“Larien, wait a moment.”

Jade grabbed my wrist and wouldn’t let go. He was applying subtle pressure, making it ache.

“Let go of this.”

“…When Blanche’s holy power went out of control, I absorbed that holy power and lost my sight. You may not believe it, but this is true.”

He slowly moved away from me and opened his mouth.

I blurted out in anger without even thinking properly, excited.

If he had ever lost his sight.

In fact, I didn’t even consider that to be a lie. After all, I had discovered his inability to see, and I had witnessed him struggling in several situations.

“Okay. I’ll believe that. But Jade, why did you deceive me after that? You kept pretending you couldn’t see, even acting it out, deceiving me. Did you find me amusing?”

“…”

As if refusing to answer, Jade once again firmly closed his lips.

“I told you. I don’t want to see you for a while. Since you can see now, there’s no need for me to stay at the Rowe manor any longer.”

I wish he’d say something, anything.

If he had said there was a reason he had to do this, I might have tried to understand.

I felt like an outsider. As if there was a line drawn that I had to keep. It seemed like he was keeping his mouth shut because I shouldn’t cross that line.

“Larien!”

“Don’t grab me. If you grab me this time, I’ll never see you again.”

Right now, I needed time alone to clear my head, away from Jade.

I entered the dining room, escaping from Jade’s gaze as he stood there watching me.

“Are you here, young lady?”

“Mary. Where’s Blanche?”

“Blanche is over there…”

Following Mary’s finger, I found Blanche curled up under a chair.

“Lady Blanche, please come out. Okay?”

Mary tried to coax Blanche out, stomping her feet.

“Mary. I’ll do it.”

“Young lady. Your complexion is pale, are you still feeling unwell?”

Mary moved aside, worried about me.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry. Blanche, let’s eat at home. Mary, could you pack up the luggage bag we brought? We need to head back.”

I approached Blanche and gestured.

“Yes, young lady… I’ll pack it up and bring it right away.”

Mary glanced at Blanche and quickly left the dining room.

“Blanche. Mother can’t fit under the chair, would our baby come out for me?”

“…Okay.”

“That’s a good girl.”

I dusted off Blanche’s knees as she came out and stroked her cheek.

“Mother. Did you fight with Father? Should Shu Shu scold him?”

Blanche looked at me intently and asked.

“No, we didn’t fight. All the busy work is done now, so we’re going. To our original home.”

It wasn’t something I could honestly talk about. I didn’t want to pass on my current disappointment and sense of betrayal towards Jade to Blanche.

‘Let’s not make Blanche anxious by letting her know unnecessarily.’

After all, it was a problem between Jade and me.

“But Father isn’t in that house. A home is supposed to be where Mother, Father, and Shu Shu live together… So this is home too, isn’t it?”

“My baby. If you want, we can come visit again later. But for now-”

It seemed Blanche didn’t want to leave the Rowe manor. She kept pouting her lips.

‘I can’t leave Blanche here alone, but it’s uncomfortable to keep seeing Jade… Ah!’

Just as I was in a dilemma, a good idea flashed through my mind.

“Blanche. Shall we go to Lekah to see Uncle Aaron?”

That was persuading her with Aaron, whom Blanche had been wanting to see.

“Uncle Aaron…?”

“Yes. Uncle said he misses you and wants me to bring you soon. That’s why we’re going.”

Originally, I had planned to go to Lekah in winter, but it would be fine if the plan was moved up a bit.

“I want to go to Lekah. I want to see Uncle!”

With these two words, Blanche thought for a moment and then hugged me.

So we returned to the Boston Earl’s mansion and prepared to leave for Lekah.

Since we could just take the packed luggage bag as it was, it didn’t take much time.

However, when I contacted Aaron through the communication orb saying we were coming now, an unexpected problem arose.

-The Boston-owned ship is currently in Madelburg. There are no other ships going from Venice port to Lekah… If you want to come now, you’ll have to take the train to Madelburg and then come.

Namely, to get to Lekah, we had to take the train to Madelburg.

I thought about waiting until the ship returned to Venice port, but it would take too long.

‘They say it won’t arrive at Venice port until next month…’

Blanche was so excited about seeing Aaron. She came to ask when we were leaving every 10 minutes.

‘What should I do.’

Actually, it was fine except for the inconvenience and the fact that I had never been to Madelburg before.

‘Taking the train isn’t bad. Blanche isn’t particularly prone to motion sickness, so taking the train might be a good experience.’

After deciding to take the train, we immediately departed for the train station.

I arrived at the train station and looked around with Blanche.

“Can you see over there, Blanche? That’s the train we’ll be riding.”

Blanche’s eyes were as round as her wide open mouth as she stared at the train.

“Wow! It’s so long! We’re riding that?”

She looked extremely excited, as if the train she was seeing for the first time was fascinating.

‘Well, she’s only ever been on ships. This is her first time seeing a train. How fascinating it must be.’

“Young lady, I’ve never seen a train before either.”

Mary, who had brought down the luggage, also looked around with a fascinated expression.

Then she said she would go put the luggage in and entered the train.

“Blanche. Come to mother so you don’t fall while running.”

Blanche was running around here and there, saying the actual train was completely different from her toy model train.

“We apologize for the delay of the train bound for Trianon. We are sorry for the inconvenience.”

As I was chasing after Blanche trying to stop her, I heard the station attendant’s announcement mentioning ‘Trianon’.

‘Trianon…’

When I found out I was pregnant with Blanche, I had tried to seek asylum in Trianon.

But I couldn’t go because Jade tore up the train ticket to Trianon.

“If Jade hadn’t torn up the train ticket that day…”

Would I not have gone to seek help from my uncle?

What kind of life would I have lived in Trianon?

Back then, becoming the Countess of Boston wasn’t even an option I could imagine. I thought about the things that might have happened from that action.

‘Maybe there was a reason he didn’t tell me about his eyesight.’

…Even though I said I didn’t want to see his face right now because I felt hurt, I was truly glad that Jade could see again.

‘Did I only say what I wanted to say? Should I have waited for him to speak?’

I don’t know. I should think about it while I’m in Lekah, where I won’t see him for a while.

Then maybe I’ll understand Jade and these feelings I’m having now will subside a bit.

“It might be better not to see Jade when I go there.”

Right now, I only had negative feelings about not wanting to see Jade.

“Huh?”

Blanche, who had been wandering around the train, stopped and stared behind me.

At first I thought she was looking at me, but she wasn’t.

“Blanche? What’s wrong?”

“Is there a smell coming from mother? But there isn’t?”

Blanche came up to me and sniffed for a long time.

‘What smell is she talking about…?’

I was confused because I had just washed and wasn’t sweating.

“No, mother. Shu Shu must have been mistaken. There’s no smell at all.”

After moving her nose for a while, Blanche suddenly giggled and shook her head.

“Really…?”

Then I felt like someone was watching me and quickly turned around.

But there were only people hurriedly passing through the train station, no one in particular looking at me.

‘Was it just my imagination?’

Was I being too sensitive? Well, with the crowd at the train station, maybe I just felt that way for a moment.

“Young lady. They say it’s time to depart now. Please get on quickly.”

Mary, who had come back after putting in the luggage, took Blanche’s hand and we boarded the train.

“Mother! Hurry up!”

On the way to the first-class compartment, an old man who was reading a newspaper dropped it in surprise when he saw Blanche.

‘Why does he look so familiar?’

The old man’s face seemed like I had seen it somewhere before.

His gaze, staring intently at Blanche without picking up the newspaper, was blatant.

Uncomfortable with that gaze, I hurried to the first-class compartment.

“I wonder who that old man was, staring at Blanche like that…”

Even though I felt much more at ease in the separate first-class compartment than before, I kept thinking about the old man.

“Young lady! It’s Butler Noh!”

Then Mary shouted, waving both arms.

“Butler Noh?”

“You know, the butler who was at the Belaste Duke’s mansion when you were young, young lady!”

Butler Noh.

No wonder he looked familiar.

‘Since Blanche resembles me, that’s why he looked at her.’

I understood why he had stared at Blanche so intently.

‘Even if Butler Noh doesn’t work at the Belaste Duke’s mansion now, it’s dangerous…’

It could reach the ears of Duke Belaste. Duke Belaste was already suspicious that Blanche might be his granddaughter.

As I was biting my lip anxiously, Mary shouted in even greater shock than before.

“Why is Butler Noh… Gasp, young lady. Your pendant is gone from your neck!”

“Pendant?”

“It was there when we boarded the train earlier… Where did it go…”

At Mary’s words, I checked my neck and indeed, the pendant was gone.

‘Where did this go?’

I told Blanche to stay quietly in the first-class compartment, then hurriedly came out with Mary.

“Young lady, I’ll go check the opposite side.”

Separating from Mary, I carefully checked from the corridor we had come through earlier.

Fortunately, the pendant had fallen in a corner.

As I was about to go where the pendant was, someone who had just gotten up from the seat in front bent down and picked up the pendant for me.

As I was about to say thank you and met eyes with the person.

“…Young Lady Larien?”

It was Butler Noh.