“Why are you acting like a child? If something came up, it came up. How far do you plan to pry?”

“…How important could it possibly be, for you to come home at this hour!”

“Enough! Just take it at face value when I say it was work. You sit around the house all day. Let’s not do this, all right? Hm?”

“…Sitting around the house?”

“Am I wrong? If you’re not just sitting around, then what exactly do you do all day. And do you have any idea how hard it is to work outside?”

“That’s exactly why I’m asking. I asked what kind of work kept you out this late. Tell me how hard working outside is. Who you’re meeting and what you’re doing.”

Even though I was saying all of this deliberately to get under his skin, my own chest tightened with frustration. How could a person be so consistently the same?

Objectively speaking, Dertosse right now was nothing short of an absolute piece of trash. Telling a wife who devoted herself to the household that she was just sitting around doing nothing.

But even this was familiar to me.

‘Same as before.’

It was happening much earlier than it had in the past, but Dertosse’s contemptible behavior was only just beginning.

“I don’t think I need to tell you.”

“You don’t need to tell me? Aren’t we husband and wife? Maybe not on other days, but at the very least, can’t you tell me who you met when you left me collapsed in my room?”

“Yeah. No. Give it a rest… Every time this happens, I feel like I’m getting a little tired of you, Evie.”

“…That’s really too much. Who did you meet that you can’t even say a word about it. The way you act, it really looks like you’re having an affair. You know that?”

“…There’s no way I’m having an affair. If I were having an affair, if I actually thought of another woman as a replacement for you, Evie, huh! Huh! Would I, would I have handed everything in the household over to you? Would I have handled everything with my sister and with my mother myself? So stop talking nonsense. I’m tired and I’m going to sleep. I have to go back out soon. Say something that useless one more time and I’ll take everything you have. Understood?”

Dertosse rattled on at length, clearly flustered for anyone to see, jabbing his finger at me and shouting before turning to leave.

“Dertosse!”

“What! Do you want me to take it all right now?”

“…Ha. Really… isn’t this too much? Are you trying to threaten me with that?”

“Yeah. So stop being a nuisance. As long as you stay quiet, there’s no reason for me to take what you have. I like things the way they are now, Evie. The way you handle the household on your own. The way I don’t have to worry about it when I’m tired from working outside. So let’s just keep going the way we are, all right? Hm? You understand?”

In the end, he spat out everything he wanted to say and walked out.

I had never intended to reform him with words or change his thinking in the first place. My only aim was to make Dertosse feel worn down by “Evian” over this. Because he would surely go straight to Rechel after a brief rest and unload all of this on her.

But even knowing that, the exhaustion of enduring it was not small.

On top of that, the fact that he was out carrying on an affair and neglecting the household, yet acted as though he had generously entrusted all household matters to me out of his own magnanimity, was staggering.

“Y-young madam… are you all right…?”

The moment Dertosse left, Karla, who had stayed inside out of worry for me today and hadn’t gone out, hurried over.

“Yes… I’m fine. More importantly, Karla. Don’t let anyone outside know about what you just saw. Not even that he came by. There’s no one in front of the door, is there?”

“No. No one. I understand your wishes, young madam. I won’t let anything show.”

I was the one who had argued with him, yet Karla looked as deflated as someone who had fought herself.

“Then will you… rest a little more now? You look tired.”

“No. I need to get up now. But I’d like to have my meal in the room, so could you prepare it?”

Karla, who had been wearing an anxious expression the whole time, stepped outside with a downcast face. Knowing her personality, she would try to hide it in her own way, but she clearly wouldn’t be able to.

The maids, who had no way of knowing what had happened, would surely be curious about Karla coming to the room with a meal. And seeing Karla’s troubled expression, they would no doubt grow uneasy themselves.

‘Since she won’t say anything, they won’t know either, whether it’s because of them, or because of yesterday, or something else entirely.’

Dertosse was in a state where he wanted nothing to do with household matters, so he wouldn’t go around talking about it. If anything, he was growing increasingly annoyed at being reported to about household affairs at all.

“It’s probably a good thing Karla stayed inside and heard our conversation rather than stepping out.”

About thirty minutes later, Karla came back into the room with the meal. But unlike when Dertosse had visited, the atmosphere outside the room had shifted considerably. All I was doing was receiving a meal inside the room, yet their bustle was palpable even from within.

“I’ve brought your meal.”

“Yes. But is something going on? It sounds busy outside.”

“Ah… a few of the maids came by. They seem curious about the young madam. Head Maid Pertra has come as well.”

“Interesting. They came without being called.”

“Shall I have them ready to see you after you’ve finished eating?”

“No. Have them come in now. I’ll see them while I eat.”

Karla hesitated, then opened the lids of all the dishes and went outside. A moment later, I made my way to the table she had set.

“Young madam. It’s Pertra.”

With no way of knowing what had passed between Dertosse and me, she entered the room looking considerably more subdued than before. That said, there was no reason to greet her warmly.

As though it made no difference to me whether she came in or not, I sat down at the table and slowly lifted my utensils. I wasn’t particularly hungry. If anything, the sleepless night had left my stomach unsettled, and I doubted I could get much down.

“Young madam.”

Unable to bear even that brief silence, Pertra opened her mouth again.

“Did I say you could speak?”

“Ah… I, I thought perhaps you hadn’t noticed I had come in…”

“How much of a fool do you take me for. I know when someone walks into a room.”

“I apologize. But… are you all right? Shall I attend to you?”

She had drawn close beside me before I noticed and lifted the silver pitcher to pour water into a clear glass.

“Having you next to me makes me feel like I’ll get indigestion without even eating.”

“…Oh.”

“Well. Never mind. I wasn’t really in the mood to eat properly anyway. Perhaps because of yesterday… the food won’t go down.”

“Shall I call for the physician?”

“No. So what brought you to me today?”

She had come to find me faster than anyone else, before the others had even arrived. It was almost amusing.

“I was worried about the young madam. I felt I hadn’t been of proper help yesterday…”

“Were you any help to me? Ah. Or are you calling it help, standing back and doing nothing?”

“…I apologize. Lady Illia’s fury went beyond what I had anticipated, and I was at a loss for what to do. I was watching the situation and was about to run to the master.”

“Head Maid Pertra.”

“Yes.”

“Do you know who the worst person is in a situation like that?”

I took a few spoonfuls of soup and wiped my mouth. It was warm and smooth, but my throat felt rough and it simply wouldn’t go down.

“…I, I’m not sure.”

“Then think carefully. Is it Illia, who came out of nowhere and hurt me? Or is it the lady of the house, who stood beside her and urged her on? Or is it the butler, who ignored my order not to let the lady of the house out of her room and opened the door anyway? Or is it the maids who, at Illia’s command, were ready to drag me out at any moment? And if it’s none of those… is it the bystander who simply stood back and watched?”

I bent my fingers one by one as I spoke, and at the end, I met her eyes. Pertra flinched, startled by the unexpected words, and quickly lowered her head.

“If my actions caused the young madam distress, I am deeply sorry. I… I was entirely in the wrong.”

“…Still, you’re better than the others. Of everyone I mentioned, you’re the only one who came to me first and offered an apology.”

Only then did Pertra allow herself a very small smile. The smile surfaced far too easily, as though she had expected me to let it go at that.

“Why are you smiling?”

“Y-yes?”

“I only said you were the best of the lot. I didn’t say you were fine. Are you pleased that things turned out this way for me? Pleased enough to smile.”

“…No. That’s not it… I have committed an unforgivable offense.”

“Calling a smile an unforgivable offense. Don’t say things like that. It makes me sound like the villain. I was only saying it to see how you’d react. I was curious, Pertra. But it seems you do watch my mood quite carefully.”

I swirled the water in my glass.

“Because you are the young madam who will… lead this household.”

“If you thought that, you would have shown your face yesterday. The fact that you came today makes me think you noticed something was off after Dertosse visited this room.”

“N-no. It’s nothing like that…”

“So you did know.”

“…Yes. I did see.”

Pertra, who had been carrying herself as though the word flustered meant nothing to her, worked her mouth silently before lowering her head deeply.

“I absolutely did not come to see you because I saw the master leave this room. It’s just that… yesterday I was too preoccupied to come. And on top of that, I… I wasn’t sure whether my coming would only make things harder for you…”