The Nightmare's Box

“I… I’ll apply the medicine to your cheek this time, Miss.”

“Ooh~ Good!”

She had not removed the bra hanging over her breasts or her outer garment. With her eyes gently closed, she offered me her cheek.

“Uuu, it’s cold.”

“Please endure, Miss.”

The Healing Potion seeped into both cheeks, swollen and mottled with bruises. I wasn’t sure, but the ingredients were probably not inferior to those used by the Inspection Department. One bottle could cost tens of millions of won. Pouring it all over the injured area would heal almost any wound—essentially the same as extra life.

“It’s done.”

I tried to rise, unwilling to stay even a second longer beside this monster, but she seized my wrist and pulled me back down.

“Where?”

I could have shaken her off, but that would ruin the strange, soft atmosphere I had finally coaxed out of her. I didn’t want to risk her wrath.

“Because Master Sunghyun hurts too, I’ll apply the medicine!”

“Eh? No, it’s unnecessary—”

Before I could finish, she already had the Healing Potion smeared across her fingers and began applying it to my arm, which was a mess of wounds.

Chuk, chuk.

“Ehehe, heal quickly~ Hoo~”

Her breath against my elbow sent goosebumps, but what intrigued me more was her motive for such an act, given her notorious misandry.

I glanced at her face, but it did not look like she was acting. It was an utterly innocent expression, nothing like the strict Lee Yohee I knew. Her eyes sparkled with laughter, pure and childlike—except for the hazy gaze as if she were watching some distant past scene.

“You… Miss?”

“Mm?”

She looked at me with a relaxed air, as if the wounds had vanished thanks to the potion.

This was no ordinary state…

Even if infantile regression was a common symptom of PTSD, clinging to me like she wanted to bite felt far too abnormal.

Chrr, chrr, chrrrrk—

I recalled every book on psychology and mental health stored in my mind and listed them.

The most plausible explanation ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠among them was…

Borderline Personality Disorder…?

I wasn’t a psychiatrist, so I couldn’t diagnose, but it was likely correct.

Impulsivity, eating disorders, pursuit of sexual pleasure, repeated suicide attempts—these were classic symptoms of borderline personality disorder.

People with this disorder were extremely unstable in behavior and relationships, making them impossible to predict.

They suffered from extreme emotions with no self-control, and they felt absolute hostility toward others, viewing anyone as demons and hating them intensely.

But after a specific event, if someone reminded them of a “good person,” they idealized that person completely and trusted them fully.

Yet a single mistake would make them feel betrayed, and they would hate them as if they wanted to kill them.

In short, their attitude toward others swung wildly.

From this perspective, Lee Yohee matched the profile of a borderline personality disorder patient except for the transference of her self-destructive urges into violence toward others.

Right now, infantile regression combined with the disorder was producing this bizarre behavior toward me.

This woman is a complete package of mental illness.

Unaware that I was staring at her cruelly, Lee Yohee approached with a bright smile.

“Hurray! Master Sunghyun doesn’t hurt anymore!”

“Ah, yes… Miss, thanks to you, I’m all better. Thank you.”

When will this return to normal?

I sent a DM to Cha Seyeon.

She hadn’t even waited a few seconds before Cha Seyeon burst in from outside.

Knock, knock.

“It’s me, Cha Seyeon. May I come in?”

“Wow, Seyeon! Get in!”

Cha Seyeon entered with a strange expression, as if she had seen something unbelievable, then quickly composed herself.

“Ah… Miss is acting… again…”

“Again?”

“Master… no, I mean, Sunghyun doesn’t know. Miss sometimes… becomes like this.”

“What?”

“I don’t know the details, but it’s unpredictable. Last time it lasted a whole week…”

“What about the psychiatrist? The shaman?”

“Mr. Kim Sunghyun knows Chairman Lee’s temperament. Chairman Lee… will never allow Miss’s secrets to leak outside…”

Indeed.

This was an enormous opportunity.

I had gained the position of chief butler for the price of nearly dying, and the head maid Cha Seyeon, who could check me, had already become my meat toilet.

Now, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with the highest authority in the mansion being the regressed Lee Yohee, no one could stop me.

Before she recovered her senses, I would finish everything.

“Miss, we’ll go now.”

“Mm? No!”

“We still have work, Miss.”

“Aaaaah! I don’t want to!! I’m staying with Master!!”

Her voice cracked like it would shatter at any touch—childish and near-tearful.

Madwoman.

If Lee Yohee had borderline personality disorder, refusing her affection here would turn it into extreme hostility toward me. I couldn’t allow that.

“Ah, yes, yes. I’ll stay with Miss. That’s fine, right?”

“Ehehe~ All my friends here are nice! Because you listen to everything I say!”

I laid her on the bed and pretended to tuck her in, then slipped out.

I instructed Cha Seyeon to handle my afternoon duties in my place and led the regressed Lee Yohee to the bed.

“Me me, stroke my head!!”

Having grown up with servants naturally obeying her every word since childhood, when I lay beside her on the soft, fluffy bed, she grabbed my hand at will and rested her chin on it.

“Haa… Fuck…”

I muttered the curse silently so she wouldn’t hear, but she tilted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her head and looked at me.

“Mm? What?”

“Nothing.”

Lying in the same bed, under the same blanket, head on the same pillow, facing each other—this was how lovers spent their time, sweet and intimate. But lying here with a rapist, torture expert, and biological experiment leader was simply disgusting.

And I didn’t even like this weak side of her.

The image of her doing animal things, throwing away the evil deeds she committed, and running back to her childish self from the past—how repulsive.

Right now, this was not the cruel Yohee but the younger Yohee before she had committed any sin.

As far as I was concerned, I had no intention of demanding compensation from an innocent child’s mind for the wrongs she would commit later.

But I had no intention of being swayed by feeble pity either. There were far more wretched, far more pitiful human beings than Yohee. Simply look at me—had I not suffered the same? Did I have a warm back and a full belly like you? I had no parents and no home.

So I would turn you back into the cruel Yohee and make sure you could never escape your mistakes. And when that happened, I would make you truly suffer.

That was true revenge.

Fyuu… hyuu…

While I gritted my teeth inwardly, Lee Yohee finally fell asleep.

A mysterious information began to rise above her head.

In the first stage of reliability, it was simply a male-hating SNS post. In the second stage, an account in a secret female community called “Women’s Time” was posting photos of the victims she had raped and murdered.

And in this special situation where her delusions fused with infantile regression, her bond with me had reached its peak. Now she was finally exposing her secrets.