In the past, she would have stabbed her thigh to stay awake, but…… being next to her now more lenient master, she didn’t feel the same tension or fear as before.

And her flickering vision stayed in darkness for longer periods.

Eventually, May dropped the book she was holding with a thud and fell asleep.

Then, blink.

When she opened her eyes, not knowing how much time had passed, for some reason, Aiden’s blue eyes were very close.

“……”

When she blinked her eyes, unable to easily overcome the sleepiness, a small ripple appeared in those frozen blue eyes that hadn’t moved. Though it might have been an illusion due to her overwhelming drowsiness.

Then, a hand touched her forehead with a light tap. The touch was so gentle it tickled, making it difficult for sleep to leave her.

“……Wake up.”

Though she should follow the order…. She only had the silly thought of wondering if he would pat her head like last time.

Her fear of Aiden had definitely been diluted.

At least in this mansion, knowing that angering him wouldn’t lead to abandonment as punishment, she might have unconsciously been seeking a place to lie down and stretch her legs.

May mumbled with her eyes remaining closed.

“I want to, but my eyes are too heavy……”

“……”

“I think fat is growing in my eyes…… Can, can I sleep a little more and remove it later?”

* * *

What nonsense about removing something. Fat from her eyes? It was such a foolish sleep talk. Aiden let out a small laugh as he looked down at her peacefully sleeping face again. Her serene expression was quite adorable.

Of course, Aiden disciplined himself as soon as he had such thoughts.

‘……Pointless thoughts.’

More precisely, it was a slip of the mind. After all, Aiden quite frequently confused the contempt he felt for her worthlessness with feelings of endearment. As he dwelled on such excuses, his earlobes had already turned red.

Aiden’s brows furrowed at the persistent heat that wouldn’t easily subside.

He soon rose roughly. Of course, before leaving the room, he didn’t forget to drop a blanket over the maid’s body. Since May was his only attendant, it would be his loss if she caught a cold.

As if trying to erase how close he had gotten while trying to check the sleeping maid’s face, Aiden kept repeating to himself. That he was simply taking care of his possession, nothing more. That he wanted to see her sleeping face up close only because…… her eyelashes were very long.

These implausible excuses continued throughout the night.

And the next day.

For the first time since arriving at the mansion, Aiden, who had trouble sleeping, irritably opened his eyes at the sound of tapping on the window. When he turned his head, a white pigeon was pecking at the window.

‘Derrick’s messenger bird….’

After all, only Derrick knew where Aiden was currently located. Even if that weren’t the case, only that eccentric would use such a grotesque magical bird with jewels embedded in its eyes as a messenger.

Tap. Tap tap.

At the continued urging, Aiden slowly rose. He irritably watched as it quickly entered through the opened window gap.

The magical bird examined Aiden’s face for quite a while with its red and blue jeweled eyes, then began regurgitating the letter with a clamorous sound. Following that, things far too large to come from such a small beak poured out one after another.

Ignoring the purse full of gold coins, Aiden checked the letter first.

Father says he’ll really cut off your funds if you don’t attend the upcoming banquet.

Moreover, he’ll either exile you to some rural area……

Or perhaps make you the husband of some precious young lady from a ‘beautiful family.’

Aiden as a son-in-law…… I think it sounds quite interesting, what do you think?

Aiden furrowed his brows at the vulgar letter that had no greeting, messy handwriting, and even ended with a question.

‘Even a child just learning to write wouldn’t write like this.’

Looking at the emphasized words ‘beautiful family,’ it was clearly written to provoke Aiden’s anger. He crumpled the letter he was holding.

Then the magical bird belatedly regurgitated something additional. Apparently, crumpling the paper was the condition that triggered the magic. Annoyed at having his actions read by Derrick, he slammed the crumpled letter to the floor.

What the bird spat out was another letter. Just as crude and lacking as the previous one.

By the way, as your current proxy, I strongly recommended the son-in-law option. They say a man needs marriage to mature.

If you’re thinking of just ignoring this, don’t.

Even if you can’t gain our parents’ approval, shouldn’t you at least get their forgiveness so they don’t take that girl as a concubine?

Ah right, make sure to tell me if you’ve lost your virginity. As your older brother, I have mountains of things to teach our youngest now that he’s become a true man.

P.S. You know there’s a lot to prepare for the banquet, right? If you leave when this letter arrives, the timing should be perfect. If you’re late…… your surname might not be Hale anymore.

After reading through it all, Aiden smiled fiercely.

“……That bastard.”

It seems the help he gave back then was all for this moment. Aiden crumpled that one as well. The bird watched even that before leaving the windowsill without waiting for a reply.

Blue eyes filled with irritation watched its departure menacingly.

As Derrick guessed, he had initially planned to ignore it, but seeing the repeated emphasis on marriage talks, it didn’t seem to be just idle chatter. The Duke had long been the type of person quite inclined to send his lacking youngest son as a son-in-law to an appropriate vassal family.

Aiden’s downcast eyes stopped on the calm sea outside the window.

Political marriage was one of the unavoidable duties of being born noble. So Aiden too was destined to be matched with a young lady from a good family someday, whether as a son-in-law or whatever else.

‘But not now….’

He recalled a face that smiled as brightly and innocently as those brilliant ripples breaking on the water.

The maid who had, at some point, stopped showing such expressions and only showed frightened faces, now smiled quite similarly to back then in this place.

Aiden knew this was because his own attitude had changed. He couldn’t help but know, since he himself felt an inexplicable comfort and peace in this place.

Moreover, with that bothersome man gone, he didn’t want to end his life here like this, where there was nothing to provoke his sensitivity.

Aiden eventually looked at his calm silver hair reflected in the mirror before roughly running his hand through it.

‘Then when should I completely end this life here.’

Because the answer to that wasn’t coming easily.

* * *

“Eh? You’re, you’re leaving the mansion?”

May hoped her face looked appropriately regretful as she asked.

“I’m not leaving, I’m going out.”

Though Aiden corrected her like that, since she heard this ‘outing’ was for the banquet, it was difficult to control her lips from curling up.

‘I’d completely forgotten about it after quitting. The summer banquet….’

The Hale ducal household held banquets around the same time every year. Though the scale was similar for all of them, the one held in early summer was famous for being more splendid than the others.

The banquet hall and garden decorated with hydrangeas, the Duchess’s favorite, were regular features in gossip magazines every year. Who was invited among the guests and artists was also one element of entertainment.

Though it seemed the Duchess and her subordinates got headaches every year from having to list all the differences from the previous year…… still, it was an event filled with that much pride.

May recalled how they would exhaust themselves managing the hydrangeas around this time every year.

‘The beauty was only temporary….’

The Duchess’s standards were so strict that they had to remove any that were slightly less full or slightly less colorful.

And the Duchess’s strict standards weren’t only applied to flowers. She cultivated her three talented sons as diligently as the garden. Of course, the actual cultivation was left to employees like May.

Everything proceeded under her direct command. And Aiden, who was difficult to handle, was under the Duchess’s intensive management. It was with an attitude of ‘since he doesn’t have abilities to show off like his brothers,’ they should at least cultivate his appearance. Of course, Aiden didn’t quietly follow that process…..