Knock, knock, knock—

“Who is it?”

“If you’re still awake, come out for a moment. The attendants would like to greet you in advance at the basement dining hall.”

It was the butler.

Hans answered calmly.

“I’m in the middle of changing clothes. Would it be alright if I come to the dining hall in ten minutes?”

“That will do. I’ll go ahead and wait for you.”

Only after the footsteps grew distant and could no longer be heard did Hans move away from her.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Hurry back. We can’t have our Miss’s marriage prospects ruined because of me.”

‘Male lead, it’s your marriage that’s the issue here, not mine!’

Marie looked up in frustration, her eyes landing on Hans’s chest.

On his shirt remained a mark like a stamp, where her lips had flashed like lightning and disappeared.

The trouble had started when she tried on some color cosmetics she’d bought during the day while receiving Gretel’s attention.

After confirming the lip mark on his chest that had caught her gaze, Hans murmured with a strange expression.

“Playing with an unmarried man like this.”

“Playing with you?”

“At this point, shouldn’t you take responsibility for me?”

Just two hours after reuniting with the male lead, she was being told to take responsibility.

She knew what happened when the original story fell apart from reading countless novels about transmigration into books.

They might end happily, but the process of getting there always involved the bl＊＊d, sweat, and tears of the transmigrated protagonist.

Whether fighting to protect the original story or fighting against the villains by not following the original, it always required sacrificing the protagonist’s mental strength and labor.

Marie didn’t want that. Her wish was to enjoy a comfortable life that she couldn’t achieve in her previous life.

‘What’s wrong with living comfortably in this complicated world? My career goal is to be financially secure with no worries about money running out.’

Besides, Marie was already busy avoiding death flags. No matter how attractive she might be, it would be troublesome if the male lead fell in love with her.

She didn’t want to fight the evil groups that would interfere with the male lead and female lead. Duke Schultz was a vicious character.

As an extra, if she got involved in a fight between whales, she’d end up being the crushed shrimp.

“What do you mean by taking responsibility?”

Please don’t confess. Marie glared at him with the harshest expression she could muster.

Hans quietly observed her before slowly parting his lips.

“What’s the big deal about responsibility? If I can’t get married and die a bachelor because my marriage prospects are ruined, you should at least offer me a lifetime contract.”

“Lifetime contract?”

“Don’t you like it?”

“So when you say I should take responsibility for you, you mean as an employer?”

“Would you take responsibility in other ways too?”

At those words, Marie’s expression instantly brightened as she clapped her hands.

“No way! Of course it’s a lifetime contract. I’ll guarantee your contract period as an attendant indefinitely.”

Marie recklessly threw out words like a bad check she couldn’t cash.

She knew she wouldn’t be able to afford multiple attendants if she were driven out of the Baron’s family, but Hans would return to the imperial palace when the time came anyway.

There was absolutely no chance Hans would ever try to cash this bad check.

“You won’t regret it?”

“Why would I regret it?”

“I’m going to draw up a contract and have it notarized.”

“Do as you please. Either way, my commitment to taking responsibility for you won’t change.”

Hans nodded, seemingly satisfied.

“Now hurry and go. This is supposed to be my welcome party, and if you’re late, they’ll all come up looking for you.”

“I was going to leave anyway. Don’t drink too much.”

“Is that an order?”

“It’s advice from a friend, you know?”

Marie shot back primly before opening the door again.

As she was leaving, a briefcase leaning against the wall caught her eye.

A brooch with a familiar pattern had fallen next to the briefcase.

‘Where have I seen that before?’

As she was trying to recall and glance at the brooch again, Hans pushed her back, urging her to go quickly.

And so, leaving a mysterious question behind, Hans’s door closed.

※※※

The nightly book reading at 9 PM was something Marie had been doing consistently since Baron Klein had fallen ill with an unknown disease.

On the day he was diagnosed with an incurable disease, the Baron called Marie to his bedside—something he had never done before.

And abruptly asked her to read a book to him.

“A book?”

“Yes.”

“I’m Marie. I’ll write to my older sisters to tell them Father is asking for them.”

“You read it.”

That was all.

It wasn’t a request filled with belated regret or profound fatherly love.

Since Marie needed to stay in the Baron’s good graces to avoid being expelled from the family, she complied without protest.

What seemed like it would only happen once or twice at first had continued for a week, then a month, and now all the way to the present.

During that time, they had exchanged absolutely no words beyond what was necessary for the reading, and consequently, no intimacy had developed between father and daughter.

Marie sometimes felt like she had become the text-to-speech function installed in an e-book app.

An AI speaker would probably be more loved than this.

“What would you like me to read today?”

Marie asked mechanically, as she always did. Usually, the book title would come back as the answer.

An attendant would bring the book, and Marie would begin reading.

But today, for the first time, a different response came.

“Don’t you hate me?”

“Pardon?”

For a moment, Marie wondered if that was the title of a book. The Baron’s question was that unexpected.

“I’ve always treated you as if you didn’t exist in this family. I didn’t even attend your baptism.”

It seemed his mindset had changed significantly as the day approached when he would meet his deceased wife.

When the Baron’s wife was pregnant with Marie, she was too weak to be in a condition to give birth.

The entire family urged her to give up the pregnancy, but the Baroness wouldn’t budge.

Thus, the Baroness died without ever holding her beloved youngest daughter, and Marie was hated by the entire family from the moment she was born.

“It would be a lie to say I have no resentment toward Father and my sisters and brothers, but sometimes I think I can understand. You needed someone to blame after Mother passed away.”

Marie had endured these twenty-one years because she never truly considered the people of the Baron’s family as her real family.

When being hated became a habit, Marie, not wanting to be hurt anymore, drew a line, telling herself that the people of the Baron’s family were just characters in a book, unrelated to her.

She occasionally got too immersed when it came to Hans, the male lead, due to her affection for the work, but she could easily think of the Baron’s family as fictional characters since she had no attachment to them.

Even excluding Marie, the siblings weren’t on good terms with each other.

No, it was actually the worst—as if they had been mortal enemies in a previous life. The conflict among the five siblings, excluding Marie, reached its peak after Baron Klein took to his sickbed.

At first, they all came to visit, crying that they didn’t want to part with their father, but as the Baron’s illness dragged on longer than expected, the five siblings changed their attitude.

When they gathered, they either gossiped about their stubborn father pretending to be sick just to see his children’s faces, or fought over inheritance issues. It was always one of the two.

They were busy frequenting the office of Arnold, the Baron’s junior from the Academy and former Chief Justice, trying to impress him rather than their father.

Arnold, whom the Baron had designated as his personal estate manager, was spending his retirement helping out at the law firm opened by the third son.

“Even if you curse us for the rest of your life with hatred, there’s no room for excuses.”

“I don’t have emotions strong enough to curse you.”

“You don’t expect anything from us, and you don’t feel anything toward us.”

That was accurate. Sometimes indifference can be more frightening than hatred.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been terrible to you all this time when you were just a child.”

It was the first apology Marie had ever heard from the Baron’s lips.

With his body weakened by illness and his heart softened as well, he sobbed while lying in bed.

“I’m afraid your mother will resent me when we meet in heaven.”

Baron Klein was a devoted husband to the end.

Perhaps even his apology to Marie stemmed more from guilt toward his wife than remorse toward his daughter.

But Marie decided to accept his apology. They say even the wishes of the dead should be granted, so this much was nothing.

“Put your mind at ease, Father. If there’s anything you regret, you can start making amends from now on.”

“……”

“How about being nice to me from now on so you won’t get an earful from Mother when you get there?”

Marie said, half-joking and half-serious. Awkwardly, no immediate response came.

After staring at his daughter for a while, the Baron slowly nodded.

“Yes, I’ll do that.”

“The doctor said you could try light walks on days when it’s not cold, so let’s go out tomorrow afternoon, Father.”

“……What season is it now?”

“Summer is ending. It will get cold soon, so let’s walk a lot before then.”

“So it’s autumn now……”

The Baron murmured while looking at the window where rain was gently falling.

The day he first met his wife was also during a red autumn when the maple leaves were falling.

“When the maple leaves fall, I’ll collect them and make bookmarks for you. So cheer up, Father.”

Marie deliberately spoke more brightly. The Baron faintly smiled, recognizing his daughter’s attempt to lift his spirits.

“You don’t have to read a book today. You must be tired, so go back to your room.”

“I don’t mind……”

“I’m saying this because I’m tired. I need to rest now.”

At her father’s insistence, Marie rose and went to the window to close the curtains.

The Baron had become irritable when the morning light was too bright since taking to his sickbed.

He kept the curtains open only at night to see the moonlight.

Thus, he lived in darkness, unable to see the changing seasons.

As Marie closed the curtains and turned around, she noticed a document envelope placed on the windowsill.

The envelopes used in the Baron’s residence had the family crest stamped on them, so this wasn’t an envelope used internally.

Questions arose within her, but the sound of heavy breathing brought her back to reality.

Fearing she might wake her sleeping father, Marie left the bedroom with quiet footsteps.

Not knowing that it would be the last time.