It was Portzsheim’s July, thick enough to drip honey.

Intense sunlight beat down on every corner of Heitzrind manor, and the midday temperature rose to a fearsome height.

Fortunately, the shade was cool enough to chase away the heat, so people gathered in clusters along the shaded parts of the manor whenever they had a break.

It was a generous summer day, and everyone was drifting through their lazy routines.

Bailey thought Adele was sprouting up like a white bean vine.

A whole month had already passed since the girl arrived. Adele existed at Heitzrind like a presence that was barely there, rarely catching anyone’s eye.

She was a picture of a child, quietly reading under the shade of a tree, helping out in the kitchen with her small hands, or walking silently through the forest behind the manor.

Some among the servants gave her gifts: a bag of peppermint candies, a cute hair ribbon, a postcard with a beautiful illustration.

Adele was a child who quietly went about her own business and never got in the way of the countless tasks of the manor, so the servants who had children around her age grew fond of her.

Whatever circumstances brought her here, she was a twelve-year-old girl with no one left in the world, both parents gone.

As time passed, they gradually opened their hearts to her.

Of course, there were always those who did not.

The servants who attended closely to the duke and duchess in particular regarded Adele as a thorn in their side.

The couple was never on good terms to begin with, but since Adele’s arrival, a far more terrible chill ran between them.

“When the two of them have tea together, I can barely breathe!”

A maid who went in to serve tea at one of their usual tea times said.

Running a large manor and managing a major business meant the duke and duchess inevitably had matters to discuss and settle together.

Whenever those unavoidable occasions arose, it was the people who served them who suffered.

When Karl joined them occasionally, the atmosphere between the two eased considerably, but Karl had many social engagements to attend in Portzsheim after his long absence, and was busy with university preparations.

The duke and duchess’s tea times were often theirs alone.

After Adele’s arrival and Karl’s return brought a storm of turbulence, Heitzrind slowly began to return to its usual self.

Using the summer heat as an excuse, the servants gathered in the kitchen in small groups, snacking and chattering.

“Still, Miss Adele is quite pretty, isn’t she? Such a lovely little thing. Give it a few years and she’ll be known as a great beauty in the area.”

“Of course she will. Her mother was something else too. There was so much talk when Rene first visited here. The duke was completely taken with his fiancee. If the Eduard family hadn’t fallen so badly, the duke and Rene would certainly have married as planned.”

“Even so, it’s already a love that passed. The duke really is too much. I can almost understand why the mistress gets irritable and acts out sometimes. Imagine if your own husband behaved like that. I would have run off long ago.”

The maid who spoke finished with a deeply puckered expression.

“If the previous duke hadn’t opposed it so strongly, he would have pushed through with the marriage to Rene. The Clausen ducal family’s textile factory was in serious trouble around that time too, which made it worse. Without the support from the current mistress’s maternal family, who knows what would have become of this place. The duchess wasn’t always so sharp. In the beginning, she was someone who considered even the position of servants like us, a composed and easy-going woman.”

“I’ve never seen this Rene, so I wouldn’t know, but our duchess is no less beautiful herself. She just doesn’t show it much these days.”

“Beauty comes in different forms. The duchess is tall and elegantly beautiful, but Rene was different. She was a small, delicate beauty, just like Miss Adele now. The more you looked, the more you were drawn in.”

“Well, whatever the case, the duke certainly has no shortage of beautiful women around him.”

Everyone burst into laughter at the last remark and enjoyed themselves. Voices from all around agreed it was exactly right.

“…You all seem to have quite a lot of time on your hands.”

Norman happened to visit the kitchen wondering what the commotion was, heard their conversation, and spoke with eyes wide and blazing with anger.

Those laughing and chattering over tea and snacks all pressed their lips shut at once, as though on cue.

The cooled black tea on the table, the brown bread with cheese, and the thinly sliced ham were the only remaining evidence of their pleasant afternoon tea time.

Every servant sitting at the table went pale.

Norman rarely raised his voice, but when it came to matters involving the Clausen ducal family, he was more sensitive than anyone.

He was also the person who served the Clausen family at Heitzrind the longest, starting from the previous duke, and he genuinely cherished this manor.

“To wag your tongues so carelessly as people who serve the ducal family. It seems you have nothing to do, so go help clean out the stables and the chicken coop right now. I was thinking it was about time for a thorough cleaning anyway, with the chickens drooping in the summer heat. And here you are with all this energy left over for gossip.”

The servants’ faces went white as October frost.

It was an extremely hot afternoon.

Adele was listlessly shut up in her room as well.

The rose garden visible through her outer shutters was packed with low shrubs that provided little shade.

The beautiful roses all finished blooming, and now only the blazing sun and the heat rising from the packed dirt paths below filled the garden.

The gardener watered the rosebushes and drenched the dirt paths twice a day without fail, but the July sun dried up every puddle with ferocious force.

Adele flung the outer shutters wide open, curled up on the tiles of the floor, and looked back and forth between the view outside and the book on her knees with a blank expression.

The book on her knees was the Erwin Ornithology, a field guide with illustrations of various birds and information on their habitats.

A few days ago she spotted a bird in the wide forest behind Heitzrind manor that she never saw before, and she picked up the book on impulse.

Adele loved drawing as much as she loved reading.

That day too, she went out to the forest with a small sketchbook and pencil.

Drawing the grasses, wildflowers, birds, and small animals she came across, she thought the Heitzrind forest was a truly beautiful place.

She liked the wild, densely overgrown forest more than the ornamental trees in the garden, trimmed to precise angles.

On top of that, the Heitzrind forest kept her well hidden, whatever she was doing and wherever she was, which put her more at ease.

“It really is hot today.”

“Isn’t it? It’s so hot I can’t even focus on my book.”

“Cleaning the stables and chicken coop on a day like this. I have no idea what’s going on. Here, apple juice.”

Taking a sip of the apple juice Bailey handed her made her feel considerably more alive.

There was even precious ice in it, and water beaded on the outside of the glass and dripped to the floor. Pickled apple and soda water made it refreshingly sweet and tart, enough to chase away the midsummer heat entirely.

“Thank you, Bailey. It’s so good. Did you have some too?”

“I’m at an age where everything I drink, except wine, must be warm. The young maids were making a fuss about how cold and delicious it was while I was making yours, but I can’t taste the appeal myself.”

Bailey’s face creased as she thought of the young maids making noise in the kitchen.

Those girls laughed and shrieked at the slightest thing, and the moment they caught sight of Karl, they flushed and squealed.

“Finish that up and get ready to go out. They say it will rain tomorrow, so let’s go today to get your uniform fitted and pick up your textbooks.”

“All right! If there’s time, could we stop by an art supply shop?”

Adele asked Bailey with sparkling eyes.

A few days earlier, while walking in the garden, she ran into the duke returning home early.

The duke stopped the car when he spotted Adele on her walk.

“It has been a while. Have you settled in well here by now?”

Adele was glad to see the duke after so long.

She caught glimpses of him from a distance a few times, but it seemed wrong to step forward and greet him, so this was the first time they properly faced each other in nearly a month.

Above all, it was the Duke of Clausen who rescued her from the hellish charity school, so he was her benefactor.

“Good day, Your Grace…. Thanks to your kindness, I am doing well. Thank you.”

Adele said to the duke in a small voice, smiling brightly.

The duke gazed steadily at Adele’s green eyes.