“It’s because it’s stained with blood. Even you will get your hands dirty.”

Only then did he see the eyes the color of forget-me-nots looking up at him.

Neither in those upright eyes, nor in Merche’s gesture of putting her slender wrist behind her back, could any disgust towards a lowly being be found.

What was there was hesitation.

That foolishly kind heart, worrying that her own blood might get on the other person.

Rude chewed on his lips silently, then muttered in a barely audible whisper.

“Why worry about such a thing… Even if it’s dirty, my blood is dirtier.”

In the first place, it was the blood shed by a woman born wrapped in money, unlike him.

If that was considered dirty, then the blood flowing through his body should have already been rotten and crawling with maggots.

Instead of offering clumsy words, he chose to fix the annoying bandage.

He reached out again, untied the roughly tied knot, and wrapped it tightly so that there would be no wrinkles.

He didn’t know how many times he checked to see if he was using too much force and causing pain.

Fortunately, until he tied the particularly carefully made knot, there were no signs of frowning or pain, so Rude looked down at the bandaged wrist with a proud quirk of his lips.

As expected of someone who had been beaten and tumbled a lot, he had tied it well.

It was the first time in his life that he had put so much effort into wrapping a bandage.

“Don’t even touch things like bandages elsewhere. You’ll only get cursed at for your poor skills.”

“…Was it that clumsy?”

“Yeah. Extremely.”

Merche blinked slowly as if yielding to the cold evaluation.

It also seemed to look a bit dejected.

Did I evaluate it too harshly? Rude rolled his eyes slightly.

It felt like he should say something to comfort her, but he had no idea how to speak at times like this.

Comfort her? What would I know when I’ve never done such a thing.

“…Even if you’re good at wrapping bandages, nothing will change. You can be late with that… no, you don’t even need to do it.”

Trying to replace all the rough words he usually spoke took effort.

Still, he barely picked out a few pretty words and threw them out, then observed Merche’s reaction.

Fortunately, Merche didn’t seem to mind the vulgar words he lived by.

The still pure forget-me-not colored eyes gazed at him quietly.

A voice as calm as that gaze echoed softly.

“I will inform the servants not to force you to take baths from now on.”

Rude was the one who felt pricked by the plain words without any reproach or criticism.

Did I cause quite a mess?

Now that he thought about it, he had only immersed his body in water for a moment and hadn’t actually taken a bath.

He was forcibly washed like laundry once in a while at the arena, but since leaving there and coming to this mansion, he hadn’t washed his body even once.

Suddenly, Rude raised his arm and smelled it.

I won’t be labeled as a dirty guy, right…? Merche’s gaze as she looked at him somehow felt uncomfortable.

“…I can wash by myself. There’s no need to stick to me like I’m a kid and wash me.”

“I see. It didn’t occur to me that aspect would be uncomfortable for you. I will also tell them to let you handle your own matters according to your wishes.”

Merche’s answer was extremely serious.

With a face that seemed to say she was sorry for not understanding his feelings, Rude had to feel like he was the world’s greatest idiot.

He should have just kept his mouth shut. Trying to make excuses clumsily only made him look like a child being worried about.

“You’re not going to ask why I don’t like washing?”

As soon as he blurted it out, Rude immediately regretted it.

Thinking he was being childish, he even spoke words he shouldn’t have, like a child.

If she asked why he disliked washing? Why did he ask such a question when he had no intention of answering!

When he was sinking into self-destructive gloom, wanting to cover his mouth, Merche asked.

“Do you want to tell me the reason?”

“No.”

Immediately responding seriously, Merche blinked as if to say ‘see’.

The eyes that followed her harmless gaze loosened.

“Then there’s no reason for me to hear it. If you had wanted to say it, you would have already done so.”

“……”

Amazingly, it was a fitting statement. Rude blankly looked at the woman who had rendered him speechless with a single sentence.

The woman, who easily subdued a man with a temper tougher than thorny vines, got up from the bed without any particular emotion.

As always, her hands neatly tidied her clothes.

When she showed such an appearance, the realization akin to conviction that she would soon leave struck like lightning, and Rude abruptly opened his mouth.

“You’re leaving?”

“That’s my intention. It’s been quite some time since I came here.”

“When will you come again if you leave?”

This was a statement befitting a dog loyal to its master, but he had no room to think about such things.

His nerves were on edge, and the ability to filter the pouring words had long faded as if it had never existed in the first place.

His uncontrolled mouth moved fiercely on its own.

“Don’t you think it’s selfish? You shoved me in here saying I can’t speak, then you’re leaving me out. Like an unwanted item, you’re just abandoning me here in the corner. If you’re going to do this, you might as well actually throw me away, instead of just making me feel like crap.”

Merche, who took the fiercely flying accusations, was silent for a long time, then apologized with those damp eyes again, saying she was sorry.

It was an apology that Rude’s half-unrestrained ears couldn’t hear.

“Do I have to talk shit like today for you to come? Then I’ll have to think about what kind of shit to spew next time.”

Even as he rambled, self-mocking laughter kept bursting out. What a ridiculous situation.

It’s more tormenting now than when I was locked up in a cage waiting to die.

Of course, it was a different kind of agony than back then. Like thirst. Thanks to Mr. Burke, who was a quack but had amazingly effective medicine, he had long been freed from drugs, but something as thirst-inducing as drugs had newly appeared.

“…I can’t give you a definite answer, but I’ll be back soon. If I made you uncomfortable, I’m truly sorry.”

A tempting bait was thrown.

It was obvious that biting it would shatter the roof of his mouth, but it was bait he couldn’t help but bite.

Rude willingly bit that bait, opening his parched mouth from thirst.

“Come before I talk more shit. If you spent a lot of money, you should at least give me a chance to be worth it.”

In any case, wasn’t she a woman who had spent a fortune on him? Since she had spent money, she should extract value for what she spent.

So she would return here and seek him out. That was the only thing Rude could cling to.

Finding a person was not difficult for a noble.

It was even more so for the eldest daughter of a rather wealthy family who had inherited a decent inheritance from her parents.

Merche stopped by the dressing room as scheduled to have her clothes fitted and easily dismissed the knights who had followed her.

The knights of Lupinus were loyal only to their master, Genovefa, and not yet to Merche, who wasn’t even the successor.

Thanks to that, everything went smoothly.

The place where Merche met the woman she was looking for was a shabby tavern.

Accompanied by separately hired escorts, she approached a middle-aged woman who was wiping a worn-out table with her arms falling off.

The wrinkled eyes that showed the hardship of life soon looked up at Merche.

“Excuse me. May I sit for a moment?”

“…? I’m sorry, but we’re not accepting customers right now. If you’d like to come, please visit again around this time tomorrow.”

“I didn’t come here as a customer, but because I have business with you.”

“…Who are you?”

“It’s not a name you might know, but let me introduce myself. I’m Merche Ashtad. Please make time for me. I beg you, Mrs. Martin.”

Greta Martin. The former maid of Elizabeth Lupinus and Elizabeth’s long-time friend.

She stiffened her body and met Merche’s gaze.

−Mrs. Martin. It would have been nice if she had stayed by Lady Komeo’s side even after Lady Komeo had a stillbirth. Why did she leave like that?

−Mrs. Martin must have been in great shock too. Seeing the master she had served since childhood have a stillbirth and go half-insane, imagine how she must have felt.

When Elizabeth faced the tragedy of a stillbirth 20 years ago, Greta Martin chose to retire.

As some of the maids in the castle had gossiped, she may have left after being shocked by her master’s terrible tragedy.

But Merche felt something odd about the timing of her retirement.

The period when Greta Martin announced her retirement was only a month and ten days after Elizabeth’s delivery date.

No matter how shocking it was, it was hard to accept that she had fled the castle as if running away while the master she had served for decades crumbled in sorrow.

Above all, the story of the maids that Elizabeth had desperately tried to hold Greta back several times when she declared her retirement weighed on her mind.

Why had she been in such a hurry to retire?

As if being chased by someone, even while watching Elizabeth, with whom she had spent nearly half her life, crumble under severe depression.

To confirm that answer, Merche stood here.

Mrs. Martin, who showed signs of wariness as soon as her name was called, hesitated and asked.

“How do you know me?”

“I know from hearing stories from those around you. In case you might be curious, shall I tell you first? I am in the position of a candidate to succeed the head of Lupinus.”

“…Lu, Lupinus? Gasp!”

Mrs. Martin immediately tried to throw down the rag and run away, but the tavern door was already closed and several escorts with swords at their waists blocked the escape route.

Chewing her lips with an anxious face, she sat down carefully as if resigned.

“…I don’t know what business you have with me. Threatening me like this, it’s just frightening for someone who has long retired from the frontlines.”

It was a manner of speaking imbued with dignity befitting someone who had long served as a maid to a great noble family.

Her fiercely raised eyes glared at Merche as if to say she would not be easily shaken no matter what pressure was applied.

But it was also that blatant.

To Merche, it already seemed like Mrs. Martin was telling the whole truth with her body.

A woman who gets scared just hearing the name Lupinus. If one didn’t find it suspicious, that would be stranger.

There was no need to waste time beating around the bush. Merche brought up the interrogative words without preamble.

“Mrs. Martin, did you smuggle out the child that Lady Komeo gave birth to in the past?”