Claudel spread her hand in front of Hannah.

On her left ring finger was a thread ring. Though plain, it suited Claudel’s thin, pale finger well.

“Oh my. Did the Duke really give you this?”

“Yes. Isn’t it pretty?”

She sat by the window, holding it up to the gentle morning sunlight streaming in.

No matter how small or thin, gold was gold.

As she moved her hand, the sun danced across the curved surface of the yellow precious metal.

Hannah, looking at Claudel happily admiring it, said with a flushed face:

“You see? There’s no man who dislikes a beautiful woman.”

Claudel didn’t respond.

Hannah’s words were inaccurate.

First of all, she wasn’t beautiful, and it couldn’t be said that Kaian didn’t dislike her.

Shouldn’t people normally have some expression on their face?

By that standard, Kaian didn’t seem to be a normal person.

He would glare at her with his vivid red eyes, his eye corners and eyebrows raised in a cold, slightly angry look.

In any case, that was definitely not liking, and it couldn’t even be called not disliking.

‘It can’t be helped since I’m a Vermonte.’

It was a loveless marriage.

So she had never hoped for affection.

As he spent nights with the red hair he despised, he seemed to feel ashamed of being aroused by her.

His arousal and heated gaze coexisted with contempt and coldness.

Facing that made Claudel feel so sad that she kept her eyes tightly shut the whole time Kaian was embracing her.

So even when there were no gifts after the wedding night, she accepted it.

Thinking he wanted to show his dislike by deliberately avoiding what had become custom.

But it seems there was an expectation hidden in the heart of Claudel, who had just turned twenty, that even she didn’t know about.

She had clearly imagined hundreds, thousands of times in her head the humiliation she might endure in her marriage to Temnes.

Even if she had walked into Rowen Castle in the rain, her bridal dress soaked in muddy water, it would have just been an extension of the cold treatment Claudel had imagined.

But the sense of loss from losing a woman’s precious thing, for one raised so properly, was another matter.

Realizing she hadn’t received a gift felt like something had been taken from her inner self.

Duke Vermonte had sold her and obtained food, but she herself was left with nothing.

Claudel had simply wanted to receive a wedding night gift from him.

Even if it had been just a single flower, she would have been satisfied with the fact of receiving something.

When she tried to clear away the clothes strewn messily on the floor, it was because the awkward atmosphere was hard to bear and she felt she had to do something.

When something fell from his clothes, she was startled, thinking she’d be scolded for ruining them by meddling unnecessarily.

Seeing something that looked like it would fit her finger perfectly, she felt the urge to try it on.

The ring looked simply like a ring, to the point it was hard to think of it as a button bezel.

Claudel liked it for that reason.

‘Can I keep this?’

Even as she asked, she didn’t think he would allow it.

She had thought Kaian wouldn’t come to her again after the wedding night, but he had come again.

Hearing him casually say it had fallen off several times, she felt a small surge of courage.

There was nothing to give to a Vermonte.

She was confident she wouldn’t be hurt even if such words came back.

‘Do as you like.’

Though said coldly, the permission was clearly permission.

“Last night wasn’t out of duty, was it? The fact that he came to see you shows he must like you.”

Hannah seemed even more excited than her.

“He’ll give you better and better gifts.”

Claudel didn’t respond to her words.

She had no desire to receive anything better.

She was content with having received something, anything.

“I’ll bring breakfast. You’ll eat, right?”

As her illness worsened, Claudel had hardly been able to eat.

The pain that felt like her chest was being raked with claws got worse when she took deep breaths or chewed and swallowed food.

Today, perhaps because she was in a good mood, she felt like she could eat something, so Claudel nodded.

“Yes, I’ll eat.”

“I’ll go to the kitchen right away and bring it myself.”

The cheerful Hannah disappeared excitedly.

In the morning stillness surrounding her, Claudel gazed at the shining gold ring.

“…I received something.”

Hannah hummed a tune as she headed to the castle kitchen.

It was their third day at Rowen Castle.

The fact that she had to go to the castle kitchen herself meant that all the maids on this floor where Claudel was staying had ignored Hannah’s requests.

So until now, every time she went to the kitchen, she had been absolutely furious, with steam practically coming out of the top of her head.

“Hmm hmm. Hm hm hmm.”

The melody Hannah was humming caught in her nose.

“To be so happy about that. How much happier would she have been if he’d given it yesterday?”

While Claudel lived as a noble lady at Vermond Castle, Hannah had mingled with the maids.

The castle maids had felt sorry for Hannah, who had lost her parents in an accident at a young age and drifted to this strange place.

Just ten years old.

It was probably also because Hannah was too young to do the menial work at the castle.

Most of the maids working at the castle were from large peasant families. Seeing Hannah reminded them of the younger siblings they’d left at home, and they would often give her snacks and candy.

But they couldn’t refrain from vulgar talk in front of Hannah, who was still a child.

At an age full of curiosity, the older girls who suffered all sorts of mistreatment at the castle were all interested in news of someone who had spent a night with the lord.

Unfortunately, Vermond Castle didn’t have the young, handsome lord unable to contain his vigor that they wanted.

Duke Vermonte was old, and he got along quite well with Duchess Vermonte.

They only had one daughter, Irena, between them, but their relationship was close and loyal enough that not having a son didn’t escalate into a succession issue.

It was certain that Vermond Castle wasn’t the setting for events and incidents to occur.

After rattling off all sorts of social gossip and rumors without filter, when young Hannah would blink her eyes, they would giggle amongst themselves, embarrassed, saying ‘Hannah will understand someday too.’

The clever girl came to understand those things quite early, but she only shared the sweet cookies and candies she got from the older maids with Claudel.

She thought it was because her own circumstances were so harsh that she came to know the dirty, cruel underbelly of the world so early and quickly.

To Hannah, Claudel, who was growing up beautifully as a “young lady” in this grand and splendid castle, was like a sacred being.

So Claudel didn’t need to know these things, and shouldn’t know them.

Although she too had lost her parents on the same day as Hannah, Claudel would still live a different life from her.

She would meet a wonderful, splendid noble husband – who wouldn’t lay hands on the castle’s young maids, which was a very important point to Hannah – and live happily, loved to overflowing.

But for it to be Temnes!

Hannah couldn’t help but know the meaning of this marriage.

No, having grown up closer than any of the castle maids to the Duke and Duchess of Vermonte, Hannah knew all too well.

“I should have killed that old raccoon with my own hands.”

Duke Vermonte had sold Claudel.

He had traded Hannah’s young lady for just a month’s worth of food for the domain’s people.

When she learned of this, Hannah’s blood boiled.

Even knowing how important blind loyalty from servants was as an employment criterion for nobles, she had burst into Duke Vermonte’s office and shouted, “How could you do such a thing?”

Duke Vermonte, perhaps feeling guilty, avoided Hannah’s eyes and said “If you wish, go with her to Rowen Castle,” instead of punishing her for daring to speak up, saying she had overstepped.

Grinding her teeth as she left the lord’s office, Hannah had been building up her strength since that day.

Swinging a heavy wooden club in the night when everyone was asleep.

Hannah knew better than Claudel how a wife abused by her husband lived.

Especially that, unlike her who was a commoner, divorce was even more difficult for nobles because of the interests of the families tied to the marriage.

Even if the daughter who became the subject of the contract met with cruel treatment and died.

The marriage written in documents would continue, and the woman, the greatest victim, could not escape the name of her husband’s family that had driven her to death.

When people of Temnes and Vermonte met, even those who weren’t black-haired or red-haired, they would often fight until someone was injured or killed.

If the one who died or was injured fighting was an enemy, the lord would even give rewards, saying they had done well.

There was no way the delicate, flower-like Claudel could endure in that environment.

So Hannah herself had to protect Claudel.

But since the marriage was decided, Claudel’s appetite had sharply decreased and she was visibly wasting away day by day.

Seeing that, Hannah was so worried she felt she would go crazy.

The wedding, befitting a political marriage, was held hastily just a month after being decided, but by the wedding day, it was doubtful whether Claudel would wither away before being beaten to death by Temnes.

The doctor at Vermond Castle kept repeating that she was healthy and there was nothing wrong, and Claudel herself only said she was fine, so Hannah could only guess that the dreadful marriage to Temnes was causing her great stress.

In any case, knowing how big a blow it was to a noblewoman not to receive a wedding night gift, Hannah had been at a loss for how to comfort her.

To be so happy over one small ring.

Hannah decided to raise her evaluation of Kaian, which had hit rock bottom, by about 5 points.

Just as she entered the castle kitchen, those who had been whispering suddenly stopped their chatter.

It felt strange, but Hannah found a tray and placed a deep bowl for soup on it, along with a plate for bread, and headed towards the hearth.

“Vermonte has no pride.”

Just then, a mocking taunt flew at her.

“What?”

“That red-haired one who serves the young lady, you. I heard she stole an ornament from the master’s clothes yesterday?”

“What are you talking about?”

The maids narrowed their eyes and sneered at her.

“This morning, that woman showed you a button ornament, saying she received it from the Duke?”

“But the seamstress says it fell off the Duke’s clothes.”

Crash.

The tray fell from Hannah’s hands and the dishes shattered.

Kaian headed to Claudel’s room.

Tonight, on the third day, there was to be a banquet where she would be seated with him.

He was curious if the preparations were going well, and also thought they might have a simple lunch together.

‘Is this unnecessary?’

Even though she was a Vermonte, Claudel wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable.

The anger from before the wedding had dissipated quite a bit now.

“Thievery, you say!”

“What did you say? You crazy thing! How dare you say such a thing!”

However, in the corridor in front of Claudel’s room, a fight had broken out between maids pulling each other’s hair.

“I guess at Vermonte they coddle you even if you have sticky fingers?”

Seeing Kaian suddenly appear in the chaotic scene, the servants and maids who widened their eyes in surprise all retreated at once.

Claudel was standing by the door, and in front of her was her maid, a mess with her hair and clothes torn.

“Master! Those things are saying nonsense!”

“What’s going on?”

One maid quickly answered in a tattling tone.

“Well, she stole a button ornament from the Duke’s clothes, and is wearing it like it was given to her. As if it were a ring or something.”

At those words, one manservant shouted loudly.

“They’re really looking down on our Duke. As if he would give such a thing as a gift!”

Claudel looked at him with a troubled expression.

However, Kaian was equally perplexed.

He was the ruler who reigned over them.

The leader of Temnes was about to become a laughingstock to the servants.

“There’s no way I would give such a thing as a gift.”