Magic Manor 11

Through his grogginess, Lu Mi faintly heard a man and a woman arguing furiously.

He opened his eyes and found himself lying on a sofa in the castle hall. Good. I made it into the dream.

There was no glaring sunlight. Outside, rain fell beneath a gloomy sky.

Suddenly, with a crash, a vase smashed against the wall beside him and shattered.

If he had not rolled off the sofa so quickly, the fragments would have struck him.

Lu Mi cautiously peeked up and saw that both Mr. and Mrs. Bart were bristling with anger.

"I told you, I cut ties with him ages ago! Why won't you believe me?"

Mrs. Bart pointed at the table. "Can't you see he's trying to drive a wedge between us?"

Her husband merely snorted. "If you have no feelings for him, why would he suddenly write these things to you? Or have you been having an affair all along, and I simply never noticed?"

The argument went on and on, until Mrs. Bart finally covered her face and collapsed into a chair. "I should have listened to my mother. Nothing good could come of marrying a high-society gentleman like you!"

"Is that so? In that case," Mr. Bart snapped furiously, "get out! Go spend the rest of your life with your old flame, Mr. Michel!"

Lu Mi quietly skirted around them and walked over to the table.

What Mrs. Bart had pointed at was a stack of letters.

Lu Mi skimmed them quickly. They were love letters to Mrs. Bart from someone named Michel.

Though nothing was stated outright, every line hinted that Michel and Mrs. Bart had long been involved with each other and had once shared a sweet romance.

Lu Mi suddenly heard sobbing. He turned to see tears streaming down Mrs. Bart's cheeks, ruining her once immaculate makeup.

"Yes, what a brilliant performance. Even the most hardhearted person would be so distressed at the sight that they'd lose all reason," Mr. Bart sneered before leaving the hall.

Lu Mi read the letters again.

No, something wasn't right.

From beginning to end, they contained only Michel's side of the story. What if, just as Mrs. Bart claimed, Michel was trying to drive them apart?

Mrs. Bart cried for a long while before a maid came over to wipe away her tears. "Madam, I'm sure the master can't bear to let you leave... Even if it's only for the young miss's sake, you must try to get along."

"Noel, my Noel..."

At the mention of Noel, Lu Mi suddenly remembered that this was her dream, which meant there was a good chance-

He scanned the room and spotted a little girl's pale arm peeking out from behind a small door.

Lu Mi walked over and, sure enough, found Noel crouching on the floor. Her large eyes brimmed with tears, and she clamped her hands over her mouth as her little body trembled.

The sight made Lu Mi's heart ache. Although he knew the gesture was meaningless, especially since Noel could not sense him at all right now, he still reached out and rested his hand on her head, his eyes full of tenderness.

A child who had held herself back so fiercely had become an ever-hungry, man-eating monster.

His time in the dream was limited, and it could be interrupted at any moment. Lu Mi gathered his thoughts, stood up, and left her alone.

He reminded himself that he had to find clues quickly to free Noel, especially clues related to the butler.

Strangely, even after hurriedly searching the entire castle from top to bottom, he found no sign of the butler.

Just then, a man whose figure closely resembled the butler's strode down the corridor, as though he had something urgent to do.

Lu Mi hurried around in front of him, only for his newly kindled excitement to cool. The man's height and gait were identical to the butler's, but his face clearly belonged to someone else.

A great deal of time had already passed.

Realizing he was growing anxious again, he remembered Roman's words and quickly took a deep breath to collect his thoughts.

Judging by the season, it was now late autumn.

But the previous dream had taken place in spring. Had the butler resigned in the intervening months? If so, who was assigning tasks to the players?

Lu Mi slapped his forehead and hurried after the man, finding him outside a secluded room.

He really could not afford to get too anxious. He had discussed this with Roman: the butler outside the dreams might be an impostor. If he could not find the butler in this dream, there was a good chance he had already been replaced!

He followed the man closely into the room.

The man glanced around and locked the door. Then he went straight to a drawer and fished a bag of green powder out of a hidden compartment.

He mixed the powder with water, then took a large hank of hair and a small bottle of red liquid from his pocket and added them. The powder gradually thickened into clumps of white paste.

Lu Mi held his breath and watched intently. After a while, the man began spreading the mixture evenly over his face. Beneath its deathly white coating, his face actually began to change.

His aggressive-looking hooked nose became low and flat. His face, which had looked about thirty years old, turned sallow...

Just like that, the pale-faced butler appeared before Lu Mi.

The man stroked his face in the mirror, satisfied. "Since you won't accept me, I'll just have to destroy everything you love."

Lu Mi stared at the bag of powder, lost in thought. So it had never been a skin-care product at all!

The butler had already been replaced before the war reached the manor! Then everything that happened afterward-Mr. Bart leaving for the capital to hire a tutor, the manor falling to the soldiers without any resistance-probably had something to do with this man as well.

The "butler" stepped outside, and Lu Mi heard a maid speaking to him. "Mr. Butler, you seem to have grown much taller."

Lu Mi chased after him for a few steps, but the scene began to warp, and the path beneath his feet turned into an abyss.

He hastily stopped short and snapped his eyes open in reality.

Roman's face was inches from his. "You're awake?"

Noel had also sat up and was quietly watching Lu Mi.

Lu Mi checked the time. "It's almost two. We have to get her back to the hall before the butler comes."

He asked Roman to wait for him in the tower, then took Noel's hand and left.

In the hall, Jin Bi was pacing anxiously. "Where's that little girl? If the butler finds out it's time and I still haven't started her lesson, he'll kill me!"

"Here." Lu Mi released Noel's hand and turned to leave as soon as he spoke.

"Lu Mi, wait!" Jin Bi called after him, biting her lip. "You've barely spoken to me these past few days."

A flicker of bewilderment crossed Lu Mi's eyes. He had seen her push a companion into danger with her own hands. How could she still have the nerve to ask him that?

Jin Bi took a step forward. "Aren't we friends?"

"No."

Lu Mi delivered the word without hesitation, then turned and left. Roman was still waiting for him.

Back in the tower, Lu Mi briefly told Roman what had happened in the dream. "At least we've confirmed it this time. The butler is an impostor. He wants to destroy everything Mrs. Bart cares about, including the manor and Noel."

After some discussion, they decided to arrange another trip into the dream as soon as possible. Although putting Noel to sleep during the day was not a death trigger, the butler would certainly stop them if he found out.

Wind and snow blew into the tower. Roman brushed a thin layer of snow from Lu Mi's shoulder. "Why did you ask me to stay here just now?"

Only then did Lu Mi remember. "Oh, I almost forgot. Take a look at this."

He took an Olive Crown from the corner, looking a little embarrassed. "I found it here. There are still some scratches I couldn't get rid of. Here, you can play with it."