The darkness in the third-floor corridor of the mansion felt denser, as if the shadows on the walls were breathing in sync with the rhythmic thuds of footsteps, calm, yet lethal. Hans, the butler in his impeccable uniform, ascended the stairs with the predatory grace of a hunter. In his arms, he carried Lucien Vornhart with a level of caution that stood in harrowing contrast to the blood-soaked chaos in the hall below. He treated the boy as if he were a fragile glass vessel containing an ancient curse; a single jar could shatter everything.
Behind him, trailing with trembling steps, was the maid in the white dress. She walked in absolute silence, her head bowed so low her chin touched her chest. She was the only one left with a relatively intact sense of sanity. Not because she was strong, but because she was clever—or perhaps fearful—enough never to have overly provoked Lucien, neither in the past nor during the explosion of his rage earlier. To Lucien, this woman was merely dust unworthy of his full attention, and that was the greatest blessing of her life.
Upon reaching the grandest chamber on the third floor, Hans did not hesitate. Without a word or a knock, he raised his foot and slammed his leather boot into the massive double doors.
CRASH!
The hinges shrieked, nearly tearing free from the frame. The woman behind him flinched violently, her hands clamping over her mouth to stifle a scream. Hans stormed into the room, a space so vast it resembled a ballroom more than a bedroom, completely ignoring a blonde woman who sat before a vanity, still clad in her silk pajamas.
"M-Master Hans?!" Julia, the head maid of the mansion, exclaimed in shock at the sight of his face.
Hans ignored her entirely. He walked toward the bed and laid Lucien upon the plush mattress with agonizing tenderness, ensuring the boy's rest would not be disturbed. Only then did his attention shift to the blonde woman. This was Julia, the head maid who lived like high nobility in a mansion that was not hers to claim.
Without a word, Hans reached out, gripped Julia's blonde hair, and hurled her out of the room. He closed the doors with a slow, deliberate click to shield Lucien from the noise. In the corridor, Julia groaned in pain, clutching her scalp.
"What is the meaning of this, Master Hans?! Why did you bring an unknown brat into my room and treat me like this?!" Julia screamed in a fit of rage.
However, the man known as Hans remained indifferent to her complaints. "Your name is Julia, is it not?" he asked in a low tone that made her skin crawl.
"Y-yes, I am Julia! Have you gone senile enough to forget me?!" she replied with an awkward, arrogant smile, completely unable to read the dire situation.
"Very well, Julia. You need not explain anything. I can guess the entirety of the story," Hans said softly, cutting her off before another word could escape her lips.
"Thank you," Hans added, flashing a wide, terrifying grin.
Julia was speechless. She had never seen this rigid butler smile before, and it filled her with a paralyzing fear of whatever mistake she had committed.
"Thanks to your deeds, our Youngest Master has finally opened the Devil's Gate," Hans said as he crouched, staring intently into Julia's eyes.
Julia understood none of it; she could only offer a strained, confused smile. "But..." Hans suddenly turned his gaze toward the maid in the white dress. Julia followed his gaze and realized one thing: neither she nor the other maid were wearing servant uniforms, and the Young Master was supposed to be in the basement. Was this the "mistake" that made Hans act so strange? Julia wondered, oblivious to the look on Hans's face as he turned back to her.
In a flash, Julia's face was driven into the marble floor with bone-shattering force. A thick pool of blood instantly blossomed beneath her. Hans's hand gripped the back of her head, pinning her as he slammed her face into the stone again and again.
"There was no order to ostracize the Young Master, so why did you make him suffer to such an extent, huh?" Hans said with a thin, chilling smile.
"THE TRIAL OF ADEQUACY WAS MERELY TO LIVE IN THIS MANSION AND ATTEND THE CLASSES PREPARED BY THE MAIN ESTATE! NOT TO SURVIVE THE TORTURES YOU INDEPENDENTLY ARRANGED!"
Hans roared as he slammed Julia's head repeatedly against the marble. The impacts carved cracks into the floor, creating a small pool of gore deep enough to submerge three frogs.
The maid in the white dress stood petrified, witnessing this brutality for the second time. 'Is the Vornhart family entirely filled with madmen like this?' she thought.
Suddenly, Hans stopped. He released his grip on Julia's mangled head and stood up, as if struck by a sudden epiphany. He walked toward the double doors, muttering to himself:
"The Young Master opened the Devil's Gate seven years earlier than planned... In that case, could this kind of treatment be considered a valid Trial of Adequacy?"
He immediately crouched back down beside the unconscious Julia and whispered into her ear: "Be proud for now. This interesting idea will benefit many parties—especially yourself—if the Council approves it!"
His face beamed with a twisted glow at the brilliance of his thought. "Oh, right!" Hans remembered something and hurried toward the maid in the white dress. She flinched, nearly fainting from terror, but sighed in relief at his words.
"Hey, you," Hans said, crouching to meet her eyes. "Change your clothes and guard the Young Master for now. Provide him with maximum care; fulfill every need and desire he has, except for leaving this mansion."
"Also, leave the mansion exactly as it is. The corpses below and... that thing... leave them. Do not touch them, and do not clean them, understood?" Hans said, pointing toward the broken body of Julia when he said "that thing."
Once the woman nodded in forced resignation, Hans rushed out of the mansion, disappearing into the night with supernatural speed. He left the mansion exactly as it was—as if preserving the evidence of a gruesome crime scene.