The leading members of the Black Barrier, including Salom and Tenver, listened to Ludmila’s reorganization plan.

Some were initially negative, but as the explanation continued, most reacted favorably, seeing the intricately structured plan as not bad.

Behind it, they considered the biggest merit to be that their own workload would decrease, as an unbelievably large amount of work would be distributed and divided to efficiently utilize the personnel in this castle.

Thanks to this, the majority of leaders agreed, but those still wary of outsiders cast uncomfortable glances.

After the meeting, Beressa told Ludmila she did well, said she would try to persuade the others not to worry, smiled brightly, and left.

The meeting that had started just past noon ended when the time was dyed with the red sunset waiting for night.

Gazing at that scene, Ludmila smiled slightly with a strange sense of satisfaction.

Nothing had changed yet. Even if Beressa took responsibility, the final decision-maker in the castle was its owner, Aden.

The organization could not be reorganized without his final decision. That part was a bit worrying.

It was clearly proceeding without the owner’s input.

Some might not care much about that, but most would take it sensitively.

The Aden that Ludmila had seen seemed like he would be the former, but considering she hadn’t known him for very long, this too couldn’t be guaranteed.

“I hope he likes it.”

She wanted to help Aden. This was separate from her contract with him.

A somewhat personal feeling. Ludmila still couldn’t distinguish that subtle difference.

Smiling slightly, Ludmila stepped back from the sunset touching her face.

Drawing the curtains to block the sunset, deep darkness rushed in. The day was ending.

“Come to think of it, isn’t it about time for him to return?”

He had said at the earliest 5 days, at the latest a week. Judging the time, it was about time for him to return.

It was a bit unexpected that white plum blossoms came instead of Aden. Ludmila still didn’t know the meaning of those flowers.

Was there really more intention than just a simple gift, as others said?

Sighing softly, Ludmila ran her hand through her hair, seemingly frustrated by the current situation where only flowers were sent, with no letter or the sender himself in sight.

She turned her back against the incoming wind.

With her back to the wind, her eyes quietly settled as she silently looked at the meeting room that had been full of people just moments ago.

It was a scene as if time had stopped after passing busily for the past few days. The empty seats everyone had left suddenly felt lonely.

After tidying up the scattered places, Ludmila closed the window and left the room.

The castle people just starting to prepare dinner were busy, but she had nothing to do.

Just walking around the castle, watching those scenes.

Somehow, a sense of loneliness washed over her. Clearly, people who knew her came and went, greeting her, but that was just fleeting.

At that moment, Ludmila realized she was a stranger here. An existence like wind or flower seeds that stay briefly and leave.

Having lived a lonely life forever, yet newly realizing loneliness, Ludmila wandered the castle silently.

Because she had nowhere to go. Because she had nothing to do. Because she had no one to meet.

With nowhere to rely on, where she reached was the entrance to the history hall where guards had blocked her before.

Unlike before, the guard who recognized her gave a short bow instead of immediately blocking her.

Smiling gently at him, Ludmila hesitated for a moment before taking out a ring from her pocket and holding it out.

“May I go in and look around for a bit?”

It was the ring Aden had given her. The guard alternately checked the ring and Ludmila before nodding briefly.

As the guard stepped aside, Ludmila silently looked at the open entrance, gave a small smile, and then went inside.

A quiet and vast room where darkness had fallen. In the pitch black that would not allow even minimal light if not for the torches set up here and there, what greeted Ludmila were numerous paintings.

It was a historical record containing images of the past leaders of the Khan clan.

Ludmila looked at those paintings with dry eyes, not very curious about the uninteresting content.

Her steps, moving slowly while scanning the paintings with her hands behind her back, gradually quickened. If there’s no interest, there’s no fun either.

Thinking there was no more reason to stay here, Ludmila sighed softly.

Let’s go back.

“Huh?”

It was the moment Ludmila was about to turn around, thinking of reading a book in her room.

Her gaze was caught by a frame that seemed relatively recent. Different from the existing ones… a painting style that was a bit more noble and imperial.

“This is…”

What was depicted in the painting hanging there was a small boy.

A boy with black hair and golden eyes, characteristic of the other leaders. Unlike the other leaders’ paintings, no name was attached to this unremarkable painting.

While other leaders’ paintings had who they were written below, nothing was written there.

She wondered if it might be Aden, but the boy’s painting was hung between Aden and the previous leader, that is, Aden’s father.

A boy whose name was not even written.

As Ludmila was touching the frame of the painting with her fingertips, she suddenly startled and stepped back, feeling as if she had heard someone’s voice.

She turned her straightened back and looked around the darkened history hall.

There was no one there. Realizing that the voice she had heard near her ear just before was an auditory hallucination, Ludmila furrowed her brow.

“Surely… it’s a familiar face.”

Come to think of it, she had felt this sense of déjà vu before when drawing a picture.

A small boy standing with a gentle nanny smiling in the warm breeze.

Ludmila’s eyes trembled finely at the fact that that boy seemed to resemble the boy in the painting before her eyes.

But soon Ludmila turned her eyes from that possibility. It was a face so vague, not even remaining in memory.

Thinking that boy and the boy in the painting before her eyes might be the same person was too much of a stretch.

Let’s go back after all.

Sighing softly, Ludmila turned and walked out of the history hall.

She moved towards where light could be seen in the distance, crossing the pitch-black room where darkness had fallen long, with only the sound of her footsteps resounding.

Finally, when she stepped into the entrance that stretched out after turning the corner.

“Ludmila.”

A man with the fading rosy sunset at his back was smiling at her.

Benjamin grumbled about why he was in such a hurry. Aden agreed with those words to some extent.

He thought it would be better to stay here a little longer and observe the situation.

But something kept making him impatient and irritable.

He felt deep anger at the current situation holding him back when he needed to hurry back.

Something beyond was pulling at his feet. Without knowing what it was, Aden set out on his return journey.

Throughout the return, he drove horses from dawn without resting even once, changing them along the way.

Even as he drove the horses without avoiding rough roads, the questions that filled his head did not disappear.

But the moment he saw Ludmila’s face, those questions disappeared cleanly. So cleanly it felt somewhat empty. The reason he had rushed here. Why he had been so impatient and irritated in the capital.

The moment he realized all those reasons were Ludmila, Aden swallowed a sneer at the futility.

Was the promise not to have any personal feelings for Ludmila so easily broken that it could crumble so emptily?

“I didn’t expect you to return so suddenly.”

It was around the time when darkness had just fallen and soft lights began to be hung here and there around the two walking.

Aden turned his head at Ludmila’s calm voice breaking the silence and fixed his gaze on Ludmila looking ahead.

“I thought it would be tomorrow at the earliest.”

“Hearing that makes it sound like you were waiting for me.”

It was a joking remark, but Ludmila responded by calmly raising the corners of her mouth.

Thanks to this, Aden, who became embarrassed, closed his lips and moved his gaze forward.

“There weren’t any problems while I was gone, right?”

“No problems at all. Didn’t you meet with the butler?”

“Yes. I’m meeting you first as soon as I arrived.”

“…Why?”

Because he answered so calmly, Ludmila asked with a half-beat delay.

Aden glanced at such a Ludmila and pushed up the corners of his mouth. He too substituted words with a smile instead of answering verbally.

“Salom will come find me on his own even if I don’t call. You won’t come to see me unless I call or come find you.”

That was a natural attitude as a guest and visitor. I think it’s not too late to meet Aden after he finishes important work first.

Ludmila actually thought so.

As Ludmila opened her mouth at his words stabbing her solar plexus, Aden smiled gently.

“Even if that’s not the case, Ludmila, I had something to tell you. I was also worried you might be thinking strange thoughts with that small head of yours.”

Ludmila’s hair, tilted to one side, scattered in the wind that blew just then.

At that moment, the scent carried by the momentary breeze brushed Ludmila’s nose.

When Ludmila, who had stopped walking, turned her head to look in the direction the scent was coming from, what entered her eyes were the light of torches pushing back the darkness and white plum blossom trees with white flowers blooming profusely behind them.

“It’s late, but happy birthday.”

It was an unexpected birthday gift.