Chapter 3

The noise had been so loud that Iberin hurriedly checked on Ether, afraid he might have woken up.

"Mmh..."

Ether stirred for a moment, then buried his face into the soft pillow and went still.

Worried that talking here would wake him, Iberin gestured for the maid to follow her outside.

She moved toward the staircase a little ways from the bedroom, and the maid approached, trembling all the way.

Just how terrible had Iberin's usual behavior been to leave the poor woman this scared?

"Maid—what's your name?"

Now that she thought about it, she didn't even know her own personal maid's name.

Conveniently, the doctor had handed her amnesia as a diagnosis, so she had no qualms about asking.

"Tami, my lady."

"Alright, Tami. How long have you been serving me?"

"It's been about a month now."

"And the maids before you?"

"They all l-left."

"You mean they were dismissed?"

Tami fidgeted.

"You can be honest. I don't remember anything, so it's awkward for me."

"Yes. Th-they were dismissed."

"Why?"

"Because they upset you, my lady. That's what I was told."

That much she'd expected, so it didn't really faze her.

"...How many maids have quit that way?"

"M-many of them."

"And how long have you worked at the Grand Duke's estate, Tami?"

"I started when I was fourteen, so it's been six years."

A real veteran, then. Of course—that's why the head maid had assigned her as Iberin's personal attendant.

Which also meant Tami had watched countless maids get cycled out from beside her mistress.

Since Ether was five, Iberin must have married before then.

The novel had barely mentioned anything about Iberin, so she had no choice but to piece things together bit by bit like this, which was frustrating.

Speaking of which, Iberin was a little curious about the current Grand Duke—the man Iberin had married.

The Grand Duke Ether Lecashe in the novel had been a character carved straight out of her personal type, so she wondered if he took after his father.

The face she'd seen in the mirror was beautiful, but very different from Ether's.

Black hair, black eyes.

Ether had been born with the colors of a demon, but the novel described him as having a strange, magnetic allure—the kind that drew people in. Iberin, on the other hand, had a sallow complexion, and her long hair was closer to the color of oatmeal, giving her a fragile look.

Although the upturned corners of her eyes and the firm set of her mouth made her look quite stubborn.

"What about His Highness the Grand Duke?"

Iberin asked, thinking.

"H-His Highness has left for the Forest of the World Tree."

Ah—the Lecashe Grand Duke's family had managed the Forest of the World Tree for generations.

The forest lay at the edge of the world. Thousands of years ago, after the Holy-Demonic War, it had been corrupted and become a land no human could live in.

From the moment that forest came into being, the Lecashe family had made their home there.

The Lecashe—who lived with the seed of evil inside them—couldn't survive without killing, so they kept the forest's monsters from crossing into the empire's territory while also managing the forest itself. Two birds, one stone.

But that was only the surface.

Without a Lecashe who carried the seed, no one could handle the monsters of the forest, which made it a compulsory order, not a choice.

Here, you will protect the world and live with the weight of your existence in mind.

Easy to say.

Maybe the first Lecashe had managed it.

It would've been a choice made with purpose.

But the generations that came after?

"Ah..."

A small sigh escaped Iberin's lips, heavy with pity.

For their entire lives, generation after generation, the Lecashe had protected the world—and no one outside the direct line of Lecashe had any idea this was happening.

Which meant the only people who knew, at this point in time, were Iberin herself—who had transmigrated into the novel—and the current Grand Duke Lecashe, the father of the second male lead.

"When does he come back?"

When he returned, she'd treat him kindly, Iberin decided.

Ether was one thing, but the current Grand Duke would also end his own life eventually, and that weighed on her too.

"He hasn't been gone long, so he'll probably be away another week at least."

"Is that so?"

Now that she thought about it, she was curious whether Iberin and the Grand Duke had gotten along before the pregnancy.

"How was our relationship, originally?"

"You were afraid of him, my lady."

"Huh? Then how did Ether end up being born?"

"I wasn't your personal maid back then, so I don't know the details."

Hm.

Whatever the reason, she must have looked at the sky to pluck that star.

How she'd ended up looking at the sky in the first place was another question. Iberin let the thought drift, then smiled at it. The smile came out so wicked-looking that Tami flinched, then worked up the courage to speak.

The old Iberin would have shut her down without even letting her start, but Tami seemed to have decided the amnesiac Iberin was a safer bet.

"M-my lady. Um."

"Yes?"

"Why so suddenly, the young master..."

"Do I need a reason?"

"But the reason you're ill is because you gave birth to the young master, so... what if you get worse?"

In the original novel, there'd been a mention that Iberin's curse had passed to her from giving birth to Ether.

But that was only Ether's own assumption, from his perspective.

Iberin knew the Lecashe were not a cursed family.

"That's not it."

Iberin said it plainly, without hesitation.

Then, suddenly, it hit her. Set aside her own health for a moment—Ether was just a five-year-old child.

"So Tami, do you think it was right for me to treat Ether the way I used to?"

"...Oh."

Tami couldn't answer right away and shifted on her feet uncomfortably. Just then, the sound of crying came from the bedroom.

Ether must have woken up.

---

When Iberin stepped into the bedroom, she found Ether crumpled on the floor, sobbing his heart out.

She rushed over and scooped him up, and he clung to her desperately.

"Why, why are you crying, Ether?"

"Hwaaa, hwa, hic, hic."

"Did something happen?"

"Mmmh..."

Ether couldn't even string a sentence together; he just cried until he was gasping for breath.

He looked so heartbroken that Iberin had to hold him close and rock him for a long, long time.

She had no idea how long she'd been comforting him when his sobs finally began to die down—just as she'd started worrying that he'd cried himself into another fever.

"Ether, are you okay?"

Iberin asked, brushing the tear-soaked cheeks.

"Mmh..."

It wasn't clear if Ether was answering the question or just whimpering, but he mumbled something else.

"P-put me down..."

"Why? You were fine with it just a moment ago."

"...Mmh."

"Anyway, why were you crying? Were you scared because Mommy wasn't here?"

She'd asked because there wasn't much else it could be, and she'd hit the bull's-eye. Ether flinched and dropped his head.

"Mommy's sorry. I thought Ether was fast asleep, so I stepped out for a moment."

"...Sorry? You're sorry?"

"Yes."

"That's... what Ether says... when Ether's done something wrong."

It seemed like he was remembering the words he used to spew on reflex whenever Iberin abused him.

He'd been apologizing too when she first saw him in the west tower.

"But my lady... didn't do anything wrong."

Iberin's eyes went wide. She hadn't expected him to say something like that.

"I didn't do anything wrong?"

"Yes."

"Why? Mommy made Ether cry all this time."

"That's... that's okay. You're not gonna do that anymore. R-right...?"

Ether's eyes darted around as he spoke.

His face said he wanted her to confirm it, so Iberin nodded right away.

"Right. I won't."

"Hehe..."

For the first time, Ether smiled.

The marks where Iberin had hit him hadn't even faded yet—his cheeks and the skin around his eyes were still mottled red—but he was smiling because she'd been a little nice to him.

If Iberin had reached out even once, Ether would have run to her without thinking.

Maybe he'd been waiting all along.

"Ether, do you not hate Mommy?"

"I do... but I don't."

"What does that mean?"

Ether looked up at her with eyes far too dark and deep for a child's.

After holding her gaze for a moment, he suddenly squeezed them shut.

"D-don't look."

"Hm?"

"My eyes..."

"Your eyes?"

"They're creepy, and they're... they're bad."

The moment Ether's words landed, Iberin's face crumpled into a deep frown.

Heartbroken—she was heartbroken beyond belief.

Those had probably been Iberin's exact words at some point.

Iberin had originally been Korean—she'd had black hair and black eyes herself.

So she had no aversion to them at all.

Even if she hadn't, this was Ether—the character she'd loved most in the novel she'd been reading—so it wouldn't have mattered either way.

"Are you... mad?"

"No, I'm not mad."

"Ether will keep eyes closed."

There was so much Iberin had done wrong that she didn't even know where to start fixing it.

"You can open them, really."

"No... no. What if it hurts?"

"Hurts?"

"My lady..."

She'd fix it bit by bit from her side, but the process was going to be so painful that she was already grieving it in advance.

---

If Ether refused to open his eyes, she said, then she'd just close her own.

Only then did Ether reluctantly open his eyes, though he still seemed unwilling to meet her gaze head-on.

Iberin didn't push it.

"Ether, want to take a walk with Mommy?"

She'd suggested it thinking he'd cried enough to need a change of scene, and Ether nodded right away.

They left the bedroom and looked for a walking path, but the Lecashe estate had a heavy, gloomy feel to it overall.

It sat near the corrupted Forest of the World Tree, so almost no sunlight reached it.

She'd kept wondering why the inside felt so dim, and apparently this was why.

On top of that, the path Tami led them to was so overgrown that nothing about it looked tended to.

When Iberin looked at Tami, the maid offered an explanation that sounded like an excuse.

"Even when we clear it, it grows back to this much in a single day."

"Geez."

"Geez?"

"It means I'm surprised."

"Oh."

"But how does it grow back that fast?"

"I don't know for sure, but I think it's because of the Forest of the World Tree. I'll clean it up quickly."

Tami rolled up her sleeves. She was planning to handle this whole path on her own?

It seemed impossible, and Iberin was about to stop her, but before she could even get the words out, Tami was already on the move.

Unbelievably fast, too.

Iberin's mouth fell open as she watched. In the blink of an eye, Tami had pulled out the underbrush and tidied the path.

Iberin glanced at Ether. His expression was completely flat.

"Ether, you're not surprised?"

"By what?"

"Tami is really fast."

"Ether can do that too."

"Huh?"

"Ether's even faster. Want me to show you?"

"Don't tell me I made you do chores too?"

"Mm..."

So she had.

A heavy feeling settled in Iberin's chest.

In the meantime, Tami appeared to have finished cleaning up.

She didn't even look tired. Iberin wondered if this was the kind of capability required just to be a maid at the Grand Duke's estate.

"Tami."

"Yes?"

"How many servants work at the estate?"

"Hmm, about a hundred?"

"What? That's it?"

"There's no village nearby, and it's so gloomy, and the rumors about the Lecashe family are so awful that most people who do come don't stay long."

"How have you stayed here this long?"

"I don't really have anywhere else to go."

"Is that true for most of the ones who stayed?"

"Yes."

The estate was enormous.

Massive—and yet only about a hundred people worked it.

A thought suddenly struck Iberin.

"Then what about my personal maids who were supposedly fired?"

They must have stayed because they had nowhere to go, and not just anyone could've been assigned as her personal maid.

Tami's eyes flicked to the side at the question.

"Be honest."

"...They're still here, working. But since they can't be seen by you, they handle the rough labor. Ah, I really shouldn't have said anything..."

Tami clearly regretted blurting it out and looked lost about what to do.

"Then from now on, tell them they can just work normally."

"What?"

"...Think of it as me turning over a new leaf while I have amnesia."

It felt easier that way, so she said it.

"R-really?"