How should I respond? Should I say I am injured? What if he asks to see?

“Well…”

As Roselia hesitated to answer promptly, Klaus’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

The damp shirt clinging to her body felt even more sticky with sweat. Flustered, her mind went blank and her mouth just gaped open and closed like a fish.

At that moment, a familiar voice interrupted them.

“He got hurt protecting me.”

Klaus and Roselia’s gazes simultaneously turned towards the source of the voice. There stood Closet, arms crossed, looking at them with a haughty expression.

“He got hurt protecting you? What happened? Are you injured anywhere?”

“Hmm… Are you actually worried about me?”

A strange situation unfolded. A small, immature girl of fifteen with blue-silver hair facing off without backing down against a man with blue-black hair who must be at least 190cm tall – the sight somehow made those around them tense.

“What exactly happened?”

When Closet didn’t answer readily and just glared, Klaus sighed and shifted his target back to Roselia. But the haughty Closet answered instead.

“I slipped while getting out of the carriage. Antonio tried to protect me and ended up underneath me. His back got scraped and injured a bit because of that.”

Closet spoke so calmly without blinking an eye that even Roselia wondered if such a thing had actually happened. Of course, no such thing had occurred. Closet had disembarked from the carriage very elegantly and gracefully to meet the young ladies.

So Closet was lying on her behalf… but why? Could it be… has Closet noticed that I’m a woman?

While various thoughts raced chaotically through her mind, Klaus seemed to have accepted the explanation to some extent, looking at Antonio with a calm expression.

“If you were injured protecting Closet, I should apologize on her behalf.”

It was puzzling why these siblings kept offering to apologize on each other’s behalf.

Closet snorted at Klaus’s gruff greeting.

“Why are you apologizing on my behalf?”

Despite Closet’s thorny response, never calling him ‘brother’, Klaus seemed used to it and looked at Roselia bluntly.

“But I hope you won’t be so careless with your body.”

At this unexpected remark, Roselia and Closet’s eyes turned to Klaus in surprise. But their surprise was short-lived as Klaus continued nonchalantly:

“That body isn’t yours until you’ve paid off your debt.”

It was a statement that could be misunderstood, but Roselia and Closet’s expressions cooled, knowing full well what he meant.

The ‘body’ Klaus was referring to was literally a body with the utility value to repay the debt on his behalf.

After those words, Klaus told Jeffrey he would dine in his office and left the dining room. Only after he disappeared did Roselia relax, letting out a long sigh and dropping her tense shoulders.

Closet, who hadn’t finished her meal yet, calmly resumed eating as if nothing had happened. Roselia glanced at Closet and cautiously asked:

“Young lady, why… did you help me?”

At Roselia’s question, Closet gestured for the servants in the dining room to leave. Her action made Roselia even more anxious.

Did Closet really know her true identity?

However, the answer that came was slightly different from what Roselia suspected.

“Because Antonio looked troubled.”

“Pardon?”

“I told you, didn’t I? That I would protect you from that cold-blooded man.”

Momentarily dumbfounded, Roselia couldn’t help but ask again.

“Even without knowing why I’m wearing bandages?”

“Is that important? Didn’t Antonio want to hide what’s under the bandages from Klaus?”

Once again struck by Closet’s words, Roselia stiffened.

Closet calmly surveyed her and wiped her mouth with a napkin, maintaining a haughty expression.

“Well… it’s probably an unsightly scar or something. Whatever it is, the situation just now was quite troublesome, wasn’t it?”

A bitter smile appeared on Roselia’s lips as the young Closet, who hadn’t even shed her girlish traits, acted as detached as a middle-aged woman who had experienced all of life’s hardships.

“Thank you, young lady.”

“Well, it’s fine. In return, you’ll come with me to the Marchioness’s tea party in three days, right?”

“Of course.”

Closet smiled widely, seemingly satisfied with Roselia’s answer, and Roselia grinned back.

* * *

Between the capital city of Vandeloup in the Lugbelzet Empire and the Balthazar Duchy, there was a small village called Algrishar.

This village served as a trade route and buffer zone between the capital and the ducal territory. It was a village established by poor farmers who lacked the financial means to live in the capital but couldn’t belong to the duchy, and by merchants traveling between the capital and the duchy.

After getting off the 100 grand moving carriage, Roselia surveyed the village panorama and curled her lips into a smirk.

This is the place. Where the first work cherished by the Crown Princess is born. According to the original story, about a month later, the female protagonist, disguised as a commoner, passes through this village and falls in love with the artist’s work, buying it.

The amount the Crown Princess paid for the painting was 500 berangs, enough for an ordinary commoner to live comfortably for 10 years.

That painting was Roselia’s first target.

The problem was that the only information available through the original novel was the name of the village the protagonist passed through and the name of the artist.

The one fortunate thing was that this was a small village, not the capital.

After organizing her thoughts, Roselia approached a merchant who was arranging a fruit stand with a determined expression.

The merchant raised his body with a puzzled expression as a pretty young man in a decent suit approached. Judging by his attire and appearance, he didn’t seem like someone who would stay in such a small village, so there was a hint of wariness in his expression.

“Hello. The weather is quite nice today.”

“Who are you?”

“Ah… I was wondering if you might know someone called Abello Huntum in this village?”

“Abello? I think it’s been about two weeks since I last saw that fellow…”

Roselia excitedly asked again, hearing an unexpected answer to the question she had thrown out thinking it was worth a try.

“You know Abello?!”

“Y-yes. This village is so small that we all know each other’s faces. But why do you ask?”

Roselia pondered for a moment at the man’s suspicious gaze.

To speak straightforwardly would raise more than a few suspicious points.

‘I know Abello’s work will be a big hit later, so I’m a servant sent from the duchy to buy it in advance.’

How suspicious would that sound…

Having made up her mind, Roselia spoke with a friendly smile and a glib tongue.

“Ah, I’m a relative of Abello. I stopped by to greet him on my way to the capital.”

The man looked over Roselia’s pretty face and muttered even more suspiciously.

“I didn’t know Abello had such a neat relative…”

“Ahaha, it’s understandable you wouldn’t know. Um… we’re about sixth cousins if you trace the family line. Haha…”

Despite her bright smile, the man stared blankly at her with an expressionless face. Eventually, he scratched his head and pointed to the opposite direction with a bothered look.

“Go straight that way and turn into the third alley. You’ll find a rundown house with a rose painted on the door. That’s his house, so find your way there.”

“Thank you~!”

Roselia’s steps were light, thinking she had found her target more easily than expected. Just in case, she had received 20 berangs from Klaus, and she thought she might even have some money left over.

With that, Roselia found the house with the rose painted on it as the fruit merchant had said, and knocked on the door with an excited heart.

Knock knock knock-

But there was no response from inside the door. Wondering if no one was home, Roselia hesitated and then knocked again.

Knock knock knock knock-

Still no response. On a hunch, Roselia peeked inside through the window and saw a man sitting blankly in front of the dining table. It was Abello Huntum. Next to Abello was a little girl, about five or six years old, playing with a worn doll made of cloth.

“Excuse me! Mr. Abello! Could you open the door for a moment?”

Hearing an unfamiliar voice calling his name, the man finally turned his head towards the door. His gaze was cloudy and his expression lifeless.

“Who is it……”

The door slowly opened, revealing the haggard face of the man.

“I’ve come to buy Mr. Abello’s painting.”

Surprise briefly flashed across Abello’s face at Roselia’s words. But soon his expression sank back into darkness as he asked suspiciously.

“My painting……? How did you know to come here?”

“I happened to see your painting in the village. It was very impressive.”

Of course, seeing the painting was a lie.

But she did know that Abello had been selling paintings in the village to make a living.

“Please, won’t you sell me a painting?”

“……”

Until he met the Crown Princess, Abello had lived in such poverty that he could barely beg for a day’s meal. Though he was a painter, he was an unknown artist who had never made much income from his paintings.

If that was the case, she thought he would readily sell a painting to someone offering to buy, but his reaction was quite different from what she expected. Sensing something wasn’t going smoothly, Roselia anxiously added:

“I’ll buy it for 10 berangs.”

“……”

In fact, Roselia already knew well about the painting Abello possessed through the content of the novel. It was a painting of a woman and a young girl sitting in a rose garden.

However, pretending to know about the painting without seeing it would seem even more suspicious, so Roselia opened her mouth, feigning ignorance.

“If 10 berangs is not enough, how about 15 berangs?”

“……”

“18 berangs!”

Any more would be unreasonable. The moving carriage back to the duchy alone cost 100 grands (1 berang), so she had to leave enough for the carriage fare.

As Roselia looked at Abello with an anxious expression, Abello, who had been silent for a while, finally spoke heavily.

“The recently completed work is not for sale.”

With those words, Abello rudely closed the door. Roselia, who was about to hastily continue speaking, was left frozen in front of the closed door, dumbfounded.

Why won’t he sell the painting? He certainly sold it to the female protagonist…

It’s not like the female protagonist revealed her identity as the Crown Princess when she bought the painting. I clearly remember she bought it disguised in shabby clothes… Could it be that the painting can only be bought if paid the 500 berangs amount that the Crown Princess paid?

But Abello didn’t seem particularly interested in money. As Roselia paced in front of the door with a thoughtful expression, her gaze suddenly fixed on the withered flowers in the garden in front of the house.

It looked like they hadn’t been tended to for quite some time…

Suddenly, Roselia’s gaze turned to the young girl inside the window. As if she had just realized something, she raised her head abruptly.