Chapter 48: The Smile Twists

“How did Young Master find the taste of the fish?” Anne suddenly asked afterward.

“Mm. It was really good.”

“I’m so glad. Then all the effort I spent catching it wasn’t in vain.”

A gentle smile bloomed on Anne’s graceful face, and Muen couldn’t help but space out a little.

As terrifying as a yandere could be, he had to admit—when Anne acted like a normal person, she was a truly stunning beauty. And her figure, hidden beneath the maid uniform, was no less striking than Celicia’s.

If she could just go back to being normal... it wouldn’t be the worst thing to date her.

Of course, that was a huge “if.”

“Now that I look at you, Anne, you’re completely soaked. What happened?”

With the dim lighting, Muen hadn’t noticed it earlier. But now that Anne mentioned it, he realized—she looked like she’d just swum four hundred meters across the river. Her normally immaculate hair clung to her forehead, her skirt was speckled with mud.

For someone as meticulous as Anne, this was unimaginable.

“It’s nothing, Young Master. I just got caught in the rain a bit,” she replied.

“The rain?”

Muen frowned.

“If you got soaked, why didn’t you take a bath and change?”

“Because I wanted you to have lunch as soon as possible, of course. Weren’t you starving, Young Master?” Anne replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“Lunch could’ve waited. What if you catch a cold from this?!”

Muen’s expression turned stern.

“Go take a hot bath immediately. Soak for a good while, change into warm clothes, sit by the fireplace. And to be safe, you’d better ask the doctor for some medicine to prevent a cold.”

“Young Master...”

Anne looked slightly dazed, but her cheeks quickly turned visibly red.

“You care about me that much... I’m so touched, I want to—”

“Alright, stop getting horny and just go!”

“Understood.”

Soaking in Muen’s rare display of warmth, Anne nodded obediently and began cleaning up the food scraps with practiced ease.

Even as Muen rushed her repeatedly, Anne still took her time, carefully collecting every last fishbone before she finally left.

“Then, Young Master, I’ll excuse myself for now.”

“Get out already!”

“Understood.”

Though Muen yelled at her like she was a stray dog, Anne only looked more blissfully happy as she left, practically skipping.

Silence returned to the narrow, dim cell.

Muen watched her disappear into the darkness. His serious expression... immediately collapsed.

And then—

His smile began to twist...

“Heh.”

“Hehehe.”

“Hehehehehe.”

“As expected, love really does lower a woman’s IQ.”

“This is it. This is my chance.”

...

Once he was certain Anne was truly gone, Muen rolled his shoulders.

Though his movement was severely restricted by the manacles, the effort allowed him to roughly assess the limits of his mobility.

“Just as I thought—the first step is freeing my hands.”

He glanced to the side.

To completely restrict him, his hands had been shackled and pinned to the wall, leaving him posed like a crucified figure.

That position rendered him utterly helpless. He had to break free of the manacles first.

“It’s fine... I can do this...”

Muen took a deep breath, eyes flashing with long-held resolve.

“I practiced this over and over in the Black Book’s space. I can do it.”

Decision made.

Muen pressed his right thumb against his palm and—pushed.

Crack.

With a sharp pop of shifting bone, searing pain slammed into his brain. Cold sweat poured down his face.

“Tsss—damn, even if I practiced it in the Black Book... this pain in real life is unbearable.”

“Guess that’s dislocating a thumb for you.”

Still, the agony wasn’t for nothing.

With the thumb dislocated, his hand could now slip easily out of the manacle.

Television wasn’t lying!

Once his right hand was free, Muen braced it against the floor, lined it up—and slammed it down hard.

Crk!

Another sickening pop of bone. Another wave of white-hot pain.

“Gah—fuck, resetting the bone hurts way worse than popping it out.”

Muen tilted his head back, teeth clenched against the agony.

But he didn’t have the luxury of resting.

His thumb joint was still bruised, his hand trembled uncontrollably—but there was no time to care.

Anne could return at any moment. He had to move fast.

Muen raised his hand and, with trembling fingers, retrieved something from beneath his tongue.

A fishbone.

The one he had carefully hidden—just barely escaping Anne’s notice.

His key to freedom.

Lockpicking LV8.

Muen glanced at the Black Book’s display, feeling a surge of pride at all the effort he had put in.

Father, Grandfather, ancestors of House Campbell... I was wrong about you.

Those bizarre books you stuffed into the library weren’t useless after all!

At the very least, “Unlocking with Fishbones: 100 Methods of Burglary” was proving extremely valuable right now!

“Alright. Let’s begin.”

He took several deep breaths, steadying his nerves—and his hand.

Then, with the fishbone pinched in his right fingers, he carefully reached for the keyhole on his left-hand manacle, heart pounding in his throat.

This was it. All or nothing.

...

The result was even better than expected.

With his LV8 lockpicking skill, not only did Muen undo the manacles, but even the large, reassuring-looking padlock on the cell door popped open easily under the fishbone’s touch.

Anne clearly hadn’t imagined something like this. She’d been thorough enough to strip him of clothing, but never suspected he could master a fishbone lockpick.

Father, Grandfather, Campbell ancestors—I thank you once again!

It’s fantastic that all of you were muscle-brained illiterates who never touched the books you collected.

“I need to get out of here. Fast.”

With the lock open, Muen carefully slipped out of the cage.

Outside, the lighting was even dimmer. A single glowing stone several meters above ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) served as the only source of illumination.

Fortunately, it was enough to see.

“This place... looks like a basement storage room?”

Looking around at the stacked clutter, Muen vaguely recognized the place.

It was one of the maids’ old underground storerooms on the edge of the Ducal estate.

After some renovations to the grounds, the room had been abandoned.

He remembered coming here on an “adventure” when he was little—only to trip in the darkness and fall hard.

He instinctively touched his forehead. There was still a faint scar there if he felt carefully enough.

“I think it was Anne—just after she became my personal maid—who found me crying and carried me out of here.”

“That was probably when I started relying on her more and more.”

“Back then... she was so gentle. Like a big sister.”

...

So how the hell did she turn into this terrifying yandere?!