“Hah.”

A sigh escaped me due to the tiresome argument.

I brushed off my shoulder that had been grabbed, as if dusting it off, and coldly stared at the fallen Antra.

“Don’t you understand yet, Lady Dien? By now, you should know that threats using Devon won’t work on me.”

I handed the box I had been holding to Antra, as if throwing it away.

“Take it. It’s the evidence of your son’s infidelity that has been burned.”

Antra, who abruptly received the distorted box, had a dumbfounded expression.

“What?”

“My, why such an expression? You knew all along that Devon was cheating on me.”

As if my claim was true, Antra just glared at me with an indignant face, her neck veins bulging.

It was as I expected. There’s no way they wouldn’t know each other’s private lives.

I put my hands behind my back and leaned forward. Then I whispered softly into Antra’s ear as she glared at me.

“In a short while, I’ll strip your precious son bare and drive him out. The extra money in his pockets will disappear too, so save up some pocket money. Don’t take this advice too personally, and also, I’ve always wanted to say this…”

Lowering my gaze, I blew a strong breath onto the fox shawl Antra was wearing. Seeing Antra flinch at the small movement, I smiled brightly as if giving alms.

“That’s tacky.”

Why catch an innocent fox? She should catch her son instead. After throwing those last words like a throwing star, I stepped back and turned around gracefully.

As I moved away, I glanced back to see Antra gaping like a goldfish, staring at me as I retreated.

Aaaaah-! When I finally left the mansion, I covered my ears against the delayed scream.

‘Ugh, so noisy.’

She’ll raise her blood pressure and pass away at this rate.

As I was descending the steps at the entrance of the mansion with Lilien, I noticed the butler fidgeting at the main gate.

‘Ah, I almost forgot about him.’

The butler spotted me and quickly ran over.

“Have you finished your conversation, Madam?”

I raised one eyebrow skeptically.

‘Madam? Since when did he address me so politely?’

Surely this bat-like butler must have heard the entire conversation with Antra and assessed the shifting situation.

As my expression soured, the nervous butler moistened his lips with his tongue and began to speak.

“A-actually, Lady Antra ordered to burn down the entire mansion. I objected so strongly, but…”

“Ah. Is that so?”

At my indifferent response, the butler, who was trying to slip away using Antra as a shield, broke out in a cold sweat and watched my reaction carefully.

Inwardly laughing, I tapped my chin nonchalantly and rolled my eyes.

“But butler, what should we do about this? The mansion has burned down, so the living quarters for the servants have disappeared?”

“We’ll be fine.”

“No, as the lady of the house, it doesn’t sit well with me to have the staff sleeping outside. Especially you, butler, you’ve suffered a lot over the years looking after my inadequacies.”

As I encouraged him gently with a benevolent smile, a faint smile spread across the butler’s lips.

It was a smile of confidence and relief that even though he had fallen out with Antra, I wouldn’t cast him aside.

“Not at all, it’s only natural as a butler—”

“So take a nice long rest.”

“Thank you… Pardon?”

The butler raised his chin with a stupid face and our eyes met. I wiped the smile off my face and spoke coldly.

“You’re so slow on the uptake. I’m saying you should look for another job if you don’t want your stomach to rot from bowing elegantly anymore. That goes for all the servants of the Count’s household, including you.”

I looked over the butler with indifferent eyes and passed through the main gate.

The butler, as if struck by lightning, hurriedly followed after me.

“W-wait, Madam…! Madam…!”

“Ah, right.”

I turned to the butler, twirling my finger in the air.

“If you don’t want to meet again in court, send all the intact furniture to the Mifidian household by tomorrow.”

“Madam…! I-I was wrong, please forgive me just this once, Madam…!”

In this world, the butler’s position was as secure as a government job. Even with extremely difficult and expensive schooling, people would line up wanting to enroll.

Given the rigorous procedures, if one retires dishonorably, all privileges are revoked.

‘So go take up farming or something.’

Smiling cynically, I ignored the pursuing butler and got into the carriage with Lilien.

* * *

On the way to the Mifidian Count’s mansion on the outskirts of the capital. Although the carriage had a ride quality incomparable to the one rented in the city, it was extremely uncomfortable.

‘I came along impulsively out of resentment towards Antra, but…’

I slowly turned my gaze fixed on the window outside to look across.

Lilien, whose eyes met mine, smiled blandly and lowered her gaze.

The interior of the carriage was quiet.

‘It’s awkward…’

The only fortunate thing in this situation was that I wouldn’t encounter her younger brother.

He would return five days after Lilien’s death, after all.

As I concentrated on my thoughts, occasionally furrowing my brow, I slowly opened my eyes, feeling an insistent gaze. Lilien was staring at me with curious eyes.

“Countess, what are you pondering so deeply?”

“I was thinking how fortunate it is that Lady Lilien helped me.”

As I smiled faintly, pretending to be nonchalant, Lilien blushed and gently cupped her cheeks with her hands.

“Oh my… I didn’t really help that much…”

Just then, the carriage stopped.

Thinking it was fortunate, I exited through the door opened by the coachman, escaping the suffocating space.

After confirming that Lilien had also alighted, I naturally startled at the scene that appeared after the carriage departed.

‘How can a mansion be this big?’

Of course, the burned-down mansion of the Vuel family was also huge. But not to the extent where you could have a relay race in the garden.

Passing through the tree-lined path, there was a fountain spouting crystal-clear water streams. An arched bridge crossing it and a modest flower bed.

I looked around the outdoor garden, marveling at the fairy tale-like bright landscaping.

“It’s really beautiful.”

“Really? I’m glad. While you’re here—”

Crash—!

Suddenly, a shattering sound erupted from somewhere.

I turned my head to see a maid who had dropped her tray, staring at me blankly with a pale face.

“Lady Lilien has brought a guest…”

“Th-this way, Countess Vuel!”

Lilien hurriedly guided me, covering the maid with her back. I followed along obediently, sensing that she was trying to hide something.

But the maid wasn’t the only one surprised. The gardener, carpenter, head maid, and attendants all had faces as if they’d seen a ghost.

More precisely, their expressions were a mix of shock and elation.

Lilien left a message that she would guide me personally and that no one should follow, then took me to the second floor.

‘…It seems this person really didn’t have any proper friends.’

Though I too had meager human relationships.

Feeling a strange sense of kinship, I decided to pretend not to notice her reddened ears peeking out between her long silvery hair.

“You can use this room, Countess.”

The place I was pushed into by Lilien’s urgent hands was a bedroom at the end of the corridor past the central hall on the second floor.

The antique mahogany furniture, bearing the traces of time, was to my liking.

Click. Lilien turned around slowly, still in the posture of closing the door. When our eyes met, she smiled awkwardly and brushed her cheek with the back of her hand.

“It’s a bit chaotic, isn’t it? It’s the first time I’ve brought someone here… I invited those friends back then, but no one came.”

“Even though you had your debutante ball?”

“Oh, no, actually I haven’t yet…”

Oh my, she hasn’t had her debutante ball yet.

Well, even among the upper class, there are cases where they don’t have debutante balls, or live secluded lives without social activities. Like me.

“So I’m your first guest. I’m honored, My Lady.”

Lilien looked up at me with wide eyes, then smiled shyly before remembering she was in the middle of showing me the bedroom.

“Ah yes, how do you like the bedroom?”

“I like it.”

“My younger brother, the master of the mansion, is away participating in a monster subjugation campaign, so please feel at ease.”

“You mean the renowned Count Mifidian?”

Lilien’s eyes widened like lanterns.

“You know my brother?”

Of course, the hero and commander of the Imperial Subjugation Force who vanquished the horde of high-rank monsters that devoured an entire village in the Jeder Forest.

“There’s no one in the Empire who doesn’t know him, except for foreigners.”

“Is that so?”

Lilien, who added a plain response, didn’t seem very interested in her brother’s fame. Instead, she glanced at me as I looked around the bedroom with a smile.

“Is there anything else you’d like to say?”

“…Actually, I wanted to apologize once more about that incident. It doesn’t seem right to just let it go like this.”

An apology. From my perspective, Lilien was the victim.

Because I knew how thoroughly and terribly Devon deceived his partners.

Etricia, she too knew that Devon committed infidelity by deceiving his partners, which is why she didn’t blame the other women until she turned to the dark side. She knew it was unreasonable to blame another victim rather than her husband.

“It’s really alright about that, Lady Lilien. Instead, could you make me one promise?”

“What kind of promise…?”

“I’ll silence Devon, so please keep quiet about the series of relationships you had with my husband. To anyone. That includes Count Mifidian, of course?”

“Then today…”

“Let’s say it was a chance meeting, and you graciously showed me kindness after learning of my circumstances.”

Because your younger brother shouldn’t kill Devon.

I absolutely refused to be labeled a ‘widow’ if Devon were to die before the divorce. No, maybe it would be better to let such a bastard die since I’m so angry.