“It’s really strange, isn’t it?”

Taken aback by the sudden remark, Delphine hesitated before answering.

“…What do you mean?”

“I earn money with great, great difficulty. I get beaten and… Well anyway, I go through things you can’t even imagine, madam.”

Even as she spoke, Cally’s gaze remained fixed on the ruby necklace.

“You know that saying, don’t you? Red-headed women have harsh lives. So I thought, it must be because I have red hair. That’s how I lived my life.”

Cally’s greedy eyes finally left the necklace and met Delphine’s.

“You’ve never experienced such things, have you, madam?”

“…”

Faced with such a blatant statement for the first time in her life, Delphine was momentarily lost for words.

How should one respond to such a question?

She hesitated briefly, confronted with matters beyond the reach of her common sense.

“Ah, here you are, my lady!”

It was then that a cheerful exclamation was heard.

Glasscock, who had popped out from the bottom of the first-floor stairs, approached them with a bright smile.

Unlike his deathly pale appearance in the morning, he now looked revived with a warm complexion after a hot bath.

He strode up the stairs with his long legs and first kissed Delphine’s hand.

“Thank you once again for your consideration, my lady. If it weren’t for you, I would have frozen to death on the street.”

“It’s nothing, Lord Glasscock.”

Delphine accepted his greeting with practiced etiquette, then hesitated slightly.

“Ah, this is…”

How should she introduce her?

Fortunately, Cally extended her hand towards Glasscock first and said,

“I’m Cally.”

“I see. Miss Cally! Pleased to meet you!”

Glasscock greeted her cheerfully with a somewhat exaggerated manner, but he didn’t kiss her hand.

He must have realized she wasn’t nobility by her appearance.

That’s what Delphine surmised.

An awkward silence fell between the three.

Glasscock, who had approached as if he had something to say, seemed to be gauging Delphine’s reaction.

At that moment, Cally leaned slightly towards Delphine and quickly whispered,

“So, Lady Ioan. Please don’t hate me too much?”

Then, before anyone could stop her, she grabbed her dress skirt and ran up to the upper floor.

Delphine stood on the stairs, watching her retreating figure with a dumbfounded expression.

Surely she wasn’t heading to the private chambers?

The couple’s private space?

‘…Well, whatever she does with Ioan is none of my business.’

Whatever he does with a woman who looks so much like her.

…But why does it feel so strange?

Glasscock seemed even more restless than her.

“My lady? Shouldn’t we stop that woman? How dare she enter the private…”

“Rather, don’t you have something to tell me?”

Delphine turned her gaze away from Cally’s retreating figure and looked directly at the man.

“Pardon?”

“You said you were passing through without anticipating the snowstorm. That excuse was far too flimsy.”

“Ah.”

Glasscock’s face stiffened awkwardly at Delphine’s words.

“Indeed. I… I’m truly embarrassed in front of you, my lady.”

“This isn’t an appropriate place to talk. I’ll show you to the reception room.”

Delphine headed towards the first-floor reception room, trying to suppress her thoughts that kept drifting towards the second floor.

As she dismissed the servants and sat on the sofa, it suddenly occurred to her that this was the same sofa where he had left marks on her neck this morning.

‘Then, with that woman too, Ioan would…’

No, what a frivolous thought about him.

Struggling to collect her thoughts, Delphine addressed the man sitting across from her.

“Now, please tell me the reason you came to this mansion.”

“Well…”

Glasscock hesitated, unable to answer readily.

Delphine simply looked at him silently, without any urging.

Glasscock, who had been staring at her beautiful face with wavering eyes, finally spoke.

“Well. I shouldn’t be doing this, but… as I said before, you’re just a victim, my lady.”

A victim?

Could this be related to his warning about that man, Ioan Pryde?

Facing Delphine, who continued to look at him silently, the man finally revealed the truth.

“My lady. We are investigating Marquis Pryde.”

“‘We’?”

“I can’t say that now. However.”

Taking a breath, he lowered his voice and whispered secretively.

“You may not believe this… but that man is certainly not of central nobility origin.”

The moment she heard those words, a thrilling sensation ran down Delphine’s spine.

Indeed, it was the right decision to let these peculiar guests in.

They know about Ioan’s true identity, and how he became a marquis.

“I believe you.”

“What?”

Delphine exclaimed softly, her face flushed with excitement without her realizing it.

“I said I believe you.”

“Really? …Indeed, you must have had some suspicions of your own, my lady!”

Glasscock cried out joyfully and began to share more detailed information.

“They say the marquis suddenly appeared in the capital a year ago and became a hero. However, there’s evidence that he was active in District 3 three years ago.”

Three years ago… That’s when he escaped from the Pembrook mansion.

So for at least two years after his escape, he wandered around District 3 as a slave, not a marquis.

“Cally is also one of those pieces of evidence. …However, before I share more, there’s something I’d like to ask you, my lady.”

“What is it?”

“That day, I heard you were also present at the scene of the suppression of Count Pembrook’s rebellion.”

Glasscock hesitated for a moment, then asked with a resolute expression.

“My lady. Was that severed head really Count Pembrook’s?”

“…Pardon?”

Delphine’s breath caught for a moment at the unexpected question.

She had expected questions about Ioan, so why was he suddenly asking about her father?

The man continued to ask, disregarding her bewilderment.

“Were there any suspicious signs about the count in daily life?”

“What do you mean…”

“For example, was there anything unusual about the eyes of the severed head…”

Eyes. Eyes. Eyes.

“I heard that the eyes of all the corpses were gouged out.”

Suddenly, the news she had heard at the club came to mind.

Why did that story come to mind now?

Why?

“Why.”

At the sound of that voice, both Delphine and Glasscock jumped.

Ioan was standing at the now-open door of the reception room, his face as cold as a ghost’s.

“No, when did you…! We didn’t even hear the door!”

Glasscock cried out in shock.

However, Ioan showed no intention of kindly answering that question.

“Why. Is my wife. In a place like this. Alone with you.”

The large figure, a head taller than Glyn Glasscock, approached silently one step at a time, menacingly.

He’s going to beat him up at this rate.

Judging so, Delphine quickly calmed her startled heart and stepped in front of the man.

“…We had something to discuss.”

At the sight of her shielding the man, an even more ferocious energy swirled in Ioan’s eyes.

“My, my. Was it such a secretive conversation that needed to be shared alone, without even servants present?”

Delphine frowned at the sarcastic tone.

Even so, Ioan’s fierce gaze remained fixed on Glyn Glasscock.

That gaze was so vicious that she could feel the man behind her trembling and shaking.

“Hiding behind a woman. Is that the noble manners you’ve learned? How graceful.”

“Stop it. He is my guest.”

“For a guest who just happened to pass by, you seem to treat him quite intimately, wife?”

“…You’re the one acting as if you’ve caught some immoral scene. I was merely having a casual conversation with a guest.”

“If that guest came through this snowfall, wouldn’t that change the story a bit, wife?”

Ioan continued to retort in a sarcastic tone.

Delphine was starting to get heated as well.

“Are you suspecting infidelity? Think sensibly. How could you have such a vulgar thought?”

At the word ‘vulgar’, his face instantly hardened fiercely.

“Ah, so I, with my lowly status, had the base thoughts that your noble selves would never dare to have even when alone?”

He added in a growling tone.

“How dare I, given my place?”

Delphine stared straight back at the man, not backing down.

How long they glared at each other like they would devour one another, with the trembling man behind her.

“Ioan!”

That suffocating standoff was forcibly broken by a thin cry.

Beyond the open door of the reception room, Cally came running, her fancy ribbon decorations fluttering.

“Ioan! When did you come down to the first floor? I just opened the door and you were gone?”

Delphine clearly saw Ioan mutter a harsh curse under his breath.

Judging by his lip movements, it seemed to be something like ‘I’ll kill’ or ‘I should kill’…?

“Huh? You came to the reception room? Because I just said the wife and guest went down together?”

As the woman stood close to Ioan, Delphine’s face scrunched up even more.

A different kind of unpleasantness from when she had just argued with him welled up in her chest.

“…You two seem to make a good match.”

This time it was Delphine who spoke sarcastically, looking at the two of them.

Delphine didn’t realize that it was similar to the tone Ioan had just used.

“Why did you come down instead of staying ‘alone’ in the room?”

Then Ioan looked over her and the man behind her with an unpleasant face.

“You seem to be quite regretful, wife. For missing the chance to be alone with the noble Lord Glasscock?”