Chapter 21: What He Left Behind

“All right. You've answered almost all of my questions, Hera,” Zeldryn said.

Hera remained standing where she was while Zeldryn let the silence linger. His gaze shifted toward the candle on the table, where the small flame moved gently whenever the night wind slipped through the gap in the window, leaning to one side before slowly straightening again.

He watched it while going over everything he had just learned about himself, the Giorry family, the mansion, and the kind of life Zeldryn had lived before he woke up in this body. Most of the questions that had been filling his head were finally beginning to receive answers, although somehow, the more answers he found, the stranger the previous owner's life seemed.

Zeldryn finally looked away from the candle. “Maybe just a few more questions.”

Hera immediately straightened slightly. “Please ask, Lord.”

Zeldryn gave a small nod. There was one thing that had actually been bothering him since earlier that afternoon.

“Why hasn't a single servant come to my room since I returned from the hall this morning?” he asked. “No one brought me food. No one checked on me. No one even knocked on the door, and I was injured pretty badly.”

Hera blinked, confusion crossing her face for a moment before quickly disappearing. She remembered that the person standing before her had supposedly lost most of his memories. Things that every servant in the mansion had long considered normal were no longer things Zeldryn knew.

“Well, Lord...” Hera lowered her head slightly. “Actually, that was a rule you created yourself.”

Zeldryn raised an eyebrow. “My rule?”

“Yes, Lord.” Hera nodded. “In the past, you forbade servants from entering your room without permission. The servants were only allowed inside when cleaning the room, changing the sheets, lighting the candles, or doing other work that specifically required them to enter. Other than that, no one dared come inside.”

Zeldryn fell silent as the explanation settled in. That was why the room had been so quiet since that afternoon. Even though his condition still hadn't fully recovered, he had spent quite a while alone in the room, even trying to sense mana, without a single person coming to check on him.

At first, he had assumed the servants simply didn't care much about him. Apparently, he had created the situation himself.

Hera, however, wasn't finished. Her expression slowly changed as her previously calm gaze dropped toward the floor, and the hands clasped together in front of her tightened slightly.

“Back then... when I had just started working here...” Hera's voice became quieter. “I once brought food to your room.”

Zeldryn watched her as she paused briefly before continuing.

“At the time, I still didn't fully understand the rules you had set. I thought that since it was time to eat, I should bring food to your room like a servant normally would.” Hera's fingers shifted slightly against each other. “But you became extremely angry when you saw me enter with the food.”

Zeldryn could already guess what came next. Unfortunately, his guess was right.

“You beat me that day, Lord.”

Silence returned to the room. Zeldryn said nothing as his eyes briefly dropped toward Hera's hands, where the bandages wrapped around both of them were still clearly visible beneath the candlelight.

Those injuries weren't from the incident Hera had just described. Yet seeing those bandages while hearing another story about the old Zeldryn left an uncomfortable feeling in his chest, and he eventually looked away.

“Then how did I normally eat?”

Hera answered almost immediately. “You usually went to the kitchen yourself, Lord.”

“To the kitchen?” Zeldryn asked, frowning slightly.

“Yes.” Hera nodded again. “Whenever you were hungry, you would go there and order the kitchen servants to prepare whatever food you wanted. Sometimes you would also take ingredients from the kitchen yourself.”

She paused, appearing to consider whether the next part was worth mentioning, but in the end, she continued anyway.

“And... sometimes you would make a mess of the kitchen and its ingredients whenever the food they prepared wasn't to your liking.”

Zeldryn remained silent for several seconds before slowly sighing. Everything was beginning to make more sense. The servants hadn't been neglecting him. They were simply following rules Zeldryn himself had created, and they were probably deliberately staying away from his room because they were afraid of doing something that might anger him.

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Thinking about it now, his habit of suddenly appearing in the kitchen whenever he became hungry was probably a nightmare for the servants working there as well, especially if the old Zeldryn truly used to wreck the place whenever the food wasn't exactly what he wanted.

Zeldryn leaned back slightly. Piece by piece, the smaller details of the previous owner's life were beginning to fit together, and almost all of them had been terrible so far.

He raised his head again. “All right.”

Hera focused her attention back on him.

“One last question.”

“Yes, Lord.”

Zeldryn went silent for a moment as the events in the hall that morning flashed through his mind again. He remembered Aeglo and Henry, along with the servants and guards who had been there, and most importantly, the words that had slipped from his own mouth at the time.

He still remembered saying that he didn't care whether those two lived or died. Back then, Zeldryn hadn't thought much about what would happen after he left the hall, but now he was starting to wonder.

“What happened to Aeglo and Henry after this morning?”

Hera immediately fell silent, and the change in her expression was obvious, though Zeldryn found it difficult to describe. There was a hint of sadness there, yet at the same time, part of her seemed relieved. Two emotions that should have contradicted each other appeared on her face at once.

“Aeglo is dead, Lord.”

Zeldryn didn't move. Even though he had already understood that possibility when he gave the order that morning, hearing it directly still felt different.

“Dead?”

“Yes, Lord.” Hera lowered her head. “After you left the hall, the guards and servants began beating both of them. Because you said you didn't care whether they lived or died, no one stopped them.”

Zeldryn listened without interrupting.

“Even some of the servants and guards who had been outside the hall were called inside. They took turns punching and kicking Aeglo and Henry.” Hera's voice remained quiet. There was no pride in the way she told the story, but Zeldryn couldn't hear any pity either. “Then one of the guards kicked Aeglo in the chest. Aeglo was thrown backward and fell. At first, everyone thought he had only passed out, but when they checked him, he was no longer breathing.”

Zeldryn stared at Hera. “And after that?”

“After Aeglo died, the guards started holding back against Henry.” Hera took a small breath. “Henry eventually lost consciousness. Between the wound from his severed finger and all the punches and kicks he received, he couldn't remain conscious any longer.”

Zeldryn still remembered Henry's finger being cut off in the hall that morning, so he didn't ask any further about the injury.

“He's still alive?”

“Yes, Lord.”

“Where is he now?”

“The guards took him to the holding cells near the village.”

Zeldryn slowly nodded. At least now he knew what had happened to both of them. Aeglo was dead, while Henry was still alive and locked up. The facts themselves were simple, yet precisely because they were so simple, Zeldryn didn't know how he was supposed to react.

He didn't know Aeglo, nor did he know Henry. Everything he knew about either of them came from what they had done to Hera and what he had personally witnessed that morning.

When Zeldryn looked at Hera again, he finally noticed that her hands were trembling. The movement was so slight that it would have been almost impossible to notice without paying close attention, but this trembling was different from what he had seen several times before.

Hera didn't look afraid. She wasn't stepping backward, her shoulders weren't tense, and there was no panic in her eyes as she tried to determine whether she had said something wrong. Instead, she looked as though something that had been pressing down on her for a long time had finally been lifted, even if only slightly.

Zeldryn watched her for several seconds before choosing not to say anything. He didn't know what Hera truly felt about Aeglo's death, and he didn't think he had the right to force her to explain it.

He looked away. “All right, Hera.”

Hera immediately straightened again.

“I've gotten all the answers I need for now.”

“Thank you, Lord.”

Zeldryn gave a small nod. “I'll probably still ask you a lot of questions after this, whether it's about the Giorry family, this mansion, or other things I should already know.”

'For now, you're the only person I can ask without raising too much suspicion,' Zeldryn thought.

Hera looked at him for a moment before lowering her head again. “I'll answer anything I know, Lord.”

“Good.”

Zeldryn paused, and when he spoke again, his voice had become slightly heavier. “But remember what I told you earlier.”

Hera's body immediately stiffened.

“No one can know that I've lost my memories, no matter who asks. Servants, guards, even members of the Giorry family.” Zeldryn stared at Hera seriously. “If even a single word about this leaves your mouth...”

He deliberately left the sentence unfinished. There was no need to say the rest when Hera already knew exactly what he was implying.

“You know what will happen to your family, don't you?”

Hera's eyes widened slightly, but only for a moment before she immediately bowed deeply.

“Of course, Lord. I already made my promise.” Her voice sounded much firmer than before. “I'll take this secret to my grave.”

Zeldryn didn't respond. He only nodded once, and Hera understood the gesture as a sign that their conversation was over.

She straightened herself again before bowing one more time. “In that case, I will take my leave, Lord.”

Hera turned and made her way toward the door, the faint sound of her shoes against the floor carrying through the quiet room. When she reached it, she extended a hand toward the handle, but before opening the door, she stopped briefly.

Still sitting on the bed, Zeldryn watched her back. Hera said nothing. She simply took a small breath before finally opening the door.

Air from the hallway immediately entered the room, accompanied by the light of several candles outside, which slipped through the opening and made the room slightly brighter than before. Hera stepped into the hallway, but before leaving completely, she turned around one last time.

“Good night, Lord.”

Zeldryn looked at her. “Good night.”

Hera lowered her head, then slowly pulled the door closed from the outside. The light from the hallway narrowed little by little until only a thin line remained across the floor.

The door closed with a quiet click.

Hera's footsteps could still be heard from the other side for several seconds, growing farther away and quieter until they disappeared completely. Zeldryn was alone again, and once more, the room was illuminated only by the dim yellow glow of the candle on the table.

Hera's voice was gone, and there were no more questions he needed to ask tonight. Only the occasional sound of the wind slipping through the gap in the window disturbed the silence.

Zeldryn remained sitting on the bed, staring blankly ahead. In a single night, he had learned more about the previous owner of this body than he had throughout the entire day since waking up.

Yet the more he learned about the old Zeldryn Giorry, the more problems seemed to be waiting for him in the future.