001.

Her husband left behind only one old house. A mansion with a faded green roof where wind and rainwater seeped through the window frames, and everything creaked in chorus with the slightest hasty movement.

Still, if it had been just that mansion, Radilt Brill would have been grateful.

“Already twenty-one years old!”

A sharp voice echoed loudly through the dim living room.

“That’s an age when people say you’re already too late!”

Radilt’s young sister-in-law Erite kept shouting while frowning deeply with her blue eyes.

“Does sister-in-law want me to die as an old maid?”

“Miss.”

“Should I be stuck in this old dump too? Like you, sister-in-law?”

The fierce voice continued sharply.

“Oh, I see. You hate the idea of me marrying into a good family, right? Because you hate being left alone as a poor childless widow! You’re jealous of my success!”

“Miss! That can’t be true!”

“If my life is ruined, it’s all sister-in-law’s fault!”

The scream-like shout struck Radilt’s ears. Erite immediately turned around and went up to her room on the second floor. Her angry footsteps echoed loudly, and the stairs and pillars groaned with creaking sounds.

Before Radilt could catch her breath,

“She’s not wrong.”

A calm yet sharp voice with hidden thorns was heard. It was her mother-in-law, Merdea. The middle-aged woman without a single white hair looked up at her daughter-in-law. Her eyes were always coldly detached.

“If it weren’t for you, our eldest son wouldn’t have gone like that. If Lushen were alive, wouldn’t he have been able to get at least one dress for his youngest sister?”

“……Mother-in-law.”

Radilt’s voice trembled at the end. Even while directly facing her daughter-in-law’s pale complexion, Merdea’s sharp words didn’t stop.

“New dress, new shoes. If it had been Lushen, he would have given pearl earrings and necklaces too. He would have made enough donations for Rite to enter the garden as soon as she graduated.”

The social gathering place for men and women in their early twenties was called the garden. Among them, there were three famous gardens in the capital where one could only receive an invitation by paying a certain amount of donation. Additionally, it was essential to match the dress code that changed each time.

“Who told you to pay the donation fee too.”

Her mother-in-law clicked her tongue.

“The child has worked hard to get an invitation, so she’s just asking for one dress.”

A friend who had an invitation had to suddenly go down to the countryside and passed the invitation to Erite. The invitation was valid for one month. Within that time, she needed to make a new dress that matched the dress code.

“……You know our family situation well, Mother.”

Radilt said with difficulty.

“His title and most of his property went to the eldest young master.”

Radilt had no children. Therefore, her husband Baron Lushen Sentangs’s title and property passed to the second son. The second son left only one house legally in Radilt’s hands and abandoned his widowed mother and two siblings.

“Neither you, Mother, nor the second young master or the youngest miss do any work.”

Burdens living off the house. Radilt forcibly swallowed the hot feeling that rose involuntarily.

“The work I can do is limited. After buying groceries and paying taxes, there’s hardly anything left.”

The work given to a woman who graduated from a rural girls’ school was predictable. A small shop clerk, maid, or nanny. Other low-wage odd jobs. Moreover, women had to receive about half the wages of men because they were considered physically weaker.

“Besides, I’ve never been to places like the garden either. But still, meeting him……”

“You just became an unlucky widow.”

Radilt momentarily stopped breathing as if her heart had been pierced.

“I should have borrowed money to send Lushen to the garden. Look at the second son. He found a decent, good wife and is living well. Could there be anything worthwhile among field-bred stock who can’t even set foot in the garden?”

“……”

Although her stomach burned with indignation and defiance, Radilt silently bowed her head. Because she wasn’t entirely blameless for her husband, Lushen’s death.

Radilt’s husband was murdered by a robber while buying chocolate for his beloved wife. A sweet confection made from black fruit shipped by boat from a distant land. Lushen took small pleasure in placing that expensive piece, only available in the capital, into his wife’s mouth.

The young, handsome gentleman would cut back on a glass of alcohol, a handful of tobacco leaves, and polish his shoes himself to save money. With that money, he would buy a neatly packaged chocolate on the last day of each month. He would carefully hide it in his bosom and secretly go up to the newlywed room, avoiding his irritable mother and young sister, to spend sweet time alone with his wife.

However, after that horrific day, the once lovely moments were carved deep into Radilt’s heart as a painful wound.

‘That damn chocolate! Because of that worthless piece of candy that would go into your mouth!’

When she learned the inside story, her mother-in-law wailed that it was all Radilt’s fault, and Radilt silently cried.

“So all the more reason we can’t leave Rite like this. As for Garden, he’s hopeless.”

Merdea frowned with displeasure.

Her third son, Garden, was an unremarkable man. He had no special money-making talent, nor was he handsome enough to seduce a wealthy woman. As the third son, his chances of inheriting the title were remote. It would be impossible if his brother, the current Baron Sentangs, had a son.

“Still, he’s a man, so if he gets his act together, he can at least take care of himself. But not Rite. A woman should find a good marriage partner when she’s young. You can’t take care of your sister-in-law forever, can you?”

“……But Mother-in-law.”

“Once is enough. Rite is young, pretty, and charming, unlike you. In one night, she’ll catch a decent man.”

Like a spring foal with an immature and fierce personality.

Radilt silently swallowed the words that were about to come out. If her sister-in-law really found a good marriage, it would rather be fortunate, but in Radilt’s eyes, there seemed little hope.

“I also want Miss to get married as soon as possible.”

“Because she’s a thorn in your eye.”

“To be honest, yes. I want to reduce the burden even by one person.”

Radilt said calmly. Her mother-in-law’s gaze grew colder, but it wasn’t something new, so she didn’t mind.

Whether she coated her tongue with honey or stuck thorns in it, the treatment as a disliked daughter-in-law wouldn’t change.

“So why wouldn’t I want to send Miss to the garden? My heart is more desperate than Miss’s or yours. If I had money for a new dress, I would gladly see her off, even several times.”

“Oh, I see. Since you think that way, I won’t refuse.”

Merdea placed a letter on the table, gently raising the corners of her lips.

“It’s an invitation to the Plumen Party.”

She looked at her undutiful daughter-in-law with what she considered an extremely generous expression.

“It’s a place for women like you.”

A party that invited widows. Radilt’s eyes trembled greatly at the meaning it held.

The black-haired man stood like a solitary mountain. A cliff-like steep and sharp rock face that made one instinctively shrink back just by glancing at it. Nevertheless, if one approached out of admiration for that towering figure, cynical and merciless words would immediately whirl like the north wind roaming the mountain range.

Yet humans, being creatures that must belong to society, had three types of people appropriately composed around that man, Pendlore Duston.

The first of the three was strictly business relationships. Various businessmen, faithful employees, influential figures connected by complex gains and losses—mostly simple and clean connections that made up the largest proportion of Pendlore’s human relationships.

The second was flatterers who gathered hoping for falling crumbs. Pendlore had the temperament to coldly cut off mindless sweetness, but such people kept creeping in like mice in a food storage.

Lastly, there were those with good character who gently accepted Pendlore’s sharp fastidiousness and appropriately let it flow away. Those few were more than enough to be called friends, and thus Pendlore showed them kindness and generosity beyond his roughly dry temperament.

“That’s life, Pendlore.”

The man making exaggerated gestures in front of Pendlore now, Cherse Ruard, was also one of those few friends.

Cherse was emotional like an adolescent boy but also possessed cold reason befitting his age and position. He had excellent business skills and was also Pendlore’s excellent business partner.

“A pair walking side by side, looking in the same direction beyond the fading twilight! All humans are bound to wake at dawn and meet the night. Under the brilliant sun, yes, one wouldn’t be lonely. Just as you are now!”

Cherse pressed his forehead with his fingertips and let out a long, deep sigh.

“But eventually the sun will set, and the sky will be filled with long darkness. Pendlore, I don’t want my dear friend to face the night alone. The air will grow cold and heavy, your vision will blur, and even your strong arms and legs will go limp.”

“……I see.”