Was that really just a coincidence?
The person who bribed Marin to stay by my side and watch me, ultimately trying to kill me using Ogreman, failed simply because they couldn't control the amount of incense?
It was too sloppy.
So I thought.
Perhaps even the mastermind behind it had an unforeseen variable occur.
And that variable was…
"Marin did it, didn't you?"
"..."
It was a question, but filled with conviction.
Marin stared at me without a word.
But her wavering eyes were answering the truth.
After a long silence, Marin's lips parted.
"...So what?"
Her torn and tattered lips formed a crooked smile.
"What changes if I say yes? Will you... even save me?"
Her sarcastic tone was mixed with self-deprecating laughter.
I answered immediately.
"No."
Marin's expression went blank for a moment at my quick and firm reply.
Then she frowned and asked.
"So you really came all the way here just because you were curious about the reason...?"
"Well, there's that too."
Originally, that was the only reason, but a new reason had arisen while coming here.
"I have something to propose."
"...A proposal?"
Marin looked at me with a dumbfounded expression for a moment.
As if saying, 'In this situation?'
She wasn't wrong, though.
"...What is this proposal you're talking about?"
"I'd like you to answer me first."
"..."
It meant that I wouldn't even tell her what the proposal was if she didn't.
I stared at Marin with a blank expression.
Marin's expression became strange as she looked at me like that.
Soon, Marin's lips slowly parted.
"...It's strange."
"What is?"
"You seem like a different person than the young lady I knew."
"..."
"Was this your real self all along?"
I stared at Marin without answering.
Then Marin smiled weakly.
"You never trusted me from the beginning, did you?"
She muttered as if resigned and closed her eyes.
Then she said.
"You're right, young lady. I disobeyed the order and put in less than the prescribed amount. I even mixed in other incense."
"Why?"
"Because I was afraid..."
Marin slowly opened her closed eyes.
Her lifeless brown eyes looked like those of the dead.
Empty pupils with no regret, pain, frustration, or anything else.
"Their first order was to act as a maid in the Duke's residence and observe the young lady's movements. What the young lady ate, who she talked to, how much she slept, and how much her body grew."
Marin spoke smoothly as if resigned.
Her detached voice carried a bloody humidity and quietly spread within the basement.
"I regularly reported about the young lady to them."
"It must have been difficult to communicate with the outside."
The fact that they ordered her to observe me meant that the person who hired Marin was not inside the mansion.
Listening to the story, it seemed like she had been communicating with them regularly for quite a while, and it shouldn't be easy to get through Rodbel's security.
Marin answered obediently.
"I used a magic tool. With that magic tool, I could avoid surveillance and communicate with the outside."
Having said that much, Marin let out a labored breath.
She raised her eyes to look at me once, then lowered her head again and continued her story.
"After sending the reports, I always received the same answer. To continue watching her movements. So I always watched the young lady from behind. Then there was a change."
"A change?"
"The young lady's room was changed."
"Ah."
She was talking about that time.
The achievement I made first after returning from death.
"At that time, the order changed. To become the young lady's exclusive maid and get close to her."
A wistful smile formed on Marin's lips as if recalling the past.
"I became more comfortable, but also more uneasy. Because I didn't have to hide and secretly observe the young lady like before. But the young lady I saw up close was too..."
Marin's lips closed.
I quietly stared at Marin.
After a long silence, Marin's mouth opened.
"I was foolish. I shouldn't have gotten close to the young lady."
She raised her head and looked at me.
Her lifeless eyes were filled with an unknown emotion.
"I felt sorry for the young lady."
"..."
"The young lady I saw up close was too pitiful. She was so thin that I wanted to feed her lots of delicious things, and I thought her hair would be much softer if I just trimmed it a little. I became concerned about everything and interfered with the young lady more than I was ordered to."
"..."
"They ordered me to fill the pouch with incense. I didn't know what effect it would have, but I knew it intuitively. That this would kill the young lady."
"..."
"When I thought about it, I couldn't fill the incense at all..."
"Then you could have just not filled it."
"That's impossible. I can't disobey my master's orders..."
Her shoulders trembled for a moment.
It was like a beast caught in a snare, struggling in agony.
'Knowing that you would die.'
But the reason she couldn't reveal the mastermind was related to not being able to disobey orders?
Even at the cost of death after torture?
"That's all. It's nothing much, right?"
Instead of answering, I asked another question.
"What's Marin's real identity?"
The one called 'them' wouldn't have selected Marin for no reason.
Marin seemed to hesitate for a moment at my question, but soon answered intermittently.
"I was a reject from the Amyeong Guild."
"...Amyeong Guild?"
My eyes widened when an unexpected name popped out.
'Amyeong Guild.'
Also known as the 'Shadow of the Empire,' it was a criminal organization that committed all sorts of dirty and dangerous deeds.
From simple background checks to background checks, black market trading, human trafficking, and even assassination.
Its notoriety was so high that I heard its name frequently.
I also heard that the imperial family had tried to eliminate it several times, but had repeatedly failed because it operated so secretly and each member of the guild was so skilled.
I never thought Marin would be associated with that place.
But.
"What do you mean by 'reject'?"
I didn't quite understand the word 'reject'.
Marin spoke fluently as if she had let go of something from the moment she revealed her identity.
"The Amyeong Guild takes in children wandering the streets and trains them to become guild members. Children who fail in that process are called rejects and disposed of."
"Disposed of..."
"I was also one of the rejects. I was scheduled to be disposed of, but 'they' saved me."
"So that's why you couldn't disobey their orders? Because they saved your life?"
"All the children of the Amyeong Guild cannot refuse their 'master'. They are trained that way. My master now is 'them'."
"You were abandoned."
Marin quietly smiled at my cold words.
Somehow, it made my stomach churn.
I felt angry, disappointed, and depressed.
But I maintained my composure on the outside.
"Yes."
I heard everything I wanted to hear.
"In short, Marin isn't an ordinary person, and the person who saved Marin was using Marin's abilities to gather information within the family."
Even if she was a reject who was scheduled to be disposed of, she was from the 'Amyeong Guild'.
They wouldn't have used that ability just to monitor me.
Hearing this, it became even more certain.
The reason I was able to survive Ogreman wasn't just because I was lucky.
"If Marin hadn't pitied me, I could have really died."
A sneer came out.
I thought I had become stronger, but I was still weak.
The chilling sense of powerlessness washed over me when I realized I could have died unknowingly.
At that moment, Marin shook her head.
"Pity wasn't... that wasn't everything."
"..."
"At first, I certainly felt sorry for the young lady. But gradually... I came to love the young lady. She was pretty and cute."
"...You know now. That that appearance was fake."
I had always felt a sense of incongruity from Marin.
I wondered if there was a purpose behind her being overly nice to me.
'That was real.'
So I hid my true self too.
I pretended to be innocent, pretended not to know anything, and guarded myself against Marin appropriately.
So it was clearly my mistake to accept Marin's charm without any suspicion.
'Why did I do that?'
I must have unknowingly let my guard down.
I had spent quite a long time with Marin. During all that time, Marin took care of me and cherished me to an excessive degree.
So I must have thought that this time too was an extension of that daily routine.
'Foolishly.'
But Marin shook her head and denied my words.
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