“…So that’s how it is, Odin… From now on, we’ll need to eat cheaper snacks and waste less food.”

Odin, who had been happily rolling a ball of yarn until just now, froze with his mouth wide open as if he’d heard earth-shattering news. The yarn ball in his paw dropped pathetically onto the floor beneath the table.

“Did Carlo say that?”

Odin staggered toward me and asked in a tone suggesting the sky had fallen.

His small ears trembled and his blue eyes were drenched with grief.

“Well, he didn’t say it directly, but…”

I recalled what he had said earlier.

‘Wanting to handle it yourself, how admirable.’

He had smiled wickedly as he spoke.

‘Not really. I’m just repaying embezzled money, so there’s nothing admirable about it. But thank you for saying so.’

‘Yes, paying one’s debts is the right thing to do.’

I nodded in full agreement with his words.

‘Hmm… But you like spending money even though you don’t have any… How should I put this…’

‘…Me?’

‘It costs money to assign people to you, and of course it costs money to help the people you want to help.’

‘Ah…’

‘Plus, you tore your dress to pieces a few days ago, so we had to buy a new one.’

‘That wasn’t my fault…!’

‘I hear you also greatly enjoy meals full of expensive food like this.’

‘…Shouldn’t one take care of meals?’

‘And quite a bit goes into snacks for that lion cub you brought from who knows where…?’

‘You’re the type who concerns yourself with such things?’

I stared up at him blankly, unable to eat the last piece of steak.

He stared at my gloomy face and said:

‘Didn’t you say you’d pay it all back? Like it’s nothing.’

Wasn’t he saying: don’t just talk about repaying, start by cutting your expenses; do you know how much is spent on you?

Recalling his curt gaze, I placed the last piece of lamb jerky in front of Odin.

“Here, your last supper.”

“…This cannot be happening. I am Odin. I created this family!”

“Who’s going to acknowledge that? We can’t cut out snacks entirely, so I’ll substitute pork starting tomorrow.”

“I hate pork. I hate pork!”

“It’s better than having nothing at all.”

“Carlo, that impudent brat! How dare he do this to me!”

“I know, how did you end up with such a grand-grand-grand-grandson, really…”

“Something must be wrong… The money you embezzled wouldn’t even cover the cost of jerky in this household!”

“I didn’t know Carlo would be so petty either…”

“I’ll make him regret this later. Now, let me tell you what items I can pilfer from this castle. There are so many, I’ll only mention ones you won’t get caught with! Hurry, sell them and escape with me! Yes, prepare for smuggling first!”

“I should repay the embezzled money first… People who were already struggling had it even harder because of me.”

Odin looked up at me in increasing dismay, then buried his face in his front paws.

“D*mn it! Why are you the only one who can understand me, making me suffer like this…!”

Carlo, leaning against his pillow, sighed lightly.

Why did she have to go say goodnight to that blasted lion every single night?

He was irritated by things he certainly wouldn’t have cared about before.

Her promise to repay the money made him angry for no reason, and her determination to do it alone infuriated him even more.

After telling her not to go anywhere and to stay inside, then demanding she repay the money…

Even he wondered if his words were insane.

As a busy man, Carlo found it difficult to pay much attention to Lea. He couldn’t just force her to spend boring hours confined here without moving.

Of course, underlying all these complicated feelings was an unclear emotion he was reluctant to name.

Click.

At that moment, he heard the door quietly opening, and a small shadow quickly entered, closing the door even more carefully than before.

His downward-slanting gaze immediately found Lea in the pitch-dark.

The woman, creeping like a thief cat through the night, walked so stealthily that she made no sound, perhaps even walking on her tiptoes.

Her white chemise fluttered fragilely in the blue moonlight.

His eyes grew calm as he watched her.

She slipped secretly into the bed like a shadow and quietly rested her head on the pillow.

Carlo opened his mouth and casually broke the silence.

“Tomorrow.”

“Oh my goodness!”

The blanket rustled as she quickly turned around.

“Weren’t you sleeping?”

“No.”

“…Ah. Tomorrow… what about it?”

“From tomorrow, always move with people. Never go alone, and since you might get lost, always take Medlin with you.”

“……”

“Answer me.”

“I understand.”

After agreeing readily, she glanced at Carlo and slowly turned to face him.

He, sitting up against the bed, looked down at her lying there facing him with a pillow between them.

In the faint moonlight, her eyes shimmered like the surface of a calm, rippling lake.

“Do you have something to say?”

“…Did I embezzle a lot of money?”

The question she asked after much deliberation was so absurd that a hollow laugh escaped Carlo’s lips.

His dry eyes curved slightly.

“Why?”

“Just… I thought you must really hate me.”

“……”

Her gaze, sunk in gloom, fell downward. The corners of his mouth, which had been raised, lowered, and his smile faded.

“And yet I ask for many things, and tell you to help people.”

“……”

“It was unconscionable of me, so thank you for indulging all my requests despite knowing that.”

“…This sounds like a confession.”

“I’m sorry I can’t confess all my sins because I don’t know how many I’ve committed…”

She sighed deeply and fiddled with the pillow.

Carlo looked at her and lay down impassively. Then he slowly turned on his side facing her and propped his arm.

Her face, now facing his, seemed to hold his gaze for quite some time.

It had always been like that lately.

“If I may say one more thing I’m sorry about…”

Wondering what she was about to say, he silently waited for her lips to part.

“I can manage with less food. But Odin is still a baby lion. He’s at an age when he needs to grow.”

“…So.”

“So could you… please make an exception for him?”

Carlo, staring at Lea, burst into laughter as if at a loss for words and briefly buried his face in the pillow.

Ah… what should I do?

“I’ll work hard! Of course I’ll maintain transparent accounting, and I won’t disappoint you.”

“……”

“You can also bring in someone trustworthy. I’m really confident I can work hard. Let me try to save December first.”

After spending a long time at the front lines and returning to reorganize the business, he discovered that most of the budget handled by the Grand Duchess had been embezzled.

While professionals managed the business, she had been in charge of some welfare operations.

The work he had assigned her was the minimum responsibility a grand duchess should bear, given only for appearances’ sake. As such, the budget she managed was extremely small, and any losses would have provided grounds to exclude her.

Of course, the December situation was deeply regrettable.

It had always looked convincing on the surface.

The disadvantaged commoners sent by St. Berte’s administrators were all being taken in without a single dropout, and although the management team had never conducted an impromptu inspection of the Grand Duchess’s domain, they had heard it was being run quite well.

Moreover, they couldn’t interrogate this woman claiming to have amnesia.

“I’ll pay it back. Please trust me.”

His wife gazed at him with unwavering eyes that sparkled with determination.

What should I do with you?

No, what should I do with myself?

“Pay it back.”

With myself, this fool creating excuses to keep you by my side.

“No matter how much it is. No matter how long it takes. I’ll collect it all.”

“Wow… that’s scary.”

“I haven’t even shown you what scary is yet.”

“Could it be an amount I couldn’t repay even after working here for years?”

Carlo’s gaze settled downward.

“…That depends on how you work.”

Compared to his earnings, it was insignificant and hardly worth mentioning as money.

Nevertheless, he calmly refrained from dispelling her imagination.

“Whether it takes one year, ten years, or perhaps even sixty years.”

For now, that’s how it would be.

Leaving open a futile possibility.

Entertaining a nonsensical hope.

That perhaps there might be another path.

“…This is serious.”

“Indeed it is.”

Hoping she could smile, even for a moment.

For that reason, let the truth be withheld a little longer.

“Won’t you get tired of collecting payment for so long?”

“Not at all. Watching your misery is my pleasure.”

“That’s a lie.”

Carlo hesitated at her immediate response.

“You’re a good person.”

Lea smiled brightly and took a languid breath, perhaps feeling sleepy.

His thoughts drifted into the deep abyss below the surface.

“The fact that you let me lie beside you even after hearing all that… you’re a good person, Carlo. That’s why I… think I did the right thing.”

“What?”

“…Nothing.”

What she swallowed without conveying might have been that she had saved him.

Carlo’s blue eyes sank as if crumbling as he watched Lea sleeping with closed eyes.

His hesitant hand gently brushed away the long hair draped over her sleeping face.

“……”

May she not be the real culprit who tried to kill him.

May the day that truth comes to light never arrive.

No, may her memories remain buried, never to resurface.

“……”

Because I can no longer even imagine facing you betraying me.