All changes stemmed from those words.

“I saw your fiancé courting a widow.”

Those were the first words uttered by the woman I met at a tea party hosted by a friend.

“Pardon?”

Kisa unconsciously looked around before realizing that the arrow was aimed at her.

“Were you speaking to me?”

Aria, was it? The woman, whom Kisa had only seen in passing a few times at various gatherings, nodded several times in response to Kisa’s cautious question.

“It was definitely Daniel Lowens. That man. He was confessing so passionately.”

Daniel Lowens. The name of the unrequited love interest with whom Kisa had been engaged for over ten years since childhood.

And as far as she knew, there was no one else in high society who could rightfully be called Daniel Lowens.

“Mrs. Osuana.”

Kisa spoke softly.

“I think you must be mistaken. Daniel is not that kind of person.”

An amused smile appeared on Aria’s lips.

“You trust your fiancé, I see.”

“Yes, I do. I trust Daniel’s innocence and his aloofness. There’s probably no man in the world more boring than him. If you spoke with him for just a few minutes, you’d understand.”

Daniel making a passionate confession? It would be enough to make the butler who had worked for the Lowens family for half a lifetime faint.

“Oh my, what a predicament.”

Aria rubbed her faintly pink cheek with her right hand.

“It’s quite difficult for me to relay what I witnessed to Lady Vanspelt, who trusts her fiancé so much. But precisely because of that, you need to know the truth.”

It seemed she had no intention of retracting the outrageous statement she had just made.

Kisa’s patience was slowly wearing thin. She had tried to brush it off cleverly, but what was this woman trying to do?

However, for some reason, a faint sense of unease began to creep up from deep within her heart. She became curious about the source of this confidence.

“What truth are you referring to?”

“It would be quicker and more certain if you saw for yourself. Go to the Willow Tree on Ipichi Street.”

“Willow Tree?”

“It’s not a real tree, but the name of a tea house. I heard it serves as a kind of salon. They say it’s particularly popular among young upper-class men recently for discussing philosophy and ideas. In my opinion, they seem like pretentious pseudo-intellectuals.”

Kisa didn’t bother asking the obvious question of whether it was certain that Daniel frequented the place.

“I understand. I should be going now.”

As she stood up, Aria also rose.

“You’re leaving without having dinner?”

“Yes, I’m sorry to the others, but could you please tell them I’m heading back? I seem to have overeaten at lunch and my stomach feels a bit heavy.”

Except for the two of them, the other attendees were playing cards in another room.

Since the ideal number for bridge is four players, Kisa, who wasn’t particularly interested in card games, had been reading when this woman approached her.

If she had known this would happen, she should have just sat at the table and stared at the cards. She felt a belated regret, but it was already too late.

The culprit who had stirred up indescribable emotions in her whispered from beside her.

“Don’t be too heartbroken, poor Lady Vanspelt. Isn’t that just how men are?”

“Madam.”

“Yes?”

“If the story I heard today turns out to be an unfounded rumor…”

“I know. I’ll take appropriate responsibility.”

Aria finished the sentence on behalf of Kisa, who had never warned anyone like this before.

Kisa silently looked at her for a moment before leaving the host’s mansion.

“My lady.”

Marsha, the maid who had been chatting with the coachman beside the carriage, greeted her with rabbit eyes.

“What brings you out? Didn’t you say you’d stay until dinner?”

“Never mind. Let’s just go home.”

“Did something happen?”

“It’s nothing.”

But as she was boarding the carriage, Kisa changed her mind.

“No, not home. Take me to Ipichi Street.”

“Ipichi Street? Why?”

It was Marsha, not the coachman, who blurted out the question.

“I have some business there.”

“What kind of business?”

Kisa was used to her maid’s nosy interest, but today it was particularly irritating.

“Can’t you just go without asking questions?”

At the sharp tone, Marsha couldn’t inquire further, and the carriage set off towards the new destination.

In fact, Ipichi Street was a place that didn’t suit Kisa, so it was natural for the maid to be curious. There was no way the daughter of Count Vanspelt, who was particularly conservative even among nobles, could freely frequent this street full of youthful energy.

In other words, setting foot in this place without informing her family of her destination was, in Kisa’s own way, an act of rebellion.

“I heard there’s a tea house called Willow Tree.”

The coachman, hearing just that, easily drove the carriage after asking a passerby for directions. It seemed to be a fairly well-known place in this area.

Before long, the carriage stopped in front of a building. A sign reading “Willow Tree” hung above the facade of a modest two-story building.

There’s no way. Kisa repeated the words she had been saying to herself throughout the journey here as she approached the building.

No, it can’t be. Who is Daniel Lowens? He’s a man as taciturn and solid as a rock, so much so that he’s never even spoken a kind word to his own fiancée. And that disagreeable attitude was equally applied to other women.

As far as Kisa could see, Daniel always placed value in life on things other than women. Sometimes it was friendship between men, sometimes it was hunting, and most recently, it was academics.

Though he never expressed it in words, he surely considered obsessing over women to be the most pathetic thing in this world. Kisa couldn’t help but know his inner thoughts because it showed in his expressions and attitude.

Anyway, while his fiancé’s behavior might have seemed merely disappointing on ordinary days, today it felt like the most reliable ally.

Just then, the entrance to the tea house opened. For some reason feeling guilty, Kisa hurriedly hid behind a nearby streetlamp.

“So they say that argument doesn’t consider future generations.”

“No, that’s not what I meant—”

“Come on, man. You’re so stubborn.”

“It’s already this dark outside.”

“By the way, when did we say the next meeting was?”

The group of people who came out all at once, presumably because the meeting had ended, chattered noisily. Absorbed in their own conversations, they quickly passed the streetlamp where Kisa was hiding.

Kisa rolled her eyes back and forth, wondering if Daniel might be among them. However, even after looking for a while, not a single strand of his dark brown hair was visible.

Just as I thought. Kisa was about to relax, not having spotted her fiancé until almost everyone had left.

“Hazel.”

A voice so familiar that it pierced Kisa’s ears as if spoken right next to her, despite being more than a few dozen steps away.

Looking back at the entrance of the tea house, she saw the silhouettes of two people belatedly emerging from the building.

A pair, a man and a woman. Needless to say, the man was Kisa’s fiancé, Daniel Lowens.

“Thanks to you, I had another fruitful time today.”

Kisa had to take a sharp breath at the unfamiliar tenderness that wafted over.

However, the woman called Hazel responded calmly, as if Daniel’s sugar-coated attitude wasn’t particularly surprising.

“I’m glad you found it fruitful, Daniel.”

“As I said earlier, your opinion on Griffin’s argument was truly amazing. It presented a completely new perspective to me.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“Not at all. Hazel, you’re always too harsh in your self-evaluation.”

“I’m happy that you think so highly of me. Well then, I’ll see you at the next meeting time.”

“Would you mind staying here for a moment?”

Was it coincidence that the two stopped at a spot where they would fall nose-first if they tripped from the tree where Kisa was hiding?

Kisa, who had been hiding tightly for fear of being discovered, gathered her courage to peek out again and was shocked. Daniel was kneeling on one knee.

“Daniel.”

Hazel’s surprised voice was heard, as if this wasn’t a prearranged action.

“Please listen. I have something I’ve wanted to tell you for a long time.”

“Please get up and speak.”

But Daniel, seeming to have made a firm decision, continued in a resolute tone.

“I, Daniel Lowens, pledge to protect you, Hazel Turdi, with all my being until the moment my life ends.”

Hazel was silent for a moment before speaking.

“A knight’s oath.”

“That’s right. Hazel, you are an extraordinary person. Didn’t you draw these words from me, who used to consider a knight’s oath as an outdated relic of the past generation?”

Daniel slowly rose from his position and brushed the dust off his pants.

“My life has changed since I met you. These days, I feel joy with every breath I take in and out. When I come to my senses, I find myself always counting the days until the next meeting at the Willow Tree.”

Nausea welled up. Who is this? This man.

He is someone Kisa doesn’t know. The Daniel she knew was a person who viewed the world with a cynical attitude in everything. She doesn’t know a man who acts so passionately.

As Kisa, feeling dizzy, shook her cold hands and feet, the conversation between the two continued.

“Daniel, surely you don’t mean to say that your oath just now was of a serious nature?”

“Of course it’s serious. Do I look like someone who would bring up such things as a joke? I will protect you for the rest of my life. This is just a tiny repayment for the grace you’ve shown me.”

Hazel paused for a moment before responding in an admiring tone.

“To think you regard me so highly. Thank you, Daniel. I like you very much too. And I hope our relationship continues like this.”

“Good heavens. Is that true?”

“Of course.”

This is the limit. Kisa impulsively jumped out from behind the tree.

At her sudden appearance, the two stopped their conversation and stared in this direction. Daniel’s eyes widened.

“Kisa?”

“Daniel Lowens.”

Although everything inside her was churning in a mess, a calmer voice than expected came out of Kisa’s mouth.

“What brings you here—”

“Explain.”

“What?”

“Explain how this came to be.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Explain with your own mouth. What is it that I just saw and heard?”

At first, Daniel also clicked his tongue, seemingly embarrassed. But soon, he stood firmly in front of his fiancée with an unfaltering gait.

As he was quite tall, Kisa had to look up to see that brazen face.

“Is there anything more to explain? It’s exactly as you saw and heard.”

At that moment, her breath caught.

“Are you insane? Why are you so confident?”

“Is there a reason I shouldn’t be confident?”

The man, pulling out a cigar case from his pocket, shrugged his shoulders.

“Did I cheat on you or something?”