It Seems Like The Infamous Trash Can is Right Here! - Chapter 161
From that day on, Halid began showing up every day like Ardin and Dantère.
Once Halid joined in, the other two, sensing a crisis, clung to the mansion for even longer hours. At times, they even dragged along their work, keeping each other in check.
One morning, I ran into Vivian in the dining room.
“Good morning, Vivian.”
“No, Sasha… I haven’t slept a wink….”
Truthfully, neither had I. But I kept that to myself.
‘Not really something to compare.’
Lionel was the sort of man who would stop immediately if I truly refused. Which meant half the reason I hadn’t slept until morning was my responsibility too.
But Vivian? That was another matter.
Recalling the explicit scenes in A Night of Entwined Serpents, there wasn’t a single male lead who would ease up for her sake.
‘And three of them… Insane. Absolutely insane.’
Watching Vivian collapse weakly over the table stirred a pang of pity, so I breathed divine power into her for the first time in a while.
While I couldn’t restore her stamina, but the muscle aches and the red marks scattered over her skin would at least vanish.
“Hah… Thank you. Sasha, I only have you….”
I could feel how deeply grateful she was. After that, whenever I came across her, I offered divine healing each time.
The ashen dust masses kept appearing afterward.
Whenever they did, I immediately called for Lionel, eradicating them under his watch. Inevitably, Ardin caught sight of it as well.
Once divine power seeped in, others could see it too, and the horrible screams it let out made it impossible to go unnoticed.
“I’ve never seen a creature with such hideous energy. It’s similar to what beasts possess, and yet different.”
His emerald eyes glittering, Ardin prowled the mansion every day, waiting for it to appear again. Even Vivian was pushed aside a little.
Half an excuse, perhaps, but his fascination with the strange lifeform was real.
And his persistence bore fruit. Borrowing a relic said to have once been used for sealing demons, he succeeded in capturing one specimen.
After that, the ashen dust masses stopped appearing in the mansion.
Ardin regretted only managing to obtain a single sample, but that was none of my concern.
Among all the chaotic days of wedding preparations set for this month, the most shocking was the day Madam Charlene came to visit the mansion.
They say geniuses are often eccentric, but Charlene was… a woman brimming with madness.
She seemed taken with Vivian and me, so opposite in image. After taking our measurements, she wrung every drop of strength out of us.
That day, I felt a fierce camaraderie with Vivian.
But with Lionel… It was the first time I felt betrayed.
While I tried on what must have been countless gowns, Lionel, who usually hovered around the toilette room with his separation anxiety, ended up seized by Madam Charlene. In the middle of choosing fabric for the third suit, he slipped away, claiming he had an urgent meeting.
I knew it wasn’t a lie. And yet…!
Betrayal was betrayal!
So that night, I piled the stories of the second and third sisters from Five Sisters Under the Blue Roof on the bed.
“Serenia, what is all this…?”
He surely wasn’t asking out of ignorance. He himself had ordered an enormous set of books, including the missing middle volumes of that series, when refurbishing the main library.
“I’m going to read novels tonight.”
“All of these… at once?”
“Yes.”
I looked at him as though wondering what the problem was.
He studied my face intently before widening his eyes.
“You’re angry.”
