“Threatening a maid like that doesn’t seem befitting of your reputation as a count.”

“It’s you who puts your subordinates in danger, Lady. You need only stop endangering them with your own hands.”

Beitram spoke while leisurely sitting down and crossing his legs. I bit my lip at the mockery hanging at the end of his words. It reminded me of what had happened before.

Not long after Kirhin’s funeral, Beitram visited the mansion. He claimed he came to express his condolences belatedly since he couldn’t attend the funeral due to other matters, but to me it felt like nothing but mockery.

Curled up with no motivation and filled only with anger, I had no intention of letting him into the house. So when he stepped out of his carriage, which was loaded with formal condolence gifts, I rushed at him with a cry that sounded like a wail.

If I had been just a little more composed, would I have succeeded?

The dagger in my hand failed to kill him. Beitram quickly twisted his body and easily caught my arm, and my knife only managed to graze his collar, slightly cutting his clothes and skin.

‘Beastly butcher! You killed my brother. I know everything, I know it all! Die! Just die! I said die!’

Perhaps I wanted him to kill me. Though I thrashed about while cursing him, my strength was no match for his. I wanted to see Kirhin, who would never return, and Lars, who had become impossible to find. I thought it would be better to die if I couldn’t do that while alive.

Staring at me with cold eyes and showing no sign of surprise, Beitram drew his sword. I willingly offered my neck. I didn’t care if I couldn’t be reborn. I thought that if I died, I would become an evil spirit and curse him for every moment he continued to breathe.

But what Beitram’s drawn sword cut was not me. It was Sofia, who had been with Brook and came out to stop me.

Blood splattered in an instant and she collapsed. As a pool of blood formed on the floor, I just gaped blankly. Beitram casually shook his sword clean and sheathed it as if nothing had happened.

‘Having dared to attempt to kill a noble, even immediate execution would be too lenient. Wouldn’t you agree, Lady Bickman?’

What was he saying? I was the one who tried to kill him. When I glared at him with wild, excited eyes, Beitram whispered with a sneer.

‘Remember this. If someone tries to kill me again, someone else will die like this.’

It felt as if a cold wind was piercing a hole through my chest. Beitram was warning me that if I tried again, he would kill someone close to me like this.

He would not kill me.

He would kill Brook, Maya. And I would wither away alone, painfully regretting my powerlessness.

‘I offer my condolences for the death of Baron Bickman.’

After placing his hand on his chest in respect, Beitram turned and walked to his carriage. I could have stabbed him in the back, but my feet wouldn’t move. Because before my eyes unfolded the vision of Brook or Maya, their necks cut, growing cold and staring at me with empty eyes.

After that, Beitram visited the Bickman mansion once or twice a month. It was maddening.

He didn’t even have any particular business. Using the excuse that he had been hunting in the nearby Rarefield Forest, he would stop by to have a meal or drink tea, depending on the time. Then he would play a few games of chess before leaving.

Having endured such visits for several months without realizing it, I was filled with terrible disgust every time I saw him. I had made plans to kill him, but when I imagined the desperate future of the Bickman family if I assassinated a count inside the mansion, I couldn’t go through with it. I might be willing to die, but I couldn’t irresponsibly drag down Ulrich and the others in the mansion.

Moreover, if I failed, someone other than me would die. Brook and Maya would look at me with eyes consumed by anxiety whenever Beitram came.

It was hell. But since there was no way to stop it, I sometimes made excuses of going out or being ill to avoid being present.

However, Beitram, who had previously left obediently once or twice, said this when Maya told him I was sick again: ‘Then I’m worried and will stay the night.’

That day, like the first time he came to the Bickman mansion, it was pouring rain. I could have bet everything I had that he deliberately chose such a day to visit.

The roads were slippery and the wind was strong, making it too dangerous to return on horseback. However, if he stayed overnight in a house where I, an unmarried woman, lived alone, it would generate countless rumors. This was especially concerning at a time when word was already spreading about Count Balshwin frequently visiting the Bickman mansion.

In the end, I had to get dressed and go to the reception room. Beitram was sitting comfortably as if it were his own home, with a chess set laid out. He looked at me with an emotionless face as he shook his wet hair.

‘You look pale. So when they said you were ill, it wasn’t entirely a lie.’

‘What exactly do you want?’

There were all sorts of ways to deceive people. Though I had no intention of forgetting, enduring this kind of provocation was even harder. Not wanting to maintain a polite attitude, I spoke carelessly.

‘Wasn’t killing my brother enough? Are you trying to involve me in death too? But you don’t kill people this way, Count. You swing your sword and get covered in your victim’s blood like a barbarian. Why don’t you just do that?’

‘I’ll do that when the time comes, so there’s no need to be impatient.’

Responding as if it were nothing, Beitram added briefly:

‘It’s just that right now, I feel like watching you a bit more.’

Is this what it feels like when your stomach turns? As I moved my lips in disbelief, he asked casually:

‘I’m bored. Shall we play chess? If you win even one game, I’ll leave this mansion immediately.’

My nerves snapped at his words, spoken as if it were a given while he knocked over three chess pieces. I forced a smile at the corner of my lips.

‘How about a condition that you never come back? Or a condition that you die?’

The golden-green eyes that had been directed at me flashed with a strange light. Rising with a coldly frozen face, he approached me slowly.

Though tense, I tried not to show it, keeping my head held high stubbornly, when suddenly a painful breath escaped as he gripped my throat. Beitram, who had easily placed my windpipe in his grasp, spoke in a low voice:

‘I’d like you to show an attitude that corresponds to my gentlemanly manners, Lady.’

I could feel blood rushing to my face. Though I clawed at his arm until my skin tore, he didn’t budge, as if made of iron.

Finally, when my vision began to darken, I nodded, and Beitram released me.

Leaving me gasping roughly for breath while clutching my throat, Beitram returned to his seat. His calm voice followed:

‘But, yes. If you can beat me under the same conditions, I won’t come again.’

I felt like sparks were flying from my eyes. The thought that I could be free from these raid-like visits if I did anything dominated my mind.

There were only two options.

Either succeed in assassinating him somewhere unrelated to Bickman, or win at chess.

‘I hope you’ll keep your promise.’

Beitram nodded readily at my half-hoarse voice. Starting with such anger, after losing repeatedly for over two hours, I finally had to ask him to remove the queen and knight, which made me want to die from shame.

It was five hours after starting chess that I achieved my first victory.

The wind and rain were raging even more severely than when he had arrived, and the road was as dark as pitch, but Beitram stood up without a word. No one offered him dinner or tried to stop him. As soon as he left the mansion with Brook seeing him off, I collapsed from exhaustion.

When I woke up, I hoped for news that Count Balshwin had been found dead, swept away by the storm, but sadly, God’s lightning had missed him. I had to face the count who returned to the mansion two weeks later with a perfectly fine face.

After half a year passed, and then a year, rumors began to circulate among people. Rumors that Count Balshwin was infatuated with the Bickman family’s young lady and was frequenting her house.

After Kirhin died, the number of young men visiting the Bickman family gradually decreased. But once rumors about the count spread, they completely stopped. Even Chester Storms, who had remained until the very end, gave up without being able to proceed with an engagement.

The reason my marriage wasn’t being arranged wasn’t due to my lack of effort. The bigger reason was that people thought of me as Count Balshwin’s hidden lover. One of the reasons people cited for this was the Nix merchant group.

Considering that all merchants who had attempted to trade with Freemont had met their demise, the success of the Nix merchant group was quite exceptional.

Although moving quickly in the early days to secure the protection of the merchant association, guards, and temple had been effective, the Nix merchant group’s ability to continue doing business was ultimately because Balshwin was turning a blind eye. Otherwise, Nix would have long since become crow food.

What could he be thinking?

I quietly observed the face before me.

The days when I would tremble with rage just looking at his face had passed. My hatred had settled heavily at the bottom of my heart, carrying the weight of time. It was crouching quietly, holding its breath, waiting for the opponent to show an opening.

To bare its claws and slash the opponent’s throat when the opportunity came.

Beitram was simply watching as the Nix merchant group expanded beyond Folluk. Even considering he had many other things to worry about due to the Freemont civil war, it was a somewhat complacent approach. He must have some other thoughts.

“You don’t intend to win.”

At the sound of a chess piece being placed on the marble board with a tap, I blinked. His bishop was threatening my queen. At this rate, I would likely be checkmated within five moves.

His words were both right and wrong. I had no intention of beating him in this particular game.