The Safety Guidelines of The Duke’s Haunted Castle Chapter 59

Knock, knock.

Still having no idea what was going on, he slowly opened the door.

“You were awake.”

“I’d rather avoid greeting someone while I’m asleep and completely defenseless.”

Nadia Windsor looked up at him with bright, alert eyes. She had apparently been lying on her stomach on the bed, reading a book.

“And when I thought about it, I noticed there was a pattern. You come every Tuesday night. What are you, Cinderella?”

“Cinderella?”

“Oh, you don’t know it? It’s something like that.”

“Then what are you reading?”

“Oh, this? It’s nothing special….”

He slowly approached the bedside.

“If something interests you, it interests me too, my fiancée. And if possible, I’d like it to be something like…”

His straight fingers touched the book.

“A guide on how to make your fiancé happy.”

“W-what are you talking about!”

As if she had realized the meaning behind his words, her pale face quickly turned red like a ripe tomato.

As Edwin quietly watched her, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.

‘That….’

Was that what a human reaction looked like?

When he tried to remember the last time he’d seen something like that, he couldn’t. Had it been at least several decades ago? No, perhaps several centuries….

He had spent so many years simply drifting through life that at some point, he had even stopped counting the days. After that, he had simply continued to live as time passed, chasing only his most basic desires and pleasures.

He was, quite literally, growing old along with this cursed castle.

“Why are you looking at me like that!? I was just reading a book about pegasuses.”

Nadia’s sudden voice finally pulled him out of his thoughts.

His belatedly refocused eyes caught her shaking the thick book as if telling him not to misunderstand.

Seeing that scene… he let out a hollow laugh.

‘Because she is so insignificant that I don’t even feel the need to bother with her.’

Hiding that thought behind a strange smile, he took the book Nadia had been reading from her hands.

“Pegasus? That stupid horse you’re taking care of?”

It was amusing that a mere beast could distinguish between people, but the white pegasus in Edwin’s memories seemed to trust him as though he were its master.

“It seems to follow the one who is around during the day quite well.”

“Exactly. I swear, it’s like a thousand-year love story. Oh, but do you think Geumjok will like you too? Since you’re technically the same person, maybe it won’t be able to tell you apart?”

“Pegasuses are said to be magical creatures rather than ordinary animals. They’re quite intelligent, so it should be able to tell that I’m different from him.”

“Then Bad Mr. Edwin fails the test too.”

“How dare you put me on the same level as you?”

He gave her a mischievous smile as she openly teased him, but inwardly, he thought she wasn’t entirely wrong.

After all, unlike that other Edwin, he didn’t even bother pretending to be a hypocrite.

But perhaps Nadia interpreted his silence differently, because she belatedly added,

“But I don’t think it really matters. Your personalities are a little different, but you’re still the same person, right?”

“The same person? He wouldn’t think so.”

“If you mean that guy….”

“The Edwin you see during the day.”

His next answer came out somewhat indifferently.

“Why? Why wouldn’t he think that?”

“Because he hates me. No, it’s probably closer to disgust.”

Nadia Windsor opened her eyes wide as if she couldn’t understand.

At that moment, his red eyes passed over her round face and flushed cheeks, then her wide golden eyes and fluttering eyelashes.

Life.

Now that he thought about it, the reason she didn’t belong in this place was because she had too much of it.

She was completely different from the fiancées who had come to him over and over again with the same boring expressions.

It was that unmistakable vitality of someone who was alive.

Perhaps that was why he had missed the chance to kill Nadia Windsor.

“If you share the same body, you should know each other better than anyone. Why would he hate you that much?”

Before he could think, an impulsive answer slipped out.

“Because I killed him.”

“What?”

“If there was something I didn’t like, I simply got rid of it.”

Nadia’s expression became serious at his answer.

Edwin, who had never once been judged by another person for what he had done, found himself unconsciously focusing on her small lips.

“So, you’re saying… murder. Hmm. Why?”

“Because he made me want to kill him first.”

Nadia didn’t open her mouth for a while.

Was she afraid?

She looked like she couldn’t even kill an ant, so perhaps the unexpected nature of his crimes had frightened her.

But a few seconds later, her answer was something even he hadn’t expected.

“…I can understand that, actually.”

“What?”

“Now that I think about it, I also wanted to kill the scammer who stole my mom’s retirement money…”

“Retirement money?”

“Ah, no, that’s not what I mean… How should I explain it? Basically, there was a scammer who stole all the money my mom had worked hard to save for decades and ran away. The shock made my mom suddenly get cancer—no, I mean, a serious illness—and our whole family fell apart….”

After a story from her past that he could only understand halfway, her clear eyes looked straight at Edwin.

“Back then, all I could think about was how badly I wanted to kill that scammer if I ever caught him.”

“…….”

“But I didn’t want to go to prison, and if something happened to me, my sister would have to take care of Mom alone, so I held myself back. If there weren’t any laws, I would’ve totally—!”

Her small fist cut through the air.

Edwin was more flustered by the casual sympathy Nadia had shown him than by that silly little gesture.

Besides, her usual behavior was so lighthearted and carefree that he hadn’t realized it, but after hearing her story, he could tell that she had gone through her own share of hardships in life.

“Anyway, everyone can have different opinions. Some people might think that murder is wrong no matter how horrible the crime was, while others might think the criminal should be hung in the town square and have stones thrown at them….”

“…….”

“I don’t think I’ll ever actually do anything myself, but I don’t completely disagree with what you did, either.”

Sympathy.

It was a truly unfamiliar word.

Something he had never thought to receive, or even imagined he could receive.

And yet this woman who had wandered in from the outside dared to sympathize with him.

That clumsy sympathy left an unforgettable mark on Edwin’s hardened heart.

‘Annoying.’

Should he kill her now, before he was shaken any further?

The unfamiliar sensation was so unpleasant that it almost made him nauseous. He stared deeply into Nadia’s eyes.

Apparently, Nadia had come up with another strange thought.

“Don’t misunderstand me! What I mean is, maybe someday that other Edwin will understand too. That’s all I was trying to say. Just because someone else doesn’t understand you doesn’t automatically mean you’re wrong….”

Her voice gradually grew quieter until it faded completely.

At her helpless attitude, the tension in Edwin’s hand finally loosened.

“…I see.”

His gaze slowly lowered.

Toward Nadia’s long, pale neck.

Well, she probably thought that as long as she stayed alert, she wasn’t defenseless.

‘Wrong.’

Even if Nadia were wearing full plate armor, she would probably still be nothing more than defenseless prey to Edwin.

Not long ago, he had really broken that dazzlingly white neck without mercy.

He had hated the gloomy “presence” that kept pretending to be his fiancée, returning again and again despite never having actually been engaged to him.

Until he discovered Nadia, thinking about how to get rid of that “presence” had practically been his daily routine.

Still, it was fortunate.

Because now there was something much more interesting than that…

“Ugh, stop staring at me like a pervert!”

Nadia suddenly crossed her arms over her chest and backed away.

Edwin, who hadn’t been thinking or doing anything in particular, couldn’t hide his baffled expression.

“What does that mean?”

“It’s rude to stare so openly at a stranger’s body!”

“You’re not a stranger.”

She was, after all, a guest invited to the duke’s estate as his official fiancée.

Besides, by this point, her presence had become far too significant to call her an ordinary fiancée.

As Edwin continued thinking, the corners of his mouth suddenly lifted.

“You’re mine, Nadia Windsor.”

She was an interesting existence who brought change to this boring, lifeless place.

Someone who had made his long-dormant curiosity burn brightly again.

And, unbelievably… the only person who had ever dared to tell him that she understood him without fear.

“W-w-w-what kind of ridiculous thing is that supposed to mean!”

Her reaction was disappointingly simple, but somehow, he didn’t mind.

For some strange reason, Edwin didn’t want to extinguish Nadia Windsor’s vitality.

For some strange reason.