Luca sat opposite from a maid who had her shoulders slumped and her head lowered, as if she didn't want to look at him.

They'd been in that small, dim room for almost half an hour.

For half an hour, Luca had been questioning her about Hera and had received no response.

Luca, on the other hand, was aware of her behavior. Several times, the maid would raise her head and open her mouth as if she wanted to answer the question, but then quickly closed her mouth and lowered her head again, when she seemed to remember something.

“You're silent doesn't mean you don't want to answer?” Luca's eyebrows shot up high at the maid's reaction to his question this time. “Someone doesn't want you to tell me about Hera?”

The maid bit her lip, considered something, before raising her head again then nodded slowly.

“Only about Hera?”

The maid nodded again.

Luca's gaze suddenly narrowed sharply, he had no idea how to feel after seeing that response. 

Luca felt as though he was being suffocated. Who wouldn't want him to know everything there is to know about his daughter? Who had the audacity to keep everything about Hera hidden from him?

As Luca's face deteriorated, the maid in front of him shrank in fright and bit her lips harder.

“Who is it, exactly?” His voice sounded choked. Luca breathed deeply, attempting to contain the growing fury in his chest. “If you can't tell me about Hera, what about that person? You also won't be able to tell me anything about that person, is that it?”

The maid nodded slowly once again, then became silent for a few moments. If she could actually get Duke to figure everything out on his own with just this kind of response, she might be fine because she didn't say it directly, right?

Luca also realized that. He sighed heavily, not believing that he had to make guesswork just to find out what had happened to his daughter all this time.

“Was it also because of that person that all of you fled?” Luca proceeded with his questioning.

One nodded.

“Why?”

Silence.

“Be-because we're sca-scared.” The maid's body trembled as she struggled to speak. “We're afraid that the same thing that happened to Ume and Sir Nix will happen to us.”

“Sir Nix?” Luca certainly knew about that knight. He was the only knight Luca had assigned to Hera long ago. But then Nix vanished a few years ago. Even his family had no idea where he was.

“What happened to Nix?”

The maid leaned forward, her face agitated while her eyes reddened. “We can't even afford to bury him properly. There was nothing left... But a clump of blood and flesh…” Her whole body began to heat up as she gagged.

The statement makes Luca frown. “What actually happened to Nix?”

“... He made a mistake and said something he shouldn't have.” The maid's voice became quieter.

“Something about Hera?”

A second nod.

Luca's frown deepened. He never expected it to be this complicated. “How did he... pass away?”

“I--We don't know. He stood in front of us for a split second before blood splattered all over the place, leaving a lump of flesh where he stood.”

That kind of death was something Luca had read about a long time ago. He read about what happened hundreds of years ago because of that contract, about the destruction of a kingdom.

“Did he sign a contract with... that person?”

A third nod.

“Did all of you sign a contract with that person as well?”

The fourth nod to Luca appeared to be frantic.

Luca nodded in understanding. No wonder they were afraid to say anything despite Killian's torture and interrogation this week; that person had bound them to say nothing about Hera with a blood contract.

“What is a blood contract?” The maid sat languidly in her chair. She seems to have picked up on Luca's last words that he accidentally said. 

The maid remembered the girl mentioning blood contracts before she lost consciousness after forcibly dripping her blood on a piece of paper.

“A contract that should never exist in this world. All of you were really unlucky to encounter someone who could make that contract. Are you aware of your contract's end date?”

The maid shook her head, then her movements stopped. “For the rest of our lives.” Her gaze at Luca became blank as she murmured.

“Tsk…” Luca fell silent. What had been going on in the eastern side of the mansion all this time? How did Hera come across such a dangerous person?

Luca had a lot of questions about that person in his mind.

Even though Zane has just recently been Hera's guardian, if this person has always been with Hera for a long time, Zane must be aware of them.

Luca knew that the guardians would pay attention to the person they wanted before entering into a contract with them.

That man, on the other hand, did not issue any warnings concerning that person to them.

Luca's pupils dilated.

“Was that person always with Hera?”

The maid was still staring at Luca with a blank gaze. In the midst of panic and fear for her life, the maid seems to lose her mind.

“Why is she tormenting us like this? We didn't harm her in any way. We never mistreated her. Ume was the one who started the rumors about her. Why is it that this is happening to me?”

Her words sounded chaotic. The corners of her lips started to bleed.

The maid then rubbed her nose as she felt something dripping from it, her face pale at the sight of her blood-stained hands.

“Arrghh... Please stop this. I am scared.” The maid pleaded and cried, but instead of tears, blood poured out of her eyes.

Then her panic turned to rage.

The maid chuckled and then burst out laughing. What was there left to hide from the Duke about that girl? She, too, would pass away soon, just like Nix.

Luca could only watch the maid gradually calm down. The smile on her bloodied face made her look like a lunatic.

“Poor Duke. There is no one on that wicked girl's side. That blood contract, I'm not sure where she obtained it.” With a mocking look on her face, she tilted her head. “I've always wondered if Hera would still be so cruel if you hadn't abandoned her.”

… 

By the time the guards entered the interrogation room, only Luca, who was covered in blood, was sitting across from a pile of lumps of flesh on the chair.

The clean little room became bloody red with a distinct stench of blood.

Luca hasn't said anything since he walked out of the room after telling them to bury the lump of flesh and clean the room before returning to his study. He no longer interrogated the other three maids.

Luca's mind was blank.

Everything is absurd. How could Hera get a blood contract that was lost hundreds of years ago? What was she thinking when she made her servants sign that blood contract?

The more he wanted to learn about Hera, the more bewildered he became about his daughter.

Who to believe? Luca doesn't know.

“Father... I came to say my farewell.”

Lyonnel made his way into Luca's office. He frowned when he sensed the dark air in the room but kept his mouth shut until he was in front of Luca.

“Lyon... You will meet Hera later. Let Shie keep an eye on the girl without being noticed.”

“...” Lyonnel wanted to ask why, but his father had already waved his hand, telling him to leave the room immediately.

“I understand, father.”

Lyonnel stood outside Luca's study, staring down at the black cat who leapt into his arms without hesitation.

He caressed the cat as he walked away. “You'll have to transform into a different form while keeping an eye on my younger sister. She's allergic to cats.”

Shie just purred in response to Lyonnel's words before he slowly fell asleep in his master's arms.