a weird noise!"
I voiced a modest protest to Erica, who was giggling at my expense. The sound of her laughter was light, musical, completely at odds with the heart attack she'd just given me.
The sequence of events had apparently unfolded like this:
She'd called me to her room, but realized my work was taking far longer than expected. The cleanup had stretched on and on, each task spawning two more.
She'd tried to wait up for me, but couldn't fight off the sleepiness that came with the late hour. After much deliberation, the solution she'd devised was magic that would "automatically admit whoever knocked"—a clever workaround to the problem of potentially being asleep when I arrived.
The magic responded to the sound of knocking, and tentacles would move to pull the visitor in. But there had apparently been an error in calibration, resulting in the violent entrance I'd experienced. The magical equivalent of using a sledgehammer to open a door.
"What if it hadn't been me...?"
"At this hour, you're the only person who would come to my room, Liam."
Well, certainly, not limited to just her bedroom—there wouldn't be anyone visiting anyone's room at this hour. That was basic propriety, the kind of rule even children understood.
But that raised the opposite question: why did she want me to come at such a late hour in the first place? What could possibly be important enough to warrant a midnight meeting?
And the probable reason for that summons was lined up on the desk before me.
"So... this is why you called me?"
"Yes. Because Liam, you barely ate anything today, did you?"
That's right.
Indeed.
Spread neatly across the elegant table were plates of sweets.
To be precise—cakes, macarons, and treats more suited to afternoon tea than a midnight meal.
Seeing that I had barely eaten anything during the banquet and throughout the party, she had secretly gathered the leftover sweets for me.
The gesture itself was incredibly touching…though the fact that she had chosen sweets instead of anything resembling an actual meal made her excuse sound a little suspicious.
Still, pointing that out would probably be suicidal, so I swallowed it.
"It's true I didn't eat much… but eating sweets at this hour—Adelbetter-sama and Shelly-san would scold us, you know?"
"Probably. But today is special, so we can break the rules. And… since it's already almost past midnight… you're my accomplice now, aren't you?"
Smiling mischievously, she picked up a macaron and held it out toward me.
"Here—say ahh."
…Good grief.Where did she even learn this trick?
Oh right. From me.
I used to feed her like this all the time when she was smaller. It had decreased lately, but… I never imagined she'd turn it back on me like this.
"...Well, I suppose that's true."
Feeling too embarrassed to go along with the "ahh," I plucked the macaron from her fingertips and popped it into my mouth.
She looked a bit disappointed, but seeing that I was willing to eat with her, she quickly brightened—
"Hehe, that's more like it."
With a gentle smile, she leaned in closer, closing the distance between us.
Honestly… I really can't beat Erica.