“I haven’t left this villa since I was seven years old. As you can tell, my health isn’t good.”

“……”

“So if you’re thinking of using your connection to me to advance your career in the capital or Obenhart territory, you’d better give up that idea.”

Cordelia looked up at the young master’s face, which was a full head taller than her own. Catherine had told her that the young master was two years older than her, but he was considerably taller.

Of course, Cordelia was smaller than other girls her age in the Empire, but even taking that into account, Caspian was tall.

And he barely ate anything. Cordelia recalled how he had eaten at breakfast.

“I’ll give you a year’s worth of wages.”

“……”

“You came here for money anyway, didn’t you?”

Cordelia fell into deep contemplation.

The young master was speaking more words than in all their previous encounters combined, yet she was worried whether she should dare admit that she couldn’t understand even half of what he was saying.

But remaining silent without understanding would be no different from ignoring the young master’s words.

“In exchange, leave Asteris and never come back.”

“……”

“That’s my condition.”

Cordelia, who had been trying to time when to take out her notebook, hesitated.
For better or worse, the child understood the young master’s command to leave Asteris. “Leave this place” was one of the phrases Cordelia, as a Therion person, heard most frequently in the Empire.

Cordelia lowered her head. Caspian continued speaking with a consistently indifferent expression.

“If you want, you can continue working as a maid elsewhere. Though I’m not sure how long someone as young as you who can’t even speak would last.”

“……”

“I think it’s not a bad offer for you.”

The old cloth tightly binding her light brown hair reflected in his green eyes.

Caspian was convinced that such a young child couldn’t have entered this place with grand ambitions of power or advancement.

She simply needed money. Especially as a Therion person discriminated against in the Empire. So there was no need for him to offer lengthy explanations.

Cordelia’s skinny shoulders trembled slightly.

‘Is she frightened?’

If so, that was actually for the best. Since he wasn’t sure how much of his words she understood, scaring her into running away would be convenient in its own way.

Caspian turned his gaze away from the child. His fist clenched unconsciously.

“I’ll give you time to think about it. But even for you, it would be much better to leave and find work elsewhere than to be isolated here…”

Caspian stopped mid-sentence.

Cordelia, who had been keeping her head down the entire time, suddenly raised her arm and thrust a flower before his eyes.

Caspian’s face contorted. The composure he had been carefully maintaining faltered.

“…What are you doing?”

Hearing his low, resonant voice, Cordelia grew anxious.

She hadn’t fully understood everything the young master had said.
She only knew that she needed to work here, and for that, she needed permission from none other than the young master.

But she had no way to convey her feelings to the young master right now. Never before had her inability to speak the Empire’s language felt so frustrating. So she impulsively held out the flower.

It wasn’t about trying to win favor with a mere rose. Cordelia wanted to get closer to the young master.

This was partly because he was the master she needed to serve, but also because of the sense of kinship she felt toward him.

Her raised arm trembled. Cordelia became very nervous. She quickly tried to figure out why the young master wanted to send her away.

Because she couldn’t do the work, because she couldn’t speak, because she didn’t know the Empire’s language, because she was from Therion… There were too many possibilities to guess.

At that moment, with a sharp pain, the rose fell to the floor.

Cordelia needed a moment to process what had just happened.

But the young master, determined to be cold, didn’t wait for the child.

“…I don’t need you.”

“……”

“Leave this mansion.”

Tears welled up in Cordelia’s round eyes as she looked at the rose, its petals scattered and broken. She was afraid to look at his face, which was surely as cold as the command piercing her ears.

The palm of her hand was scratched by the rose’s thorn. But Cordelia had no time to mind the pain.

She also failed to notice the subtle tremor in the young master’s voice.

Biting her lip and whimpering, Cordelia ran out of the room.

The child ran without stopping and collapsed face-down on the bed in her room.

The young master’s final words echoed in her ears.

<I don’t need you.>

Why was it that she always easily understood negative words? As if those were the only words she was meant to hear.

Sobbing with her face buried in the pillow, Cordelia suddenly realized something.

She had been unconsciously hoping that the young master would be pleased by the flower, that she would witness a change in those empty eyes.

She had hoped to discover that she, too, could change. How pathetic.

She felt ashamed of herself. Cordelia thought that she had entered this place with far too naive an attitude.

* * *

Catherine placed a sheet of paper on the table. Looking at the crooked lines, Caspian immediately recognized who had drawn it.

Catherine spoke with a gloomy expression.

“The child left the mansion early this morning. It seems she went back home.”

“……”

“What did you say to her yesterday?”

Cordelia had gotten up at dawn, given this drawing of what appeared to be a building to Catherine, and then fled the mansion.

Should she be grateful the child hadn’t disappeared without a trace as usual? Catherine swallowed a sigh, disappointed that her prayers had gone unanswered once again.

Before entering Caspian’s room yesterday, Cordelia had seemed quite enthusiastic.

Though she didn’t know what her master had said, Catherine felt guilty for bringing the young child here only to subject her to such treatment.

And she also felt at a loss. She had firmly believed this time would be different, but it ended with the same result.

Caspian, looking at the drawing, silently moved his spoon. He was about to put soup in his mouth but put the spoon down. His already poor appetite completely disappeared.

“Oh my, young master, there’s a wound on your hand…”

At Catherine’s words, Caspian stared down at his right hand. The long red line across the back of his hand had been caused by the rose the child had brought yesterday.

Seeing the wound naturally reminded him of the child. If his hand was like this, the child must have hurt her hand too.

And probably not just her hand.

“Please wait a moment. I’ll bring some medicine.”

“It’s fine. Take the meal away too.”

“…Yes, young master. You remember that Baron Luzen is visiting today, don’t you?”

“…Yes.”

Catherine, who had been looking at Caspian with concerned eyes, cleared the table and withdrew.

As Caspian stood up to adjust his clothes, his gaze stopped at the side table. The rose with its scattered white petals looked pitiful.

Last night’s offer was the method Caspian always used to drive away the personal attendants Catherine brought.

They secretly hoped that Caspian, the only legitimate son of the Obenhart family, would someday take the position of Duke.

But when they learned the reality of the sickly young master who had been abandoned in a remote southern villa for years without receiving any attention, all ten out of ten would run away.

Caspian understood their behavior—they thought it wasn’t worth enduring the moody young master’s temper without any guarantee for the future.

So he simply sent them away before they could leave. It was easily resolved by informing them of his tenuous position and offering them a reasonable sum of money.

Recently, rumors had spread among the servants that the Duke was looking for a new wife candidate, further weakening Caspian’s position.

If the Duke had a son with his new wife, Caspian’s rejection would be a foregone conclusion. In that case, the likelihood that servants who had left their families in the far northern territory to come here would be able to return home also diminished.

When Caspian first dismissed a personal attendant summoned from Obenhart, Catherine had no choice but to let the matter go.

She had neither the means to find him after he left Asteris, nor the malicious intent to label him a thief and have him brought back.

After that, Caspian continued to drive away the service attendants Catherine brought using the same method.

The Ducal family showed no interest in whether servants who hadn’t even been at the villa for a week quit or not, and the servants never refused Caspian’s offer.

Catherine cleaned up after Caspian’s actions each time but persistently found new people.
She was stubborn but not cunning, and she yielded to Caspian.

Caspian found this somewhat amusing.