He smiled at me with a devastating allure, like the devil himself had returned to earth.

“When you speak with me. Wasn’t that what you wanted.”

This was a different Isen from the first time I had seen him.

He had come dressed simply and sat himself on the open windowsill.

“You’ve gone downhill quite a bit in just a few days.”

“…We’re only on our second meeting, and you’re already saying I’ve gone downhill?”

“I’m simply stating what I see. More than that, there was quite an abundance of interesting things. In the letter you gave me.”

I walked slowly toward him. He had been sitting at the window at ease, but when I approached he rose and gave a slight bow.

“So what do I do now? You handed me a letter containing such important information. What is it you want me to do?”

“Nothing much. Just have an affair with me.”

I stepped in close to him. The deep, rich scent coming off him hit me in that instant and snapped me fully awake. It was heady enough to make my head swim.

“An affair.”

“Do you dislike it?”

“You’ll pretend to love me?”

“Like someone who fell for you at first sight. I’ll show you blind devotion. Does that not suit you?”

“Of course it does. How could I dislike a beautiful woman who ‘pretends’ to love me.”

His hand, larger than I had expected, swept down through my hair. At that, moment my whole body went rigid. Was it because his touch was gentler than I had anticipated, or was it simply that it had been so long since I had felt anything like this.

Because of that, my body pushed him away on its own.

“That’s right. So you pretend to love me too.”

“Will that change my future?”

“It’s already changing. You found the person you were searching for so desperately, didn’t you?”

I turned my head and looked at Mary. Since his arrival she had been standing in a corner of the room, completely still, like someone who could neither be seen nor heard.

“How did you know?”

“Know what?”

“I asked how you knew my mother was there. And unlike the rumors that you’re a fool with no memory, everything you do looks like you’ve done it all before.”

“I told you. I came from the future.”

“The future…”

Knowing that the best way to negotiate with someone is to show them what you have, I said only what I needed to say and looked at him. His eyes shifted without pause, as though revealing the state of his mind. Watching that, I sorted through my thoughts.

I hadn’t expected him to come this quickly. But everything was already sorted in my head. To the point where it wouldn’t matter when or where he showed up.

‘Because if I don’t, I’ll die.’

“Your future is set. If things continue as they are, you’ll eventually be driven out of your place as the family heir, and you’ll die.”

“……Die.”

“But there, I… found the one way to save you. Because in that future, you came back in the end to bring down the ducal household.”

Even so, he died in the end, but working from that outcome. The only way for Isen to survive in that future came down to exactly one thing.

“So what is this method?”

“Isn’t it too soon to tell you already?”

“……”

“If I give everything away and you betray me… I’ll have nothing left.”

“I see. If the woman I am to fall in love with says so…”

The slight tremor in his lips told me Isen was not in a particularly good mood.

“One month.”

So I had to press harder. I had been acting calm and unhurried, but my whole body prickled with the way things were diverging from the future I had lived through.

I even felt something close to exhilaration.

“What is one month?”

“One month from now, come here. Come and announce that you are my person, that you will take me away.”

“If that happens, then in the end…”

“Your situation will become difficult. But what you want isn’t to become a duke. It’s to bring down the ducal household. The ducal household that did that to your mother.”

It wasn’t a wrong thing to say, and anger surged into his eyes for a moment. His eyes, which turned red whenever he grew furious, spoke for him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“To do that, you need to be cast out of the family too. If not that, and you want to take the ducal household instead…”

His hand found my shoulder again.

“Did you truly come from the future.”

“You believe me?”

“……No. Who could believe something like that. I simply find it remarkable that someone knows my heart, my thoughts.”

“Find it even more remarkable and believe me. Because I don’t want the future I know, the future I had to live through, to come again. So work with me. With me.”

There was no answer. Only a smile.

But everyone in that room knew he had given his assent to my words. Even if it was only a temporary alliance, for now.

Our conversation was not long. Someone might spot him, and there was no telling when someone might burst into the room. In the end, Isen and I agreed to exchange information, and parted immediately after.

Before I knew it, only Mary and I remained in the room.

“We need to resume the education now.”

“I know. So what will you do? Will you hit me with the whip?”

“Is there any need for that? Please observe a reasonable degree of propriety. My sense is that you are not someone who is entirely ignorant of etiquette.”

Her sharp eyes swept over me from head to toe. Even this was something I had done to get into my mother-in-law’s good graces.

Evian, who had lost her memories. So she would have had no knowledge of etiquette.

My mother-in-law, who found fault with everything I did, hated me all the more for what she called my lack of basic manners. So I had learned etiquette with everything I had. To make even one thing about me acceptable to her.

“…I know a little.”

“Then that is enough. From now on, do your best to appear obedient. That is what will justify my presence here.”

“Yes.”

She set a chair down in front of me as I stood there in a daze.

“Sit and rest.”

“…Is this kindness?”

“You seem to be someone I’ll be attending to for a long time.”

For the first time, she smiled. It was barely a smile, just the faintest lift at the corners of her mouth.

* * *

That evening, Dertosse came to my room.

So I opened the door with a thick shawl wrapped tightly over my nightgown.

“Evie… why are you bundled up like that today?”

“No… I’m just a little cold.”

“Are you hiding something?”

He latched onto my appearance and started picking at it for no reason, like someone working off a drink.

“No. Nothing like that. More importantly, is something the matter, Dertosse?”

“Plenty. But are you going to keep me out of the room again today?”

“…Did you have something to say? Dertosse. What’s wrong with your face.”

It was a face I had never seen in either my past life or this one.

I reached a hand out toward him.

“Is something really the matter?”

It wasn’t out of concern for Dertosse. My nerves were on edge because I wondered whether something different from the past had happened.

He grabbed my hand.

“I’m so exhausted.”

“……What is?”

“Just everything.”

His body, creeping forward like a snake, had already slipped naturally into the room. I was about to shove him back out when the strong smell of alcohol coming off him reached me.

“Dertosse. Did you have a drink?”

“Yeah. I was just so worn out. Evie, what am I supposed to do.”

“About what.”

“Everything between Mother and you is just too much.”

What should I say? What could I say to bring this man to his senses? Was I still not working on him as hard as I was on his mother?

“Dert… it’s all right. Between Mother and me… it’s something I can fix by doing better. I’ll do better. Even if Mother dislikes me…”

“…Why can’t she see how kind you are? Where else would you find a woman this innocent and lovely.”

His hand moved softly over my cheek.

A chill ran down my spine in that instant.

The hand that had fed me poison was stroking my cheek. Every part of me wanted to bite down on that hand so he could never use it again, but reason won out over instinct. I placed my hand over his.

“No. I’m simply not to Mother’s liking. You don’t need to try so hard. It’s harder for me to see you struggling than it is to have misunderstandings pile up between me and Mother. If she doesn’t like me, I’ll try to make her like me.”

“Ha… really. Evie, she’s my mother, but she hasn’t been like this lately. She’s been doing things even I can’t understand…”

“It must be so hard.”

I patted his shoulder naturally as he sat down on the sofa in the room.

“…Yeah.”

“You don’t need to try so hard. Dertosse. I think it’s already a blessing just to have you, just that you exist.”

I smiled and leaned in to meet his eyes.

Only then did Dertosse let the stiffness drain from his face.

“I’m glad I married you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Before the wedding… there was a moment when I had other thoughts.”

“Hm?”

His eyes began to waver endlessly as he launched into an unexpected confession.

What is this man suddenly doing?

He seemed like a completely different person from the man who had put poison in my mouth, who had held Princess Rechel in his arms and cast me aside when I carried his child.

“No. The truth is, the person I was supposed to marry wasn’t you, Evian.”

“……What?”

“That’s how it was back then. I wanted to make her jealous.”

“Me?”

“No. I wanted that woman to be jealous of you.”