The sky was growing dark, with the evening glow and a gentle breeze.
Lauren had been here all afternoon, practicing his newly acquired talent abilities, thoroughly indulging in the thrill of having superpowers.
What boy hadn’t fantasized countless times in childhood about having a superpower to move through shadows?
The Shadow Power was clearly awesome!
The scenes he’d fantasized about during his student days had become reality.
It was just that the person here was no longer the boy he once was.
Fortunately, Lauren was best at finding joy in hardship, and he was having a great time.
He slowly stepped into a patch of shadow.
The parts of his body within the shadow became as if submerged in opaque, deep water, turning illusory, blurry, and invisible.
In an instant, he vanished from one patch of shadow, and silence briefly filled the air.
A few seconds later, from the darkest corner of the area, a large hand suddenly shot out and grabbed the ground.
Then, Lauren crawled out from within like a ghost.
Truth be told, ‘Shadow Step,’ ‘Shadow Meld,’ ‘Subspace’—although they were all support-type skills, their life-saving potential was maxed out.
The only drawback was the high mana cost.
They couldn’t be used consecutively in a short time and required a one-minute cooldown.
If these talents didn’t have the restriction of needing to be cast from within a shadow, he really could have cosplayed as Obito Uchiha and had a blast.
Lauren familiarized himself with his new talents, even developing a few smooth escape combos, before slowly standing up.
Although he had originally planned to have this conversation with Anne in the evening, his natural setting, as time ticked by, Lauren couldn’t help but wonder,
“Where is she? Does cleaning a study take half a day? How could she be this late?”
*
On the other side, Anne looked at the patched-up wall before her, nodded with a satisfied smile, clearly very pleased with her handiwork.
“As expected of me!”
Although her personal emotions were often uncontrollable, as a maid, she was obviously all-around and perfect.
For tasks ordered by her master, even in completely unfamiliar fields, she could focus, learn, and complete them meticulously.
Anne was also very proud of her abilities as a maid.
Even if she wasn’t skilled in construction, she could make up for it through short-term learning.
She’d gone out, gotten some cement, mixed mortar, and patched the wall.
“Those other women, all pampered and spoiled, how can they compare to meow!”
“The boss should rely on me more, meow.”
Thinking this, the little thoughts Anne had been suppressing rose again in her heart, her eyes revealing a restrained madness.
A strange voice emerged in her mind.
‘The boss is weak. He’ll be in danger if he leaves my side for even a moment. He can’t do anything without relying on me. I have to protect him, meow!’
‘Protect… protect… No! No!’
Anne shook her head, her breathing becoming rapid, as if she had recalled some unpleasant memories again.
Her tone cooled as she suppressed her burning jealousy and warned herself.
“I can’t drive him to desperation like in the previous life again. Just like the boss said himself, I have to give the boss some personal space, meow!”
“I can’t make the same mistake as in the previous life.”
Anne’s mood calmed.
She couldn’t help but look out the window but didn’t see Lauren’s figure.
She didn’t know where he had gone.
“I hope the boss hasn’t gone to mess with women, meow.”
*
Half the sun had sunk below the horizon, dusk approaching.
The lingering rays of sunlight shone upon the mansion, the light gradually receding.
Night was falling.
After Anne finished patching the wall, plus the time spent cleaning up, she had been so busy she hadn’t noticed it was already evening.
Outside, a few pitch-black crows cawed a few times, flying up to the branches of a large tree, looking strangely at the cat-eared maid with the gloomy expression by the window.
“So annoying!”
Oppression, silence, the passage of time—like love itself.
Anne’s current state of mind was one of dissatisfaction.
She wanted to be relied upon, wanted to monopolize, even though she knew full well it would lead to a bad outcome in the end.
‘Was love really this painful?’
Anne knew she wasn’t a patient person in this regard.
She sighed.
“Boss, I don’t want to endure things I hate, meow. But for you, I’m willing to, meow!”
Without further words, Anne closed the window, drew the curtains, and walked toward the gradually darkening world outside.
*
In the gazebo amidst the flower field, sunflowers hung low.
Lauren watched as Anne walked toward him carrying a bamboo basket, her face still wearing that seemingly eternally sunny smile.
She was waving at him enthusiastically.
“Boss, you probably haven’t had dinner yet, meow!”
Under the moonlight, she spread out a blanket.
The basket didn’t contain any fancy food, just some roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes, same as usual.
Why roasted sweet potatoes? Lauren was quite puzzled.
‘Seriously, I’m a noble, aren’t I?’
Lauren knew that, according to the setting, his family had indeed fallen into decline, but they shouldn’t have fallen so low as to eat roasted sweet potatoes to stave off hunger at night.
Weren’t there bread, coffee, and salad in the morning?
Seeing his surprise, Anne asked, puzzled,
“Boss, is it not tasty? We grew these ourselves. I think they taste pretty good.”
“Ah, no, that’s not what I meant.”
Wanting to know the details of the household’s situation, Lauren asked,
“I haven’t paid attention in a long time. How are the family’s finances? I remember you’ve been managing them, right?”
“Huh?”
Anne was surprised he would ask such a question.
The boss usually never inquired about household affairs, always immersed in studying forbidden black magic books.
Although Lauren was deeply engrossed in researching black magic, Anne didn’t have too many objections.
His visible talent was there, but after years of research, he had produced no results.
Not only were there no results, but he had also exhausted the family’s already meager wealth, joining all sorts of strange organizations that were clearly just there to scam money.
Anne had tried to stop him before, but it was useless.
The boss was too stubborn, and she was too soft-hearted toward him.
She had already, in fact, taken control of all the family’s assets.
The boss was a useless, fallen noble.
Even if she wanted to kick him out and take the family fortune for herself, she could have done it.
But the boss simply had no sense of crisis.
If it were anyone else, Anne couldn’t imagine anyone being as polite as she had been.
Only her loyalty, only she respected the boss’s wishes, having taken care of him for over a decade since he was a child.
Recalling the past, if it weren’t for her managing the family business single-handedly, running the mansion, planting the fields, harvesting the crops…
Even this sunflower field, she had planted it seed by seed with her own hands because she remembered the boss liking them when he was little.
Because he liked them, she did it.
At the same time, she also traded crops with merchants outside to maintain the family’s financial stability.
Otherwise, with just the boss, a prodigal son, they would have been out on the streets long ago.
Anne could say without a shred of guilt:
Loyalty, unmatched!
As for numbness, it wasn’t that she hadn’t felt that emotion.
Watching the family go from being large and prosperous over a decade ago to now having only the two of them left, especially with the boss being so unambitious in this situation, it was inevitable to feel numb and disappointed.
The reason she could persevere was because the late master had trained her as the one to inherit the family business on his deathbed.
The master had once frankly told her about her origins.
She had been specifically bought from a slave market.
At first, she had been very angry.
But later, she wasn’t angry anymore, because the master said he would give the entire family business to her!
The master had told her that due to a certain curse, this vast family was likely to end with the boss’s generation.
This family fortune was her reward, and she had to promise to at least take care of the boss for this lifetime.
Until today, she had steadfastly kept this promise, taking care of the good-for-nothing boss.
Even with this promise, Anne never felt she was the master of this house.
She still diligently fulfilled her duties as a maid.
In the years after the master’s death, this family business gradually depreciated due to the young master, becoming a negative asset.
Everyone who had once been in the mansion had secretly left.
Only she had remained unwaveringly loyal, persisting until now.
Oh, right, in the previous life, it was also today…
Anne recalled the distant memory.
It was also at this same location, in this gazebo amidst the sunflower field.
The boss finally awakened, with that look of remorse.
She truly fell in love with the boss then, beginning that twisted relationship.
This was the memory from Anne’s perspective.
Facing the boss’s awakened appearance now, Anne replied sincerely,
“As for family assets, our current property is just this mansion along with the surrounding few dozen acres of land, meow.”
“As for finances, because we need to set aside tuition for the boss to attend the magic academy…”
Anne hesitated before saying,
“After all, the boss’s magic talent is very poor. To force his way into the magic academy to study, the academy’s fees are naturally higher, meow… Besides the land’s produce, we don’t have any extra income…”
“In short, we’re poor, meow!”
“Poor enough that we can’t afford to buy meat every week, meow!”
“But boss, don’t be afraid. Luckily, there are only the two of us in the mansion, and I can hunt, farm, and do business!”
“So don’t worry about going hungry, meow. I won’t let the boss go hungry, meow!”
Anne smiled at Lauren, trying hard to make him feel the situation wasn’t so dire.
But an awkward atmosphere still permeated the air!
‘So the family’s situation is already this dire?!’
Lauren felt his vision go dark for a moment, stunned and speechless, unable to accept it.
‘When I played the game, this villain of mine seemed to live quite lavishly, showing up everywhere. Turns out he was just putting on a show with loans? Living this miserably behind the scenes? Was he even buying train tickets on credit?’
‘How come I transmigrated into a noble and I’m still poor? I dreamed of living a life of luxury and indulgence!’
No, this was unacceptable!
Lauren silently added another item to his life’s task list.
Besides getting stronger and changing his fate, he also had to make a lot of money and revive the family!
So, he made a promise to Anne,
“I will definitely earn money properly and make our lives prosperous again!”
But these words seemed rather unconvincing at the moment.
After just having this family finance exposé, they both fell into an involuntary silence.
For a moment, neither spoke.
They sat facing each other, each holding a roasted sweet potato, taking small bites.
It seemed they had no other topics to discuss.
Their gazes met and then dodged each other, each hiding different little thoughts in their hearts.
Anne also felt the strange sense of distance in the atmosphere.
They were once the closest people to each other, so why did they feel like strangers now?
Perhaps it was because of the century-long separation, or perhaps it was the oppressive air.
Anne, for a moment, didn’t know what to say.
And the boss was unusually silent too, his eyes evasive.
‘Damn it, meow! The atmosphere was fine just a moment ago. Why has it become like this, meow!’
Anne couldn’t help but complain in her mind.
‘Was it my wording just now? Did I scare the boss? How did I make the atmosphere so stiff, meow?’
Why on earth had it become this wordless state?
Anne thought back to the previous life.
What should the boss be saying at this time?
Ah, I remember!
According to her memory, tonight the boss was supposed to confess his past to her, then kneel before her, crying bitterly, begging for her forgiveness.
‘The boss seems to have stopped being a good-for-nothing. The boss is awakening!’
This was clearly something to be happy about, so why!
Why did she feel so displeased, so uncomfortable inside!
Why did her heart not want him to be like this, meow?
Ah, right, it was back then.
Watching the boss change, she herself changed too, becoming someone unlike herself.
Seeing the boss, who had always been cold to her, who had always given her orders, in such a pitiful state—this scene she had never imagined.
The aloof boss, the stubborn boss, the boss with extremely strong self-respect, kneeling before her…
She absolutely wouldn’t feel happy about that?
Anne couldn’t help but think back to that time.
Besides her tangled emotions, a strange sense of pleasure had risen in her heart.
‘Even though the past should be a sad thing, I couldn’t help but show a sick smile on my face, my breathing rapid.’
‘Why?’
‘Sorry, Father and Mother. Even though I was hurt, my mind is soaring with excitement right now, meow!’
‘I might really not be a normal cat. My brain seems broken, meow.’
Wait, hold on.
Didn’t the master promise the family business to me, meow?
The boss…
Seems not to know the master told me about this!
Should I confess?
But, seeing this side of the boss, I developed a selfish desire.
My heart was screaming madly:
‘I want the boss to rely on me forever!’
‘Forever and ever, he only needs to rely on me. He doesn’t need anything else. He just needs to stay by my side forever as a good-for-nothing. I’ll take care of the boss forever!’
And so, I said those words.
‘”The boss harmed our family. I must make the boss atone, meow!”‘
‘”But the weak boss can’t survive without me. If the boss dies, how can he atone? The boss must be bound to me forever, must rely on me forever, meow!”‘
Anne no longer knew what was going through her head at that time.
It was illogical, irrational, raving madness.
It was like flipping a forbidden switch, only wanting to satisfy her own dark desires, and then fate inevitably steered toward a destructive end.
And now, the boss wasn’t speaking, not like in the previous life.
Anne also didn’t dare to speak.
Silence was the theme of this evening’s bridge.
Anne racked her brains, trying to think of something to say to break this silent atmosphere.
As for Lauren, he was troubled over how to explain to Anne, how to say:
“Your parents were killed by me!”