A woman’s intuition told her with certainty that something existed between the two of them, and overwhelmed by shock, Eliza staggered backward—only to knock over a decorative porcelain piece in the lobby.

Deonar, who had been passing through the bank lobby and happened to notice the pale-faced woman, quickly reached out and caught the porcelain, setting it back in place. There was no avoiding the fact that he had witnessed the very scene she had been looking at.

Eliza fled in shock, and Deonar chased after her—only to lose her along the way.

That had been their first meeting.

‘He always helps me the first time we meet.’

Eliza had lived through two lifetimes, experiencing both the capable villain and the incompetent one.

But Deonar Goodwin belonged to neither.

He was an unreal kind of man.

As A-young had named him—he was a “great fool.”

She poured out her complaints about him.

‘He’s not some kind of saint…! Who in the world gives and gives without wanting anything in return? That’s wrong. It just spoils people!’

‘He needs to change the way he lives from the very beginning… just like I did!’

Deonar had saved Eliza when she had been poisoned by Lorina and left to die in a villa.

Without asking for anything in return, he did everything he could—treating her, protecting her, wishing for her happiness.

Simply because he thought her smile was beautiful, he tried every possible way to make her laugh.

Even after she recovered her health through his devotion, even knowing that she longed for her husband, James, he never resented her.

He suffered alone.

Instead, he blamed himself—for not loving her enough.

“…Though right now, he just looks like a rich idler.”

Thinking of how he had appeared at the racetrack, reeking of a hangover as if he had spent the entire night in a private room, Eliza let out a small laugh and adjusted her pillow.

She did not think her judgment of Deonar was harsh.

Viscount Deonar Goodwin was young, handsome, wealthy—and unemployed.

He moved freely through the nightlife, enjoying banquets, dancing, and drinking himself into a stupor, spending each day immersed in pleasure.

Despite his exceptional talent in painting and music, he ignored every art dealer who begged him to sell his work.

He loved his own laziness and indulgence—a man willing to let himself fall, so long as it stayed within a certain line.

That a man like him would take in a miserable, abandoned, disabled woman without asking for anything in return—it had once seemed like nothing more than an act driven by the suffocating boredom of his life.

But now, she understood.

The love he gave Eliza had been unconditional.

Even as he watched her remain bound to James, unable to break free, he never stopped devoting himself to her.

Even as the woman he loved lay sick in bed, longing for another man—her husband—he neither hated her nor despised himself.

He simply suffered with her.

In her past life, she had been a victim of James and Lorina—but at the same time, she had been the one who hurt Deonar.

Recalling those days, Eliza felt a sharp ache in her chest and had to close her eyes for a moment.

“Calling him a fool among fools… you really went too far.”

The reason she had ultimately failed to accept him in her past life was probably doubt.

How could any woman believe it?

That a nobleman—who could choose any woman and buy anything he desired—was sincere toward a pitiful woman abandoned even by her own husband.

How could she dare believe that?

In a world where even the husband who had sworn vows of marriage cast her aside, how could she believe that any other relationship was possible?

She had dismissed his kindness as nothing more than an act of sympathy born from the pure ideals of blue-blooded nobility. And she believed that to taint it with her own personal desire would be wrong.

With such thoughts, she twisted Deonar’s feelings and pretended not to see them.

Just as James had done to her.

Deonar had failed to receive love in return, but giving it—he seemed to know how, as if it were innate.

So Eliza felt both guilty toward him and, at the same time, respected him.

And now that she had decided to end her ill-fated ties with James and Lorina, she would have to return Deonar to where he belonged as well.

Because she did not want to become a “damned bastard” to another fool in this world.

It was, perhaps, the last shred of conscience she wished to protect.

Thinking of his boyish smile, she let out a faint chuckle.

‘He’d better put a lot of money on “Blue Daisy”…’

Eliza hoped that she could repay his affection—even if only as much as the odds of Blue Daisy’s victory.

Then she wondered how she could avoid ever crossing paths with Deonar again.

But that was a question without an answer.

So she decided to focus on something she could solve—the large sum of cash she was currently lying on.

“There’s still time before I leave, but I can’t keep it under the bed… and I can’t exactly deposit it in a bank either…”

She would be out of the house often for a while. If a thief broke in during that time, she felt like she would die on the spot, like a fragile fish.

If Marie discovered it, she might be tempted. Worst of all would be if James found it and interrogated her.

‘I don’t even want to imagine it!’

Staring up at the ceiling, she came to a conclusion.

She would invest the money—just like James.

‘A way to bury this money, yet retrieve it immediately when needed…’

It didn’t take long for the answer to come to her.

The port.

A recent typhoon that had violently stirred the ocean had forced ships bound for Silomon to turn back.
After making landfall in Silomon, it even damaged the harbor itself, causing ships heading there to flock instead to the southern port of Athern.

Naturally, the facilities of the southern port became overwhelmed.

The port of Athern had already been facing complaints over its outdated facilities, so the city council seized the opportunity and announced a redevelopment project.

Later, when trade with the Kingdom of Silomon was dramatically restored, the port’s prosperity lasted for quite some time.

If she bought land or buildings at the port, she could sell them later at a significant profit whenever she needed.

At the thought of money, Eliza suddenly felt lighter.

“Strike while the iron is hot!”

Riding that momentum, she quickly began preparing to go out.

***

Half a day later, Eliza stood inside a vast, dilapidated warehouse on the outskirts of the port district.

The structure had originally been built as a shipyard, later used as a cargo warehouse, and then abandoned for over a decade after demand disappeared. Outside, the wide expanse of land was overgrown with weeds, and inside, the stale, musty air made it difficult to breathe.

Murray, a real estate broker from the port district, looked at her as if he suspected she might be a smuggler and spoke bluntly.

“Ma’am, this place is where stray cats come to tear apart stolen fish. I truly don’t understand why you’d want this when there are seaside shops available.”

“Is that so.”

Eliza replied absently, slowly turning her head as she surveyed the area.

“How large is the land?”

“A little over a thousand haik.”

“Not bad.”

“…What exactly is?”

“You said five hundred thousand derk, right? How much can you lower the price?”

“If that drunkard who owns it hasn’t dropped dead yet, I could probably shave off about thirty thousand.”

‘Even after buying this, I’d still have money left…!’

Realizing just how wealthy she had become, Eliza swallowed hard before answering.

“Sounds good. I’ll take it.”

“….”

At Murray’s suspicious look, as if wondering what she was plotting, she simply smiled.

“Let’s go.”

“Where to?”

“The seaside shop you mentioned. What’s the market price?”

“A little over five hundred thousand.”

When Eliza gave him a doubtful look, as if to say Isn’t that too cheap?, he cleared his throat.

“The port facilities are outdated, so that’s the going rate. If anything, that drunkard is the one trying to overcharge for this warehouse—still clinging to the boom from twenty years ago.”

“Let’s take a look first.”

A few hours later, Eliza became the owner of two properties—a solitary warehouse standing on a vast, weed-covered lot, and a small shop overlooking the sea.

Though Murray had not been particularly friendly toward her, he displayed remarkable skill when it came to negotiating prices.

As a result, even after handling taxes and brokerage fees, she had spent only one million derk.

After returning to the city, Eliza stopped by the post office and set up a post office box.

It was to prevent the disaster of any correspondence related to her new assets being delivered directly to her home.

***

“Ma’am!”

“Ahh! Marie! You’re still here?”

As dusk settled into darkness, Eliza opened the door and stepped inside, only to come face-to-face with Marie, startling her.

Marie glanced over Eliza’s outfit, then at the large, sagging handbag that didn’t match it, and finally at her pale expression before speaking.

“Did you just come back from delivering clothes to the master? Oh my, how long are you planning not to come home this time?”

“I should go now. It’s already late.”

“When you didn’t return, I thought I’d wait just a bit and shell some beans, but… I didn’t realize it had gotten this late.”

“Right. Just go.”

Eliza’s voice rose slightly, almost as if urging her on, and Marie looked taken aback.

“I wasn’t staying to get extra pay, you know?”

Like a guilty person startled by their own shadow, Eliza felt an irrational fear that if she kept talking to Marie, Lorina might somehow learn everything she had been doing lately.

She nodded firmly, as if she already understood, and saw Marie off.

“Alright, I know. Get home safely.”

Without realizing it, Eliza slammed the door shut—then startled at the sound herself, clutching her chest.

‘That was awkward. Really awkward!’

But what was done was done.

She went straight to the dining room and ate the stew that had gone cold and lukewarm.

Her startled heart was still pounding, yet for some reason, a smile kept tugging at her lips.

‘I’m a landlady now!’