“Go to Rowen for a bit, Irena. If you like it there, you can stay as long as you want.”

“Really? Are you really allowing me to go?”

Irena couldn’t contain her excitement at Duke Vermonte’s words.

“Yes. Have you ever known your father to go back on his word?”

“Wow, Father. Thank you so much!”

Overcome with emotion, Irena went around the desk to where Duke Vermonte was sitting in his chair, knelt down, wrapped her arms around his waist, and acted cute.

“I thought you’d never allow it.”

Duke Vermonte chuckled and patted the head of his daughter, who was acting like a small puppy.

“Not allow it? When have you ever seen this father speak empty words? Didn’t I say I would consider it?”

The matter went back to when Duke Vermonte returned to Valmonde Castle from Rowen with thirty carriages full of food supplies.

Irena, who welcomed Duke Vermonte back, had her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

‘Tomorrow, you have to tell me about your trip to Rowen, okay?’

‘Alright. Let’s have lunch together.’

The next day, Duke Vermonte had to face a barrage of questions from Irena throughout lunch with his wife and three daughters, barely having a chance to put food in his mouth.

‘Do the people of Rowen really walk around half-naked?’

‘It’s hot there, so they dress indecently, exposing their bodies.’

‘Are there really a lot of flowers in Rowen?’

‘There are flowers here and there, but they’re not particularly pretty, mostly just weeds that have bloomed.’

‘Ah, I wish I could see them for myself, even if just once.’

For Irena, who loved flowers, Duke Vermonte even built a small greenhouse within the castle.

The transparent, thick glass was as expensive a luxury item as diamonds.

Building just one room-sized greenhouse with thick glass to withstand the weight of winter snow, fitted into a sturdy, unbending iron frame, cost an enormous amount of money.

Irena, who received the greenhouse as a gift, grew flowers inside with the Duchess.

However, growing them in insufficient sunlight was inevitably different from letting them grow naturally in abundance.

Irena, who had grown up seeing flower gardens in imported paintings, wanted to see such scenery for herself, but it was impossible due to the customs of Valmonde.

Vermonte was practically the king of the North.

In terms of accumulated assets alone, he surpassed even the Oberon royal family.

As a result, when a daughter was born to Vermonte, she didn’t even participate in the debutante ball held in the capital’s social circles.

There was no reason for Vermonte’s daughter, whom everyone envied and desperately wanted as a wife, to travel for a week by carriage to the capital to be introduced like a merchant showcasing goods.

Instead, when a daughter came of age, a grand ball was held at Valmonde Castle, which the nobles called the ‘Northern Debutante’. It came to be thought of as a debutante exclusively for Vermonte’s daughters to debut.

Vermonte’s daughters had no occasion to leave the imposing Valmonde Castle until they were married.

This had been the case since the founding ancestor first built the castle, and there was no particular reason to change it now.

Duke Vermonte was satisfied with the fact that he didn’t have to send his beloved little lark far away for marriage.

If only the son-in-law he had carefully chosen hadn’t died so pathetically, he had planned to continue the prosperity he had enjoyed so far with his lovely daughter and the son-in-law who had been well-raised in another household.

Of course, the atmosphere in the domain wasn’t what it used to be due to the ten-year drought, but with signs that the drought was finally ending and the urgent situation being resolved through Clodel’s marriage, it was only a matter of time before Valmonde regained its former glory.

However, now that Irena was in the position of a lone goose who had lost her mate, his worries as a father deepened.

Among the candidates for his daughter’s husband, he had chosen the most excellent one, but now that he was dead, he was left with regrets, wondering if he had chosen another, would he have survived and returned.

Unaware of her father’s feelings, the still immature Irena persistently begged Duke Vermonte to let her go to Rowen.

‘Clodel went too, didn’t she? And you’ve been there too, Father. I want to go too. Please?’

‘It’s too dangerous there.’

‘What’s dangerous about a flower field? I just want to see the flowers too.’

‘There are plenty in the greenhouse, aren’t there? What more do you want? Roses? Should I have a few whole plants brought from the South?’

‘I don’t like the greenhouse. I want to see flowers blooming outside!’

For a while, Duke Vermonte avoided his lovely daughter, tired of hearing about those flowers and Rowen every time their eyes met, and as he avoided her, he had to suffer the torment of missing Irena, whom he loved so much it hurt.

“I’m allowing this with a heavy heart. You must be careful.”

“Yes, Father. I promise I won’t do anything dangerous.”

“You must absolutely not sneak out of the inn where you’re staying at night or do anything like that. If you do such a thing, know that you’ll be sent back to Valmonde before you even reach Rowen.”

“Why would I do such a thing? I never break my promises to you, Father.”

“Then will you promise your father?”

When Duke Vermonte held out his hand with only his thumb and pinky extended, Irena smiled and hooked her pinky with his, pressing her thumb against his.

“Is that good?”

“If you’re that happy.”

“Of course. I’ve always wanted to experience travel.”

Duke Vermonte looked at his daughter who couldn’t contain her joy.

‘That Temnes brat. His hatred for Vermonte knows no bounds. But he gets along well with Clodel. If that’s the case, there’s no reason why Temnes couldn’t be a son-in-law.’

Duke Vermonte smiled contentedly as he watched his daughter, who was making a fuss about wanting to leave for her journey right away.

The atmosphere at Rowen Castle took a turn.

The reason was that Kaian, the head of the Temnes family and the lord, entered Clodel’s bedroom every night.

“I thought he would quickly cast out the Vermonte woman.”

Some who had been expecting a satisfying sight were disappointed.

“I didn’t think a marriage ordered by royal decree would fall apart so easily. Rather, if Vermonte and Temnes have an heir at this point, who knows if the grudge might disappear?”

There were those who responded positively, saying they had expected as much.

“But our lady, isn’t she pretty?”

“You’re right. Even her red hair seems pretty now that I’ve gotten used to it.”

The young maids who hadn’t yet shed their girlishness chattered.

“Maybe it’s because she was sick. She’s small and thin, but now that she’s pretty, she looks like a fairy.”

“A fairy, you say. You’ll hear about fairies freezing to death in Valmonde’s cold wind.”

Though those who showed a favorable response to Clodel would inevitably get an earful from the hardliners of Vermonte, gradually more people in the castle began to think kindly of her.

“I came to see if lunch preparations are going well.”

A vigorous voice echoed through the kitchen.

“Hannah!”

“Are you here?”

The maid who had just been praising Clodel as fairy-like jumped up immediately.

“The chef is making what the lady likes today as well.”

“Hannah, what do you like? Don’t you miss the food you ate in Valmonde? I heard the food is quite different.”

The brown-haired, brown-eyed confidante of the lady spoke openly.

“Well, Rowen food suits my taste quite well too. If you try to move what’s grown here all the way to Valmonde, it all wilts. I’d say now that Rowen food is the best no matter where I go.”

“Oh my.”

“That’s right. Rowen’s food is the best in the kingdom.”

Hannah, who had openly praised Rowen in the heart of Rowen Castle, easily won the favor of the maids.

A few who had been openly mocking Clodel and Hannah frowned disapprovingly from the corner, arms crossed, but the tide in Rowen Castle was turning in one direction.

As the fondness for Clodel increased and people saw Kaian treating her as his wife, those who had initially strongly expressed their hatred for Vermonte found themselves with less and less standing.

Some of them, with brazen faces, approached Hannah to speak.

And when they learned that this maid had a cheerful personality and didn’t particularly discriminate against people, letting bygones be bygones, they all flocked to her, causing a commotion as they asked about the things they were curious about regarding the lady and the lord’s nights together, and now those who kept going on about Vermonte were left to bite their nails in the corner of the kitchen among themselves.

‘What’s with their pride.’

Hannah inwardly mocked the servants and maids huddled in the corner, glancing sideways at them.

After confirming that a bountiful lunch was being prepared, Hannah returned to the room and saw Clodel sitting by the window reading a book.

‘My love.’

Once the hergezol was cured, Clodel regained her former appearance.

Her red hair was brightly tinged with vermilion in the sunlight streaming through the thin curtains.

Her flawlessly white and fair face had gained a healthy plumpness and shone, and her golden eyes, bright as if blessed by the gods, regained their intelligence.

To think they had mistakenly believed she was withering away due to stress from being married into Temnes and facing persecution, not realizing she was actually dying.

Recalling that time still made Hannah feel as if her blood was draining and her whole body trembling, but in any case, Clodel was now living stably and well. Hannah’s plan to escape from Rowen Castle with Clodel was tentatively put on hold.

“My lady, it’s time for lunch.”

“Already?”

“What will you do if you read books all morning?”

Clodel smiled and closed her book at Hannah’s words.

“There’s so much to see, what can I do?”

Clodel was reading records left by previous Temnes duchesses.

It detailed how they managed the household each year, how they provided relief when there were disasters or calamities in the domain.

As the new lady of the domain, Clodel would now handle such matters well and leave records like this herself.

“Take it easy, my lady.”

“There’s no time to take it easy. The autumn festival is right around the corner.”

“But the steward is preparing for the autumn festival under the lord’s orders, isn’t he?”

“I should have done it.”

Clodel knew she would die soon after getting married.

Because of that, she had no interest in the domain affairs or the duties of a duchess, but now that the wonderful lord had saved her, she was frantically trying to take care of those things as if fire had fallen on her feet.

‘How cute. Really. Why is she trying so hard?’

Hannah thought this diligent side of Clodel was also part of her charm.

In any case, Hannah was so relieved that her beloved lady had returned to her former vibrant and lively self, and since nine out of ten parts of that credit belonged to Kaian, she repeatedly praised herself for having sworn loyalty to Temnes.

“You don’t need to do such things, the lord cherishes you. You can learn slowly and start from next year.”

“The duke is a good person. Someone like me must not be to his liking.”

“What are you saying? Our lady is so pretty and smart. He might not know how smart you are yet because there hasn’t been a chance, but he must surely know how pretty you are.”

“What are you saying, Hannah? Pretty? Irena is the pretty one.”

Clodel had been saying things like this often since receiving news that Irena would be visiting Rowen.

It seemed as if she thought Kaian might fall for Irena if he saw her.

Watching Clodel like this, Hannah inwardly sighed.

Objectively, both Irena and Clodel were beauties, but the beauty Irena possessed and Clodel’s charm were quite different things.

If Irena had the typical beauty and atmosphere of a noble lady, Clodel stood out noticeably among them.

Whether it was because she hadn’t grown up as a noble from childhood, or simply because Clodel was born with a unique charm, Hannah couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason.

But Hannah was confident that those seeing them for the first time would definitely find Clodel much prettier.

However, being the biological daughter of Duke Vermonte, the lord of Valmonde Castle, everyone in that castle praised Irena’s beauty and didn’t utter a word about Clodel, so Clodel didn’t seem to realize how pretty she was.

Even Clodel herself seemed brainwashed, constantly saying how pretty Irena was.

The fact that Kaian, who surely must have seen his fair share of beauties, came to her bedroom every night should have been answer enough.

“The lord will be here soon. I’ll bring the meal.”

What more could be said? Not knowing her own beauty might also be part of her charm.

At that moment, Kaian, who was just passing through the corridor, had a displeased look on his face.

The reason was that he had overheard some servants gossiping as they passed through the corridor to her room just moments ago.

“Hey, did you know? About our lady.”

“What about the lady?”

“She smells really nice? Like a woman’s scent, you know?”