Cassian’s composed face seemed to prove that all of his thoughts were delusions.

His gaze slowly fell upon Yuriel’s lips.

That steady gaze made her feel a cool sensation spreading across her lips.

Though the young master’s hand hadn’t touched her, the feeling of him tracing her lips earlier vaguely surfaced.

Would he say he would take the pen today as well?

She thought it would be fortunate if it ended like that. But unexpected words brushed her ears.

“I heard there will be a party at the mansion.”

It was an unexpected, out-of-place remark.

“A party…?”

“You didn’t know? The whole mansion is busy preparing for the banquet.”

Yuriel suddenly recalled the sight of people in the mansion bustling about recently.

She had thought the sparkling ornaments and dazzling indoor decorations being brought in were just due to the change of seasons.

Was it all preparation for the banquet?

It wouldn’t be unusual for such events to happen at the lord’s mansion.

Either way, it would have nothing to do with her.

“Yes. It doesn’t concern me.”

The young master, who seemed to have heard something interesting, put down his teacup again and looked at her standing there blankly before speaking.

“Is that so?”

The smile spreading thickly across his lips made Yuriel uneasy.

Whenever he smiled like that, he would give a troublesome order or say something strange.

Her tense body froze. Following the sound of the second hand ticking, her body slowly relaxed.

It didn’t seem like he meant anything particular by it.

‘He just… seems very interested in that party.’

It was unexpected. For someone with such a fastidious temperament who would normally despise such noisy gatherings to mention a party.

After that, the young master just silently kept his seat. Until the time was up.

It was a suffocating silence, but Yuriel was relieved.

She had been worried he might say something about Hael again, but to pass by so uneventfully.

Though that composed voice asking “Is that so?” and his frowning face were ominous…

Yuriel dismissed it all as merely her own paranoid delusions and tried to shake it off.

Thanks to that party occupying the young master’s mind, she was able to pass by safely.

In the last glance she took of the young master’s face, a faint smile had spread across it.

All traces of the person who had frowned after spilling his teacup earlier had long since vanished.

As the afternoon approached.

Cassian, having left the pergola, returned to his place.

The weather was endlessly bright, like the calm before a typhoon.

Beyond the window, Yuriel’s face, relieved to have escaped his grasp, was visible.

Her fine red hair, neatly in place, caught the eye immediately even from afar.

Fluttering and dyeing the space red, it looked as beautiful as the sunset coloring the earth, feeling like an indispensable existence.

That child immediately went to the silver-haired one as soon as she escaped his hands.

Cassian’s gaze, watching that scene with an expressionless face, gradually sank.

When his eyes opened again, a canvas full of a red sea like a burning earth filled his vision.

Opposite to what that child had drawn as his portrait, that canvas was something he had painted himself.

Looking at her, he had painted a work recalling the sea at red sunset, which she had squinted at.

Unlike then when he had smiled it off, now he seemed to know the reason.

Not a beautiful sea at sunset, but a sea of blood rippling filled his vision.

Hael faced Yuriel in the sunlight he hadn’t seen in a long time.

“What happened to you.”

Hael’s vision was filled with Yuriel’s face examining him with a deeply worried expression.

Seeing that sight made Hael feel like all his struggles up until now were flying away.

“And what happened… to Brit.”

At Yuriel’s trembling voice, Hael quickly came to his senses and spread a faint smile across his gaunt face.

“I found her.”

Thinking about it, it was a strange thing.

He never dreamed he would be caught for selling Brit.

The distance from Alphonse to the Litten Buffett auction house was quite far. Moreover, it was astounding that someone from Bronze would know the circumstances of Alphonse.

The police, who rarely moved in Alphonse, suddenly knowing where Brit was.

And that buyer who remembered even the seller’s personal information and said he was the one who sold it… It was truly a crude coincidence.

Of course, nothing is impossible, so this time it must have been just such a coincidence.

There’s no other explanation, but.

Hael, who had been pondering deeply over the past time, felt as if all of it was someone’s intentional prank.

Perhaps because of that. When he met eyes with the young master earlier, strangely, it seemed as if he was mocking him.

However, Hael tried to shake off such thoughts.

That young master wouldn’t be so free as to catch horse thieves in Alphonse.

He’s too noble and lofty a person to be interested in such things in the first place.

It’s also puzzling that such a person always has Yuriel by his side…

But that can’t be the same as this issue.

Yuriel is just a page serving the young master.

Soon, Hael attributed his absurd thoughts to paranoid delusions.

Anyway, as a result of a series of strange and bizarre events, Brit had returned.

Mother only knew that the money gained from selling Brit was used for researching new breeds, so that wouldn’t be a problem either.

Everything was going well.

Would that medicine have been of any help to the madam?

Suddenly, curiosity struck Hael’s mind.

“Is the madam doing well?”

For a moment, Yuriel’s expression darkened.

Did something happen to the madam in the meantime? Hael’s heart sank coldly.

Fortunately, Yuriel’s darkening wasn’t because of that.

“She’s doing well. But…”

Seeing Yuriel hesitate, trailing off, Hael asked back as if frustrated.

“Did something happen? Is that it?”

“About Brit…”

Yuriel’s face, lifting her head heavily, was somehow dark black.

Hael lowered his body, worried, to meet Yuriel’s emerald eyes.

“Yes. What about Brit?”

Yuriel’s transparent eyes rolled around before directly facing Hael without avoiding him.

Her trembling lips opened only for a moment.

“You didn’t sell her, did you?”

Hael, feeling as if he’d been hit on the back of the head, fell into deep thought for a moment.

Does Yuriel know something?

Does she already know that he sold it to get medicine?

All sorts of thoughts tangled in Hael’s mind.

“Wh-what are you saying?”

Though he tried to ask calmly, Hael’s voice came out quite shaky.

Yuriel’s gaze lowered as she saw this.

“Never mind. I think I said something unnecessary.”

Hael’s appearance as he caught his breath was vividly captured in Yuriel’s eyes once again.

Yuriel’s face became more rigid than before, but she tried to relax it when facing Hael.

“Will you wait here for a moment?”

With those words, Yuriel quickly crossed the dirt ground, fluttering away into the distance.

Hael stood dazedly, pondering deeply what all this situation was about.

There was no way Yuriel could know something even his parents didn’t know.

He had surely asked everyone he met in the process, including the store owner who brought the medicine, to keep quiet.

As all sorts of thoughts filled Hael’s mind.

Yuriel, who had gone inside, reappeared.

In Yuriel’s approaching hand was a glossy wooden box.

Without any explanation, Yuriel abruptly placed it in Hael’s hand.

And before he could check it, she immediately said.

“I’m sorry, Hael. I can’t accept this.”

“…What?”

Only then did Hael blankly check the identity of what he was holding.

Inside what was probably the most expensive wooden box among Yuriel’s possessions was a large sum of money.

Where did Yuriel get such money…

Recalling their conversation from earlier, Hael immediately realized this money was the price for the medicine he had given.

Hael’s face, raised again, hardened like a plaster statue.

“Why this…”

“Thinking about it, this doesn’t seem right.”

Hael, who had received the box in bewilderment, stared at it blankly.

Yuriel’s firm voice was laid over it once again.

“I’ll just accept your feelings.”

Feelings? Yuriel had never accepted his feelings.

At least that’s what Hael thought.

“Can’t I be of even a little help to you?”

Hael’s voice rose uncontrollably.

The medicine he had given Yuriel was just something he did according to his own intentions, without even her permission.

Even though he knew he had no right to do this, Hael was angry.

All sorts of thoughts flashed through his mind.

The sight of the young master and Yuriel he had seen on his way here became vivid like a nightmare.

The more so, the louder his voice grew.

“Am I only that much of an existence to you?”

Yuriel quietly gazed at Hael, who seemed to be holding back tears.

Yuriel, who would normally have been shaken by such an appearance of his, today alone looked at him calmly with a solid and unwavering, rock-like appearance.

At that sight, Hael’s heart sank.