‘You’ve thrown away a good chance.’

Back in the room she had left, Liana was curled up alone on the bed. The air was cold, and the rough blanket stung her skin.

Hugging her injured leg close to her, she felt tears drop onto her knee.

‘Foolish…’

She wiped them away with the back of her hand, mocking herself bitterly.

When Shed had approached her, her heart—ridiculously enough—had begun to beat as if it already belonged to him. Like a moth diving into the flames, even knowing she would be burned.

Shed would never know. That when she first recognized his face, the very first thing she felt was relief. When she realized he was alive, breathing, her heart had eased, as if she had finally set down a burden she had carried for far too long.

She had always wondered.

The undefeated hero, the duke rumored to have once been a slave. Every time she heard the name Shed Lester, Liana thought of the slave she had known. The one endlessly gentle, endlessly loyal.

She had secretly scanned the tabloids and newspapers that entered Baron Godwin’s estate, seeking out his name.

First came tales of Lupus, who had once saved the duke’s life. Then, before she knew it, the name of Shed Lester, adopted son of the Lester house, resounded everywhere.

After the late Duke Lester’s death, Duke Shed Lester filled the front pages for months. His name was always tucked like a bookmark into the news of victory.

He had shone brilliantly. No hero of legend could outshine his story.

From the mire, Liana had gazed up at that dazzling star. She had loved the star, but that was as far as it could ever go.

She had no right to stand before Shed Lester. No right to meet him at all.

So she hid herself away in a corner of the vast empire, in the lowliest of places. Believing it would be safe, since Baron Godwin had little connection to the Lester house.

But misfortune had always cursed her. In the end, the leash of fate dragged her here.

‘Remember your sin, Luise.’

It was as though the cold air itself whispered in her ear.

Liana curled tighter, pressing her hands over her ears.

Then—click. The sound yanked her back from her thorn-filled memories into reality.

She hastily wiped her tear-stained eyes and turned toward the door.

A middle-aged man adjusted his monocle slightly as he looked at her.

Seeing the woman curled on the bed in tears, Werner let out a sigh.

Her disheveled clothes, her trembling body, the tear-dampened rose-tinted cheeks—

‘…It seems she failed to satisfy the Master.’

Werner, guessing well enough what must have taken place in the bedchamber, shook his head.

“You’ve thrown away a good chance.”

He stepped closer and handed her a thick robe to drape over her shoulders.

At his words, Liana only lowered her head.

‘A good chance. So that’s what it looks like to others.’

That the illustrious duke of the Elector’s house had granted her the honor of sharing his bed, and a lowly maid should be nothing but grateful.

Now, she was nothing more than a pitiful woman who had failed to seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that had fallen into her lap.

Ah… or perhaps they had always thought her too pitiful to sink any lower.

Wiping her tears with the back of her hand, Liana let out a bitter laugh.

Werner looked at her with a tinge of pity. Whatever had happened, her situation seemed undeniably tragic.

“Until the Master gives further orders, you will remain here. You have nowhere else to go anyway…”

“I do have somewhere.”

Liana lifted her head sharply, meeting Werner’s eyes. Her pale green eyes, still wet with tears, now gleamed with a resolute light.

‘Somewhere?’

In truth, there was no such place. She had no intention of returning to the filthy Godwin household. But one thing was certain—she refused to remain in Shed’s domain.

‘Once I leave… everything will work itself out.’

She clenched her fist tightly over her chest.

“You don’t mean back to Godwin House?” From what the Master said, you don’t have any family. Where do you intend to go?”

Werner studied the frail, slender woman before him. It was obvious she wouldn’t last more than a day or two on the streets before collapsing. Her body was already weakened, her injured leg only one of many ailments.

“I understand. After what happened on your very first day, wanting to run is natural.”

The steward nodded slightly.

Having arrived in such a strange place after suffering such an ordeal, of course she would not want to stay. How could she bear to stay any longer, alone in the master’s bedchamber?

“But for now, you belong to the Lester household. Until a decision is made, you’ll remain here and wait.”

He pointed to the emblem stitched onto her robe. It depicted a wolf with a sword in its jaws — a clear mark declaring her Shed Lester’s property.

Years had passed since she abandoned her life as a nobleman’s daughter, yet the helplessness that gripped her when her fate was dictated by a few words from the powerful made her tremble with rage.

“Follow me.”

Werner turned, as though unwilling to waste any more words.

🌺⟡───⟡🌺 🌺⟡───⟡🌺

Across the second-floor corridor, Eclace turned his head.

A woman with deep brown hair, clad in a white robe, trailed behind the steward Werner.

‘So my eyes weren’t wrong after all.’

Now that she’d been washed and dressed properly, as expected, she was a beauty.

‘It seems it’s not that Duke Lester has no interest in women… but that his standards are exceptionally high.’

Eclace absentmindedly toyed with a gold coin between his fingers, as was his habit. So the duke’s tastes ran toward the refined and exacting, did they?

His calculating red eyes slid subtly toward the door the woman had just exited.

‘Isn’t that Duke Lester’s bedchamber…? At this hour?’

With narrowed eyes, he stared at the firmly closed door. Then, catching sight of the head maid Caroline passing nearby, he called her over.

“That woman. She’s the one His Grace brought back earlier today, isn’t she?”

His tone was polite, even gentle, as he asked.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“I heard she came from Baron Godwin’s estate?”

“That’s right.”

The head maid’s answer was short and sharp. Eclace stroked his chin and the corners of his mouth curled up.

“Leaving so early? His Grace must be rather… brief in bed. Surprising, for a man his age, still in the prime of his vigor.”

It was only nine o’clock. Considering the time the duke had finished dinner, bathed, and gone up to his chamber, it was far too early for a woman to already be leaving.

‘So, I thought perhaps the old Lupus blood was finally stirring again…’

He clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“No wonder the unpleasant rumors keep spreading. Tsk. Perhaps the one about him being impotent isn’t just a rumor after all.”

Caroline’s brow furrowed at his remark.

“Did you send your lady back?”

She asked, recalling the woman Eclace had brought to the estate earlier that day, the one in a gaudy dress that left her back and legs exposed, her steps crude and swaying, her face caked in powder, her lips painted a garish red, her perfume so thick it nearly stung the nose, and her neckline flaunting an abundance of cleavage.

It had been obvious at a glance what sort of woman she was.

At her barbed question, Eclace’s eyes curved softly.

“But of course. I couldn’t possibly keep a fine young lady out in danger so late at night.”

Caroline’s frown deepened at his honeyed answer.

‘A fine young lady, he calls her… How dare he use such words for a woman like that.’

“As head maid, I must insist that such women not be brought carelessly into the Lester household.”

“What a thing to say. You’ll hurt my dear little songbird’s feelings if you call her that.”

“S-Songbird…”

Caroline let out a dry laugh, appalled by the absurd pet name.

In fact, she had already seen that woman leave the estate well before evening. She only pressed Eclace about sending her away to warn him.

“Don’t be so stiff, Caroline. With that kind of attitude, no wonder His Grace can’t manage to bed a woman. Keep on like this, and the Lester line may very well die out.”

Eclace shrugged with a laugh.

Caroline’s face flushed red, as though she had been insulted.

“Our Master is already engaged. He has no reason to bring such a woman into his chamber!”

Her reply was firm, solemn.

Eclace let out a soft chuckle.

“Of course. Our Duke must uphold chastity and virtue. Naturally. After all, that is a virtue in itself.”

At his light, mocking tone, Caroline pressed her lips together in displeasure.

‘So flippant…!’

She found Eclace Vitel, the young viscount before her, utterly distasteful.

‘I shouldn’t expect refinement from a merchant’s house…’

The Vitel family were originally commoners and wealthy merchants. Although their elevation was officially justified by their significant contributions to the economy, they had actually bought their title from the imperial family for a substantial sum.

This was an unprecedented move, and the resulting stigma was inevitable.

‘Our duke may be of lupus birth, but he’s far superior to a common peddler like this.’

Strictly speaking, Shed’s origins were lower than Eclace’s, yet Caroline’s loyalty toward Shed Lester was unwavering.

‘After all, His Grace saved the lives of both the late Duke and His Majesty the Emperor.’

To earn a title through military merit was the traditional path of honor. In that sense, Shed’s title was as rightful and honorable as any.

Eclace noted the look of disdain written plainly across Caroline’s proud face. He could guess easily enough what she was thinking.

‘She’s only clinging to her pride. She can’t bring herself to scorn the master she serves, because that would shame her more than me.’

She might sneer at him for being born a commoner, yet she held pride in a man who had once been a slave.

He knew well how tainted that pride truly was. If she hadn’t been serving the Lester household, she would likely be among the many who disdained Shed Lester as well.

Most of those who scorned Eclace Vitel scorned Shed Lester too.

“It’s late. Bring a cup of warm water to my room.”

Thus, Eclace gave his order as though nothing were amiss. Whether Caroline looked down on him or not, he was still a viscount and she, no more than a head maid.