Just as she was lost in thought, newly examining her past self…

“Kyang kyang!”

Yolly suddenly appeared, perhaps through a gap in the reception room door.

When Saena came up to the townhouse, she initially planned to leave it at the main residence, but gave up after seeing it somehow sneaking along. Now he just accompanied her whenever she came and went.

She had seen him sleeping well in the bedroom this morning before going out and had come straight to the reception room to meet Elizabeth, but how did this guy know she was here?

He truly was an unpredictable creature.

“Grrrr…. Kyaang!”

“Eek! Wh-what is this!”

But something seemed off about Yolly.

He barked furiously at Elizabeth, baring his teeth. This was the first time he had acted so aggressively.

“Yolly! What’s wrong, come here!”

When Saena jumped up to catch him and try to send it outside, Yolly dodged her and lunged at Elizabeth.

“Kyaang!”

“Kyaaaa! No! Get it away!”

Elizabeth literally panicked and climbed onto the sofa to avoid Yolly. In her terror, she jumped up and down on the sofa, all grace forgotten.

“Hey! You!”

Saena managed to dash forward and grab Yolly. This was the most enraged she had ever seen him, which surprised her too. Even so, she had a groundless faith that Yolly wouldn’t bite her.

“Yolly! Calm down! Why is he acting like this?”

“Grrrrrr…”

Though Saena scolded Yolly and moved away from Elizabeth, he kept trying to raise his head and growled while glaring at the sofa.

“Miss? What’s happening… oh?”

Rupert came to check, likely due to the noise from the reception room.

“Sir Rupert.”

“My, how did this guy get here? Give him to me. I’ll take him out.”

Saena sighed and handed Yolly to Rupert.

Rupert too seemed worried about getting bitten after seeing his fierce-looking, teeth-baring expression, and very carefully grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.

“Kyaaang!”

“Oh, oh?! Hey!”

But perhaps he had been too careful. Somehow Yolly quickly slipped out of Rupert’s hands and jumped.

“—Kyaaaaaah!”

Elizabeth screamed from the sofa with a pale face. Yolly circled around the sofa, barking madly.

Saena and Rupert hurriedly lunged to catch Yolly again.

“You rascal!”

“Kyang!”

Rupert caught Yolly with quick movements.

“Hah… Sorry, Beth. What did you say you came for?”

“Huuuh…”

“It would be better to say it quickly and leave.”

“I… I wanted to go somewhere with you… I wanted you to come with me…”

“Ah, really? Alright. Let me know when by letter.”

Elizabeth quickly got down while keeping an eye on the restrained Yolly.

“You must come! You have to come with me!”

Elizabeth shouted as she passed through the door.

“…Phew.”

What a commotion. Thanks to Yolly, Saena, who had suddenly been sent spinning, collapsed onto the sofa.

“Wow, it got quiet so quickly.”

Saena muttered incredulously, looking at Yolly who had become quiet as soon as Elizabeth disappeared. She had ended up practically chasing away a guest.

“Really, why are you acting like this? If you keep doing this, I won’t be able to insist that ‘this little guy is a safe animal.'”

Yolly still looked displeased. The way he kept tapping its tail showed he remained quite dissatisfied.

‘Is it because of the smell?’

She remembered how it had torn up the letter Elizabeth had sent last time.

Saena sniffed the air wondering if it was because of Elizabeth’s perfume, but to her, it was just a sweet floral scent.

‘That’s strange.’

Since animal’s sense of smell is supposedly much more developed than humans’, could there be some other smell besides the floral scent?

…She couldn’t tell. Saena decided to just acknowledge that Yolly ‘very much’ disliked Elizabeth.

“Anyway, about going somewhere together…”

Where could that be?

Though she had resolved to reflect on her past self, since she hadn’t had any good experiences lately when following Elizabeth or meeting her somewhere, she felt suspicious.

‘No, perhaps I… Beth, I might be looking for valid reasons to distance myself from you.’

It would be easier on her conscience to distance herself if Elizabeth turned out to be a bad person. To be honest, if Saena hadn’t made new friends, she might have just endured Elizabeth.

Unless Yuri had been here, but in this life where even he wasn’t present, she had no one who could be called a friend.

‘I shouldn’t just blame Elizabeth.’

Having discovered some ulterior motives in her own heart as well, Saena sighed softly and thought.

‘I can’t judge Beth right away… I’ll give her some leeway.’

Just because she had tried to bring George Hollander last time, Saena actually didn’t want to be close to Elizabeth.

‘They say one should endure things three times. Yes, Beth. I’ll give you three chances.’

Saena resolved to endure three times the kind of behavior that a true friend wouldn’t do. Of course, if the behavior crossed the line too severely, it wouldn’t even reach three times.

This resolution might be closer to self-absolution.

And in fact, Saena might have already grasped Elizabeth’s true nature.

Looking back later, she had already sensed deep in her heart that it wouldn’t take long to use up all three chances.

* * *

It was Wednesday again.

Saena headed to Duke Kramer’s townhouse.

As these strange meetings repeated several times, she had become somewhat accustomed to them.

Saena took her place in one corner of the Duke’s office. This was due to the security reasons mentioned earlier. She was busy rolling the jewel and rolling her eyes along with it, trying to decipher the engraved letters at her new desk that was placed next to the Duke’s.

While she wrestled with the jewel, the Duke usually conducted his business. He showed no concern about Saena, an outsider, seeing anything, working on his documents without hesitation.

‘It’s natural that he’s busy.’

Just looking at her own father, it was no exaggeration to say that the work never ended for heads of houses and lords who managed vast territories.

‘Today too… he’s so neat and handsome.’

Duke Kramer had such an expressionless and cold impression, and since he wrapped himself up completely like a germaphobe and put up walls between himself and others, he had a strong impression of being ‘difficult to approach.’

He was the type that was hard to deal with from the start, to the point where the thought of appreciating his appearance couldn’t even enter the picture.

But as these strange meetings repeated and the tension eased somewhat, lately, she found herself newly noticing the Duke’s appearance. Objectively speaking, Duke Kramer was a very handsome man.

It wasn’t that you couldn’t look at him properly because the aura he emanated was too strong and cold, but if you examined him carefully, there wasn’t a single flaw anywhere.

His snow-white hair color could easily give the impression of an old man’s, but not on him. It rather emphasized the image of pristine snow without a speck of dust.

The effect was more intriguing because his eyebrows and eyelashes were the same color and full. When she saw his cold winter lake-like blue eyes carefully framed by snow-white eyelashes, it strangely reminded her of the tingling sensation you feel when you dip your hands in ice water.

Though his skin was fair for a man, his angular jawline, straight forehead, and high brow bones emphasized his masculinity, casting shadows that created a noble yet unapproachable impression.

Only his lips were red, as red as if a woman had applied rouge, strangely sensual amidst his cold impression.

‘…Sensual! What am I–!’

Just as Saena lost her composure at her own thoughts, those supposedly sensual lips… slowly parted.

“…shall we?”

“…Yes?”

The Duke looked at Saena, who stared back with her mouth agape, with a slightly strange expression.

“Don’t you want to?”

What, what are we doing?

“What do you mean?”

As if mocking her increasingly improper thoughts, the Duke added.

“A cup of tea?”

“…Ah, yes. Um, no.”

“……”

‘Ah yes, um no’? What nonsense am I saying!

“No, I mean I’d love to!”

At this moment, hearing her clumsy response, the Duke probably regretted and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it have been better to entrust this to a famous scholar?’

Though she berated herself internally, the Duke rose from his desk seemingly unconcerned. He then led her toward the sofa placed in one corner of the office.

Somehow, knowing the chain of command, Royter appeared like a fairy with a tea set. The Duke brought delicate desserts that looked like he wouldn’t eat them himself.

“A famous pastry master made these. Please try them, my lady.”

Indeed, they weren’t the Duke’s portion — Royter pushed all the colorful, almost too pretty to eat desserts in front of Saena and poured the tea.

Having tea time alone with Duke Kramer…

Unlike her expectation on possibly choking on tea, time flowed smoothly.