Working at a Haunted Mansion Chapter 138 - Side Story 2 Chapter 4

<Side Story 2, Chapter 4>

When he took the letter paper out of the envelope, a red petal slipped out from inside the folded sheet.

Saul quickly caught it in his palm. It was without a doubt a rose from the bouquet he had given Julia.

The bouquet had not been thrown away. There had never been any reason for it to be!

Holding the petal in his left hand, Saul picked up the letter with the other.

[My dear Saul.

Thanks to your concern, I’m feeling much better now. Well enough that I don’t have to turn guests away at the door anymore.

And see? I was right, wasn’t I? You really were born a noble. That’s why you twist and overthink every word.

So let me say this again: I stopped using high-society speech with you a long time ago. It’s been decades already. And I don’t plan to use it again in the future.

I’ll wait.

—Julia]

Julia Midroff was speaking directly to him. She talked about old memories he had recalled alone as if they had happened just yesterday.

For a moment, he felt like he had returned to his twenties.

Back then, Saul Oetz had been shoved into the academy, as if swept aside, right in front of his older brother.

After graduation, his fate had been to be sent as a low-ranking administrator with no title to some unfamiliar territory, or handed off to a merchant company.

His brother often sent letters to remind him of that reality and crush any faint hope he might have had. And when Saul suffered from humiliation and shame, Julia had said those words to him.

—You really are a noble. That’s why you read everything in such a twisted way. It only says, “Today, I patrolled the territory.” It doesn’t say, “This glorious heir of a great house patrolled a territory you couldn’t even dream of, even if you were reborn.”

—You’re the fool, Julia.

—There you go twisting it again. When did I ever call you a fool?

—Just now. And right now too. With your voice, your eyebrows, and your lips.

—Nope. If there’s something I want to say to you, I won’t beat around the bush, you fool.

If anyone else had said something like that, Saul would have challenged them to a duel without hesitation.

But because it was Julia, all he did was pull the infuriating woman closer.

Of course, Julia had understood the hidden meaning in his brother’s letters. Saul knew she had only been trying to comfort him.

Still, when Julia said it like that, his brother’s letters turned into nothing more than annoying scraps of paper rambling about daily life, and suddenly, none of it mattered anymore.

Saul brought the fist holding the petal up to his lips.

Calling Lily Dienta had been the right choice. How lucky it was that she, who was close with her grandmother, had hurried off to report everything in less than a day.

Above all, it was a relief that he now had a successor, so he could leave his post even during the daytime.

 

 

****

 

 

The morning after Lily left, Julia washed up and dried her hair. Washing away the sticky sweat from her whole body, she felt refreshed for the first time in a long while.

After falling ill once, her body felt far more energetic than it had in the Duchy of Kashimir, as if it had shaken off all the bad energy that had built up.

Julia thought that perhaps her inner excitement had affected her physical condition.

For the time being, she planned to stay indoors. She would put off walks and meetings with Lily, remain in the townhouse dressed to receive guests, and wait for Saul Oetz to come.

Her heart thumped as if it had forgotten her age. She had never expected, not even in her dreams, that she would meet him again.

And yet—look at this. She was waiting for Saul! A fluttering excitement mixed with impatience stirred within her.

Of course, Saul would come tomorrow at the earliest, and more likely the day after.

She had only asked Lily to deliver the letter yesterday afternoon. Things couldn’t possibly move smoothly just for her convenience.

Still, facts were facts, and excitement was excitement, so she stayed in and waited.

She quickly gave up on trying to read and instead took out her poetry notebook and began scribbling.

Today’s poem felt oddly reckless. She tried swapping out a few words to check the rhythm, but Saul Oetz kept interrupting her thoughts, and she made little progress.

The sandwich the housekeeper brought for lunch was left untouched after just one bite.

The poem wouldn’t come together, and she had no appetite, yet she didn’t feel frustrated at all.

Just then, the housekeeper lightly knocked on the study door to get Julia’s attention.

“Madam, Count Oetz has arrived.”

Julia jumped up from her desk. It was such a sudden movement that even the housekeeper was startled.

“Where—Is he outside?”

“As you instructed, I escorted him to the drawing room.”

Julia checked her face in a hand mirror and picked up the shawl draped over her chair.

Perhaps because she was in a hurry, the shawl wouldn’t sit right. After several clumsy attempts, the housekeeper stepped in to help.

Julia bowed her head slightly in thanks and took a few steps forward. Then she couldn’t hold back and returned to check the mirror one more time before finally leaving the study.

When the archway to the drawing room came into view, Julia stopped. She was rushing too much.

She took a deep breath, her chest lifting, and then opened the door.

In her youth, she had learned how to speak calmly even in trembling moments. Going to tutor interviews had also built her boldness.

But the sight that greeted her made her lose her words.

Saul was holding a bouquet. In size, it wasn’t much different from the one he had brought on his previous visit.

But this one was made up entirely of red roses. Not a single other flower mixed in, not even green leaves—only red existed, as Saul held it out to Julia.

“How are you feeling?”

His face, flushed bright red, looked like part of the bouquet itself.

“Very well. Thank you for the gift.”

Julia accepted the bouquet and invited her guest to sit. The scent of roses rising from her arms made her feel dizzy.

She couldn’t help but say something about it.

“This is the first time I’ve ever received something like this. Truly…”

At those words, Saul slightly raised his gaze and smiled with an arrogant yet satisfied look. His complexion still hadn’t fully returned.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t greet you properly when I came last time. I heard you were worried.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

He stared briefly at the bouquet Julia still hadn’t let go of, then lifted his gaze.

His piercing look made Julia hold her breath.

“More importantly, I’d like you to answer me seriously.”

There was even a sense of resolve in his stiff tone.

“Did you come here wearing that ring as permission regarding our relationship?”

The finger wearing the ring twitched.

Wasn’t this an inappropriate topic to bring up right after sitting down?

By proper etiquette, he should have shared a few old memories first, then asked through metaphors and nuance.

But Saul went straight to the point.

“Calling it permission is a bit odd when you didn’t exactly ask for—”

“Julia!”

Saul snapped. He had meant to ease the tension, but it had been the wrong thing to say.

He stared at her intently, urging her for a proper answer.

Julia could no longer keep smiling.

“Yes. It’s permission.”

At her calm reply, Saul’s eyes reddened. Tears welled up halfway.

He hastily wiped them away, but moisture gathered again and finally spilled over.

At that point, Saul gave up trying to control his tears. Instead, he stood up and pulled Julia’s head into his arms with trembling hands.

“At last…”

Holding her, his body shook. He was silently sobbing.

Feeling the intermittent trembling, Julia thought about the decades they had spent apart.

She had always painted her life with all her strength—coloring it with love, happiness, and fulfillment.

Parting with a lover was a devastating event, but it didn’t mean life was over. After all, a life without pain was only a mirage.

She knew how to use misfortune and hardship as shadows to make everything around them shine more brightly.

So that at the moment of death, she could reflect that although it had been difficult at times, it was, overall, a good life.

Even the shadow painted at the center had been beautiful…

Rose petals brushed against her wrist.

When she inhaled, a similar scent came from Saul’s embrace. Julia relaxed and rested her head against his arm.

From now on, every memory related to Saul Oetz would lead to this moment—to being held in the arms of a man who smelled of roses.

Julia realized that there was no longer any shadow at the center of her painting. It had been painted over with vivid red roses.

Growing older had its advantages.

She savored that realization, immersed in the scent of roses.

 

 

 

*****

 

 

 

It took some time for Saul to calm down.

When he finally stopped crying, Julia asked the housekeeper for a damp towel.

She gave Saul space to wipe his face, while she went to the kitchen and arranged the bouquet in a new vase.

She moved leisurely, considering the possibility that Saul might burst into tears again while caught in the afterglow.

In their school days, Saul Oetz had been an arrogant bundle of pride, someone who judged value carefully and only dealt with what benefited him.

At the same time, he also had a sensitive side and would sometimes cry in secret.

Most of the time, it happened when his anger exploded or his pride was shattered—but either way, Julia believed Saul was far more emotional than he appeared.

When she returned with the vase, Saul was sitting with his legs crossed, as if nothing had happened.

He wore a stern, high-handed expression while alone in the drawing room. Unfortunately, the swelling around his eyes had reached its peak, stripping him of any dignity.

‘What pride is he even trying to protect?’

Just as she was about to laugh at his unchanged nature, Saul stood up and took the vase from her.

Placing it in the center of the table, he said,

“Then let’s move straight to discussion. We need to hurry. We’ve wasted too much time because of someone.”

How had a man so skilled in noble speech ended up speaking so bluntly?

With no time even to sit, the discussion began immediately, and Julia finally burst out laughing.

“Don’t laugh, Julia. I have no intention of dragging my feet. How old do you think we are? There’s a mountain of things we can do together.”

Saul said firmly.

Then he began laying out the list of dreams he had kept buried all this time.