That was the moment.

Duke Esteban’s eyes curved kindly.

‘Huh, what’s this?’

Seeing him smile silently like that, could we really have met before?

This question was resolved not long after.

“Yes, I’ve seen you once at the Night of Trading Company Heads.”

“Ah.”

The Night of Trading Company Heads referred to a gathering held at the end of each year, where trading company leaders rented a large hall to meet.

I wasn’t sure if Duke Esteban had ever attended, but given his status, I assumed he might have come secretly and dismissed it without much thought.

Around that time, the Duke headed toward the table positioned in the center of the room and gestured to me.

“I’m curious about why you wanted to see me, but shall we sit and talk first?”

His gesture was incredibly graceful. It was like watching a textbook example of etiquette.

Inwardly impressed, I sat in the seat he offered with a brief response.

“Ah, yes.”

❀❀❀

The Duke and I sat facing each other with only a table between us.

He called the head maid to bring tea and refreshments, and soon the table was set with a flawless spread.

How perfect was this spread? It included strawberry macarons, strawberry cream cake, strawberry pastries…

‘Did he obtain information about my love for strawberries in advance?’

But it didn’t make sense.

Would he, arguably the busiest man in the Empire, have time to investigate me? Just to please me?

‘It must be my imagination.’

I ultimately reached one conclusion.

“You must really like strawberries.”

“Ah, I’m honored you noticed.”

The Duke smiled in response, then elegantly picked up his teacup, took a sip, set it down, and continued speaking.

“Actually, I didn’t particularly like strawberries before, but after learning that a woman I care for loves them, I decided to like them too.”

“Oh, I see.”

Whoever she was, I thought she must be a lucky woman.

“Perhaps you don’t care for strawberries?”

The Duke asked with a concerned expression and voice. If anything, I was the one taken aback. I shook my head with wide eyes.

“No, I love them.”

At that, the Duke’s worried expression brightened. With a happier face than before, he whispered:

“That’s a relief.”

But was it just my imagination that his nuance seemed subtle?

It was almost as if he had prepared this especially for me…

‘Could it be?’

But I quickly dismissed the thought.

‘No, that can’t be possible.’

Why would such an accomplished man go out of his way to cater to my preferences?

Nevertheless, perhaps because this handsome man showed consideration by asking about my preferences, my heart felt a little ticklish.

But I was also nervous. I debated whether to bring up the topic or not.

It was uncertain if he would answer even if I asked.

But since that was my purpose for coming here, backing out wasn’t an option.

After a few seconds of calming myself with deep breaths.

Amid the lingering tension, I finally began somewhat heavily.

“Why did you do it for me?”

“…Pardon?”

At my words, the Duke’s eyes widened. When his puzzled gaze turned toward me, my heart sank, wondering if I had misunderstood.

But that feeling was brief.

I figured that since I had come all this way, I might as well clear up my doubts properly.

“You must know that I recently bought a building.”

“Oh, you bought a building?”

The first topic I had intended to bring up was why he had bought up and developed the area around the building I purchased on the outskirts. But as soon as I broached the subject, he seemed not to know.

“Congratulations.”

If he was even congratulating me, did he really not know?

Or was he pretending not to know?

I decided to probe further.

“Actually, I came to thank you. You bought up all the area around the building I purchased, causing its value to skyrocket.”

“……”

“I believe it tripled in just a month?”

“Is that so?”

At that moment, I didn’t miss how the Duke’s lips twitched slightly upward before returning to normal as he calmly responded. This was my chance.

“I see Duke Esteban has a great interest in social minorities like single mothers.”

“Ah, yes. Perhaps that building was once a center for single mothers…”

‘Caught you.’

I deliberately widened my eyes as I looked at the Duke. I saw him visibly flinch.

From his reaction—unmistakably that of someone caught in a lie—I realized my suspicion was correct.

However, outwardly I maintained a casual smile, pretending to be surprised as if I had no ulterior motive.

“My goodness. Didn’t you just say you didn’t know I had bought a building?”

“That’s…”

The Duke couldn’t answer. Seeing this, my conviction grew stronger. The fact that he had lied.

But why? Why on earth?

If he had done something good, he could simply take credit for it. Why try to hide it?

“It seems you knew everything but pretended not to. Am I right?”

At my words, the Duke lowered his head. With a somewhat dejected expression, he opened his mouth.

“…I apologize. Rather than trying to deceive you, I pretended not to know because I was concerned it might burden you.”

“……”

“If I’ve offended you, I’m truly sorry.”

Seeing the Duke bow his head in apology to me, I could only become more puzzled.

He said he lied so I wouldn’t feel burdened by his help—this would be something to boast about, yet he was bowing his head?

And this from a man of Duke Esteban’s stature?

But I had many more questions, so I gently set aside that puzzlement.

“No, I should be thanking you.”

“……”

“But I do have something I want to ask.”

“What… is it?”

The Duke asked with a somewhat sullen expression, and I answered.

“I’m curious whether your help to Black Rose was just this once, or if you’ve helped before as well.”

This was a matter of pride. Someone’s help—of course I was grateful. But I had started the trading company for economic independence and achievement.

I had taken pride in growing it with my own strength.

But if all those achievements were due to the help of the man before me…

It wouldn’t be particularly pleasant.

At my words, the Duke’s eyes wavered. But only briefly, before he carefully answered.

“I understand what you’re worried about.”

“……!”

“But even before, it was literally just help. Investing in good places is only natural.”

In other words, he had helped. My intuition sharpened involuntarily.

Perhaps because of this, an unintentionally sharp remark escaped my lips.

“Was your help always like this?”

At my words, confusion clouded the Duke’s face. As if he hadn’t expected me to respond this way.

But that was brief. Soon, like a skilled businessman, he returned to his usual expression and answered.

“No, it wasn’t.”

But his words only increased my confusion. This implied he hadn’t done anything as noticeable as this before.

Was he saying he had been hiding what he’d been doing all along, only to reveal it now?

“That’s a relief then. I misunderstood.”

“Is that why you came to see me?”

Feeling somewhat embarrassed, I nodded, and he curved his lips into a smile.

Just when it seemed the situation would end anticlimactically, a low voice resonated, freezing me in place.

“…It worked perfectly.”

“……?”

I wondered if I had misheard. But when my eyes met the Duke’s gaze, I felt breathless.

A gaze dripping with obsession was directed at me.

Ruby-red eyes tracked me. They stared persistently, as if unwilling to miss even the slightest movement.

Instinctively, my body shrank back. I felt like prey before a predator.

“What… do you mean?”

Had I ever felt such a strange sense of being overwhelmed by just a gaze? Just as I was feeling not only flustered but even a hint of respect rising, a quiet voice flowed from between his lips.

“What if all this was planned?”

“…Pardon?”

When I didn’t immediately understand, his lips curved.

Looking directly at me, he spoke again.

“What if this meeting was planned, what would you do?”

“……!”

At my instinctive startled reaction, he chuckled.

Then he whispered:

“It was precisely a device to make a proposal.”

“…A, a proposal?”

I couldn’t help but stammer at the unexpected words. Simultaneously, the obsessive look in the Duke’s eyes faded, returning to the clear light I had seen when I first met him.

He even gave me a fresh smile. Just as I was about to be overwhelmed by fear at this sudden change, as if he had two personalities, an unbelievable sound penetrated my ears.

“…Would you marry me?”

“……!”

For a while, I couldn’t show any reaction to his words. This was just too…

‘Sudden.’

All I had thought about coming here was the trading company.

I was curious about what kind of man would have enough money to buy up all the surrounding buildings, wanted to see his face, and ask if he had done it on purpose and why. My thoughts didn’t go any further or less than that.

I swear to heaven, I had never even imagined such a situation. It wasn’t even something imaginable to begin with.

For a moment, wondering if I was dreaming, I unconsciously pinched my hand hidden under the table.

“Ah.”

With a slight pain, a small cry escaped my lips.

At the same time, the Duke’s gaze turned toward me. An earnest gaze, as if urging an answer.

“…What are you doing?”

It was just one sentence, but it contained so much. But perhaps because this situation was so surreal, a small laugh slipped between my lips.

“You’re quite mischievous, Your Grace.”

At my words, his eyes suddenly hardened.

“Do you think I’m joking?”

“Weren’t you?”

This kind of low-grade joke was familiar. It was something that typically followed when I visited places with many nobles as the daughter of Count Ophelia. Especially from young noble men.

Nothing could be as easy a target as a divorced woman.

Despite the fact that these were people who couldn’t even meet my eyes before I was married.

“…I don’t understand why you think it’s a joke.”

I smiled again.

“You’re quite convincing. Spending money and speaking like this, it almost makes me think you might be sincere.”

At my words, the Duke’s face hardened even more. After staring at me with a thoughtful gaze for a while, he added in a resolute tone.

“It’s not a joke.”

“…Then you’re saying it’s sincere?”

At my question, he calmly replied, as if offended by my doubt.

“I don’t say things I don’t mean.”

Perhaps it was because his eyes were so straightforward? Somehow, I felt strangely convinced by his words.

Unlike the other taunts directed at me that had pained Father.

But that was all.

“This is sudden. Proposing when we’ve never even had a connection.”

Of course, I wasn’t too perplexed. Even before marriage, many men had approached me because of my appearance and background.

Some impatient ones would even present rings right away. Of course, none of them were as presentable as this man.

‘He said I was a good investment. Is he trying to expand his influence through marriage to me?’

Just as such a thought suddenly occurred to me, an unexpected statement was heard.

“…Because you promised first.”

“What?”

Surprised, I blurted out without thinking.

“You’re saying I made a promise?”

Do I have a past I don’t remember? But no matter how much I tried to recall, there didn’t seem to be such a memory in my life over the past two years.

Just as I was beginning to question whether the man before me was in his right mind:

“You once promised to be a mother to my son.”

“……?”

Could it be? Just as vague remnants from two years ago were beginning to surface:

Thud!

“No, young master!”

Along with the sound of a door opening, a desperate cry penetrated my ears.

Startled, I turned my head to see a child rushing quickly toward me, with someone who looked like a maid trying to stop him from behind.

But despite such attempts, the child charging at a frightening speed carefully stopped in front of me.

“……?”

At that moment, seeing his face, I was enveloped in a strange sense of déjà vu.

Black hair and red eyes just like the Duke, a pretty face like a girl’s.

I definitely seemed to have seen him somewhere before…

‘Who is he?’

Just as I was about to ask this, turning my gaze from the child to the Duke:

“Mommy!”

Along with a bouncy, somehow familiar tone, something small and soft burrowed into my arms.

In that moment, I had to doubt my ears once more.

“Mommy…?”

I didn’t mishear, did I? Yet the word “Mommy” was strangely familiar. If anything, it felt closer to being familiar.

It was bizarre. How could I, never having been married or had children, feel familiar with the word “Mommy”?

Who on earth was this child?

“…Who.”

Just as I was about to carefully ask, I could only widen my eyes at the Duke’s answer.

“…He likes you.”

“What?”

What kind of sudden confession was this? Did the Duke just say he likes me?

Just as I was wondering if this was the moment my face should heat up, I realized from the Duke’s additional words:

“Didn’t you just ask about my hasty proposal’s intention?”

“I did.”

“My child likes you.”

…That I had misunderstood.

It wasn’t the Duke, but the child in my arms who liked me.

But before I could ask about this, a cute voice rang out.

“Mommy.”

Suddenly, the child in my arms looked up at me and whispered that. The way he moved his lips, as pretty as his face, couldn’t have been more adorable.

So just as I was considering smiling back at the child, forgetting the situation entirely, the Duke’s voice penetrated my ears.

“…Won’t you become this child’s mother?”

“Pardon?”

This was the first time I had encountered such a proposal. A child who suddenly calls me mommy, and using that child as bait to ask me to become his mother?

Just as I was unable to continue speaking due to confusion, something soft burrowed deeper into my arms. It was the child. My heart tickled involuntarily as the small, cute child snuggled into my embrace.

And then there was that thin, cute voice whispering:

“Mommy, it’s really Mommy. Smells like Mommy.”

“Huh?”

Just as I was puzzled, I seemed to understand the source of this strange déjà vu.

The father and son with black hair and red eyes.

‘Come to think of it… could it be from that courthouse two years ago?’

That was the moment.

Suddenly, a memory—trivial if one could call it that—surfaced.

It was two years ago, when I visited the courthouse for my divorce from Alex. I had found a crying child at the entrance and comforted him.

I remember that child having black hair and red eyes. The appearance was so unique that it remained in my memory even after time had passed.

Back then, the child had told me he would be my mother if I would be his mother.

And.

‘Right, the uncle.’

I had tried to take the motherless child to his father, but when the father abandoned the child, a man called “uncle” had appeared.

‘So that uncle was Duke Esteban?’

Now that I think about it, I had wondered where I had seen such a handsome face before, and I remember the child’s uncle was also a sculpted beauty.

But.

‘That child was a girl, wasn’t she?’

If my memory serves me right, the child I saw that day was unmistakably female. That’s exactly what her appearance suggested.

Of course, she had short hair and was wearing pants, but young children, even girls, often have short hair and wear pants.

Am I misremembering something?

For instance, what if the child I saw that day was actually a boy?

‘Did I make a mistake?’

That might be possible. Otherwise, there’s no way to explain what the Duke said.

If my hypothesis is correct, if the girl I saw that day is the cute boy in my arms now.

‘Does he know my identity?’

The reason I started using a pseudonym when beginning the trading company business was simple.

In the Empire, nobles directly entering the commercial front lines were not viewed favorably.