“Wow. It’s clear. So clear!”

Finally, it’s clear!

Waking from sleep, I let out a joyful scream at the bright sunlight streaming through the curtains.

The tiresome, humid, and cold rainy season has finally ended.

As I leapt out of bed and clung to the window, a voice came from behind me.

“The rain… has stopped.”

I turned around with a start.

And I was amazed.

“Oh. This is something new.”

Dante, who had just risen from bed, blinked his eyes with messy hair. His face was full of questions, and a bit puffy.

Wow, that’s new too.

Even though we started going to bed at 10 o’clock together, Dante’s wake-up time was always earlier than mine.

Thanks to that, I had never seen Dante just waking up, but today I opened my eyes first, dazzled by the sunlight.

Maybe it wasn’t the sunlight that woke me up, but my strong desire for sunlight.

Anyway, Dante who just woke up was new and cute.

Is it okay for the monster duke to be this cute? As expected, when a person is excellent, everything they do is always new, thrilling, cute, and amazing.

After inwardly expressing admiration that would have startled Dante if he heard it, I turned my gaze back to the window.

“The sky is very clear. I think the rainy season is over now.”

“Indeed. It seems to have ended.”

“I was almost dying of boredom, but now I feel so refreshed. Ah, I hope it stays clear for a while.”

There was no reply to my humming words.

[This is the timeline separator]

After a simple breakfast, Dante went to his office to work.

I also prepared to work.

“Give me my favorite dress. I want to wear that. And my favorite boots, and my favorite hat, and my favorite trowel, and my favorite fertilizer…”

“Calm down. Please calm down, my lady.”

“I can’t calm down. Oh, you don’t know how much I’ve been itching. If it had rained for two more days, I might have had a funeral.”

Hastily changing clothes, I rushed out to the vegetable garden.

And then, I collapsed right there.

“No, no. Nooo!”

My garden.

My herbs.

My babies!

The herb garden was completely devastated.

It was clearly our babies’ sweet home until before the rain, but now it was just a burial ground.

Oh my. Someone please cremate our babies.

As I was fumbling the herbs buried in the soil with trembling hands, shadows began to fall around me one by one.

“I tried my best to protect them, but it was beyond my abilities. Sob. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, my lady!”

Markops, holding a huge shovel with tears in his eyes.

“Oh dear. It seems we’ll need to repair the garden. Or how about expanding the scale and adding facilities while we’re at it? You could also cultivate a garden at the same time…”

Barhan, trying to promote a garden development project, seizing the opportunity.

“It’s okay, my lady! Plants naturally go through cycles of dying and living. You’ll definitely succeed next time. But, um… does this mean you won’t be making cookies for a while?”

Siena, offering strange consolation with twitching corners of her mouth.

And Mari, glaring at her.

Not just them, but every servant passing by offered words of condolence.

“Oh my. You must be upset, my lady. We had grown fond of the herbs too… But, perhaps you won’t be making cookies for a while?”

“Your disappointment must be great. You won’t be able to make herb cookies for a while. Oh, what a shame.”

Sob.

As expected, the kind Richter mansion.

Amidst the kind consolations piling up one by one, I changed my mind.

“Well. I can start over. I’m a genius at growing herbs, right?”

“Of course, absolutely!”

Markops gave a thumbs up and nodded.

I nodded back and gently rubbed our pitiful herbs.

Then I shook the relatively intact leaves into the basket I had asked Mari for.

“Um… My lady? What are you planning to do with those?”

Siena, who had been quietly watching, cautiously asked.

“It’s a waste to leave them like this. Since I’ve decided to start over anyway, I’m going to take all the usable ones to make snacks, cakes, and brew tea to share with everyone. How about it, sounds exciting, right?”

“…Oh. My goodness.”

“Why are you reacting like that? You don’t… dislike it, do you?”

“No way! I’m just too excited. Wow, it’s really great. Ha, haha.”

Soon, Siena burst into a broad smile.

You little rascal. You do like it.

I grinned back at the excited Siena.

I wonder if I might be a big hit if I open a shop later?

That day was busy all day long.

The first thing to do was to trim the herbs and sort them by type.

Some herbs use the stem, some use the roots, and others use the leaves.

After sorting and preparing those that need to be juiced, those that need to be ground, and those that need to be finely chopped, I made lots of cookies and cakes with the help of Mari, Siena, and Ena.

I put a cookie each in the mouths of the three exhausted people, and called other servants to fill their arms with desserts.

“Wow, haha. Thank you. Really… truly…”

Everyone who received them smiled awkwardly, seemingly quite moved.

Some even had tears in their eyes.

Ah, I feel so proud.

By the time all the work was done, it was already close to nighttime.

“Ugh, I’m dead tired.”

“I’ve drawn a bath for you, my lady. Please wash up and go to bed. You’ve overworked yourself today.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Mari.”

Thanks to the thoughtful Mari, I went straight up to my room and soaked in the hot water.

“Ahh, I feel a bit better now.”

It felt like the fatigue accumulated in my body was being washed away by the hot water.

I enjoyed the languid feeling for a while, soaking in the bathtub.

As I did so, I thought of Dante.

“I wonder if he’s still working?”

The moon had long since risen outside the window.

The last time I saw Dante was in the morning.

Because there was so much to do from morning to evening, we ate lunch and dinner separately.

…Ah, come to think of it.

“I didn’t bring any dessert to my husband after all?”

[This is the timeline separator]

It was quiet.

Dante tended to like this kind of silence.

Whenever he went out somewhere, gazes and voices naturally followed him.

〈He really looks scary.〉

〈Is that man the monster duke?〉

〈I wonder if he’ll live past thirty-five this time?〉

〈How cruelly must he have dealt with the demon beasts to be cursed by them? Even if it’s for protecting the empire, it’s a bit horrifying.〉

〈Did you hear the news? About the young Duke of Richter? After all that talk about breaking off the engagement…〉

They say she died.

Apparently, she took her own life.

And the one who discovered the body was…

“Ugh.”

Bile rose in his throat.

His head spun with the rising nausea. As he exhaled heated breaths, he felt short of air.

It was strange.

He liked silence.

He liked the quietness that wasn’t followed by such useless chatter.

Why now did the silence bother him so much that even unnecessary things came to mind?

It was then.

Thud, tududuk. Ting.

A pen hit by Dante’s hand rolled and fell under the desk.

Making quite a noisy sound, like raindrops hitting a window.

Only then did Dante realize why the silence had bothered him.

No. In fact, he had known all along.

Because the selfish wish he had every morning for the rain not to stop had finally not been fulfilled.

The rain had stopped.

Serpina was overjoyed.

Seeing that, Dante…

“Was I disappointed?”

Yes. He was disappointed.

Disappointed and also sorry.

He couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason. Whether it was because of the warmth of sleeping together, or the satisfaction of covering her ears on rainy nights.

He still didn’t know.

Even watching Serpina running around full of life all day, he didn’t know the reason.

Wearing a dirt-stained, faded dress, boots on her feet.

The sight of her happily digging in the soil with a straw hat with a hole in the back and gloves on.

Busy running here and there, dragging along a few maids, the gardener, the chef, and the butler.

Baking cookies, making cakes. Even brewing hot tea and filling the arms of everyone she met.

Even after following her with his eyes for a long time, he couldn’t find the reason for his disappointment.

The only thing he could tell was that she was like sunshine.

Sunshine that shines brilliantly surrounded by people.

Then, what about himself?

Am I a dark cloud?

A gloomy, ominous, damp cloud full of curses.

Dante felt as if he had woken from a dream under his own dark cloud.

It felt like being dragged back to reality as soon as the fierce rain stopped.

He even thought that the past nights might have been an early summer night’s dream.

The thoughts that followed one after another finally led to the conclusion, ‘Could it be that Serpina is afraid of me again?’

It was ridiculous.

Clearly the rain had stopped, but his heart was full of dark clouds.

As he was quietly catching his breath like that, it happened.

Knock knock.

“Can I come in?!”

Without realizing it, his lowered head slowly lifted.

Blue eyes turned towards the door.

“Hello? Duke? Are you not here?”

Suddenly, such words came to mind.

The saying that human voices have power.

Sometimes, certain voices.

“Duke? No. Is he really not here?”

Can instantly make the dark clouds full of anxiety in one’s mind disappear.

Like a ray of sunshine appearing through a break in the dark clouds.

As if entranced, Dante stood up and approached the door.

And, with a deep breath, he opened the door.

At the same time.

“Where on earth did he, oh, whoa! You startled me!”

Serpina, who had her ear pressed against the door, lost her balance and staggered.

Her sunshine-like golden hair fluttered in the air.

Somehow, that whole scene seemed to move in slow motion.

The fluttering golden hair.

Two hands grabbing his arm.

A round forehead touching his chest.

“Ow, I almost cracked my head.”

Slowly, her head lifted, and two eyes blinked at him.

“I came to bring you a snack, are you done with work?”

Behind the calm question, a cheerful smile.

“If you’re all done, shall we forget the snack and go to bed? I’m a bit tired and want to sleep early.”

Dante still didn’t know anything.

Where his disappointment stemmed from.

Why the dark clouds in his mind disappeared in an instant.

However, just one thing.

There was something he could understand.

As expected, Serpina was brilliant sunshine.