The night fog was too thick, so Shade simply went into the glass Greenhouse to look at the flowers blooming in winter. Besides the floral fragrance, the Greenhouse was filled more with the smell of fertilizer and soil, but Shade did not dislike that mixed scent.
He had originally planned to return to the banquet hall before the gathering ended, but not long after arriving at the Greenhouse, its door was pushed open again. It was neither the garden keeper nor a maid looking for Shade, but a young girl he did not recognize, carrying a Kerosene Lamp.
Of course, her most notable feature was that she was not wearing any clothes.
Yet despite her lack of clothing, the stranger was lavishly adorned with jewelry on her head and hands, and even in places where jewelry should not have been. The red ornament in her hair was emitting a faint pink glow, protecting her from the winter cold.
Shade knew she could not possibly be cold, because her skin was flushed, and she was clearly rather hot.
"Perhaps you do not care about your reputation, but I do."
Shade said this without either advancing or retreating:
"What did your master send you here for?"
The girl looked human, but Shade could clearly sense that her essence was no longer human.
She had a rather beautiful face and appeared to be around twenty. Though he had initially felt that he did not know her, Shade soon remembered who she was. He had seen her only once before: she was a maid at Earl Dalmanin's estate, where "Desire" had been hiding, one of the personal servants of the Countess who had voluntarily served "Desire."
Shade had entered and left that estate many times and had seen her on many occasions. The last