Echoes in the Empty Manor
“Who was the original master of this land, may I ask?”
Before I could even hear the answer to that question, the carriage came to a halt.
The Grand Duke stepped out without a word.
Once again he offered me his hand, and once again I dismounted by myself.
This was absolutely not retaliation for him refusing to answer. Absolutely not.
In any case, the two of us came to a stop in front of a mansion.
It was terribly worn and dilapidated now, but it was unmistakably a well-built structure—one that still betrayed a glimpse of the grandeur it must once have held.
I stared at the building for a long while.
A house, a family, an estate—erased from history.
Perhaps it was because I was a butler. Looking at a mansion abandoned for want of care, I felt an odd ache spread through my chest.
This house must have bustled with people once, too.
Employees hurrying about their work, and the butler commanding them, along with the family itself.
Strangely enough, I could almost see that brilliant bygone era layered over the aged, crumbling mansion.
Then the Grand Duke entered the house ahead of me.
The very moment I moved to follow him—
“Mayrin! Come quick! The carriage is here!”
“My lady! Run like that and you'll fall!”
“You're late! Do you know how long it's been since we last met!”
Huh? What was that?
I looked around at the voices that had come out of nowhere.
Obviously, there was no one else here.
Those were the voices of a grown woman and a young girl.
For just a moment, I thought I'd glimpsed the ghostly image of a small child passing through me as well.
And the little girl's voice—it sounded like the same child from my dream.
Was I just hearing things?
Tilting my head, I followed the Grand Duke inside the mansion.
Unlike the exterior, which had barely held out against wind and rain, the interior was in far better shape than I'd expected.
It was as if someone's hands had tended it to the very last—aside from a light layer of dust, everything had been kept remarkably clean and orderly.
“Phew—!”
I blew the dust from my fingertips and sent it scattering.
“It must have stood empty for quite some time.”
At my words, the Grand Duke nodded.
“People from the ducal house come by to clean it on occasion. Even so, it has been twelve years since anyone lived here.”
Twelve years….
Judging by a building's lifespan, that wasn't such a long time—but measured in human years, it was long enough for a child to grow into a young lady.
Nodding, I slowly took in my surroundings.
But still….
The furniture, the ornaments—all of it remained exactly where it had been.
So why isn't there a single portrait?
Determined to find some clue as to whose home this had been, I searched doggedly for photographs or paintings of any kind. In the end, I found nothing.
It would be rude to go opening drawers, wouldn't it?
I was toying with the handle of a side table's drawer, debating the matter, when the Grand Duke's voice reached me.
“Nothing comes to mind.”
That question again.
I turned quietly to face him.
So that really was why he brought me here. He had his reasons after all.
The Grand Duke was not a man who acted without purpose.
The restaurant we'd stopped at on the way to see the High Priest had been a place holding memories of this body's original owner as well.
And now this mansion.
The lingering afterimage I'd glimpsed at the entrance, and the little girl's voice.
Perhaps all of it was simply another piece of a puzzle fitting together.
“Isn't it time you told me, Your Highness?”
“….”
The Grand Duke turned to look at me. For a moment, our gazes locked.
“Butler.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“The only story I can offer you right now is this.”
“….”
“It would be best for you to recover your memories as quickly as possible.”
“….”
“There's no point in me confessing first. If I told you my side, you could simply fit convenient little details around my words and feed my confusion. …Wouldn't you agree, Butler?”
“….”
The Grand Duke's eyes were icy. Colder and heavier than the warmthless air of the empty mansion itself.
It was a warning.
He's telling me he could kill me.
And yet, at the same time, I could read the opposite intent as well—that he didn't want to.
That's why he took me out of the ducal residence and dragged me from place to place.
To jog my memory. If I could recall my past and prove that I was the true owner of this soul, then there would be no need to kill me after all.
Judging by the Grand Duke's reaction, I was now certain that once this body's memories returned, deceiving him would only become easier.
And then I wouldn't even have to keep up the butler act—I could live comfortably.
It would let me wrap up my preparations to return to Tenasis quickly, too.
And yet….
I couldn't understand why I felt this way.
Was it because deceiving that man left a bad taste in my mouth? Because this body had clearly been precious to someone? And because that someone just happened to be the Grand Duke?
“….”
“….”
Hah.
Avoiding the Grand Duke's gaze, I bit down hard on my lower lip.
There was honestly nothing I could say in reply.
What was certain was that thanks to his efforts, the memories of this body's owner were surfacing little by little.
I simply nodded.
“I will do my utmost—”
“Your utmost is not what I need.”
The Grand Duke brushed past me as he spoke.
“Prove it. That you are the master of that body.”
“….”
He grazed my shoulder on his way out of the mansion. Watching his retreating back, I spoke silently to myself.
Grand Duke… I'm sorry, but even with all my memories back, that's something I can't do….
By the time I emerged from the mansion again, the sky had already gone dark.
Apparently the Grand Duke's demand that I hurry up and remember had made me impatient with myself as well.
Determined to recover every scrap of memory I could, I combed the mansion from corner to corner.
Thanks to all my experience dashing around the ducal residence to do my job, memorizing the layout and corridors of this shabby mansion came easily.
The layout is basically the same as the ducal residence.
Oh, so this was the little girl's room.
The dolls in the girl's room, the books in the library—all of them remained untouched, and even the tableware in the kitchen sat exactly where it belonged.
It felt as if only the people had vanished into thin air.
It was a little eerie, honestly.
But though I finished touring every last corner, no memories came rushing back.
That afterimage and those phantom voices at the entrance had been the first and the last of it.
I left the mansion with nothing to show for my efforts.
Climbing back into the carriage, I found the Grand Duke sitting with his eyes closed.
I sat down across from him without a word, and the carriage began to move once more.
The carriage, which had been headed toward the imperial palace, made an unexpected stop at a village along the way. It was already past midnight.
The carriage drew up in front of an inn at the center of the village.
“We lodge here tonight.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
I hurried inside to secure our rooms.
It was late in the night, but the inn's first floor was still fairly crowded.
Quite a prosperous establishment for such a quiet little village.
I booked two adjoining rooms on the third floor and ferried the luggage up.
“You may take this room, Your Highness.”
“….”
I had deliberately chosen a room with a bathtub for the Grand Duke.
This inn, too, was run by a vassal of the House of Ballout—thanks to which I'd been able to secure the finest rooms available.
When I opened the door with a light smile, the Grand Duke nodded and stepped into his room.
While he spent a moment gazing out the window, I prepared his bathwater.
The building looked quite old, but it seemed the interior had been renovated at some point—the bathtub, the bed, and the other furnishings were all maintained as good as new.
Having finished with the bath, I came out and laid out a set of comfortable clothes for the Grand Duke to change into, arranging them neatly atop the bed.
“Your Highness, I'll go prepare something for you to eat while you bathe,” I said, looking at his back where he stood by the window.
The Grand Duke turned around.
“I'll eat downstairs when I'm finished.”
“Pardon? But….”
“Rest until then.”
“….”
Having watched him all the way into the bathroom, I scratched the back of my head and headed to my own room.
“Whew—!”
I flopped onto my back across the bed and let out a long, long sigh.
Ahh, this is the life!
It was no plush ducal bed, but it beat the carriage seat by miles.
Retracting my earlier statement that the carriage could double as a bedroom.
No matter how expensive and fine the carriage seats might be, I was freshly reminded that they still couldn't hold a candle to the bed of a modest country inn.
Sigh….
Lying like this, drowsiness crept over me.
It would be far more convenient to just eat whatever I brought him, so why insist on going down to the first floor?
I couldn't fathom why a man of his standing insisted on adding such needless trouble.
Well, it works out better for me, anyway. I can study the menu and order everything I want.
My eyelids grew heavy.
When is the Grand Duke coming out….
How much time had passed? I was blinking blearily at the ceiling, half-lost in a daze, occasionally shaking off the waves of sleep that kept rolling in—
Tick—.
“Hm?”
It was an infinitesimal sound, but somehow that tiny noise grated on me more than it should have.
I sat up in bed and turned toward the direction of the Grand Duke's room.
There's no way he's out of the bath already.
Slipping off the bed, I quietly crouched low. Planting one hand against the floorboards, I carefully released my aura.
Azure-blue aura spread wide from my palm, rippling outward across the wooden floor.
The same containment barrier I had used often enough back at the ducal residence.
The web of outstretched aura took a mere three seconds to wrap around the entire building.
Closing my eyes, I focused on reading the presences it touched.
…The first floor, people dining. The second and third floors, guests staying the night.
Cooks working in the kitchen, servers carrying dishes, people coming and going on the stairs.
Every one of them moved with their own separate purpose—I could feel it clearly.
And then.
Movements that belonged to none of them. One… two… three?
Footsteps quieter and lighter than anyone else's, and killing intent they hadn't quite managed to conceal.
…Assassins.