Whatever the monster and man were, it didn’t matter. Catherine ran into the mansion and rushed up the stairwell. Her head was in a state of panic as a result of the unexpected event. It didn’t matter how hard she tried, the monster was unlikely to compensate for the damage. So, who’s going to make up for her broken home?
“Huh—”
Whoosh.
Although it was obvious that she was indoors, a cold wind swept across her cheeks. Catherine stood at a safe distance from the bedroom, her gaze fixed on the sky. Getting up took no more than a minute. However, the goat-headed monster in front of her, which had been screaming with great force until just moments before— collapsed to the ground and turned into a handful of ashes.
“Tsk.’
The man in front of her clicked his tongue for a little moment.
Catherine took a careful step forward and turned to face the man. This was unmistakably the back of the head she was familiar with. In the orange afternoon sky, his silver hair glistened like mermaid scales. Catherine grabbed this man’s shoulder and swung it around to face her.
“Hey.”
Eyes of a refreshing cobalt blue rolled slowly toward her. As expected, it’s really that man. The man who threw 100 Rid at her! No, that person!
“What are you going to do about my house? This is the area where I worked like a dog for a week and managed to clean it!”
The man seemed to have already expected her to come. He stepped back and shook Catherine’s hand naturally.
“—Cleaning? No way, are you cleaning this big mansion by yourself?”
It was after the glass disappeared into thin air. He grumbled in an audible voice as he glanced at the messed up ‘part of the building that used to be a bedroom.’
“You have great stamina.”
“What are you going to do about my house, you jerk!”
The time she had spent worrying about the man’s extraordinary identity had vanished like a speck of dust. She’s only seen one beautiful future and has been diligently cleaning— She felt as if she was losing strength in her arms and legs because she believed that all of her hardships had disappeared.
“Let’s calm down, Miss Phanya.”
The main character in the case, on the other hand, made a shameless face and said something that could not be comforted. Does he think it’s enough to make a smile with an innocent, fresh smile?
Catherine’s chest was bubbling with anger and irritation.
“Calm down? My house collapsed. You want me to calm down?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Why don’t you open your eyes wide and take a look around. The house collapsed? Did you dream while standing?”
She couldn’t figure out what this madman was saying at first. Catherine took a step back after grabbing her spinning head. She then calmed herself and considered calling Sir Mel to have him take this man away.
But—.
“Look, there’s nothing wrong with your house. The hallway will be the same. The mansion that Miss Phanya cleaned like a dog is perfectly fine without a scratch.”
Why is the mansion all right?
‘I’m sure it’s all a mess.’
Catherine’s wild eyes wandered over the clean bedrooms. The ceiling that had collapsed was restored, and the broken furniture was left in its original location. There was even a damaged canopy dangling like a swing. Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
‘I—’
Am I dreaming again in my dream?
However, no matter how hard she looked, everything was fine. The canopy, which had a hole in its ugly shape, had been restored to its previous state. Both broken, non-operational polymorphic clocks and old colored carpets. As if nothing had happened, he remained in the same spot.
Catherine, who had been looking around the room, took one more look at the man.
Silver hair, which had been dyed red by the setting sun, has regained its original pure color. People who can perform such great magic are counted on their hands even when they look around the entire continent.
“Are you Archduke Cesare?”
Archduke Cesare Christopher is supposed to be a great archmage who can even defeat evil dragons, yet with such a man, such magic would not be a problem.
Perhaps it was still there? She was sweating intensely as a result of her anxiety. What will he actually say?
‘That’s right, I’m Archduke Cesare, this territory’s ruler!’ Or is it enough to say, ‘Did you know that now, poor commoner?’ Is he not going to say something—?
“I’m not.”
What?
“You’re not?”
That can’t be true. Catherine examined the man’s features with her eyes wide open. The good face in the newspaper headlines was right, even if she just looked at it once or twice? First of all, the man was breathtakingly beautiful, and she would never forget him. But isn’t this beauty one of two?
“Well, I’ve often heard that we look similar.”
He threw a word in a trivial voice, and the man pulled down a nearby chair.
‘Is it a lie?’
But there’s no reason for a great man to hide his identity from her. It’s hard to figure out what he’s thinking.
Catherine stared silently at the man pretending to be the landlord, tapping nearby objects. If he’s not the Archduke, what the hell is she going to do with this madman?
“……wait here for a second.”
But there was one thing for sure. There is nothing good about being associated with him.
Catherine ran to her room and pulled out the hidden bill between the bookshelf. She thought he would suddenly disappear, but the man was waiting in the chair as she left. Catherine hands over a 100 Rid bill to the man.
“Take it back. I don’t need it.”
The man did not immediately accept the bills. She placed a bill on the man’s lap because he was in the mood to hold it for a while. Slowly, the man who had been staring at his lap opened his mouth.
“It looks like you’d rather use it to get a new mansion. The money I have given to someone is not to be returned.”
“What kind of crap is that?”
“If you give and take, it doesn’t seem to be there.”
What seemed to be missing, pride?
Catherine, who had always been troubled, couldn’t understand the words.
“I’m sorry, but I have no plans to leave this mansion.”
Even though she didn’t want to waste her labor, she was going to spend the rest of her life in this house until the day she fell asleep in the coffin.
“Why don’t you think about it? You don’t want to have to deal with anything like this today.”
“Didn’t I say anything to you a few days ago? If you come to me like this one more time, I’ll call security.”
The man quietly closed his eyes in response to the threat. She felt nervous and her throat was choked, despite the fact that it was a simple action.
A short silence fell over the room accidentally. The blue eyes that showed beneath the long, thick brows were facing Catherine.
“You wouldn’t be able to open your mouth, let alone report it, if you died.”
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Since when? The clock that had died was moving again.
Catherine immediately focused on the magnificent clock, then on the man staring at it. In his eyes, a dazzling purple eye gleams and then vanishes.
“Of course, that does not mean that I make it that way. Miss Phanya, you must have seen it before. Not human figures, but horrible monsters. They want this mansion, or more precisely, the land on which it was built. In other words, a situation similar to today might arise at any time.”
Catherine couldn’t focus on the man’s words despite his relaxed and calm tone. That’s because she was thinking about things far more important than those.
The bright purple eyes that vanished. The intense purple eyes, as far as she knew, were a color that no one could have been born with.
Oh, my goodness.
Catherine took a step back to protect her trembling hands. There’s no way. What is the real identity of that man?
Catherine’s anxiousness seemed to be noticed by the man. However, he seemed to believe that his own threat was the source of her concern.
“All of this is advice for you. Where will I use these old houses if I get my hands on them? This type of mansion can be found all along the street.”
Catherine hurriedly averted her gaze from the man. The man’s previously purple eyes had already returned to their original blue color.
‘Does it only change color when he uses magic?’
The man was silent for a moment. When her racing heartbeat subsides, they turn to face each other. He wore a look that resembled a cold snowstorm.
She was hesitant to inquire as to why monsters were chasing her land. After a lot of effort, Catherine was able to move her frozen tongue.
“…It is, without a doubt, an issue worth considering.”
Now that she fully understood what he was trying to say, she wanted the man to disappear from this mansion as soon as possible.
“It’s good that we’re both on the same page.”
On his face, the man showed the darkest smile. His lips are curled, but his eyes are not smiling.
*******
Catherine stood silently for a moment after the man left the mansion.
A wizard with purple eyes.
Along with the sensation of a heavy heart, the long memory of being buried in time came to life.
‘—So, you can tell a race of powerful magic from its birth by its eye color. The most dangerous of all is purple. Catherine? I don’t know about other colors, but you have to be careful about things with purple eyes. They are—.’
However, it changed for a very short time, and the eyes of the man were usually blue.
It meant that he usually went around in disguise with blue eyes. Isn’t that the very existence that her mother talked about?
There was no longer any need for anxiety after she discovered who the man was.
Catherine was the one who was let free for the first time in years after fleeing Orléans. She may find herself in a miserable situation if she holds out for one reason: she doesn’t want to waste her cleaning time. As such, the man’s identity was frightening and shocking.
“That’s a good point. That is the most reasonable option— So let’s just get this over with.”
In any case, she’ll be able to find a more suitable house.
The man left her 100 Rid plus 900 Rid in cash, totaling 1000 Rid. He made it clear that he meant to stop bothering people, eat, and leave.
She wasn’t going to turn down the man’s offer this time. A thousand Rid would give her a decent house to live in downtown Christopher alone. Catherine will eat and stay away as he wishes.
First, she packed the box that she hid under the bed. It was a box containing her mother’s belongings, so it was a precious thing to her.
Next was the bookcase. Reading is one of the few hobbies for Catherine who doesn’t have a proper friend. Catherine bent her knees and squatted down to collect old novels and poetry.
“—Huh.”
For a moment, she felt a stiff touch on the back of her hand. There was something stuck to the ceiling of the bottom compartment of the bookshelf. Catherine put her book down and ripped the paper off her ceiling.
The identity of the paper was not a very old painting. With this bedroom as the background, an antique-looking woman sits in a chair and looks forward. The woman was a familiar figure to Catherine.
“—Mother?”
Catherine’s fingertips, who was holding the picture, turned white.
I know this woman.
Catherine’s mouth slowly began to open. She couldn’t believe her eyes when she realized what had happened. Her biological mother, who had been dead or missing for ten years, was the previous owner of this bedroom.
After all, she couldn’t sleep that night.
Throughout the dawn and sunlight, Catherine, with a lamp by her bedside, looked at her mother’s picture. Considering this and that, it was a portrait that had been painted within 10 years at the most.
She’s long believed that all of her mother’s deaths were faked. But, at a place like this, she didn’t expect to be confirmed in this way.
‘Mother.’
Catherine’s mother was her entire world.
When she thinks back to the times when her mother was at her side, she remembers how wonderful it was. Her world seemed to like hers, and she was fearless. Catherine had learned everything from her mother.
‘Why did you leave me?’
She has repeated unanswered questions hundreds or thousands of times over the past decade. Even if she had left Orléans, she could not be more free from her mother.
Catherine was angry with her, but she also missed her so badly that the tip of her nose was pierced. She was desperate to see and cry in her arms. A mansion where traces of a mother’s existence can still be found. A purple-eyed wizard who wishes to own a mansion.
“Ha—”
Everything has its own weight. And this is Catherine’s first one since her mother disappeared.
Whatever the monster and man were, it didn’t matter. Catherine ran into the mansion and rushed up the stairwell. Her head was in a state of panic as a result of the unexpected event. It didn’t matter how hard she tried, the monster was unlikely to compensate for the damage. So, who’s going to make up for her broken home?
“Huh—”
Whoosh.
Although it was obvious that she was indoors, a cold wind swept across her cheeks. Catherine stood at a safe distance from the bedroom, her gaze fixed on the sky. Getting up took no more than a minute. However, the goat-headed monster in front of her, which had been screaming with great force until just moments before— collapsed to the ground and turned into a handful of ashes.
“Tsk.’
The man in front of her clicked his tongue for a little moment.
Catherine took a careful step forward and turned to face the man. This was unmistakably the back of the head she was familiar with. In the orange afternoon sky, his silver hair glistened like mermaid scales. Catherine grabbed this man’s shoulder and swung it around to face her.
“Hey.”
Eyes of a refreshing cobalt blue rolled slowly toward her. As expected, it’s really that man. The man who threw 100 Rid at her! No, that person!
“What are you going to do about my house? This is the area where I worked like a dog for a week and managed to clean it!”
The man seemed to have already expected her to come. He stepped back and shook Catherine’s hand naturally.
“—Cleaning? No way, are you cleaning this big mansion by yourself?”
It was after the glass disappeared into thin air. He grumbled in an audible voice as he glanced at the messed up ‘part of the building that used to be a bedroom.’
“You have great stamina.”
“What are you going to do about my house, you jerk!”
The time she had spent worrying about the man’s extraordinary identity had vanished like a speck of dust. She’s only seen one beautiful future and has been diligently cleaning— She felt as if she was losing strength in her arms and legs because she believed that all of her hardships had disappeared.
“Let’s calm down, Miss Phanya.”
The main character in the case, on the other hand, made a shameless face and said something that could not be comforted. Does he think it’s enough to make a smile with an innocent, fresh smile?
Catherine’s chest was bubbling with anger and irritation.
“Calm down? My house collapsed. You want me to calm down?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Why don’t you open your eyes wide and take a look around. The house collapsed? Did you dream while standing?”
She couldn’t figure out what this madman was saying at first. Catherine took a step back after grabbing her spinning head. She then calmed herself and considered calling Sir Mel to have him take this man away.
But—.
“Look, there’s nothing wrong with your house. The hallway will be the same. The mansion that Miss Phanya cleaned like a dog is perfectly fine without a scratch.”
Why is the mansion all right?
‘I’m sure it’s all a mess.’
Catherine’s wild eyes wandered over the clean bedrooms. The ceiling that had collapsed was restored, and the broken furniture was left in its original location. There was even a damaged canopy dangling like a swing. Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
‘I—’
Am I dreaming again in my dream?
However, no matter how hard she looked, everything was fine. The canopy, which had a hole in its ugly shape, had been restored to its previous state. Both broken, non-operational polymorphic clocks and old colored carpets. As if nothing had happened, he remained in the same spot.
Catherine, who had been looking around the room, took one more look at the man.
Silver hair, which had been dyed red by the setting sun, has regained its original pure color. People who can perform such great magic are counted on their hands even when they look around the entire continent.
“Are you Archduke Cesare?”
Archduke Cesare Christopher is supposed to be a great archmage who can even defeat evil dragons, yet with such a man, such magic would not be a problem.
Perhaps it was still there? She was sweating intensely as a result of her anxiety. What will he actually say?
‘That’s right, I’m Archduke Cesare, this territory’s ruler!’ Or is it enough to say, ‘Did you know that now, poor commoner?’ Is he not going to say something—?
“I’m not.”
What?
“You’re not?”
That can’t be true. Catherine examined the man’s features with her eyes wide open. The good face in the newspaper headlines was right, even if she just looked at it once or twice? First of all, the man was breathtakingly beautiful, and she would never forget him. But isn’t this beauty one of two?
“Well, I’ve often heard that we look similar.”
He threw a word in a trivial voice, and the man pulled down a nearby chair.
‘Is it a lie?’
But there’s no reason for a great man to hide his identity from her. It’s hard to figure out what he’s thinking.
Catherine stared silently at the man pretending to be the landlord, tapping nearby objects. If he’s not the Archduke, what the hell is she going to do with this madman?
“……wait here for a second.”
But there was one thing for sure. There is nothing good about being associated with him.
Catherine ran to her room and pulled out the hidden bill between the bookshelf. She thought he would suddenly disappear, but the man was waiting in the chair as she left. Catherine hands over a 100 Rid bill to the man.
“Take it back. I don’t need it.”
The man did not immediately accept the bills. She placed a bill on the man’s lap because he was in the mood to hold it for a while. Slowly, the man who had been staring at his lap opened his mouth.
“It looks like you’d rather use it to get a new mansion. The money I have given to someone is not to be returned.”
“What kind of crap is that?”
“If you give and take, it doesn’t seem to be there.”
What seemed to be missing, pride?
Catherine, who had always been troubled, couldn’t understand the words.
“I’m sorry, but I have no plans to leave this mansion.”
Even though she didn’t want to waste her labor, she was going to spend the rest of her life in this house until the day she fell asleep in the coffin.
“Why don’t you think about it? You don’t want to have to deal with anything like this today.”
“Didn’t I say anything to you a few days ago? If you come to me like this one more time, I’ll call security.”
The man quietly closed his eyes in response to the threat. She felt nervous and her throat was choked, despite the fact that it was a simple action.
A short silence fell over the room accidentally. The blue eyes that showed beneath the long, thick brows were facing Catherine.
“You wouldn’t be able to open your mouth, let alone report it, if you died.”
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Since when? The clock that had died was moving again.
Catherine immediately focused on the magnificent clock, then on the man staring at it. In his eyes, a dazzling purple eye gleams and then vanishes.
“Of course, that does not mean that I make it that way. Miss Phanya, you must have seen it before. Not human figures, but horrible monsters. They want this mansion, or more precisely, the land on which it was built. In other words, a situation similar to today might arise at any time.”
Catherine couldn’t focus on the man’s words despite his relaxed and calm tone. That’s because she was thinking about things far more important than those.
The bright purple eyes that vanished. The intense purple eyes, as far as she knew, were a color that no one could have been born with.
Oh, my goodness.
Catherine took a step back to protect her trembling hands. There’s no way. What is the real identity of that man?
Catherine’s anxiousness seemed to be noticed by the man. However, he seemed to believe that his own threat was the source of her concern.
“All of this is advice for you. Where will I use these old houses if I get my hands on them? This type of mansion can be found all along the street.”
Catherine hurriedly averted her gaze from the man. The man’s previously purple eyes had already returned to their original blue color.
‘Does it only change color when he uses magic?’
The man was silent for a moment. When her racing heartbeat subsides, they turn to face each other. He wore a look that resembled a cold snowstorm.
She was hesitant to inquire as to why monsters were chasing her land. After a lot of effort, Catherine was able to move her frozen tongue.
“…It is, without a doubt, an issue worth considering.”
Now that she fully understood what he was trying to say, she wanted the man to disappear from this mansion as soon as possible.
“It’s good that we’re both on the same page.”
On his face, the man showed the darkest smile. His lips are curled, but his eyes are not smiling.
*******
Catherine stood silently for a moment after the man left the mansion.
A wizard with purple eyes.
Along with the sensation of a heavy heart, the long memory of being buried in time came to life.
‘—So, you can tell a race of powerful magic from its birth by its eye color. The most dangerous of all is purple. Catherine? I don’t know about other colors, but you have to be careful about things with purple eyes. They are—.’
However, it changed for a very short time, and the eyes of the man were usually blue.
It meant that he usually went around in disguise with blue eyes. Isn’t that the very existence that her mother talked about?
There was no longer any need for anxiety after she discovered who the man was.
Catherine was the one who was let free for the first time in years after fleeing Orléans. She may find herself in a miserable situation if she holds out for one reason: she doesn’t want to waste her cleaning time. As such, the man’s identity was frightening and shocking.
“That’s a good point. That is the most reasonable option— So let’s just get this over with.”
In any case, she’ll be able to find a more suitable house.
The man left her 100 Rid plus 900 Rid in cash, totaling 1000 Rid. He made it clear that he meant to stop bothering people, eat, and leave.
She wasn’t going to turn down the man’s offer this time. A thousand Rid would give her a decent house to live in downtown Christopher alone. Catherine will eat and stay away as he wishes.
First, she packed the box that she hid under the bed. It was a box containing her mother’s belongings, so it was a precious thing to her.
Next was the bookcase. Reading is one of the few hobbies for Catherine who doesn’t have a proper friend. Catherine bent her knees and squatted down to collect old novels and poetry.
“—Huh.”
For a moment, she felt a stiff touch on the back of her hand. There was something stuck to the ceiling of the bottom compartment of the bookshelf. Catherine put her book down and ripped the paper off her ceiling.
The identity of the paper was not a very old painting. With this bedroom as the background, an antique-looking woman sits in a chair and looks forward. The woman was a familiar figure to Catherine.
“—Mother?”
Catherine’s fingertips, who was holding the picture, turned white.
I know this woman.
Catherine’s mouth slowly began to open. She couldn’t believe her eyes when she realized what had happened. Her biological mother, who had been dead or missing for ten years, was the previous owner of this bedroom.
After all, she couldn’t sleep that night.
Throughout the dawn and sunlight, Catherine, with a lamp by her bedside, looked at her mother’s picture. Considering this and that, it was a portrait that had been painted within 10 years at the most.
She’s long believed that all of her mother’s deaths were faked. But, at a place like this, she didn’t expect to be confirmed in this way.
‘Mother.’
Catherine’s mother was her entire world.
When she thinks back to the times when her mother was at her side, she remembers how wonderful it was. Her world seemed to like hers, and she was fearless. Catherine had learned everything from her mother.
‘Why did you leave me?’
She has repeated unanswered questions hundreds or thousands of times over the past decade. Even if she had left Orléans, she could not be more free from her mother.
Catherine was angry with her, but she also missed her so badly that the tip of her nose was pierced. She was desperate to see and cry in her arms. A mansion where traces of a mother’s existence can still be found. A purple-eyed wizard who wishes to own a mansion.
“Ha—”
Everything has its own weight. And this is Catherine’s first one since her mother disappeared.
