Working at a Haunted Mansion Chapter 113

“Julia.”

“Thank you for coming to save me. I mean it. Since I disappeared in the worst way, I was even ready to let you slap me if that’s why you came… But leaving will be difficult.”

“Don’t be stubborn.”

“Hm?”

Julia made her characteristic nasal sound. Saul spoke firmly.

“Don’t act like that.”

“Like what?”

It was a shameless question.

He hadn’t expected her to have changed in this way. He really did feel like he was back in the academy days.

“This isn’t about picking a better topic to score points. It’s not about proving who knows the professors better.”

“Then what is it?”

“You already know.”

He didn’t explain further. There was no time to waste on childish clashes of pride. He needed to get Julia out and return as quickly as possible.

Julia gave a short laugh and asked,

“Can I ride in that carriage you prepared with my granddaughter?”

Kindly enough, she even waited about ten seconds for Saul’s answer.

That was likely her condition for accepting his help, but he couldn’t agree.

“That’s not possible.”

Before Julia could refuse, he quickly added,

“If you leave first, then afterward I’ll get your granddaughter out of the capital too.”

“My goodness. You really should take some acting lessons from Lily. How do you manage to work in the Imperial City with skills like that?”

Saul glared at her. If the person in front of him had been anyone but Julia Midrof, he wouldn’t have lost his composure this badly.

Just as she saw through him, he had no intention of letting Lily Dienta go. On the contrary, the young Dienta needed to remain here no matter what.

She would be the bait to hold the cult leader’s attention while Julia escaped.

Up until now, he had covered for Lily Dienta only so Julia wouldn’t be saddened.

But the situation had changed. The blade that had tried to assassinate Aiden Kashimir was now aimed at Julia.

If saving Julia meant saddening her, he would accept it. He was even prepared to abandon his passive obedience to the cult leader and offer Lily Dienta up himself.

After all, what did Lily Dienta’s fate have to do with him? Whether she spent her life aiding heretics with their sorcery or had her eyes gouged out—

The child Julia had left behind with another man held no value for Saul. Not compared to Julia’s life.

But to Julia, that bloodline seemed immeasurably precious.

“Once again, thank you for coming here for me. For preparing everything. To think you still haven’t forgotten me—I truly… heh.”

She trailed off with a laugh.

“But how could I possibly leave my young granddaughter in such danger and run away alone?”

“You’ll die. Look at what happened to Duke Kashimir. Someone like you—no, someone like us, old as we are—can’t endure like the duke. You’ll die on the spot.”

Saul pressed with harsher possibilities.

“If you die instantly, that would almost be merciful. More likely, you’ll be taken hostage and tortured in front of Lily Dienta. Can you endure that? You’ll become the perfect tool to control your beloved granddaughter. Is that what you want?”

He no longer loved Julia.

Even the resentment and sorrow that once surfaced at the thought of her had long since been washed away with time.

Those strong emotions had become nothing more than an old scar, half-forgotten.

And yet, the thought of Julia bleeding before his eyes was unbearable.

‘This isn’t just imagination. At this rate, it will become reality. Somehow, I must…’

His brow throbbed. He felt as if his body were both chilling and burning hot.

“You have to atone to me.”

He spoke in a low voice.

“Didn’t you say you hadn’t come here for something base?”

“And how is making you pay for your sins base? Obey me and leave the capital. That’s the punishment I give you.”

“No.”

“Julia!”

She spoke firmly.

“I can’t leave Lily behind. If the situation is so dangerous that you’ve come here to tell me to leave, then all the more reason I should stay and protect her. I’m her guardian.”

The sight of an aged woman insisting on being a guardian to a grown adult was maddening.

“Fine, then. If this ends well, I’ll atone afterward. I’ll do whatever you tell me.”

“So you mean I should just go back like this?”

“That’s right. Honestly, I don’t even know why you’re doing this. Everything’s been fine until now. We didn’t look for each other, we didn’t wonder about each other, and we lived our lives well enough apart. So why, all of a sudden…”

Julia noticed Saul’s anger rising and let her words trail off.

‘Everything’s been fine until now? That we never looked for each other, never wondered about each other, and each just lived our own lives well?’

Saul couldn’t hold it in and burst into laughter.

“Madam Dienta, that’s your story, not mine. Supporting your husband, wasting your fine talents as some governess, and on top of that raising your granddaughter so properly—you’ve certainly lived an admirable life.”

He slipped both hands inside his collar, unfastened the chain of a necklace, and pulled out the ring that hung from it.

“But unlike a certain young lady, I kept my vow.”

“Saul.”

He had buried Julia away. The resentment of their parting, the grief, the memories of the past—he had desperately buried them all in the back of his mind.

But the ring he could never put away. At first because his hands wouldn’t move, later because it had become a habit.

When emptiness washed over him with the night breeze, even if it was only once in several years, he had to clutch that ring to calm his heart. He had to hold on to her only trace…

Now he held out in his palm the trash its owner had thrown away.

“Look at this. It’s all for you. You abandoned me, but everything I’ve done is for you—and even then, is it not enough?”

He dragged out even the resentment he had buried.

“You always had things your way. So just once, can’t I have mine? Was it not enough that you vanished as if dead—must you truly die for real? Leave me with not even the chance that one day I might find you, just running away alone?”

Julia’s face paled as her eyes fell on the ring. The old woman’s hand clenched, veins standing out beneath the thin skin.

But it was only a fleeting change. In an instant, she returned to her usual calm demeanor—before Saul, swept by emotion, even noticed.

“No matter what you say, my decision won’t change. Save Lily. If you can’t, then leave me.”

It felt as if he were facing an ice witch. For all his pleading, he hadn’t melted her heart.

All her warmth was reserved for her precious granddaughter. None of it was left for him.

Julia drove the wedge in deeper into Saul’s sense of helplessness.

“If Lily can be saved, then my life isn’t too precious. I’ve lived long enough.”

“You don’t understand at all. Your death won’t help Lily Dienta in the slightest. If this goes on, the best ending you can hope for is that you both die together. Do you still not see?”

Julia half-listened as she reached toward his open palm.

Saul reflexively closed his hand, trapping Julia’s fingers inside his fist.

She hesitated for a moment, then didn’t stop—she pulled the ring free. His fist, pitifully weak, let her slip away.

Julia rolled the ring between her fingers, then slid it onto the ring finger of her left hand. The band lingered at her knuckle for a moment.

Patiently, she twisted it little by little until it finally slid down to the base of her finger.

She spread her hand wide for him to see. Her hand was nothing like the smooth, supple one of her youth.

And yet, wearing the ring looked not the least bit strange—almost as if it had always belonged there.

Saul was half-overwhelmed by the sight. Never in his dreams had he imagined the engagement ring resting on the finger of an aged Julia.

But now, faced with it, he realized he had longed for this scene for decades. His thirst of so many years was quenched, even in this false form.

At that very moment, Julia smiled brightly, as if mocking his indescribable feelings, and said,

“If I must die… then I’ll die wearing this ring.”

It was a kind of smile he had never seen on Julia Midrof before. A smile that cast away all worries and cares, and shone with pure release.

“I’m sorry, but since it was mine to begin with, consider it returned to its rightful owner.”

Saul’s eyes widened as he stared at Julia.

He wasn’t a fool. He immediately understood the true meaning behind her words.

No, it didn’t take keen intelligence to grasp it.

She smiled as if she were happy, wearing the ring, declaring that if she must die, she would die with it. There was no room for misunderstanding.

She did, she did love him. She was still holding onto the other end of the rope…

Saul parted his lips and at last forced out the question he had long dreaded to confirm.

“When your husband died—if I had come to you then—would you… would you have met me?”