“It’s already been 3 minutes since I served the tea. It must be cold by now, I’ll go warm it up right away!”

“It’s fine. The temperature should be perfect right now.”

But despite my refusal, the tea that hadn’t even settled down was replaced in front of me.

And after a while, it started again:

“Oh no! There’s dust on the carpet…! I’ll get that clean immediately.”

“No, it’s fine.”

“I cannot possibly leave you in such a filthy environment! Leave it to me!”

I quietly stared at the carpet which the castle worker was hurrying to clean.

Where the hell is the dust?

I couldn’t see it with my eyes which were better than normal people, but it seems experts are a different breed.

“It’s already 3 o’clock. Will you be going out? Or shall I bring you a snack?”

A while later, another employee came up to me and asked.

But at least, this person looked much calmer than all the others who had come into the room so far.

“No, I ate a lot for lunch and I’m full.”

But as soon as my words fell, the lady’s eyes went wide and gasped loudly.

“I’ll get you digestive medicine right away! No, maybe a doctor…!”

“Wait!”

I stopped the person who was about to dash out of the room in a fluster as if her previous calm was all a trick.

“You don’t need to do that; I don’t have indigestion. I’m just digesting slowly.”

“Then I’ll bring you tea that helps with digestion!”

Were all the people who work in the castle originally like this? They took care of me attentively without missing the slightest thing.

I could tell I was receiving special treatment, probably because I was a guest that Lakis brought himself.

But honestly, it was a little burdensome.

They acted like it was unacceptable if there was a shred of dust in my path. I felt like they might even try to feed me at this rate.

“Miss, you don’t have to lift a finger! I’ll hand you the papers!”

“No, it’s fine, really.”

“But what if you get a paper cut…!”

Finally, I closed the book and looked at them seriously.

“If I need something, I will let you know first so before that, you do not need to worry that much about it.”

When I spoke firmly, they seemed to realize that I did not like this kind of treatment.

But why did they turn pale and start fidgeting again?

“What the, why are you all gathered here?”

Right then, Lakis came into the room.

His eyes swept over the people in front of me and he raised his brow in displeasure.

“I-I’m sorry, Master!”

They were startled by Lakis’ appearance and quickly bowed their heads to apologize.

Seeing them like this, Lakis clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. But he didn’t send them out right away.

The next moment, Lakis turned to me and his face bloomed like a flower. His eyes, which were like a 10,000-year-old iceberg when he was facing other people, changed like a lake that melted in the spring.

“Ms. Yuri, how has your stay been? Is there anything uncomfortable?”

He asked me in an incredibly soft voice.

Instantly, the people who were bowing their heads behind Lakis looked up. The thin faces that entered my sight looked like a bunch of sheep before the slaughter.

They watched me, trembling as if their lives were at stake with my reply.

Lakis was smiling harmlessly in front of me like always but…

Seeing them so nervous, I could tell what kind of existence Lakis was to them.

“I am more than comfortable; they have been very attentive to me.”

When I replied, Lakis looked into my eyes for a moment as if to verify I was saying the truth. Then he smiled and said.

“Is that so? If there’s anything at all that you don’t like, you can tell me anytime.”

His tone was still very affectionate, but the contents of his speech were enough to intimate those behind him.

As they trembled, Lakis leveled them a cold gaze.

“What are you doing? I shouldn’t have to tell you to leave.”

“Yes, yes sir!”

They were startled again and hurriedly left after giving their salutations to Lakis.

“Have a good day, sir!”

As I watched them leave, I inwardly shook my head.

“Ms. Yuri, if you don’t like the people working for you, I can get rid of…I mean, should I change them?”

Lakis walked up to me and asked.

He said ‘get rid of them’ just now, didn’t he?

I’m sure I heard that right but Lakis’ expression was natural, so I just acted like I didn’t hear anything.

“No, you don’t need to.”

At that, Lakis mumbled, ‘Hmm, is that so?’ then he lightly fiddled with the paper in my hand.

“Did you find what you were curious about?”

I was looking at the remaining data concerning the ruin’s fragment that Lakis talked about.

“I’m not sure…”

My words trailed off as I looked down at the document I was reading.

Lakis said that he rarely entered the castle, so he didn’t even know that something like this was still here. Then when he was doing major cleaning and refurbishing of the castle because of me, he happened to discover these documents in a corner of the library.

I recalled the contents of the document I just read.

[On June 8, 442 A.D., an unknown ruin was discovered. The terrain was changed after a violent sandstorm, so the traces of an ancient ruin buried in the desolate land was revealed.]

The documents which seemed to be journals were not organized at all and the order was a mess. Some of the documents were so damaged that it was difficult to read what they said.

[We felt a mysterious energy within this ruin and there were signs of damage everywhere although the cause was hard to discern. Numerous people were sent to investigate the ruin’s origin, but in the end, we could never decipher the exact time it originated from.]

But after reading it myself, it wasn’t hard to get a rough idea of the order they were supposed to be in.

[An astonishing power lay dormant in the ruin. A researcher’s hand was accidentally pierced by debris while investigating the ruin. And that researcher’s physical properties immediately changed.]

This was the exact account of how the ruin’s fragment was discovered to have mysterious powers which led to the extensive experiments.

[Eventually, researchers assumed that the mysterious ruin was a remnant of the time when ancient alchemy prevailed.]

So far, there were only interesting facts and nothing that actually stood out. However, the next part drew my attention.

[There were indecipherable letters spread throughout the ruin. We assumed them to be a set of prayers or magic that was used in ancient times. Attached below is a transcription of the original text as is.]

And when I checked the ancient language’s original text, it made my blood curl.

[No entry…zone.]

The letters were crooked like it was written by a small child. And the shapes were unclear in several places.

[Safety…gement.]

[12th nuclear power plant.]

But since it was a language I already knew, it was easy for me to tell what it said after taking a closer look.

[Exit careful…]

[Nucl…power plant sta…]

There were many other letters written down, but these were the ones that caught my eye. And this was added at the end:

[—Some of the writings wore off and are impossible to verify.]

After looking through all the things that were said to be written in an ancient language, I was a little confused.

This was definitely the language I spoke in my previous life. So how come it was the ancient language?

Although a few words were missing from the record, it wasn’t hard to figure out what the contents were about. It gave me enough information to guess the identity of the ruin which was suddenly discovered one day.

I almost got chills at that moment.

Because with this, I could guess exactly what power was contained within the thing called the ruin’s fragment.

“Ms. Lakis, how many years did you live in the ruin again? Please tell me a little about it.”

I turned to Lakis and asked.

Lakis readily told me about it.

And after listening to him, I was more convinced of my guess.

However, the changes that occurred in people because of the ruin fragments were very different from the side effects I knew from my previous life’s knowledge.

I quietly pondered over it.

I simply couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on.

Could the ancient times where alchemy prevailed be the age of civilization that I knew about? Then didn’t that mean that the time I was living in was a thousand years in the future from my previous life?

However, I still had some doubts.

The novel never revealed the identity of the ruin which was suddenly discovered one day. So it was impossible to know whether the author had set the background of the novel as the world in the future.

“Hm, just as I expected, there isn’t much here.”

Lakis flipped the pages a few times and soon lost interest.

“How much longer are you going to look at this? I’m bored.”

The voice whispering in my ear grew subtle. Lakis quietly leaned his torso towards me. His face glistened beautifully under the sunlight from the window.

But because I was focused on something else right now, Lakis’ beauty trap didn’t work on me that well.

“Mr. Lakis, I’m going to go out for a bit.”

“You’re going somewhere again?”

When I rose up from my seat, Lakis frowned slightly in dissatisfaction.

“I’m going to check the location of the other ruin.”

Lakis’ mouth opened slightly as if my words were unexpected.

“Another ruin?”

“Yeah, another ruin.”

If my deduction was correct, there should be another ruin that was still around.

Lakis soon sighed under his breath and followed me.

“I’ll come with you.”

Like that, we left the castle.