“Just listening to our conversation… it really does sound romantic.”

The moonlight wrapped around him warmly from behind. And so, even sitting perfectly still, Isen’s figure shone brilliantly. Her gaze kept drifting to him.

“Doesn’t it sound like a conversation between lovers?”

“Romance… doesn’t suit people like us. Not us, when revenge is all we think about.”

Something like disappointment seemed to settle over his face. Even so, she had no intention of asking about his feelings.

“The night is late. You should head back.”

“Sending me away already. And here we’re about to be married.”

“That wasn’t part of our contract.”

“What a shame. I should have made that part of the contract.”

“Stop joking around.”

His gentle voice tickled something somewhere in her chest.

“Unfortunately, nothing I do with you is a joke. From the very first day we met, from the moment I tried to kill you, up until now. But I suppose I should listen.”

He stepped up onto the windowsill.

“Then I’ll come to see you again. Next time, I’ll make sure to bring news you’ll want to hear.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

“If I do, perhaps I can get a little closer to you. Perhaps I’ll be able to long for even a little love from you, who does not love me.”

Having said those words, the kind that could shake a person’s heart, he crossed the windowsill and disappeared swiftly into the marquisate’s garden.

“Longing for love… you don’t love me either… don’t go saying things like that so casually…”

But her words could never reach him.

With movements as swift and fl*id as a jaguar, he vanished completely. Only after Isen’s shadow was no longer visible did she ring the bell. At the clear, bright sound of the chime, the firmly closed door opened.

“Were you not sleeping, my lady?”

“I had told Karla to bring some tea.”

“As it happens, Karla did bring tea about five minutes ago. I thought you were asleep and deliberately didn’t bring it in. Shall I bring it now?”

“Would you? It doesn’t feel like a night where sleep will come easily.”

At those words, Mary stepped out and returned carrying a teapot and teacup on a silver tray. She never once asked about Isen. She simply set the cup down in front of her and poured the tea.

“The night is late, my lady.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not sure if it’s because of the sharp wind that passed through tonight, but sleep just won’t come.”

The wind called Isen, which had stirred her otherwise settled heart, lingered inside her even as time passed. Laughably, it was all just an act on his part, and yet she felt something like a faint flutter.

“Wind often does us a great deal of good by clearing the air around us. I hope the wind that settled over you tonight, my lady, has left something helpful behind.”

She took a sip of the slightly cooled tea and nodded.

“I hope so too.”

The night deepened. After dismissing everyone else, she sat blankly at her desk instead of going to bed. The cheek he had grazed felt unusually warm, and the words he had left behind kept rising to the surface of her mind, and in the end, sleep never came.

* * *

Time passed quickly.

In the meantime, the atmosphere within the marquisate grew colder and colder.

“Um… my lady.”

A few days after the night Isen had come and gone.

Around midday, the butler came to find her as usual.

At first, the butler had maintained an overbearing manner no matter what she said, but he had gradually changed. It was around the time the sister-in-law had been driven out. He had started to grow more compliant toward her as well.

Because of that, he no longer came to her without reason, nor opened the door and walked in without permission.

“What is it?”

“I wished to ask what you intend to do about the mistress.”

“Ah. That.”

“Whether you truly plan to send her to the villa… I was told that the Marquis has entrusted all household matters to you, my lady. So…”

“Do you think you are the Marquis of this household?”

She set down her quill with a sharp tap against the parchment she had been signing.

“N, no. That is not what I meant…”

“If that’s not it, then who told you to open your mouth about that matter?”

“…H, however… the mistress’s health has been declining…”

Unlike before, there was no confidence in his face.

He had probably come under pressure from her mother-in-law, forced here against his will. Or perhaps he had spent days deliberating before finally coming.

Sensing that, she stared steadily at the butler’s face. As though to show he hadn’t come of his own accord, he chewed at his own lip.

“Well. I know how much you care about this marquisate.”

“…I would be grateful if you understood my heart, my lady. I only…”

He had grown quite a bit more perceptive, it seemed, because he never let the words slip that he had come at the mistress’s behest. But what mattered in the end was the fact that he had come all this way at her mother-in-law’s request. It was proof that he had not been able to fully abandon her.

‘He must still believe that someday, the time will come again when Mother rules over the marquisate.’

There was nothing wrong with holding onto hope.

Because that hope would make it all the more satisfying to destroy.

“Right. You’re right. Come to think of it, I haven’t been paying attention to Mother. So about that… butler.”

“Yes.”

“You are someone who acts for the good of this marquisate, aren’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Who do you think the head of this household is?”

“Naturally, I believe it is Marquis Dertosse and yourself, my lady.”

Perhaps afraid of falling out of favor again like last time, he moved his mouth quickly. His tongue was so loose it seemed like even if he were drowning, his mouth would be the only thing bobbing above the water.

“Right. That would be correct.”

“Yes.”

“Someone like you is truly indispensable to this household. You know when to say the right thing…”

“I, I am sorry if I have offended you, my lady.”

“Offended me? Not at all. I think it’s a good thing to have someone like you around.”

She rose slowly from her seat and walked toward him.

The man who had ousted the previous butler, a capable man who had long served the marquisate and earned the mistress’s favor with his polished appearance. Someone who would swallow anyone whole without hesitation if it served him even a little, but would discard anyone the moment he felt threatened.

A man without loyalty. She patted his shoulder slowly.

“Thank you for saying so, my lady.”

“No need for thanks. Which is why I intend to give you an important task.”

“An important task…?”

“About Mother. You care a great deal about Mother, and you care a great deal about this marquisate.”

“……”

Perhaps sensing something was off, his eyes wavered.

“So who else could it be? A ‘trustworthy’ attendant to care for Mother by her side. You would be perfect.”

“W, what do you mean by that, my lady?”

He couldn’t possibly not understand. Someone who valued his own safety above all else could not have failed to grasp her meaning.

“You don’t understand. What a shame.”

“My lady. I will never bring up the mistress again. You forgave me last time as well, so please…!”

“No. Thanks to you, I’ve realized something. I can’t simply keep Mother locked away here. She is the one who built this marquisate up to what it is. So I should send her to the villa without delay. And you, who thinks of this marquisate as your own, are more than qualified to attend to someone like her.”

“N, no. I cannot.”

The butler quickly raised his head and met her eyes, stretching his mouth wide in a smile.

“I have given so much for this marquisate…”

“I know. Which is why I think you are exactly the right person.”

“No. I, I need to stay here…”

“Do you dislike Mother? She would be terribly hurt to know that.”

“Th, that is not what I mean… what I am trying to say is…”

“Then how would you explain it?”

At her words, the butler finally lowered his head in a rush, as though he had made his choice between her and the mistress.

“I will never speak of the mistress again.”

“So you are choosing me over Mother.”

“Yes.”

Not a moment’s hesitation.

Watching that, she understood the whole situation.

Dertosse had already stopped caring about his mother in the slightest. The butler must have brought up the matter of his mother to Dertosse any number of times by now. 

But his words had not gotten through, and the last person he had pinned his hopes on was the sister-in-law. When even that failed, he must have known to some degree that things could never go back to the way they were.

In the midst of all that, if she, who now held all the power in the marquisate, were to drive the mistress out, then someone as perceptive as him could not have failed to see that the days when he had soared freely through the marquisate with her mother-in-law at his back would never return.

“I see. So you choose me.”

“Yes. For your sake, my lady…”

If she was out of sight, he would think there was even less chance of a way back. His feelings showed plainly in his eyes. That the mother-in-law was already a discarded card. That the day Dertosse would go to see his mother, exiled all the way to the villa, would remain indefinitely out of reach.

But she did not think the butler would take her side “sincerely” from here on.

That was why she smiled brightly at him.

“Rationally speaking…”

She grabbed the butler’s bow tie and pulled it firmly to both sides. Caught off guard and flustered for only a moment, the butler forced a smile and looked at her.

But she stepped back from him instead.

“How could I keep someone by my side who betrayed even Mother so easily? What exactly would I be trusting?”