Prologue

 Clang, boom!

At the iron bars that closed without remorse, I stared blankly. Beyond the prison cell, contemptuous eyes flashed.

“How dare you poison the Madam. Know this—you will never walk out of this prison alive. How despicable. You don’t even know any grace.”

Albert, the guard who brought me here, gritted his teeth and pretended to spit. Fortunately, he turned around without actually spitting, but what he said was clear enough.

If the findings would really turn out as me being the one responsible for the poisoning, I wouldn’t ever be able to get out of this prison alive. As an orphan from a faraway land and an ordinary servant, it wouldn’t be strange if I disappeared.

“Albert! Albert! Please allow me one thing. Please let me see the Count!”

I shouted with all my might as I held the prison bars tightly.

“It wasn’t me! I wasn’t the one who mixed poison in the Madam’s tea! I know who the real culprit is—please let me see the Count!”

“What you’re saying doesn’t make sense. It’s you who brought the poisoned tea leaves. Who else is the culprit? Who are you going to blame for your crime?”

He spat and pointed a finger at me, seething in something like genuine rage.

“I didn’t do it! The real culprit is…!”

“The real culprit?”

As soon as I was about to say the name of the real sinner, a quiet voice rang through the air. My tongue hardened reflexively, and his cold presence permeated into my skin. Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump. The pounding of my heart was so loud that my eardrums were about to burst. The even sound of his footsteps over the stone floor sent shivers down my spine.

He’s coming.

“Goodness, Young Master. You shouldn’t be in a place like this!”

Instead of towards me, as I was so frozen to the point that even my fingertips couldn’t move, the guard made a fuss over that man. The guard’s voice became smaller, and now only his approaching footsteps echoed into my ears. The moment he finally stopped in front of me, I couldn’t face him.

“Young Master, if you do this, I’ll be in big trouble with the Count.”

“It’s alright, Albert. I’ll explain it to my father properly.”

“Goodness, Young Master… What if I really get into big trouble.”

Albert just shifted his weight on one foot to the other without knowing what to do, but Adrian answered his worries leisurely. Perhaps because it was only me and Albert here with him, but the angel-like appearance he reserved for the public had long since disappeared. All I could feel from him was the pressure and fear that weighed heavily over my head…

“Tell me. The real culprit that you know, who is it, hm?”

He asked with a beautiful, lilting voice that everyone praised. And in turn, I was just shaking without moving from where I was standing. It was faint, but the sound of my teeth chattering could be heard. Hmm. As though contemplating, he hummed and stared at me intently.

“I knew it. You’re different.”

“……”

“You know, hm? Who I am, what I did.”

“……”

“How did you know? I’m good enough at it that no one should have known.”

Rather than anger, all that was in his gaze towards me was interest. My body flinched reflexively as though I’d been stabbed by a blade. The more I appeared to be frightened, the darker his smile became. I didn’t dare to look up to face him, but I could still feel his change in demeanour.

Adrian, Caesar von der Paltzgraff.

The successor to the Paltzgraff family.

The world praised him as an angel—but only I knew. The public was set abuzz by the news of the recent serial murders and attempted murders, and that all of them had been committed by a handsome young man.

No, it was only me who knew.

That the world I’m living in right now is a crazily ridiculous horror game.

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