The enraged vampire came within an inch of her face and pulled the dagger out of the door. He then loudly stabbed it into the wall, this time next to Areum’s ear. The blade could have bounced, but instead, it sank into the wall like a knife into warm butter. This time Areum was so genuinely startled that she ended up dropping all the books she had been holding.

The books went crashing down to the floor. Though they landed on Areum’s foot, her mind was so preoccupied that she didn’t even feel them slam against her. After only darting her eyes back and forth between the man’s arm and eyes, her body belatedly began to tremble.

This might be it. She might die.

Areum’s face was contorted in utter terror. Even just moments ago when she had abruptly opened the door, she had had childlike gall. But that gall had all but vanished now.

Up until only a few days ago, Areum had lived an uneventful life and had luckily never faced the threat of crime, and so she had never even imagined what it would feel like to be in a position of dying at any moment. But now she was well aware, for this was a situation in which death was just around the corner. She was a mix of things—her heart was pounding, her sweat was cold, and she was overcome with regrets, lingering attachments, and despair.

Nevertheless.

Nevertheless, Areum Yoon still had hope. Ever since coming to this place, her mind had been especially positive, and so despite everything, her mind still optimistically whispered to her that she wasn’t dead yet. She trusted the owner of the dagger—which had landed a hair’s width away from her ear and throat but not yet pierced her—and once again used her silver tongue.

“Master, I made a mistake.”

Though he looked like he would kill her just for looking at him wrong, the man strangely had a soft spot. The only times he had hurt her so far were when he sank his teeth into her forearm and when he had stepped on her arm. And so, Areum thought that if she could only make that soft spot soft again, she would be able to wriggle her way out of this situation.

“I made a mistake. I should have gotten your permission to enter first. I couldn’t find the study, so I couldn’t even do the task you asked me to, master. I’m so sorry.”

Areum gingerly wrapped both of her hands around the vampire hand, still clutching the dagger, and gazed up into his eyes.

“But you’re frightening me. I’m really, really scared.”

She felt like a babbling baby. Areum felt pathetic, saying things like “really, really” and “scared,” but it wasn’t like she could stop now.

Areum gently guided the man’s hand towards her face, and the man relaxed his large hand and entrusted it to her, watching what she was doing. Areum placed his palm on her right cheek, averting her gaze so as to look as despondent as possible.

“I’ll do whatever you tell me to, master. Master, I’ll do anything you say. Don’t you know that I have no choice but to do so?”

When she looked up again at his face, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. His expressionless face was just looking down at her. But she was certain of one thing: the vampire wouldn’t kill her over this.

“So please, if I make a mistake, tell me I shouldn’t do that. I promise it will never happen again. Just please, please don’t keep scaring me like this.”

Her hands were as cold as ice from nerves, but she grabbed the man’s hands tight in her own anyway. Gently, she pressed it into her warm cheek.

Ahh, it felt just like she was in a manga. She couldn’t believe herself, saying such cheesy lines and making such cliché moves. Areum was overflowing with contempt for herself. She smiled weakly—an astringent and bitter smile. She looked up at him, not hiding the scorn she had for herself.

The man gathered his hand and spoke.

“Don’t bother with such stupid antics.”

“I’m sorry.”

Areum apologized. At the same time, she had a hunch that it was all over. A gentle smile on her face, as though she were wagging a tail she didn’t have, Areum stated what she had learned today.

“Next time, I will only come in when called.”

The man nudged the books that had fallen to the ground with his foot. Right away, Areum bent over and began stacking them. The man spoke.

“So, you don’t know where the study is?”

“No.”

He still hadn’t said anything by the time that Areum had collected the books in her arms and stood. She’d have to put them away since that’s what he had told her to do. Even up until she had entered the room, she had planned on asking the duke where the study was, but after going through what she just had gone through, she no longer had any intention of doing so. But there was no one for her to ask besides the duke. While she was thinking about the bind she was in, the man walked towards his bed.

The tall man moved quite sluggishly, even limply, as if the strength had been drained from his body. His black robe dragged on the floor. “So, he wipes all the crap on his floor with the robe,” Areum thought as she fought back a sigh. Her thoughts were already elsewhere since recovering her breath.

Upon reaching the bed, the duke pulled on a cord that was hanging down from one of his bedposts. Before long, a knock came at the door.

“Come in.”

This time, he didn’t let the person stew outside but invited them in right away. The door opened behind Areum.

“You rang?”

It was a familiar face. It was a man with mahogany brown hair pulled back in a single ponytail. He wore a shirt with a brown vest on top and navy-blue pants. His voice was sufficiently airy while still being deep. It was the man who had told Areum to win the favor of the duke in the carriage the night before. Come to think of it, she had only arrived at the manor the night before—though to her it felt like ages ago.

Areum took a bit of delight in the man’s appearance. She couldn’t tell if it was because he was the only person to show her any “good will” since arriving here, or if it was because she realized she had survived the night. Still, the mere fact of seeing someone she had met before made Areum rather glad.

“Show her around the house…”

“Who… Do you mean this maid?”

“Yes.”

“Rather than myself, might you ask—”

“Logan.”

“I understand.”

After exchanging words, the man called Logan looked at Areum, gesturing to follow him, and exited the room first. Areum started to follow after him, then looked back. The duke was already slowly getting into bed. “He must sleep a ton,” Areum thought to herself. Then she decided to say something so cringey that it really sounded like a line from a manga.

“I’ll be back, master.”

She was going all out to win his favor.

***

The door closed. The outside he had glimpsed disappeared and darkness coiled around him as it always did.

Millard Travis lazed still where he was and sniffed the dusty air. A foul scent of blood still lingered lightly in the air. The girl—had she been bleeding? His eyes closed, he recalled the person he had just seen and confirmed that he hadn’t seen bloodstains anywhere on her. Then what was that smell? It couldn’t have been another human’s blood. There was only one blood so harsh and bitter as to make him nauseated like this.

[But you’re frightening me. I’m really, really scared.]

The history of Millard Travis frightening humans was not a short one. He instilled fear in them just with his presence. He had seen his fair share of humans who would faint or wet their pants just at the sight of him. He knew the horrible things they called him that he couldn’t bear to bring to his lips—disgusting monster, revolting vampire, or spawn of Satan.

But this was the first time he had heard someone say they were scared to his face. What was even more of a first for him was that while saying she was scared, she took his hand and put it on her face. Whether or not she knew that he could have crushed her face into dust with the flick of his wrist, she placed his hand on her tender flesh without fear.

His dagger still remained stuck in the wall. He recalled how her eyes had quivered as he thrust his dagger into the wall, still enraged. Her eyes said that they knew she was going to die, but in an instant, they changed and made his face red. She didn’t scream or even cry. Though that didn’t mean her face wasn’t contorted.

[Just please, please don’t keep scaring me like this.]

It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried to be kind to humans before. Times where he had subsisted solely off of the blood of animals and shown mercy to humans were countlessly documented in his journal. Yet how was such behavior rewarded? What end did that kindness and compassion bring him?

[I’ll be back, master.]

But it was the first time anyone told him that they would come back.

The reason the maid was still alive was purely these series of “firsts” she had given him.

***

Logan Lamont, the man who had walked out into the hall, glanced over the books that Areum was carrying and began to walk. “Man, I really hope we stop by the study first,” Areum thought to herself when Logan spoke.

“So, you’ve managed to survive.”

Managed to survive.

That wasn’t even really true, Areum thought to herself.

The vampire doesn’t want to kill people—that much was clear. If he had wanted to kill her, he could have slit her throat with the dagger the second she stepped through his door. But all he did was blow off some steam by jabbing it right next to her: he hadn’t actually even grazed her hair with it. The night before was even more strange. Despite being so furious, all he did was yell and pretend he’d kill her, but not actually do anything. He even had a glimmer of kindness to her, having listened to every little thing she said.

But instead, she responded politely.

“It was all thanks to your advice. Thank you.”

It was true. If the man hadn’t said anything to her, she would have been totally at a loss for what to do. She might have even set the vampire off and gotten herself killed.

Logan nodded, as if what she said was obvious, and then stood outside at one of the doors in the 3rd floor hallway. He took a key out of his breast pocket. He turned the key in the lock with a click, and the door opened. This meant that the study was inaccessible without a key. Yet he had sent her there? Areum was belatedly dumbfounded. Even if she had learned where the study was from someone, certainly enough she would have had to go back to the duke’s bedroom. That is, because it made no sense for mere maids to possess keys.

The two of them entered the study. It was a space about as big as two of the duke’s bedrooms put together. But unlike what she had expected when he called it a study—lined with books on every wall—it was densely crowded with bookcases like those you would find in a library. Areum sniffed the somewhat musty scent of wood and paper in this closed-off space.

“This is the study. Just put those books anywhere on the shelves.”

“Is there a shelving system or an order?”

“There is, technically, but no one cares about it, so it doesn’t matter.”

Hearing that, Areum walked up to a nearby shelf and shelved the books she had brought with her. She glanced over the titles of the books and just as he had said, she was unable to string together any system of categorization from them. Next to Lost Nights was something called Art in the Viltoan Era, and next to that was Fairies of the Milti Tree. A thick layer of dust coated things here too, she noticed.

Both the duke’s room and now here as well—despite seeing the two maids mopping and dusting, these places seemed to be quite dirty in terms of cleanliness. It seemed she was right when it came to the duke’s aversion for clean rooms. Or maybe the maids couldn’t properly clean these spaces because they were the personal areas of the duke? Wouldn’t keeping them clean make the duke less annoyed? She couldn’t make any sense of it.

Once she had put away all the books, Areum returned to where the man had been waiting. Together they left the study. It seemed the real tour was about to start. Before they set off, Areum cautiously spoke.

“Excuse me…”

“The name is Logan Lamont.”

Areum quickly incorporated his name into what she was about to say.

“Lord Lamont, there is so much that I don’t know. So, if I make a mistake or something, would you please tell me before you fire me?”

Logan Lamont stopped where he was and looked at Areum.

“If you tell me something once, I’ll do exactly as you say. So, please give me one more chance before you fire me.”

“Just talking like this is rude in itself.”

“… I’m sorry.”

This world was full of things that Areum didn’t know. She didn’t even know where she was or how she had gotten here. She didn’t know that grabbing Solenn’s clothes would get her slapped in the face, and she didn’t know how much distance she he should maintain wit this man named Lamont. There were so many things that she didn’t know that it seemed like she’d end up at the edge of a cliff with a single misstep. So, she wished someone would just explain things to her. Or at the very least, she wished that she had someone to tell her the right thing to do when she got something wrong.

This role wasn’t something she could ask of the vampire, though she had repeated the sentiment to him. But it was clear that rubbing him the wrong way was something to be avoided if at all possible. In Areum’s mind, Solenn was also a candidate for the position, but the shock of being slapped by her was quite pervasive, and so Areum found her difficult. It was funny—Areum found Solenn even more difficult than the vampire who had hurled a dagger at her.

The only person she could lean on emotionally was this man, who had shown her kindness the night before.

“Lord Lamont, you helped me survive.”

Areum spoke from behind Logan as he began to walk again.

“You told me to be absolutely obedient. And also, to win his favor. I’m not sure if I’m doing a good job at that, but in any case, I was only able to survive the night, thanks to your advice, Lord Lamont. Perhaps that’s why I dared speak.”

Areum paused for a moment to think, then continued on.

“You’re a kind person, and so I think I tried to turn to you for help. I’m sorry.”