The woman who had swung tree branches at a bear with a terrified face in a forest where wild beasts lived, a place ordinary people would never go, left a deep impression from the first encounter. Interesting, one might say.

However, the moment he saw her lying about being a noble when she didn’t possess even a speck of noble dignity, his favorable impression immediately plummeted. If she hadn’t offered money, Dion certainly wouldn’t have helped her.

His feelings changed after she touched his lower body.

Dion momentarily lost his reason to the unremarkable woman’s touch, and feeling pleasure and excitement, he thought she was a pr*stitute who could pay good money, so he helped her.

So he couldn’t help but be shocked when he encountered her at the imperial palace.

She probably attended with the status of some unknown noble’s lover?

When he realized she was a high-class pr*stitute, his mouth felt somehow unpleasant. That’s why he treated the woman even more curtly.

He would have felt less displeased if he hadn’t kissed her, but the woman kept getting on his nerves.

Kissing her had been impulsive. He simply wanted to substitute with a kiss the regret he couldn’t fulfill with his lower body.

Her thick lips that moved when she thanked him looked enticing, and her body seemed to emit a sweet fragrance. So he used payment as an excuse to kiss her.

And once their lips touched, he couldn’t stop and ended up giving her a deep kiss. The woman was sweeter than he had imagined, to the point where he wanted to keep tasting her.

He must be crazy.

Since this was the first time he felt such emotions, Dion thought he had been enchanted by the woman while caught up in dawn sentimentality. This made him feel even more that women who sold their bodies for money were indeed different.

“What are you thinking about so deeply?”

Mark’s voice brought him back to reality from his distant memories.

“It’s nothing.”

Don’t worry about such a woman. Dion shook his head, trying to erase thoughts of the woman who had nothing to do with him from his mind.

“By the way, did you hear that news?”

“What news?”

Dion answered curtly to Mark’s question, showing no interest.

“About the rich young lady who appeared like a comet in high society recently. Haven’t you heard the story of the young lady who was living as a commoner but became rich in an instant?”

“I wonder.”

Dion wasn’t originally the type to take particular interest in others, so he had no way of knowing who was receiving attention lately, nor was he interested.

“You’re too uninterested in the world.”

“Because it has nothing to do with me.”

Not caring about Dion’s cold tone, Mark continued with what he wanted to say.

“You’d be interested if you heard my story too.”

At that moment, one of Dion’s eyebrows twitched.

“You think it would interest me?”

“Of course. If you knew how much wealth that woman inherited, you couldn’t help but be interested. Everyone’s going crazy trying to target that young lady now. How wonderful that your life changes the moment you marry her.”

Mark’s excited voice echoed loudly through the imperial garden.

“Hmm. Is that so?”

“Especially for people from families that aren’t wealthy like us, she’s the perfect match. Her father who would oppose is dead and she’s alone, so you just need to seduce the young lady and it’s over. How simple is that?”

“That’s true.”

Though he showed an uninterested reaction, the story of the rich young lady made Dion’s ears perk up.

If he caught a rich young lady like Mark said, a path of roses might unfold in his struggling life.

Until now, widows and young women who had fallen for his looks had tried to call him to their beds for large sums of money. They probably contacted him after hearing rumors that he was obsessed with money.

But Dion had rejected all such proposals. No matter how important money was, he didn’t want to lose his purity in such a way.

As much as he thought money was important, he also thought his purity was important. It might be because it was the only pride he could protect, making him want to guard it even more.

But if it was a woman who could change his life, there would be no need to preserve his purity. So it was worth challenging, but the problem was whether Dion, who couldn’t give the emotion called love, could steal that woman’s heart.

“You’ll do anything if it makes money, but women are excluded? Our cold-blooded Sir Dion isn’t interested even in a rich young lady? I’m thinking of giving it a try. There’s nothing to lose.”

Mark, who didn’t know Dion’s circumstances, looked disappointed when he didn’t get the reaction he expected.

“Which family’s young lady is she?”

Then Dion asked, pretending to give in.

“The young lady of the Huntley family. I heard she’ll inherit the Count title as well soon.”

‘Huntley? I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere.’

The moment he heard the family name, Dion felt a familiar sensation, like he had heard it somewhere before.

It wasn’t a family name he was hearing for the first time. If he could vaguely remember it, it meant someone from that family had done something memorable enough to stick in Dion’s mind.

“Oh, she’s passing by over there. That’s the young lady. Lady Angela Huntley.”

At that moment, the woman Mark had mentioned happened to be passing in front of them. Mark quickly pointed in her direction.

What kind of woman would she be?

Dion casually turned his head in the direction Mark indicated and his body froze.

“…”

It was the woman he had just insulted. He had definitely thought she was a woman who sold her body, but she was actually a noble…

“That woman? Surely you’re not mistaken?”

Since it was a reality he didn’t want to believe, Dion asked again. He hoped Mark would say it was his mistake.

“That’s right. I’m certain.”

But hearing such a firm answer, it seemed his words were true.

“Damn.”

Dion covered his forehead with his hand.

“Oh ho. You know Lady Huntley?”

Mark looked at him with expectant eyes, surprised by Dion’s unexpected reaction.

“That’s impossible.”

Contrary to his words, anxiety flickered in Dion’s eyes.

Wasn’t she a high-class pr*stitute?

Looking at her disheveled hair, uncared-for rough skin, skinny body from not eating properly, and overall rustic clothing, no one would have believed she was a noble.

Especially since she had managed to follow his pace until they left the forest path. If she wasn’t someone who usually walked a lot, she wouldn’t have been able to keep up due to being out of breath.

That’s why he didn’t believe it, but she was actually a noble…

Why would a woman who isn’t a pr*stitute do such things?

When he realized she was a noble, Dion recalled what happened in the forest. Remembering the woman’s actions, which she would never do unless she was a pr*stitute, confused him.

Then he suddenly remembered what Mark had said. He seemed to have said she was a commoner.

“Don’t tell me you know what that young lady did when she was a commoner?”

“I don’t know about that. What’s important is that she has a lot of money now. Count Huntley must have been hiding his daughter’s existence all this time. Probably worried that relatives might harm her.”

Reading Mark’s expression that asked why he was asking useless questions, Dion didn’t ask further. There was also the possibility that she had been a pr*stitute in the past but had now laundered her image and transformed into an elegant noble woman.

Dion tried to suppress his confused emotions with his own assumptions. Instead, he began to develop interest in Angela.

‘Was she someone unwelcome in her family like me? I wondered why a woman was suddenly in the forest, but relatives had secretly abandoned her to kill her?’

Learning about her circumstances, he suddenly felt kinship and pitied Angela. But Dion immediately put aside such feelings.

What same situation when she received enormous wealth? Recalling the rumors that Angela had become rich in an instant, he felt envious and even relative deprivation.

‘Rather than this, should I seduce her?’

At that moment, Dion suddenly wanted to win Angela’s heart. Since it was a way to get a lot of money in the shortest time, he became even more greedy.

Just like Angela had suddenly become rich through the inheritance her father left her, he too wanted to become rich by meeting a wealthy wife.

The problem was… every encounter with Angela had been the worst.