Chapter 156

What the hell was that about?

At least one thing was clear.

Nella was the name of the madam I’d heard at the banquet hall before. So that thing must have been hers from before she was married.

But that alone couldn’t explain the madam’s sudden change.

“What is—”

At first, the madam’s sharp gaze had lingered on the unfamiliar object like she was seeing it for the first time. But once she recognized her old name, it shifted to bewilderment.

“……Where did you find my belonging?”

Then her face twisted in anger.

“I had some circumstances that led me to explore the mansion’s basement.”

So Yeri the hunter flashed a pretty smile.

Was that an exploration?

She spoke so casually, it really did seem like her.

The system window wasn’t messing around.

That was when I let out a sigh of relief.

“The mansion’s basement? The basement is……”

The madam raised an eyebrow.

She had to know the basement was sealed tight.

“There must have been punishment fitting the mansion’s rules, then.”

I didn’t know what country’s etiquette punished guests, but the madam was unfazed.

So Yeri held out her hand, palm up.

“Exactly. So I got punished and went down to the basement. I came back up, though.”

She pulled out the invitation and showed it to the madam.

“The rules just say you go to the basement after three warnings. Nothing about setting up house down there, so it’s fine for me to come back up, right?”

It was a solid point. My eyes met Shin Jae-heon’s.

“Hmph.”

The madam looked displeased.

She wasn’t about to attack out of nowhere, was she?

Just as we tensed up—

“On my way out of the basement, I accidentally wandered into the room with this. But I really wanted to show it to you, so I took the liberty of bringing it.”

So Yeri spoke in a soft, soothing voice, fitting for someone who’d played Clona and Aisen.

And she didn’t forget to drive the point home.

“You wouldn’t attack someone who came to talk, would you?”

At that, the madam narrowed her eyes, then finally lowered her fan.

“Hmph.”

The fan dissolved into a puff of pale green powder.

“Fine, let’s hear what you have to say.”

It meant she was willing to talk again, at least for now.

This was a new development.

Joo Yian the hunter must have thought the same, because he withdrew his Field Hospital skill.

That thing must eat full stats every second—no telling how much it had drained.

Of course, now wasn’t the time to ask.

The madam had only stowed her fan for the moment; she could attack us again anytime.

“Speak.”

As she said it, she flicked her hand.

The shattered, collapsed bookshelf restored itself like a miracle.

Suddenly, we were all sitting side by side in chairs. Magic befitting an L-rank boss.

“I saw a lot in the room with this thing. Not just this music box—”

So Yeri placed the item on the desk.

I’d thought it was just a little angel figurine, but it was a music box.

Up close, the angel was indeed holding a lyre.

“And this.”

But behind the music box was some toy sword.

“Huh?”

As I tilted my head in confusion, I saw Shin Jae-heon raise an eyebrow.

Joo Yian was scrutinizing the madam closely.

We couldn’t chat, so I didn’t know exactly what angle So Yeri was playing, but everyone was on high alert for any sudden developments.

And then—

The madam’s expression shifted strangely upon seeing the toy sword.

“This…… I can’t believe something like this is still in the mansion.”

She clicked her tongue briefly, then crossed her arms and asked sharply.

“So why did you bring these? To dig up my past and find some weakness?”

I had no idea what she’d done with a toy sword to make it a weakness, but even if she had one, it wouldn’t turn an L-rank boss into SS-rank.

[I Am Always In Front of You (SS)]

Where could I best deploy this skill to block her?

That was when So Yeri spoke up.

“I just thought Rifen would like the toy sword, so I brought it up.”

But the madam’s expression didn’t soften.

Still, unlike before—when she’d attacked the moment she felt offended—she showed no reaction.

What was up with that sword?

No way……

I glanced down at the sword’s hilt. There was some engraving on it.

[……Kalsen]

It looked like the madam’s pre-marriage family name.

Oh…… I narrowed my eyes.

Somehow, I figured the first name went with Nella.

Ah, no way.

“……!”

I widened my eyes and looked at So Yeri.

A powerful urge hit me—like I wanted to slap my forehead, slap my knee, and pump my fist, just like So Yeri hitting the stock market limit up.

If we weren’t in front of the propriety-obsessed madam, I totally would have.

“!!”

I finally got what So Yeri was going for.

The music box, maybe not—but that toy sword for sure.

The madam’s ears flushed slightly, and though she reacted sharply with distress, she wasn’t aggressive.

That sword was definitely the madam’s toy sword from her childhood.

Judging by her changing expressions, it was a past she’d completely forgotten.

“……”

As the madam fell silent, So Yeri piped up abruptly.

“On the way here, I saw Rifen having a nightmare. So I tucked him in and came.”

“……I told him to sleep in his room, and that child again……!”

Her words ignited the madam’s fury.

Responsibility (S) popped up in Shin Jae-heon’s skill window, but I grabbed his arm to hold him back.

“?”

Stay put for now.

I gave him a look.

The things So Yeri brought weren’t just the sword.

If the music box wasn’t a souvenir, it had to be key to “talking” with the madam too.

Plus, she hadn’t brought up Rifen for no reason.

In the meantime, So Yeri replied to the madam.

“But you know it’s okay.”

The madam hesitated at her words.

“Because you’ve grown into such a refined noblewoman yourself.”

The madam cleared her throat awkwardly.

“Of course!”

—Snap!

She snapped open the fan she’d stowed and hid her face again.

It covered her troubled expression.

“I was raised as a proper young lady with strict education.”

So Yeri narrowed her eyes at that.

“Really? Did you grow up just like Rifen does now?”

Somehow, I doubted it.

And it wasn’t just So Yeri thinking that—me, Shin Jae-heon, and Joo Yian too.

All four of our gazes landed on the toy sword, then flicked away.

“……Well, there was a brief time I strayed a little. But just for a moment.”

This time, the fan covered not just her mouth but her nose too.

So Yeri smiled faintly.

“Want to touch this music box, then?”

So there was something to it after all.

The madam hesitated but reached out toward the music box.

—Click.

She touched the angel’s head with her fingertip, then gripped it with both hands and wound the key.

—Whirr.

Her hands moved with the ease of someone who knew exactly where to hold and turn.

Like a familiar object.

Like something she’d used often long ago.

In that instant, a soothing melody filled the air, and the space before us shifted into a new scene.

The madam’s memories.

We five, including the madam, had dropped into this strange space as mere spectators.

“Mommy!”

A child’s bright voice rang out. Turning toward it, I saw a girl who looked just like the madam.

Maybe six years old?

And in front of her, sparring with a toy sword, was clearly the child’s mother.

“Yah!”

The young madam swung her toy sword.

No wonder she swung that bladeless fan like she was trying to cleave people—it must have been from practicing with a sword as a kid.

And for a six-year-old, her stance was impressively solid, like she’d trained for a long time.

“At it again?”

Sighing deeply as he approached was someone who looked like the madam’s father.

“If you get a child used to this from a young age, won’t it be hard for her to enjoy quieter hobbies?”

The madam’s mother replied lightly.

“She can do embroidery and such later. When else would she have this much fun with stuff like this? Right?”

“Yeah!”

The young madam answered cheerfully.

“Well, true enough.”

Chuckling lightly, her father watched them playfully swing their swords, then picked up a nearby shield and joined in.

—Thwack!

The young madam’s toy sword struck the shield sharply.

She looked so happy playing like that.

“……”

Watching it all, the madam first glanced back at us in confusion.

Like we’d seen a past she never wanted shown.

But at some point, she couldn’t tear her eyes from her parents.

Her gaze held longing and joy.

—Whoosh!

Suddenly, the space around us painted a new scene.

Time flew by; the child grew, and faced her first farewell.

While other noble children experienced their first loss with nannies or close servants, hers was crueler.

“Mommy……?”

Her mother, who’d gone to war, returned as a cold corpse.

The young madam sent her off in funeral rites, never to open her eyes again, and grew into a gloomy child.

And at seventeen.

She debuted in high society like other young ladies.

Her father had secured a well-connected noblewoman as chaperone for her debut, but there was a problem.

“……”

The young madam still missed her mother dearly.

And—

“Isn’t Lady Kalsen a bit odd?”

“There’s a reason her debut was so late.”

“Yeah. Staring blankly into space like she’s possessed……”

High society looked down on the young madam. With no mother to protect her, they openly badmouthed her.

People bond quickly over shared topics.

She was just that “topic,” unable to join their conversations.

Soon she became high society’s spectacle, and no matter what she did, fingers pointed.

“Can’t expect much from a lady without proper social training.”

“Did she just leave without permission from the salon host?”

Unable to bear the stares, the young madam slipped out mid-salon, fueling even more gossip.

“That’s why the uneducated don’t work out.”

“No class at all.”

Their whispers poured over her relentlessly.

“……”

Watching, the madam bit her lip. Her fists clenched tight.

Sob……

The young madam holed up in her room crying. Then a letter arrived from another young lady.

[From a Young Lady Concerned for Lady Kalsen]

It was anonymous. I felt an instinctive unease about it.

Why hide the name?

That’s when the watching madam muttered.

“Don’t open it……”

But the young madam, starved for friends her age, opened it anyway.

“Kyaa!”

She dropped it immediately.

The letter was scrawled in some kind of blood with horrific words.

[Nosy bitch butting in]

[Time to wise up?]

[You make it so awkward every time]

[Know what’s in fashion for dresses? Not borrowed from a maid, right?]

Faced with the malice-packed letter, the young madam fainted.

And after that, another blow struck.

“What? Dad too?”

Even her father, who’d been trying to help his shut-in daughter, died in an accident.

“She’s not of age yet, so it goes to blood kin……”

“Who’d take on that high-society headache?”

She became a hot potato among relatives, eventually surrendering the family fortune to live off handouts at a cousin’s house.

And was married off like cargo.

“Madam.”

It was an unwanted marriage, but thankfully, wedded life was happy.

Count Madden, Rifen’s spitting image, was a man who knew gentle smiles.

Watching her own wedding, the madam’s face filled with longing.

Afterward, she bore Rifen with Count Madden and looked truly blissful.

Smiles never left the family’s faces as days sped by.

Like she didn’t want to miss a moment, regret flowed from the madam’s eyes.

‘He was away on business, so……’

……But at the banquet, hadn’t the madam said Count Madden was away?

Why did she look so sad?

No way…… The moment that thought hit, everything went pitch black.

On a stormy, thundering night, Count Madden was carried back to the mansion, dead from battling a monster.

“……”

Now resembling her current self, the madam from the past bit her lip watching her dead husband.

“……A few days from now is the hunting tournament your husband was hosting. Invitations are already out, but…… I’ll cancel it.”

The butler said that, and the past madam paused.

The space flashed back to her society debut days, then returned.

She was reliving her painful past.

Rifen’s situation mirrored her own as a child—losing a mother or father before even entering society.

And high society’s vultures would say of her:

‘The young lady who lost her mother young and grew up without noble grace.’

After agonizing, the past madam made her choice.

“No, hold the hunting tournament as planned. I’ll host it. And for Rifen—”

I could guess what came next.

I felt her resolve not to let Rifen suffer the same pain.

“Keep his death secret for a while.”

“Pardon? Then the funeral……”

To the butler, the past madam said:

“Skip it. I can’t tell Rifen about his father.”