When did it start?
When she couldn’t sleep.
By the way, is this an illusion? Or a dream?
It doesn’t matter.
Julia decided to clear her mind of complicated thoughts.
‘It was since then… Since I prayed…’
The orphanage Julia was sent to after losing her parents was, to say the least, not a good facility.
Meals were always cold, hard bread or porridge made from soggy rice.
In winter, the dormitory was cold with drafts, and in summer, it was sweltering hot.
Even worse, from the age they could run, children were made to work constantly.
At the orphanage, such a life was taken for granted.
They lived believing the director’s words that this was much better than being thrown out on the streets.
They grew up with threats that they would be sold as sl*ves and used as test subjects by the Vermont family if they didn’t behave.
The only thing that kept them going were the friends who held their hands and stood by their side.
Charlotte. And Yuri.
At first, they probably fought and argued.
But the three of them, sharing similar pains at the same age, quickly became close, always staying together wherever they went.
‘When we leave this orphanage, let’s live together.’
‘Let’s open a small shop and work hard together.’
They endured with the hope of such a promise that had no guarantee.
‘Everything will be fine once we leave the orphanage.’
‘We are only putting up with this place because we are young and powerless now.’
They secretly prepared for independence, planning to give the director a satisfying notice and leave together. They even dreamed of such a petty revenge.
‘The church’s support has dwindled, and it’s becoming difficult to operate. I’ll ask someone I know to send you to a good place. Remember the grace of feeding and raising you little worms all this time. Be grateful.’
But all those dreams were shattered.
Before they even attempted to graduate, sl*ve traders came.
The director had secretly sold the children to them without the church’s knowledge.
Julia and the children, who were once free, became slaves overnight.
Yuri attempted to escape but was quickly caught.
On the night Julia heard Yuri being beaten and told they had seen many like him before, she cried and prayed to the heavens.
‘Angel, can you hear me? If you haven’t abandoned us yet, please help us a little. Give me the strength. The strength to overcome this ordeal…’
Yes. It was since that day.
From that day on, instead of the strength she had desperately wished for, Julia gained a severe insomnia.
Its true nature was the relentless voices she heard.
At first, it sounded like the buzzing of small insects.
Only a bit bothersome if noticed, not enough to be a significant issue.
But as days went by, the voices grew louder and more numerous.
Incomprehensible voices whispered incessantly, heard even if she covered her ears, never stopping no matter how much she screamed for them to stop.
If she immersed herself in something, she could forget them for a while.
But the moment her concentration broke, the tormenting time resumed without fail.
The biggest problem was that these voices continued even when she tried to sleep.
What started as the sound of nature grew louder, eventually preventing her from sleeping at all.
At some point, she couldn’t sleep a wink.
Naturally, her vigilance increased, and irritability grew.
‘Ah, I shouldn’t have gotten mad at Yuri. I might never see him again…’
Run away by yourself.
Why bother taking us along and increasing the chances of getting caught?
She snapped at Yuri and pushed him away.
Looking back now, she regretted it.
There was no need to speak so hurtfully…
It was all because of those damn voices.
Without those maddening voices,
Without this sanity-shattering torture…
Wait. Huh? What?
‘Why can’t I hear any voices now?’
Weird.
Now there’s nothing but peace, no voices persistently tormenting Julia.
So this is what life without those voices is like.
A smile spread on her face at the pleasant tranquility and peace she had thought she had forgotten long ago.
There was also this warmth against her cheek.
And the coziness…
How long has it been?
This large, warm hand felt just like the hand of her father who passed away when she was young…
“How long do you plan to sleep?”
“Huh?”
What’s this voice?
Suddenly, she felt very unpleasant.
The moment she realized who the voice belonged to, goosebumps rose all over her body and she jumped up involuntarily.
“Ugh!?”
Thump!
Julia’s body rolled to the side, and as the sense of falling overwhelmed her, her eyes snapped open.
Falling!?
After rolling once, she barely stopped and raised her head in anger.
She was clearly about to vent all the pent-up frustration at once.
“What are you doing? Are you challenging me to a staring contest?”
“No. Ah…”
As soon as Julia faced Aslan, who closed the book in his hand with a snap, all her emotions vanished.
Why?
She clearly disliked him.
He was a scheming, bad person.
It wasn’t that she lacked the energy to get angry; it felt like all her anger had completely disappeared.
No, she didn’t even feel tired.
There was no drowsiness making her eyes droop.
What is this?
Did she sleep soundly?
Julia looked around in confusion for about three seconds.
‘No way?’
The rising sun.
Aslan’s shirt, heavily wrinkled as if he had been pressed down for a long time.
And the distinct drool mark on Aslan’s thigh.
Putting all these clues together, Julia’s face flushed a deep crimson.
“Ah! Ahhh… No way!”
“Be quiet in the library. You’ll spit. Are you trying to turn my prized books into a mold farm?”
“You! What did you do to my body!?”
“Judging by your voice, it seems you slept well. If you have nothing to do, go wash up and prepare for breakfast.”
Aslan, familiar with Julia’s outburst, turned his back on her indifferently.
Julia growled, trying to get angry again, but quickly calmed down.
Thinking back, the last time she remembered before falling asleep was before the sun had set.
But now the sun was rising, which meant she had been sleeping for at least 12 hours.
So, she was sleeping on Aslan’s thigh without him moving for over 12 hours?
As this realization dawned on her, Julia’s face turned even redder, looking ready to explode.
“I-I! How many hours did I sleep!?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t count. I just tossed you off when my leg started to go numb.”
“You… How did you do it? How did you stop the voices ringing in my head?”
“How should I know? Ask those voices.”
“Hey!”
“I’m not joking. Focus on those voices. Don’t just consider it a simple tinnitus; try to communicate with it. Learning to control mana would be the first step.”
His tone was unusually serious.
Julia flinched momentarily.
It was as if he knew something about these voices.
“Why should I?”
“So you can be free from insomnia. Unless you want to sleep every night with my hand on your cheek like tonight.”
“What!?”
“If not, quickly learn to control it. I hate wasting my precious time because of you.”
The door closed with a bang.
The only thing left in the library was Julia, her face red with anger and embarrassment.
Did she really put that man’s hand on her cheek by herself?
All the evidence and circumstances indicated Aslan was telling the truth.
She had understood it with her head long ago, but Julia’s heart had not yet accepted it.
“Bastard. Bastard…”
Tears welled up in Julia’s eyes as she picked up a book from the stack.
It was a book on the basics of mana handling.
To control the voices that had started again as soon as Aslan left, she needed to learn to control mana first.
Assuming Aslan was telling the truth…
“I hate it. I never want to sleep in that man’s arms again…”
Recalling the sensation of his touch on her cheek, Julia shuddered.
She needed to learn to handle mana as soon as possible.
She couldn’t bear to sleep near him again.
Never again…
“Ugh.”
Snap.
The pencil in Julia’s hand broke with a soft crack.
***
An investigation. An investigation is needed.
I’ve spent too much time over the past couple of days focusing on Charlotte and Julia.
For now, Charlotte seems interested in Sylvia’s swordsmanship training.
Julia seems to have a strong motivation to study magic. Both seem to be on a somewhat stable path.
The real problem now is with the Vermont family.
I still haven’t fully grasped what I know and don’t know about Aslan and this family.
Even though I played through the first chapter of the game, the parts revealed in the story are just a fraction.
If I dig deeper, countless unknowns will emerge.
‘I need to find out how many people know about Aslan’s secret.’
The most critical secret Aslan holds is his relationship with the evil god Kali.
If it were just a one-sided affection, I could claim it’s unfair.
But in reality, he has a contract with Kali.
If someone reports this to the imperial family, I could be on my way to the guillotine immediately.
After subtly probing each employee, it turned out no one knew about the contract.
Except for one person, Sylvia.
‘Scary as hell.’
She holds my weakness of the contract with the evil god and has the strength and courage to tear off the stigma and escape anytime.
Frankly, it wouldn’t be surprising if she betrayed Vermont right now and stabbed me to death.
The ones currently stopping Sylvia are none other than Charlotte and Julia.
After I die, those kids, who will automatically fall into the hands of my sister Irene, are the lifelines keeping Sylvia from killing me.
I should be grateful that Sylvia likes the children.
But when I see how she treats Charlotte, she doesn’t seem to like her that much…
‘I found out something else interesting.’
I met each employee one by one and used “Affection”.
For those with whom I don’t have a deep relationship, the profile only contained information that could be discerned from their appearance.
However, the affection level was consistently displayed.
As expected, most had affection levels deep in the negative.
However, a very few had positive affection levels or recorded quite high values.
Liking Aslan, who is practically the embodiment of all evil?
What could that mean?
Of course, it means those guys are evil too.
‘List of people to filter out completed.’
Thanks to this, I could record the ones to be dealt with beforehand.
In the final part of Chapter 1, I felt the Vermont family collapsed too suddenly.
It was clear that parasites that had been festering inside took the opportunity to loot and flee, accelerating the collapse.
These guys need to be dealt with all at once when the opportunity arises.
‘But this amount of paperwork…’
Setting that aside for now, there is a mountain of tasks Aslan has neglected.
With the count dead, theoretically, his son should inherit the title and handle the documents, but Aslan has been holed up in the library…
There’s no way I can finish all this in one night.
‘If left like this, it wouldn’t be surprising if the enforcers come to put red stickers on everything tomorrow.’
At the very least, since I have possessed this body, I can’t let the Vermont family go bankrupt.
I need to extinguish urgent fires like paying off immediate debts and overdue trade payments right now.
Just as I sighed and was about to start the work…
“Who is it?”
“…It’s me.”
“What’s the matter, at this hour?”
“I still can’t sleep alone… Can you lend me a hand…?”
The door creaked open.
Julia, hugging a pillow tightly, entered the study.
