After that, her memories were fragmented and sporadic due to being overwhelmed with sleep.
Navia managed to sleep until it was time for dinner, then groggily ate some easily digestible food and took her medicine.
After swallowing the bitter medicine, sweet honey water flowed into her mouth.
That sweetness again made her feel dreamy and relaxed.
'The medicine is a bit strong, so it might be hard to wake up,' Minerva's voice resonantly spread to her ears. She faintly remembered mumbling thanks in her half-asleep state.
Navia never relaxed during her entire stay in Agnes.
She didn't dare let her guard down for even a moment, not knowing what could happen.
There, hyenas who didn't even bother to hide their hostility surrounded her.
But that didn't mean this place was safe either.
Still, she somehow managed to sleep deeper than usual.
Like a baby bird sleeping in the embrace of its mother's wings.
Blink.
Navia stared at the black canopy with a blurry gaze.
Her still sleep-drunk eyes barely registered where she was.
'Ah. This is the Eseled mansion.'
Not Agnes's guest room, nor the 3rd-floor Emerald room, but Eseled.
Realizing this, Navia unconsciously sighed in relief.
'I've been sleeping all day.'
The dawn began to break into her vision.
'Has it been two days already while I dawdle?'
Navia calmly recalled the tasks she needed to do, shaking off her sleep completely.
Lark said he didn't need money, but that couldn't possibly be true.
'At least the lower servants wouldn't think so.'
Gaining Lark's favor was as important as winning over the servants he valued.
'To do that, first...'
'Do I need to be employed here?'
Becoming a foster daughter was out of the question, so she decided to aim for becoming a servant.
Before starting her active endeavors, Navia first sought water.
Using water to stave off hunger had been a long-standing habit of hers.
Then she saw it.
Cookies crammed with chocolate chips, filled in a wooden basket.
Yesterday, she was too sleepy to eat even a bite of snack, not even thinking about it.
Just being able to have a nutritious meal with plenty of solids was satisfying enough.
'These chocolate cookies are definitely mine.'
Navia hesitated, then carefully picked up a cookie.
'There's no harm in trying one since someone prepared it with kindness.'
Her small lips parted and the edge of the cookie crisply broke off.
Chew chew.
Swallow.
Navia was at a loss for words.
'What kind of taste is this?'
Sweet. The apple juice was incredibly sweet, but this was even sweeter.
And it had a flavor she hadn't felt in anything else.
Somewhat bitter, yet smooth, rich, and deep.
Ah, right. It was aristocratic.
This flavor was more aristocratic than anything else.
A taste she had never been allowed to enjoy before.
So this is how delicious chocolate can be.
Eating it makes you this happy.
How strange. Such a curious taste.
Navia didn't even realize she was gobbling down the cookies.
Then belatedly, she noticed only one cookie was left in the basket.
And why were her hands so black?
Her palms, stained in patches the same color as the chocolate, embarrassed her greatly.
Navia panicked at her poor self-control, then calmed herself down.
'It's fine. I can just wash my hands.'
But there was nothing to clean her hands with in the room.
'What should I do?'
Should she go out and find something like a towel?
'...Let's just go out.'
Navia sluggishly got out of bed, her movements slow and clumsy.
She felt a tingling pain throughout her body as the anesthesia wore off.
Navia approached the door and struggled to open it with a clenched fist.
Click.
Leaving the dark room, an even darker hallway came into view. Yesterday, she wasn't in her right mind to take it all in, but seeing it properly today, it felt overwhelmingly imposing.
'Like the master of this mansion.'
Navia thought the mansion was excessively quiet.
Running a giant mansion would require an immense number of servants.
Even a house that employs few servants shouldn't be this quiet.
It was strange that there was not even a single guard in front of the main gate yesterday.
And why would Countess Romanov herself take the role of the mansion's caretaker?
Everything broke Navia's common sense.
She remembered something Nikan said arrogantly.
'How can a family too poor to employ servants be a duke's house? If that's the case, Eseled should give up their duke title.'
'It certainly seems like they're financially struggling. But the duke is indifferent to money to an extent that is strange.'
Navia couldn't understand the reason and sighed.
People usually wish for money or power, or if not, they wish for someone. They want something to own.
If Lark didn't care about money or power, then was it that he wished for someone?
If so, why doesn’t he go outside?
'Complex.'
Regardless, she didn't know what he was wishing for, but it was good that she could walk around without worrying about someone's gaze.
If this place was an ordinary ducal residence, she would have tried to clean the windows with the snow that had accumulated instead of going outside to look for a towel.
As Navia walked down the hall, she thought that the quiet residence reminded her of a haunted house.
'No, it's more like a hall.'
The dark and quiet place felt like a hall that had the shape of the residence.
She didn't know why she had such a feeling.
Perhaps it was because she was a regressor, who had a unique perception.
'But then, why had the Duke dyed the mansion black?'
She knew that there was a theory that the duke dyed the residence black due to the aftermath of a magic, but she wondered why the residence was stained black.
'Then, is there some magic hidden in this residence?'
Navia thought that the reason for Lark not going outside might be related to it.
And what secret was hidden in this residence?
And how would that secret affect her survival?
'Ouch, it's complicated.'
As more variables had to be considered, Navia stopped trying to keep her head from hurting and almost stopped pressing the knuckle game.
'Well, start by cleaning your hands.'
Each noble residence had its own personality, but it was similar in that it had rules for a house.
The room Navia was using was a bedroom, and there was usually a dressing room or a restroom near it.
In addition, a towel for drying off after bathing was placed in the dressing room.
The thing Navia was looking for was that towel.
'If I just find the dressing room.'
Navia stopped looking around the room and stopped.
As she turned her head, she suddenly felt the presence of someone ascending from the 2nd floor and met the eyes of a blonde nobleman.
"Ugh."
Apparently, the nobleman was taken aback by the fact that he didn't know he would meet her eyes.
Navia already knew who it was.
'That's Count Suleiman Genegar.'
He was the nobleman who had appeared alongside Prince Creed in the previous life and had the same face.
He was younger than her memory, but she clearly remembers his iconic hair and tall height, which were as impressive as Lark's.
But at that moment, she didn't know his identity.
It would be an ambiguous situation to mention the name of a nobleman.
Since her hands were dirty, she didn't give a formal greeting by grabbing the hem of her clothes. Instead, she neatly folded her hands and made a respectful bow.
"Hello?"
Count Suleiman was well aware of the unfavorable impression he made.
Children were scared of his imposing body and cruel appearance.
However, Navia laughed comfortably and greeted him.
'Well, she’s not scared of the lord.'
His gaze soon began to carefully inspect her silver hair and red eyes.
Silver hair was a very rare color.
Her eyes were even rarer than that.
But she had both.
The strange combination left Suleiman momentarily speechless.
‘If the master had married and had children earlier, he might have had a daughter with such beautiful eyes…’
As he thought about it, he felt bitter.
Suleiman intentionally came to the second floor early before Margaret began her activities.
Margaret was already at a loss for what to do as soon as she saw Navia, so Suleiman could intervene to prevent her from siding with the child.
Suleiman understood Margaret's feelings all too well.
‘It's probably because she's reminded of her deceased daughter.’
Her daughter had died from the magical reflux disease at the tender age of eight.
Coincidentally, Navia was also eight years old, so seeing a young child who had suffered so much and been abandoned here would be impossible for Margaret to ignore.
But more than Nabiya's pitiful circumstances, Shuleman paid more attention to the danger that the girl herself posed.
Navia was excessively cunning.
No, the word 'wicked' would fit her better.
Even when facing the lord, she didn't just faint, but was threatening an eight-year-old? That was impossible.
Moreover, the insight into the future and the bold execution ability, which were absolutely not that of a child.
Suleiman suspected that Navia might have been trained in some way in Agnis. Maybe she was brainwashed by magic.
'If that's the case, I'll check it out myself.'
He came with the aura of a commander, searching for the child.
He had absolutely no intention of being swayed by the child's words or situation. However...
Navia was greeting him with a cheerful face, her lips and hands covered in chocolate.
Well, this was a very different picture from what he had imagined.
