A luxurious carriage adorned with an antique golden seal came to a stop by the main road.

The closed door opened and Benjamin, attired neatly, was the first to step out of the carriage.

Following him, a black-haired man with gleaming amber eyes descended the steps.

Aden frowned at the surprisingly hot sunlight despite winter being just around the corner.

Unlike the Khanate’s homeland, the Send Plateau, the weather here that remained hot even in winter was difficult to adapt to.

With a stifling expression, his hand roughly loosened the tightly buttoned top of his shirt.

Just how long did he have to be tied down in the capital?

If it weren’t for the damned task of getting that budget passed, he would have already returned to the Send Plateau long ago.

Sighing and watching Benjamin send the carriage back, Aden’s gaze suddenly caught a flash of red.

Glancing down, Aden stared blankly at the roses displayed in front of the flower shop.

At that moment, Benjamin, who had sent the carriage back, rolled his eyes following Aden’s gaze fixed on one spot and let out a short exclamation.

Yesterday it was alcohol, today it’s flowers, huh.

He was amazed by Aden’s unchanging life lived as he pleased, but there was one thing he wished Aden would do.

“Asula.”

Aden’s eyes shifted to Benjamin who muttered quietly while taking off his glasses. Benjamin pulled out a dry cloth and rubbed the lenses of the glasses.

“I bet my entire fortune that there are more women who would be appalled than delighted if they received those flowers from you.”

“I have no interest in the entire fortune of a son-in-law whose glasses are his only possession.”

“This guy, even when he speaks… I’m giving you advice, Aden.”

Benjamin, putting his glasses back on, looked around with a tepid face. It was the beginning of winter.

However, the front of the flower shop was filled with beautiful flowers on display as if forgetting the season.

I heard there are many these days who grow and sell flowers in hothouses. What an unromantic thing to do, not knowing the seasons.

“So who is it?”

Following Aden’s gaze that shifted back to the flowers, Benjamin also looked at the red roses.

“The unfortunate woman who will receive those flowers. Let me go ahead and advise her. The Khanate’s beast is thinking of gifting you flowers right now, so prepare yourself. How about it?”

It was a jest bordering on sarcasm. Benjamin’s small revenge, holding a grudge for what happened at the training ground yesterday.

Aden let out a chuckle, a faint smile forming on his dry lips.

“No need for that. I have no reason to gift flowers.”

“Then why are you looking at them?”

Even if asked why, there was no real answer to give.

While walking, his eyes suddenly caught the color red, and it just so happened that these flowers were there.

It was the same back then too. He could have just looked straight ahead and walked on, but his gaze shifted to the open crack of the door.

“Benjamin.”

“What?”

“If I gifted these flowers to your wife, how do you think you would feel?”

“…What nonsense are you spewing now?”

Benjamin blinked and blurted out his half-beat delayed reaction.

Hearing his friend’s raw response, Aden felt there was no need to listen further.

Yeah, that would be the typical reaction. Benjamin felt an ominous feeling seeing Aden burst into laughter.

“Don’t tell me… you like Melena?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Then what was that just now? Don’t tell me… the person you want to give those flowers to is a married woman?”

Benjamin drew a clear conclusion from the plain denial.

Aden simply curled the corners of his mouth and gave a slight smile. Benjamin let out an exasperated sigh with a dumbfounded face.

“This guy is completely crazy. You were always like this, but these days you’re going even more out of control, aren’t you?”

As if recalling the days before becoming a nobleman, Benjamin spat out vulgar words. Aden shrugged his shoulders at his behavior.

Benjamin eagerly threw out advice that he shouldn’t do it, following Aden who resumed his halted steps.

Of course, when Aden was wearing a faint smile, readily letting his friend’s advice go in one ear and out the other.

“What, it’s Countess Erdi!”

Benjamin’s surprised voice abruptly blurted out. Thanks to the glass windows, the interior of the high-end cafe was fully revealed.

There sat Ludmila, engaged in conversation with someone.

Benjamin, stepping next to Aden, pushed up his glasses and stared intently at Ludmila before turning his head.

“I’m telling you this out of concern in response to what you said earlier about wanting to gift flowers to a married woman. Please, Countess Er… Hey!”

Benjamin, who opened his mouth again to give a precautionary warning, shouted upon realizing Aden was no longer beside him.

Aden, who had already lost interest in Ludmila, was walking far ahead.

Frowning at the sight, Benjamin caught up and reprimanded him. But Aden’s dry footsteps walking away from Ludmila did not stop.

Celia always found Ludmila distasteful.

A vulgar woman whose only possession was the half-royal blood flowing in her body.

The ignorant one who occupied the seat beside her younger brother without a dowry.

People exalted Ludmila as the epitome of a noble lady, but Celia, who witnessed it all by her side, found it absurd.

A vulgar woman who only knows how to smile like a stamped-out noble lady is the epitome of a noblewoman? Celia’s insides churned whenever that illegitimate child, acting all royal, stiffly addressed her as Countess with her head held high.

“I thought Ludmila had some sense. I considered her quite aware of her place by not having a child. But it seems even that ends after 3 years. Are you getting scared? Afraid that if Kedilen abandons you without a child, you’ll go back to that terrible time?”

“Your words are going too far.”

“I’m saying it so you can hear how far it goes. It’s absurd. She kept her mouth shut about the infertility suspicions for 3 years, and now she’s frequenting the hospital saying she’ll have a child. And doing it in broad daylight, pulling up in a carriage for everyone to see.”

Regardless of what reputation Ludmila had in high society, it meant nothing to Celia.

To her, Ludmila was filth that tarnished the proud reputation of the Erdi family, nothing more, nothing less.

However, even at the blatant expression, Ludmila’s complexion did not change.

One would expect her to get angry or blush with embarrassment at such words, but her eyes remained gentle.

That sight brought Celia a sense of unpleasantness, as if she were being scorned.

The more it happened, the sharper and more pointed Celia’s voice and tone became, like a sharpened blade.

“Are you anxious?”

“Are you trying to have a child to get your husband’s attention back now that it’s starting to wane? I can’t understand you doing this after 3 years unless that’s the case.”

Bloodlines were truly mysterious. Despite different genders and ages, the words coming out of their mouths were strangely the same.

For the Erdi family, Ludmila was always a subject of regret and inadequacy.

Knowing this, Ludmila did not take those words to heart.

Losing her dignity by getting riled up at such words would be akin to living the same life as them.

“Kedilen directly instructed me to receive treatment.”

“What?”

To the typically feminine reaction that always began with a retort to her words, Ludmila calmly lifted the corners of her mouth, adding vitality to her dry face.

“He said let’s have a child.”

“Are you saying Kedilen proposed having a child to you first?”

“If you can’t believe it, go back and send him a letter. You’ll be able to confirm that my words are true.”

Celia released her bitten lips with an incredulous face.

At the same time, she raised her hand to lift the teacup, but the tea, which had cooled during the prolonged conversation, only held a chill.

Glancing at the sight, Ludmila raised her hand and instructed the waiter to bring more of the same tea.

Celia frowned at the effortless consideration flowing like water.

“You must have expected some plausible answer and been disappointed. I apologize for not being able to give you a satisfactory response.”

“Are you mocking me now? If Kedilen had an intention, you should have mentioned that first.”

Celia’s ears turned red not from embarrassment or shame.

It was from anger at Ludmila’s attitude, daring to talk back to her with her head held high.

And for Ludmila, who had seen such reactions from Kedilen numerous times, Celia’s behavior was nothing special.

“I’m sorry.”

That’s why the attitude to escape the uncomfortable situation was also nothing out of the ordinary.

Yes, this level of response was just right.

“But, Countess Vyrn.”

However, Ludmila’s attitude, which should have ended there normally, was different today.

Her tilted head and the eyes that held calmness now carried displeasure, and the corners of her mouth curled strangely, though not pushed up.

“Why do I have to hear these things from you?”

Ludmila was clearly expressing displeasure. Celia’s thoughts halted for a moment.

Ludmila’s appearance entered her eyes. Even while expressing anger, Ludmila did not lose her dignity.

Forced pretense of nobility and elegance could hardly surpass the genuine.

Celia deliberately crossed her legs, raised her chin, and sharply lifted her eyes.

But even so, she could not match the nobility of Ludmila, who had her hands neatly clasped.

“A-Are you talking to me now?”

“The Chechnya banquet, the Lombard ambassador’s birthday, the invitation from Laguna. Without needing to list them, our conversations are the same every time we meet. Countess, you express displeasure, and I apologize. Each time, I always wondered. Why do I have to hear these things from you, Countess?”

“You’re hearing these things from me now because you don’t understand. Your vulgar mind can’t comprehend it!”

“That’s regrettable. The blood in one’s body cannot be changed. I’m afraid I will never be able to understand the Countess for the rest of my life.”

With those words, Ludmila stood up, and Celia widened her eyes and shouted, “You!?”

With a monotonous gesture, Ludmila gathered her frilled parasol and belongings, drawing a fabricated smile on her dry face.

“I hope next time we can have a dignified conversation befitting the Countess. It’s a bit overwhelming for someone lacking like me to keep up with the Countess’s high dignity. Both in conversation and in words.”

“Y-You right now…”

“Well then, have a pleasant afternoon.”

Ending with an elegant greeting that seemed to come straight out of an etiquette book, Ludmila turned her body. It was meaningless to converse any further.

Before Kedilen returned, she needed to resolve the pregnancy issue and devise ways to break free from him.

When she stood in front of the closed door, untying the string of the frilled parasol that blocked the afternoon sunlight.

“C-Customer!?”

A perplexed voice rang out from behind, and at the same time, the door opened and a customer entered.

Because of that, Ludmila, who was about to twist her waist to look back, couldn’t see ahead and bumped into the entering person, getting pushed to the side.

Splash!

In the spot where Ludmila had been standing just a moment ago, the refreshing tea water Celia had spilled was dumped.

Fortunately, she was pushed to the side and could avoid the tea water baptism, but as a result, an innocent someone who opened the door and entered was drenched in the refreshing tea water.

“What is this again…”

A low voice filled with bewilderment. Raising her head, Ludmila silently looked up at the black-haired man who had taken the tea water in her place.

Why is this man here again…? The moment memories from the retirement ceremony and the rejection conversation they had before her death overlapped.

“Quite a acerbic reception.”

Aden, the leader of the Khanate, spat out a plain impression with a chuckle.