“Oh my, it’s raining.”

Around the time Blair finished dinner with Mikhail and Anna, quite heavy raindrops began tapping on the window.

It was autumn rain.

Anna, who was clearing away the dishes, looked towards Mikhail and said:

“It’ll be tough for you to go home. Why don’t you stay the night?”

Startled by the unexpected suggestion, Mikhail looked at Anna in surprise. Anna gave him a subtle look and added:

“Of course, only if the lady is alright with it.”

“No, I’m fine—”

“Let’s do that. You can easily catch a cold in this weather.”

Blair readily accepted Anna’s suggestion before Mikhail could even answer.

Mikhail glanced at Anna with a troubled expression but didn’t refuse Blair’s kindness.

“…Thank you for your kindness, madam.”

“It’s nothing.”

Blair responded with a slight smile, using the now-familiar way of speaking.

Since becoming ‘Arwen Hales’, she had been using formal speech with Mikhail.

Though Mikhail said she could address him comfortably, Blair’s mind was firm.

‘I’m no longer a princess or a duchess, so I’m on equal footing with you now.’

Her status was something she had been lucky enough to be born into as a princess.

She didn’t want to be bound by the status she had cast off with her own hands. Now she had to get used to her position as the commoner Arwen Hales.

That was the place of the name she had chosen, the one she would live with from now on.

“Then rest comfortably.”

Blair said she needed to wash up and went upstairs first, leaving Mikhail and Anna alone in the kitchen.

Mikhail stared at Blair’s retreating back as she climbed the stairs, then turned to look at Anna. Anna subtly avoided his gaze and began to bustle about.

“I should prepare breakfast for tomorrow in advance…”

But Mikhail was not one to miss such hints.

“Anna. Don’t make things difficult for the lady.”

It was the response she had expected.

Anna, who had been smiling innocently, quietly closed the kitchen door and revealed her true intentions with a mischievous smile.

“Don’t you have feelings for the lady?”

A woman nearing her forties who has weathered all sorts of life’s storms is quick-witted.

Mikhail swallowed a sigh, but in the end, he neither denied nor confirmed the question.

“Consideration is good, but a man who’s only gentle isn’t attractive. You need to show some boldness occasionally and make a move. You’re not planning to just watch over her from afar like a black knight forever, are you?”

“…”

“If you keep being so considerate, another man might snatch her away. As you know, the lady has enough charm for that.”

“…I suppose so.”

“You’re not naively thinking that other men won’t be interested because she has a child, are you?”

“Of course not.”

Mikhail answered with a bitter smile.

Anna doesn’t know that Blair’s husband is still alive. And that she still loves him.

As Anna said, it wasn’t the time to be so complacent. Not just for his own feelings towards Blair, but also to erase the unstable imprint on her body.

But Mikhail found it difficult to approach Blair.

He had dealt with numerous women while working as a guild master. They all clearly had something they wanted from him.

Whether it was money, a desire to confirm his power, or even just an emotional game to satisfy them, albeit an act.

But Blair was different from them.

She treated him, a lowly person, as an equal human being, and didn’t take his kindness for granted. Rather, she seemed uncomfortable, having nothing to give in return.

She was a completely different type of person from those he had met so far, which made him even more cautious and afraid.

What if my ways disappoint you? What if you discover the inner self of someone who has lived a life at the bottom?

“Take this and chat with her while eating. Surely you’re not planning to waste this hard-earned time?”

Anna pushed a tray of well-cut apples into Mikhail’s hands and urged him on.

Mikhail reluctantly took it and went up to the second floor. Fortunately, Blair hadn’t gone to wash up yet, as it was quiet near the bathroom.

As he stood in front of Blair’s room door, wondering what to talk about,

A loud noise came from inside the room. It sounded like things falling over.

“…Madam?”

When Mikhail knocked, the sound stopped.

An eerie silence that made the previous commotion seem like an illusion. At the same time, a sense of unease crept over him.

“Forgive me, but I’m coming in for a moment.”

Though he knew it was impolite for a man to enter a woman’s room without permission, his instinctive unease took precedence.

Mikhail opened the door without waiting for Blair’s response.

The scene he encountered in the room precisely confirmed his uneasy premonition.

Various objects were scattered about the room, and in the middle, a masked intruder in black was covering Blair’s mouth.

Mikhail’s heart sank at the sight.

“Madam!”

The intruder, momentarily startled by the interruption, pushed Blair towards Mikhail and escaped through the open window.

Mikhail caught Blair as she was pushed towards him and checked her condition.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m, I’m fine…”

Mikhail laid Blair, who was staggering as if about to collapse, on the bed, then looked alternately between the window frame where rain was beating in and her.

Blair said she was fine, but her complexion was pale as she tried to steady her breathing while caressing her stomach. It seemed more like she was trying to calm the child in her womb rather than truly being alright.

As much as he wanted to chase after the intruder who had tried to harm her, she was the priority now.

“…I’ll call for a doctor first.”

* * *

In the early dawn as twilight began to settle, Gerard was alone in his private chapel, offering prayers.

It was his first daily routine, maintained for many years, to start his day.

What broke that devout silence was the sound of knocking on the chapel door. Gerard didn’t answer, but the owner of the knock quietly entered the chapel and approached behind him.

“Your Holiness.”

Gerard continued praying with his eyes closed.

The priest, hesitating for a moment while looking at his back, opened his mouth.

“…They say they failed to secure it.”

Gerard furrowed his brow and opened his eyes upon hearing the news. There was no object, but what “it” referred to was clear.

“They say there was a man with her. The security has become stringent since then, making it difficult to approach.”

A man.

More than the news that the plan had gone awry, the fact that there was a man by Blair’s side was more disturbing.

If Blair’s heart were to lean towards that man in the meantime, the imprint would disappear.

Then he might have to wait a long time again for a chance to bring down Delmark. Maybe it would never come again.

There had been many women who admired Herdin until now, but Blair was the only one with whom an imprint had been formed.

“I’ll tell them to dispose of the man when they get the chance and then approach.”

“…No.”

Gerard cut off the priest’s words as he was talking about the next plan.

“If they fail in that attempt, she’ll just run away and hide somewhere else.”

“Then…”

“If we can’t catch the rabbit to throw to the wolf, we should lure the wolf to the rabbit’s den, shouldn’t we?”

Though he was reluctant for this matter to go beyond his domain, it was no time to be picky about methods if he wanted to finish the job before the imprint disappeared.

* * *

Luth watched Herdin, who was signing documents with a cigar in his mouth. More precisely, he was looking at Herdin’s hand holding the quill pen.

He was wearing gloves. Usually, he only wore leather gloves when going out, but at some point, he had started wearing gloves indoors as well.

He couldn’t remember exactly, but it seemed to have started around the time Blair disappeared.

‘Has he developed some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder?’

But it was a delicate matter to ask the person directly.

As he was thinking that he should consult Agnes about it soon, Herdin handed over the signed documents.

“Anything else left to discuss?”

“Ah, we received a communication from the Lord of Nerha.”

“…Nerha?”

“It’s a port city in the Kingdom of Clania that shares a border with Libren.”

“Why from there?”

“They suggested that they might be able to help with the business in Libren territory, and proposed cooperation. They also expressed a desire to host you if you would visit.”

Herdin, wondering why the topic of Libren suddenly came up, belatedly remembered the land reclamation project underway there.

The project, which had started impulsively after getting an idea from childhood memories that surfaced one spring day, was progressing smoothly.

Even though the girl who once said she wanted to cross the sea was no longer by his side.

As Herdin was self-deprecating at that fact, Luth held out a letter to him.

“In my opinion, it might be good to visit and take a look around. After all, since Nerha developed as a port city first, you might get other ideas to apply to the Libren project if you see it directly.”

Luth made an indirect suggestion, wanting to divert Herdin, who was obsessed with finding Blair.

Herdin put down the cigar he was holding in the ashtray and unfolded the letter.

While they say cooperation, in reality, Nerha probably wouldn’t be happy about another port city emerging right next door.

A competitor, and one backed by the powerful capital of a foreign duke at that—how could they be pleased?

But they had no grounds to prevent it, so their aim was likely to negotiate. To help moderately and establish non-aggression for their own share.

However, Herdin didn’t feel the need to go all the way to that distant place. Especially not at this point when Blair was absent.

It was just as Herdin was about to respond to Luth’s suggestion that an urgent knock sounded.