The old lady covered her mouth with a handkerchief, not knowing what to do when her eyes met Kasha’s.

“Oh my goodness, young lady… how can this be.”

Wondering if she knew the person, Kasha searched her memory, but no matter how she looked at it, it was an unfamiliar face.

When Kasha showed a perplexed expression, the old lady quickly composed herself and returned to her original noble appearance.

“Please go up to your room, Lady Kasha Yevrin Lyuschino.”

It had been a very long time since she was called by her full name with the middle name included. Moreover, the old lady particularly emphasized the pronunciation of the middle name “Yevrin”.

“Go on up, Kasha. Rest and let’s meet at mealtime. Combat may start as soon as tomorrow, so you should rest well today.”

As she nodded her head towards Leon, who spoke in a kind tone, she suddenly felt a chilling gaze. She quickly turned her head, but all she saw was the old lady stubbornly bowing her head.

‘Something… felt eerie.’

However, Kasha greeted Leon without showing it and went up the stairs guided by the old lady.

Once the two were left alone, the old lady spoke again.

“I am Alyosha, in charge of housekeeping in this castle. Please let me know if you need anything, young lady.”

“Yes. Thank you, Alyosha.”

“Thank me? It’s only natural. Now, here it is, young lady.”

Saying so, Alyosha, who stopped in the hallway, opened the door.

But Kasha, who stepped into the room without much thought, found her eyes widening.

“Wait. This… is my room?”

This can’t be. Kasha thought.

She had thought that the size of Gillistin Castle was larger than expected. It felt excessively grand in scale for a place that wasn’t even a major stronghold in the territory.

But this room… was truly beyond imagination.

‘Isn’t this a room that princesses use?’

It was no wonder Kasha thought so.

The size of the room was almost that of a ballroom. The furniture and decorations placed in the room were also splendid items she had never seen before.

It was a space that was not simply expensive, but a work of art created by history, dignity, and elegant taste.

Looking around at the huge four-poster bed, the dressing table inlaid with gold, and the crystal candlesticks, Kasha turned to Alyosha with an troubled face.

“Alyosha. Is there… a smaller room by any chance? A space like this is a bit… overwhelming for me.”

“Young lady, how could you say such a thing…”

“Huh?”

At Alyosha’s reaction, as if she had received a shock, Kasha responded with a hiccup-like interjection.

“Please don’t say that, young lady. It’s already so regrettable that you’ve only arrived now… To say you don’t suit this room, young lady.”

“Um… Alyosha. Have we met before by any chance?”

Kasha asked, tilting her head. Alyosha’s reaction was too much to be just excitement from meeting the adopted daughter of the count’s family for the first time.

However, Alyosha’s answer to her question was odd.

“I’ve been waiting all this time, …nim.”

“? What did you just say.”

Kasha asked again, not having heard the word Alyosha quickly muttered, but Alyosha didn’t answer.

At that moment, what was the emotion that flashed in Alyosha’s eyes?

It was a gaze filled with a desperate and deep emotion that darkly painted over the old woman’s eyes, as if seeing a child she had birthed from her own womb, affectionate and benevolent, yet with a loyalty that was overwhelmingly burdensome. For a moment, it felt suffocating.

“Young lady. I will send a servant soon, so please rest comfortably. Call if you need anything.”

Until Alyosha, who had spoken in an elegant tone, bowed her head and disappeared, Kasha only gaped, not knowing what to say.

“You’ve come.”

Count Lyuschino, who was sitting at the end of the long table in the hall, greeted her with a silent gaze.

“Yes.”

Responding curtly, Kasha went and sat in the chair pulled out by the servant.

“……”

Leon didn’t seem to have come down yet. For a while, a suffocating silence flowed between the father and daughter sitting across from each other.

After a long time, Malik cleared his throat and opened his mouth.

“A letter came from Daril. He’s throwing a fit, saying you disappeared without a word.”

“…That’s what happened.”

Kasha avoided his gaze, feeling awkward.

Thinking about how surprised Daril must have been to find out she had joined the expedition, she did feel sorry.

‘But honestly, forget about letting me go willingly, it’s obvious he would have locked me up, so there was no choice.’

Then Malik suddenly opened his mouth again.

“It seems you’ve become quite close with Daril. That’s a relief.”

“…Yes.”

“And… I heard you became Leon’s official lover?”

“…Yes.”

It was embarrassing to give only short responses, but she didn’t know what else to add.

She had never had a proper conversation with the count even once.

‘Are you Kasha Yevrin?’

‘Yes.’

‘Will you come with me?’

‘……’

The count, who had suddenly appeared before her at the age of twelve, after her mother’s death when she was alone, was a person who looked as big and strong as a mountain, and at the same time, very sad.

Confirming her existence with a single question, he took her to the count’s residence in the capital without further confirmation and registered her as his adopted daughter.

He didn’t ask who her mother was, or if there were any last words or keepsakes left by her father.

That’s why Kasha couldn’t ask him anything either.

Why he didn’t look for mom and me until now.

Why he came so late.

If he knows how miserable a life mom lived.

Those questions and resentments hardened like fossils in young Kasha’s heart. Eventually, it became difficult to even tell what was originally inside that hardened lump.

Moreover, it was much more difficult than expected for the naive country bumpkin Kasha, who had only lived in a remote village, to adapt to the aristocratic life in the capital.

The sense of loss and loneliness from losing her mother, the sense of alienation and fear felt in an unfamiliar place, steadily ate away at her young heart.

At that time, she needed a guardian.

However, the count, who always had to be away from home to guard the front lines, could not become such a presence for her.

The count, who occasionally stopped by the capital, made clumsy efforts to approach her, but Kasha’s heart, which had already hardened in a distorted way, became impossible to recover.

Thus, the two lived as a family in name only for 7 years, unable to understand each other.

“You no longer stutter.”

Suddenly, a voice was heard, and when she raised her head, deep green eyes were silently looking at her.

“Your expression has brightened up like a different person too.”

“……”

“Is it thanks to Leon?”

When Kasha couldn’t respond, Malik murmured as if talking to himself, a fleeting loneliness passing over his face.

In the past, Kasha would have been too busy bowing her head and forcing food into her mouth to even notice such an expression on his face.

But now she could see it. That the wrinkles around his eyes, which always distorted whenever he looked at her, had increased much more than when they first met.

“Anyway, it’s good to see.”

She could also see now, for the first time, the count’s face showing an awkward but sincere smile as he said that.

The fact that this was the first time facing the count after going through a terrible death and regression suddenly felt real.

The last time she met him before the regression was on the execution platform. The count then fell unconscious after leaving her the words “I’m sorry.”

To think that he, who had lived his entire life on the battlefield as the emperor’s shield guarding the north, was shocked enough to faint at Kasha’s death…

Until then, Kasha thought she was like a sore thumb to the count. A troublesome existence that he wanted to get rid of as soon as he had the chance.

But at that moment, standing at the end of her life in the most miserable state, the count grieved her downfall more than anyone else. He apologized for not being able to give her a better life.

Only then did she realize. That the count’s true intentions were much heavier and more sincere than she had thought.

She even thinks that maybe the two of them were actually quite similar. The thought that they were fools who had lived lonely lives, not knowing how to convey the sincerity in their hearts, suddenly made her mouth bitter.

Kasha lightly moistened her mouth with the champagne served as an aperitif. Then she slowly opened her mouth.

“Thank you.”

“……?”

“For everything you have bestowed upon me all this time.”

“……”

“And I’m sorry. I was foolish and narrow-minded, not knowing how to be grateful for all your kindness, Count.”

“That’s enough.”

“Pardon?”

“You have nothing to apologize to me for. These… are but a small fraction of the things you should be getting back.”

The count’s voice seemed to tremble painfully for a moment.

“Get back?”

When Kasha asked back like that, she saw Leon, who looked even more handsome after a clean wash, walking over.

Glancing at him, the count spoke quickly to Kasha.

“I have something to tell you. I’ll send someone around 10 o’clock, so come to my office.”

“……”

“The demons may storm this castle as early as tomorrow, and if so, we can’t dawdle any longer.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You must come alone.”

I don’t even know how I finished dinner.

Clutching her uncomfortable solar plexus, Kasha paced restlessly by the bed.

‘What on earth is he trying to tell me?’

Then a very small knocking sound was heard. It was such a small sound that she wouldn’t have heard it if she hadn’t been tense the whole time.

“Come in.”

Looking at the clock, it was 9:30. It was earlier than the count had said. Alyosha, who entered the room, announced with a subtle smile.

“Young lady. I will escort you.”

“……”

Kasha got up without a reply. She wrapped a thin shawl made of fine cloth over her nightdress. They were all things prepared in this room. As if knowing that Kasha would definitely come one day, they were maintained without a single wrinkle.

The hallway was quite cold even inside the castle, due to the weather that had already turned to autumn.

Kasha silently followed Alyosha, tightly wrapping the shawl around herself.

Going up two more floors and walking for a while, the hallway gradually darkened and it was difficult to see ahead. In the darkness where hardly anyone seemed to come and go, with not a single candlestick on the wall, Alyosha walked with a straight posture as if it was nothing.

“……?”

Come to think of it, didn’t she say the count’s office was one floor below this?

When Kasha, who suddenly became curious, stopped walking, Alyosha, who was walking ahead, turned around and smiled brightly. Her white teeth stood out in the darkness.

“Here it is, young lady.”