The early morning, not long after the dawn’s light had faded.

“……”

As Harold woke up, he frowned at the feeling of a cramp in his arm, then chuckled when he saw Lily sleeping on his arm.

It was a laugh directed at himself, not at Lily.

Everything that happened last night, starting from helping Lily who was drunk and in trouble without money, had gone in a completely different direction from what he had planned.

Although it was an unavoidable situation, he wondered if this was really the only way.

Harold swallowed his doubts and checked the wounds on Lily’s palm, elbow, and knee. The knee wound was the most concerning, but fortunately, it hadn’t gotten worse.

This should be fine without applying more medication.

Harold got out of bed and called the hotel staff he had seen yesterday, asking for breakfast to be brought up in an hour.

By then, Lily should be awake.

Thinking it would be better to wash up before she woke up, Harold took off his clothes and entered the bathroom.

When Harold came out after cleaning himself thoroughly, Lily was trembling like a herbivore thrown into a carnivore’s cage.

“……”

Anyone who saw this would think I had forcibly done something bad.

Harold’s lips curved crookedly. He felt a bit wronged to be treated like a villain when he hadn’t done anything bad, but rather had saved her from a difficult situation, comforted her crying, and even when she was lying naked like a fully set table, he hadn’t laid a hand on her.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

No matter how many times he asked, she didn’t answer. Meanwhile, seeing her rolling her eyes as if she didn’t know anything, it seemed Lily didn’t remember what had happened last night.

If that was the case, it was better to bury yesterday’s events as they were. There was nothing good for either of them in digging it up, so he just needed to keep his mouth shut…

“I’d like to get dressed… Could you step out for a moment?”

As Lily continued to treat him like a villain and shrink back, Harold felt a mischievous desire to make her as uncomfortable as he had been, so he tilted his head slightly and asked back.

“You want me to go out like this?”

“Th-that…!”

Lily ducked her head in shock after just seeing the chest exposed through the robe, and Harold let out a low laugh. He found it cute that she was so startled by just this much, after doing something much more than this.

Should I tease her a bit more? A playful prank hung on Harold’s lips. Unfortunately or fortunately, Lily with her head down didn’t notice it.

“Then I’ll turn around, so you change first!”

Lily shouted urgently, but Harold neatly ignored it and sat at the head of the bed.

“Is there really a need for that between us?”

“B-between us?”

The green eyes that looked up again trembled anxiously. It was a sight that hadn’t pleased him last night, but today it strangely appealed to him, so Harold smiled and leaned his upper body towards her.

“Don’t you remember?”

“……”

The green eyes trembled anxiously. He had asked just in case, but judging by her reaction, it was certain that she didn’t remember the talk about becoming his mistress.

Should I tell her, or not?

As Harold was contemplating, he made up his mind the moment Lily glared at him as if warning she wouldn’t stay still if he laid a hand on her.

“You asked me to become your mistress.”

He decided to tease her a bit more.

What… did this man just say?

Mistress? That I asked this man to become his mistress?

Lily’s mouth gaped open unceremoniously at the unbelievable story. Her head felt dizzy as if she had been hit hard on the back of the head with a large hammer.

“That’s… a lie.”

After being half dazed for a while, the first thing Lily did when she came to her senses was denial.

“D-don’t lie! I would never make such a proposal…!”

“Then… will you become my mistress?”

Lily closed her mouth at the fragment of memory that suddenly came to mind. Even though she wanted to deny it, it was too vivid to do so.

“Seems like you remembered something.”

At these words that hit the mark, Lily tucked her head in like a turtle. Her lost eyes rolled around, fidgeting with the innocent blanket.

“No answer again. Yesterday you were answering even what I didn’t ask.”

“……”

What did I say? As Lily searched her memory, she tightly closed her eyes when the scene of kissing Harold came to mind, feeling a moment of dizziness. It was maddening that she couldn’t remember what she really wanted to, and only these strange things kept coming to mind.

“Are you going to keep doing that?”

At Harold’s question, Lily hesitantly raised her head, but as soon as their eyes met, she lowered it again.

“I-I don’t know what I said, but it was all nonsense because I was drunk, so please forget it.”

“So you remember being drunk.”

Oops, I made a mistake.

“…A little.”

Since she couldn’t deny it now, Lily stammered on.

“I remember entering the hotel… but I don’t remember anything that happened after that at all.”

She vaguely remembered what happened after that too, but she pretended not to know because it was all too embarrassing to say with her own mouth.

“We were getting along quite well… What a pity.”

Harold said softly, twirling Lily’s long, stretched-out hair around his finger.

“Should we reenact what happened yesterday?”

As the large hand that had been fiddling with her hair pulled at the blanket as if to remove it, Lily jumped up in surprise.

“I-I’ll go put on some clothes!”

And she picked up her clothes that had fallen on the floor and hurried towards the bathroom. Because she was wrapped up in the blanket, she had to walk with small steps, and it looked quite funny, but unfortunately or fortunately, Lily didn’t notice this fact at all.

Lily, who had entered the bathroom, leaned against the closed door and rubbed her face dry. The scattered pieces of memory were steadily coming together even at this moment, tormenting her.

“Why did you do such a thing, Lily.”

No matter how mentally frayed she was from Fredick’s harsh words, she shouldn’t have done the crazy thing of spending the night with a stranger.

If she hadn’t drunk, or if she had drunk only to the point where she still had her senses, she wouldn’t have caused this accident.

“I’m really going crazy.”

Lily deeply regretted it, but it was too late for regrets. It was something that had already happened and couldn’t be undone.

“I need to clean this up somehow…”

The problem was that she didn’t know what to clean up or how. If she couldn’t remember anything, she could have pretended not to know, but that wasn’t the case.

Harold had noticed that she remembered some of last night’s events to some extent, so it was impossible to play dumb.

“Let’s wash up first.”

Maybe while washing, some good solution might come to mind.

Lily earnestly hoped and hoped for that as she unwrapped the blanket she had been rolled up in.

As Lily entered the bathroom, Harold put on his clothes and sat on the sofa, putting a cigar in his mouth. Above the white smoke, the image of her widening her eyes like a rabbit and not knowing what to do every time he said something was vividly drawn.

Yesterday she was as bold as anyone in the world, seemingly not knowing any shame, but today she was completely the opposite. She was more shy than anyone Harold knew. He truly wondered which was her real personality.

“I should really stop now.”

Because if he went any further, it seemed like she might cry. Harold thought that when Lily came out after changing clothes, he should explain properly without joking around.

More than that, I didn’t expect to get entangled with that woman like this. Harold rested his chin on his hand and tapped the ash into a glass ashtray. Although it wasn’t part of the plan, it wasn’t bad. Hiding one’s identity and building a relationship with the other person was also one of the methods of investigation.

If it was just for investigation, he could have asked when Lily was drunk and out of her mind, but the fact that he didn’t bothered him.

Well, even if he had asked, he probably wouldn’t have found out why the 2nd Prince was digging into the Viscount Benjamin’s family.

Swoosh―

She said she was just going to change clothes, but the sound of water indicated she was planning to wash.

It’s going to take a while. Thinking he should delay the breakfast preparation a bit more, he was about to put out the half-burned cigar and stand up when there was a knock at the door.

“Already here?”

Since he couldn’t send back what they had prepared and brought, Harold opened the door for now.

“Long time no see, Harold.”

A man with neatly combed dark brown hair, dressed in a suit, smiled happily and held out his hand. It was Liam Francis, the heir to the Francis Marquis family and the manager of this hotel. He was also Harold’s academy classmate.

I thought it would be a hotel employee, but Liam?

At the appearance of a figure not very welcome in the current situation, Harold crossed his arms and leaned obliquely against the door. It was to prevent Liam from entering the room, just in case.

“What brings you here?”

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, aren’t you going to greet me?”

“I asked what brings you here.”

As Harold acted coldly, as if telling him to say what he had to say and leave quickly, Liam awkwardly withdrew his hand and shrugged.

“What else? I heard from the manager that you checked in, so I came to say hello. Since I couldn’t attend your welcome party due to work.”

As he spoke, Liam glanced sideways into the room. His eyes seemed to be searching for something. Harold immediately noticed that the person he was looking for was Lily and twisted his lips.

“Is this a high-class hotel that doesn’t keep guests’ secrets?”

Liam visibly flustered and waved his hands.

“It-it’s not like that! The manager didn’t say anything. It’s just that there was one more name on the guest list besides you, so I wondered if you might have come with a woman… Haha, that can’t be. You gave up that kind of life quite a while ago.”

Liam, who had been stammering out words, paused when he spotted a pure white lace sock lying on the floor of the room.