Chapter 06
Ordelphia was taken aback. It was a statement she had never expected.
Of course, the brief surge of embarrassment quickly subsided, and she replied immediately.
“No, not at all. The inheritance of the hotel was my decision, and I don’t regret it. And Mr. Manager—no, Sebastian—I just met you a moment ago, so I can’t really say much about you yet.”
As she spoke, Ordelphia felt the tea the manager had prepared so carefully lingering on her tongue. She continued,
“At least my first impression is very good. I hope our relationship can last a long time.”
Only then did a sense of relief spread across the manager’s calm face.
“But why did you think that…?”
Ordelphia, puzzled, opened her mouth to ask but suddenly closed it as if she had realized something.
Apparently, because her expression had been too neutral, he had assumed she held negative feelings toward the hotel and him.
The atmosphere around her instantly grew tense.
The manager looked at her with a momentary expression of awkwardness and pity before speaking.
“It seems it was just an old man’s unnecessary worry. I disturbed your mood.”
“No, it’s… um… I guess I was just wearing a rather sullen expression.”
Ordelphia tried, consciously, to put on the elegant smile she had practiced, but it didn’t work well.
Well, it wasn’t like she could instantly produce a smile she hadn’t even perfected in practice.
She touched her stiff cheeks, feeling the familiar twinge of self-reproach.
“I get told a lot that I don’t show much expression. But please don’t misunderstand—I’m not uncomfortable or unhappy. If I ever feel that way, I’ll say so immediately.”
She didn’t go into detail about her abilities, her stained past, or the emotionless shell she had become, nor the habitual suppression of feelings.
In truth, she didn’t want anyone to know.
〈Monster! Aaah! This thing is a monster!〉
Even if she revealed it, she knew from a very young age that nothing good would come of it.
She only made one request.
“It may sound strange, but I avoid physical contact with others. This includes light hugs, kisses, or handshakes. So, please be mindful of that as well, Mr. Manager.”
The manager immediately nodded.
“Yes. I’ll keep that in mind. Speaking of contact….”
His gaze, as if tracing the past, floated through the air and eventually fixed on something.
“Even Lady Adel, the former owner, greatly disliked being touched by anyone. If someone ever touched her, whether by accident or otherwise, she would erupt with anger.”
At that moment, Ordelphia’s stomach churned violently.
“…Your grandmother?”
“Yes. That’s why, apart from her husband, Count Gru, no one ever touched her.”
The plain affirmation made Ordelphia clench her teeth.
Buried emotions were threatening to erupt violently from deep within.
“Even my grandmother…”
Finally, she managed to speak, her voice rasping as if scratching its way out of a blocked throat.
“The room.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll take the room my grandmother used.”
She had just reversed what she said moments ago, but the manager asked nothing further. He checked his pocket watch once, then quietly stepped out.
Ordelphia rubbed her palms, already damp with sweat, and muttered,
“There was someone else besides me.”
Damn this ability. Aside from searching for her father’s whereabouts, she now had another reason she absolutely had to stay at the hotel.
Midnight, with the moon hanging low.
Footsteps echoed steadily across the hotel floors: thump, thump-thump, thump.
Long shadows swayed and stretched behind the light of the gas lamps.
From the top floor, the fourth, through the third, down to the second, the figure stopped abruptly in front of Room 201.
Holding the lamp near his head, his composed expression slightly twisted.
Someone was standing motionless right in front of the solid, intricately patterned door.
He stepped closer to Room 201 and spoke.
“What are you doing here, Killian?”
At the call, the man pressed so close to the door that his nose almost touched it, as if wanting to go inside immediately.
It was a sight that would have made Ordelphia recoil in horror.
The man called Killian was none other than the one Arthur Junior referred to as “uncle.”
“Hello, Sebastian. You’re old now.”
He seemed familiar with Sebastian, speaking with a level of familiarity bordering on rudeness, yet he didn’t move from the doorway.
It was as if his feet were bound by invisible chains.
Killian blinked slowly, then spoke again.
“Was it rude to call you old? I slept too long and forgot most human etiquette.”
“It’s not a serious offense, but it doesn’t feel very pleasant. Young or old, I am still who I am.”
“Exactly. No matter the form, Sebastian is Sebastian.”
Ordelphia had assumed that the youthful Sebastian at the reception desk and the mature-looking manager were family—but she was wrong.
They were the same person; only their appearance changed. But she, not present at the moment, would never know.
Killian asked without blinking.
“How long have I been asleep?”
“When did you wake up?”
“Today.”
Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.
Today was the day Ordelphia arrived at the hotel.
The granddaughter of Lady Adel, obsessive to the point of avoiding contact with others.
Sebastian seemed to piece together the puzzle in his mind, but said nothing—just as he hadn’t revealed what he knew about Ordelphia’s abilities.
He only answered Killian’s question.
“I don’t know when you fell asleep, so I can’t answer precisely.”
“Is that so? Well then… where’s Adel?”
When he addressed Adel as if already familiar, the answer came immediately.
“Lady Adel has passed away.”
“Passed away? Where to?”
“…Did you forget your words after sleeping so long? Lady Adel is dead.”
“Oh. That passing.”
Sebastian asked again, nodding toward him.
“Killian, more importantly, what are you doing here at this hour?”
“You’d get in trouble if I went inside, right?”
“Huh?”
“Inside the door. In here.”
Desire was evident in the tips of his fingers brushing the navy door.
Though human in appearance, with tall height but relatively slender build, he couldn’t forcibly open the door.
But no sooner had he finished speaking than Sebastian’s face hardened immediately.
“That’s not allowed.”
“Right? But you know, Sebastian…”
Contrary to the overwhelming aura of desire, he pulled his hand away from the door and smiled, lips curling in a blindingly divine way.
Yet his red eyes gleamed like eerie will-o’-the-wisps through narrowed lids.
“Room 201. This used to be Adel’s room. Now that she’s gone, who’s here? Tell me—it’s the woman who arrived two days ago, right?”
“Not that woman. It’s Ordelphia, Lady Adel’s granddaughter.”
“Granddaughter?”
“Her son’s daughter. I assume you weren’t asking that.”
“Grand…daughter? Ah, that reminds me—before I fell asleep, Adel said she had found someone she loved.”
“She married him.”
Killian laughed, showing his teeth.
“Hahaha. That ‘love’ thing is really something. After our contract, Adel, who hated contact with others, found her lifelong partner.”
He licked his lips, adding,
“If I had slept a little later, I could have experienced that ‘love’ too. Too bad I can’t control it. But oh well.”
Killian seemed to scan Ordelphia, asleep beyond the door, as if tracing her form with his eyes.
“Now that a new contractor has arrived, she’ll probably feel that ‘love’ someday.”
Sebastian clicked his tongue lightly.
Ordelphia seemed oblivious, but meeting Killian promised a very unfavorable situation.
Yet Sebastian didn’t add a word.
Killian referred to Ordelphia as the “contractor.”
Unless one is part of the contract, one cannot interfere in what happens between them.
Sebastian had learned this early in life, painfully experiencing the consequences of his body aging and resetting uncontrollably.
But this much he could say.
