With the sound of the door opening and a voice stabbing her back, Beressa hesitated and turned around.

Ludmila Perez Erdi, tightly grasping the lace shawl she was wearing, nodded her chin at Beressa.

“Come in. Let’s have a drink.”

“What? Why should I?”

At Beressa’s raised corner of the mouth, as if in disbelief, Ludmila Perez Erdi angled her body to make room.

“Don’t we have things to talk about?”

“No such thing.”

At her sharp denial, Ludmila Perez Erdi let out a chuckle and turned away. She didn’t particularly urge her.

It wasn’t like she had insisted two or three times to come in. Nevertheless, she knew she would eventually enter.

Knowing this, she opened a bottle of cheap wine without any doubt.

And as if to prove that her thoughts were not wrong, Beressa came in with the sound of the door closing.

Ludmila Perez Erdi closed the open window and lit the lamp that had been turned off. After brightening the room, she brought the filled glass to Beressa.

Beressa, with a displeased face, took the glass, smiled slightly, and then glanced at Ludmila Perez Erdi sipping her wine before emptying it in an instant.

It was a very rough appearance, as if in silent protest that you and I are different.

“So.”

The woman, as beautifully blooming as a flower, roughly wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

“What did you want to talk about?”

At the firm nod as if to say get to the point, Ludmila Perez Erdi gave a thin smile. Beressa was a woman as beautiful as a rose.

That beauty only bloomed for Aden and openly showed sharp thorns to her.

However, what was curious was that she never harmed her with those thorns.

She poisoned the thorns she harbored in the most rude and unpleasant way.

It could be very dangerous if just brushed against, and although she declared she would wield them, she never put it into action. She just watched and hovered around.

But Ludmila Perez Erdi wanted to remove the anxiety.

While threats that could choke her at any time were closing in from afar, unseen, she didn’t want to create internal enemies as well.

In that sense, Beressa was the most dangerous existence than any other threat.

“Why didn’t you say?”

“Say what?”

“The information written in the notebook.”

As her eyes twisted nicely, Ludmila Perez Erdi picked up the wine bottle.

The insignificant gesture of filling Beressa’s glass was particularly quiet and calm, to the point of feeling dignified.

Beressa, who had been staring at that sight as if mesmerized, suddenly raised her head.

“I don’t know you. But there must be very few people who stay in the castle and call its owner casually while embracing him. You are one of the ruling class of this castle.”

“……”

“Couldn’t you have said enough? No matter how big the castle is, it doesn’t seem too difficult for someone like you, who is part of the ruling class, to spread rumors in this castle. Isn’t that right?”

“I was wondering what you were going to say.”

As her mouth corner curved up smoothly, Beressa raised her glass.

Beressa, who had tilted the glass toughly, frowned and glared at her.

“Don’t worry. I’ll drive you out in a few days.”

“Is it really necessary to take several days? It seems even a day is too long to drive out one stranger.”

“Ha-, what are you trying to do now?”

Beressa, with fine lines around her eyes, approached Ludmila Perez Erdi with the glass in hand.

Her fierce eyes shone coldly, absorbing the moonlight that had just emerged from the clearing clouds.

“Are you staging a protest to be kicked out right away? If that’s what you want, say it. I’ll grant that wish even tomorrow.”

“That can’t be. I need to stay here.”

“Then what’s your purpose in doing this to me?”

“I told you. It seems we need to talk.”

Ludmila Perez Erdi stared blankly at the frowning Beressa, then glanced at the glass in her hand before emptying it lightly.

Although quite different from the violence-tinged Beressa, even that much was a rampage far beyond Ludmila Perez Erdi’s image.

As if the cheap wine left a bitter aftertaste, Ludmila Perez Erdi frowned, but she didn’t forget to smile brightly at Beressa who was staring blankly at her.

“Drinking like this isn’t bad either. It certainly tastes like alcohol.”

“…What are you really doing? No, what exactly do you want to say to me?”

“It’s simple.”

Ludmila Perez Erdi wiped the wine from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. She slightly pulled her reddened lips and spoke briefly.

“Help me.”

“Me? Why should I help you.”

“I need your help.”

“So why should I…!”

“Don’t you want me to quietly disappear from here?”

“……”

The end of the rapidly continuing conversation was Beressa’s silence. Ludmila Perez Erdi refilled the glass with wine and gently opened her stained lips.

“I’m leaving here in 4 months. Until then, I plan to live here quietly. I know you’re wary of me, but I’m not staying with bad intentions. So I want you to help me. I’ll help you in return. What do you think?”

“……”

Beressa remained silent. But the fact that she didn’t respond as sharply as before was enough to see the possibility in this conversation.

The green eyes that had been silently staring at Ludmila Perez Erdi’s face rolled down, and soon Beressa raised her glass again.

As she did with Aden, Ludmila Perez Erdi also proposed a negotiation to Beressa. Whether to accept that negotiation or not was now out of her hands.

“I……”

After a long pause, Beressa raised her head and uttered a short voice.

“I don’t work with X women. Especially not with a woman who couldn’t even rebel once while being cursed at and slapped by her husband, almost dying.”

“……”

“That’s why I don’t like you. I absolutely detest such passive and stupid women.”

Third glass. Beressa emptied the glass vigorously.

A reddish flush settled on her face.

The cheap wine might be fake, but the alcohol inside wasn’t.

“But you now seem different from the woman described in the notebook.”

“I’m just trying to appear that way. Because I want to change. Still, I’m glad I seem different.”

In the end, what’s important to people was the inner self. Ludmila Perez Erdi’s inner self was always full of submission and anxiety.

Now, even if she wanted to empty it and fill it with something else, it wasn’t easy to do so. That’s why she was just running away.

“We’ll see about that. Drink.”

Beressa passed the filled glass to Ludmila Perez Erdi and nodded her chin.

Too much to drink at once.

If it were before, she would have put it down after drinking less than 1/3, pretending while wearing a mask. But not now.

Ludmila Perez Erdi willingly took that glass and emptied it at once.

Watching that sight with mixed eyes, Beressa smiled.

She really drinks when told to drink.

“Is that enough?”

“Yes.”

Still, a woman I don’t like. Beressa just nodded slightly with an ambiguous smile.

The next day. Aden, who had finished training from dawn, headed to the dining room after a quick wash.

Before washing, he didn’t forget to send someone ahead to firmly block the eccentric Marchioness from making another strange journey into the servants’ dining room.

When Aden, soaked in fatigue from working late yesterday, entered the dining room, he saw two women sitting face to face, enthusiastically chattering about something.

When did they become so close? Aden let out a hollow laugh at the sight of Beressa and Ludmila Perez Erdi, who had already emptied their soup and bread even though he hadn’t arrived.

“Aden!”

It was Beressa who spotted Aden standing stubbornly like a tree, blankly staring at the unfamiliar scene.

Behind her, who was waving with a refreshing smile as if holding morning dew, Ludmila Perez Erdi also turned her waist to look at Aden.

The contrast of her greeting with a bow, with a face tinged with dryness quite different from Beressa’s, evoked an unfamiliar emotion.

“This is unexpected. Since when did you become so close?”

“Rather than becoming close, it’s better to see it as our interests aligning.”

Aden scanned for a seat and settled next to Beressa. Meanwhile, he smiled slightly at Ludmila Perez Erdi’s calm continuation.

“Interests?”

“Well, there are such things.”

The way she cut off her words meaningfully was irritating, but it wasn’t something to pry into.

There was nothing good about a man digging into women’s affairs.

With this wise judgment, he closed his mouth while the two continued talking.

The exchanged conversation was one-sided information provided by Ludmila Perez Erdi.

Trends and information from the capital, makeup techniques and conversation methods. Like the trends in dresses and the history of costumes.

From Aden’s perspective, most of it was extremely useless and futile.

But Beressa was listening carefully to those meaningless stories as if they were a bible, even taking notes.

For Aden, who had watched Beressa grow up, the scene was unfamiliar, but he didn’t bother to speak up, newly realizing that she was also a woman.

As he ate the bread and soup set before him, along with simple salad and meat pieces, while listening to the conversation, soon only the last fruit remained.

As the conversation that had continued until then showed no signs of ending, Aden quietly pushed his chair back to get up first.

“Aden, just a moment.”

At that time, it was Ludmila Perez Erdi who called Aden as he was about to get up.

Aden, who had been treated as a bystander until the meal was over, chuckled at the attention finally poured on him and adjusted his posture again.

“Why? Do you have something to say?”

“Beressa said earlier that you had something you wanted to ask me. What is it?”

Something I wanted to ask? Aden, frowning and organizing his thoughts, let out a low exclamation.

He had wanted to ask what conversation Ludmila Perez Erdi had with a group of men yesterday.

However, yesterday, after lunch, her expression and complexion darkened, so he couldn’t ask further.

“Never mind that. I’ve already confirmed it.”

I wondered why those men were trembling, but to think they were begging not to tell the truth to me.

He shook his head, remembering the men who confessed that they had trembled, asking Ludmila Perez Erdi to hide the truth, thinking they would receive a great punishment if it was discovered that the painting they received in return was a forgery.

It was a trivial reason, ridiculous enough to make him laugh at himself for suspecting she might be up to something strange.

Of course, thanks to that, he could be reminded that Ludmila Perez Erdi was a highly respected Marchioness in the capital.

Being able to distinguish whether a painting was a forgery or not just by looking at it was a rare ability here.

No matter how much the Khan people have been subjugated to the Empire for 50 years and are being imbued with their culture and customs, the inherent roughness and crudeness in their blood could never catch up with them.

Thinking about that, what Ludmila Perez Erdi had done was quite expensive labor.

Aden tried to stand up again, saying “Is that all now?” to Ludmila Perez Erdi, who was staring at him with a puzzled face.

Then Ludmila Perez Erdi shook her head again.

“I’m not sure if I should make such a request, but could you lend me 5 healthy men?”

“What do you need the men for?”

For what? It was an ambiguous word.

In the Empire, they don’t use the expression ‘use for’ about people.

If one tried to understand, Aden’s words could be interpreted as asking ‘where’ she intended to use them, or ‘what’ she intended to use them for.

Ludmila Perez Erdi, rolling her eyes in confusion, paused for a moment before giving a fresh smile.

“To use in bed.”

In the end, a response that mixed both the place and purpose popped out of her mouth.

Early morning, before the chill of dawn had fully dissipated.

Aden, looking at the noble Marchioness who made a bright proposal with an untimely bright smile, grinned.

“Have you been drinking?”