Bai Yu raised his eyebrows.

He didn't know why Grand Duke Imuel suddenly brought up the dumpling, but it definitely wasn't anything good. He calmly said, "This doesn't seem to have anything to do with you, Your Grace."

Imuel was taken aback for a moment, then sneered and said in a sour tone, "It's nothing, really. I just thought the tabby and tortoiseshell cats you kept were quite ugly. I wanted to know if the doctor's aesthetic taste has always been this poor. Otherwise, now that you're a valet, I'm worried the items procured for my mansion will also become ugly."

"..."

Before Bai Yu could speak, the Grand Duke's fingers glided across the desk and pinched the only intact teacup. He casually said, "That little platinum-blonde cat must be a bit prettier, right?"

55 poked Bai Yu: "Host, what is he doing? Bickering with you like an elementary schooler?"

Why was he acting so inexplicably and incoherently?

Bai Yu pondered, "Perhaps moody and capricious people just have this kind of personality."

In his limited professional career, he had never encountered such a troublesome person.

But since things had come to this point, Bai Yu couldn't just brush it off. He recalled the dumpling's appearance and forced out an evaluation, "Very cute."

Although the platinum-blonde dumpling was indeed very pretty, thinking of its little short legs, Bai Yu opened his mouth and only said, "Very cute."

Imuel scratched the table in dissatisfaction.

He pressed, "Very cute?"

Was it just cute?

Bai Yu, however, thought he was doubting him. He lowered his eyes, carrying a trace of a smile even he couldn't detect, "Yes, very cute."

The doctor rarely smiled; he was naturally aloof and expressionless. But when a smile surfaced in those dark, ink-like eyes, it was like a ripple spreading across a cold, silent deep pool. Imuel's breath hitched slightly, and he scratched the table with his claws again.

Back when he was a kitten, the doctor had never smiled like this in front of him.

Imuel: "...Really very cute?"

Bai Yu cast him a strange look: "Of course, incredibly cute."

"Cute" didn't seem to equate to "pretty," much less equate to "like," but Imuel was miraculously placated. The Grand Duke satisfactorily squeezed his now clawless hands, showing great mercy as he finally decided not to dwell on this matter.

He revealed a smile and waved his hand: "My questions are done. Mr. Bai, go to your bedroom and rest. Tomorrow is your first day on the job, and I don't want my valet looking exhausted."

It was brushed over just as lightly as that.

The old butler who was just preparing to take the ill-mannered new valet down for some discipline: "..."

The equally dumbfounded 55: "..."

The System complained dissatisfiedly: "Imuel isn't throwing a fit even after this?"

It thought they could finish the mission and smoothly log off today.

Bai Yu frowned slightly; his plans had also been disrupted by the Grand Duke's unconventional behavior. "People with psychological illnesses might be like this."

But on the surface, he bowed slightly, fully displaying the etiquette of a valet: "Yes, Your Grace."

The old butler led Bai Yu to his quarters. It was on the second floor of the building, not far from the Grand Duke's bedroom, making it convenient for the valets to provide close-quarters service. The attendants had already tidied it up. There was a large bed against the wall of the room, with a bell suspended above it; the pull cord was located right in Grand Duke Imuel's bedroom.

The butler handed the room key to Bai Yu and reiterated, "Sir, I admire your courage, but I must repeat that there are taboos in the Duke's Mansion. First, you must not wander aimlessly in the garden. Second, you must not mention cats. Third, you must not have physical contact with the Grand Duke. Please keep these three points in mind. Just because the Duke didn't lash out this time, doesn't mean he won't next time. This is for the sake of your own life and safety."

Bai Yu replied mildly.

The butler gave him a complicated look and exited the room.

"Hmm, mentioning cats has already been proven useless. So which of the remaining two should we do?" The System excitedly rubbed its hands. "Host, are we going to wander around the garden next, or forcefully initiate physical contact with the Grand Duke?"

The Duke's Mansion's ready-made taboos were right here; if they wanted to court death, they just had to go against them.

Bai Yu paused and said, exasperated, "Can you speak a bit more normally?"

What did it mean to forcefully initiate physical contact with the Grand Duke?

Bai Yu: "Grand Duke Imuel is still working. We can't see him right now, so physical contact will have to wait until tomorrow."

55: "Then are we going to wander around the garden?"

Bai Yu: "We are."

There were still several hours until dawn. Since he had nothing to do anyway, he might as well go out for a walk. Besides, he still carried the investigation task given by the Black Robe Society.

The System considerately projected a map of the Duke's Mansion.

The Duke's Mansion covered a considerable area. In the middle of the buildings lay a garden and an artificial pond. They even extravagantly raised swans in the pond. Now it was the dead of winter, and the lake was frozen. The freezing swans had come ashore and were all resting by the lakeside.

There were some small red dots on the map circling the Duke's Mansion, which were the patrolling guards, but surprisingly, there weren't many near the garden.

Grand Duke Imuel preferred peace and quiet, so the mansion's security was deployed on the perimeter. The multiple layers of gates were heavily guarded; not even a fly could enter the Duke's Mansion. Yet, there were no patrols near his residence, which made things convenient for Bai Yu.

With practiced ease, he pushed open the glass window, vaulted straight out, and landed lightly on the lawn without alerting anyone.

Bai Yu patted his trench coat and walked toward the garden.

55 flipped through the collected newspaper materials: "According to rumors in Illyria, there is an untrodden piece of land beneath the Duke's Mansion, drenched in hatred and blood. That should be referring to the forbidden area, right?"

The lake at night was silent and desolate, without even a ghost in sight. He bypassed the shivering swans and instructed the System: "55, turn on scanning mode."

The System's scanning function was much stronger than Bai Yu looking around himself.

55 switched functions. Electromagnetic waves silently covered the entire lake surface. Under the System's extremely high-power exploration, it could even cover up to ten meters below the ground.

A moment later, after Bai Yu had walked halfway around the lake, 55 suddenly said, "Host, over here."

The System screen flashed, displaying a cross-section of the land: "It shows an empty area beneath the lake, like a dungeon or something."

Bai Yu: "Can you find the entrance?"

System: "Host, circle around once more so I can take a look. Hmm... it's right here."

It marked a small space on the map. It was covered with a lawn, which was well-maintained and seemed to be tended by professionals. Next to it was a small hole. Bai Yu estimated the size; it was only big enough for a kitten to squeeze through.

He bent down, gripped the edge of the lawn, and groped for a protruding lever.

System: "I just checked. The lever is rusted shut. This place is abandoned; no one has been here for a long time."

Bai Yu rolled up his sleeves, half-knelt in front of the lever, and exerted force through his elbows—

The System leaned nearby: "Wow, Host, the muscles on your forearms look really nice."

Bai Yu almost lost his composure: "Shut up."

The doctor looked slender, but he was lean and muscular beneath his clothes, and his strength was not small. He grabbed the edge of the latch, veins popping out on his arms. The rusted edges slowly shifted, and before long, an underground passageway just wide enough for one person to pass through was revealed.

The System floated in front, automatically serving as a small flashlight.

There was an iron ladder leading downwards at the entrance, which was also largely rusted. Bai Yu put on gloves to prevent scratches and held onto the ladder as he went down. After walking down about twenty or thirty steps, he finally reached the bottom.

It was a row of prison cells.

Perhaps calling them prison cells was inaccurate; they were more like cages. An adult would need to crawl to squeeze inside, and the bars were not the vertical ones commonly used in prisons, but rather a wire mesh.

—As if fearing something might squeeze through the bars, requiring wire mesh for protection.

Past the cages, there were locked holding cells. Bai Yu carried the System and checked them one by one, but came to a halt at the innermost room.

System: "This wall?"

This wall was full of scratch marks, densely packed from top to bottom. Just one glance was enough to trigger trypophobia.

These scratch marks were very deep, but their cross-sections were not large. They seemed to have been made by something long and sharp; they didn't look like marks left by human nails.

Bai Yu frowned.

These were cat scratches. And not just from one cat, but many cats. Only through years of pain and despair could they leave so many and such deep marks on the wall.

55: "Host, there's something by your feet."

Bai Yu bent down and indeed saw an iron basin. He picked it up and faintly smelled the odor of rotten food.

Bai Yu: "At the latest, someone came in three months ago and placed meat in the basin."

55: "But the entrance was rusted shut. No one could have come in."

There was only an entrance the size of a bowl left, which could at most accommodate a kitten squeezing through.

But how could a cat burrow so deep underground and place food in an iron basin?

Bai Yu had no clue. Fortunately, he wasn't here to solve a mystery anyway; he was just in a tourist's state of mind, wanting to understand the local customs of this era. So he didn't dwell on it too much, merely grabbing the System again to use as a flashlight and looking around the dungeon's environment.

Outside the cells, there were surprisingly living quarters. Bai Yu even found a laboratory and an examination table, as well as several volumes of dossiers that hadn't been moved away in time.

He brushed the dust off the dossiers and lowered his eyes to read.

"July 24th. Captured three pairs of 'male cats' and two pairs of 'female cats'."

"August 30th. The female cat is pregnant. I reported to the Duke that the embryo is developing poorly and there might be deformities, but the Duke still decided to keep it."

"May 17th. The female cat gave birth. Weight: 54g. Fur is platinum-blonde. Due to 'genetic' issues, it suffers from congenital underdevelopment, with varying degrees of problems in its bones and heart."

"..."

Trivial and messy records.

55 read them, feeling utterly baffled: "Duke Imuel raised cats in this place? This area isn't suitable for kittens to live in, right?"

They were currently beneath the lake water, where it was both damp and cold, with traces of mold growing on the walls. Kittens could easily catch ringworm here, not to mention there was no sunlight. Any living creature living here would become depressed and sick in less than two months.

Bai Yu: "Looking at the recorded times in this dossier, it wasn't Grand Duke Imuel, but the previous Duke. It should be Imuel's father."

In the novel's background, Imuel was not the Grand Duke's only child; he had several older brothers ahead of him. However, Imuel kept a low profile. The citizens of Illyria didn't even know this heir existed. It was Imuel who used schemes to completely kill off his brothers and sisters before ascending to the position of Duke.

55 looked disgusted: "No wonder Grand Duke Imuel is a capricious pervert. So it's hereditary! His father seems pretty sick in the head too."

Bai Yu agreed: "Indeed."

He gathered the dossiers and put them back in place. He looked around once more, and seeing nothing else noteworthy, he returned the way he came.

By the time he came out of the exit, the sky was already faintly brightening.

55: "Let's go. We're going to execute the final taboo."

—Make close physical contact with the Grand Duke.