lmed down recently, it was because she was afraid of being caught by the men her father had sent.

She had clearly sworn never to tell anyone, yet somehow, in front of Carlisle, the truth came out plainly.

“That’s right. The man called my father said so. He said I’m illegitimate.”

Yvonne told him about how she had nearly been dragged away by her father in the past. Carlisle, who had only thought she had cut her hair short to hide the fact that she was a girl, looked quite surprised by what he heard.

“Why are you running away from your father?”

“Because I hate it. He said he’d dress me up and sell me to some wealthy house.”

“Most nobles don’t try to bring back illegitimate children. So if your father is looking for you, it probably means he intends to have you formally entered into the noble register. Operen is a dangerous place for someone as young as you to live. Whatever the reason, it would be better for you to go to your father.”

He said it would be better than working over twelve hours every day, but Yvonne had no wish to do that, even if it meant suffering through washing dishes in the middle of winter until her hands split and swelled.

She had not the slightest desire to receive any favor from that pig of a man who had insulted the dead even before the death of the woman he had once loved.

“I don’t want to be sold off somewhere strange just so I can live in a nice house and wear pretty clothes.”

“That has to be a misunderstanding. There’d be no reason to look for an illegitimate child just to sell her off to another house….”

“He wants to marry me into a wealthy family.”

“Marriage? How old are you…ah..”

Carlisle, who had been calmly continuing that surely it could not be so, suddenly stiffened as though something had come to mind. Then he nodded, as if he now understood.

“Noble marriages are not something one can decide freely. Once you come of age, it is natural to enter a political marriage with a family that benefits your house.”

“I don’t know anything about that. I don’t want to marry someone I don’t know. What if he’s strange and frightening?”

“In Windfog, marriage before the coming-of-age ceremony is not permitted. Until the coming-of-age ceremony, even the man called your father won’t be able to force it.”

“And after that?”

At the sight of Yvonne’s suddenly grave face, Carlisle’s expression turned troubled.

“He’ll probably choose candidates from a few families and arrange for you to meet them.”

“See. Even after I become an adult, I’d still have to marry whoever I’m told to.”

Carlisle, looking at Yvonne who declared she absolutely hated the idea, sank into thought. After growing quite serious over something, he finally offered a solution.

“In unions between families, the parties themselves have to meet first. At that time, tell the other side that there is already a man you have given your heart to. Then they will be the first to say the marriage talk should be called off.”

“Come on, would something that simple really work? If that man tells my father, won’t I be the only one who gets in trouble?”

Yvonne might not know much about noble society, but from an early age she had heard many things while holding her mother’s hand and going in and out of luxurious mansions.

It was there that she first heard her mother had been the only Royal Academy of Art graduate from a common background, and that the noble ladies who had studied with her mother talked endlessly about political marriage.

At the time, she had only listened while clutching the delicious madeleines she could eat whenever she followed her mother there, but as she grew older, she gradually came to understand those conversations.

When Yvonne questioned him as if she could not believe it, Carlisle explained further.

“Even if you say you like someone else, that man won’t reveal the conversation you had there because of pride. He’ll simply say he didn’t find you to his liking.”

“Then…. Nothing happens?”

“You keep buying time by turning them down like that.”

“How long? If I keep doing that, can’t I just avoid getting married?”

“That would be difficult. This method only works a few times. If you keep rejecting them, your father will look for another way.”

“Then nothing changes.”

At her dejected expression, Carlisle thought for a long time. After being silent for a while, he suddenly spoke as if a clever idea had occurred to him.

“Then when it’s time for you to have your coming-of-age ceremony, I’ll come ask for your hand.”

“……!”

At those completely unexpected words, Yvonne blinked and asked what he meant. Then, once she properly understood, her face turned red.

“Y-you mean…you’d marry me?”

“I was going to marry whoever my family chose, but now I don’t want to do that anymore.”

As Carlisle said that, his complexion darkened slightly, then he flinched as though he had suddenly realized what he had just said. The tips of Carlisle’s ears turned faintly red as he quickly turned his head aside.

A strange silence fell. Yvonne absentmindedly touched her own short hair, which stuck out every which way. If she had known this would happen, she would have brushed the ash off her face and left her hair its original color whenever she met Carlisle.

“You’re not going to marry before the coming-of-age ceremony anyway.”

“Will we still recognize each other when we become adults?”

Because the coming-of-age ceremony was still nine years away, and when they grew up, they would surely look different from now.

“There’s no way we wouldn’t recognize each other. Then, just in case, let’s do this. Let’s make a code so we can recognize each other. Something only we know that no one else would ever understand.”

“What kind?”

“Remember. I told you to say there’s someone you’ve given your heart to when a man comes to propose, right? After that, you must add this. Say that you are waiting for that person to return from Kalau.”

“Kalau? Where’s that?”

“Here. Look at my ring.”

Yvonne’s gaze settled on the slender, fine index finger of the boy. In the center of the shining jeweled ring was a round black plate with some kind of image on it. As she narrowed her eyes and looked closely, the shape gradually became clear.

“This is a wolf. A black wolf.”

“It’s my family’s crest. The origin of the black wolf is the Kalau mountain range.”

Only then did Yvonne understand. She nodded, then widened her eyes.

“Then Carlisle, are you really going to marry me?”

“I’m saying I can do that. So stop living in such danger, and right, what is your father’s name.”

Carlisle’s expression, which had shown a slightly awkward smile, grew serious.

“I don’t know. They said he was some Earl…. Ah, when I go home, I have the letter my mother gave me. His name should be written in it.”

“Then bring it next time and show me.”

Yvonne nodded and smiled brightly. She hated the idea of going to her father, but if her father were to hand her over to Carlisle’s family, perhaps that would not be so bad. Maybe she should ask if her younger siblings could live with them too.

Filled with that hopeful thought, Yvonne parted from Carlisle, promising to meet again. But Carlisle, who had left after fixing their next meeting, never came again.

He did not come even when autumn arrived after summer ended.

Had he regretted promising to marry me. 

Yvonne thought all sorts of things and waited through the entire winter, but there was no word from him.

And by the time the following spring came, Yvonne had no choice but to admit it.

That Carlisle was not coming back.

Around then, Yvonne had to quit when the tavern where she worked shut down. It was at that very time that the owner’s wife, who had decided to close the shop and return to the countryside, made her an unexpected offer.

The owner’s wife, already uneasy after learning that Yvonne had nearly suffered something awful at the hands of a customer, introduced her to a trustworthy acquaintance.

“A person I know runs an orphanage. Go there.”

“I heard orphanages beat children.”

“Not that one. The facilities may be poorer than other places that receive ample donations, but they do not go around beating children carelessly. How long do you think you can keep earning alone and looking after your two younger siblings as well.”

The owner’s wife knew Yvonne’s real age and the fact that she was caring for two younger siblings.

And so, on the owner’s wife’s recommendation, Yvonne went to Euphoria.

Euphoria was a good place. The headmistress there was a gentle woman, and the children, too, followed Yvonne well, like an older sister. Euphoria was also the place where she came to know again the warmth of family, something she had not even felt with the children she had once lived with in that shabby house.

Their finances were tight, but daily life with the kind headmistress and the good younger children was joyful. When she grew older and became an adult, she planned to help the headmistress and take good care of Euphoria.

But on the exact day Yvonne had spent one year there.

Somehow finding out, Earl Sellus came.

“Yvonne, my daughter. Let us go back.”

The Earl, who had never once called her by name, naturally addressed her as Yvonne.

It was in the Earl’s residence, which she entered only because Euphoria, struggling with financial difficulties, was promised support, that she learned the truth. A few years ago, the Earl and Countess’s daughter had died in an accident, leaving the Earl with only one child remaining, herself.

After entering the Sellus family, she changed her name from Rene to Yvonne. The Earl thoroughly erased Yvonne’s past and raised her as though she were their true daughter.

So perfectly that no one could doubt her background, and so that she would completely blend into noble society as a flawless lady.

For seven years Yvonne endured in silence the cruel discipline that made it hard even to drink a sip of water freely, and the humiliations disguised as education. She held on only with the single determination that someday she might meet Carlisle again, and by the time she was to have her coming-of-age ceremony, she finally met the man who would become her husband.

None other than the childhood friend who had saved her from danger, the boy who had promised to save her once more when they became adults.

But Carlisle did not recognize her, even though she spoke the code they had promised in childhood.