‘Why are you….’

Roina quickly realized her state and hastily turned her face away.

Then, as she rose from the bed, Conrad familiarly turned on the light and took a seat on the sofa.

“What conversation did you have with the marquis.”

At the man’s direct question, Roina swallowed hard.

It seemed he had come here to interrogate her.

She sat across from her husband and answered in a voice that seemed to crawl.

“We didn’t talk about anything special.”

What else could she say?

Roina chose the most concise answer she could give.

Conrad slightly narrowed his brow and asked.

“Does such a person visit the mansion early in the morning for nothing?”

The man, raising his eyebrow obliquely, stared at her intently.

Roina flinched and was about to turn her head to hide her swollen cheek.

Conrad’s golden pupils suddenly enlarged and then contracted.

As if noticing something strange, he asked in an even more ominous voice.

“Why is your face… like that?”

“……!”

Having been caught with her swollen cheek by Conrad, Roina swallowed a shallow sigh.

If he learned that it was none other than Marquis Würetti who had done this to her, it would be troublesome in its own way.

She didn’t know how the marquis might retaliate.

Therefore, Roina had no choice but to offer an indirect excuse.

“I bumped into something by mistake.”

“Is that what you call an excuse?”

“……”

Roina couldn’t understand why a man who had shown no interest in her until now was suddenly asking such questions.

With her mind going blank, she couldn’t provide any answer.

The man, with an even colder gaze, pressed her.

“Don’t tell me it was the servants?”

Roina desperately shook her head. That wasn’t true.

“No. I just hurt myself.”

“Am I supposed to believe that?”

Conrad, letting out a sneer, glared at her with eyes flickering with anger.

Roina’s heart was racing as if she had been placed on a test bench designed by the marquis.

Yet she couldn’t figure out how to react to the man’s sudden change in attitude.

‘Just keep pretending you don’t know, like you always have. You won’t believe me anyway.’

Conrad could never imagine it.

That she, whom he thought had been raised with love, had actually suffered *buse and humiliation.

But even if he found out now, nothing would change.

As always, Conrad would coldly ignore it with indifference.

‘And I don’t have the confidence to bear his coldness if he learns everything.’

Roina bit her lower lip firmly at the welling emotion.

She could no longer be idealistic enough to place hope in someone else.

When Roina kept her mouth shut, Conrad murmured softly with an indescribable look in his eyes.

“I still don’t understand you.”

“……”

“I’ll leave first. If you can’t tell me, I’ll find out myself.”

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

The minute hand of the clock was moving slightly at a constant speed.

Though the room was certainly quiet, that sound seemed to be heard loudly.

Perhaps because her confused mind couldn’t be organized, a shallow sigh escaped Roina’s lips.

‘Where exactly did it go wrong?’

Was it marrying Conrad when he didn’t want to? Or was the problem that she loved him one-sidedly?

If not that… she thought perhaps everything had been wrong from the moment she first met him.

No matter how hard she tried, her memories from the past three years, which seemed to have been completely uprooted by someone, didn’t return.

Nevertheless, she could be certain of one thing.

Even if it might be too late to turn back, she needed to change the wrong situations.

‘Father’s evil deeds will continue in the future.’

Marquis Würetti was not one to leave alone those who stood in his way.

And among those targets was, of course, Conrad Asheter.

‘To protect Conrad from Father….’

Roina judged that the only way to protect him was to distance the marquis from politics.

Cutting off her father’s greed and helping Conrad would be the best she could do.

It wouldn’t be easy, of course, but she hoped Marquis Würetti would repent.

With her heart growing heavy again, Roina chewed her lip finely before lowering her head.

If she could find her lost memories and help Conrad remove her father from politics…

“Then I’ll really do what you want.”

The divorce he had so desired.

With the mutual divorce papers already prepared, there was no reason for her to remain by Conrad’s side.

Moreover, in her gradually returning memories, he clearly regretted marrying her.

Therefore, Roina thought it would be better to prepare herself for separation from now on.

‘Though I don’t have the courage to leave you.’

Was it because she imagined a future without him? She felt as if her throat was burning strangely.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

While busily working to recover her memories, Roina discovered one fact.

That besides the spy planted by Marquis Würetti, there was someone in the ducal residence helping her.

‘It wouldn’t make sense otherwise.’

In the notebook she had brought from the cabin earlier, there was a suspicious location written down.

And there, she had found confidential documents belonging to none other than Marquis Würetti.

Roina pondered how she could have obtained these.

As a result, she concluded that there must have been someone in the mansion helping her.

“What was I thinking?”

Perhaps her past self had also planned to bring down her father. And with someone who shared her intentions.

Though she had some idea who might have helped her, Roina decided to approach it differently. To let that person reveal themselves.

After several days passed, a rumor caused a great ripple throughout the Noxtan Empire.

The content was that Madam Chefrin, closely associated with Marquis Würetti, was holding black money from nobles using ghost trading companies.

‘Fortunately, the rumor seems to have spread well.’

To reveal who was helping her, Roina had cleverly intertwined the information she had with rumors and spread them.

Since it was a case related to tax evasion, gossip magazines and newsletters were busy investigating the truth.

“They’ll reveal themselves soon.”

Roina bit her lower lip firmly.

The person who would risk danger to pass Marquis Würetti’s confidential documents to her…

Only one person came to mind.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

While Roina was reviewing work in her study, she heard something hitting the window.

‘They seem to have come earlier than expected.’

She rose from her seat and flung open the window.

As if he had been waiting, a man climbed over the windowsill and entered the study.

“……!”

The man had his face half-covered with a mask, but Roina knew him.

He was none other than Bleon Würetti’s shadow.

‘Was it really my brother who helped me?’

As her speculation became reality, Roina’s fingertips trembled slightly.

But unable to show this, she hid her agitation and asked.

“What brings you here?”

Bleon’s shadow, as if fulfilling his duty, swiftly began to recite his master’s message.

“He wishes to see you as soon as possible.”

It seemed Bleon wanted to meet her as soon as possible since Roina had used the information he had passed on.

However, Roina couldn’t understand why he had helped her in the first place.

‘Since Father has designated my brother as his heir, it won’t be revoked.’

Lost in thought for a moment, her gaze fell on the calendar hanging on the wall.

During the current social season, the only major official event before the debutante ball was the hunting competition.

To speak with Bleon without arousing Marquis Würetti’s suspicion, a place with many people would be suitable.

“Tell my brother I’ll see him at the hunting competition.”

“Understood.”

The man, who nodded briefly, seemed to leap over the windowsill and instantly disappeared.