What meaning could there be in confirming Logan Redford’s true feelings through someone else’s mouth?

Foolish. While thinking it was extremely stupid, Sidney hoped Walter’s closed lips would open.

To calm this confusion.

Perhaps Sidney’s wish had reached him. Walter grabbed the back of his neck and lowered his gaze diagonally. Looking quite unwilling, he pursed his lips with a disgruntled expression.

“Well, I hate to admit it, but. The eyes of that bastard that I’ve observed so far….. Damn it, anyway, it’s fortunate that you’ve decided to let go of that bastard’s hand now.”

If I let go, will it end with Logan Redford?

Suddenly, Logan’s blue eyes glowing in the darkness came to mind. And then…..

She remembered how intensely he desired her, with his possessiveness bordering on madness shown in bed, his hands and heat persistently exploring and exploring her again and again, that primal desire.

And the words he said when drunk a few days ago.

He promised tomorrow.

Whether Logan had been rolling around with some woman or not, even if it was just words spoken under the influence of alcohol and lust. Maybe she could feel a little less sorry because of that.

Sidney shook her head lightly, feeling a strange sense of relief that Logan wouldn’t let her go, and simultaneously feeling disgusted with herself for trying to use him.

“Walter, the Commander and I are just….. Yes, we’re just using each other.”

“Seeing you avoid him until today, I vowed to stop acting foolishly.”

“What?”

Walter Asner hit his left chest with his fist with a thud and said as if swearing:

“I’ll become Viscount Asner and protect you. Even if the moment comes when your secret is revealed to the world, my family and I will stand with you.”

Crazy. Her body reacted before her words. Sidney launched herself and kicked Walter’s shin.

“Ugh!”

She then drove her fist into Walter’s side as he bent over.

Though he could counterattack, Walter only raised his guard to defend his vital points while arguing:

“Ah, why! Why are you hitting me!”

“I warned you. Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

She hit everything in sight, using her hands and feet skillfully on Walter’s stone-like chest, sturdy thighs, and broad back.

Frustrated by Walter taking the beating like an idiot, she burst out shouting.

“Who do you think you are! Why you!”

No matter how angry or irritated, those words should not have been uttered.

By the time she realized it, it was already too late.

“Because it’s you.”

Walter’s brown eyes followed Sidney as she stepped back hesitantly. His facial muscles twitched subtly as he straightened up slowly and grinned.

“Sidney Warden, it’s because it’s you.”

Walter grinned with a deeply furrowed face.

Just like that day when he was seen being beaten by his grandfather. That kind of smile, childlike and bright, yet somehow sorrowful…..

Violence is an act of trampling and controlling the other through fear and pain.

It would be good if it ended with one time, but the distrust and anxiety that sprout in human relationships distorted by violence drive people to be more cruel and extreme.

Taking Walter’s parents as an example, adultery, self-harm, and ultimately death….. It destroys both the victim and the perpetrator.

If only it ended there.

Those who could only watch helplessly make wrong choices out of powerlessness and guilt like Anthony Warden, or live with mental scars like Walter Asner.

That’s how it was for her, and how it is for Walter.

Perhaps, we are still…..

Sidney pressed her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Don’t smile.”

“It hurts like hell, but, because it’s you….. I feel reassured.”

“I won’t abandon you.”

Walter’s response didn’t come. She sighed, rubbing her frozen face.

“Because I can’t abandon you, don’t abandon yourself either.”

Damn it, don’t push yourself. Walter replied “Okay” to those words mumbled lowly.

Through her fingers, she could see Walter’s shoes, muddy shoes, approaching.

“Just once, can’t I hug you?”

“No.”

“How mean.”

Whining like a child whose candy was taken away, Walter rested his forehead on Sidney’s shoulder.

Carefully, as if afraid of being pushed away, yet cunning enough to droop his broad shoulders to elicit her sympathy.

“Sidney, please let me protect you. Please…..”

Even at twenty-two, Walter Asner still hadn’t escaped from the shadow of his parents.

She herself, who saw her brother Anthony Warden overlapping with him, was the same.

Sidney stroked his shoulder and murmured in a voice tinged with resignation.

“I too. I don’t want to helplessly lose someone again.”

“So I’m not good enough, but that bastard is…. okay.”

Victoria and Walter are not okay. They are beings she must protect, like Anthony.

But Logan Redford is…..

He said he would become her sword.

And so he made her dream again.

Sidney looked up at the gray sky and whispered:

“Yes, that person…. is okay.”

Golden sunlight streaming down between the widely spread clouds, and a crow perched on a tall tree.

A crow? Were there many crows in Marcel? Sidney frowned and gently pushed Walter’s shoulder.

Whenever the teal curtain hanging from the open window on the third floor of the security forces building flutters, Steve Deniro’s black hair waves.

Golden light ripples in Steve’s deep-sea blue eyes beneath his long eyelashes, and the eyes of the crow perched on his shoulder are the same.

The empty pupils as if the soul has left, and the expression frozen like ice, making one doubt if he’s even breathing, were also the same.

As the fully inflated curtain settles down, the golden energy rippling in Steve and the crow’s eyes disappears without a trace.

Steve Deniro tilted his head sideways and muttered as if humming a tune.

“Walter Asner is not okay, but Logan Redford is okay….. How can siblings be so alike?”

Even the foolish recklessness of wanting to protect someone when they can barely take care of themselves.

Steve clicked his tongue briefly and brought his hand, clad in a white glove, to his shoulder as he whispered.

“Come here.”

The crow blinked its drowsy eyes twice before perching on Steve’s wrist.

A small and insignificant, yet ominous presence.

Something that can be crushed or removed at any time if it becomes a nuisance, something that wouldn’t matter if abandoned…..

Steve looked into the crow’s black eyes and murmured lowly.

“Your ambition to even convey her voice is admirable, but you must be careful. My lady is very suspicious and extremely intelligent.”

The languid, drawling voice ended with a gentle smile. However, his blue eyes were as calm and dark as the night sea.

Only then did Steve’s touch lightly stroke the frozen back of the crow as he lifted one corner of his mouth.

“Still, I should praise you for finding out that Walter Asner is her weakness.”

Hm? The crow reflected in Steve’s deep blue eyes, which questioned with a low nasal sound, trembled as it drew its wings together.

Pleased with that reaction, Steve’s voice became as affectionate as whispering love to a lover.

“Since they’re announcing her marriage at the palace banquet tomorrow, you and your friend should prepare a gift.”

That might make this dirty feeling a bit better.

Steve Deniro added quietly and stood looking in the direction the crow had flown for a long time.

By the time the teal curtain puffed up greatly and then settled down again, he had already disappeared.

Despite saying they’d see each other when he returned, Logan Redford was not in the office. Although it was only natural considering his recent schedule, her eyes kept wandering to his empty office.

It’s funny.

After avoiding him so much, deliberately dawdling, with nothing particular to say…..

Sidney cleared her throat and roughly flipped through the documents. Her hand, quickly turning the pages, paused.

“52 Canil Avenue? 52 Canil, 52….. Lord Spencer, isn’t this the building where La Sena Boutique is located?”

“You remember. Two years ago, Count Binoche bought it back from the temple and gave it to his mistress.”

“Mistress?”

Good heavens, Count Lloyd Binoche, who had remained celibate for 30 years after losing his wife, having a mistress?

Has he gone senile as he approaches seventy? Or perhaps he had already gone mad at the point when he lost all his wife and children, just not known because he had been in seclusion until now.

“Men, whether young or old……”

“Not all men are like that.”

“Well, I suppose. But, even if not mistresses, don’t they all frequent salons with courtesans?”

Andy Spencer’s eyes, which had been refuting seriously, shook violently at the word ‘courtesan’. Soon his face turned bright red and he even stammered, unlike his usual self.

“…T-that. Ahem, there are unavoidable circumstances……”

Should I add young ones to old ones and young ones?

Sidney looked intently at Andy while slightly lifting one corner of her mouth.

“Ha, Lord Spencer too?”