Clatter—only the sound of carriage wheels rolling passed between the two people sitting across from each other.

Rhys rolled her eyes just enough so he wouldn’t notice as she observed Theophane. Wearing a hood and dressed in rough clothing, he was gazing out the window.

“So… how does the Lady know the location of the crest?”

It was Theophane who broke the silence that seemed like it would continue endlessly.

The carriage carrying the two of them was heading toward Laskaria to retrieve Sylvester’s founding meritorious subject crest, which was said to have been personally created and bestowed by the first Emperor.

“Duke Agente doesn’t seem like the type of person who would share such information with his daughter.”

His tone seemed to suggest that the Agente Lady, raised like a flower in a greenhouse, couldn’t possibly know the truth.

“Whatever you think about the relationship between my father and me, I am the lord of Laskaria.”

“I know.”

“Which means it’s me, not my father, who will return the crest to you.”

“……”

“…Of course, my father didn’t tell me the location of the crest.”

As expected. His eyes immediately returned a look that seemed to ask if she had a proper plan. Rhys calmly closed and opened her eyes as she recalled the past.

“But I know my father well. I have a place in mind.”

One day in her previous life, Rhys had gone to her father’s study and accidentally overheard a conversation through the door crack.

It was not long after Sylvester had fallen miserably. Her father wore a satisfied smile, like a predator full after a successful hunt.

“Let’s place the crest in the most fitting place for Sylvester. A place where the new lord will never be able to find it again.”

The crest was surely in the place she was thinking of. Rhys looked directly at Theophane with an expression close to certainty.

Perhaps Theophane was testing her.

He might not truly expect to get the crest back. Although he had accepted Rhys’s proposal, it wouldn’t be strange if his attitude changed depending on the outcome.

The cool air surrounding the two throughout their journey proved this fact. If she successfully returned the crest and Laskaria, would at least this cold silence disappear?

While Rhys was lost in these minor thoughts, the carriage came to a stop. Despite being in the center of Laskaria, a desolate wind was blowing.

The two headed straight for the lord’s office.

“L-Lady? What brings you here…”

Surprised to see Rhys arriving without notice, Laskaria’s acting lord scrambled to his feet.

In the process, empty wine bottles scattered haphazardly on the desk fell to the floor and rolled about unsightly.

“It’s been a while, Viscount Alois.”

Rhys briefly glanced at the scene that could hardly be believed to be an office before approaching him.

“We have much to catch up on, but time is short. I’ll get straight to the point. I would like you to guide us to the old Sylvester villa.”

“Pardon? The reason you wish to go there…”

“I’m afraid I can’t explain my reasons right now.”

“I was wondering why you suddenly came, but… That’s not possible, Lady.”

The viscount looked as if he had heard something completely absurd. His slurred speech from alcohol carried weight.

“Don’t you know? The Sylvester villa is off-limits.”

“It’s the first I’ve heard that there are places a lord cannot enter.”

“It’s by Duke Mikhail’s order.”

Rhys quietly looked at the viscount. He was clearly implying that while the Lady might be the nominal owner of this place, there was a different actual owner.

Nodding calmly as if she understood, Rhys pulled up a chair and sat across from Viscount Alois.

“Well then, since I have time now, perhaps I should fulfill my duties as lord that I’ve neglected. It’s true I’ve been negligent toward Laskaria.”

“What?”

“Could I see those documents right away? I’d like to review and approve them personally.”

Rhys’s finger pointed to the messy pile of papers stacked behind him. The viscount, wearing a dumbfounded expression, shook his head.

“Even if you come now and say this, I cannot disobey Duke Mikhail’s orders.”

“Hmm…”

Just as the viscount sighed, thinking she had finally understood, a thick ledger fell onto the desk. It had come from inside Rhys’s garment.

“Since it’s been a while since my visit, I’ve made some preparations of my own. I assume all the contents of this ledger were also by His Grace’s orders?”

After picking up and glancing at the ledger, the viscount’s eyes clearly showed his panic.

“W-what are you suddenly talking about? I don’t understand…”

“Viscount Alois, reporting your embezzlement to my father and replacing you as acting lord isn’t particularly difficult for me.”

Her matter-of-fact voice quietly echoed through the office.

Land neglected without the owner’s interest and proxy administrators only concerned with filling their own bellies. That was how the land once shining with the glory of a founding meritorious subject family had fallen.

“Since I’ve been negligent as well, I’d like to give you one more chance. Of course, that offer becomes void if I start examining the documents myself.”

“……”

“Viscount, when you leave this place… do you have somewhere suitable to go?”

The viscount’s eyes, which had been alternating between Rhys’s face and the ledger, wavered uncertainly. After a peculiar tense silence, he finally spoke.

“I will… guide you to the old Sylvester villa.”

***

“Um, Lady. Who is the person behind you who’s been there all this time?”

After trudging through the dense forest in northern Laskaria for some time, the viscount stopped in front of a massive iron gate that finally appeared and turned around.

“…My bodyguard. Is there a problem?”

“No, it’s just that they’ve been covering their face the entire time. I can’t allow someone of uncertain identity to enter with us.”

Despite Rhys’s answer, the viscount looked up at Theophane with eyes full of suspicion.

With his hood pulled low and more than half his face covered, the man who hadn’t spoken a word did indeed look suspicious at a glance. Rhys’s eyebrows raised as she stood in front of Theophane, blocking the viscount.

“He covered his face because he has a large scar from an accident while protecting me. Do you need further explanation?”

“…I’ve overstepped.”

Only then did the three people step through the iron gate that had opened.

They were greeted by wildly overgrown bushes and branches, broken and toppled fountains and ornaments left abandoned.

The viscount who had been walking in the lead stopped in front of the solitary mansion building without a single light on. Saying he would return to where the carriage was and wait there, he disappeared as if fleeing from this place.

“He’d faint if he knew I was Sylvester.”

As soon as they entered the mansion, Theophane’s first words came simultaneously with the sound of stepping on scattered debris.

“You came as my bodyguard, didn’t you?”

“I should have created a scar on my face before coming.”

“That was just… improvisation.”

“So, the crest is here, My Lady?”

Instead of answering, Rhys turned her gaze toward him. The man, his face still hidden by the hood, stood in the middle of the trampled mansion.

“…Yes, probably. You remember this place, don’t you?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“Duke, my father probably intended this mansion to…”

“That’s enough. Whatever happened in the past, it’s not important now.”

Theophane cut off Rhys’s words as if there was nothing more to hear about this space. Rhys’s lips, unable to finish what she wanted to say, trembled briefly before closing.

Unconsciously, Rhys clenched her fingers. Finding the crest somewhere in this mansion was the priority now.

“Then let’s start looking from the most suspicious place.”

Rhys was the first to climb the stairs connected to the center of the mansion. Although the sun had not yet set, the interior of the mansion was dark with light blocked out.

Most of the railings were broken and the outer walls were precarious. Rhys heard Theophane, who had been following at a distance, approaching closer.

“Be careful. The visibility is poor, and we don’t know how much weight these stairs can bear…”

Before Theophane could finish speaking.

Crack! A sharp sound rang out as the wooden board Rhys stepped on began to split.

“…Aah!”

“My Lady!”

A single scream fell down the stairs.