Chapter 25

At 5 p.m., I looked out the window and saw a Redron carriage. Shortly after, a message came through from the front desk.

-“A carriage is waiting for Lady Marlena Balthus.”

“I see.”

The call seemed to reach my bodyguard, Roche, first.

I had just disconnected from the front desk and was straightening my clothes when I heard a knock on the door.

I checked to make sure I hadn’t left anything behind and opened the door. As usual, I made eye contact with Roche, who had the same tongue-in-cheek expression.

Our gaze lingered for just a fraction of a second. One second, two seconds, three seconds…

Roche quickly lowered his head after exactly three seconds. Huh, why is he doing this? Is he feeling extra shy after seeing my face?

“I brought you here as a bodyguard, but it seems like I have to protect you based on your behavior.”

I teased him slightly as I led the way. I couldn’t see Roche’s expression from behind.

Should I turn around and check?

A fleeting impulse arose, but I decided against it.

For one thing, it seemed mean.

And for a bigger reason…

Roche’s behavior was funny and cute, and I thought it would be embarrassing to be caught biting my lip and smiling.

Fortunately, I was able to keep a straight face from the time I got on the elevator. Roche had returned with a calm expression.

Yes, it’s not nice to have a bodyguard who makes a big deal out of everything.

But why did it feel subtly disappointing…

I glanced at Roche’s face. As if sensing my gaze, his eyes also briefly met mine.

He and I looked away from each other almost simultaneously and looked straight ahead.

From then on, for some unknown reason, it was hard to look at him.

Even when we weren’t looking at each other, his presence was palpable.

In just a few days, I had gotten used to him walking half a step behind me on my left.

When we reached the carriage, the coachman opened the door.

At that moment, Roche broke into a wide stride, lightly outpacing me. I looked at him, wondering if something had happened. Our eyes met again, just like a moment ago.

He held out his hand.

I stared at it for a few seconds, dumbfounded. I let out an “ahhh” and a little squeak of surprise when I realized what it meant.

I took his hand and stepped onto the carriage.

Strangely, this isn’t the first time this has happened, as we’ve been traveling together since the day after I first met him.

Why was I stunned for a moment?

The thought that had captured my mind vanished in an instant.

I’m inside, Roche is near the door.

As I sat down, I began to look forward to and wonder how the count’s residence would have changed.

* * * *
I hear the gate open, and the carriage rolls a little further, then stops.

“Oh my God.”

I smiled broadly as I stepped out of the carriage.

The townhouse I had come to check out as soon as I received my inheritance looked familiar, but it was definitely not the same.

In fact, I didn’t think it could have changed much beyond the exterior, but I was mistaken.

The overgrown garden had been tidied up, the trees had been pruned, and the clutter was completely gone.

That alone made the mansion look much more dignified and luxurious.

But it wasn’t enough for Dylan, the man who would be taking care of me for the rest of my life.

“The garden isn’t quite ready for prime time yet,” he told me as I looked around.

“I apologize for the garden not being bright enough yet. It’ll be perfect in three days.”

It felt sufficient to me, but I didn’t object to making it better.

If they work enthusiastically within reason, I’ll be grateful. After all, they’re working hard to enhance the value of my home.

The quality of the house raises the quality of the owner. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool.

“Take your time.”

What I’ll give them is a definite reward after they achieve results, whether material or immaterial.

I tore my eyes away from the garden scene and looked at the dozen or so servants lined up on the porch.

I don’t know what Marlena was like before her marriage, but this was the first time I’d had ‘my people’ since I’d fallen into this world.

I want them to feel proud to serve Countess Marlena Balthus……. I must make good on my business in the capital.

After regaining my composure, I straightened my back and gave instructions.

“Dylan, shall we go in now?”

At those words, the servants moved out of the way to make room for me to pass, and Dylan quickened his pace to open the front door for me.

Roche, as always, stuck to my back and followed me. Now that we were inside the manor, I could relax.

I walked into the townhouse, bathed in the warmth of the afternoon sun.

With my mouth slightly open, I look around the immaculately renovated hall. It’s still an unfamiliar space, but this is my home now, just as the people standing outside waiting for me are mine.

The fact that I have taken over the title of Count Balthus is only now beginning to fully sink in.

Not in my head, but in my heart.

I couldn’t quite hear what Dylan was saying as he guided me.

It felt heavy.

It was mine—mine to hold, mine to cherish.

It felt warm and comforting, even as the weight of responsibility rested a little heavily on my shoulders.

I thought I was okay with not having anyone around to stand up for me, but I was wrong.

My home, my people…

I absentmindedly turned my head to the left; sure enough, Roche was there. Strangely sentimental, I smiled at him.

As if he were as fully mine as Dylan or any of the others, as if he wouldn’t have to return to his place once he recovered his memories.

As if I hadn’t made him my bodyguard on a whim, and as if he was merely a means for me to take over and protect him until he found his memories.

Roche smiled back at me, as if to return my laughter.

* * *
Roche paced the hallway alone.

Marlena seemed to have something to talk to Dylan about. Something she couldn’t tell him.

Even if he had lost her memory, Roche was an adult. He understood that Marlena was the head of the household and Dylan was her butler, and they needed to talk.

Roche had no right to overhear and interfere.

But as soon as Marlena pulled away from him, he felt strangely ill at ease.

Like that morning, when she’d whispered something sweet—very sweet by Roche’s standards—to Katarina.

He couldn’t bring himself to confide in Marlena about how he felt. Roche knew it was silly and childish.

At the hotel room entrance, he had impulsively expressed his thoughts, but he would refrain from doing so now.

Standing outside the room where Marlena and Dylan were talking, Roche briefly imagined what Marlena would conclude if she saw him like this.

‘It’s because I lost my memory.’

His own voice and Marlena’s overlapped in his head.

‘Because Roche has lost his memory, he follows and relies on Marlena, like a chick imprinting on a creature it has never seen,’ she would say.

It was a reasonable opinion. Roche agreed.

He didn’t know if he owed her more than common-sense loyalty, given the unique circumstances of his memory loss.

But in the moments when the flood of tainted memories swirled in his head, the only clear image of her was undeniably his only stability, his only salvation.

She was the first thing Roche could recognize in his twisted world.

She was the beginning of Roche’s world. At least until he regained his old self.

‘Will things change once I remember…? ‘

Would Marlena’s presence diminish once he regained his memories?

Lost in thought, Roche gazed into the void.

That’s when his sensitive hearing picked up the sound of human footsteps.

Human footsteps? No, people’s footsteps.

Heavy footsteps.

Trained footsteps.

Roche stepped away from the door and peered out. Two of the servants were opening the gate.

Through the open gate came a dozen or so tall, burly men.

Roche’s mind whirled.

When they got off the carriage earlier, those who greeted Malena were all dressed in uniforms. Servants’ uniforms.

The details varied slightly, depending on their duties, but none of them seemed to be responsible for the security of the manor through force.

So who were these people?

‘The guards? ’

Naturally, some of them would be in charge of Marlena’s security as well.

His mind raced.

Bodyguards?

That was Roche’s job.

Katarina and Dylan couldn’t use force. Roche couldn’t act like Katarina, and he couldn’t command the entirety of Count Balthus’s household like Dylan.

But they…

They overlapped with Roche’s duties.

Maybe it would be one of them, not Roche, standing half a step to Marlena’s left.

A sense of crisis, of being irrationally ahead of the game, began to color Roche from head to toe.

With a grim expression, he glanced down at the guards lined up in the garden, taking orders from their leader.

If Marlena had seen his face, she would have been horrified.