“I wouldn’t give such a thing as a gift.”

A denial immediately sprang out.

At that moment, our eyes met Claudel’s.

In her expressionless, doll-like face with minimal expression, the gaze that had been looking at him for help, pleading for assistance, sank dimly with disappointment.

Seeing that, I felt a twinge of regret, but his word was law in this castle.

If Kaian said it was right, then it was so, and if he said it was wrong, then it was so.

Even if he called blue red, the vassals would say it was red, and if he said white was black, the castle workers would agree it was black.

The lord’s power was so absolute that he couldn’t take back what he had just said in front of so many watching eyes.

Especially not for such a petty reason as whether or not he had given a worthless button ornament!

“As expected. That’s just like those Vermonte people.”

“I guess the rumors about Vermonte putting gold trim in Valmond Castle were false.”

“Haha. To like such trivial things. It seems they’ve never seen real jewels in their lives.”

Mockery poured out towards Claudel and her maid.

Kaian shouted.

“Enough. Stop making noise and all of you withdraw.”

The sounds of ridicule towards the two women from Valmond didn’t cease until the corridor was emptied. Even as they descended the stairs, someone shouted “Thief!” and distant laughter echoed.

After that, Kaian felt awkward.

Claudel had pressed her lips shut and lowered her head, while the maid who had been beaten and torn at by many sat slumped on the floor.

He had never comforted anyone or extended a helping hand before.

That wasn’t what was expected of the head of the family.

Kaian only needed to be as solid as a shield, as strong and sharp as a sword.

Could one imagine a shield and sword extending a comforting hand?

Since his words were always right, he had never even apologized.

But now, for the first time in his life, an unfamiliar sensation spread in his chest.

A faint feeling of regret.

However, Kaian didn’t properly recognize or understand it.

Because that’s how he was raised.

He blamed the awkward and uncomfortable emotion on Claudel for asking for such a trivial thing and even boasting about it.

“Don’t cause a commotion.”

Claudel’s shoulders hunched at Kaian’s words.

“I mean live like a dead mouse. No one in Lowen Castle will take your side.”

Spitting out harsh words of rebuke, he turned his body and felt relieved that it was adequately settled.

‘Why did she have to ask for such a thing.’

Kaian left the place with large strides.

“What? How can there be such a person?”

While applying medicine to the bruised and bloodied spots, Hannah couldn’t contain her anger and grumbled.

“Wow. Really despicable. The worst among all the bastards I’ve seen since coming to this castle!”

“Stop it, Hannah.”

“Stop what? I haven’t even started yet!”

When Claudel quietly tried to dissuade her, Hannah burst out.

“He cleverly torments people. I may have fallen for it once, but it won’t happen twice. I really won’t let this slide.”

“He’s not that kind of person. There’s a misunderstanding…”

“How can you defend him after being treated like this?”

Seeing Hannah shriek in disbelief, Claudel closed her mouth.

Her gaze fell on the problematic item still on her finger, which was hard to say whether it was a ring or a button ornament. Noticing this, Hannah glared fiercely.

“Give it to me! I’ll take it to the kitchen and use it as kindling.”

“Don’t do that.”

Even as she said this, Hannah moved to snatch it from Claudel, who had been looking thin and weak lately, but fearing she might hurt her beloved mistress’s finger, Hannah relaxed her hand.

“I really can’t stand the sight of it.”

“I’m sorry, Hannah.”

“Not you, miss. That thing.”

Claudel hesitantly covered her left hand with her right, hiding it from view.

“I almost started to dislike you just now.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Why don’t you take that thing off and throw it out the window? Didn’t you see what that Duke did earlier? And still, you…”

Claudel covered her mouth with her hand and coughed softly.

“Cough. Cough cough.”

Claudel felt sorry for Hannah, but she thought she couldn’t make her understand everything she felt.

It was about two months ago that she found out she had contracted Herzol.

Valmond Castle was in the far north of the northern part of the Oberon Kingdom, a frozen land that remained icy for half the year.

In that cold land, there was a coughing disease called Herzol, an illness where one coughed for a hundred days before coughing up blood and dying.

Moreover, it was so contagious that if someone caught it, about eight out of ten people in the village would die. It was a terrifying disease.

But someone found a way to overcome the disease.

They discovered that if one suffered from a mild case of Herzol and recovered, they wouldn’t catch it again.

Especially since it was a disease so strong that ten out of ten babies who caught it would die, a Duke of Vermonte from several hundred years ago stepped forward to build a small village to manage the disease.

If a child was brought to the village near Valmond Castle before their first birthday, they would receive the ‘Ice Baptism.’

By rubbing a handkerchief used by a patient with mild fever and cough near the child’s nose, the child would also suffer a mild case of Herzol and overcome it.

Before the Ice Baptism was established, Herzol was a disease that only ended when an entire village had died.

When they offered the radical condition of exempting a family from a year’s worth of taxes to the domain if they gave their child the Ice Baptism, everyone brought their children when they were born, and gradually, deaths from the disease disappeared.

The reason Claudel contracted this incurable disease was because her father, Evan, was the younger brother of the Duke of Vermonte.

Her father had been banished by the Duke of Vermonte to the southernmost edge of the domain, the farthest from Valmond Castle.

She later learned that if her father stepped just a little outside Plogne village, he would be watched and reported to the Duke of Vermonte.

Although she was of Vermonte blood more than anyone, she couldn’t receive the Ice Baptism because of this.

Even Hannah, born in the remote mountain village of Plogne, far from Valmond, had received the baptism.

People from the warm south don’t catch this disease.

When the cunning Duke of Vermonte learned that Claudel had contracted the coughing disease that only affects those born and raised in the frozen lands for a long time, he schemed cleverly.

Herzol is an incurable disease with no medicine.

Claudel nodded at his persuasion that since she was going to die anyway, wouldn’t it be good if it could help the domain’s people?

The nobles and retainers who came and went in the castle were distant from her anyway.

The domain people who waved happily and smiled at her when she went out for domain service were much closer to the warm neighbors in her memories of Plogne village.

If those children were starving, and if she was going to die anyway.

If the humiliation she would endure would end in a month or two.

In a life where she hadn’t done or achieved much, it seemed like something even she could do.

The ring, which had grown warm from being pressed so tightly under her right hand, could be felt.

Claudel hadn’t asked for this object because she didn’t know it was trivial.

She asked for it because it was such an object.

Because in a month or so, what would have been her share would become an innocent keepsake to be burned.

So, she thought, perhaps she could take such a small piece with her to the afterlife when she breathed her last.

Foolishly, that’s what she thought.

“Cough.”

The cough worsened the more she coughed, so Claudel tried to suppress it.

“I won’t ask you to give it up. Just rest comfortably.”

Hannah gently massaged Claudel’s hands, which were still tense.

“By the way, this cold isn’t getting better. Tomorrow, I’ll bring a doctor here somehow.”

“Thank you, Hannah.”

If Hannah had known that she had contracted Herzol, she might have punched the Duke of Vermonte. Claudel thought Hannah was quite capable of doing that.

It was well-known in Valmond Castle that Hannah would punish with her fists anyone who behaved disrespectfully towards Claudel.

It was fortunate that no one would help Hannah find a doctor in Lowen Castle.

It was the last day of the wedding celebration.

It was also the day when the new lady of the domain would make her appearance before the people.

But rumors had already spread throughout the Temnes family and Lowen domain that Claudel was like a ‘withered flower soggy from the rain’.

On the first day of the banquet where the Temnes bloodline gathered, many had seen her enter in a disheveled state, soaked by rain, and each had gone home to spread the tale.

Even so, people wondered if she might look different when properly dressed up, but today Claudel did not attend the banquet.

“What? She won’t attend?”

“Yes, Your Grace. She says she’s ill and cannot leave her bed.”

Kaian’s brow furrowed.

It seemed she was determined to embarrass him, causing a commotion over trivial matters.

“Tell her she won’t be called to any more banquets.”

“Your Grace. Such words…”

The butler tried to say something but closed his mouth.

“I’ll take my leave.”

The loyal butler, who had worked since the time of the previous Duke, had been more nagging since the King of Oberon had ordered the marriage by royal decree.

‘No matter how forced this marriage is, if you neglect your wife, it will damage your reputation, Your Grace.’

The butler was also of Temnes blood. The difference between him and other Temnes was that while others harbored greater anger towards the Vermontes, the eccentric butler cared more about the dignity of the Temnes family head.

Though Kaian had ignored the butler’s words, wasn’t it because of them that he ended up preparing a wedding night gift?

Surely the butler must have known about today’s commotion in the castle, yet he hadn’t said a word to Kaian about it until now. Kaian suddenly became curious about what the butler was going to say after ‘Such words…’, but as the end of that thought led to Claudel, Kaian deliberately tried not to think about it.

She must have been disappointed in him.

But it was also a bit absurd. The fact that she thought he might help her, when they had only faced each other for barely two days, coming from an enemy family.

Being disappointed meant she had expectations.

Having betrayed those expectations, unnecessary self-reproach kept creeping in.

It was alright to do this to a Vermonte.

That’s how he had lived until now.

In fact, Kaian had been planning to exterminate that family, and if things had gone according to plan, Claudel’s head would likely have fallen to his sword directly next month.

If only the King of Oberon hadn’t forced this marriage.

But now he felt as if he had done something unforgivable to Claudel, making it uncomfortable to face her.

That night, Kaian lingered in front of Claudel’s bedroom.

Perhaps because of the day’s incident, or because she had said she was ill, the corridor was deserted and quiet, with even the lights extinguished.

‘Since she’s ill, that maid must be standing guard.’

Recalling Hannah, who had glared at him as if she wanted to kill him, Kaian couldn’t rashly enter the room and instead stood in the corridor, staring intently at Claudel’s door.

However, at that moment, Hannah, whom Kaian thought would be tending to Claudel, was glaring at a different door.

It was the door to Kaian’s bedroom.

“Just come out. I won’t let you off easy.”

Finally, in the early dawn, as the bedroom door opened and someone came out, she clenched her fist but then her eyes widened.