Chapter 7

This was the moment when Judith was weakest before Johannes. Because she had never wanted to do anything that would upset the person she liked. If she were the Judith of the past, she would have seen Johannes’s expression and soothed him, saying he could stay in the mansion as long as he liked, but now she was twenty-eight-year-old Judith. Judith shook her head as though to cast off idle thoughts and pulled the already open door wider still. So that Johannes could leave without difficulty.

“It’s because of the people in the drawing room, isn’t it?”

“What?”

“I know it’s rude. But unfortunately, I heard everything. The conversation between you and Grandmother.”

To commit the discourtesy of eavesdropping on other people’s words! Judith turned her head toward her grandmother. Though noble blood did not run through her veins, the woman who wanted to be more noble than anyone else, for some reason, did not raise her voice at Johannes. She merely stood there with both hands folded, wearing a gentle smile. As if she were watching an entertaining play, she only looked back and forth between Judith and Johannes.

“Grandmother. Say something.”

“Well now. At the moment, I do not wish to say anything.”

Judith had always known her grandmother was weak when it came to Johannes, but even in this situation it felt as though she was taking Johannes’s side rather than her granddaughter’s, and it made her insides boil.

“Madame Loewe.”

At the softly resonant call, every fine hair on her body stood on end. Judith shot Johannes, who was staring straight down at her, a challenging glare.

“Yes, Johannes, speak.”

Madame Loewe answered while looking at Johannes with gentle eyes. Johannes politely met Judith’s grandmother’s gaze, then slowly let the corners of his lips curl into a smile.

“There is something I’d like to say regarding King Pirap’s old book.”

“King Pirap’s old book?”

Johannes slightly turned his head and moved his lips while looking toward Judith.

“Yes, I was wondering how you would feel about selling that old book to me.”

“Selling the old book?”

“I run an antique shop as a pastime. My main customers are guests with stories attached to them, and this time a Princess of the Kingdom of Udiya said she needed a love poem to use at her engagement ceremony. And as luck would have it, she requested King Pirap’s old book.”

“Ah, the Princess did?”

“They say that if you gift King Pirap’s old book to the one you love, even your souls will be bound together. The Princess said she wanted to gift one page of that old book to her fiancé.”

“Of all things, one page. May I ask the reason?”

Judith, listening to the conversation between her grandmother and Johannes, felt her heart beating quickly. Donating it to a museum was irritating enough, but hearing that her first love, who had disappeared thirteen years ago and returned, was now coveting what belonged to her made her blood feel as though it were running backward.

“Grandmother!”

Thinking that she had to stop the conversation first, she raised her voice, only for Madame Loewe to rebuke her with a small “Tsk.”

“She said love is not done by one person alone, but by two together. That while her love for her fiancé is great, the beginning of it is only as much as a single page.”

After hearing Johannes’s words, Madame Loewe slowly nodded.

“She sounds like quite an intelligent Princess. For someone like that, I would not even think it a waste to give not just one page, but the whole book.”

“Grandmother! That belongs to me!”

Madame Loewe turned her gaze toward Judith and shook her head as though there were no hope.

“Fifty million rubles.”

“What?”

Johannes looked at Judith and slightly raised both eyebrows.

“Fifty million rubles for one page. Setting money aside, please consider the Princess’s feelings, and mine as well, Madame Loewe.”

Before she knew it, Johannes had turned to Madame Loewe and spoken with sincerity. Madame Loewe said nothing for a moment. She cast her gaze quietly toward the window and seemed to be thinking deeply about something. She’s considering it. Judith hurried close to her grandmother’s side and rubbed her damp hands together.

“Grandmother, you have to think carefully. This old book is something Grandfather left behind for me. It isn’t something you can handle on your own like this.”

“There was a condition.”

“I know. I know that very well. I’m old enough, but, mm.”

Judith checked Johannes’s expression, then brought her mouth to her grandmother’s ear.

“You said you could not give it to me if I still did not understand love.”

“Yes. So you do know that well.”

“I’ll do it. That love.”

“And how am I to believe that? Judith Loewe.”

Madame Loewe rubbed the ear Judith’s lips had touched with her palm and smiled faintly.

“Then let us do this.”

“No. Can’t we go somewhere else and talk about this?”

She swallowed the rest of what she wanted to say, namely, Because that bastard Johannes is listening in. Madame Loewe quietly shook her head and looked up at Johannes. The silent exchange of looks between the two of them unsettled Judith. Deliberately, Judith slipped her arm through her grandmother’s and tried to claim all of her attention.

“By this coming Christmas. If, by then, you bring before me someone who says they love you, Judith, I will return King Pirap’s old book to you.”

“What?”

“But if you fail, then let us divide the old book between Johannes and the museum.”

“Grandmother!”

She could not stop the heated breath coming out of her. Judith’s shoulders rose and fell as she breathed heavily. At this rate, she was going to lose King Pirap’s old book. And worse, it was going to end up in the hands of that scoundrel Johannes, who had coldly ignored a young girl’s confession and knew nothing of the very first syllable of ‘love.’ Better the museum than that. She did not want to hand even a single page over to Johannes. Judith stamped her feet and shook her head. Judith’s grandmother clicked her tongue quietly, as though disappointed by conduct unworthy of a lady.

Until Christmas meant there were only about two months left at most. In such a short time, was it even possible to meet a man and make him fall in love? There was probably no man in Bayer who did not know Judith Loewe. A gloomy woman who instinctively shrank away from men and could not even meet their eyes. A woman who wore thick round glasses, shut herself up in the basement, dug through research materials, and repaired old books. A woman people did not even want to encounter at banquets. Judith knew very well what kind of standing she had in Bayer’s social circles.

“It might be good to accept Johannes’s help as well.”

Madame Loewe smiled kindly as she patted the back of Johannes’s hand. Ask for help from the man trying to steal what is mine? Absolutely not! Judith silently screamed as she watched her grandmother’s retreating figure disappear through the crack of the door she herself had opened. For King Pirap’s old book, she had gone through great trouble gathering the history books and relics of a Kingdom that had fallen five hundred years ago. To collect relics of the Kingdom of Pirap, which had flourished against a backdrop of rugged mountains, she had nearly died falling from a steep cliff, and she had even staked her life in dealings with dangerous people.

“Hah.”

Judith let out a hollow laugh as she recalled the section of the basement where the Kingdom of Pirap was displayed. The King’s love poems were the centerpiece. That was the space she had created for them. Once it was completed, she had planned to return it to her grandmother. Because it had been her grandfather’s dying wish. That even after death, her grandmother should remain his wife. That Judith should make that confession in his place. Yet now, thinking that because she had failed to meet even a single man, she could not keep her promise to her grandfather, her eyes stung with heat. More than that, King Pirap’s old book was a meaningful object to Judith, one that stood in place of her parents. So no matter what, she had to protect it.

“Who are you to interfere?”

At Judith’s aggressive tone, Johannes flinched and his shoulders trembled. Between the bloodshot whites of her eyes, her blue irises, as if the sky itself had melted into them, were drenched. Johannes frowned as he looked at her face, which seemed on the verge of bursting.

“We’re old friends.”

Apparently that was not the correct answer, because Judith’s eyes sharpened fiercely. Refusing to be outdone, Johannes lowered his face and brought his lips to Judith’s ear.

“If you don’t like calling us friends, then what about saying we’re people who spent the night together?”

At the noise that pierced into her ear, Judith’s shoulders stiffened hard.

“…What?!”

The moment her anger toward Johannes turned into bewilderment, the bruises imprinted on her chest came to mind. Judith clapped both hands over her mouth. She lifted her head, eyes wide and round. Judith’s frightened eyelashes trembled.