At the back of the spacious drawing room was a table in front of a brightly lit window. There were two chairs facing each other, soaked in the sunlight.

***

An hour later, night fell.

Aaron thought for a moment. Citrina seemed to be stuck in the room the duke had assigned to her without much to do.

From what he had heard before, she wasn’t to leave the room unless directed to do something.

‘I want to eat dinner with Citrina. That would be ok, right?’

Aaron stood outside of Citrina’s room for a while, but wound up having dinner alone.

‘But…today dad isn’t here at the house.’

Aaron had quickly caught on that the duke left. This was thanks to the skill he had picked up of reading the environment. So Aaron carefully left his room with a baguette, a wet towel, and a roll of bandages.

Aaron’s pace quickened once he was certain no one else was walking around the annex.

His destination was clear. The duke had a room under the annex that was more like a dungeon.

Aaron ran down the stairs to the dungeon room in a hurry and came to stop at a shabby door.

-squeak-

The ungreased door opened little by little. The neglect was obvious, as there was dust piled up on the hinges.

Aaron staggered through the gap made by the partially opened door.

“…Brother!”

[T.L. Note: Aaron calls Desian “Hyung”, which is the older brother of a boy in Korea]

On a creaky old bed was a boy with a face very similar to Aaron’s, but more serious and mature.

His whole body was covered in blood stains and all emotion seemed drained from him. Aaron acted like he was familiar with this situation. He sat next to the boy and spoke softly.

“Brother, today I met a friend!”

Unlike Aaron, who was rambling excitedly, the other boy remained impassive. This boy, Desian, opened his mouth suddenly.

“Towel.”

Aaron placed the wet towel in his hand. Aaron’s brother wiped the blood off of his body and face with an indifferent face.

“Desian, please don’t get hurt..”

The boy with all of the cuts and bruises on his body was the twin brother of the male lead Aaron Pietro and the villain of the novel, Desian Pietro. Aaron’s eyes darted around the wounds, restless.  However, Desian did not care about the stinging pain from wiping his wounds.

“Is there anything you want to say?”

Desian asked indifferently. As he continued to clean off the wounds, the bleeding slowed. Aaron .

“Desian, guess what?”

“Say it.”

Desian said in a monotonous tone as he stared blankly at Aaron. Aaron looked at him blankly before gathering his courage and speaking.

“A friend arrived today, and she doesn’t care about twins being cursed! I had never seen such a person before.…”

“Do you really believe that?”

“Brother, but we talked for an hour. This friend, she might be different.”

“She’ll reveal her true colors soon.”

He had a cynical face and cold tone as he spoke. Disappointed, Aaron spoke quietly.

“But…”

“….don’t trust too much.”

Aaron did not respond. Aaron instead put the small baguette near Desian.

-plunk-

It was a careful movement.

“Desian, I’ll come back tomorrow.”

There was no response.

Aaron closed the door and left. He didn’t eat as he listened to Aaron’s footsteps fade away.

When Aaron’s footsteps were out of earshot, he spoke.

“…different?”

The boy left in the dungeon muttered.

Different. Desian closed his eyes and laughed at himself for finding hope in that word.