The woman’s body was laid on the large bed in the Grand Duke’s room.

This room was also too dreary for a high nobleman’s chamber, but at least it was clean.

Jerome, who had followed Evan in, stared at his master’s hands treating the woman’s body as if handling glass.

Then, when he pulled out a necklace that had been tucked inside his collar, Jerome’s eyes widened.

“You’re even sharing sacred energy with the spirit stone?”

The Baltion family heirloom with a blue stone embedded.

Though a stone, it had a beautiful appearance more precious than any jewel.

Jerome grew increasingly puzzled as his master, who never took that out in front of people, made an exception.

“Why go that far?”

“Because otherwise, she’ll become a corpse you’ll have to dispose of.”

“……Let’s continue, Your Highness.”

Jerome immediately backed away at his master’s matter-of-fact tone.

He didn’t want more work in that direction.

Evan placed the necklace near the woman’s heart and gazed at it intently.

As a soft light enveloped the blue stone, the same color soon flickered in his black eyes.

It didn’t take long for some color to return to the woman’s pale face.

Jerome glanced at his master, who was concentrating on saving this strange woman with a serious expression.

Yes, she is undeniably beautiful.

‘The problem is she looks beautiful enough to be dangerous despite being so suspicious.’

In the first place, the fact that she was found collapsed on this winter mountain with an injured body suggests a high probability that she was being chased by someone.

The Grand Duke would have made the same assumption…….

‘Why? Out of pity?’

No matter how much his master treated women like stones, or even worse, he still felt uneasy.

I’ll throw her out as soon as she regains consciousness.

My master has many secrets to hide.

Jerome thought this coldly as he watched a red tint appear on the woman’s lips as well.

⁕⁕⁕

〈You should be forgotten now. Forever.〉

“Huh?”

The woman sat up abruptly, sweating cold.

What was that just now? A memory? A nightmare?

‘I, I think I’ve seen something like this before. Yes, in the snow field…… There I……’

Everything felt like a hazy fog.

But just one thing, she remembered meeting a beautiful silver fox at the end.

‘It was as if it had descended from heaven.’

Recalling that sacred fox, her heart, which had been anxiously pounding due to the unknown dream, calmed a little.

A deep breath escaped from the woman’s lips, which had now fully regained their vitality.

She saw bandages wrapped around her injured arms and legs. Someone seemed to have treated her.

Only then did she lift her head and look around, realizing she was in yet another unfamiliar environment.

“Wh-where is……”

It was a large room made of gray bricks.

In front of her, a fireplace was burning warmly, and beside it sat a grumpy-looking man.

He seemed to have been watching over her bedside for a long time, holding a book in his hand.

“Ex-excuse me…… where is this and who are you?”

“Where else could this be but Baltion Castle?”

The man with navy-blue hair and suspicious gray eyes answered.

He put down the book he was holding with a thud and stood up.

“I’m Jerome, who manages this castle.”

From Jerome’s perspective, this woman was an uninvited guest who had occupied his master’s room and slept soundly for two days.

“I don’t know who you are, nor do I care. Now that you’re conscious, please leave.”

He just announced this to the woman without asking anything.

“Wear that fur coat over there since you might freeze to death again in that outfit.”

The woman looked at Jerome with round eyes.

“L-leave?”

“Yes, you should return to your own home.”

When Jerome replied curtly, the woman seemed to be lost in thought for a moment.

“Hmm. My home……”

As if something wasn’t coming to mind clearly, she frowned slightly while brushing back her hair.

Her golden hair rustled as it flowed along her white, slender neckline.

At that picturesque sight, Jerome momentarily blanked out before quickly shaking his head.

“I’d like to go back too, but…… Do you perhaps know where my home is?”

The woman asked Jerome, who was trying to gather his wits.

Though she asked carefully in a calm voice, it took time to understand her question.

“What?”

“Or…… do you know who I am?”

“……”

“Th-that’s…… I can’t remember anything.”

Jerome, who had once again activated his intense suspicion, stared at the woman.

Her innocent, rabbit-like eyes suddenly felt even detestable.

‘Playing tricks? How do all of His Highness’s stalkers act exactly the same?’

He wasn’t going to fall for it just because she was pretty—no, very pretty.

If he fell for such feminine wiles, he wouldn’t deserve to be Baltion’s servant.

This woman was definitely another stalker who had come to bother his master.

“……?”

But despite Jerome’s hostile expression, the woman just blinked her large eyes, waiting for his answer.

“So what are you going to do if you can’t remember? Are you planning to stay here?”

“N-no, that’s not it, but I don’t know where to go……”

Despite the somewhat rude question, the woman just fumbled with her fingers without showing any sign of anger. At that moment, Jerome felt a strong sense of dissonance.

‘Could she really have lost her memory?’

Just as he was becoming confused about whether this woman’s words were lies or not, he suddenly remembered something he had bought when he went down to the magic shop in the village.

‘Wait, I have a lie detector! I should have used it from the start! I almost got swayed by that face for nothing.’

“Wait a moment.”

After saying that and leaving the room, Jerome soon returned with a glass orb the size of a fist.

It was a magical lie detector orb that had been gaining popularity in the Empire recently.

When you placed your hand on the orb and spoke, it would determine whether your words were false or true.

Jerome, whose only pleasure was shopping for such gadgets whenever he had the chance, was genuinely proud of his collecting hobby at this moment.

Some people dismissed it as a children’s toy, but he had caught that stalker pretending to have lost her memory last time with this.

‘……Of course, His Highness was already holding a knife to that woman, but she definitely confessed because of this orb, not the knife.’

“Here, hold this and answer.”

Jerome placed the transparent orb in the confused woman’s hand and confidently asked.

“Are you stalking our master?”

If the woman’s answer was a lie, the orb would turn red.

“What? I don’t understand what you’re saying, oh. Maybe I am! I don’t remember anything right now. I don’t know. ……By the way, who is this ‘master’?”

Despite the woman’s confused answer, the orb turned blue, indicating truth.

Why is she like this?

Is the orb broken?

Or is this really a children’s toy like Your Highness said?

Originally, his intuition was close to what Evan described as “sh*t intuition,” so there was no way his ominous premonition could be right.

This won’t do.

At this rate, some flower beggar will settle in the castle.

Jerome broke out in a cold sweat and pulled out another question.

“What’s your name! Why did you come here!”

“I, I really can’t remember. Neither my name nor my purpose. All I remember is seeing a silver beast before I lost consciousness in the snow field. It looked like a fo-fox……”

Jerome, who had been pressing her, hastily snatched away the blue orb when the words ‘silver beast’ came out of her mouth.

“Wh-what? There’s no way something like that would be around the castle in this weather! Uh, um.”

The orb in Jerome’s hand, who was answering awkwardly, instantly turned red.

Startled by the sight, Jerome quickly hid it behind his back.

“That toy is quite useful?”

When a languid baritone voice came from behind Jerome, the woman turned her head.

Another man with snow-white skin was leaning against the doorway, watching her.

As she watched him approach slowly, she momentarily couldn’t breathe.

Features that looked as if transparent ice had been carved with perfect aesthetic proportions.

Sharp eyes with a gaze that said everything was tedious, and silver hair that shone as it brushed those eyes.

His deep black pupils stared down at the woman for a while, but she couldn’t say anything.

More precisely, she was so entranced by his mysterious appearance that she forgot she should react somehow.

Especially below his left pupil, there was a small mole, and even that mole was perfectly captivating.

As the woman continued to stare at him blankly with her mouth open, Evan spoke first in a burdened tone.

“Would you close your mouth?”

Thanks to that, the woman came to her senses and closed her mouth with a snap.

“Jerome. Bring that orb. You hold it again.”

The orb was once again placed on the tense woman’s hands.

“Before you fainted, you asked for something.”

Evan’s voice was serious.

The woman still just blinked, but Jerome swallowed hard beside her.

If, as his master said, this woman had come here aiming for something, she would be far more dangerous than a stalker!

“Don’t you remember that either?”