Only then did he realize that she, too, was unmistakably a “noble woman with blonde hair and green eyes.”

In the interrogation room thick with cigarette smoke, her eyes sparkled with a tenacious light, like grass on a summer’s day. They were eyes that neither avoided him nor feared him.

Linia spoke to him with bold confidence.

“I will repay the debt by whatever means necessary. So please release my handmaid, and take only me. This handmaid is not the property of the Silva Baron’s household.”

At those words, everyone in the room was taken aback.

There could not possibly be a single woman in this entire empire who could make such a proposal to Grand Duke Huslan without trembling in fear.

Mari looked at her with an expression as though her heart had dropped, and said.

“L-Linia, Miss…… you can’t…… how could you stay alone in a place like this…….”

Linia looked at Mari and gave her a quiet, gentle smile without a word.

‘Don’t worry. I’m going to go on a date alone with this man.’

Seeing Mari sniffling beside her, Linia felt a renewed pang of pity for her, having been dragged into this mess simply because of her connection to the baron’s household.

So she had only intended to spare her, while also creating a situation where she could be alone with Huslan.

But in Mari’s eyes, Linia appeared utterly serene, as though she had already made peace with death.

“Why…… why would you do this for someone as insignificant as me…….”

Mari pressed her hand over her mouth, her eyes brimming with tears. She was so deeply moved by Linia’s willingness to sacrifice herself alone that she could not bring herself to say another word.

And everyone else present shared the same misunderstanding as Mari. Even the adjutant Silas, who had brought the two of them here, seemed slightly surprised and looked at Linia with different eyes.

Linia thought to herself that she had just said something incredibly impressive, and felt inwardly satisfied once again.

If this were reality, she, a coward at heart, could never have said such a thing, but since this was a dream, she intended to freely do all the things she had never been able to do.

But it was just then, as everyone fell silent.

“……Quite a moving scene. However, I am someone who draws a strict line between public and private matters.”

Huslan laced his fingers together with an amused air, leaned his body forward, and asked.

“You’ll take responsibility for all that debt on your own? You do realize you may actually end up repaying it with your body?”

His gray eyes gleamed in a terrifying way. But Linia did not avert her gaze and stared back at him directly.

They were truly beautiful gray eyes, reminiscent of a pale moon.

His eyes right now were not the kind that looked upon something unpleasant or repulsive. They were the kind that looked upon someone who had piqued his curiosity.

She could tell the difference.

Linia replied with a faint smile forming without her even realizing it.

“Yes. I’ll do whatever I can. If I’ve been sold off, there’s nothing to be done about it.”

‘Let’s hurry up and try all sorts of things together. Go ahead and lock me up already!’

Linia buzzed with excitement as she let her imagination run happily wild inside her head.

But at her words, Huslan froze in that exact posture.

He sensed something extraordinary emanating from her. In his eyes too, Linia appeared to be someone who had transcended everything.

Caught off guard by the series of unexpected turns, even the knights tensed up and watched the unpredictable exchange between the two of them.

Just then, Linia smiled with quiet confidence and drove the final nail in.

“Your Highness the Grand Duke is going to fall for me.”

“…….”

At her words, the surroundings went so still that not even a breath could be heard.

The knights stared at her with dumbfounded expressions.

Huslan was looking at her without blinking once. But even his eyes had widened slightly.

A long silence stretched through the dungeon.

Linia recalled what she had written in the notebook and convinced herself that with her declaration just now, the novel had begun to reset. And so she waited for his reaction, calm and utterly shameless.

At last, he slowly opened his mouth.

“……Was the young lady of the baron’s household always a little out of her mind?”

The moment Linia heard those words, her face flushed hot in an instant.

‘Hm? Why is this happening?’

She had clearly written it in the notebook, so why wasn’t the content changing?

Just as she was flustered and searching for something to say, a sudden suppressed laugh came from in front of her. For the first time, Linia’s poker face crumbled as she looked up at him blankly.

Huslan had his head bowed and was fidgeting with the corner of his mouth with one hand. At that reaction, everyone around him looked at him with apprehension.

At last, Huslan raised his head and looked at her, asking with an arrogant and playful air.

“That is to say, you mean that you can satisfy me enough to make me fall for you.”

Linia swallowed hard, but then answered shyly, as though she had just received a confession.

“Yes. I will do my best to satisfy Your Highness.”

The knights standing behind her, unable to see her expression, looked at her with a somewhat pitying gaze.

Satisfying him, notorious for his cruelty, was a task as difficult as plucking a star from the sky. There was no telling how long this woman, who looked so fragile she might shatter at the slightest touch, could hold out before him.

“……Despite appearances, you’re a woman with quite a lot of nerve. I’m looking forward to it.”

Huslan relaxed the sharp line of his eyes and said with ease.

“Very well. I’ll allow you to live in my home. However, whenever I call for you, at any time and under any circumstances, you will have to come running.”

“Of course.”

Huslan glanced briefly at Mari beside her and said.

“You may go ahead and leave.”

Mari’s eyes went wide as she looked at Linia. She also gave a nod and said.

“Go on home, Mari. You’ll need to find other work now. Forget everything that happened with me, and go off to find your own life. You’ve worked hard all this time for a pittance of a wage.”

Linia answered that way, imagining Mari’s circumstances through the years of accumulated experience she had built up reading romance fantasy novels.

If it was a baron’s household with a name as humble as this one, and drowning in debt on top of that, they surely could not have employed more than one or two handmaids.

Given the enormous workload, there was a high likelihood that she had been working without even receiving proper pay. Just as Linia herself had often experienced in reality.

Though it had been a brief connection, it seemed she had grown fond of her through the vivid and tense situation. Linia wanted to be kind to her one last time, as someone who reminded her of herself.

Watching her, Huslan’s expression shifted once again in a subtle way.

Just then, Mari’s eyes welled up with tears, and she cried out with full force.

“No! I will stay by your side, Miss……!”

“What?”

Linia asked in bewilderment, and Mari spoke with a resolute expression.

“I am certain I will never again in my life meet a master who would sacrifice herself and throw away her own life for my sake. I will devote my very bones to you, Miss.”

Even this was such a romantic situation that could only come out of a novel, and Linia couldn’t help but let her eyes light up.

Seeing her master moved, Mari also looked at her with an expression full of emotion and gave a firm nod.

At that moment, Huslan spoke in a low, warning tone.

“I’ll grant both of you what you want. I’ll provide food, clothing, and shelter as well. However, both of you will have to pay the price for it.”

He extended one hand to the side, and the adjutant respectfully placed a stack of parchment onto his palm.

It was a contract.

Huslan signed the contract first with a fl*id flourish, then held it out to Linia.

‘Usually in situations like this, what starts as an employment contract ends up being a marriage contract.’

Linia thought to herself with a pleased little smile, and without properly reading the thick contract that was so full of toxic clauses it seemed actual poison might seep out of it, she flipped straight to the last page, signed her name, and pressed her fingerprint.

Mari, a common person who had no knowledge of the contractual terminology used by people of high standing, felt uneasy as she watched Linia sign without hesitation, but followed her lead and blindly pressed her fingerprint as well.

One should always be careful and deliberate when entering into a contract, but Linia, who believed all of this to be a dream, did not concern herself with any of that in the slightest.

With no inkling of what was to come, she pressed her fingerprint onto the terrifying lifetime contract like a giddy fool signing her first deal.

Huslan smoked his cigar and watched the scene in quiet stillness.