Vivianne threw herself into Matilda’s arms, whom she hadn’t seen in a week. Matilda was slightly startled by her sudden action but soon patted her with a motherly smile.

“I missed you so much.”

The more she saw her, the more childish she seemed. Or perhaps she was just honest with her emotions. It wasn’t something a grown adult would typically do. This mysterious young lady had an almost excessive innocence about her.

She had no boundaries, readily allowing others close when they approached. She expressed herself well – grateful, happy, pretty, missing someone. Yet she rarely showed when she disliked or felt uncomfortable about something.

Seeing this made it seem like she was craving pure affection. As if saying, ‘Please love me, I’ll be good and well-behaved.’ That made her even more pitiful.

Matilda didn’t dislike it. She just worried that such pure nature might make her prey to someone. Rather, she thought the clarity was endearing.

“I missed you too. I felt uneasy leaving you behind, and I was worried the whole time. Have you been well, Vivi?”

“…Yes. I’ve been well.”

Vivianne forced a smile, pulling up the corners of her mouth.

No, actually she hadn’t been well. She had cried alone, gotten hurt, been ostracized, and felt lost when she lost her clothes and shoes.

It had been a series of confusing events in many ways, but meeting Matilda made her feel at ease. Perhaps it had been too long since she’d met someone who was kind to her. That alone felt like compensation for everything.

She wanted to pour out everything that had happened, but there wasn’t much worth telling.

Despite being so happy to see her, she didn’t want to talk about the difficult and upsetting things – like hearing others whispering and badmouthing her, or being fired after someone slandered her during roll call.

Vivianne recalled something appropriate to talk about.

“I met Theodore. Your son Theodore. Right?”

“What? You met Theo? Really?”

“Yes. I didn’t realize at first. Theo mentioned you first. When I heard that, I noticed his smile looks a lot like yours.”

Perhaps she had been frustrated with having no one to talk to. Vivianne chattered like a little lark, unable to contain herself even for a moment.

“I see. I had told him about you, but I thought he’d be too busy with knight duties to meet. When did you see him?”

“A few days ago. I spilled a basket of towels I was taking to the training grounds. He helped me. When I said my wrist hurt, he even gave me some herbal ointment.”

“Your wrist hurts? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. It’s all better thanks to the ointment. Completely good as new now.”

Vivianne answered energetically.

“That’s good. The master told me you’d be sleeping here and asked me to take care of you, so I came.”

When Matilda first heard those words, she thought, finally, it has come to this.

Kian von Larson wasn’t the type to carelessly pick up just anything. Especially when it came to bringing something into his boundaries.

On the surface, he seemed to ignore her after picking her up, but the frequency with which he inquired about her showed clear interest.

Seeing this, she thought there was plenty of room for matters between a man and woman to develop. Not only was she beautiful – which went without saying – but the fact that she made Kian do things he normally wouldn’t do made her think there was something different about her.

It was a bit strange when he suddenly made her a maid and ordered Matilda to take a vacation. But now looking back, it might have been a kind of ritual he went through while denying his own desires.

Matilda carefully examined Vivianne’s attire. She was wearing an oversized men’s bathrobe. Rather than wearing the clothes, she looked overwhelmed, as if she was being swallowed by them.

Even when he and Theodore were so close in their childhood, Kian never let anyone touch his things. The fact that he let her wear his clothes spoke volumes.

It was practically the same as writing ‘Kian von Larson’ on top of Vivianne.

“Did he really ask you to take care of me? Wasn’t he angry?”

Unaware of such implications, Vivianne was clearly restless.

“Yes. His tone was calm.”

“Then where did Kian go?”

“He went horseback riding. With Theodore. He really enjoys riding through the forest.”

“Did he have his tea? What about the newspaper?”

Though reassured, she still seemed uneasy. She had heard that Vivianne had taken over serving tea and the previous person had been fired.

Perhaps that was why she was anxious. She seemed worried about whether he had missed these things since she woke up nearly at noon.

“Don’t worry, Vivi. The things you’re worried about, they’re all fine to skip for a day.”

Actually, she had hesitated a lot about taking the vacation, concerned about Vivianne who kept crossing her mind. Though the sudden schedule was unsettling, she soon learned the reason through Theodore.

Words kept leaking from the mansion, and someone must have planted an insider. It would be easier to catch them when the head maid was away and discipline was somewhat loosened.

Though she was a bit concerned that Vivianne had become involved in this process, seeing how he was keeping her close and taking careful care of her, she figured there wouldn’t be any problems.

“It’s my fault for oversleeping.”

“It’s alright. The master said you should rest well since you’re injured. The doctor will be here soon.”

“But it’s already been treated.”

“He said that was just a temporary treatment he did. He said you must see a doctor as it could get worse.”

Matilda gently smoothed Vivianne’s disheveled hair to reassure her.

“The master has given you a new room, so let’s change your clothes and go there.”

“A new room?”

“It’s bigger and prettier than where you first stayed. It’s close to here.”

Another room. Would she no longer have to sleep crowded with the other maids?

She had lost count of how many times her sleeping quarters had changed in the week since she arrived here.

“And there’s a bathtub too.”

Matilda whispered playfully in her ear.

“…Yes!”

Could a bathtub really be that exciting?

Color finally returned to Vivianne’s face.

* * *

The air was heavy, as if it might rain.

Usually, they wouldn’t take horses out on such days, but today was an exception.

The Larson domain wasn’t just coastline. Past the long birch forest lay vast plains. At the end of hills overgrown with unknown wildflowers and grass stood a large old tree. Kian always used it as his reference point.

Always smelling the sea, there were times when he yearned for the scent of earth like this. Just before rain, the earth’s smell grew stronger. Though he knew it was meaningless, if he could forget the smell of the sea even for a moment, that was enough.

While walking, Kian recalled last night’s events. Seeing the shoes she carried and her bare feet, he immediately guessed what her answer would be. Stupidly, it was not at all an ideal conclusion.

Looking back, she had seemed dejected from the moment she left after serving tea in the glass greenhouse. She must have been very nervous. That could happen. Even when he heard she had declined the dinner the butler brought, he was half-skeptical.

Having nowhere to go, after asking for his grace, how dare she act ambiguously before him – it was unpleasant.

Though it was obvious, giving her choices wasn’t really giving her authority. Forced choices breed resistance. Humans are creatures who need to believe they made their own choices to accept them. He had merely laid out plausible sophistry.

Unable to sleep, he drank wine, but the unpleasantness only grew clearer. Thinking a bath might help him sleep, he drew water in the tub. Then suddenly, he remembered what Matilda had reported in passing.

Right. This would do. So he impulsively went to that woman’s door. Seeing Vivianne’s stained cheeks at the doorway, he sensed it.

That this woman was surely yearning for him.

He intended to use that yearning to make her stay. He needed her for the farce of getting rid of his fiancée, and if she wanted him too, it wouldn’t be such a bad proposition.

That was the plan, but.

She was a woman with bewildering aspects, after all. When she didn’t come out of the bathroom for a long time, he went to check and found her already asleep.

Seeing how she had been awake until that late hour, she must have been through a lot emotionally. It was natural she lacked sleep. Even so, the place she fell asleep was rather unexpected.

Lightly pulling the reins, Thor, the black horse Kian was riding, slowly pranced and reduced speed. Though it had been quite a while since he’d ridden due to training, whether naturally clever or not, the horse now knew to stop by the tree on its own.

“Are you worried it might rain?”

Theodore, following behind, grabbed his reins and slowly matched the pace.

“What?”

“You seem to be in a hurry today.”

“Sometimes days like this happen.”

Kian held an ambiguous smile on his lips.

“I was surprised you called so suddenly. Did something happen?”

This was actually the main point. Kian’s actions always moved within certain patterns. But since returning to the mansion, Kian kept doing unpredictable things. That’s what worried Theodore.

He heard that Matilda was suddenly sent on vacation and a maid was fired. That woman, Vivianne, disappeared from the laundry area around that time too.

The knights often made eye contact with the maids. When chatting about various gossip during training, stories about that woman were a regular topic.

He heard she suddenly started serving tea. It was a dramatic promotion. It was natural for unsavory rumors to spread – whether she slept with him, offered her body, became his mistress.

The big commotion among the maids probably wasn’t unrelated to this. Though it wasn’t his place to interfere, it kept bothering him.

Kian’s behavior was unfamiliar, and he felt sorry for the woman who wandered around alone with no one to rely on.

“How much knight training is left?”

“The busy part is over. These days, with new recruits coming in, I’m mostly overseeing physical training.”

“That works out well then. Someone else can handle that without you.”

“What?”

Theodore’s eyes widened.

“I have someone I want you to look after.”