After breakfast, Harlotte followed Head Maid Lilith down from the top floor. The uppermost level was the family’s core area, with twenty-four rooms arrayed in a ring along the walls. According to Head Maid Lilith, during the Kodanis family’s heyday every single one of those rooms had been occupied.
Only true family members—the young master, the young ladies, and the like—were permitted to live on this floor. Servants such as herself or the steward could only reside on the second floor.
Harlotte did not reply, but made a mental note of this information. Though he could not enter his mother’s room, the top floor held more than just his mother’s, sister’s, and stepsister’s chambers—there might be other clues elsewhere.
He had walked the top-floor corridor before, but never so brazenly observing everything around him. The original Harlotte’s memories of life in the castle were plentiful, yet incomplete, leaving him both familiar with and alienated by the fortress.
Now, scrutinizing every detail, he realized that the entire top floor—from each room and its door to even the placement of wall sconces and the patterns on the walls—was perfectly symmetrical.
Even the tiniest elements exhibited an almost terrifying symmetry. Remembering the grotesque asymmetry he had witnessed the night before, he felt his sanity drop by two points.
At that moment, the crystal die in his mind suddenly spun, and the words Inspiration appeared. With a soft ding, the die fell to the ground, showing the number 5.
Harlotte’s gaze instinctively fell upon a tightly shut door. Thanks to the die’s bonus sharpening his senses, he noticed that one of the decorative motifs on this door differed from the pattern in the corresponding room.
The discovery energized him, but clearly this was not the moment to investigate further—with Head Maid Lilith at his side.
In Harlotte’s eyes, Lilith was not to be trusted. Even his steward inspired more confidence. Since arriving at the castle, Lilith had been the first to reveal her nonhuman nature—and intended to sleep with him.
His steward possessed the ability to observe the entire castle and teleport to any location. The steward had also told him that Harlotte himself had unrestricted access to all areas—unless someone with higher authority specifically barred him entry.
If his guess was correct, the steward was a devil—and devils upheld the strictest order. The steward would not lie, so Harlotte immediately resolved to return alone either this afternoon or, better yet, after nightfall—and ideally with his sister accompanying him.
He walked two more laps of the top floor, but the crystal die in his mind would not spin again. It seemed the conditions for using it were unmet.
With a sigh, Harlotte decided to have Head Maid Lilith accompany him downstairs. Lilith’s expression remained neutral as she nodded and followed. Today she seemed oddly subdued—previously she would have taken every opportunity to utter suggestive remarks.
For instance, she might have tempted him with promises of a boy’s journey into manhood in one of the other rooms.
On the second floor, two maids in dark gray linen dresses were scrubbing the knightly armor lining the corridor with coarse burlap. The armor’s dull silver surface was marred by countless battle scars. If Harlotte’s suspicions were correct, these suits of armor had belonged to his ancestors.
Truly befitting a great noble family with its own castle—any one of these armors would bankrupt a minor noble.
At the sight of Harlotte and Head Maid Lilith, the two maids immediately halted their work, clutching their cloths at their sides and bowing so low their breaths were barely audible. Their fingertips wrung the edges of their aprons, their eyes darting away as if daring to look again would be insolent.
The layout of the second floor was almost identical to the third, yet lacked that oppressive symmetry. The larger rooms here were assigned to guest nobles, the Head Maid, and the steward.
Harlotte noticed that these three rooms corresponded exactly to the chambers on the floor above. To the south, another room lay empty—supposedly the Guard Captain’s quarters.
But in reality the Guard Captain lived in a cottage beside the training grounds, not within the castle. Something felt very, very wrong. If it were purely for his safety, the Guard Captain should remain closer—within the castle walls—ready to act at any moment. Yet she did not.
Instead, she lived among the common folk, mingling freely with guards and servants alike, judging by how she had behaved in the great hall at dinner.
“Lilith, what are the other rooms on this floor for? It seems many are empty.”
Head Maid Lilith offered him a polite, measured smile and explained, “The second floor used to house guest nobles. Although many have since departed for various reasons, their rooms remain. Some of those empty rooms serve as storage for valuable items, or as laboratories for experiments, potion-making, and the creation of special artifacts.”
“Though there are many vacant chambers, only a handful are truly usable.”
Guest nobles? Harlotte raised an eyebrow, thinking, If they’re after my body, there are more than just the castle’s nonhumans to worry about.
“I understand. Show me Guest Noble Margaret’s quarters next—hopefully without disturbing her potion work.”
“As you command, Young Master.”
Young Master? Not “Master”? Had he misheard that day, or...?
They soon reached Guest Noble Margaret’s door, but when Head Maid Lilith knocked, there was no answer. An awkward silence fell.
Lilith glanced at Harlotte, offering a polite yet embarrassed smile. “Guest Noble Margaret is probably not in her chamber—she may be in the alchemy lab preparing potions.”
Before she could finish speaking, the door swung open...
In that instant, a flash of sharp anger passed through Head Maid Lilith’s eyes, as if she had been provoked.