‘Oh my, didn’t you know? Count Gotfried just returned to the country for business at the trading port!’

He should still be in the Kingdom of Kalmaris at this point. Since he participated in the diplomatic trade delegation. From what she had checked beforehand, no one had dropped out or returned early from the delegation.

Then did just one person secretly leave the delegation and return? And he went to a townhouse rather than his mansion? A noble with the status of a count who’s accustomed to luxury wouldn’t be familiar with townhouses favored by wealthy merchants or the gentry class.

“Count Gotfried should be in the Kingdom of Kalmaris as part of the delegation, but he’s here. Don’t you think that’s strange, Madam?”

Hailey once again showed clear signs of contemplation. However, this too was brief, and with a sigh she revealed what she knew.

“…It seems he came in secretly. Since he asked to arrange the townhouse very discreetly.”

This masquerade hall often prepared suitable secret houses for those in clandestine relationships. Using this, it wasn’t difficult to secretly arrange living quarters.

‘Come to think of it, on the day the knights barged in, they rushed straight to where I was without any sign of wandering.’

As if they had known from the start that Rose would be in this room.

Who else besides the Hailey in front of her could have known not just the location, but even which room in advance? Moreover, that day, Hailey had provided unusually many things to eat and drink, insisting she try a new wine, causing her to stay longer than usual.

Perhaps if Rose had returned home at her usual time and been at the mansion, she wouldn’t have been caught so easily. And instead of being flustered and panicking over his daughter being captured, Duke Clematis could have responded calmly.

In other words, the Hailey before her was also someone who contributed to her death.

‘But that hasn’t happened yet in this timeline.’

Rose brightly acknowledged this and decided to bring up something else. She had plenty to say anyway.

“I see. Madam. But you know… thinking about it, there’s one more strange thing?”

“Y-yes?”

“When I first met Tony, remember how he found my lost wallet here?”

“……”

“How did something that never happened here before occur on the very day Tony first came? And how did he find it so easily when even my knights couldn’t?”

“……”

Her first meeting with Tony happened when he found her wallet. Though it had no money in it, she had been quite fond of its design, making it her favorite possession at the time, which made her interested in the person who found it.

Especially since he didn’t seem like someone who would frequent such masquerade balls.

“Come to think of it, with my previous lovers too. They all had some kind of incident here?”

“……”

Of course, Rose hadn’t been completely unaware from the start.

Her past lovers had each approached her through improbable narratives that shouldn’t normally happen. Their faces earnestly believing these were all coincidences and declaring it fate were quite nice too. She just left it alone because she found it interesting how Hailey created such situations.

Looking back, since her interest wasn’t really in the lovers themselves, that’s probably why they all ended so quickly without lasting long.

“Madam, I thought you really lived up to your title as madam.”

“Ah, Miss… that’s…”

“No, I found it quite entertaining. Your narratives were like… stories. Yes, like novels, it was interesting.”

Rose smiled prettily. However, Hailey now realized this wasn’t just a simple smile.

“Perhaps because people call me a spoiled girl who has everything, when life sometimes got boring, the Madam did provide novel entertainment.”

“……”

“But that’s only when it doesn’t threaten me and my family. Don’t tell me you got involved in dirty politics too?”

Hailey now sank down and scrambled to kneel. Her hands trembled uncontrollably.

“No, no. That’s, well…”

Just as Rose had thought, Hailey was a seasoned veteran. Though not noble herself, as an illegitimate child of a noble family, she knew their nature all too well. She especially had excellent skill in distinguishing which matters she could involve herself in and which she couldn’t. Therefore, her recent involvement must not have been by choice.

Rose Clematis was someone who should never be carelessly meddled with. But now she knew everything she had done. Hailey spoke frantically with a pale face.

“I… I have a younger brother I was separated from when young…”

Her voice was extremely polite but trembling uncontrollably.

Hailey had a younger brother she was separated from in childhood, and even on the day they were abandoned in the alley, the illegitimate siblings loved each other desperately.

One day, someone approached saying they knew the whereabouts of her brother whom she thought was dead. They really did let her meet her brother, who surprisingly had become an imperial secretary.

From then on, subtle proposals followed. If she didn’t want to see her brother die, cooperate with some simple matters.

“They… they wanted all information about you, my lady…”

They wanted to know even the smallest habits of Rose when she used this place. And Tony Gotfried was sent in, and she created situations that would interest Rose just like she had done with previous lovers. Tony dated Rose but couldn’t last long as usual.

Hailey thought their demands would end there but…

Recently new orders came down.

“They, they ordered me to call the lady on a specific day… and keep you here by any means necessary…”

Rose listened to all her words expressionlessly.

“Did you see the Crown Prince’s face directly?”

“……”

Hailey flinched. It was accurate. The Crown Prince had shown his face directly and said ‘Now that you’ve seen me, you won’t survive if you don’t follow us.’

Hailey’s brother was the child who alone took beatings from vagrants saying he had to protect his sister when they were abandoned in the alley together, and who saved her life when she was almost killed during an attempted kidnapping. What started unavoidably for her brother’s sake had put her own life on the line too.

No matter what, having an unavoidable reason doesn’t make something right. What Hailey did was the same. Because following the final instructions she received ultimately took Rose’s life.

‘Though this life is different…’

Because she loved Maverick and needed nothing else now, Rose wouldn’t have come here anymore regardless of any excuse. In fact, if it weren’t for information about Tony and the Crown Prince, she would never have come again.

The details Hailey continued to stammer out included things even Rose hadn’t known.

That among her previous lovers there were also people connected to the Crown Prince, and if she had continued dating Tony just a bit longer…

“…Really? The Crown Prince was planning to come in?”

“Y-yes…!”

She said that if Tony borrowed living quarters through Hailey, they planned to drug Rose and have the Crown Prince enter instead of Tony. Even she couldn’t help but get goosebumps at this.

‘I knew he’s trash… but a perverted trash?’

The fact that the Crown Prince was so obsessed with her was disgustingly creepy.

“Madam, you’re trembling like that because you know the weight that follows being caught, right?”

“……”

While unable to answer, Hailey nodded her head frantically enough to roughly shake her hair.

“Now then, you have two choices. One is to continue living as the Crown Prince’s puppet until they no longer need you and your head goes snap.”

“……”

Hailey felt as if an invisible blade was being held to her neck. No, though there was no blade, it was the same as facing a choice that would divide her life.

“Second. Become a traitor and join in my revenge.”

And she had no real choice in the matter.

As tremblingly Hailey took Rose’s hand, Rose’s smile became even more brilliant.

* * *

Stiff and sore. Rose felt the kind of fatigue she would normally feel after working very hard.

‘Father is out inspecting the territory now?’

Currently Duke Clematis was away from the mansion. Probably about a month remained until the day she died before her regression, and the Duke’s return almost coincided with the day she was captured.

Perhaps the Emperor and Crown Prince had obtained this inspection schedule in advance, or even made it happen.

She couldn’t help but laugh hollowly. Her and her father’s deaths… Since when did they plan the fall of Clematis?

Rose arrived at the mansion only when evening came.

In the brief moment between getting out of the carriage and entering the entrance, she had hoped briefly.

‘You’re not going to that tavern?’

‘Do you want me to go?’

‘Hmm… No. Actually, I’d like it if you waited here and came out to greet me.’

‘……’

‘Since there are only two in my family, no one has ever come out to greet me.’

Because they had such a conversation. However, when she entered there was no one except the butler.

“Welcome back, Miss.”

“Ah. Yes.”

“And earlier today, a guest…”

“Sorry, but I’ll hear about it later.”

The butler flinched briefly but bowed his head like he was used to it.