WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ I Returned as a God ◈

Chapter 92: The Cursed Mansion (1)

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Splash.

Even from a glance, the hot black tea kept dripping onto the woman's hand, nonstop.

Steam rose off it in thick wisps. It looked scalding.

Once the pot had emptied itself completely, Rizu set it down and stood.

Dressed in a gown so white it could've passed for a wedding dress, Rizu walked over.

I gave a light bow and offered a greeting.

"Luin, at your service."

"I hear you're quite skilled."

"That's too generous a compliment."

"My escorts keep changing lately, and it's been a hassle. I'm shyer than I look, believe it or not. I'd like this one to stick around a while."

The corner of Rizu's mouth lifted slightly.

Pale white skin, red lips. Eyes and features carved like a sculpture.

Now I understood why Lee Eunyheui had made such a fuss.

Calling her human felt almost wrong. She looked more like a walking doll.

Her nails, studded with glittering jewels, pointed at my eyepatch.

"Though it's a shame about the eye."

Every single person I met brought that up. It only confirmed how right I'd been to cover it before coming here.

"Did something happen this morning?"

The woman was still on her knees, hand outstretched.

Her burned skin had gone an angry red.

Behind me, Lee Eunyheui was clearly straining not to look at it.

Hiss jabbed me in the side, silently telling me not to bother.

"It's nothing."

"Doesn't look like nothing."

"You're interesting. See this?"

Rizu brought her fingers up near her lips.

"The tea was too hot. It burned my lip."

"That does sound serious."

"So I was just trying to figure out how to punish her for it."

Rizu lowered her hand and smiled.

That's not really a smiling matter.

"Hasn't she already been punished enough?"

"Oh, that was just me venting."

Seriously?

Who admits to their face that they were just taking out their anger on someone?

"I'm starting to wonder if she made the tea too hot on purpose."

"N, no! I would never..."

"Ah! You're here as my escort. What should I do with the one who scalded my lip?"

Rizu clasped her fingers together lightly and smiled at me.

She didn't seem to register the woman in front of her at all, tears streaming down her face as she begged to be spared.

"What were you planning to do, my lady?"

"Me? I was going to cut out her tongue."

Rizu's dark eyes glittered.

I couldn't tell if it was genuine or an act. If it was an act, this woman was no ordinary case either.

"Would that actually serve as a proper example?"

"An example?"

"Yes. There's no guarantee something like this won't happen again."

Rizu looked at me with real interest now.

I turned to the trembling woman and spoke.

"Did you brew that tea yourself?"

"N, no. I only carried it from the kitchen."

"Who boiled the water?"

"I, I don't know that much either. I'm sorry."

"Then start with whoever boiled the water, and hold everyone in the kitchen at the time responsible. If you're going to cut out a tongue, cut the head chef's, and question the head maid too."

"Wouldn't that blow this up way bigger than it needs to be?"

"Would my lady prefer to burn her lip on tea again sometime?"

"So an example needs to be made. To make sure this never happens again."

At my answer, Lee Eunyheui's eyes went wide behind me.

"But the head maid and the kitchen have nothing to do with this."

"Failing to check the water temperature, failing to properly train the staff underneath them, those seem like sufficient grounds to me."

"Ha, hahahahaha!"

Rizu stepped back slightly, clutching her stomach as laughter burst out of her.

Once she'd stopped, she carefully wiped the tears that had gathered at the corners of her eyes.

"You make a fair point. But my friends are coming this afternoon. I can't ruin a long-awaited tea party punishing the kitchen staff and the head maid, can I?"

"Then how about cleaning the stables?"

"The stables?"

"Yes. Cutting out a tongue is over in an instant. But have those hands scrub down a stable, and she'll suffer plenty. The choice is yours, my lady."

"I asked for your opinion. I'm against punishing the kitchen and the head maid, but if that's your view, then so be it."

At Rizu's words, the maid standing nearby bowed her head.

She's probably got a healing potion stashed somewhere, right?

Knowing Lee Eunyheui, there was a good chance she'd slip the woman a potion on the sly.

Rizu sat down in her chair and extended her foot.

The moment Rizu picked out shoes to match her dress, someone rushed to put them on for her.

Real princess treatment.

The standing of House Faillia, maternal relatives to the emperor, was beyond anything I'd imagined.

Even the imperial family had to mind their behavior under all the watching eyes, but here, there was no such restraint, which meant Rizu could do whatever she pleased.

Aside from that small early morning incident, the rest of the day went smoothly enough.

Rizu's life was, in every sense, the life of a pampered noble lady.

Checking dresses and jewelry ordered from the capital, browsing a designer's personal collection brought in for her review and placing orders, then lunch.

After finishing lessons in imperial etiquette and piano, she spent the afternoon hosting a tea party with noble ladies who arrived one after another.

Calling it a tea party was generous. It was closer to a product review session.

Renowned pastry chefs from the capital and noble circles came in person to present handmade desserts and an array of teas, each one tasted and judged in turn.

Apparently how well something scored here decided how well it sold, or something like that.

None of it meant much to me.

"I heard about the new escort. Apparently quite skilled."

"So I've heard. Shame about the eye, though."

I can hear you, you know!

Don't talk trash about my eye! It's perfectly normal!

I gave the noble ladies eyeing me an awkward smile.

Ugh. Making a living really is exhausting.

I didn't get a moment to myself until after dinner, once Rizu had gone into her room.

Thankfully, there was a separate night guard assigned to watch her door.

After a quick bow, I stepped outside with Hiss.

The hallway lights glowed at even intervals.

"Eek!"

"Oh. Sorry about that."

A staff member came bursting out of the room next door and collided with me.

I caught the cup she'd been carrying like it was some sacred relic before it hit the floor.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Startled, the woman clutched the cup and bowed her head repeatedly.

She seemed far more relieved that the cup's contents had survived than concerned about the collision itself.

Still bowing, she hurried off toward Rizu's room.

"What was that just now?"

"Oh, medicine?"

"Medicine?"

"Like a vitality tonic."

My eyes met Hiss's.

He glanced around to make sure no one was listening.

"Be thankful Lady Rizu wasn't in a bad mood this morning."

"Ha. So, this tonic?"

"Nobles are hard to figure out sometimes."

Hiss deliberately looked away from the direction of Rizu's room.

"You're trying to become a noble too, aren't you?"

"Aren't you?"

"Same here, I guess."

"Then just leave it alone. Better not to know than to find out and end up worse off for it."

"Hm. Fine."

"Go ahead in first. I'll do one more round, just in case."

"Guess I won't say no to some rest, then."

"You could at least pretend to decline. We only just met."

"We're going to be seeing plenty of each other from now on. Take care."

I gave Hiss's shoulder a light pat and headed into my room.

When dawn came, Lee Eunyheui showed up right on schedule.

I slipped quietly out the window.

"You really don't have to wear all black like that."

I hadn't said anything yesterday since things were too hectic, but Lee Eunyheui's outfit looked suspicious to anyone with eyes.

"Better than showing my face around."

"Fair enough."

I kept Mana Detection running the whole time I talked with Lee Eunyheui.

That way I'd notice right away if anyone approached.

No real need to mention that to her.

I pulled off the eyepatch and blinked a few times.

Lee Eunyheui stared at me for a long moment.

"Something on my face?"

"N, no... That look. It suits you."

"Want to hear something even more interesting?"

"It usually suits me even better."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Lee Eunyheui pouted, clearly not following.

If Kang Hangyeol's face counted as decent, my actual face was several tiers above that.

Only reason I stuck to studying was because my family shot down everything else, but I could've, you know...

I nearly landed a child actor gig back in the day!

"What happened with that woman this morning?"

"Forgot to mention. She's stuck cleaning the stables for a month, but thanks to you, she gets to live. I slipped her one of the healing potions I keep on me."

"Figured you'd do something like that."

Lee Eunyheui gave a small shrug.

She didn't seem thrilled about the process, but the outcome was good enough that she'd let it slide.

"Oh, right. Do you know anything about the medicine Lady Rizu drinks every evening?"

"The one she takes every night? Someone said it's a vitality tonic."

"Vitality tonic my ass."

"What's wrong?"

"I told you this mansion smells like blood."

"You did say that."

Lee Eunyheui had said it too, but she didn't sound fully convinced.

When I bumped into that woman, I'd caught a glimpse of what she called a tonic.

"That's not a vitality tonic."

"Then what is it?"

"It smelled like blood."

"Blood?"

Hiss had clearly tried to hide it fast, but my eyes don't miss things like that.

"Whatever it is, it's definitely not a normal tonic."

"Animal blood, maybe? People drink that sometimes too."

"If you're going to drink blood anyway, why bother with animal blood when you could drink human blood?"

At the mention of human blood, Lee Eunyheui's face twisted.

"Fine, let's say it's human blood. Then where's she even getting it?"

"Where do you think? There's no shortage of humans around here."

Right now, this mansion alone employed over a thousand staff.

If one or two of them vanished without a trace, nobody would even blink.

"The staff's blood? So it's Muel blood?"

"Could be. Could not be."

"Igerus said Muels were going missing. She never said anything about non-Muel staff not going missing too."

Both Lee Eunyheui and I carried mana, which made us Muel by classification.

Igerus and Erel, who'd given us this Request, were Muel too.

Which meant they had zero interest in however many humans beneath that status went missing.

They might have hidden it on purpose, too.

There was still a chance those two were suspicious of us. I didn't want to bring that up and rattle Lee Eunyheui more than necessary.

"Those bastards."

Lee Eunyheui bit her lip.

Unlike me, still approaching this carefully, Lee Eunyheui seemed to have already made up her mind.

"They hid it on purpose."

"Why do you think that?"

"It's not about them being Muel. With how thoroughly they investigated, there's no way they missed information like that."

"They might've just decided it wasn't important. Let's not jump straight to suspicion."

"Says the guy who's already suspicious."

"I'm being careful."

"Do you actually believe that's human blood?"

"I'm telling you, yes."

Why won't she believe me when I'm telling her straight?

Lee Eunyheui pulled a sour face.

"You're actually insane."

I laughed it off, not bothered in the slightest.

There's a reason crazy people are called crazy.

It's because they don't think normally. That's exactly why people call them crazy.

And there's an easy way to understand how a crazy person thinks.

Go crazy right along with them.

Lee Eunyheui still looked doubtful, but I could say it with total certainty.

"That's human blood. No question."

"I can't believe this."

Footnotes:

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