Never Meet Galrail of the Basker Ducal House
Don't meet Galrail of the Basker Ducal House. Even if you do meet him, don't make eye contact. Don't even glance toward where Galrail is. Of course, as servants, it's right to be cautious around the family head, but these precautions were overly excessive. Still, Haneul planned to keep a close eye on things as much as possible. At least until she heard Rahman's true intentions, she intended to play the part of an S-rank maid.
'It's gotten royally screwed from the very start.'
She'd done everything she wasn't supposed to. Spectacularly so. So what now? What was there to do? Simple. Haneul decided to brazen it out with shameless confidence. This was Haneul with two thousand years of maid experience—she could handle a situation like this in her sleep. Her eyes shifted in an instant. Without so much as clearing her throat, she had transformed into a refined, impeccably polite servant.
"This is the servants' exclusive area. To what do we owe the visit?"
Baek Hye-seo flinched at the sound of Haneul's voice and glanced over. Haneul, of course, paid it no mind. She kept her eyes wide open, locked in a fierce staring contest. Becoming a maid and winning a staring match were two entirely different things.
"You must be new—not that you recognize me."
"I beg your generous forgiveness. Having just been assigned today, I've shown my inexperience by failing to memorize the full guest roster. If it wouldn't be too much trouble, might you tell me which house's esteemed member you are? I'll record it at once to ensure no such rudeness occurs again."
"If you don't know, no need to."
Galrail let out a tittering laugh and took a step closer. To Baek Hye-seo, it looked like darkness itself creeping outward. Probably just the backlighting—he was facing the light, after all. His shadow stretched long behind him.
"Just know that there are people who can come and go from the servants' area whenever they please."
An utterly rude and tricky response. Normally, you'd summon a knight to eject the intruder or make a hasty exit yourself. But if he truly was someone important from the family, it'd be a colossal blunder. On the flip side, treating an outsider like nobility would be an equally massive screw-up. Outsiders weren't allowed to wander the servants' quarters freely. This was Rahman's domain, protected by his personal rules. Eject an outsider by default—but if he was family elite? Then servants had no authority to touch him.
Of course, Haneul knew full well this man was Duke Galrail Basker, but maid Haneul didn't. It was the perfect conundrum.
'But who am I?'
The super S-rank, ultimate maid with two thousand years on the job. There was a standard protocol for this.
"I'm terribly sorry, but I can't commit the impropriety of serving such an exalted guest here. I'll report to the head butler at once for a proper escort. Would you kindly wait here just a moment?"
"No need for that. I came here because I wanted to. I'd rather have you show me around than the head butler. You're new, right? What's your name? How old are you?"
Haneul swallowed a laugh. 'Kid, you picky little shit.' What a grade-A asshole. Infuriating. Enraging. Loathsome. She couldn't spit in his coffee or anything.
A solid flick to the forehead would hit just right.
'Huh?'
Then why not just do it? If no one saw, it was as good as not happening. Move faster than anyone could track, deliver the flick-KO, and he'd never even register he'd been hit. Staring contest won too—double win.
'Right now.'
Haneul's gaze flicked to Baek Hye-seo. Sensing the malice in those eyes, Hye-seo shook her head furiously, but Haneul already had her middle finger tucked under her thumb, locked and loaded.
That was when it hit Hye-seo: the scene back at the inn. Malcolm's head bursting with a single flick. The finger piercing clean through Galak's forehead...
'Better if I do it... A whack with the grimoire won't kill him.'
As Baek Hye-seo reached for Remegiton, hurried footsteps approached from behind Galrail.
"Father!"
A familiar gait and voice. Calling him "Father"—had to be Rahman, the one who'd brought Haneul and Hye-seo to the mansion.
But Hye-seo didn't drop her guard. She could tell this wasn't the real Rahman. Which meant the one approaching now was an impostor standing in for him.
"Father? Why are you all the way out here?"
In that split second, Galrail's eyes gleamed. Hye-seo missed it, but Haneul—still locked in her staring duel—saw it clear as day.
The "Rahman" who approached with heavy steps let out a deep sigh as he regarded Galrail.
"You said we'd have a meal together after so long, so why come all the way here..."
Then, feigning belated discovery of Haneul and Hye-seo, he cleared his throat unnecessarily.
"...Family head, dinner is ready. Shall we go before it gets cold?"
The natural, utterly Rahman-esque performance drew swallowed gasps of admiration from Haneul and Hye-seo. They'd assumed a double meant some half-decent stand-in, but this guy? You could swear it was the real deal. Only their sharpened senses picked up the difference—anyone else would buy it hook, line, and sinker.
"Dinner? Food? Did we plan to eat?"
"Yes, you said so ten minutes ago."
Galrail's head swiveled toward "Rahman." Just his head—his eyes rolled dramatically sideways, straining to fix on the man as if he couldn't quite see him. Body still facing front, head and eyeballs cranked aside. Grotesque.
"And who might you be?"
"...Your son. The eldest, Rahman."
Galrail rolled his eyes at the answer, then cracked a dopey grin and seized "Rahman"'s hand—still facing forward.
"Right, my son. Rahman Basker. Yeah, I said let's eat after so long—forgot, huh? Sorry, son. Come on, before it gets cold."
The real Rahman shot Haneul a quick glance, then led Galrail toward the main building.
Only after their footsteps fully faded did Haneul speak.
"Whoa, didn't even blink once. Tough customer. And he sends a double even to his own dad? Like father, like son. Both sharks."
Haneul winked and burst into laughter. Baek Hye-seo let out a sigh of relief—twofold: no need to crack the family head's skull on day one, and Haneul snapping back to her usual self.
"Haneul..."
"Yeah?"
"That from the family head... you felt it too, right? Or just me?"
"Nah, I felt it."
The telltale presence of a hunter contracted to a Constellation—an Apostle. Faint at first, but staring straight into his eyes made it sharpen crystal clear.
Baek Hye-seo's gaze drifted to the mountains visible through the window, then back to Haneul.
"...Got a question. Feels like you might know... can I ask?"
"Gonna need a closer look first."
Haneul answered before the question even landed—but it matched perfectly, leaving Hye-seo to clamp her mouth shut with the world's gravest expression.
"What if it is?"
"Hye-seo'd still be fine, probably."
"Why...?"
"King of Wisdom's a good guy. Or so I hear."
Haneul raised an index finger. She'd sensed an urgent presence approaching from another direction.
Hye-seo picked it up a beat later and whipped around, falling silent.
A maid approached—head bowed low, eyes downcast, footsteps silent. She held her breath until right before them, finally halting to gasp for air and timidly lift her head. Eyes still glued to the floor.
Haneul cocked her head. Only then did the maid raise her gaze to meet theirs. Tears brimmed in her eyes.
"...Sorry...! You okay?"
Haneul's head tilted the other way at the out-of-nowhere concern.
"Totally fine. Why?"
"Didn't... you make eye contact with the family head?"
"Did. But we're good."
Not buying it, she peered deep into Haneul's eyes for a long moment before sighing heavily, stepping back, and bowing low.
"Sor, sorry. I... should have warned you, but I was too scared, so I hid..."
She'd probably been waiting by the door to guide them out, only to spot Galrail at the corridor's end and bolt into hiding.
"Sorry. Really, truly sorry..."
Late teens, at most. The girl's frantic apologies—tongue nearly tripping over itself—left Baek Hye-seo uneasy. Nothing she could do, though. She could parse speech after Haneul's language lessons, but speaking remained a struggle.
"We're really fine. What's your name? I'm Haneul—Yoo Haneul. This is Baek Hye-seo."
"Yoo... Haneul...? Baek... Hye-seo?"
"Nope, try again. Yoo. Ha. Neul. Baek. Hye. Seo."
"Yoo Ha Neul... Baek Hye Seo..."
"Nailed it."
Haneul flashed a casual grin, and the maid managed an awkward smile in return.
"Thank you, Haneul-nim... I'm Maria. And I think... we went through the same thing. Ended up here the same way."
"Almost sold off somewhere?"
"...Yes."
"To Malcolm?"
"...Y-yes."
Maria began to tremble. Haneul patted her soothingly.
"All the other maids too?"
"Everyone except the head maid..."
"How many?"
"With you two new, thirty-five... no, thirty-three now."
"Huh? Down two recently?"
Maria's eyes flicked away. She'd spilled something she shouldn't have.
Haneul studied her face, guessed the gist, and let it slide.
"Training starts right away?"
Gauging Haneul's mood, Maria nodded gratefully with a small smile.
"...Yes, Rahman-nim is waiting."
"Sweet. Lead on."
Trailing Maria, Haneul peered out the window. Towering mountains filled her view—peaks so vast they seemed to swallow half the world, layered blue ice reflecting sunlight in azure hues. The kind of sight to empty the mind and conjure a cup of her master's yeohong tea.
But no emptying the mind now. Gazing at the range where she'd met her first death long ago, Haneul pondered.
Galrail carried an Apostle-like aura. By Earth standards, it dwarfed Master rank—but gauging the actual power, it wouldn't even hit B-grade.
Power wasn't the issue here. What nagged at Haneul was something else.
She'd sensed the Azure Dragon's divinity in Galrail—the one she'd half-devoured back then. Not mere Apostle residue; it felt like a fragment of his very existence had submitted to the dragon.
More precisely, Galrail had become an avatar of the Azure Dragon—a true Apostle in the fullest sense.
Which raised the question: Did Earth's hunters submit their souls and bodies to Constellations, becoming their avatars too?
Were Constellations' real goal forging perfect vessels for their divinity? Was that why the gates, the hunters, the watching...?
Baek Hye-seo must have suspected as much earlier. That's why she'd looked to Haneul for answers, anxiety plain on her face.
An answer to whether it was hunters blocking disasters—or the Constellations hijacking their bodies.
The follow-up question was obvious: Then can we ever reclaim our bodies? Hye-seo would've asked ninety percent chance.
Haneul couldn't say for sure. Curious, though. Tempted to bolt out, grab the Azure Dragon by the scruff, and demand answers... but if that tanked this world? Gutting.
She'd leave soon enough—not her world, after all. Still, she wanted to tie up loose ends, set things right, leave a self-sustaining machine humming.
Even if it couldn't survive without Constellations, that wouldn't change her mind. Revolution time—starting with fathoming the true intentions of the ducal heir, Rahman.
If it was a hassle, Haneul could've mind-read him and wrapped it up quick. Six hundred twenty-five billion years alive—she'd picked up that trick ages ago. Just chose not to.
Stay human by treating humans human. That's the lesson. Solve it person-to-person.
Time to go brightly mad. Humanly mad...
'Huh?'
Right there, enlightenment struck.
'Then just crack open the family head's skull and peek?'
Looked human, sure—but no need to play human with a not-human.
'True that?'
Eyes wide, Haneul whipped around.
"Gotta hit the bathroom!"
Family head was probably chowing down. Perfect time for a little cranial inspection.