“There may be other aftereffects, so please stay here for the time being. I’ve caused you trouble, my lady.”

The Marquis apologized again.

He seemed to think her dazed face from admiring each of his features was an aftereffect of the accident.

Since the Marquis himself was asking her to stay at the estate, it worked out well for Arinne.

“If it’s alright, please spend time with the children occasionally. The children seem to have taken a liking to you.”

“Is that so?”

This was somewhat unexpected. She hadn’t done anything particularly likable to the children.

“I heard you told Jade he was rude.”

“Ah.”

Forget likable—that was something that would make them dislike her. Arinne flinched slightly and bit her lip.

“I apologize for that—”

“I’m grateful.”

“Pardon?”

The words that cut through her excuse were unexpected.

She’d scolded his son for being rude, and he was grateful for that.

Arinne couldn’t respond and just blinked.

“Thanks to you, I did some reflecting.”

The Marquis spoke calmly. The awkwardly worn smile was quite forlorn.

‘I should at least try.’

Arinne recalled the resolution she’d brought from the east.

Margrave, foreign wife, bereavement, children. When she listed what he had, the Marquis of Carentium himself wasn’t a good prospect.

Still, the man before her eyes seemed like a pretty good match. With someone like this, even if there was no love, there would be loyalty and respect.

Moreover, his history, which was a negative factor in marriage, was a positive for Arinne.

“Do you know who I am?”

Arinne gently curved her lips. Confidence showed that he would probably know her.

A faint puzzlement appeared on his face. It was bewildering for a woman he’d just met to suddenly ask if he knew who she was.

“I don’t know.”

“Is that so?”

Arinne paused briefly and looked directly into his eyes. Her grayish-purple eyes and his green eyes became entangled in contrast.

The Marquis unconsciously leaned his upper body back.

“It seems you don’t know.”

Arinne, who withdrew her gaze easily with an attitude of having nothing to regret, stared at a mirror on one side of the room.

In the mirror was a woman with wheat-colored hair hanging limply downward and dull purple eyes.

“I thought you might know who I am. I’m rather pleased you don’t.”

At her cryptic words, the Marquis’s brow narrowed.

“I hear similar things often.”

She felt faint displeasure and fatigue from his attitude.

He probably took Arinne’s words as a half-hearted advance.

“I thought you would.”

Arinne nodded with a composed smile.

Words like having seen or met somewhere before. Whether he remembered or knew her.

It was clearly a face that would have heard such words to the point of exhaustion.

Well, if someone left a man like that alone, they’d have seriously unusual standards of beauty.

Arinne somewhat understood the heart of his late former wife.

A good-natured, handsome man should be quickly brought over and made yours to tame while he’s obedient and innocent.

“I understand why you married early.”

At Arinne’s answer, one of his eyebrows rose crookedly.

“What do you mean?”

“Well. I mean you’re a decent person, Lord Marquis.”

The Marquis’s expression changed when he belatedly realized Arinne had no ‘impure’ intentions he’d been wary of.

For someone with intentions, her face was far too composed and shameless.

“Did you think I’d fallen for you, Lord Marquis?”

“…N-no.”

At the words pinpointing his misunderstanding, the Marquis’s face went blank. He hastily covered his mouth and turned his head diagonally downward.

Perhaps embarrassed, his cheeks turned slightly pink.

“That was rude of me. I-I’m sorry.”

Arinne watched with subtle interest as his cheeks and ears gradually colored.

“Are you embarrassed?”

“I said I was sorry.”

At the words that kept pinpointing and twisting his insides, the Marquis’s voice held a bit of sulking and resentment.

‘Oh?’

On the other hand, Arinne became interested in that.

“I understand. You’re such a wonderful person, Lord Marquis. If it makes you uncomfortable, shall we stop this topic?”

“Yes. Please do stop…”

The Marquis covered his face with both hands entirely. His embarrassed appearance was quite cute.

He seemed like a man exhausted and dried out by something, but unexpectedly had cute aspects.

“Still, that’s tremendous confidence.”

The most wicked part of Arinne’s personality was that she liked to tease people who were fun to tease, and wanted to poke at cute things.

“We agreed to stop…”

The Marquis’s voice grew smaller.

“Having a bad personality runs in the family. I’ll really stop now. I’m sorry.”

“…You promised.”

“I said I understand.”

Arinne barely held back from bursting into laughter at the Marquis, whose face had reddened and who spoke like he was sulking.

If he learned she was the Lady of Marcedea, he would more than fully understand the phrase about it running in the family.

“This is the brooch the child was wearing that day. Unless the wearer breaks it themselves, it won’t break under normal circumstances.”

The Marquis took out a brooch wrapped in a handkerchief from his pocket. His hand pointed to the cracked and split gemstone.

“…Didn’t it break easily?”

“That’s what’s strange. With a child’s strength, they’d have to stomp on it or throw it with all their might.”

Protective charms containing spells were difficult for ordinary people to break. This was something Arinne also knew.

Even though protective charms were rare and each had vastly different performance and prices, it didn’t seem like the Marquis would have bought his child an unverified piece of junk.

“It’s just speculation, but there’s a high possibility something with incompatible wavelengths was nearby.”

“Wavelengths…”

The raw stone itself was just a pretty rock. A stone without any energy became closer to a magic stone when a spell dwelled in it, and this applied to anything other than stones as well.

Most spells were for protection, so even if there were others nearby with protective charms, protective charms with spells for the same purpose shouldn’t have incompatible wavelengths.

Though she couldn’t say definitively since there was always that one-in-a-million chance.

“I’ll need to look into the details more. I’ll inform you if there’s any new information.”

The Marquis wrapped the brooch well in the handkerchief again and put it in his pocket.

“Please tell me anytime if there’s anything uncomfortable during your stay. I’ll correct it.”

“Thank you for your consideration.”

Arinne pulled her chin down slightly and gave a light greeting.

“Now that I’ve confirmed you’re awake, I’ll take my leave.”

When the Marquis showed signs of finishing the conversation and standing up, Arinne caught herself and stopped him.

“Lord Marquis. Let’s meet again soon. I have something to tell you.”

“Is there something uncomfortable?”

The Marquis hesitated.

Reading the thought ‘I said to speak up, but she’s saying it this quickly?’ that appeared on his face, Arinne shook her head reluctantly.

“There’s nothing uncomfortable.”

“Understood. I’ll see you soon.”

The Marquis, who greeted her again, finally left.

Some time after that, a gray head peeked out through the not-quite-closed door gap.

“…?”

At a glance, it was similar to the Marquis’s, so one might think he’d returned. If not for the low height where the line of sight dropped all the way to the floor.

“Can Ray come in?”

Ray, who’d slowly emerged in front of the door and shown himself, watched for her reaction.

“You can come in.”

Seeing the young child twisting their body and obviously hoping, she couldn’t bring herself to say no because it was bothersome, so she just told them to do so.

“Come here quickly.”

“Yeah!”

Ray, who’d nodded pleasantly, started to run over but hesitated and hid both hands behind his back.

Carefully, carefully.

Ray, who entered frustratingly slowly and carefully, finally stood before Arinne.

“Ta-da!”

In Ray’s two hands held forward were purple lisianthuses that brought to mind Arinne’s eyes.

Arinne was at a loss for what to say to Ray.

“Uh, ah. Ah. Pret.ty.”

She reacted a beat late after looking at the clumsily broken flower stems.

“Pretty, right?”

Ray said with a laugh.

Despite the stiff reaction, fortunately his face looked satisfied.

“Your hands are a mess.”

“It’s okay!”

Arinne received the flowers, placed them on the nightstand, and moistened a handkerchief with water.

“…Give me your hand.”

Ray’s hand was so tiny she hesitated to touch it. When she held Ray’s hand and gently wiped it, the handkerchief quickly turned black.

“Does it not hurt anymore?”

“Were you worried?”

“Yeah! I thought sister might die!”

Ray chattered while leaving his hand in Arinne’s care.

“I see.”

Arinne responded half-heartedly, half-listening.

“Dad and Jade said you wouldn’t die, but, heave-ho!! Still, Ray was scared!”

Ray, who’d climbed onto the bed, lifted the corner of the blanket and slipped right next to Arinne.

“Dying is a really, really sad thing. You can never see them again!”

Ray, who sat leaning against the pillow almost lying down, chattered on without caring about the half-hearted response.

‘Why do kids talk so much…’

Arinne didn’t realize.

That responding to each and every word was encouraging them to talk even more.