And as he was about to raise his head again, Worklan discovered a carefully stitched mark on one corner of the neckline of the dress the woman was wearing.

He suddenly remembered how Marenne’s dress neckline had torn that night.

It was definitely in that position.

So this dress wasn’t just similar to what Marenne had worn that day, it was that very dress.

Looking again, the woman was wearing the same amethyst hairpin that Marenne had worn that day. The shoes slightly visible beneath the front of the dress were also identical to what Marenne had worn.

This woman was definitely connected to Marenne in some way.

“The dress……”

When Worklan opened his mouth, the woman tilted her head quizzically with a pretty smile on her lips.

“Pardon? What do you mean?”

“Where did you get this dress?”

When the man who had been apologizing politely suddenly frowned menacingly, Elenne stepped back in confusion.

“Oh, my sister…… my sister gave it to me!”

“Sister? Who is that?”

Intimidated by the man who was no longer polite at all, Elenne spilled out details he hadn’t even asked for.

“Marie, Marie Herona! The third daughter of Viscount Herona. She’s currently serving the Duchess at Elmano Castle. She said she received this dress as a gift from the Duchess.”

Marie Herona.

It was a familiar name.

To think that the identity of the woman who had spent the night with him wearing this dress was Marie Herona.

Worklan let out a hollow laugh between his lips as if dumbfounded.

“So you were right in front of me and deceived me.”

Grinding his teeth, Worklan turned his body without giving Elenne another glance. Then he disappeared with long, quick strides.

Watching the man’s back disappear among the people, Elenne calmed her startled heart.

What was that about the dress?

There’s no way her dull and old-fashioned sister would have stolen someone else’s property, so what on earth had happened?

“Is this the sixth guy? About the sixth one?”

When a gloomy voice came from beside her, Elenne quickly erased the annoyance that had appeared on her face and turned to the side with a pretty smile.

“Come on, Lucien. You just heard him. He said he mistook me for someone else. He probably had some business with my sister.”

Despite her calm explanation, Lucien didn’t unfurrow his deeply wrinkled forehead.

“But how does that Elmano b*stard know your name?”

“Hoho, what are you saying? No, Sir Worklan didn’t say Elenne, he said Marenne. He must have remembered my sister’s name incorrectly. My sister is rather forgettable-looking, you know.”

At that, Lucien’s face froze coldly, and he painfully gripped Elenne’s forearm with his hand, its knuckles protruding.

“Hmm, so you knew that guy was Worklan Elmano. And yet you pretended not to know him in front of me.”

All traces of smile and color disappeared from Elenne’s face.

She knew how much Lucien would harass a person once he became suspicious.

She had always known he had that tendency, but after sending all her dowry and getting engaged, Lucien revealed his sensitive, cruel, and persistent nature without restraint. And it was getting worse day by day.

Last time, she had briefly spoken to a servant at the Count’s mansion to send him on an errand, and Lucien had tormented her mercilessly for over a week. She couldn’t afford to give him another reason to be upset when they had just reconciled and come out for a change of mood.

Elenne tried her best to clear up the misunderstanding.

“He’s such a famous person, I just know his name. This is the first time I’ve ever spoken to him. Really. I can swear to it.”

But Lucien only glared at Elenne with glittering eyes, twisting the corner of his mouth.

“So you’re planning to keep men like him as a lover once you marry me. I hear you’ve already marked quite a few men as potential lover candidates.”

“Wh-who says such things? You know I only have you, Lucien!”

“Lady Serena.”

When the name of her close friend came from Lucien’s mouth, Elenne froze.

“You should have treated your friends better. How arrogantly and unpleasantly must you have behaved for her to come to me and tell me all these details? She said everything was planned from the beginning—from when you first came to our family as a play teacher, to pretending to get lost in the garden and meeting me, to seducing me and getting into my bed. I almost fell for that pretty face.”

Lucien smiled coldly and tapped Elenne’s cheek with his fingertips.

“How dare you try to use me for your own pleasure. Not a chance, Elenne. After you marry me, you won’t be allowed to take a single step outside the mansion without my permission.”

Those words were definitely not a joke or empty talk. Lucien’s cold face, without a trace of warmth, indicated that he would certainly do as he said. Realizing this, Elenne’s beautiful green eyes trembled anxiously in her large eyes.

What Elenne had wanted was to freely enjoy the glamorous and luxurious social life that she couldn’t fully experience as a lady from a poor viscount family, by becoming a member of a wealthy count’s family.

She wanted to wear beautiful dresses every day, attend parties, drink expensive champagne, and dance excitedly while changing partners. And she wanted to live a life of pleasure with a handsome and physically impressive lover, not a man like Lucien who was just unattractively thin.

But to be unable to go out freely and to be confined to the mansion forever? And in a mansion with that fastidious and eccentric countess?

No, she hadn’t seduced Lucien using every possible method to live like that. Living that way would be even more terrible than living as a lady of the poor Herona family.

“I’m…… I’m breaking off the engagement.”

When Elenne spoke with trembling lips, Lucien looked at her as if she were a naive child who knew nothing of the world.

“You know that if you break the engagement now, you’ll have to pay twice the dowry you’ve already given, right? I hear your innocent sister provided that dowry with great difficulty. It was a bit too much, Elenne, to have your sister return all the marriage proposals that came to her so she could prepare your dowry. That’s practically like cursing her to live and die alone without ever getting married. Don’t you think? I wonder if your poor, innocent sister knows what you’ve been doing all this time. If you want, I could go tell her myself.”

She wasn’t stupid enough not to understand that Lucien was threatening her right now, even though he was smiling.

Elenne, who had been excited about finally being able to live the life she wanted as a countess, suddenly felt the ground collapse beneath her feet.

Momentarily dizzy, Elenne tightly closed her eyes.

⁕⁕⁕

Worklan’s footsteps echoed loudly as he walked down the corridor.

No matter how he thought about it, it was absurd. Even as he walked, he let out hollow laughs several times like a madman.

Marie. Marie Herona. Marie Herona!

Worklan passed quickly through the corridor, repeatedly muttering the name of the woman who had so astounded him. After walking to the end of the corridor, he turned the corner and flung open the door to the office.

Kais, who was still sitting with Lariella on his knee and pecking at her lips, looked at Worklan with surprised eyes.

He couldn’t help but be surprised when Worklan, who should have been in the capital by now, suddenly burst into the office, snorting like a buffalo.

“Sir Worklan, what’s the matter?”

But Kais’s voice seemed not to reach Worklan’s ears.

He immediately pounced toward Lariella and asked.

“Miss, I mean, where is Marie Herona right now?”

It was strange that Sir Worklan was calling Marie by name, and even stranger why Sir Worklan, who had been searching only for a red-haired woman, was suddenly looking for her maid, but Lariella was too intimidated by Worklan’s force to question him.

“Marie should be resting in her room now……”

“Where is her room?”

“It’s at the end of the third corridor on the left after going up the west stairs, but why are you looking for her, Sir Worklan……”

By the time Lariella asked her belated question, Worklan had already turned and left the office.

Quickly retracing the corridor he had walked, Worklan bounded up the stairs at the end of the west corridor, taking two steps at a time.

Finding the third corridor on the left, he instantly stood before the door at its end and knocked as if he would break it down. Then without waiting for an answer from inside, he flung the door open.

Marie, who had been sitting in a chair, jumped up in surprise when the door suddenly opened. And upon seeing the large man standing at the doorway, she nearly fainted.

“W-why is Sir Worklan…… why here…… no, what’s……”

Entering the room, Worklan carefully examined Marie, who was standing awkwardly in front of the chair.