Yuan unknowingly gritted her teeth.

The titles of ruffian and tyrant were too generous for that demon.

“After that mad emperor left, Duke Lev arrived late and scoured the entire continent to bring doctors, sorcerers, wizards, and even black magicians. But this is all we could barely manage to do.”

Hena, exhausted, sighed with a slightly subdued tone.

Large eyes had filled with tears at some point. Hena quickly wiped them away before they could fall.

“Since then, the master has distanced himself from the servants who had served him for a long time. The elderly people remaining here are those who served them since the late emperor’s time. Most of those in the mansion that day died, and the survivors were absent arranging funerals, barely surviving… When the master doesn’t show his face and acts coldly, they’re hurt but can’t let go of him. Because he was so kind when he was young.”

Hena, sensing Yuan’s suppressed emotions, seemed to feel it was okay to say more and looked out the empty window.

“Oliver too.”

“Oliver?”

“The master hasn’t hugged Oliver even once since he became like that. He used to always carry him around even if he whined a little. If there was something delicious, he’d always save some for Oliver.”

“I can’t imagine it.”

“Right? After that incident, he became extremely sensitive when anyone was sent from the imperial palace, isolated himself, and didn’t even mention Oliver’s name.”

Hena said bitterly.

“Everyone just thinks bitterly that the young prince was so deeply betrayed by his family that he can’t trust us either…”

“…”

“I used to follow my grandmother to the imperial palace and sometimes play with Princess Apollini. It’s a vague memory from when I was very young. I always think that if only the princess hadn’t passed away, the master would have suffered much less.”

“I’m sure that’s true. She was the only family left after his parents passed away.”

“The master always carried Princess Apollini, who had difficulty walking. Even as he grew older. If she just whined to go together, he’d say ‘try to catch me’ and run, but quickly come back and offer his back. You have no idea how envious I was as a child, hehe. I didn’t have an elder brother.”

As Yuan refrained from speaking, dwelling on such a tragic event, Hena, who had been observing her for a while, carefully opened her mouth.

“Perhaps the master… sees Princess Apollini in you, madam.”

“In me?”

“You’re the same age. And you have a similar aura.”

Yuan imagined Princess Apollini, whom she had never met.

A beautiful princess with sparkling golden hair and amethyst-like eyes.

The complete opposite of Yuan, who was always called a crow.

There’s no way Clard would have imagined such a sparkling and noble princess in her.

“Anyway, what I want to say is! The master wasn’t originally like this.”

Hena said urgently, seeing Yuan’s subtle expression.

“Ten years can change everything, right?”

“…”

“He’s just… changed a bit.”

Hena stared for a long time at Yuan’s hand holding her own.

“I hope you’ll stay here for a long time, madam.”

That day must have been the worst memory of Hena’s life too.

Hena said she still occasionally has nightmares about that day.

The faces of her parents tearing up the wooden floor to hide their daughter, unable to protect Princess Apollini.

And the screams of her parents who died fighting against Emperor Igor, who was trying to kill her grandmother, Margaret the nanny.

Followed by the sight of her grandmother’s severed head, who was beheaded while wailing and trying to protect Clard until the end.

Hena was begging Yuan to stay here, even if it meant facing those nightmares again.

Even though Yuan had no intention of leaving this place at all.

“I want to try to get along well too.”

At Yuan’s subdued voice, Hena’s gloomy face noticeably brightened.

“But sometimes I think His Highness… truly dislikes me.”

The brightening face immediately filled with question.

“What do you mean, madam?”

And she abruptly raised her drooping body.

“The butler said so. His Highness, who couldn’t even stand the sunlight coming through the curtains, now routinely opens the curtains wide in broad daylight and looks out at the garden. Not just that? He even opens the windows sometimes.”

“He must have felt suffocated.”

“He’s changing. If he disliked you, he would have locked the doors tightly and done everything to drive you out!”

He kept me by his side just to avoid pain.

Yuan thought with a bitter smile.

But cowardly, amidst Hena’s exasperated shouts, Lancelot’s voice squeezed in and echoed in her mind.

‘If he didn’t like you, he wouldn’t keep you around, would he?’

Knowing it wasn’t meant for her, she still kept it in her mind, taking it out to look at like a secretly hidden snack.

Where did the hurt feelings from being told not to cross the line fly off to?

Yuan prepared Clard’s lunch beside Chef Ralph, who welcomed her.

Ralph praised Yuan’s skills in front of the butler, who had said not to dare make the madam work.

He even snorted, saying not to interfere with the baby madam’s hobby.

Yuan laughed awkwardly, shaking off her resentful feelings towards Clard.

– Knock knock.

When she knocked on the door of Clard’s bedroom, there was no answer as always.

It always happened, but it still hurt her heart.

If she hadn’t heard about his circumstances, she might not have known. But now that she knew, how could she not feel heartache and want to take care of him?

Clard, inside the bedroom she abruptly entered, paid even less attention to Yuan than usual.

Honestly, no matter how much Lancelot or Hena said he wouldn’t keep her around if he didn’t like her, when the main character Clard remained silent, and she wasn’t in a position to dare ask if he liked her, nothing had changed.

If she asked and he said yes, she wouldn’t believe it. If he said no, she’d be even more hurt.

“I’ll come up again when the sun sets today.”

Clard nodded almost imperceptibly after a long while.

Yuan sighed with relief and smiled faintly.

The past cannot be undone.

Just as there’s no way to reclaim the birthday gift stolen by cousins in childhood.

Now all she could do was try to make Clard, who looked as lonely as an injured and scarred wolf, a little happier.

Cleaning the annex faster. Making each meal hearty. Opening the curtains to help him get used to bright light again.

“Now I’m planning to go out often with the people fetching water to get some fresh air.”

Yuan asked for permission, facing Clard who was just staring at the prepared meal.

He drank the soup without saying much. Yuan waited for him patiently.

“Do as you please with that much.”

Yuan felt relieved at the dry answer, same as usual.

That answer was much better than being told not to cross the line.

Now that she seemed to have adapted to his mood swings, his brief permission sounded to Yuan like ‘you can do whatever you want if you just ask’.

“It would be nice if Your Highness came along too.”

The response to her further step was not very good.

He narrowed his eyebrows as if it wasn’t worth reconsidering, then went back to lie down in the rocking chair.

This desolate mansion didn’t even have many horses.

For Yuan to go out with the water cart procession, she had to sit mixed with the servants in the wagon, so the butler was reluctant.

But that was the only time Yuan could see Louise’s grave.

Yuan sprinkled flower petals that had fallen nearby on Louise’s grave and prayed for Louise to go to heaven.

And on the way back to the mansion with the wagon, suddenly.

She wondered if perhaps Clard wanted to come out of the bedroom too.

Having come out only a handful of times in 10 years.

He must have felt suffocated.

After all, the young Clard that Hena had told her about was quite active.

Although she had come out on the pretext of getting some fresh air to the butler, honestly, she wasn’t particularly coming out of the mansion because she felt stifled.

If it wasn’t for tending to Louise’s grave, she wouldn’t have complained even if she stayed in the black mansion for a while.

At the Peliesse mansion, it was difficult for Yuan to even go out to the garden.

She couldn’t even dream of it unless it was around the laundry room or near the incinerator.

Her uncle hid Yuan from the public except when making her work, and her cousins were busy bullying Yuan, mocking her for not washing properly, so Yuan was always in a hurry to hide in her room.

Now she could freely roam most of the black mansion, and just watching the garden being tended made the day pass quickly.

Moreover, these days she was busy making the west annex clean.

‘It must be because of his face that His Highness doesn’t even want to take walks in the garden.’

Yuan thought that she should now gradually make Clard’s face clean enough to be seen during the day.

By the day the west annex was completely clean, his face should be just as clean.

Yuan was determined to work hard both day and night.

She wanted to erase all traces of that damned ruffian emperor from Clard’s face.

Lancelot, who had stopped by the black mansion to check on Clard, stroked his chin as he saw the brightened expression of the butler and Clard roughly scribbling something on documents in front of him.

“Has the sun risen in the west?”

“Butler. Report properly when someone comes to my house.”

“Since you didn’t inherit the title of Count Rocksenhart, ‘legally’ this place belongs to our father, and later it will be Eddie’s.”

“A man acting so petty.”

“You were just acting petty yourself until now.”