The sound of something hitting was clearly Clard knocking hard on the window.

A faint smile spread across Yuan’s lips.

“I’m here−!”

Yuan jumped lightly and raised her voice a little.

“I’ll come up when the sun sets!”

The curtain didn’t move at all.

Time had passed quickly while diligently trimming the cleaning brush.

Yuan thoroughly washed her sweaty body and put on a loose dress she wore as pajamas with a night gown over it, then went to find Clard’s bedroom.

Fortunately, even after sunset, he was in a similar state as during the day.

The familiar sight of him sitting in the always creaky rocking chair, head tilted back with eyes closed.

She couldn’t help but smile at the image that always came to mind when imagining Clard in his bedroom.

“I heard you walked a lot in the bedroom today?”

Yuan approached Clard, who didn’t respond.

Having just finished bathing, the faint scent wafting from her night gown tickled Clard’s nose.

“You must have been very bored without me, right?”

“……Why would I be bored?”

“You’re always watching me. Standing here like this.”

Yuan leaned against the window and smiled brightly at him.

Only then did Clard open his eyes and look at Yuan.

His gaze, which had lingered on her clear smile, immediately shifted to the opposite direction.

“I’m monitoring you. In case you cause trouble again with unnecessary actions.”

Yuan silently looked down at his exposed nape.

The black pain crawling up was preparing to charge towards his clean skin like a snake swimming through mud.

“What did you talk about with the doctor?”

“Pardon?”

“……I asked what you talked about with that glasses guy.”

Clard’s question, breaking the strange silence, was a bit abrupt.

Yuan, who had been staring at the movement of pain about to overtake him, blinked in confusion.

Clard turned his head sharply to look at her as another brief silence fell.

His eyes stared directly at her, urging an answer.

“It’s a secret.”

“What?”

His previously stiff face wrinkled dramatically.

Yuan fidgeted with her hands but stood firm.

“It’s a secret. I haven’t told Hena or the butler yet.”

“The maid and the butler?”

Clard’s face took on a mottled color before he suddenly stood up from the creaking rocking chair.

His eyes twisted for a brief moment, as if the places pierced by arrows were still painful.

Yuan was startled and entered his embrace to support him.

In an instant, Clard’s body stiffened.

As soon as Yuan put her hand on his back to support him, she was pushed away.

Though not a rough movement, it was clearly a sign of rejection.

Yuan blinked in surprise.

Clard seemed equally flustered, his hand that pushed her away twitching before he crossed his arms.

“You’re making secrets with the doctor? What are you trusting?”

“It’s nothing special.”

“If it’s nothing special, why aren’t you telling the ‘maid and butler’ and the mas… the owner?”

Clard’s mood was clearly twisted.

Especially at the implication that it was a secret from the maid and butler, so it was a secret from him too.

Yuan wanted to retort that it was all because she wanted to clean the west annex thoroughly to show him! But if Clard said ‘don’t do unnecessary things,’ she felt she might not be able to help crying, so she kept her mouth shut.

She wanted to show him the already cleaned annex in a way he couldn’t refuse.

“It really is nothing special.”

“Then tell me. Tell your master. I’ll listen and judge whether it’s really nothing or not.”

Yuan momentarily lost her words at Clard’s insistence and could only open and close her mouth.

But Clard was unexpectedly stubborn and didn’t change his expression one bit.

He couldn’t have been more serious.

“Are you jealous or something?”

“Jealous?”

Clard laughed shortly, and Yuan’s face turned bright red.

It was an absurd question even to her own ears.

“Jea. lous?”

“Then, then why……”

“Since you keep going around calling yourself my family, let me give you one piece of advice.”

Clard approached her, enunciating each syllable as if chewing them.

Though he limped a bit, the considerable distance between them closed in an instant.

“Don’t trust anything sent from the imperial palace.”

Yuan’s body was engulfed in his large shadow.

His scent emanated from inside the night gown he wore, just like hers.

The smell of painkillers he chewed every day. The occasional cigar smell. Even the clean soap smell unique to someone who just finished bathing.

Yuan looked up at him with trembling eyes as he came close.

“Doctor or whatever, there’s no one to trust here. In this mansion.”

But the servants here are all kind, though clumsy and blunt.

They worry I might leave someday, but they’re eager to give me more if I show even a little sign of adapting well.

They fear you but at the same time feel sorry for you.

Yuan hid the countless words swirling in her mind and continued looking up at Clard, who seemed a bit angry.

The movement of pain trying to crawl up didn’t look good. Within minutes, he would be submerged in a swamp of pain.

“Do you understand? Don’t give your heart.”

“……You’re saying this because you’re worried about me, right?”

Yuan asked him in a slightly hoarse voice.

Clard just looked down at her right in front of him without answering.

Neither affirming nor denying.

“Or is it that you can’t trust me either?”

Yuan stared intently at Clard’s lips, which gave no answer, then smiled bitterly and stepped out of his shadow to busily prepare his medicine.

Yuan called out to Clard weakly as he stood in the same posture that had confined her.

“It’s late, Your Highness. Please take your medicine.”

He slowly turned to look at both the steaming medicinal tea and her at the same time.

As the pain gradually crept onto his clean skin and his eyes started to become bloodshot, a low voice flowed from Clard’s mouth as he gritted his teeth and endured the pain.

“You’re telling me to take the medicine.”

Yuan nodded.

“Yes. You’re in pain.”

Clard, who had been staring at her face for a long time, gave a short, mirthless laugh. Then he slowly approached, picked up the teacup, and downed its contents in one gulp.

The sound of the teacup being roughly set down loudly broke the silence.

Clard looked down at her expressionlessly.

“In this situation, you say you’ll sleep with me. With someone who says he doesn’t worry about you and can’t trust you.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Why, he asks.

After spending several peaceful nights together, why would he suddenly ask why I want to sleep with him?

Yuan was silent for a moment before answering.

“I don’t like that Your Highness is in pain.”

“Why?”

Why does he want to know that reason? When he’s not even interested in me.

The fact that she could no longer turn a blind eye to him was a feeling Yuan herself couldn’t understand.

Because she felt sorry for misunderstanding that this person might have made her sister unhappy?

Because she felt sorry for him, who wouldn’t have shown such a miserable appearance to the emperor if she hadn’t provided proof of the wedding night?

Because she was grateful for providing a place to stay without having to be dragged to Peliesse? Because he might be someone she’d continue living with?

How could she explain these complex feelings?

Yuan finally grew urgent as she saw Clard’s pain rising up to the tip of his chin.

“I just don’t like it. What wife likes to see her husband in pain?”

Clard’s expression subtly crumpled.

There was nothing she could say to him. No matter what misunderstanding he had, it was a hundred times better than wandering through excruciating pain.

Yuan unconsciously grasped her churning heart and stood up abruptly in front of him.

Then she cupped his cheeks with both hands as he looked down at her with bloodshot eyes.

His hot breath scattered across the back of her hands suddenly stopped.

“I like sleeping with Your Highness. So please don’t ask for reasons anymore.”

Yuan’s lips carefully touched the tip of his chin as she stood on her tiptoes.

His gaze settled on Yuan’s lowered eyelashes.

A long glass vial was filled with transparent green liquid.

It was a cleaning solution Yuan had made following Hille’s advice. Hille was eager to try it out and urged Yuan.

“If this can really clean anything, Madam, you’ll become filthy rich.”

“That’s going a bit far……”

“Practical remedies like this are rare, so they’d sell like hotcakes if put on the market! Who wouldn’t like something that needs only five scrubs instead of twenty? The nobles might not care whether it takes twenty scrubs or five, but commoners−.”

Hille, who had been ranting, suddenly caught herself and glanced at Yuan.

Yuan was also the daughter of a count’s family, and now the wife of a former imperial family member, even if disgraced. She had made a big mistake by getting too familiar.

“I apologize, Madam.”

“It’s alright. Certainly… that’s true. Nobles would spend money on elixirs for eternal youth rather than on remedies that help with housework.”

Hille nodded fervently, deeply recalling her respect for Peliesse in her heart.

After that, things progressed smoothly.

Yuan headed towards the problematic west annex with a brush personally made by Mr. Mazarin, the stable keeper.

Since Hille had gone up to Clard’s bedroom for the morning examination, this time she was with Hena.

Hena followed with a bewildered expression, holding the vial of cleaning solution, but when they reached the entrance of the west annex, she seemed greatly flustered.

“Madam? Why the west annex……”

“To experiment with that solution, and as a pastime, wouldn’t it be nice to make this place clean?”

“Th-this place?”

“Yes. I heard this place is full of His Highness’s childhood memories. Since he doesn’t get much fresh air, I thought if we make this place clean, he might come out.”

Hena flinched at Yuan’s words and slowly looked up at the annex, which was about the size of a small cabin.

Yuan observed Hena’s expression before shifting her gaze to follow a whimpering sound.

A dog with patchy fur was wagging its tail in the distance. It looked like a wolf that had left its pack.