Not long after waiting in the reception room, the butler came.

Unlike other servants, the butler did not show much change in expression upon seeing Clea.

The butler spoke in a neat voice devoid of emotion, as if seeing her for the first time.

“Unfortunately, the Duke is too busy at the moment to come greet you.”

Hearing those words, Clea sneered and asked,

“I wonder what he could be so busy with right now.”

Clea’s question was blatant.

At a time when the Odoi family had nothing to do, what could he possibly be busy with?

The butler calmly replied to Clea’s question with an indifferent attitude.

“That’s a family matter, so it’s not something an outsider needs to be curious about.”

“I see.”

An outsider.

It was a remark that drew a perfect line, pointing out that she was someone who had left the family.

Clea didn’t feel particularly shocked by the butler’s words.

Rather, for her, such treatment was all the more welcome.

If they had shown even a slight desire for her to return, she would have only felt disgust.

Meanwhile, Hayden’s expression, who was watching from the side, hardened a bit.

His thoughts differed somewhat from Clea’s.

‘Even if she left the family, to treat someone they once served like that. In a way, it’s remarkable she endured in a place like this.’

From a common sense perspective, she was someone who had been pitifully driven out.

Yet when she returned to the mansion, no one welcomed her or looked at her with sympathy.

Hayden inwardly clicked his tongue at the sight of her consistently receiving such unreasonable gazes.

The looks they gave Clea and Hayden might vary slightly depending on the person, but the texture was almost identical.

Namely, hostility.

‘For the gaze of “Why have you come here?” to be so strong…’

He glanced to the side.

While his own uncomfortable feelings were building up, he was worried about how she must be feeling.

However, Clea’s expression was as calm as ever.

Seeing that, Hayden felt he might understand why she had been able to endure in this place.

“The Duke has instructed us to actively assist in whatever you two wish to do. So if there’s anything you want, please let us know.”

Having finished speaking, the butler withdrew from his position.

After the butler left, only the two of them remained in the reception room.

Clea asked Hayden,

“Then shall we move separately now?”

“Won’t that be dangerous?”

Though he didn’t think anything would happen, Hayden felt inexplicably worried.

He found it strange that the opponent, who he had thought would surely struggle to avoid investigation, was so readily complying with their wishes.

Although Clea couldn’t help but know this, she wanted to focus only on the goal in such a situation.

“What else could they want besides my life?”

She had already sensed what they wanted.

In contrast, Hayden found it utterly incomprehensible.

“Why would they target your life, my lady? They’re the ones who should be begging for forgiveness from you.”

It was common sense for the wrongdoer to ask for forgiveness.

In his eyes, the perpetrator was clearly the Odoi family.

The victim was obviously Clea, who stood before him.

Yet instead of asking for forgiveness, they were going a step further and wishing for her death, she said.

Of course, it could just be her claim, but the atmosphere he had observed since entering the mansion lent weight to her words.

Meanwhile, feeling time slipping away, Clea hurriedly moved her feet and spoke.

“Do you know why my mother died, Hayden?”

The death of the lady of a duke’s family.

Even Hayden, who had little interest in others, had heard about it once or twice.

That she had died from complications after giving birth to a child.

And Hayden was shocked by her next words.

“My mother was killed by someone.”

“My lady?”

Clea spoke about her mother’s death with a calm expression.

She seemed to have no more words to say and quietly moved her steps.

“Now that I’ve heard that, I too have something I must do.”

Hayden watched her walk away.

Learning of her circumstances, he seemed to be growing interested in the secrets hidden within the Odoi family.

* * *

“Young lady, wouldn’t it be better to turn the carriage around even now?”

“Why? Do you want me to marry Lloyd too?”

“That’s… not it.”

The maid hesitated.

If she hadn’t hesitated, the word ‘yes’ would have probably come out of her mouth.

She nearly received a scream-like rebuke from Aria.

Aria was filled with the desire to point out the hesitation, but she let it pass.

“I will never marry Lloyd.”

“But young lady, the Duke…”

“Which is more important, my father’s will or mine?”

“…Of course, it’s yours, young lady.”

Honestly, if one were to be strict about it, the will of the Duke, the head of the Hersher family, was more important than Aria’s.

But here, considering Aria’s feelings came first, so the maid answered with a white lie.

“Still, I’m worried that rumors might spread.”

“Rumors?”

“Yes. That perhaps you intend to marry the young master of Odoi instead of the Percy family.”

At the maid’s words, Aria made an exasperated expression as she thought of Steve.

Aria had met Steve once before through Lloyd.

The Steve she saw was no better than Lloyd.

She doubted if he was really from a duke’s family like her.

They say you can judge a person by those around them, and the people gathering around Steve were all thinking only of what they could get from him.

‘And for me to marry Steve? That’s absurd. It’s impossible for me to marry Lloyd, let alone Steve.’

The only thought Aria had in rushing to visit the Odoi family now was that.

There hadn’t been frequent exchanges between the families, and politically they stood on different lines.

In this situation, there weren’t many reasons for Aria to urgently seek out the Odoi family.

Among them, the most realistic one was marriage to Steve, but Aria dismissed it as impossible and absurd.

The maid’s face was full of concern as she looked at her.

It was already impolite to visit a duke’s family without proper reason, sending just one letter, and moreover, the timing was the worst.

She pleaded several more times for them to turn back, but the carriage had already arrived at its destination.

“I greet you, Duke.”

Stepping out of the carriage without even waiting for an escort, she first greeted the figure that caught her eye.

Grit welcomed the figure that had appeared just in time.

“I was very surprised when the young lady said she would visit suddenly.”

“I apologize for coming so abruptly.”

“It’s alright. I didn’t say that to scold you anyway.”

Grit smiled, trying to hide his sinister intentions behind a vicious expression.

Facing Grit, Aria felt a strange awkwardness.

Although she had come of her own volition, seeing the figure before her, she definitely didn’t want to stay long.

Aria was about to ask permission to enter the mansion.

But before that, Grit spoke first.

“As it happens, someone you know is visiting, why don’t you go meet them?”

“Who might that be that I know?”

Aria asked in a trembling voice.

When told that someone she knew was here, the person Aria thought of was Lloyd.

She thought that Lloyd might have tracked her movements and ended up coming here first.

Even though it was just a thought, she wanted to leave this place immediately.

Her brow furrowed, as nothing good had come from recent encounters with him.

“You were quite close to that child when you were very young.”

However, at Grit’s next words, Aria’s eyes narrowed for a different reason.

Seeing her expression, Grit smiled with satisfaction and turned his back without waiting for an answer.

“I don’t understand what kind of treatment this is towards the young lady.”

The maid beside her mocked Grit’s behavior, but it didn’t reach Aria’s ears.

Grit wasn’t important now. There was something else more important.

‘Clea is here? Why? You hate this place. So why are you here?’

To intensify the curse, she needed an object containing memories of her.

In the Hersher family, after their relationship soured when they were young, everything had been disposed of except for ‘that’.

So this time, she had taken the trouble to visit the Odoi mansion.

Aria had been relaxed all along on her way here.

As far as she knew, no one in the Odoi family would try to find traces of her.

Moreover, she thought she might easily finish the task, as the people inside would surely find it bothersome to sort through her belongings.

Although she was puzzled by Grit’s ready acceptance of them, she quickly dismissed it.

After all, she had to make the most of the opportunity given.

She intended to quickly find the object she was looking for and leave, without any interference from anyone else.

But to think Clea was here.

“Young lady!”

Aria’s heart raced at the news that Clea was here first.

It was something she hadn’t accounted for in her plans at all.

Everyone in the capital knew the story of how Clea had fought with Grit and left the family.

She thought there was no way Clea would visit this place again after fighting to the point of leaving the family.

With an urgent heart, Aria moved her feet quickly.

‘I must find it quickly!’

She couldn’t know why Clea had visited this place.

Nevertheless, she kept having an ominous feeling.

She thought that if she moved her feet later than Clea here now, she would end up losing the object she wanted.