“Miss?”
Seeing the shifting, uncertain expression on Ilus’s face, Hida tilted her head slightly, her gaze filled with confusion.
‘Eliana… did she do something to make Miss feel bothered?’
Ilus suppressed the dryness in her throat, struggling to make her smile look natural.
“It’s nothing else. You should get going too, Hida. Don’t be late.”
Hida gave a soft response, lifted the hem of her skirt, and jogged away. Silence returned to the corridor, leaving only the frantic thumping of Ilus’s heart echoing in her ears.
She leaned against the cold wall, her fingertips trembling slightly.
‘Eliana definitely knows I want to drive out all the maids. I just don’t know if she’s guessed that I know her true identity.’
If she hadn’t guessed, there was still room to maneuver. But if she had… Ilus couldn’t help but shudder.
A chill, like being watched by a venomous snake, crawled up her spine to the back of her neck. The image of the demon smiling while harvesting lives on the Night of the Blood Moon from the game surfaced vividly in her mind.
She absolutely did not want that outcome.
Unknowingly, Ilus had walked back to her room. She closed the door, jumped onto the bed, and buried her face in the pillow.
‘Dammit, why did I have to transmigrate into this game? And into this body of all things…’
‘Even a male body would have been fine. I could have at least learned Sword Arts for self-defense.’ Thinking of this, the young girl looked at her two soft, small hands and let out another heavy sigh.
Forget learning Sword Arts; even lifting a sword seemed like an impossible task for her…
‘Calm down… Ilus, calm down.’
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to think.
‘There must be a solution. I have too little information right now. The most urgent matter… I need to go to the Family Library to gather some materials.’
‘Yes, I should go right now!’
Ilus froze for a moment before springing up from the bed. Eliana had just been called away, so she wouldn’t have the time to monitor her. This was the perfect chance to openly browse books related to demons.
If she could find the methods used by her family’s ancestors to seal demons, she would be able to sleep soundly!
At that thought, Ilus immediately took action. She quickly straightened her skirt, tucked her stray hairs behind her ears, and confirmed in the mirror that her expression had returned to normal before pushing the door open and stepping out.
The corridor was empty. Sunlight cast mottled shadows through the glass windows, and she couldn’t help but quicken her pace.
The Family Library was located in the West Wing of the estate. It was an independent tower that housed centuries of accumulated family classics, including many documents related to mysticism, ancient history, and even forbidden knowledge.
Usually, very few people came here. Only the servants responsible for cleaning entered occasionally.
Ilus pushed open the heavy oak door, and a scent mixed with old paper, parchment scrolls, and wood wafted toward her.
The tall bookshelves nearly touched the domed ceiling. A spiral staircase wound upward, connecting the book galleries of different floors. Sunlight slanted in from the narrow windows high above, illuminating the dust motes dancing in the air. It was obvious that not many people visited, as even the cleaning servants seemed to have become a bit lazy.
She closed the door behind her and leaned against the wood, breathing a small sigh of relief. She had arrived safely for now.
The next step was to find records related to demons.
Ilus walked toward the nearest bookshelf, her fingertips sliding over the gold-stamped titles on the spines.
*Noble Terminology*, *Nobility Studies*, *Noble Etiquette*… none of these were what she wanted. She needed something more secretive, something more ancient.
She climbed the spiral staircase to the second floor. The books here looked much older, their bindings primitive, and some were even handwritten manuscripts in untranslated ancient tongues. She stopped in front of one row of aged bookshelves and began her careful search.
Time passed minute by minute. Ilus brought over a footstool, climbing up and down as she sifted through dozens of books. Most of them recorded the achievements of the family’s past lords, territory management, and marriage alliances.
Just as she was beginning to feel discouraged, an Ancient Parchment Book caught her attention.
It was tucked into the innermost corner of the shelf, its cover coated in a thin layer of dust. Ilus climbed the stool and struggled to pull it out. The heavy weight of the book made her heart skip a beat.
She flipped to the first page, and sure enough, the first two words at the top were “Demons”!
‘Yes, there should be some clues here!’ The girl’s heart hammered against her ribs.
However, just as she was about to climb down from the high stool with the book, the voice she feared most sounded from behind her.
“Miss, you must be careful when you climb so high…”
Eliana’s voice was gentle, yet it felt like a cold silver needle suddenly piercing Ilus’s spine.
Ilus’s hand jerked, and the heavy Ancient Parchment Book slipped from her grasp, falling straight toward the floor with its pages fluttering open in the air.
Her foot slipped along with the movement. Losing her balance, she fell backward from the wobbling footstool.
“Ah — !”
The expected impact with the hard floor never came.
A pair of arms steadily caught her from behind, absorbing the force of the fall. The person held her gently and placed her back on level ground.
The Ancient Parchment Book was caught by another hand wearing a white glove just before it hit the floor.
Ilus was shaken, her heart thumping so hard it felt like it would burst through her chest.
She turned around stiffly to face Eliana, who was standing right in front of her.
The maid tilted her head slightly, a warm and familiar smile on her face. Her pale gold eyes curved into a beautiful arc, but their depths were bottomless as she stared at Ilus’s pale little face.
“M-Miss,” Eliana said, her tone carrying the perfect amount of concern and a hint of disapproval. “If you wanted to reach a book up high, you should have called me or another maid to help. Really, this is too dangerous. If you were to get hurt, we servants and the Madam would be heartbroken.”
As she spoke, she gently closed the Ancient Parchment Book and brushed the dust off the cover, her movements elegant and composed.
Ilus watched her actions, her face turning white with fear. Fortunately, the book had no title on the cover, and Eliana hadn’t flipped through it. Otherwise, her intentions would have been exposed prematurely!
“I… I just wanted to find a book to read.”
Ilus’s voice carried an irrepressible tremor. She forced herself to look away, trying her best not to meet Eliana’s eyes.
“E-Eliana, why are you here? The Head Maid…”
“The meeting with the Head Maid was just a summary of routine matters. it ended very quickly.”
As Eliana spoke, Ilus’s gaze kept drifting toward the book in the maid’s hand. Although Eliana was acting respectfully, she seemingly had no intention of handing it back.
Ilus couldn’t hold out any longer. She reached out her hand in a demanding gesture.
“Eliana, give the book back to me.”
“Since Miss cares so much about this book, may I see what is inside?” Eliana said with a smile, looking as if she were about to open it.
Ilus was about to step forward to stop her when a sharp pain suddenly shot through her lower abdomen. In the next moment, the world began to spin, and her vision slowly faded to black…
“Eliana, you — “
“M-Miss…!”