Late at night.
Olivia, who returned to her room on Ricardo's back, had trouble falling asleep.
Even if you raise the pillow high.
Even if you turn your body towards the window.
Even if you lie face down with your forehead buried in the pillow.
I couldn't sleep, and my eyes were wide open.
Olivia rested her chin on the pillow and muttered like a beggar.
“I’m tired… but I’m not sleepy.”
The scars I'd seen in Ricardo's room earlier kept flashing before my eyes. The hideously disfigured skin and the blackened arm. It wasn't a scene I could easily forget, even if I tried.
'It was so gross.'
I felt uneasy because Ricardo's faint smile kept coming to my mind.
Since ancient times, sleep has been said to be achieved only when the body and mind are at peace.
If I keep feeling this gloomy, I won't be able to sleep, and I'll probably stay up all night until the sun comes up this morning.
Olivia sighed.
Olivia muttered softly, her face sullen, with only one light on on the nightstand next to her bed.
“I felt good for three days….”
It's so noisy now.
*
3 days ago.
Olivia felt happy every time she looked at the calendar.
[☆September 21st☆]
*Fool Butler's Birthday!
*Think about a birthday present!
*Give me a surprise!
Olivia looked forward to the birthday party of her foolish butler, who always forgot her own birthday. It wasn't a party for everyone, just the two of them, but it was the first birthday she'd ever attended to since her leg injury, so she was thrilled.
Ricardo didn't really care about his birthday, which only came once a year.
-It's your birthday? Hey, why bother with something like that? Just have a bowl of seaweed soup and call it a day.
-Seaweed soup?
-It's a soup made with grass.
-I don't think it will taste good.
Last year and the year before, right before my birthday ended, I thought, "Oh, right. Today is my birthday, right?" and then I went into the kitchen alone and ate seaweed soup and finished it.
I thought it would be the same this year too.
I wanted to let the butler, who didn't celebrate his own birthday but burned his soul on mine, know how much I looked forward to and enjoyed my birthday.
So Olivia prepared a surprise.
I read it in a book.
From a philosophy book titled [Father, you shouldn't do this!]
Ricardo's beloved book, filled with worldly truths and insights, is filled with helpful insights for life, he said.
When I asked him to look at it together, he colored half of the book in black pen and handed it to me, but the contents inside were the real deal.
Adultery and love fights.
How to hit the cheek without it hurting less.
And how to get rid of a wagging fox.
Ricardo's favorite book, full of helpful information for life.
Page 134 of them.
It goes into detail about how to create unforgettable memories.
-My father was hiding in my closet.
The rest of the story was unknown because Ricardo had highlighted it with a black pen, but as an intellectual who reads a lot of books, I could roughly guess what followed.
The daughter-in-law must have loved her father-in-law's surprises. Every time he appeared, her face would turn red.
Inspired by this, I planned a surprise party for Ricardo.
I worked really hard for three days.
Because I wanted to make tea.
I wanted to ask him what day September 21st was, and I barely held back the urge to see if he would like the gift Ricardo had prepared.
If you ask right away, "Do you like this?", it's obvious that they'll notice.
When I received the gift I'd ordered from my maid, a smile never left my face. I forgot Yuria's words about her leg not being curable and prepared Ricardo's birthday with all my heart.
The birthday came quickly.
While Ricardo went to practice his sword, he loaded himself onto a tray pulled by a maid.
The tray was dented, unable to support my feather-like weight, but I figured the butler would forgive me, since it was cheap.
The butler's room, which we arrived at after many twists and turns, was shabbier than we had expected.
Ricardo renovated a warehouse that once housed outdated dresses into a room. The conditions were poor, with no insulation or soundproofing.
There are no interior decoration items either.
A simple room without any luxuries.
I felt depressed in a room that was created just for the purpose of hearing my voice.
A book spread open on the desk caught my eye.
A medical book that is covered in fingerprints.
Next to it was a notebook with a lot of writing on it.
[On neurology.
*Once severed, nerves are difficult to regenerate, especially in the central nervous system…
This isn't it either.
I'll have to look for other books.
[About rehabilitation.
*Rehabilitation is a miracle. If you persevere, you can hope for a miracle someday…]
Let's do it once a week.
Just enough so that the young lady doesn't feel tired.
A thick notebook, densely organized in illegible handwriting, sat on the desk. Olivia crumpled the wrapped gift and hugged it tightly.
The butler who built a wall around his studies. The thought of Ricardo, who used to bury his forehead in the desk whenever he opened a book at the academy, sitting at this narrow desk studying made me feel uneasy.
I should have prepared a better gift.
Instead of the scarf and gloves sold at the market, I should have bought a tie from the tailor shop frequented by noblemen… Of course, the gold coins saved in my piggy bank weren't enough to buy just one such small tie, but Olivia kept feeling a lingering regret, so she crumpled the gift in her hand.
Time passes, the maid leaves for work and Ricardo returns to his room.
Olivia held her breath in the closet.
Squeak. With the sound of the door opening, a sweaty Ricardo opened the door and came in.
'Ha... This is hard.'
With a sigh, Ricardo placed the sword on his waist next to the chair and unbuttoned his shirt without hesitation.
Olivia clenched her fists at the sight of Ricardo exposing his bare skin, not even knowing she was in the room.
-...It's so manly.
Forgetting her emotional turmoil for a moment, Olivia covered her mouth with her hand as she focused on the surprise party.
-You don't know I'm here.
Stupid Ricardo.
You'll be surprised when it appears in your closet!
'I want to tease you quickly. Quickly. I want to tease you quickly.'
Ricardo slowly undressed. He unbuttoned the front of his sweat-soaked shirt, revealing his razor-sharp abs. Gulp. I swallowed involuntarily.
Olivia's face was hot. Unsure where to look, she covered her eyes with her hands, but her fingers remained open.
'eww…!'
It would be difficult if you took off your pants too.
I feel like my nose is going to burst.
Olivia's face turned red as if she was going to burst, and she was nervous.
'If you feel like taking off your pants, just leave.'
It was Olivia who spread her fingers and peeked at the butler's body.
Ricardo unbuttoned his shirt sleeves and began to take off his sweat-soaked shirt.
Gulp. I swallowed.
Olivia focused her eyes, thinking that Ricardo would understand, since this was a surprise party and not peeking.
I was speechless when I saw Ricardo's white bandages slowly being revealed.
'Huh?'
There was a bandage.
A bandage wrapped tightly around the body inside the clothes.
This isn't a battlefield.
Ricardo stood before me, half of his body wrapped in white bandages.
'what?'
A moment of anxiety came over me.
Because I felt something was wrong.
The bandages covering half of his body were strange.
The part that was clearly talking to me was the arm, so I wondered why the bandage was wrapped so widely.
"Is that a tattoo? No, Ricardo said he only had tattoos on his arms."
'It's probably nothing. He just bandaged it to cover up the tattoo.'
I tried hard to deny it.
Even though he knew what was behind the bandage, he was denying the truth.
I could guess it after seeing the blue window last time. I thought I was mentally prepared.
I made plans to ask and talk to Ricardo while he was on vacation.
'Ricardo clearly said he wasn't hurt.'
It seemed like my heart wasn't ready yet.
I looked at Ricardo, his hands trembling. Ricardo was unwrapping the bandages wrapped around his body.
As Ricardo looks in the mirror and removes the bandage, his hidden wounds slowly reveal themselves before his eyes.
Thump. Tears fell down my cheeks.
"Ah... no!"
[See Ricardo's Secret. 1/1]
'No...! Ricardo definitely. Definitely. Did it!'
He threw a pointless tantrum.
He denied it again and again, saying that it couldn't be happening, that it couldn't be happening, that his rotting right arm had nothing to do with him.
But the clear blue window in front of him... the damn blue window caught him as he ran away.
'That's ridiculous.'
The words Yuria had said flashed through my mind.
-Huh? Didn't you say it was a wound caused by black magic going wild?
-that's right.
-But why is it so clean…? This doesn't make sense.
-You say that doesn't make sense?
-Most black magic attacks fail. Either your mana circuits burn out on the spot, killing you instantly, or your flesh slowly dies and eats away at your body. But Olivia is clean, with no necrotic parts, both externally and internally.
He suddenly remembered what Yuria had said as she looked at him with curious eyes.
-It's a miracle. A miracle.
-It would be normal if the leg were rotten.
-Seeing as how the divine power doesn't work, it's true that he was injured by black magic...
Starting from his chest, a scar that resembled a burn scar appeared. And his right arm had turned black.
It felt like time had stopped.
Dozens of thoughts ran through my mind in those three seconds, and my lips trembled as if they were broken.
That's what Ricardo meant by bark.
It is said to resemble tree bark.
You're talking about that arm.
You said that black, cracked wound was a shell?
Olivia shuddered.
I wish I hadn't known.
I wish I had just been shameless and ignorant.
It was a really bad idea, but Olivia couldn't bring herself to look Ricardo in the face.
I really wish this closet door wouldn't open.
Because I wanted to run away.
I've never felt so resentful of my motionless legs.
The butler's hand came closer and closer.
Olivia said to herself.
'Don't open it.'
'Please don't open it.'
‘Please… I’m not mentally ready yet…’
However, time did not wait for the tender heart, and her eyes met with the butler's bewildered expression.
"Ah... Miss?"
I committed the sin, but Ricardo looks at me as if I had committed the sin.
The first words that came out of Ricardo's flustered mouth made my heart sink.
“Ah… That’s because I fell.”
I thought about it then.
'I'm such a piece of trash.'
***
In the empty room, Olivia looked at the blue window in front of her with empty eyes.
[Q. The secret he's hiding has been revealed]
The day my master, whom I had served for 13 years, collapsed.
Ricardo was there.
No one knows what happened that day.
Only one person
Only her butler knows the truth of that day.
Ricardo has been trying to hide the events of that day for the rest of his life. It's a secret he's been trying to quietly pass over without anyone knowing.
(!) Uncover the secrets of that day.
1. See the secret Ricardo is hiding. (1/1)
2. Touching Ricardo's Hidden Secret (1/1)
〈29th Side Story〉
[You can read 'The Man's Secret'.]
[Would you like to view it?]
Olivia nodded.
"I'll take a look."