Adeline’s heart went cold.

For a moment she felt herself shrinking. Even though this was her home, even though she was the lady of the house.

A rational voice whispered in her head.

Just let her go, with dignity.

If you’re the lady of the house, you shouldn’t get more entangled here.

But her body wouldn’t obey. Her throat was parched dry, and her fingertips were strangely cold.

“Kailen.”

Even calling her husband’s name came out trembling.

Adeline reached out without realizing it. Her fingertips grasped Kailen’s arm. Through the fabric of his robe, she felt the firmness of his arm.

Adeline looked up at him. Hot tears welled up. Forcibly swallowing that heat, she barely formed words.

“I’ll serve tea to the guest.”

Adeline tried her best to appear calm, but the corners of her lips trembled.

“Not the study… let’s go to my drawing room.”

Please.

Please let him nod.

Adeline was clinging to that one slim possibility.

But Kailen slowly pushed her hand away. He didn’t shake it off coldly. Rather, it was gentle enough to seem considerate. That made it feel even clearer.

Rejection. It was a rejection.

“It’s fine, my lady. Go to the bedroom.”

“Kailen…”

Adeline didn’t back down. She tried to be stubborn. She absolutely didn’t want to go. If she turned away like this, something really would crumble.

She shook her head faintly. So slightly that unless someone was looking directly at her, they’d hardly notice.

Kailen, who’d been watching quietly, bent down a little. His lips came very close to her ear, almost touching. And soon his breath settled down.

“Don’t be pointlessly stubborn and go, Adeline.”

It was a short command. A command like addressing a subordinate.

Adeline couldn’t even answer at her husband’s firmness, with no intention of comforting her crumbling heart. She didn’t nod either, just stood there like someone nailed to the spot—partly out of defiance.

Right, I’ll ask when Eva Lorenz leaves.

He’ll tell me then. He’ll explain then…

Consoling herself like that, she tried to push away the imaginings forcing their way into her head.

Kailen walked toward the study with Eva Lorenz. The two figures receded into the darkness of the corridor.

The sound of the door closing wasn’t loud. But that sound felt like it had closed some door inside her heart too.

Adeline’s slender shoulders drooped.

* * *

Thud.

The sound of the study door closing changed the air in the room in an instant. But Kailen didn’t even think to turn around to look at the woman following him in.

Like her presence didn’t matter, he just walked over and flipped the switches for the glass lamps on the wall one by one.

Click. Click.

Under the lights turning on in sequence, the study immediately revealed its form. The scent of dark wood, the smell of old paper, the glossy polished leather sofa and armchair. 

The bookshelf occupying the wall had private editions neatly inserted, and by the window hung curtains blocking the cold night air. The study was a neat space that perfectly resembled its owner.

Kailen walked straight to the desk and opened a drawer. He took out a case with a subtle sheen from inside the drawer and pulled out a cigar from it. Then he snipped off the end.

Kailen, with the cigar in his mouth, leaned back in the armchair. The chair tilted slightly with a creak, the sound of leather friction.

Even until then, Eva Lorenz had only stepped inside the study door. More precisely, she stood near the door. Her fingers covered in gloves and the veil draped over her face trembled faintly.

The tip of the cigar in Kailen’s mouth glowed red as gray smoke slowly rose upward.

The silence was excessively long.

The stillness that silence brought tightened Eva’s anxious heart even more.

“Sit.”

Only after quite a long wait did Kailen’s low voice ring out. The quiet bass held no emotional inflection or wavering.

Kailen gestured with his eyes toward the sofa placed in the center. Go sit there. Only then did Eva approach and sit on the sofa. Then she straightened her clothes and removed her hat.

When the veiled hat disappeared, luscious golden hair flowed down along her back. The reddish-tinted hair looked especially vivid under the lighting. And violet eyes that held light even in darkness gazed at Kailen.

Strictly speaking, she’d committed quite a bold act.

For the king’s mistress, who drew attention, to visit a mansion in the middle of the night—moreover, the home of a man whose wife was present—wasn’t an ordinary matter.

But having already made up her mind, she tried to regard the execution as trivial. However, contrary to reason, now that she faced Kailen’s face like this, her heart felt anxious. Not wanting him to hear her heartbeat, Eva exhaled shallowly.

Then she reluctantly parted her lips.

“I apologize for visiting suddenly. But… please understand I had no choice.”

Kailen took another drag on his cigar. The sweet but sharp cigar scent filled the study.

“I see.”

“…”

“What is this ‘unavoidable reason’ that made you lose your mind and come to my house at this hour?”

Every word he spoke had a bite. His flat tone had an edge somewhere.

Eva instinctively realized it. Before this man, leading with emotion was useless. Better to prove her usefulness instead.

Her violet eyes looked straight at Kailen.

No matter what I say, you can never turn away from me.

From Frenon where Belliche’s headquarters was located, she was the daughter of a humble baron family. But the baron family’s fortunes had declined long ago, so all she had left was her beautiful appearance.

Moreover, she had one more great misfortune. Her father was a pathetic wretch obsessed with gambling. So all that remained in the young woman’s future was debt and despair.

One day her father threw his last remaining useful asset, his daughter Eva, as stakes in a gambling den.

Eventually chased by debt collectors, she was caught in a dead-end alley, and just when she thought she’d be sold off, at that moment of despair, Kailen appeared before Eva.

That’s how he cleared her debt. She’d asked him once. Why? Why did he pay off that debt?

“Just because.”

Kailen left only that breezy answer.

So why he’d saved her still remained a question.

Maybe, maybe who knows. He’s a man like wood and stone, but perhaps just in that moment he was captivated by me.

Even without ever dressing up properly due to circumstances, her face shone. At least in beauty, she was always confident.

“I’ll do anything for you. In return, let me escape this beggar-like life.”

Fortunately, luck was on her side. He needed a “useful woman.” A woman to attach to the king. A beautiful woman who could steal the king’s gaze, bewitch him, and make him lose his senses.

Eva, sick of poverty, also wanted money and power, so the two had matching calculations.

So Kailen, who valued her ambition highly, changed her background.

From the daughter of a humble baron family in Frenon to the cousin of Count Russell, one of the core royalists following William.

With the appropriate excuse that wouldn’t raise suspicion—a pitiful cousin who’d lost both parents in an accident and came seeking the count for support.

Eva met the king through the count’s arrangement, and after that it was too easy. The king fell for her more easily than expected.

Of course, the king had several other women besides her. But getting rid of them was nothing. 

Moreover, the sick queen was confined to the queen’s palace and never came out, practically a shadow.

Once she had the king at her feet, her greed grew. Though Kailen hadn’t instructed her to make one, having a child seemed like it would be solid insurance for her future. Preferably a boy.

After efforts to have a child, Eva, lacking only the title of queen, enjoyed power rivaling the queen thereafter.

And last year, finally the king’s heart moved. Without even obtaining the sick queen’s consent, William registered the child she’d borne as the queen’s child.

Good thing I had him.

Though her son didn’t receive the crown prince title, he was now an official prince. Not some bastard.

Now you’ll need me and my son too.