The two of them finally reached the front of the servant’s quarters. The area was deathly quiet, as all the other Aethelgard staff had long since fallen into a deep sleep.

Javien stopped right in front of the simple wooden door. Slowly, he loosened his grip on the edge of Olivia’s sleeve.

With that release, the warmth that had been coursing through her hand seemed to be pulled away, leaving behind a stinging cold that settled back into her palm.

Olivia, who had been busy lost in thought while eye-candy shopping at Javien’s broad back, jolted as their steps came to a halt.

She quickly corrected her posture, standing before Javien while clutching both hands tightly in front of her apron.

Her face still bore traces of a reddish flush from the embarrassment of being caught staring at someone for so long in the dark.

"Ah!... we’ve arrived,"

Olivia whispered, her voice barely audible, anxious that she might wake the other servants in the adjacent rooms.

Javien lowered his gaze, staring straight into Olivia’s eyes. Under the dim light of the corridor, his pair of pale violet eyes looked incredibly weary, yet filled with a profound sincerity.

"Go inside, Olivia. Lock the door from the inside," Javien said, his voice lowered to a deep, resonant growl.

His tone was exactly that of a protector who would not budge until the person he was guarding was safe within.

From the corner of her eye, Olivia noticed the two masked entities that had been following them standing motionless on the cold corridor floor, observing their interaction with orderly precision.

"Yes, I know... you should go back to your room now, Javien. Don’t go wandering around anymore," Olivia replied, managing to squeeze in a cute, nagging reminder because she was still worried about his demon energy, which hadn’t fully recovered.

Javien didn’t answer; he simply carved a smile so thin it was almost imperceptible, touched by his personal maid’s concern.

He nodded once, slowly.

Olivia turned away, pushed her door open gently, and stepped inside.

Before she closed it, she peeked out through the gap. Javien was still standing firm, not budging an inch in the middle of the cold corridor, faithfully waiting until she had fully shut her door.

Click.

The sound of the door bolt sliding into place echoed softly in the silence of the night.

As soon as the door was tightly shut, Javien exhaled a heavy breath in the empty corridor.

His broad, tense shoulders finally slumped slightly. He bowed his head, looking at his own palm that now felt empty again.

Thank you, Olivia...

Javien’s heart whispered, laden with unspoken emotions before he turned his sturdy frame to walk back to his own grand room in the dead of the silent night.

Click.

Once the bolt was locked from the inside, Olivia immediately leaned her back against the wooden door. She let out a long, shuddering breath, her heart still racing wildly from their time in the corridor.

She touched both her cheeks in the darkness of her quiet room.

"It’s so hot..."

Olivia whispered softly. Her face felt like it was about to burn up again as the image of Javien’s broad back under the flickering torchlight flashed through her mind.

Those broad shoulders, that steady posture... oh my god!, it was truly a challenge to the faith of a personal maid!

"Hish! What is wrong with you, Olivia?! Focus, focus! You’re just a personal maid here, not the main heroine who can just feast her eyes on a Knight whenever she pleases!"

Olivia patted her own cheeks rather hard, trying to chase away the image of Javien from haunting her peace of mind.

She walked slowly in the dark toward her small bed, wanting to lie down quickly and rest the brain that had been running a marathon all night.

But just as she was about to settle onto the edge of the bed, Olivia’s movement froze.

The room, which should have been empty, suddenly felt cold. And behind the dim moonlight that streamed through the window..

Zasss!

One of the masked entities that had followed them earlier was suddenly standing in the middle of her room, perfectly still!

Olivia almost screamed in hysteria, but she quickly covered her mouth with both hands, realizing the other servants’ rooms were just behind the wall.

Her eyes widened, staring at the masked creature that, it turned out, knew how to take a shortcut through walls.

The entity tilted its head slightly, observing Olivia, who was panicking in her attempts to stifle her scream, with a look that...

...looked like it was cat-smiling behind its mask.

"You... what are you doing in my room?!"

Olivia whispered, her voice harsh but stifled in her throat. Her heart, which had just started to calm down because of Javien, now leaped again because of this mysterious entity’s surprise heart attack.

The creature didn’t answer with a loud voice; instead, it moved toward Olivia slowly.

Its long, unique claws the ones Olivia had seen in Javien’s room earlier moved slowly before it pointed out the window toward the corridor where Javien was walking back alone.

"We only wished to ensure... that you do not choose the wrong path, Olivia," the entity’s ethereal voice echoed directly into Olivia’s head, causing her to jolt.

"Because the destiny that was bound to death by our Master... now rests entirely in your small hands."

Olivia blinked, her eyes darting between the entity and the empty space in front of her. Her head felt heavy, as if the information she was hearing was far greater than what her brain could process.

"Huh?..."

The word slipped out, barely audible.

"What do you mean... my hands? "

Olivia whispered, her voice trembling violently as she stared at her own palms.

They were just ordinary hands... hands that spent every day doing kitchen work, carrying trays, and scrubbing floors. How could hands as small as these hold the destiny of a Knight as great as Javien?

She shook her head slowly, trying to dispel the dizziness beginning to grip her forehead. The connection between her life as an ordinary maid and the fate of that man felt so distant, so bizarre.

"I don’t understand..." she whimpered, frustration and confusion warring within her.

"Why does everything get more nonsensical by the day? Why am I the middleman? I’m just... I’m just a maid."

She felt that the longer she stayed in this world, the more of an outsider she became.

Everything felt awkward, as if she were standing in the middle of a play, yet she hadn’t been given a script left only to dance to a rhythm she didn’t know.

Olivia turned away from the entity, walking listlessly toward the window. She leaned her forehead against the cool glass, staring at the full moon bright in the sky.

"The longer I stay, the less I understand the story of this world..." Olivia whispered to the moon, her voice heavy with fatigue.

"I used to think I knew what I was doing, but now... I feel like I’m standing in the wrong place, at the wrong time."

She bit her fingernails slowly, her eyes fixed on the garden below illuminated by moonlight.

She didn’t want to run away or live freely she just wanted everything to be ’normal’ again, or at the very least, she wanted to understand why all of this was happening to her.

Behind her, the entity remained standing stiffly, its silent presence making Olivia feel even smaller and more confused by the destiny suddenly forced upon her shoulders.

The masked creature didn’t answer immediately. Its presence, which had felt cold, suddenly shifted into an aura so heavy it was as if the entire room were being pressed down by the weight of time gone by.

"Because you are the intersection point, Olivia,"

the ethereal voice echoed again, this time deeper, as if coming from behind the veil of another world.

Olivia jolted, turning quickly to face the entity again.

"Intersection point? What is that? I’m nobody in this world. Javien is a General, a powerful Knight. Me? I’m just a maid !"

And I am just someone who shouldn’t be in this crazy novel... and an outsider here.

She thought to herself.

Olivia tried to object, but her voice didn’t sound convincing. Her heart was beating fast not from fear, but from a growing sense of unease.

The entity didn’t respond to Olivia’s protest. Instead, the creature raised its long-clawed hand, pointing directly at Olivia’s chest.

"I know I shouldn’t say this, however, our Master... The seven years he sacrificed... the seven years he spent in darkness and pain... it all began and ended with you. You are not merely a ’maid’, Olivia. You are the origin."

Olivia froze. Her blood seemed to stop flowing.

The origin?

Something in her memory surfaced, but it was a memory from when they were in the basement.

Javien’s eyes looking at her sharply. There was more, but it was like a screen that had been locked, leaving only blurred fragments.

"Don’t play games," Olivia whispered, her voice breaking. There was absolutely no clue regarding what the creature was saying.

"He... he did all of that for me?"

"He will not let you disappear once more,"

the entity replied shortly before its body began to slowly fade, turning into thin wisps of black smoke that vanished into the night breeze flowing through the window.

Olivia was left alone in the quiet room once again.

She fell onto the edge of the bed. Her hands were still shaking. She looked out the window, toward the hallway where Javien had walked back.

She wondered what had actually happened is before... all she remembered was her life as a human in the modern world. Her apartment, the smell of instant noodles... she could still smell them in her nose.

She was certain all of that was real. And perhaps the words the creature spoke were just meant to pressure her.

Now, she was struggling to understand why Javien had been so possessive and afraid to let go of her hand earlier.

Or maybe... have I actually been here before?

She whispered slowly. Her eyes opened wide, staring blankly at the wall. For a split second, her gaze fell upon the thread on her wrist. It was pulsing faintly, calmly.

"Javien..." she said the name softly, this time not with awe, but with a heavy feeling she had only just realized.

"I must ask him for an explanation... about this puzzle," she whispered.

She knew her purpose in entering this novel had only been to change the fate of her favorite character.

She was no longer just a personal maid. She was the destiny that a blind General was desperately trying to save...