It was a more casual tone than the question of why she didn’t use a maid to prepare.

Once again, an immediate answer came.

“Who wouldn’t? You are the Red Peony of the Astrax Empire. The pride of the Pembrook family, Delphine Pembrook.”

He spread his arms in an exaggerated theatrical manner.

“On the day news of the Count’s treason spread, everyone present lamented. They said his daughter was too beautiful to perish as morning dew on the execution ground for her father’s crimes.”

After finishing his words, he smiled slightly.

So, does he mean he snatched me up and married me in the middle of all that?

No, if that’s the case, why didn’t he… take me last night?

As far as Delphine knew, there were three reasons noble men married:

Heirs, political alliances, and lust.

He had not yet fulfilled any of these three from her.

Delphine put down the comb she was holding and observed him intently through the mirror.

He slowly fastened a long sword to his waist, fully dressed in his uniform.

It was the sword that had beheaded her father.

“Shall we go down for breakfast, my lady?”

He spoke to her in a smooth tone after finishing changing.

Delphine, who had been staring blankly at the sword on his waist, answered a beat late.

“…Let’s do that.”

[This is the timeline separator]

He did not eat much compared to his enormous build.

He seemed accustomed to sleeping little, eating little, and working a lot.

“I’ll be back before dinner, my lady.”

After a simple breakfast, he gave her an elegant greeting and left the mansion.

Delphine stood quietly by the window of the ladies’ chamber, watching him leave completely outside the castle walls.

His large figure on horseback became as small as a dot.

As she watched him, Delphine suddenly asked Anna, who was tidying up the bedding with the other maids.

“Anna. What do you think?”

“Yes, young miss- I mean, my lady. About what?”

“About Ioan.”

“Oh my. You’ve already decided to call him by name? Hohoho. You must be getting along well. Oh my. What a relief. I was so worried since everything happened so quickly-”

“…Anna? What are you saying?”

Anna chatted casually as usual with a composed face.

“What do you mean, what am I saying? Well, since that happened before the marriage, I was worried…”

“No, that man, Ioan Pryde. Don’t you think he’s strange?”

“Pardon? The master?”

“…The master?”

“He married the young miss- I mean, my lady, so he’s the master now, isn’t he?”

Anna blinked innocently as she looked at her.

Something was off.

Three days ago, wasn’t she the one who guided her alone, saying ‘It must be Ioan’?

Delphine hurriedly asked Betty, another maid from the Pembrook household who was tidying up the bedding with Anna.

“Betty! Be-Betty, what do you think?”

“Yes, my lady. About what?”

“No matter how you look at it, he looks too much like ‘that’ Ioan! But he suddenly appears as an imperial hero? Marrying me? Does this make any sense to you?”

“That’s right. Appearing like a shooting star, saving the young miss who was about to meet an unjust death because of her father.”

“Hoho. That’s right. It’s just like a fairy tale.”

“Even among the maids, it’s causing quite a stir. They say it’s like the knight and princess story we read recently.”

Betty giggled contentedly along with Anna.

…What is this?

Delphine felt goosebumps all over her body. The sensation of cold sweat running down her spine was vivid.

She asked, stammering.

“Do-don’t you remember anything? About Ioan?”

“Pardon? What do you mean…?”

“Well, we don’t know much about Lord Pryde. After all, he’s often out at the border.”

Lord Pryde?

That man was a commoner slave of the Pembrook mansion.

He suddenly returned and killed her father and all the household servants.

You all saw it three days ago.

The words she couldn’t bring herself to say swirled in her mouth.

Somehow, saying those words felt like admitting that her own mind had gone strange.

“My lady, are you alright?”

Anna and Betty looked at her with puzzled eyes.

“…Wilson. Where is Wilson?”

Delphine hurriedly called out Wilson and all the other maids.

The answers were all the same.

Not a single person remembered the former commoner slave Ioan.

“Are you alright, my lady? You look very unwell. You must be tired, why don’t you take a nap?”

Delphine staggered to a chair and slumped down.

What could it be?

Had she gone mad from the shock of losing her father and her family’s downfall in a single night?

Suddenly, her eyes caught the text of a newspaper on the table.

[

Recently, bizarre crimes have been occurring one after another in the capital.

The perpetrator (or perpetrators) is leaving identifiable crime traces, leading to suspicions of planned murders by a criminal organization.

The investigative authorities stated, ‘We are conducting a strong investigation focusing on those from District 3, and will further strengthen the wall security.’]

…Devil?

Delphine laughed hollowly with a pale face.

She thought she had been bewitched by a fox, but now it felt as if she might be possessed by a devil.

[This is the timeline separator]

“I’ll prepare to go out.”

Delphine, who had been silent with a face as white as wax for a while, suddenly spoke.

She intended to go outside and see for herself what exactly was happening.

At those words, Anna and Betty immediately put down the cleaning tools they were holding.

“Yes, my lady.”

Perhaps because she had grown up lonely in the mansion after her mother passed away, she tended to be friendly with the servants.

However, that was only within the bounds of the master-servant relationship.

Born into an old noble family with a long history, she had received rather harsh training, but she had been raised to enter the imperial family.

So Delphine was much more accustomed to giving orders than receiving them, to having her opinions carried out rather than being overruled.

Whether inside or outside the mansion.

“…What did you just say?”

Therefore, this situation was not only unfamiliar to Delphine but also bewildering.

The guard knight who blocked her way repeated his previous answer with a face as expressionless as a doll.

“I said that going out is currently not possible.”

“You scoundrel!”

At that, Anna, who had come out to attend to her up to the door, immediately shouted.

“How dare you block the way of your mistress!”

Delphine elegantly raised one hand to calm the excited Anna.

Then, with her back straight, she commanded sternly.

“Step aside. This is my mansion. By what right do you block my comings and goings?”

The guard knight replied in a monotone voice.

“Going out is not possible without the master’s permission.”

Master.

Hearing that word, Delphine’s throat choked up as she tried to retort.

Right. Until now, she, Delphine Pembrook, had been the mistress of this mansion.

But this mansion was no longer the Pembrook mansion but the Pryde mansion, and she was no longer Delphine Pembrook.

Delphine muttered blankly in a powerless tone.

“Right. I am now… Delphine Pryde…”

With her father’s treason, the name ‘Pembrook’ itself had been erased from the nobility register.

So she too was now no different from a commoner.

…If not for the title of that man’s wife, Mrs. Pryde.

Thud.

At that moment, Delphine’s hand, which had been tightly gripping the hem of her dress, lost strength.

Only now did she realize her miserable situation.

The daughter of a traitor.

A lowly fallen noble.

Only the place had changed from the underground dungeon of the imperial palace to the Pryde mansion.

She was still in a wretched state no different from a slave.

“…I see. I dared to try to leave the prison without the ‘master’s’ permission.”

Delphine spat out in a thorny tone and turned to head towards the study.

“Oh, young miss… I mean, my lady.”

Anna, who had been hurriedly following behind her, called out to her in a tone that seemed to say she would die of pity.

“I’m fine.”

Delphine answered calmly, trying not to lose her dignity.

However, even her pride could not prevent the end of that voice from trembling pitifully.

“I’m fine. I’m… fine. …Go tend to your duties.”

The quick-witted maids promptly bowed their waists and retreated.

Delphine slumped down on the sofa in the study, feeling somewhat listless.

The outdoor dress she had dressed up and changed into felt like it was weighing down her entire body.

[This is the timeline separator]

It was late afternoon, almost evening, when Delphine heard the news of Ioan’s return.

She hesitated for a moment upon receiving the maid’s report in the study.

“…He has… come back, you say.”

But that was only for a moment.

“Is he in the lady’s chamber?”

“Pardon? My lady?”

“That man… no, is Lord Pryde in the lady’s chamber?”

“Yes, yes. He is.”

She rose so quickly that the maid was startled, and immediately rushed out to the lady’s chamber.

Bang! At the sound of the door opening suddenly without a knock, the man standing in his uniform slowly turned his head.

“…My lady.”

He had not even put down the scabbard still fastened to his waist.

Despite her sudden intrusion, he showed no sign of surprise.

In contrast to his calm face, it was Delphine, who had launched the surprise attack, who was actually startled.

‘…The smell of blood?’

There was no way she could forget this pungent smell that stung her nose.

It was the smell she had breathed in throughout that day as she wandered the blood-soaked mansion.

Pryde looked at her standing in the doorway with a face as calm and gentle as if he were wearing a mask.

Then, in a tone pretending to be an affectionate husband, he asked.

“You were trying to go out, weren’t you?”

At those words, Delphine’s eyes, which had momentarily faltered in surprise at the smell of blood, narrowed.

How did he already know about her actions when he had just returned?