The sound of the lock turning felt particularly piercing in the silent house.
Ruby opened the door, and a pungent smell of mold rushed up her nose, making her nostrils sting and her stomach churn. She quickly backed out of the room, dampened her handkerchief slightly to cover her mouth and nose, and then stepped into Mahina’s room once again.
The interior was terrifyingly dark. Heavy blackout curtains were drawn tight, as if to shut out the light of the entire world. Only a lamp on the desk emitted a faint, yellow glow that flickered like a dying thread.
In the center of that glow, the owner of the house sat like a withered statue.
Mahina was currently holding a yellowed letter with both hands, her head bowed in deep thought. She looked as if she had just finished reading it and had paused to stare blankly into space.
Seeing Mahina’s pale and disheveled state, Ruby found it hard to believe this was the same person who was once an admired genius girl — the one everyone loved, who was as gentle as a spring breeze.
Ruby walked softly to her side. After catching a clear glimpse of Mahina’s appearance, she couldn’t help but gasp, though she quickly realized herself and used the heavy smell of mold in the room to force down her emotions.
After only nine days apart, Mahina had become a shadow of her former self, looking as if her light was about to burn out.
Her eye sockets were sunken, and her eyes, which used to be as clear as pale blue sapphires, were now dull and lifeless. Heavy dark circles hung beneath them, making Ruby wonder if she had slept at all during these days; her swollen eye bags were even more frightening, making Ruby suspect she had been crying non-stop.
Her once full, rosy cheeks were now so thin that the bone structure protruded, and her skin had taken on a sickly, ashen hue.
Her once smooth and silky hair now looked like a clump of dead weeds, messily draped over the back of the chair and even knotted in places.
Despite this, she still gripped the letter tightly with both hands, her head lowered in contemplation.
“Have you slept? Have you rested at all? Have you had any water?”
Ruby placed a glass of warm water on the desk, just as she had on countless nights in the past — back when she was still a maid, always looking after the young lady who stayed up late to study.
Perhaps it was the dehydration from crying for too long, or perhaps her throat had long since cracked. Mahina opened her mouth, but only a few rasping sounds like a broken bellows came from her throat.
After a long while, a raspy voice that was almost unrecognizable finally squeezed out.
“Why are you here? We have nothing to do with each other anymore, right?”
“What do you mean, ‘nothing to do with each other’? Even if I’m not your maid anymore, can’t we be friends?”
Mahina gave a bitter smile.
“You actually… still have a spare key. I was too foolish. You were always meticulous, so of course you would keep a spare.”
“Give it to me.”
“Wasn’t it because I was worried about you? For instance, a situation like today…”
Ruby pointed toward the room, which felt like a tomb.
“If I hadn’t come, were you planning to starve yourself to death in here?”
Mahina did not argue; she only sighed. She gently folded the letter in her hands like a precious treasure, placed it back into its original envelope, and then carefully tucked it into her Magic Pocket.
Ruby remained silent during this process because she knew how much those letters meant to her.
“Looking at you, you haven’t been eating properly, have you?”
“I’m not in the mood…”
Mahina’s voice was airy, as if she might dissipate into the air along with her entire being at any moment.
Aside from reading the words Merlin had left behind, the current Mahina could find no sense of reality in being alive. Even sleep was something she only did when she truly could not resist the drowsiness, slumping over the desk for a short while before waking up to continue reading the letters.
As for things like eating or washing up, they were merely a waste of time to Mahina now. She only wanted to read the letters Merlin had written to her.
Because she could not sleep, day or night.
‘Perhaps… this is the end.’
Professor Ophelia had said that Merlin eventually exchanged her own emotions for power. Even if she woke up, perhaps she would never look at Mahina again.
Even if her emotions were restored…
Mahina once again recalled her heart-wrenching cries in the Dungeon.
‘Will Merlin… really forgive me?’
‘Will she really still love me?’
Therefore, Mahina could only take these past letters as a form of solace.
The fear of the unknown swallowed her like a black hole, and she could only frantically demand comfort from the past.
At least in the past, she had loved her. At least the Mahina who had lost that love could briefly regain it while reading those letters.
It was like a lethal poison. Even knowing she shouldn’t, she couldn’t help but swallow it, letting the pain spread through her body.
“Do you know how many days have passed?”
Mahina kept her head down in silence. She had kept the curtains drawn, her days and nights inverted; how could she possibly know the time?
Ruby looked at Mahina, who seemed to have lost everything and was on the verge of collapse, her heart filled with mixed emotions. In a sense, she herself was one of the perpetrators of the events that happened after Merlin arrived at the school.
What could she even say?
If it were the Mahina everyone used to love, perhaps many students would be scrambling to show their concern and care for her.
But now, her reputation had hit rock bottom.
“Cold-blooded,” “traitor” — all sorts of labels had been pinned on her.
Even though she hadn’t left her room for days, no students cared about her. No one even wanted to be associated with her, fearing they would be labeled with the same tags.
Some even hoped she would drop out of school.
How could anyone possibly come to care for her?
The teachers had come for routine inquiries, but Mahina had simply said she was taking a leave of absence, and the teachers had left.
Ruby’s voice couldn’t help but rise.
“You haven’t slept or eaten properly for five days? You’ve reduced yourself to this state?”
“You’re not my maid anymore. This has nothing to do with you.”
Ruby took a step forward, leaning her hands on the desk and staring directly into those clouded eyes.
“But… aren’t we still friends?”
“I… don’t want anything to do with the Talane Estate.”
Ruby laughed out of sheer frustration. She snatched the handkerchief away from her face, revealing a small face filled with stubbornness.
“Don’t worry. The Talane Estate has been overwhelmed lately, busy cleaning up their own messes. They have no time to bother with an insignificant little maid like me. I’m just purely worried about you.”
Ruby sighed.
“Even if you don’t care about your personal hygiene, at least eat something.”
Mahina still kept her head down in thought, having not yet emerged from Merlin’s world.
“In that case…”
Seeing that Mahina gave no reaction, Ruby deliberately drawled her words.
“I won’t tell you the news about Merlin.”
Hearing “the news about Merlin,” Mahina suddenly pushed herself up with her hands and scrambled to her feet.
“What happened to Merlin?”
Ruby quietly watched the panicked girl before her.
“Eat the food I brought, then go wash up and get a good night’s sleep. Then I’ll tell you.”
“But!”
Mahina immediately tried to rush out of the room, wanting to go outside to confirm the news about Merlin.
Ruby reached out to stop her. Mahina tried to attack Ruby in a fit of desperation, but in her current weakened state, she couldn’t even overpower Ruby.
She was so weak that because she had been sitting for too long, she couldn’t even maintain her balance when she stood up.
Ruby caught her and pinned her to the floor.
“Who do you think you can defeat right now? Your body is already this weak.”
“But!”
As long as it concerned Merlin, she could not remain calm.
What if —
What if Merlin never woke up?
Ruby sighed.
“It’s good news. But you must do as I say before I’ll tell you. Otherwise, don’t think about going out, and don’t think about hearing the news.”
In the end… Mahina compromised.