10.
Judith calmly sipped her tea before the Master, her voice low and steady.
“I see. You lied to me.”
Before she knew it, the Master was sighing heavily, pressing a hand to his forehead. He spoke with the measured cadence of a man walking a tightrope.
“Please, understand. One cannot survive in this business by speaking only the truth.”
“Of course. I understand that well. But I have only ever been truthful with you, Master.”
“Th-that is… naturally. Information guilds must treat such matters with extreme sensitivity.”
“That may be. But I even confided in you about my pregnancy—a matter far more sensitive than anything else.”
“Ha… Judith. From my position, I cannot divulge everything to my clients.”
“That goes without saying. But I am not just any client; I am the client whose life you once saved.”
As Judith answered with chilling nonchalance, the Master sighed, appearing even more troubled.
She lowered her eyes and continued, her tone elegant and sharp.
“You could have simply told me you weren’t at liberty to say. There was no need to weave such an elaborate lie about having no informant in that place.”
“That was not a lie.”
The Master spoke quickly.
“There truly is no informant in that place. It is the truth.”
“And yet, you claim to know the truth of the situation perfectly.”
At her words, the Master let out a sharp, clicking sound with his tongue. He shook his head, offering a dry, humorless laugh.
“It is rare for me to lose my composure like this,” he muttered, stroking his chin. “Judith, when I speak with you, I feel as if I have become someone else entirely.”
“Is that so?”
Judith nodded, unimpressed. “Do not attempt to gloss over the lie you told earlier with such diversions.”
“Ha…”
The Master crossed his arms. Behind his mask, his expression remained a void. Judith, as was her habit, waited with effortless patience, gazing out the window or sipping her tea. Three years of frequenting this space had long since burned away the awkward silences that once defined their meetings.
Only after a long stretch of time did he finally break his silence.
“I know the secret passage.”
“Pardon?”
“The secret passage within the Mayous Ducal Mansion. I acquired the knowledge some time ago. I… I will assist you in preventing the danger befalling the Young Duke.”
It was another revelation she hadn’t anticipated. Judith blinked, lost in thought.
The Duke of Mayous’s second son—Ekian’s younger brother—was named Karl Mayous.
Karl had shared a deep, fervent bond with his missing older brother. Given their significant age gap, Ekian had cherished him dearly. Since Ekian’s disappearance, the boy had lived in a state of profound despondency.
*Karl Mayous… he is, in fact, the villain of this novel.*
He had once been a kind, innocent boy, but his upbringing had been poisoned. The harmony of the household shattered after Ekian vanished and his parents passed away. Thrust suddenly into the role of head of the house, Karl had grown into a man with a twisted temperament, harboring an abnormal, obsessive fixation on the radiant female lead. The kind-hearted heroine had only ever treated the young boy with warmth, yet she became the ultimate victim of his instability.
*In the original, his parents didn’t die by malice, just an accident. But there was someone who exerted a far more toxic influence on Karl than his own parents…*
That person was Sarah, the maid who stayed close to him. The very same woman now masquerading as pregnant with Ekian’s child.
Having already gained a firm grip on Karl, she began to abuse him more ruthlessly once she secured the Mayous name. Even if Judith managed to halt that specific cycle of abuse by stepping into the role of the fake daughter-in-law, the damage being done to the boy right now was likely severe.
*The Duke and Duchess have no idea. She must be manipulating the child’s vulnerability with incredible cunning…*
Once Judith entered the mansion as the daughter-in-law, it would be too late. The staff would never side with a woman who had just arrived; they would naturally flock to Sarah, a fixture of the household. They would view Judith with suspicion, and any move she made would be reported to Sarah in an instant.
“A secret passage?”
Judith’s eyes lit up as she leaned toward the Master.
“Good. Then I believe I have a plan. You can help me, Master.”
***
The information provided in the original novel was limited—it only ever offered glimpses of Karl’s childhood trauma.
*The time and place of the abuse were never specified!*
First, she needed to pinpoint exactly when and where it occurred. That was why she had initially intended to ask the guild, “I want to know where Karl and Sarah frequently meet.”
She hadn’t expected much. It wasn’t easy to glean secrets from the inside that even the household staff didn’t know. Sarah was no fool; she manipulated Karl mentally, and the abuse likely didn’t happen in his own room, where prying eyes were common.
She had mentioned it to the Master, half-expecting a dead end, yet he had offered a golden opportunity.
*In that sense, knowing the secret passage is far more valuable!*
With the discovery of the passage leading into the Mayous Ducal Mansion, Judith’s chosen method was simple: surveillance.
She could lie in wait near Karl’s room and overhear their conversations. Surely, Sarah would eventually command, “Meet me here at this time.”
According to the Master, the secret passage allowed one to hear every word spoken through the walls. Judith was thrilled, though startled.
“But Master, how did you come to know such information?”
“Just by chance.”
“I see. It was foolish of me to ask such a thing of the Master of an information guild.”
If he knew of such intricate passages, it made perfect sense why he had no use for informants. Why bother with middlemen when you can sneak in and gather intelligence yourself? The Master replied, his voice stiff.
“Please, keep this secret from the Duke and Duchess.”
“I am worried. The security is clearly a mess if an outsider can come and go as they please.”
“It is not a mess. I swear I am the only one who knows this path, and I never intended to use it.”
“Someone must have taught you about this passage.”
“They are already dead.”
“Oh.”
Judith surmised the person must have been a descendant of the original artisan who designed the mansion. Since this passage never appeared in the original work, it likely had no grand significance to the plot.
Regardless, the Master claimed the path was too complex to map, so his proposal remained simple:
“You must come with me.”
Judith was reluctant to enter the unfamiliar mansion alone. But with the Master—someone she had traded with for three years—offering to accompany her, a sense of relief washed over her. Even if they had never worked in such close quarters before, she didn’t believe he would harm the person whose life he had saved.
“I just need to stake out near Young Duke Karl’s room, correct?”
“For now, yes.”
They decided to depart for the mansion immediately. For some reason, the Master seemed even more impatient than she was.
“Then let us go.”
“Right now?”
“Is there some other business you must attend to?”
“Well, not exactly, but…”
“You said a child is being abused behind closed doors. Isn’t this urgent?”
Judith dismissed her hesitation, wondering if the Master possessed a hidden soft spot for children, or perhaps if he, too, had known abuse. She couldn’t read his expression through the mask, but his intensity was undeniable.
As she navigated the secret passage, which began in the basement of a decaying shack, the path plunged into total darkness. As Judith stumbled, the Master whispered, “Pardon me,” and took her hand.
His grip was massive, and his skin was scorching hot.
*This…*
The tunnel was claustrophobically narrow, barely wide enough for one. Judith found herself pressed tightly against the Master. Due to the disparity in their frames, it felt as though she were being held by him as they moved.
She was far too terrified to pull away, leaving her no choice but to cling to him. She struggled to steady her racing heart, feeling as if she might cry out from the sheer intensity of the proximity.
*Why is it so close?*