The servant working at the mansion was an old employee who had worked for Katherine long ago.

It was rare for commoners to employ servants to maintain their lifestyle, but the wealthy owner of a horse farm could live a life quite similar to that of nobles.

At the time, Lady Katherine selected the smartest among her various servants and sent her to the lord’s mansion with a letter of recommendation.

Her intention was to place her own person by the lord’s wife’s side to learn in advance about the lord’s plans for governing the entire territory.

The reason was simple.

It was because Alphonse was a place where each piece of such information could become power.

The servant, Matil, who received the recommendation letter, entered the lord’s mansion and caught the eye of the mistress.

After that, she brought back quite useful information.

Of course, it was only natural since Lady Katherine paid her accordingly.

Then, not long ago, Matil boldly demanded that she be lent money.

She said her father had recently been scammed, lost money, and gone to prison, so she asked to borrow the bail money from Lady Katherine.

Tsk, how foolish to get scammed like that.

That day, Lady Katherine sent Matil away in tears.

The bail amount was equivalent to three years of her salary combined.

Such a large sum in these times when the Imperial Bank’s interest rates were so high?

The deliberation was over quickly.

The price Matil demanded was unreasonably high compared to the quality of information she had brought.

That balance has now been restored.

It was when her son’s life was placed on one side of the scale.

If only she could bring down that girl Yuriel, that much money would be nothing.

Lady Katherine clicked her tongue and approached Matil.

Matil froze coldly when faced with Lady Katherine, who had turned her away.

Lady Katherine opened her mouth, looking at her with contempt.

“I heard you still haven’t resolved your father’s issue.”

Matil faced her with a shocked expression.

“What is your intention in suddenly saying such things?”

Katherine twirled her ring with one hand as she looked at Matil’s indignant appearance without much emotion.

“I’m thinking of paying your father’s bail for you.”

“…What?”

“Depending on what you do.”

“What do I need to do?”

Katherine placed the ring in Matil’s hand, who was looking at her with desperate eyes.

Matil’s eyes widened immediately when she realized that what she held was Lady Katherine’s wedding ring.

“Put this in Yuriel’s pouch.”

“What do you mean…”

“You have to seize opportunities when they arise. Don’t you agree, Matil?”

Matil saw a girl following behind the young master in the distance, finely dressed with a pale face.

She had seen that child occasionally in passing.

Even if she hadn’t, that child was already famous among the servants, so it would have been impossible not to know of her.

The only child who could match the young master’s notoriously difficult temperament.

An innate beauty and grace that made one think she couldn’t possibly be of lowly birth.

The life of that child, who was the object of everyone’s jealousy and envy, didn’t seem any better than her own.

That was the extent of the resentment Matil had held towards Yuriel until now.

In any case, putting all that aside, this was clearly a crime.

But she was just a child unrelated to her.

In the end, Yuriel was a stranger, and her father was her father.

Though she could roughly guess what Katherine was planning to do, Matil ignored it and took the ring.

All she had to do was put the ring in and come back.

Even though the target was a girl favored by Young Master Cassian…

Surely even that arrogant young master wouldn’t keep a thieving woman by his side.

If it was a matter of injustice, her father who had been scammed was more wronged, if anything.

In the first place, there was no need to worry about getting caught if she was just careful.

She had often been praised by her superiors for her quick hands, after all.

Her expression became quite determined as she took the ring.

“You must keep your promise.”

“Have I ever made a promise I didn’t keep?”

Matil bit her lip and immediately walked away. Watching her retreating figure, Lady Katherine erased the smile from her lips.

With a chilling face, she alone remained in the banquet hall, staring at Yuriel standing in the distance.

That child who had always given her an unpleasant feeling.

There she stood, a child who, despite having nothing, didn’t know how to bow her head like her mother Jane, but walked around with her head held high.

Now it was time for that girl to know her place.

The young master never once let me leave his side.

The lord suggested that he dance, but he monotonously declined, citing the doctor’s orders.

Well, it was ridiculous to suggest dancing to him in the first place.

Though he stands here so perfectly fine, all of it must be a lifespan barely pieced together by tremendous efforts of the doctors.

For such a patient to appear at this gathering was, in fact, an extremely unreasonable strain.

Though no one would have noticed. Not even I, standing right beside him.

He just repeatedly walked and moved slowly to the music.

I thought he would leave after greeting people to some extent, but he didn’t leave the banquet hall as if he had thrown the doctor’s advice to the dogs.

Then, when we reached the sparsely populated terrace.

Cassian exhaled deeply and gazed at me quietly.

That appearance was flawless and lofty, as if nothing had happened.

Yuriel impulsively let words slip out.

“Why did you do that?”

A languid tone was laid over the gentle melody.

“Do what?”

As if amused by my question, his face was tinged with mockery.

Yuriel couldn’t understand him at all.

“Introducing Hael to Lady Vilord.”

For an instant, the smile spreading on Cassian’s lips completely disappeared.

Yuriel decided she must have seen wrong. After all, his face was shadowed by the darkness at the foot of the terrace.

“They suit each other well.”

At words so simple and clear, Yuriel was at a loss for words.

She knew it too. That Hael and she didn’t match.

That’s why she had already determined the outcome and avoided it.

But she never imagined she would hear it like this to her face, and from this young master who had nothing to do with it.

Her mood sank as coldly as the low notes resonating through the space.

Even then, the young master didn’t stop his sarcasm.

“You said it yourself. That that woman was in the wrong.”

That woman?

Ah. A beat late, the book she read to him every day floated to mind.

The one that contained the last 365 days of the unfortunate male lead who resembled the young master before her.

Back then, she had said so.

That that woman was in the wrong.

That a woman who aimed for someone in a high position had no right to complain even if such things happened to her.

That day, she had given an answer tailored to the young master.

In the young master’s eyes, she must look like a detestable person who was cast aside after coveting Hael without knowing her place.

Like that woman in the novel.

One corner of the young master’s mouth pulled up maliciously.

“Have your thoughts changed now?”

The young master’s red eyes, filled with her image, were positioned in a place she couldn’t avoid in the narrow terrace.

He must have spoken for Hael with such an expression.

That Hael was a devout believer in the dark arts. That he had never even stepped on a woman’s shadow.

At first glance, how nicely packaged those words were.

Even though he had seen Hael meeting with her occasionally, saying that Hael had never even stepped on a woman’s shadow seemed, at first glance, to paint him as Hael’s great friend.

But to her eyes, it was clearly visible.

How crookedly the corners of his mouth turned up as he spoke such blatantly contradictory words.

In short, the young master had not a shred of good intention this time either.

Both families seemed tense and didn’t notice such discord, but to her eyes, it was clearly visible.

In reality, the young master… had been mocking Hael from the start.

He must think that both she and Hael ended up like this after playing a ridiculous game.

It was a thought befitting the young master.

Hadn’t he asked if her thoughts had changed now?

“Of course not. Now I understand more clearly.”

“…”

“That that woman was in the wrong.”

Yes. I understand more clearly now.

How much of an illusion it was to think I could reach out my hand.

Even the brief suspicion that the young master might have some feelings for me now seemed laughable.

This arrogant young master showed me that today.

So, even more thoroughly according to the young master’s will.

“Now I know not to look up at a tree I can’t climb. Thank you for showing me.”

The young master’s face hardened at my words.

Erasing his smile and turning cold, the young master looked directly at me.

As if I hadn’t seen wrong, his face was cold as he emerged from the shadows and narrowed the distance.

The light holding the coldness of midwinter resembled his expression when he saw the scene with Hael and me.

Why. Such an expression should be on my face.

Shouldn’t he have been pleased watching Hael and me dance to his tune?

Why is it always him wearing such expressions when I should be the one angry?

A tingling sensation spread numbly to my fingertips.

The heat coursing through my body was cut off only when I heard the young master’s command.

“Go.”

On the way back alone, fleeing from the terrace.

Tak― Only when I felt the cold sensation of bumping into someone did I come to my senses.

It seems I was so out of it that I didn’t even notice a servant passing by.

“I’m sorry.”

I mumbled weakly and raised my head to see a familiar face.

I had occasionally passed by and encountered her with her curly hair.

Though we hadn’t exchanged any particular conversation, I remembered her quite well as someone whose gaze, unlike other servants, didn’t contain much malice when looking at me.

The woman, who usually looked lacking in energy, guided me to the restroom with unusual fuss today.

Come to think of it, wine was staining my dress red.