The wind passed, tousling Michael’s blond hair and Iris’s white hair together. It suddenly occurred to Michael that he disliked everything about Iris, but the color of her hair was acceptable.

If her hair were the same deep black as Wilhelm’s, it would surely have been more horrible.

As Michael gazed vacantly at Iris, his anger gradually subsided. A moment ago his heart was hot enough to burst at any second, but it returned to normal very slowly.

Iris knew of his presence from the refreshing scent he gave off alone. Still showing him her back, she spoke.

“You came out earlier than I expected, Lord Michael. You seemed to have a lot to say, so I thought you’d talk with my father a little longer.”

“You said you were going to see the horse in the rear garden. Why are you here?”

“I already went to the garden. Just as my father said, the wild horse’s coat was very white and fine. I felt like stealing it and running away together.”

“Wanting to steal a beast like that. You really have nothing else worth stealing.”

“I just felt greedy the moment I saw that horse. It was truly beautiful.”

Belatedly, he realized Iris was looking at a portrait hung in the corridor. In the portrait, painted at a glance with expensive oil paints, a woman was smiling.

The woman was beautiful, but seemed rather advanced in years. With splendid red hair entirely unlike Iris’s, she was someone whose identity he would never have known if Iris hadn’t told him.

“My mother. Astonishingly, we look nothing alike, don’t we?”

“She’s beautiful. You should dye that ugly hair of yours red like your mother’s. Then you might come closer to your mother’s looks.”

“It seems you don’t like my face as it is, Lord Michael.”

“Forget not liking it. You irritate me every time I see you. If you’re a criminal who shocked the whole world, at least have a pretty face. You’re just unpleasant from head to toe.”

“Ah, yes. I’m so sorry I’m not pretty enough to satisfy you, Lord Michael.”

Her tone sounded mocking, but a faint dampness lingered in Iris’s voice.

She looked at the portrait of the red-haired woman a little longer, then turned away without regret.

After that, except when she bowed to Wilhelm, Iris kept a heavy silence until the moment she boarded the carriage. Since she hadn’t been to the castle in a long time, she might have asked to see her mother, but after passing the portrait, she didn’t let a single word leave her mouth.

Until this time, Michael Hagbris knew nothing at all.

The secret that Iris actually had two mothers, and that her birth mother was a separate person. That her birth mother, the one called the ‘wild horse’ in this castle, in fact had black hair, not red, and resembled Iris like a sister.

Wilhelm didn’t invite Michael and Iris to a meal, saying he was busy. It was fortunate. If Michael ate facing Wilhelm, he surely couldn’t have held back his anger and would have stabbed the back of his hand with a knife.

The carriage on the way back jolted as badly as on the way there. A beautiful double rainbow rose in the sky after the rain, but Michael and Iris were merely indifferent.

No matter how many rainbows appeared, the world couldn’t look beautiful inside this carriage where the two sat together.

Iris climbed down from the carriage with difficulty again this time. The sky she looked up at, gasping for breath, was already free of the rainbow and greeting a vermilion sunset.

Arriving at the mansion, Iris and Michael skipped dinner together, like they promised to. Iris’s reason was that she had no appetite, and Michael’s reason was that he’d throw up if he ate now.

Their relationship was bleak to begin with, but after visiting Wilhelm’s old castle, they spoke even less. Every time she saw Michael with his nerves on edge, her breath caught, and Iris thought she’d rather he bring women home like before.

The worse part was that his spite grew as much as his nerves bristled. He passed her so much work that Iris was forced to work all day, except for a very brief moment to stroll through the garden.

The increasingly warm weather was Iris’s only comfort. Admiring the cherry trees heavy with buds, she slowly headed to Michael’s office.

Michael’s office was once filled with the scent of some unidentified woman’s perfume. Not anymore. When Iris entered, the office was filled only with his distinctive refreshing fragrance.

Click. Hearing the sound of the door latch, Michael’s brow twisted slightly.

At the sight of Iris’s face, it twisted even more.

“I wonder where on earth you sold your manners. Weren’t you taught to knock when entering someone else’s office?”

“I was taught. But you don’t knock when you enter my office either, Lord Michael.”

“I don’t acknowledge you as the lady of this place. Why should I, the master of the mansion, knock when entering an outsider’s room?”

Thunk. Michael put down his pen irritably. His eyes toward Iris said to finish her business and get lost.

Iris swallowed a sneer inwardly. Placing the documents she processed on Michael’s desk, she said, “Your words and actions are very different. If you don’t acknowledge me as the lady of Hagbris, my lord, you shouldn’t give me this work either.”

Hearing Iris’s answer, Michael’s eyes grew fiercer. He immediately began checking the documents Iris set down, looking for something to pick a fight over.

But no matter how hard he searched, there was nothing to pick a fight over.

He truly hated to admit it, but Iris’s work was flawless.

Iris was now looking at Elias Hagbris’s portrait on the office wall. Gazing into Elias’s golden eyes, so very like Michael’s, she spoke.

“…Come to think of it, you haven’t brought any women to the mansion lately, Lord Michael.”

“Don’t worry. Even if I don’t bring women, there’s no chance I’ll ever share a bed with you.”

“You seem to be mistaken about something. I decline sharing a bed too. I don’t want to lie in the same bed as you either, my lord.”

“Oh, is that so? How very convenient. Since I’m sick of this marriage and hate the idea of sharing a bed, all that’s left for it to be perfect is for you to agree to the divorce.”

Having checked all the documents, Michael lightly dusted off his hands. Then he opened a desk drawer and casually pulled out divorce papers.

Iris’s gaze moved from Elias Hagbris’s portrait to the divorce papers thr*st right under her nose. Seeing the writing packed across them, she couldn’t help letting out a small laugh.

It was the moment she remembered Michael’s words at the Oppenheimer castle.

“You said there were things you were owed from my father, Lord Michael. I take it you got all of them?”

At Iris’s sarcasm, Michael’s mouth hardened instantly. His fully dilated pupils seemed to flash like a beast’s.

Ah. This man looks ready to slap my cheek. As Iris belatedly regretted mentioning Wilhelm for nothing, another document was thr*st toward her.

“I suppose you couldn’t spare a moment to wonder what those things were? If your eyes work at all, read it properly.”

The document Michael held out was a copy of the land transfer deed Wilhelm drew up.

From the sheer length of the sum she glimpsed, Iris could guess how vast the land Elias was forced to sell had been. She could guess too how badly the Hagbris fortunes declined at that time.

“Isn’t it laughable? These were lands that never needed selling, if not for your father pulling his funds to screw over our house. It amounts to being robbed by your father and getting it back from your father.”

Iris couldn’t bring herself to open her mouth. It was a sin her father committed, so no words seemed able to ease Michael’s anger.

Michael threw a sneer at the silent Iris, as if to say he knew she would be like this. Her blue eyes, so very like Wilhelm’s, were maddeningly horrible.

“Iris Oppenheimer, I will never acknowledge you as my wife. I will never feel anything beyond liking toward a woman like you.”

“…”

“So before I lose patience and smash your nauseating face, obediently stamp the divorce papers. Then go back to the hideous Oppenheimer family!”

Michael roughly threw the divorce papers before Iris’s eyes. Iris, who stayed silent until now, sighed, and the divorce papers were torn into pieces right away, making Michael’s threat meaningless.