Serena, despite asking if there was anything, only showed eyes devoid of interest or expectation.

She had no expectations.

‘…Was it like this when she was young too?’

She didn’t speak because she had no expectations, and she kept her mouth shut thinking that even if she did speak, nothing would change.

Thinking about it that way, even her behavior of trying to do everything alone made sense.

“May I ask what the Lavernia mansion was to you?”

“It’s home, isn’t it?”

“Home?”

“Yes, a place where you get food, have clothes, a roof, and a bed… isn’t that usually called home, where basic necessities are guaranteed?”

Serena nodded and said.

“……”

Marquis Lavernia lost his words again, for who knows how many times today.

* * *

“…So that’s what happened.”

“Hmm.”

Magnus nodded at Marquis Lavernia’s dejected words as he tilted his glass.

He understood that feeling too.

“Certainly, I wonder if I was too complacent.”

He said with a somewhat triumphant face.

That’s because Magnus had recently agreed to become ‘friends’ with Serena.

He saw Serena’s bright red, flustered face for the first time.

‘Probably very few people have seen it.’

Magnus felt so fulfilled, as if he had tamed a noble fox, that the corners of his lips twitched.

And now, with Marquis Lavernia in front of him talking about his failure to tame her, he felt even more proud.

‘Why… does his smile seem so unpleasant?’

And Marquis Lavernia, being experienced, sensed this intuitively.

He felt uncomfortable, but in his position of venting, he couldn’t show it.

Marquis Lavernia downed some strong whiskey to soothe his unpleasant feelings.

“Speak honestly.”

“Honestly? Where was I not honest?”

‘Is he serious?’

Magnus, who had made up his mind to provide particularly valuable information, thought as he slightly furrowed his brow.

It wasn’t strange for him to think that way.

Because throughout listening to Marquis Lavernia’s words, Magnus had hardly heard any of the cases he mentioned.

“I was so shocked I couldn’t say anything…”

“I had nothing to say……”

“I didn’t know she thought that way, I wonder what I should have said……”

Except for such self-blaming words, he didn’t particularly… actively explain anything.

Magnus shook his head with somewhat pitiful eyes.

It was like a frog not remembering its days as a tadpole, but since he had already grown hind legs as a tadpole, he only looked down on tadpoles that hadn’t even grown legs yet.

Magnus looked at him as if he were looking at a novice who had failed to tame a fox and came to him for advice.

“Don’t you want Serena to stay in the family, Marquis?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“Then you should tell her not to leave.”

“I did tell her, didn’t I? I already said it.”

Marquis Lavernia became a bit uncomfortable, thinking that Magnus hadn’t been listening to his story properly.

“No.”

Magnus sighed and shook his head again.

‘This is why complete beginners are…’

Thought Magnus, who had barely grown his hind legs.

“I’ve arranged with His Majesty… to withdraw your removal from the family register. If you just agree, I’ll go right away and……”

Magnus recalled the part he said he ‘told her’.

That’s not telling her.

At least not to the dull Serena.

Of course, although he thought she was dull, Magnus decided not to say that part out loud because Serena was a friend.

“I meant to speak more directly.”

Marquis Lavernia was taken aback.

How could one be more direct than that?

Marquis Lavernia was born as an only child and educated as an heir from a young age.

Naturally, his way of speaking was so steeped in high society that it now reeked of it.

“For example?”

So he asked.

Because no matter how he thought about it, he didn’t think it was right to leave Serena as she was.

And Magnus felt the same way.

Just because they became friends doesn’t mean the divorce never happened.

So if she could move from his shadow to the shadow of the marquis’ house, that would be enough.

When he asked if she would consider canceling the divorce, worried about her becoming a commoner, Serena made a truly displeased face.

When asked if there was any need for that, he was a bit annoyed, but had no words to refute.

“Like saying you don’t want her to leave, or that you’d like her to continue being family, or that you’re worried.”

At Magnus’s extremely direct words, Marquis Lavernia’s face flushed.

Such a direct way of talking was unfamiliar to him.

“…You’re telling me to speak like that?”

“Yes.”

Marquis Lavernia looked at Magnus.

He didn’t seem to have an ounce of shame.

Rather, it was Marquis Lavernia who was heated up.

“That’s too……”

“Too?”

“Too vulgar and crude!”

The slightly drunk Marquis Lavernia couldn’t control his voice that burst out.

“……?”

Magnus made an incomprehensible expression.

He, who had taken a month to understand everything, was already a great master and expert, at least mentally.

“It seems Serena is only worth that much to you, Marquis.”

Magnus deliberately exaggerated his great disappointment.

He, who had been shaking his head, stood up from his seat.

“If that’s the case, I don’t think I have anything more to tell you.”

He looked at him once more with eyes that saw a pitiful being who couldn’t eat even when given the answer, and turned around.

“W-Wait!”

Marquis Lavernia grabbed the hem of Magnus’s clothes as he was about to leave without regret.

“I-I’m not used to such words.”

He said.

“Oh my. This is the latest trend, Marquis.”

Magnus sold an improved version of the medicine he was forced to buy last time to Marquis Lavernia.

Because in fact, most people in high society were like Marquis Lavernia.

That is to say, Magnus and Serena were the one-eyed, and the rest were all properly two-eyed.

They don’t say ‘I want to eat that.’

They perform the eccentricity of turning those easy six words into fifty-six words.

Like saying, ‘That food looks quite classic in both design and appearance, is that strawberry cream on top? I’ve never seen such a combination before, I’m a bit curious about the taste.’

There’s a straight road ahead, but they insist on taking the mountain path to enjoy the atmosphere.

Thanks to this, from the perspective of commoners or ordinary people, it seems like what on earth are they saying, to the point where servants working in noble houses have developed the ability to translate it automatically.

“So, um… are you saying I should tell her I’d like her to stay as my daughter from now on?”

“Yes. Just speak honestly.”

Magnus now saw a beginner trying to follow his lesson well.

“That’s how I became friends with Serena.”

“Friends?”

“Yes. Now Serena doesn’t avoid me.”

Magnus said with a satisfied expression.

At that triumphant and crooked smile, Marquis Lavernia, who had been angry earlier, opened his eyes wide.

“She doesn’t curse at me either.”

“…Really?”

“Yes, she even apologized to me.”

“…I can’t believe it.”

Marquis Lavernia was completely taken in by Magnus’s words.

“Just do as I say.”

The tadpole that had just grown hind legs opened his mouth to teach the newly arrived tadpole how to jump.

“It’s good to add a gift too.”

But Magnus had never done such a thing.

“I think flowers would be appropriate as a gift.”

The tadpole with hind legs had never done such a thing.

“I see.”

“Serena likes jewels, so I think she might like it if you give her jewels along with it.”

The half-frog is brewing poison.

“Ah, so that’s how it’s done.”

And Marquis Lavernia recalled one thing from those words.

“The place should be open and decorated with roses, making it splendid.”

He got a sense of how to do it.

“That sounds like a very good method.”

He had done something similar before.

“Thank you for the advice. It’s a bit embarrassing, but I’ll give it a try. Also to make up for not paying proper attention to the child all this time.”

“Excellent.”

To his wife, Charlotte Lavernia,

“I’ve done something similar before, so I think I can manage.”

A confession, that is.

“Yes.”

And Magnus had never done anything like a confession.