Here is the English translation of the Korean paragraph:

“Where have you been?”

“…I went to see a play. I felt suffocated just staying at home. Were you waiting for me?”

“I thought we could have a meal together after a long time, but you weren’t in the room.”

His voice, lower than usual, seemed to weigh down even the surrounding air.

Blair, sensing Lena’s awkwardness between them, sent her ahead to have a meal, then entered the room with Herdine.

“I was worried since you left without your carriage and knights.”

Herdine’s words seemed genuinely concerned at first, but his eyes, as he said them, were filled with suspicion rather than worry.

The moment their eyes met, she recalled a voice she had heard before.

“How can I trust you?”

He was doubting himself again.

Realizing this, a wave of emotions washed over her.

The fact that he, who had been absent for a fortnight, now displayed such suspicion after a single outing, brought back memories of the past.

“Is it because you don’t trust me?”

Her sharp voice couldn’t be concealed.

In the past, Blair had worried about whether his feelings were hurt as she carefully observed his reactions. But now, she no longer did.

Blair responded with a mocking tone, “Are you worried about what I might be plotting behind your back?”

In response, Herdine narrowed his eyes. It was the first time he had seen this sharp side of Blair.

He met her resentful purple eyes and let out a bitter laugh.

Is this the only thing someone who clearly knows about it is doing?

All the accumulated doubts emerged as sharp blades.

“If you know that, then have the knights accompany you wherever you go from now on. So I won’t have to be anxious anymore.”

Herdine, who spat out each word as if chewing it over, swallowed the rest of his words when he saw Blair’s teary eyes.

He let out a sigh and covered his eyes with his large hand, then slowly opened them. His emotions were suppressed heavily, like swallowing a lump in his throat.

“I―”

Before Blair could raise her voice any higher, Herdine spoke in a deliberately controlled tone.

“…Please go wash up. We’ll have dinner.”

Blair could only watch his back as he left without the opportunity to stop him. His broad shoulders and the closing door felt like an insurmountable barrier between them.

In the past, she had been afraid to open that door. Afraid of opening it, holding onto him, getting angry, crying, and eventually leaving only the end of our relationship.

So she couldn’t bring herself to open the door.

But…

“Now I don’t want that anymore.”

In her eyes, on the verge of spilling tears, the extinguished fireplace appeared. After gazing at it for a moment, Blair slowly approached it.

Herdine, who had come down to the dining room first, was waiting for Blair while sipping his pre-dinner drink. It was already his fifth glass.

Herdine swallowed hard, recalling the recent situation.

Red eyes, trembling body, rapid breaths, a woman who seemed like she might collapse with a single touch.

Why did she reveal her emotions when she couldn’t even withstand a slight touch? How foolish.

Amidst all that, he couldn’t help but find it amusing that he wanted to confirm if there was another man’s scent on her.

If there’s another man, why?

As he thought about it, his blood ran cold. He gulped down his pre-dinner drink like whiskey and set the empty glass down.
Here is the English translation of the Korean paragraph:

“However, Mason, who had been waiting behind, showed no sign of moving to fill the glass.”

Herdine called him with a somewhat irritated tone.

“Mason.”

Only then did Mason approach and skillfully refill the glass. Worried words followed.

“If you keep drinking on an empty stomach, it’s bad for your insides.”

In response to his words, Herdine chuckled for the first time since entering the dining room.

“Do I still look like a twelve-year-old to your eyes?”

“If you were twelve, you couldn’t drink alcohol, so I wouldn’t worry like this.”

“…Anyway, you seem like a boring drunkard.”

Herdine teased Mason seriously about the joke, but there was no anger in his voice.

He remembered Mason’s efforts from when he was a twelve-year-old boy who had lost his parents to becoming the head of a respectable family as an adult.

But it was when he picked up the filled glass, putting aside those worries. The closed dining room door suddenly opened without warning, and Ruth rushed in.

“Your Excellency!”

Desperation was evident in Ruth’s voice.

Herdine stopped tilting the glass and narrowed his eyes, feeling a foreboding.

“Madam… has fainted.”

And that prediction turned out to be exactly correct.

Instead of Lena, who had gone to change into her outdoor clothes, Melly waited in the bathroom for the bath preparation. Blair had said it was fine to wait in the bathroom, as she had asked Melly to.

But Blair still hadn’t come even after a long time.

“Could it be because of the clothes that are difficult to change into?”