Worklan, who had been brought along without unpacking or knowing what was happening, grumbled with a face full of discontent.

“What on earth is this about? No matter how urgent, you should at least give me time to rest.”

Worklan looked quite disheveled after riding through the sandy wind since dawn.

He had planned to fill a bathtub with water and soak in it leisurely when he arrived at the castle, then go to his favorite tavern in the evening and perhaps pick a nice woman. Being dragged away like this and interrogated like a criminal was not part of his plan for today.

“If you want to go rest quickly, then speak quickly.”

Kais, sitting at his desk with a deeply furrowed brow, urged Worklan.

Worklan frowned as if he had bitten into a worm-infested fruit at these words that came without context.

“What?”

“Gladys.”

At the name Kais pronounced with clear enunciation, Worklan’s eyes, which had been narrowed in irritation, widened. He raised his body, which had been slumped against the chair’s backrest, and leaned forward sharply.

“Why are you suddenly talking about that…… Do you remember now?”

Judging by Worklan’s reaction, it seemed true that there was indeed a large hole somewhere in his memory. Kais shook his head with a serious face.

“No, not at all.”

“Then why did that name suddenly come up?”

“It seems the reason I haven’t been able to consummate my marriage all this time is because of that incident I don’t remember.”

Kais explained to Worklan everything that had happened to him from the wedding night until now, and what the young priest sent from the High Temple had told him.

“So tell me everything you know, Worklan. I’m prepared to hear anything.”

After listening to Kais, Worklan ran his large hand over his dry face.

He had thought it was actually fortunate that Kais didn’t remember. That’s why he had buried it completely as if nothing had happened. But to think that the shock and pain from that day were still following Kais even now.

Worklan let out a long sigh. He began to rummage through the pile of memories he had buried for eight years, pulling out pieces of the memories Kais had lost, bit by bit.

“It was when rumors were spreading throughout the capital that the Elmano ducal family was importing opium.”

Drake committed all sorts of vicious acts with his newly acquired ducal title and wealth. The worst of these was opium. Reports flooded in that the Elmano family was bringing opium on merchant ships that crossed the distant seas, and the number of nobles who became addicted to opium after attending Drake’s parties was steadily increasing.

With complaints about Drake already widespread, the Emperor’s wrath at this new development was understandable. The Emperor held the entire Elmano family responsible, and the family sent Drake’s brother, Bator, and his son, Worklan, to Elmano Castle to deliver a warning letter to Drake.

“So after the imperial hunting competition ended, we came to Elmano Castle, but by the time we arrived, Gladys had already hanged herself. You, who were said to have discovered her body first, had collapsed and were unconscious.”

Kais knew which time Worklan was referring to. It was when he had just turned seventeen.

The imperial court held a hunting competition every two years, gathering heirs from noble families. Until then, invitations to the hunting competition had belonged to Drake’s older brother and his son. But when Drake became Duke, that year Kais received the imperial invitation as the heir to the Elmano ducal family.

That hunting competition was the worst experience in his life, one he wished he could erase. The nobles were already furious because the notoriously dissolute Drake had caused problems with opium, and the heirs from families with immense pride openly mocked and criticized Kais.

Kais, who knew little about opium, felt wronged, but he couldn’t just claim innocence. He was the one managing the Elmano ducal family’s documents, and he was the one who had signed the papers requesting funds for opium purchases without knowing what they were for.

After returning home covered in all sorts of insults like dirty sewage, he drank heavily for the first time in his life and passed out. When he regained consciousness days later, the physician said it was because he had drunk too much alcohol at once for his body to handle. His head had ached as if being squeezed for quite some time afterward, and he felt unwell, so from then on, Kais never drank enough to get drunk.

But now he learned that his loss of consciousness then wasn’t just because of alcohol.

Kais pressed his throbbing temples firmly with his index finger and urged Worklan to continue.

“Go on.”

Worklan nodded and continued.

“Since the heir to the Elmano ducal family had ended up in such a state, my father confronted Drake, demanding to know what had happened.”

Recalling Drake’s face, with his lewd eyeballs rolling about as he babbled vilely, Worklan frowned deeply.

“Drake said he had only provided a bedchamber maid since it was time for you to function as a man. He claimed he had merely done his duty as a father and had done nothing wrong.”

At those words, Kais, who had been pressing his temples, raised his head in surprise.

“A bedchamber maid? In my bed? Gladys?”

“Yes. When we asked the maids, they said Drake had brought Gladys the day before and told them to bathe her ‘like a bride preparing for her first night.’ So the maids had bathed her carefully in water with flower petals, applied perfume, and even dressed her in a flowing nightgown. Drake had dressed Gladys like a new bride and put her in your bed. So Gladys was first in your room, not the Duke’s room.”

Kais’s brow furrowed terribly at the story of Gladys entering his bed in a flowing nightgown, smelling of perfume. Even though he wasn’t seeing it right in front of him, his stomach churned and he felt like vomiting.

“Well, she didn’t stay long before being driven out, it seems. There were maids who saw you shouting and dragging Gladys out of the room. And there was also a maid who saw Drake taking away Gladys, who was crying in front of your room. What happened next is what you probably expected: Gladys was r*ped by Drake that night. And at dawn, she hanged herself in front of the Duke’s room. You saw that and lost consciousness.”

His stomach hadn’t fully settled yet, and now his head was throbbing unbearably.

Kais groaned softly and clutched his head.

“When my father heard this story, he became furiously angry with Drake. He demanded to know why Drake had r*ped Gladys. Drake replied that whether he used the girl who came of her own accord wanting to be a bedchamber maid as your bedchamber maid or his own, what was the problem since bedchamber maids were meant to be passed around anyway? Huh, really.”

His head felt dizzy and his vision distorted, like he was riding a wild horse. His ears were buzzing, making Worklan’s voice sound like it was coming from underwater.

‘……Kais, mmm, mph……. does it feel good? Haa, quickly……. touch me too, okay?’

‘Ugh! What are you doing, Gladys! Are you crazy? Get out! Get out of my sight right now!’

Worklan’s buzzing voice, the woman’s voice in his head, and then his own shouting voice all tangled together in a jumbled mess, then swirled around like a whirlwind.

Kais squeezed his eyes shut.

His stomach churned as if something was stirring it up, and his head felt like it was being split into pieces. But he tried his hardest to revive his memories.

Eventually, whitish things began to emerge one by one from the bottomless black pit.

……A dimly lit room, ……a woman wearing a nightgown so thin her flesh was clearly visible, the strange fragrance she emitted, unfamiliar hands touching his body, the wet and unpleasant sensation between his legs, the dark brown hair he had grabbed by the handful, an angry voice, the woman’s scream, and…… white feet swinging in midair.

Scenes that might have been reality or dreams appeared in fragments behind his closed eyelids, then disappeared.

“……Are you okay, Kais?”

Kais opened his eyes at the voice calling him. Worklan was looking at him with a worried face. In the meantime, his entire face and body had become damp with cold sweat.

“Ah……. I’m fine. Something…… I think I’m starting to remember a little……”

Other things still weren’t clear, like they were covered with a layer of hazy smoke. But one thing he could recall vividly was the image of Gladys hanging in front of the Duke’s room.

Gladys, whom Drake had ordered the maids to dress ‘like a bride preparing for her first night,’ had hanged herself in that very appearance.

So for the past month, when Lariella wore thin nightgowns that revealed her flesh and emitted all sorts of fragrances every night, it hadn’t aroused Kais. Instead, it had evoked the image of Gladys from that day buried deep in his heart. The image of Gladys swinging palely in midair, wearing a flowing nightgown and emitting a subtle fragrance.

He finally understood why he had been fine during the day but found it so painful to be near Lariella at night. His subconscious had rejected not Lariella, but the sensual attire and provocative fragrance of a ‘bride preparing for her first night.’

“Haa……”

Kais sighed deeply and leaned his head against the chair’s backrest.

He also felt sad about Gladys’s death. He had belated regrets and self-blame, wondering if he should have sent her back safely with someone instead of driving her out that night. But it wasn’t unbearable.

The greatest responsibility for that death lay with Gladys, who couldn’t distinguish between ‘what was hers’ and ‘what could never be hers,’ and with Drake, who used her to hurt Kais.

In the end, he had only made a fool of himself by suffering from a terrible aversion without knowing the reason.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier? No matter how shocking it was, I should have known what I needed to know. You could have told me later.”