Boloniko whispered to her without blinking once.

“But with Grand Duchess Ariesta around, how could Boloniko favor you? There needs to be a justification, a justification. Boloniko needs to know a secret hidden by the entire family that others don’t know, to feel like making you the protagonist. Try to make Boloniko want to create such a justification, Lady Regina.”

There’s already a widespread rumor that she’s Boloniko’s ‘hidden’ lover.

If Boloniko attends the ball with Grand Duchess Ariesta as his partner instead of Regina, Regina will suffer great humiliation.

The attention focused on Boloniko and Regina will be on a whole different level compared to Drake Trelloni.

If nothing else, that much was clear. It was the best choice she could make.

With barely a month left until her palace debutante.

Finally, from the mouth of Regina, backed into a corner.

“…In Father’s study, there’s a side room.”

Brief information began to emerge about that space that Gerret Peliesse had not allowed even Frederick and Regina herself to enter.

Bright blue eyes curved with a friendly glow.

“Inspecting the territory?”

“Yeah. Well, I’m not saying to tour the entire territory. Just to get a taste. At least this Central Rocksenhart.”

Clard’s face, nearing normalcy.

And it was Lancelot’s suggestion, who had been closely watching the miracle of Clard personally reviewing reports.

The frequency of Clard taking headache medicine had significantly decreased, and his irritable behavior had noticeably reduced.

It was a natural progression for Lancelot to hope to quietly pass back the duties of Clard that he had been holding.

“Even though Rocksenhart belongs to Marquis Lev’s domain. Once you receive the title of Count Rocksenhart, all rights will be yours, right?”

Currently, the Black Mansion is located at the northwestern edge of Yufris, in Marquis Lev’s domain.

It was a distinct territory called ‘Rocksenhart County’ within it.

This vast territory with dense forests scattered about was owned by Clard’s mother, Empress Dowager Eleanor, and upon her death, it was naturally to be inherited by Clard along with the title.

Of course, it belonged to Marquis Lev’s domain and had to pay taxes there, but with the consideration of the Lev family, a tiny amount of tax was coming in quarterly, all belonging to Clard.

“Is there anything to look around? Even 10 years ago, there was only a handful of people.”

“There is. It hasn’t turned into a slum yet, but many who tried hard to live in the capital or surrounding territories and failed are being pushed out to remote territories like this.”

It was because life was getting tougher day by day due to Emperor Igor’s tyranny.

Absorbed in hunting and debauchery, he neglected state affairs completely, so the great nobles who shared state duties gained power.

However, the emperor’s reign of terror was so great that even the imperial authority was not in danger.

It was an era where everyone was walking on thin ice.

“I heard you went to our family graveyard? Aren’t you curious how people would react if the lord shows his face after 10 years?”

“Not really.”

The reason people gradually came to Rocksenhart was simple.

Although Clard had been absent from political affairs for the past 10 years, he had never raised taxes, and if people cultivated the barren land, they could lease it long-term, so there was still hope that if they worked hard, they could at least feed themselves.

As the country raised taxes to the maximum, naturally, local lords also hurriedly followed suit.

Only Rocksenhart, slightly out of that range, remained the same, so quite a few people came, thinking it was better than having what little crops they grew on barren land taken away by others.

Of course, the feelings these people had towards the ‘monster’ ex-crown prince who was their lord were far from hatred or contempt.

Just existing without any news, if not respect, at least they felt that our lord is somewhat better.

For Lancelot, who had heard the news that Clard was starting to leave his bedroom quite often, he hoped that Clard would somehow take care of his land outside the mansion on this occasion.

Personally, it was the heart of a friend wishing he would no longer hide away, and officially, like his brother Eddie Lev’s wish, he hoped that someday he would raise his voice against the emperor who was carrying out a reign of terror.

But whether he knew such feelings of Lancelot or not. Clard looked indifferent to his cousin’s suggestion to go around his land a bit.

Lancelot narrowed his eyes at that expected reaction and whispered.

“I heard your wife hasn’t left the White Forest yet either. Except when visiting the Lev family graveyard.”

“What are you talking about. She’s busy going out to the chapel or wherever every day.”

Clard gestured lightly towards the window.

Yuan was chattering, mixed in with the procession going out to fetch water.

Realistically unable to often visit her sister’s grave to take care of it, Yuan would go to the small chapel where the memorial tablet was enshrined to pray for her sister’s soul.

Lancelot observed for a while Clard’s expression, which seemed displeased at his wife going out, and slowly raised the corners of his mouth.

Oh ho, so that’s how it is.

“Your wife seems to be ‘stifled’. It’s about time this mansion became ‘stifling’ for her. How many months has it been since she came here? Seeing her keep going out on the pretext of the chapel even after moving the body, she must want to get some fresh air. You ‘stifling’ guy. You don’t understand a woman’s heart at all.”

“Stop mocking me.”

“At least about women. I know better than you.”

Clard, who had been staring at the cart heading towards the White Forest over the iron fence, handed the documents on the table to Lancelot’s arms as if throwing them.

“You might know women well, but. I know my wife better.”

“Oh. Wife?”

Lancelot’s face suddenly flushed, and his smiling lips stretched widely on both sides.

“…”

“Wife? My wife? When did you… Like a sick crow… Troublesome… You told me to take her away saying things like that. Now it’s ‘my’ wife?”

“Shut up. Get out.”

“I told you if you can’t be affectionate at night, at least treat her well during the day, right? Seems like you’ve gotten quite close now. You should also acknowledge that my advice was quite effective, right?”

Lancelot, grinning and trying hard to force down the corners of his mouth, spoke again towards Clard, who had turned his head away as if he didn’t want to hear.

“You received a gift from your wife, didn’t you? If there’s something coming, there should be something going too.”

He was talking about the west annex.

Lancelot saw a red tinge creeping up the back of Clard’s neck, who gave no answer, and left the bedroom with a grin.

Seeing his reaction, it seemed there was no need to worry.

As Lancelot left the mansion, he gave orders to his trusted subordinate waiting outside the fence to always check if the ex-crown princess was uncomfortable or needed anything at the chapel, and then immediately mounted his horse.

Suddenly, looking at the Black Mansion from afar, he felt strange.

Although it was just a tiny corner on the left, the fact that there was one place that had regained its red color gave hope that something would be different from now on, lapping like waves around his ankles.

****

That day at lunch.

Yuan’s eyes widened like saucers at the unexpected proposal waiting for her after she returned from the chapel.

“Inspecting the territory?”

The busy hands laying out newly picked herbs to dry in the west annex yard slowed subtly.

“Territory…”

As Yuan mumbled with a dazed face, Clard quietly said one thing.

“So don’t go fetch water tomorrow.”

“Inspecting the territory…”

“Since you sing about being the lady of the house, why don’t you try acting like−”

“So is this like our first date… or something?”

Clard’s gaze, clearly showing signs of confusion, turned to Yuan’s eyes, which were starting to sparkle softly.

A flushed face was looking up at him with expectation.

…This was a predicament.

Yuan chattered all day long about inspecting the territory.

Clard, who had only seen her being quiet or flaring up until now, saw her flushed face full of expectation for the first time, so he just kept his mouth shut and watched.

Yuan Peliesse seemed to have even greater expectations for his territory.

“Actually, I’ve never been into the village. Even when I rented a hackney carriage last time, I rented it at the entrance of the forest path leading to the village, so I couldn’t even look around. In fact, even if I could have looked around, I probably wouldn’t have had the mind to see it…”

“Is there really a need to be so excited? It’s just village sightseeing after all.”

Yuan blinked her large eyes.

Hesitating at his indifferent response, she soon lowered her eyes.

“I’ve never done village sightseeing before.”

The west annex yard, where the chattering voice had disappeared, was quiet.

Clard stood slightly askew with his arms crossed, looking down at Yuan fiddling with the herbs she had already laid out.

“I’ve been in the Peliesse mansion all the time since I was very young. The closest thing to village sightseeing was when we briefly stopped by a village to look at the earmuffs and gloves that Marquis Kompani bought for me, saying I looked cold, on the way here. That’s all, including staying briefly at the inn there.”

Yuan scratched her cheek, recalling the day she was brought here almost like an object, in a daze from Louise’s death.

Clard gave no answer.

Although he had secluded himself in the Black Mansion for 10 years, Clard had traveled around the country with the men of the Lev family, and occasionally with his father, the late emperor, from a very young age.

After entering the academy, he would also travel to neighboring countries with Lancelot Lev during vacations.

Just because he had closed his eyes for 10 years didn’t mean the scenery and people he had seen in his younger days disappeared from his memory.

The monsters pushing down from the north.

The vast wheat fields in the east.

The endless desert in the west and the warm coastline in the south.

The fragments of big and small memories from those places sometimes brightened his heart even while being cooped up in this Black Mansion.

Of course, not going out for the past 10 years also made it a more hellish memory, but it was generally so.

“…It’s nothing special.”

Yuan looked up at him at the low voice that penetrated between the rustling sounds.

“You’ll probably want to come back thinking, ‘I wouldn’t have gone through this trouble if I had stayed at home’.”

A slight sadness welled up in her large, dark eyes.

Clard, not knowing why she was saddened by his clumsy consolation, closed his mouth for a moment and glared at the tears swelling up and pooling in her eyes.

“I still want to go…”

The woman, who had been holding back tears with her lower lip quivering, answered in a choked voice.

“Don’t leave me behind, please take me with you. You said you would take me.”

A very weak voice of reproach.

Clard blinked slowly and finally let out a helpless sigh rising from below his neck.

At that sound, the woman, whatever she had understood from it, lowered her head again from her crouched position.

The white fingertips fiddling with the herbs trembled slightly.

Clard suppressed the low laughter escaping between his lips and erased his expression. Then he reached out and grabbed Yuan’s wrist, pulling her up.

Yuan, who came up powerlessly, didn’t have the courage to look up at his face, so she ended up burying her face deep in his broad chest.

Instead of pushing her away, Clard made a suggestion.

“Tell me what you want to do when we go out.”

Instead of answering, the buried face went deeper into his chest.

Clard gripped both her shoulders in his arms and urged again in a low voice.

“If you’re too embarrassed to say it, write it down.”

After rubbing her very red eyes against his chest for a while, Yuan nodded with a very small motion.

A short, slow exhalation poured down again over her clean crown.

A low vibration starting from Clard’s chest tapped her cheek.

Yuan held her breath for a moment and slowly raised her head to look up at him.

Clard was laughing softly.

It wasn’t a coincidence.

It wasn’t a sneer.

For some reason, Clard had laughed briefly because of her.

Yuan buried her face in his chest again like a child caught doing something wrong.

‘Your Highness… laughed.’

She felt her face was too hot and her nape was unbearably itchy.