The man asked while removing his hat with his left hand.

“My mother?”

“She had a cup of tea and retired for her afternoon nap.”

“It’s good that I came quietly. I’ll see her at dinner time, so don’t announce my arrival.”

“Yes, my lord.”

There was no inflection in the man’s voice. The servant quietly unloaded the luggage from the horse’s back while observing the young master of this mansion.

Black hair that had been hidden under the hat cascaded down. The man brushed back his slightly curly hair. His emotionless red eyes, in contrast, looked up at the blue sky.

There wasn’t a single color that harmonized in this space. The man’s hair was black, and his eyes were red. The sky was blue, and a green carpet covered the ground. The man who rode the brown horse had slightly flushed white skin, but the mansion before him was a bluish white.

Yet all these colors, having nothing in common, matched breathtakingly well.

The servants all bowed their heads before the young man in a black jacket. The maids, who had just received orders to be careful not to wake the Duchess, greeted the young master in whispers.

The man nodded to acknowledge their greetings. The plush carpet muffled his footsteps. Following his measured steps up the stairs, the servant thought,

‘It’s still surprising that this person is of common birth.’

The man’s name was Izer Chesterfield. He was the heir to Chesterfield, but he didn’t inherit Chesterfield blood.

The Duke of Chesterfield was known throughout the kingdom as a devoted husband. He made a woman with a son from her deceased former husband his Duchess. Not content with giving the Chesterfield name to a son not of his blood right after marriage, he bestowed the title of young duke as a birthday gift on the boy’s first birthday at the ducal residence.

At first, the upper class showed signs of bewilderment at the Duke of Chesterfield’s decision.

But their confusion was very brief. The meddling of others was unnecessary in the decisions made by the Duke of Chesterfield. Although all the nobles knew that Izer was a commoner, no one dared to disrespect him openly.

No matter what anyone said, Izer was now the heir to Chesterfield. He was recognized even by the prince for his noble character, more so than anyone else. And his position remained solid even after Percy was born.

The man who reached the top of the stairs was headed for his room, which he was returning to after a fortnight. When he was about to turn the doorknob, he heard a voice filled with joy.

“Brother!”

Izer turned his head towards the direction of the voice.

Footsteps that even the carpet couldn’t muffle were energetic. Izer received his brother’s greeting in a quiet voice.

“Percy, Mother is sleeping.”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I was so happy to see you after a long time that I ran. Did you have a good trip?”

Percy Chesterfield, of course, looked nothing like Izer. With blonde hair and blue eyes, Percy was the spitting image of his father, the Duke of Chesterfield. The five-year-old child smiled brightly at his brother who had a completely different appearance.

The child admired his brother. Tall stature, handsome face, a pleasant baritone voice, and unlike himself, a heavy personality. Every time Percy saw his brother who perfectly embodied the image of the ideal adult he dreamed of, the child’s eyes sparkled with awe.

…That was from Percy’s perspective.

Now, let’s look at Izer’s perspective.

To Izer Chesterfield, his brother was just some noisy two-legged thing in the same house. A nuisance that would have been better off not existing, but now that he did, couldn’t be gotten rid of. He looked down indifferently at his half-brother.

“I want to rest. I’ll see you at dinner.”

That was the end of it. Izer turned back towards the door. This much courtesy was more than enough for the young duke of Chesterfield to show to this family’s legitimate son after returning after a fortnight.

What stopped the man from opening the door with a cold face was a woman’s voice.

“Young master, shall we go downstairs? I’ll read you a book.”

The voice seemed to have appeared out of thin air. Izer turned towards the owner of the voice that had appeared without footsteps or any presence.

It was a young woman. She was bending down, removing a strand of hair stuck to Percy’s face. Her long gray dress that covered down to her ankles was so out of fashion that one might wonder which era it was from.

Realizing the gaze on her, the woman took a step back. Izer asked in a whisper.

“Who are you?”

The answer was equally faint.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Young Duke. I’ve been serving as Young Master Percy’s tutor for a week now.”

It wasn’t a typical self-introduction. The man asked in an even quieter voice.

“Your name?”

“It’s Celian.”

The man’s eyes were fixed on the woman’s lowered face. The silver hair that had been holding up behind her shoulders flowed down, unable to resist gravity.

He asked again.

“Your surname?”

The answering voice trembled.

“……It’s Berienne.”

A suffocating silence fell. With her head bowed, all Celian could see were the man’s shoes and his straight, long legs.

A week ago, until she met the Duchess for the tutor interview, Celian didn’t know there was a grown young man in the Chesterfield family. Until Owen sent a letter mentioning Chesterfield’s ‘four-year-old’ young master, she didn’t even know about the Duke’s marriage.

In her memory, the Duke of Chesterfield was unmarried. She was curious but understood why a man about her father’s age wasn’t married. Chesterfield was a family that didn’t need to maintain its prestige through marriage. Therefore, if the Duke himself wasn’t inclined, it was entirely possible.

But as soon as Celian saw the Duchess, she immediately understood why the Duke of Chesterfield had married. The Duchess with water-colored hair was an extraordinary beauty.

When she first heard Celian’s name, the Duchess stared at her blankly for a while. The voice that flowed from the beautiful face, clearly showing signs of illness, was so kind that it made the tip of her nose tingle.

‘You must have had a hard time, child.’

‘Do you know me?’

‘I naturally came to know when I entered this society. I’ll make sure the maids keep quiet. It would be best if you refrain from going out for a while too.’

‘Thank you for your consideration, Madam.’

‘When my son returns, he’ll be quite surprised that we have a new family member. He’s gone to inspect the territory now.’

From this brief conversation, Celian realized many things. The Duchess was not originally a noble. Judging by the age of the eldest son and the time of marriage, the young duke of Chesterfield was likely a child from the Duchess’s previous marriage.

Was the aura of death cast over the Duchess’s face due to mental anguish? Her face was so sadly beautiful that even Celian, who had fallen to the bottom, felt sympathy.

She knew that today was the day the young duke of Chesterfield would return. However, greeting him like this was not part of the plan. She had only hurriedly come to find the young master because loud noises shouldn’t be made in the mansion while the Madam was sleeping.

The long legs moved closer to her. The steps she thought would stop kept coming forward. Celian held her breath as the distance closed in an instant.

The man commanded.

“Raise your head.”

It was meaningless to try to hide her identity from someone she had to live with in the same house. Celian gave up and raised her eyes. Her sky-blue eyes met his flame-red ones.

Celian flinched and lowered her eyes again. It was already too late. Her body began to tremble like an aspen.

‘Black hair and red eyes.’

Among the people she knew, only two men had such an appearance.

A middle-aged man and his son.

It couldn’t be. Celian tried hard to calm herself. While silver hair and sky-blue eyes, like black hair and red eyes, weren’t common features, there was no guarantee that only people from one family in the world had such characteristics.

The man commanded again.