But Bark was not a man who valued legality as a matter of honor, and he immediately raised his voice.

“No, my lord! That woman was clearly sent by those Kalov bastards—to ruin my racetrack!”

Startled, Eliza’s eyes widened as she craned her neck forward.

‘Kalov or whatever—I don’t know anything about that!’

And then it hit her, she had stepped into a place she never should have entered.

The suspicious men the Count of Winclaire had used when he locked her away in the villa… the same kind who later made sure she could never return to James.

The ones who had even assaulted William, the director of Roycobs Bank.

They were exactly this type.

Eliza felt a chill run down her spine so vividly that the phrase “her blood ran cold” finally made sense to her. She straightened her back.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Mr. Bark! If you’re going to accuse someone like this without any proof—”

“Ahem. Ma’am.”

Before she could bring up the police again, Deonar quietly stopped her.

Bark glared at her with the ferocity of a beast.

Still, even Bark knew that a subordinate of Kalov wouldn’t keep invoking the police at every turn.

After all, Kalov’s side would be just as eager to avoid the authorities.

Besides, there was no way they would send a woman trembling this pale in front of him unless she were the type to pull a knife from her undergarments and lunge at him.

Having read the direction of Bark’s thoughts, Deonar spoke gently,

“Ma’am, would you explain to Mr. Bark here why you placed such a large sum on ‘Morning Glory,’ despite its lingering injury?”

At once, both Bark and Samuel turned sharply toward her.

But Eliza’s mind went completely blank.

‘An injury? I didn’t know that!’

But now was not the time to admit ignorance.

She swallowed hard and focused with everything she had, her life depended on it.

A newspaper article she had once read about a fortune teller flashed through her mind.

It was one of the latest trends in Athern.

“I—I had a dream!”

“…A dream?”

“I’ve been praying a lot lately because I needed money. So maybe that’s why…”

Even as she spun the lie, Eliza thought,

‘Oh my god…’

But both men were staring at her as if trying to see straight through her.

“There was an old woman, her face hidden beneath a black hood. She was rubbing a crystal ball and said—”

“The Black Queen will retreat in the morning.”

“The Black Queen will retreat in the morning?”

When both men repeated her words at the same time, Deonar stroked his slightly stubbled chin and murmured,

“‘The Queen of Farmin’… loses to ‘Morning Glory’?”

“And when I woke up and checked the newspaper, there was an article about the ‘Queen of Farmin.’ I just knew that was it.”

Eliza quickly added,

“And at the final turn earlier, when the ‘Queen of Farmin’ stumbled—it was because it slipped on the mud left by the rain at dawn, wasn’t it? It’s not as if I could have made it rain or known the track would be muddy. That was simply poor track management, wouldn’t you agree?”

As Bark shot a suspicious look that seemed to say, Is that true?, Samuel flinched.

He shook his head vigorously, insisting that he had never let anyone onto the track.

But Bark already wore the expression of a man who had decided to kill the staff responsible for failing to check the muddy track in advance.

Watching that, Eliza realized firsthand that gambling was also dangerous to one’s blood pressure—her blood had practically frozen.

Snorting, Bark said,

“Fine. Let’s say I believe that. But we’re talking about over two million derk. If you withdraw that much cash all at once, I’ll be ruined!”

Her rationality slipping for a moment under the strain, Eliza snapped back without thinking.

“While the ‘Queen of Farmin’ was winning five races in a row, you were raking in all the money in Athern—and now you’re saying you don’t have two million? Don’t tell me you lost it all gambling as well?”

“What did you say…?”

“Pfft… hah. Hahaha!”

Even as Bark’s face darkened and he glared at her, Deonar collapsed back onto the sofa, clutching his stomach as he laughed.

Watching the scene in a daze, Eliza thought blankly,

‘Even like that… he still looks elegant…’

“Bark, there’s not a single word wrong in what the lady said! Hahaha!”

“Then why are you here, my lord? And what relationship do you have with that woman?”

“Lower your voice when speaking to my friend.”

Deonar’s tone remained calm, but it carried enough refinement to suppress Bark’s brutishness.

Eliza stared at him in a daze, while Bark pressed a hand to his forehead, groaning, before finally waving his hand dismissively.

He could not ignore the word friend spoken by a viscount.

As Eliza quickly held out her bag, Samuel swept the piles of money from the desk into it.

Only then did she realize, she had brought a bag that was far too small.

She forced the money inside, barely managing to close the opening of her handbag, which now gaped like a dislocated jaw.

But it was so heavy that the handle looked as though it might snap at any moment.

Only then did the reality of what she had done truly sink in.

‘I… I actually won this much money?’

Seeing the shock on her face, Deonar smiled and leaned in to whisper by her ear.

“Tip. A small tip solves a lot of things.”

As he said that, he gave Samuel a subtle glance, but Eliza couldn’t bring herself to speak to him.

Still, Deonar’s advice seemed like the best option. She reached into the gap of her overstuffed handbag and pulled out a thick bundle of banknotes.

“S-Samuel… could you help carry—”

Before she could even finish, Samuel snatched the money from her hand, stuffed it into his inner pocket, then took hold of the handbag and stepped ahead.

In his grip, the travel-sized handbag looked almost ordinary.

Deonar gave Bark a light wave with a faint smile, then escorted Eliza out with polite grace.

As they stepped out from the basement corridor, the bright sunlight poured down, dazzling her eyes.

Instinctively, Eliza turned her head and shut her eyes. The moment the tension left her, her legs nearly gave out beneath her.

Deonar immediately shifted to stand where he could shield her with his shadow and lightly held her arm to steady her.

When she glanced up at him, he was smiling gently.

Soon, a carriage arrived, and Samuel loaded the handbag inside.

Until the very end, Samuel’s eyes never left the bag—like a hunting dog staring at a slab of meat.

Only after Samuel left did Deonar step back and offer a courteous, old-fashioned bow.

“My name is Deonar. And you are?”

Though he seemed to avoid giving his full introduction, mindful of the place and situation, she couldn’t pretend not to know who he was.

There weren’t two viscounts named Deonar in all of Athern.

Summoning her courage, Eliza spoke,

“Viscount Goodwin… may I be allowed to keep my rather embarrassing name to myself?”

“……”

He looked momentarily surprised, glancing into the air, before a smile quickly returned to his lips.

His gaze seemed to say, Every lady has her own reasons.

Kindly, he said,

“Would you consider going straight to a bank? For your safety, if nothing else.”

Eliza imagined herself walking into a bank carrying this enormous handbag.

Roycobs Bank? Impossible. There was no way the wife of Director Ashton could secretly deposit such a large sum without James finding out.

Weburn Bank, Roycobs’ rival? Absolutely not. They would immediately contact James, eager to provoke him by saying his wife had secretly entrusted them with a fortune.

And it would be no different with any other bank.

James was both a star and a target of envy among Athern’s bankers.

She shook her head firmly.

“No.”

“Then will you return home?”

“No. I’m going to buy a safe first…”

Freed from Bark and with the tension finally gone, she let slip something foolish without thinking.

Perhaps she really did want a safe of her own.

Eliza tried to pass it off as a joke, but her cheeks had already flushed red.

And Deonar was watching her closely.

In her gaze, his slightly wavy blond hair and innocent, boyish face seemed unreal in the sunlight behind him, smiling softly.

The sight made her chest ache.

Holding back the urge to cry, she spoke.

“It was a joke, my lord.”

Rising slightly on her toes, Eliza leaned in and whispered by Deonar’s ear.

He stiffened for a moment at her sudden closeness, but his smile did not fade.

“Tomorrow afternoon, place your bet on ‘Blue Daisy.’ The old woman in my dream said one more thing.”

“…?”

“She said that once morning passes, the flowers will turn the field blue.”

“Turn the field blue? Then it must be ‘Blue Daisy’!”

Eliza nodded with a small smile as Deonar’s eyes widened.

“I was planning to come again tomorrow, but I had no idea the racetrack was such a frightening place. I don’t ever want to come back! But you seem quite different, my lord—so consider this my way of thanking you for helping me today.”

Deonar looked at the woman before him, a strange sense of unreality settling in his thoughts.

‘Who are you…? How can you feel so unreal, even standing right in front of me?’

At this hour, the people at the racetrack were either betting agents—or die-hard gambling addicts.

And her earlier screaming in the stands could hardly be interpreted any other way.

Yet up close, she was nothing like any addict he had ever known.

Cards, alcohol, horse racing, he had more than a little experience with all of them himself, so he could be certain.

With a faint, curious smile, Deonar said,

“You are quite the mischievous lady, aren’t you?”