Cedric Blackburn had a reputation for enjoying the company of women, so Liane had figured that even a woman he had never met before could visit him in the night and he would take her in.

“A man who is merely the third son of Viscount Blackburn… wouldn’t be able to pretend he knew nothing when held accountable after taking in a count’s daughter like me.”

Those were the words Liane had said to Lucille when they formed the plan.

It seemed better than marrying a baron her father’s age, which was what her stepmother was arranging through a matchmaker. If she returned to the count’s estate, marriage to the baron would be unavoidable. Or she would be defiled by Arman before that even happened. It was one or the other.

Cedric had a well-known reputation for loving women, so she figured that even after marriage, he wouldn’t fixate solely on her as his spouse and would go off pursuing other romances freely.

In any case, none of the marriage options laid out before Liane led to a happy union. If that was the case, she thought Cedric, who wouldn’t tie her down, would be far better.

‘But then… why was the duke in that room…….’

Even thinking about it again, she felt wronged and furious. The thought that everything had been ruined made her clench her fist tightly in her lap.

Come to think of it, she recalled what Lucille had told her about the master of the estate, Tristan de Granville, who had reportedly taken on the title of duke at a remarkably young age. She had only thought of him as a young duke……

The fact that she had slipped into the bedroom of a duke two years younger than her made Liane press her fingers to her brow and squeeze her eyes shut.

Then Liane recalled the eyes she had met in the darkness the night before.

Those clear, deep blue eyes, flushed with fever……

She thought of his hands, which had touched her with such care not to hurt her, so unlike his ragged breathing, and Liane’s face flushed red as she bowed her head low.

‘If it hadn’t been for the love potion Lucille had prepared… none of this would have happened, with the duke taking me in his arms…….’

Liane covered her lips with the back of her hand for no particular reason and turned her face toward the window.

‘Why was the duke sleeping in a guest bedroom instead of his own room in his own estate. Really… how did things end up like this.’

Liane had been staring blankly out the window when she realized the carriage was slowly coming to a stop, and she quickly shook Lucille awake where she sat dozing beside her.

“Lucille, you need to wake up. I think we’ve arrived.”

***

Neumann swallowed a dry gulp in front of the young duke he served.

The Duke of Granville reviewed the documents Neumann had submitted with his usual expressionless face, but just thinking about the report that was to follow made Neumann’s spine run cold.

After Tristan signed the documents and handed the approval board back to him, Neumann forced himself to speak.

“Um… Your Grace. I have something to report regarding the matter you instructed this morning.”

The duke said nothing and reached for his glass of water, taking a sip. Neumann took that as a signal to continue.

“To give you the conclusion first, we have not yet found the person who put an unknown substance in Your Grace’s water.”

The duke still said nothing and set the glass of water down on the desk in his study.

“However, there is a servant whose whereabouts have become unclear since this morning, and we are searching for them. We recently took on several maids as temporary staff, and one of them has disappeared along with her younger sister. The fact that both women had brown hair, not the blonde Your Grace described, is something I find unsettling…….”

Only then did the duke raise his head and fix a steady gaze on Neumann.

The moment the duke’s eyes landed on him, Neumann lowered his head and hurried on.

“For now, we will continue searching for the whereabouts of those two women while also looking into whether there are any other persons of interest.”

Tristan shifted his blue eyes to another document on the desk and answered briefly in an unhurried tone.

“Do that. You may go.”

Neumann bowed to the duke with his usual composed manner and left the study.

No matter how he thought about it, he could not fathom what kind of madwoman would try to poison the Duke of Granville, head of one of the most distinguished families in the empire.

And of all nights, she had done it the very night before the duke’s order to strengthen security, when repairs to the boundary stones and fences were set to begin……

Neumann clicked his tongue without thinking.

After Neumann left the study, Tristan picked up one of the documents on the desk, then set it back down with a look of disinterest and rose from his seat.

The dim light of evening was fading beyond the view outside the window.

Though it was not visible from where he stood, Tristan gazed quietly in the direction of the forest inside the estate, where the lake would be.

***

One day earlier, the previous evening had been scheduled for a dinner with acquaintances, so he had needed to finish all his work in the morning.

Since Tristan had woken up early, he set out for a short walk before starting his work for the day.

The early morning air at this time of year had a way of clearing his mind, and he occasionally enjoyed taking a solitary walk at that hour without any servants accompanying him.

That day was no different from any other.

Walking along the forest path and reaching the area near the lake, Tristan sat for a moment on a rock beneath a tree.

The mist that had spread across the surface of the water was lifting, and the morning sunlight was beginning to settle into the lake in a bright golden hue. Tristan set aside all other thoughts and took in the view for a while.

The jacket he had tossed carelessly over one knee slid off to the side, and something that had been in the pocket slipped out, hitting a stone on the ground with a clinking sound.

Tristan picked the object up with his hand and slowly lifted it.

A necklace with a locket pendant.

“…….”

It was the necklace that the daughter of Marquis Bartori, whom he had met the previous evening, had handed to him.

Her name was Adel, if he recalled correctly……

Even granting that the prospect was promising, the idea of a woman pressing such a weighty gift containing a photograph on him at what was not even an official meeting yet made him feel tired of it all already.

The attitude of Marquis Bartori, who had been hovering behind Adel, had also been quite blatant……

On something of an impulse, Tristan hurled the necklace he was holding toward the lake with full force.

“No!”

“……?”

Someone screamed and burst out of the bushes behind Tristan.

She ran past him and toward the lake so quickly that Tristan only caught a brief glimpse of a wave of blonde hair sweeping by.

The one who ran past Tristan with a splash was a woman with long blonde hair.

He could only see her from behind, but the woman was already wading into the lake, sending up sprays of water.

‘What is she…….’

Tristan stood still for a moment, unable to make sense of the situation, and watched.

Then, just as it occurred to him that the lake was quite deep, the woman let out a sharp scream and disappeared beneath the surface in a burst of bubbles.

“……!”

The water rippled in irregular waves along with splashing sounds, the woman apparently struggling beneath the surface.

Tristan stood there for a moment, too baffled to move, then pressed his lips together, rose to his feet, and started toward the lake at a quick pace.

By the time the water was splashing up against his legs, the drowning woman’s golden hair was still faintly visible above the surface, but when even that disappeared and only bubbles remained, Tristan could wait no longer and plunged into the water.

Even underwater, only her golden hair caught the sunlight filtering down and shone brightly.

It struck him as absurd that the hair of someone who had done something so foolish could shine so brilliantly.

But there was no time for further thoughts, so Tristan swam to her with practiced strokes, wrapped one arm firmly around her, and brought them both up to the surface.

He pulled the woman up onto the bank and laid her down, then sat beside her, exhausted, catching his breath, when the woman who had been lying limp on the ground pushed herself up and began coughing and retching out the water she had swallowed.

“Cough… cough…….”

She sat propped up on her hands but still had her head bowed, her face completely hidden behind hair that hung limp and heavy like waterweeds.

Then, after a long while, the woman finally stopped coughing and turned her head to look at Tristan.

Through the golden strands of hair clumped together and dripping with water, he could now make out pale skin that called to mind the early morning light, and eyes that caught the sunlight and showed a faint glimmer of green.

“Why… why did you throw the necklace?”

The first words out of the woman’s mouth were so unexpected that Tristan’s hand paused mid-motion as he swept back his wet hair.

“What?”

“I asked why you threw the necklace into the lake.”

The woman’s expression held something that could only be called resentment.

Tristan had never imagined he would see such a look from someone whose life he had just saved, and this time a genuine laugh escaped him.

“Why shouldn’t I throw that necklace into the lake?”

“Because it’s precious.”

‘Precious?’

Tristan dropped the smile and looked straight at the woman.

“Precious to whom?”

“To me, of course.”

The exchange made no sense to him, so Tristan undid the top button of his shirt, which had grown suffocating as it clung to him soaking wet, and studied the woman again carefully.

“Are you saying the precious necklace I threw was yours?”