Julian was sure that the instruction not to go to the East Wing was so that he would not cross paths with the Duke. If he did, he would lose his job.
And he just so happened to get to that very restricted area on the first day after getting lost.
Why else would he come across the Duke?
He squatted in that room, shame and embarrassment enveloping him. He couldn't even bring himself to go out for fear that the Duke would be magically standing there, waiting for him.
But the Duke shouldn't have all the time in the world to be waiting for him, right? He didn't even see him, so...
'Get it together,' he thought, but then his mind, for some reason, wandered to the broad shoulders of the Duke, moving down to a slender waist and those long legs... His face steamed.
Unlike the Duke, Julian felt his own body was unimpressive. He had a handsome face but was lacking such a fit body. If anything, he was all flesh and bones, except he equally had a slender waist.
But why didn't he have broad shoulders to go with it?
To think a day would come when he would start observing other men's body... Julian flushed in shame.
These thoughts never came to him when he was living his simple life, and yet now... He hid his face in his knees and then raised it, taking in a deep breath to calm his nerves.
'He should be gone by now. I need to get out of here.' Julian thought to himself, stood up, and decided to bury the thought from just now in this very room.
Wait, which room was this?
He raised his head, only to discover it was a bedroom. A large master's bedroom which, without mistake, should belong to the Duke.
'Ah, I'm screwed.'
Of all places to have entered in an attempt to escape from the Duke...
How is it that he's in such a hot mess already?
Just then, the door handle shifted and Julian flinched. Someone was trying to get inside.
His heart nearly jumped out of his lungs, and he looked around, looking for an escape route, when his eyes landed on the curtains covering the balcony window.
He bolted towards the window without a second thought and then closed it after getting out.
The outside cold swept over him but thanks to the balm, he did not freeze. He looked down at the bed of snow covering the ground and frowned.
Did he really have to take such a risk? What if the snow was not thick enough and he ended up breaking his neck or leg?
He was worried. He didn't want to take such a risk when the system pinged a new quest.
The purple holographic window flickered into existence, suspended in the frigid air right in front of his face. Its glow was the only light in the dim, snowy shadow of the balcony.
> [EMERGENCY QUEST: 'The Leap of Faith']
> Objective: Escape the Duke's chambers without being detected.
> Current Threat Level: 85% (Critical Proximity)
> Reward: 20 Survival Points & 'Manor Map' (Partial Unlock).
> [Failure Penalty: Immediate Dismissal & 'Death Flag' Activation.]
Julian's breath hitched. 'A Death Flag? Over a wrong turn?'
This world was even more unforgiving than he had thought.
Behind the glass of the balcony door, he heard the heavy thud of the bedroom door opening. His heart hammered.
He didn't dare peek. He pressed his back against the cold stone wall of the manor, his heart hammering even harder against his ribs like a trapped bird trying to get out.
He could hear muffled movement inside—the rustle of heavy fabric being discarded, the clatter of a basin. The Duke was right there. Just a pane of glass away.
'I have to jump,' Julian realized, looking down at the white abyss below. If the Duke finds a strange man on his balcony, '0% Affection' will drop into the negatives before I can even say 'I'm the tutor'.
And he would have every reason to execute him on the spot for being near his bedroom.
He gripped the frozen railing, his knuckles white. He looked at the snow again. It looked deep, but was there stone beneath it? He didn't have time to calculate.
> [ALERT: Target 'Duke Alaric' is approaching the window.]
"Damn it," Julian hissed.
He didn't jump; he rolled over the edge, tucking his body into a ball just as he felt the vibration of the balcony door being unlocked behind him.
The fall felt like an eternity. The wind whipped past his ears, and for a terrifying second, he thought he had miscalculated the height. Then—THUMP.
He plummeted into a massive, waist-deep drift of fresh powder. The impact knocked the wind out of him, but the Winterizing Balm kept his limbs from seizing up in the shock of the cold. He lay there for a moment, staring up at the grey sky, gasping for air.
High above, a silhouette appeared on the balcony.
Julian went perfectly still, burying his face in the snow. He prayed the Duke wouldn't look down, or if he did, that he'd mistake the disturbance in the snow for a fallen branch or a wandering animal.
Seconds felt like hours while staying still in the snow and waiting for the Duke to return. Finally, he turned, and Julian heard the balcony door sliding shut reach his ears.
This made him heave in relief, letting out the breath he didn't know he had been holding.
The system window pinged again.
> [QUEST COMPLETE: 'The Leap of Faith']
> Reward: 20 Survival Points added.
> Item Acquired: [Map of Alaric Manor - Level 1]
> Current Threat level - 10%
Julian scrambled out of the snowbank, shivering not from the cold, but from the adrenaline. He didn't even dare to be excited by the quest reward.
And why the hell was it a level one map and not the whole thing? He almost died back there.
But whatever, he was going to use it.
He tapped on the map and a hologram of the mansion displayed in front of him.
"How do I get back to my room?" He asked, just in passing, but as if the map had heard his command, a glowing golden trail appeared, leading him safely back toward the West Wing.
"I am never... taking a shortcut... ever again," he wheezed, brushing snow off his coat.
He felt like ten years had already been cut from his life just from that heist alone. There was no way he was going to do another.