“Hahahahaha!”

The carriage door swung open, and Count Elder returned from his outing with a hearty laugh.

The family members waiting at the entrance of the mansion to welcome the head of the household were somewhat bewildered but also relieved.

“Welcome back. It seems your business went well.”

Lilian received her husband’s hat with a gentle smile. Chelino immediately rushed to Lavian and grabbed her hands.

“Lavian. Well done. Very well done.”

He stroked Lavian’s delicate hand with his large one, and even caressed her cheek once.

Lavian’s shoulders, which had been hunched all day, tensed even more at her father’s positive result.

‘So he accepted. I’m… getting married again.’

She had been worried that she’d acted too stiffly, so it was somewhat surprising that the matter had been settled. At the same time, her conversation with him came to mind.

“What can you give me?”

“You would have me.”

Having made such a bold claim, she now had to prove her worth to him.

Despite the marriage being settled, Lavian felt her future was still murky.

“To think you’d do so well. Hahahahaha.”

“Not at all. It’s thanks to your efforts, Father.”

Lavian postponed her worries about the bleak future ahead, took a step back, and shook her head. She humbly deflected his praise, attributing everything to her father’s merit.

Though this was the first praise she could remember receiving from her father, she could only respond this much.

Because this was how she had been taught to behave.

“The day you become useful has finally come. It was worth raising you all this time.”

“……”

Count Elder, patting his daughter’s shoulder, entered the mansion with more excited steps than ever, even humming a tune.

Despite the warm touch on her shoulder, Lavian couldn’t smile happily and awkwardly raised the corners of her mouth while lowering her gaze.

‘Still, it’s fortunate for now.’

She gently rubbed her palm, which was sweaty with tension just like when she had faced Klen alone. She wondered if she could now relax and let out the sigh she had been holding. But this household didn’t give her that space.

“You must not create any flaws until the wedding. I’ll take care of everything, so just stay quiet.”

“Yes, Mother.”

It had the nuance that Lavian usually caused great trouble.

She was a more obedient child than anyone, but she was always treated this way.

Therefore, this situation was nothing unusual in her daily life, and even Lavian herself didn’t perceive any problem with it.

After Lilian left her instructions and followed her husband into the mansion, Lena approached Lavian and mocked her.

“How nice. Thanks to you, we’ve avoided becoming beggars. You’re not expecting me to repay this favor, are you?”

“Lena.”

“Congratulations. Don’t pretend you don’t know you’re getting married. Hmph!”

Though she had come out to see them off together, Lena received not even a bit of attention. She snorted and quickly walked toward the annex behind the main building.

As Lavian stared at her, Seian, who also hadn’t received any attention, gently tugged at the hem of Lavian’s dress.

“Sister, are you getting married again? I thought you’d live with Seian.”

The child’s face contorted into a tearful expression.

Lavian took a deep breath, clutched her skirt, and lowered herself. Matching the child’s eye level, she gently stroked the cheek of her young sister covered with fine hair and spoke with difficulty.

“It seems that way.”

“I… don’t like a grandfather. I also don’t like people who look this ugly.”

Seian said glumly, randomly rubbing her face with her small hands.

At the child’s mention, Lavian found herself carefully recalling Klen.

Deep-set eyes, ocean-like eyes, an elegantly straight nose, and a solid frame.

Lavian unconsciously drew a curve on her lips and spoke as if entranced.

“He’s young and extremely handsome. Tall and slender too.”

“That’s good. But if he treats you badly, being handsome doesn’t matter. I don’t like someone like the marquis. What kind of person is he?”

Seian giggled “Hee,” but then her lips trembled as if about to cry, remembering the marquis’s behavior.

Lavian, absorbed in thoughts of Klen, didn’t notice the child’s expression. She only pondered more deeply on the fragmentary question she heard.

‘What kind of person is he?’

The kitten was like that, and the child from Ibtan was like that, so despite his sharp impression, perhaps his heart was warm?

The only problem was…

‘I don’t know if he’ll be that way with me too. It’s not like we’ll have a relationship where our hearts are connected anyway. He wasn’t particularly friendly to me in our previous meetings.’

His prickly words and rough actions from their past encounters continued to surface in her mind.

The baron’s speech and behavior probably wouldn’t change much after marriage. Even so, Lavian had neither the strength nor the thought to resist any of it. She knew how enormous the money he had poured into this family must be.

‘In my position, expecting kindness and warmth from him would be shameless.’

She gently lowered her gaze and shook her head slightly, when his question became clear again.

“What can you give me?”

If nothing else, one thing became certain from this single phrase.

Klen, like a businessman, was someone who clearly weighed gains and losses.

Therefore, this marriage could never be ordinary.

‘Nevertheless, you are my salvation. I will humbly accept everything. Whatever you are like, I will do my best to repay the debt I owe you.’

Others might laugh, but he was her salvation.

After all, he had ended what could have been a terribly continuing nightmare.

‘So don’t expect anything. He has already given me enough.’

Lavian now stopped her ongoing thoughts.

If she continued, she might start hoping for unnecessary things, so she decided to kill her feelings. Pushing away his handsome face that kept circling in her mind.

“Sister. Sister!”

“Ah, yes?”

“What are you thinking about so deeply? Seian kept calling you.”

“Sorry. Go to the annex now.”

Lavian rose, smoothed the wrinkles in her dress, and pushed the child’s back.

“Goodbye, sister.”

After sending the child away, she went straight to her room and picked up a pen.

[To Baron von Leschel.]

The quill pen moved gently, and elegant handwriting resembling her was engraved on the paper.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

While the employees were very excited and busy due to their master’s suddenly decided marriage, Klen remained unchanged. As always, he was impeccably dressed without a single flaw, reviewing documents with quite an aristocratic bearing.

“You little one. No! Uh-oh!!”

Klen, who had been carefully reading the text with his eyes, turned his gaze.

At Amelia’s voice coming from beyond the heavy door, he shook his head.

Just then, along with a light knock, a strange howl echoed.

“Come in……”

“Aaaah!”

Before Klen’s permission could fall, the door flung open and Amelia stood there, unable to either enter or leave, letting out a strange scream.

“How long do you plan to continue this commotion?”

“Master. Save me.”

Amelia, completely stiff, glanced repeatedly at the cat climbing up her leg. It seemed she might collapse with convulsions at any moment.

Klen clicked his tongue as if finding it pathetic, then called the cat.

“Come here.”

When his voice echoed, the cat turned its head with something in its mouth. The cat, skillfully dangling from Amelia, spotted Klen and immediately came down from her with sparkling eyes, moving its tiny feet quickly.

The cat nimbly scurried to his side and climbed up his leg just as it had done with Amelia. As a bonus, threads came loose one by one where the cat’s claws had passed.

“What’s so scary about something the size of a fist?”

“It’s scary because it’s fist-sized. It feels like it would burst if squeezed.”

Amelia trembled as she stared at the cat settling on Klen’s thigh.

“I’m hearing all sorts of strange things. But what are you holding in your mouth?”

“A postcard, it’s a postcard.”

Ethan, who had belatedly rushed in, answered instead of the cat.

Now that he heard the answer, he noticed black soot on the cat’s pink nose.

“Troublemaker.”

Klen pretended to hit the cat’s small forehead with a “thump!” and took out the postcard from its mouth. The partially burnt postcard showed Lavian attending Marquis Batl’s funeral.

“If that one burns, everything burns. There won’t be any more reproductions either.”

“I see.”

Klen stared at Lavian with a gloomy face under the bright weather.

‘How significant a relationship could they have for her to have such a grief-stricken expression? Instead of this, she should have flipped the coffin of that crazy old man. Or at least cursed him.’

Klen, displeased with Lavian’s expression in the postcard, slightly raised his forehead in irritation before relaxing it and raising his head.

“What’s the matter?”

“About that investigation you asked for.”

“Ah, yes.”

“On the day you went to rescue the Ibtanian, Lady Lavian attended a party wearing a veil. She shouldn’t have done that, but Marquis Batl was quite eccentric. It seems the person you met that night was……”

“I guess so. Is that all you have to say?”

“And a letter has arrived.”

“A letter?”

“Here.”

Amelia approached him, extremely wary that the cat might pounce on her again.

“Lavian.”

Klen slightly furrowed his brow at the elegant handwriting on the envelope, then gestured for everyone to leave. Though Amelia was curious about the contents, she didn’t show it and firmly closed the office door as she went out.

After confirming that they had quietly disappeared, he placed the letter alongside the postcard he was holding and just stared at them intensely. Though the marriage had been decided, he didn’t think they were close enough to exchange such things.

Not understanding the reason at all, he glared at it for a while before opening the envelope.

“She’s strange in many ways.”

This was his impression after combining her behavior that night with the few sentences.

‘Does this woman even know what this marriage is?’

As he looked around the letter paper with suspicious eyes, wondering if there was anything more, he suddenly narrowed it down to one possibility and coldly put the letter down.

“Ah, that type. The hypocrisy of those born privileged.”

From the beginning, nobles only have two attitudes. Either authoritarians or hypocrites.

Klen coldly put aside the thank-you note written in elegant handwriting for agreeing to the marriage and concentrated on his documents again.

Of course, he didn’t write a reply.

However, there was a response of his own that benefited both parties.

“Amelia. Spread a rumor.”

“What kind?”

“That Klen von Leschel fell in love with Lavian at first sight.”

“What?”