Lina swallowed a bitter laugh inwardly.

‘Noble ladies all do the same thing, only their words are elegant.’

But what could she possibly refuse here? The redhaired woman in front of her was to become the future duchess, and she herself was merely a maid.

‘If I knew this would happen, I would have continued to pretend my arm was injured.’

Lina regretted unbandaging her arm as soon as she returned home, feeling stifled.

“……Yes. I understand.”

“Your face looks very dark.”

But it seemed that her rigid and stiff face couldn’t be hidden. Heyren, who saw Lina’s dark complexion, asked sweetly.

“Do you dislike it?”

The expression was as if to say, dare you? The arrogance of her commanding to enter the water without any hesitation toward someone she had just met.

“Why would I dislike it?”

Lina managed to suppress the discomfort rising from deep within her and smiled. Then, without hesitation, she began to step into the pond.

‘It’s cold.’

Water started to rise slowly from her ankles in the pond. Despite the end of summer, the water’s temperature was as cold as an icehouse.

But she couldn’t get out of the pond just because it was cold. Inevitably, with her thin, trembling body, she moved forward little by little.

Soon, she approached the floating gloves, reaching up to her chest in the water, and stirred it with her arm.

‘It’s deeper than I thought…….’

Briefly flustered by the water’s unexpected depth, she managed to move forward and get the gloves in her hands.

Though Lina’s body was completely soaked, even her hair.

“Phew[dash].”

When she came out of the pond with her heavy body, Lina looked like a drowned mouse.

The maid’s clothes, clinging tightly to her body, emphasized her skinny frame, and floating weeds were stuck here and there.

“Here it is, Miss.”

Lina, holding the gloves in one hand and wiping the water dripping from her chin with the other, held out the gloves to Heyren.

But.

“Miss?”

Heyren just stared blankly at the gloves in Lina’s hand without any intention of taking them.

‘Why is she doing that?’

When Lina, who was watching the noble lady’s face, cautiously called her,

“It’s dirty.”

‘……What?’

Dirty? At first, she doubted her ears, thinking she had misheard. But Heyren’s eyes, looking as if she had seen something filthy.

Only then did she realize she hadn’t misheard.

“What to do with this? I can’t use this glove now as it’s dirty.”

“But, you told me to bring it…….”

“I did. But.”

Heyren took a step closer to Lina and said,

“It’s too dirty, isn’t it? This doesn’t suit me.”

Lints’s majesty shook her head.

“It might suit you, though.”

At that word, Lina looked down at the gloves in her hand. The watersoaked gloves, hanging limply, had dirty moss stuck here and there.

Just like herself now.

“…….”

Lina wanted to say something in return, but her jaw was so stiff that she couldn’t speak.

“I’ll let you have the gloves as a sign of gratitude.”

Then she looked Lina up and down and said,

“It seems too much for you though.”

It must be the cold. That’s why her body was trembling so much.

Lina just blankly stared at the woman who threw the bombshell and elegantly turned away.

(This is a time divider.)

Meanwhile, back in her room, Heyren sat quietly on the sofa, recalling the image of Lina, who had met her earlier, the maid who showed no emotion even knowing who she was.

And that image of her was getting on Heyren’s nerves.

Knock[dash].

“Come in.”

When Heyren’s permission was given, a maid with full freckles came in.

“What happened?”

“That butler is not just stern. He says Lina, the maid you asked for, is an absolute no!”

Heyren had instructed the maid she brought to request Lina as the maid to attend to her while she was at the mansion.
But the answer that came back was a firm refusal. It was somewhat expected.

“Lina, it seems difficult to assign a maid. Miss.”

At Marie’s words, Heyren sat in a chair and tapped the table with her fingers.

“What was the name of the maid you attached instead of Lina?”

“It’s a child called Roen.”

“Roen.”

After pondering something, she soon ordered Marie.

“Then, bring the child called Roen.”

(This is a time separator.)

The empire’s capital, Nuebern, permanence townhouse.

“I didn’t think we’d meet again so soon.”

Valige looked at the First Prince, sitting comfortably as if in his own house.

“Is that true?”

He, seeming not to want to waste time needlessly with Alex, got straight to the point.

“Yes, a human trafficking situation has been detected.”

The word “human trafficking” contorted Valige’s face as it came from Alex’s mouth.

“I didn’t think there would be anyone left doing such things.”

Since the abolition of slavery, human trafficking was a forbidden act by imperial law. And if associated with it, a family could be annihilated, so it was treated very severely.

But, those who violated that provision and gathered slaves through human trafficking were spotted. Even in the middle of the empire’s capital.