Heavy Rain Chapter 36

It wasn’t a matter of whether he had grasped the fellow’s personality or not. It bothered him that the Butler had answered “I’m not sure” to the question of whether there had been time to go out and obtain this medicine bottle. Every time he had been asked if the fellow had eaten, there had never been a prompt answer. It was his role to grasp every single movement of a guest and to pay attention.

But why was it that he always remained ignorant?

“Assign security to Jin. And, detain all of the servants.”

“…Are you saying everyone, sir?”

The secretary had asked what to do, but Lyle’s command was sudden. To detain all of the servants, no less. As the mansion was massive, a large number of employees resided there.

Furthermore, the word ‘everyone’ included even the Butler, who had just brought the decisive evidence.

“Yes.”

Even at the secretary’s follow-up question, Lyle calmly indicated his affirmation. The secretary, who had initially bowed his head and begun contacting the external security team, suddenly snapped his head up again. Lyle’s command did not end there.

“…And investigate.”

“What shall I investigate?”

Lyle’s gaze, which had been fixed on the glass bottle all along, finally rose toward the secretary. He had thought he was looking at the glass bottle expressionlessly, but that was an illusion. Seeing the savage look in his eyes directed at him, the secretary swallowed hard without realizing it.

He felt a premonition that something big was about to happen.

“Everything that has happened since Jin came to this house.”

Lyle realized he was missing something fundamental. Unable to even marshal his pheromones, he only now dismally admitted it. That the things he had taken for granted like breathing, never even doubting them, had continuously not been normal.

It was a truly belated realization.

‘Ah, how on earth would I know about a contract made with some high-and-mighty person? Anyway, I’m telling you, I didn’t receive an order to pull the car out today!’

“… .”

Lyle’s gaze could not leave the video playing on the work tablet.

The space used as a garage was adjacent to the high wall encircling the mansion. There were CCTVs on the wall for surveillance, but most of the servants did not know that they also recorded audio.

For the first time in a very long while, Lyle had to call the security team in charge of the mansion’s internal and external video. It was the first time in 14 years, since the day he confirmed the circumstances of his parents’ death, that he had summoned them to the mansion.

Since the security team and the guard team were intentionally separated, all surveillance data from the mansion was transmitted to the security team at the Vermouth headquarters. This was a measure taken by the previous generation due to concerns that the mansion’s guard team might be bribed by someone to manipulate data. Of course, Lyle knew that was merely an excuse and was the result of his father’s paranoia flaring up.

The security team leader, who back then had to pull up the footage of his parents dying to show the young Lyle, now had graying hair.

As he entered the study, he could not hide an expression that suggested this mansion was somehow ominous. Did the heartless, towering walls not force him to show this young master a terrible scene every time?

‘Fuck, for a brat who’s selling his body, you act damn stiff.’

Seeing Haejin standing before the individual who appeared to be the driver, Lyle thought he looked very small. Even after hearing such absurd verbal abuse, the fellow retreated from the video without being able to offer any response.

For a long time after that, in the videos from similar time slots, Haejin appeared in various places. However, even just looking at the scenes caught briefly in the corner of the screen, there was not a single person who treated Haejin properly.

The person he sought while dragging his injured leg was obvious. He must have sought the Butler to claim his rights as specified in the contract.

His black hair fluttered in the video until sunset. It was a truly strange thing. To think he could not find the Butler, who should always be residing in the mansion, for such a long time.

Officially, all servants currently could not leave work due to an important event at the mansion. The servants, all detained in the massive party hall, only now realized the situation and protested fiercely, but Lyle was adamant. The more he checked the videos, the firmer that resolve became.

It looked like everyone was in on it together. The face of one servant who was looking at the pained fellow while snickering would not leave his mind.

Thanks to this, not only the mansion but also the work at the headquarters was paralyzed, but he did not care. He didn’t know what this goddamn emotion was, but he felt as if he would suffocate and die right now if he couldn’t find a path. He occasionally had the realization that his actions were somewhat excessively fierce, but it could not change Lyle’s will for the time being.

Even while being swallowed by a tidal wave of emotions, he could not take his eyes off the Haejin in the video.

“…When was that?”

“It was three days before Mr. Bright’s parents passed away. It was the last scheduled visit date before the previous contract ended.”

“… .”

Lyle’s eyes trembled quietly as he watched the video. The secretary, who likewise could not hide his dejection, added.

“…Upon checking, he ended up not being able to go to the hospital that day. It is a breach of contract on our part.”

“… .”

‘Is today the day specified in the contract?’

It was two days before his parents died that Lyle had asked while roughly pulling Haejin, who had been brought back to the mansion as if captured. Lyle only now witnessed the reason why the fellow had been wandering the city on his own without a driver that day.

‘Then what’s the problem?’

And also the expression the fellow wore behind the words he had uttered while knowing nothing.

Come to think of it, something strange had happened even when he visited Haejin again, who was slumped in a shabby motel. This was because Haejin back then had clearly said that Lyle had violated the ‘obligations’ of the contract. At the time, he had merely considered it a slip of the tongue, but in reality, there was more than one contract that the mansion side had violated.

It was difficult to even estimate how many sins had been committed in relation to the death of the fellow’s parents. He needed to know that to attempt compensation or anything else.

Lyle could not settle his mind, which had been a mess for a while. If a problem occurred, he solved it. That was his long-standing habit and ability. However, for this time only, he could not find a clear way at all.

With trembling hands, Lyle replayed the video of the driver verbally abusing Haejin. The sight of him resisting even a little, rather than being detached as he was now, made him seem alive.

To the fellow, his family must have been that precious. They must have been people so desperate that he couldn’t even talk back strongly for fear of disadvantages, even while enduring such insults.

How on earth was he to measure the sin of trampling all of that?

“What is Jin doing?”

While checking the events that had occurred at the mansion, Lyle asked sporadically and convulsively. Having spent a rough heat cycle with Lyle unintentionally, Haejin’s physical condition was in a terrible state. Since he hadn’t been in a healthy state to begin with, he had simply collapsed.

In preparation for the possibility of him waking up, a doctor, not wearing a gown, was staying over to look after him. Since the internal pain would be severe, the doctor said it was better for him to sleep with the help of sleeping pills. It was a state where a needle couldn’t be inserted unless he was asleep anyway. Even for nutritional supplementation, Haejin had to keep his eyes closed all along.

“As a result of checking just now, they say he is still sleeping.”

It was the expected answer. However, the secretary confirmed that state to Lyle every time without a single sign of annoyance.

Lyle, unable to hide his dismal expression, took the video handed over by the security team leader who had been watching his mood. It seemed he had compiled the videos where Haejin was caught on CCTV. The security team leader did not rashly ask who the person in this tracking video was.

The mansion was a place so old it was treated as an urban cultural heritage. Therefore, there were no CCTVs inside, except for important locations. Instead, the Vermouth family was using the servants as eyes.

It was an outdated method that didn’t fit the times, but Lyle had intentionally neglected it. To be precise, he never thought a reason would arise to show such interest in the internal affairs of the mansion. Everything important to him was at the company building or the penthouse anyway.

While roughly swiping through the videos the security team leader had handed over, Lyle suddenly discovered something strange.

What is this?