In the late dawn, Olivia, carried back to her room on Ricardo’s back, found it hard to fall asleep.

No matter how she propped up her pillow.
No matter how she turned toward the window.
No matter how she buried her forehead in the pillow and lay face down.

Sleep eluded her, and her eyes remained wide and staring blankly.

Propped up on her pillow, Olivia mumbled lazily.

“I’m tired… but I can’t sleep.”

The scars she had seen in Ricardo’s room kept haunting her mind. The grotesquely twisted skin and his blackened arm. They were not scenes one could easily forget.

‘It was really disgusting.’

Repeated images of Ricardo’s faint smile disturbed her peace of mind.

Sleep, after all, must come in a state of body and mind serenity in order to be restful.

If she remained in this gloomy mood, there would be no sleep, and by the time morning came, she’d have spent the whole night awake.

Olivia sighed.

With only one little lamp turned on beside the bed, she made faces of misery and whispered to herself softly.

“I’d been in such a good mood for the past three days…”

But now she just felt glum.

*

Three days ago.

Olivia’s spirits lifted every time she looked at the  calendar.

[☆September 21☆]
*The Foolish Butler’s  Birthday!
*Think of a  birthday present!
*Give a surprise!

She was looking forward to the foolish butler’s  birthday party—a party not for inviting lots of people, but for enjoying it between just the two of them. It would be the first birthday she’d celebrate for him since suffering an injury to her leg, and she felt excitement thrumming in her.

Ricardo had never taken much interest in his once-a-year birthday celebration.

“My birthday? Oh, why bother with such things? Just have a bowl of seaweed soup and that’s it.”
“Seaweed soup?”
“It’s a soup made from seaweed.”
“Sounds unappetizing.”

Last year, and the year before, he only remembered at the last moment, “Oh, right. It’s my  birthday today,” and went off alone into the kitchen to finish his seaweed soup and be done with it.

She expected it would be the same this year.

He never bothered with his own  birthday, but was all fired up about hers. Olivia wanted to show the butler how much fun and anticipation a birthday could bring.

So, Olivia prepared a surprise.

She read about it in a book.

[No, Father, You Mustn’t Do This!] was the title of a philosophy book.

It was Ricardo’s favorite book, containing the wisdom of the world and invaluable life lessons, or so Ricardo said.

When I suggested reading together, Ricardo handed it over with half the pages crossed out with a black pen, but the advice within it was genuinely priceless.

Adultery and jealousy.
How to slap someone without hurting them too much.
And even how to fend off a flirtatious vixen.

Ricardo’s cherished book, full of life hacks.

On page 134, it detailed how to create unforgettable memories.

-Father was hiding in my closet.

Although I couldn’t make out what came after because Ricardo had blackened it with his pen, I assumed as an intellectual and a prolific reader that the content would be something along the lines of the daughter-in-law being overjoyed by the father-in-law’s surprise. Every time he appeared, her face flushed red.

Inspired by this, Olivia decided to prepare Ricardo’s  birthday surprise.

She toiled for three straight days, almost bursting with the desire to reveal.

She held back the urge to ask Ricardo what September 21st meant, and whether he would like the gift she had prepared.

Asking directly about his likes would have been a dead giveaway.

When she received the gift sent by the maid, she couldn’t stop smiling. Forgetting Yuria’s diagnosis that her leg couldn’t be cured, she earnestly prepared for Ricardo’s  birthday celebration.

The birthday arrived quickly.

While Ricardo was out practicing with his sword, Olivia had herself placed on a tray pulled by the maid.

Although the tray buckled under her weight, which was as light as a feather, it was just a cheap tray, after all. She thought the butler would be forgiving.

The butler’s room, which she eventually reached after some difficulty, was more spartan than she anticipated.

The outdated storage room for  dresses had been converted into Ricardo’s living space. It neither retained heat nor was it soundproof, a very poor environment indeed.

No decorative items.
No luxuries in the simple room.
The place was built just to hear my voice, and it made me feel sad.

Her eyes caught sight of a book on the desk.

A medical text, smeared with finger marks.
Next to it sat a notebook filled with dense writing.

***
[On Neurology.
*Once severed, nerves are difficult to regenerate. Particularly the central nervous system…]

This wasn’t it either.
I’d have to look for another book.

[On Rehabilitation.
*Rehabilitation is a miracle. With persistent effort, a miracle can be hoped for…]

Maybe try it every week.
Just so as not to tire out Olivia.
***

A thick notebook full of hard-to-read organizing entries lay on the desk. Olivia clutched the wrapped gift tightly to her chest.

The butler, who’d built a wall against his studies, who would slam his forehead down on the desk at the sight of any book in the academy, was studying at this narrow desk. This thought of him unsettled her.

‘Should I have prepared a better gift?’

Even a scarf or gloves bought from the market would have been better. Or perhaps she should have splurged on a tie from a tailor shop frequented by the nobility? Of course, that tiny tie was far beyond the savings in her piggy bank, but the regret wouldn’t leave her, and she clumsily clutched the gift.

Time passed, the maid left for home, and it was time for Ricardo to return to his room.

Olivia held her breath inside the closet.

Creak. With the sound of the opening door, Ricardo entered the room drenched in sweat.

“Ah… it’s tough.”

Sighing, he set his sword beside a chair and undid the buttons of his shirt without a care.

Oblivious to her presence, Ricardo began to bare his skin, causing Olivia to clench her fists.

“…That’s not very ladylike.”

Pushing aside her mixed emotions, Olivia focused on the surprise and covered her mouth with her hand.

‘He doesn’t know I’m here.’

Silly Ricardo.
He’ll be so surprised when I pop out from the wardrobe.

‘I want to tease him soon. Soon. I can’t wait to tease him.’

Ricardo slowly shed his clothes. Undoing the sweat-soaked shirt and revealing dangerously sculpted abs. Gulp. She swallowed reflexively.

Olivia’s face burned hot. She didn’t know where to look and covered her eyes with her hand, but the fingers were spread wide open.

‘Uh…!’

If he took off his pants as well, that would be too much.
She thinks she might get a nosebleed.
Her face burning as if about to burst, Olivia grew tense.

‘If he starts to take off his pants, I have to come out immediately.’

Olivia peeked through her fingers at the butler’s body.

Ricardo undid the buttons of his shirt sleeves. Then, he began to take off the soaked shirt.

Gulp. She swallowed her saliva.

This wasn’t sneaking a peek, it was a surprise party, and Olivia convinced herself that even Ricardo would understand, as she focused intently, her eyes fixed with resolve.

Olivia lost her words when she slowly uncovered Ricardo’s white bandages.

‘Huh?’

There were bandages.
Bandages tightly wrapped around inside his clothes.

This place wasn’t a battlefield.

There stood Ricardo, half his body swathed in white bandages.

‘What’s this?’

A moment of anxiety came rushing in.
Something felt wrong.

The bandages wrapped around half of his body seemed odd.
He had only spoken of his arm, so why was it wrapped so extensively? It was strange.

‘A tattoo? No, but Ricardo said he only got one on his arm.’
‘It’s probably nothing. Just bandages to cover up the tattoo.’

She denied it out loud.

Denying the truth that she knew was beyond those bandages, denying the truth even to herself.

She had been able to guess since she’d seen the blue wound before. She thought she was mentally prepared.

She had planned to ask Ricardo and talk about it while he was on leave.

‘He said it wasn’t an injury, Ricardo was clear.’

Her heart apparently wasn’t ready yet.

Hands trembling, Olivia looked at Ricardo as he unwrapped the bandages from his body.

As Ricardo revealed the hidden scars while unwrapping the bandages in front of the mirror, tears suddenly fell down her cheek.

‘No… no!’

[Ricardo’s hidden secret unveiled. 1/1]

‘It’s not true…! Ricardo, for certain, for sure. That’s what he said!’

She acted out a futile tantrum.

She denied it over and over, insisting that the putrefying right arm couldn’t possibly have anything to do with her.

But the damn blue window before her eyes caught her fleeing self.

“It’s ridiculous.”

Yuria’s words flashed through her mind.

-Huh? Didn’t you say it was a wound from black magic running wild?
-Yes.
-But why does it look so clean…? This doesn’t make sense.
-It doesn’t make sense?
-Usually, when someone fails with black magic, it burns up the mana circuit on the spot, leading to instant death, or the flesh slowly necroses and consumes away, but Olivia, you’re spotlessly clean both inside and out.

Yuria’s words remembering a moment that she looked at her with wonder.

-It’s a miracle. A miracle.
-Normally, your leg should have rotted away.
-Since holy power doesn’t work, it seems right it was due to black magic damage…

The scars starting from the chest like burn marks, all twisted apart. And his blackened right arm.

Time seemed to stop.

Within three seconds’ time, dozens of thoughts raced through her head, and her lips quivered as if broken.

That was what Ricardo had meant by “tree bark.”

That it resembled tree bark.

He had meant that arm.

Those split black scars, he called them bark?

Olivia shook.

It would have been better if she remained ignorant.
When she could have just shamelessly known nothing. Although it was a wretched thought, Olivia couldn’t bring herself to look at Ricardo’s face.

‘If only this closet door would not open…’

She wanted to run away.

She had never loathed her immobile legs more.

The butler’s hand reached closer.

Internally, Olivia pleaded.

‘Don’t open it.’
‘Please don’t open it.’
‘Please… I’m not ready in my heart…’

But time wouldn’t wait for her fragile heart, and she inadvertently met eyes with the flustered butler.

“Ah… Miss?”

The sin was her, yet Ricardo looked at her as if he was the one who sinned.

The first words uttered by a perplexed Ricardo crushed her heart.

“Ah… I tripped, that’s why.”

Then, Olivia thought to herself.

‘I’m really trash.’

***

Alone in the room, Olivia stared at the blue window in front of her with empty eyes.

[Q. His hidden secret has been completed.]

The day the master he served for 13 years fell, Ricardo was there.
No one knew what happened that day, except for just one person.
The butler knows the truth of that day.

Ricardo intended to hide the events of that day for a lifetime. The secret of that day he wished to quietly pass unnoticed.

(!) Uncover the secrets of that day.

1. See Ricardo’s hidden secret. (1/1)
2. Touch Ricardo’s hidden secret. (1/1)

[‘The Man’s Secret’ can be accessed.]

[Would you like to view it?]

Olivia nodded her head.

“I’ll view it.”