Although Victor spoke lightly, the amount of money she had to repay was by no means light.

Half of the debt would be enough to buy two mansions in the capital and still have money left over.

The monthly interest alone was overwhelming, and she had to increase her work.

She was looking into doing sewing for hire if she couldn’t find additional tutoring jobs.

“Victor, you know my situation. I can’t repay half right away.”

Asking to repay half of the debt immediately was like telling her not to repay it at all.

“I know. I know you’re working hard too. That’s why we’ve been lenient with you until now, Jane. Hm? Even though your value is becoming worthless.”

Victor approached closer and stroked Jane’s face with the back of his hand.

Jane shuddered and stepped back, causing Victor to click his tongue.

“Jane, it’s not too late yet. Your conditions have worsened since your fresh 20-year-old days, but there’s someone willing to pay off your debt. He’s a 60-year-old rich man. Age isn’t a flaw, Jane. It’s even better. What if he marries you and dies? All that old man’s money would be yours.”

It was a proposal to sell her body. It wasn’t surprising. She had received countless similar proposals.

Thanks to her parents giving birth to her with beauty, despite Jane’s circumstances, many people wanted to take her as a mistress.

Some offered large sums for just one night.

However, Jane refused to sell her body even if it meant starving for days. Once, she was almost tricked by Victor into a dangerous situation, but Jane broke a cup and cut her wrist that day.

Saying she would rather die.

After that, Victor gave up on forcibly selling Jane. However, he would make proposals that were clearly going to be rejected whenever Jane seemed to have forgotten.

Jane lowered her head and chuckled bitterly.

It had been quiet for a while.

The damned God would give her a new trial whenever her heart seemed to soften like this.

“I don’t need it.”

“Jane, your body will just rot when you die. Warm an old man’s bed and receive thousands of marks. Isn’t it a completely profitable business?”

“I don’t want to do business. The money… I’ll try to manage somehow. So leave right now. And don’t come looking for me if you’re going to suggest such vulgar things.”

Jane turned around. Victor frowned.

“What? Vulgar things? You still think you’re a noble because I politely call you by name?”

Heavy footsteps were heard behind Jane’s back. Then Jane’s neck was suddenly yanked back.

“Ack.”

Victor wrapped Jane’s long hair around his hand and shook it. Jane’s body shook helplessly.

Victor brought his vile face close to Jane’s.

“Listen well, you bitch. If you want to live, marry that old geezer.”

His breath reeked of something foul. Jane scratched at Victor’s hand, struggling.

“I said, I don’t, want to, ugh.”

“Oh, you’re being stubborn! Hamlin!”

At Victor’s call, Hamlin began destroying the house.

He threw the only table outside and swung around a chair. The well-washed and dried dishes clattered to the floor. The vase with wildflowers shattered.

When the window broke, rain poured in. The bed near the window was soaked.

In an instant, the house became a mess.

“You got a tiny nest and went crazy. Let’s see how long you can keep this up.”

Victor released Jane, looking satisfied at the wrecked interior.

Jane collapsed onto the carpet marked with Victor and Hamlin’s footprints.

“Jane.”

Victor crouched in front of Jane, as if remembering something to say.

He pressed his thumb against Jane’s lips, wiping them. He rubbed his finger with her lipstick on his tongue.

“Sell yourself before you spoil. Hm?”

Victor smiled sweetly. It was a devil’s smile.

* * *

Long after Victor and Hamlin left, a faint bluish light of dawn seeped into the dim house with broken lamps.

“I should clean up.”

Jane, who had been sitting in a daze, came to her senses when the pouring rain that had been falling madly began to subside.

Jane pressed her hand to the floor.

“Ugh.”

A shard from the broken vase pierced her palm. Nothing was going right.

Jane clenched her hand and barely managed to get up. Her dress, soaked from the rain that had poured in, was heavy. She dragged her dress and found a lamp that had barely survived Hamlin’s merciless hands, and lit it.

And immediately regretted it.

“I shouldn’t have turned on the light…”

The state of the house was much worse than when viewed in darkness.

It seemed she would have to pour two months’ worth of wages into repair costs.

“This is maddening.”

In this desperate situation, Jane burst into laughter rather than tears.

She laughed like that for a while. The house was a mess, and blood was flowing from her palm where glass was embedded.

Her life was an even bigger mess than the house.

At that moment, an excessively neat voice rang out in this place where everything was in shambles.

No, before that, a scent that didn’t match her home tickled her nose.

A scent reminiscent of a rain-soaked forest.

“It seems you’ve gone mad.”

“Yeah. I must be crazy.”

Jane thought she had really gone mad. It was certainly a situation where she could go mad.

‘Cain’s voice? There’s no way he could be here.’

Jane bowed her head deeply. As she recalled Cain, the tears she had been holding back suddenly poured out.

On a day like today, she didn’t want to think of him. Because it felt like the imaginary him was watching her pathetic self.

She didn’t want to show such a miserable appearance. She wanted to greet him with a bright smile if they ever met on the street.

“If you’re not mad, perhaps your ears have gone bad?”

Again, she heard it.

Only then did Jane slowly raise her head. He was standing where Hamlin and Victor had been.

Cain Hastings.

Jane blinked several times in disbelief. She almost burned herself trying to rub her eyes, forgetting she was holding a lamp.

Thanks to that, Jane’s senses returned, but the apparition didn’t disappear.

There was a figure waiting for someone at the doorway, where the hinges had fallen off, leaving it wide open.

Jane thought she had seen wrong for a moment. Because there was no way he would appear in her small and shabby shelter.

But it was him.

With vivid blonde hair, eyes like the sea, prominent eyebrow ridges and a sharp nose bridge, and a person with both elegance and rawness coexisting – there was only one such person in this kingdom.

“You’re not going to say you can’t see either, are you?”

“…Cain.”

“You should call me Duke Hastings. Miss Whitney.”

Jane’s eyelids trembled.

It was Cain, the real Cain.

Her burning regret and lingering attachment, the one she had wanted to see desperately, was standing before her eyes.

She stared at Cain, forgetting even that it was rude.

Compared to 7 years ago, Cain had grown a bit taller, his shoulders broader, and his features more defined.

The icy cold atmosphere that seemed to drip with ice was unfamiliar, but his straight features, sharp jawline, and vibrant blue eyes remained the same.

He had become much more handsome.

You’ve lived well.

An indescribable elation, a sense of relief, washed over Jane.

If she had said it out loud, everyone who heard would have laughed.

The arrogant man’s gaze swept over the broken interior of the house.

“You left me and ended up like this. Pathetic.”

The reunion after 7 years happened at a moment she hadn’t expected. When her rock bottom was fully exposed.

He took a step into the house.

“Squalid.”

Every word he uttered pierced Jane’s heart like a dagger.

“Lacking in class.”

Jane closed her eyes tightly and opened them again.

“How… did you come here?”

Jane’s voice trembled miserably.

Clean, elegant, and dignified, he didn’t fit in this place.

“Wrong question. You should ask why I came looking for you.”

“…Please leave.”

Cain’s expression turned harsh. But soon he erased his expression and said,

“I came because I have business. We’re not the kind of relationship to meet without reason, after all.”

Jane nodded.

Cain looked around the wretched room and clicked his tongue. The cramped room with not even a place to sit was worse than the stables of the Hastings ducal family.

“I should… I should at least offer you tea, but I don’t have anything prepared right now.”

“You don’t even have teacups?”

Jane bit her lower lip slightly. Blood droplets quickly formed on her dry lips.

He was right. She had neither tea leaves nor teacups. Even the water glass she had was broken by Hamlin.

“Forget it. I didn’t come to drink tea anyway.”

Jane looked up at Cain.

Come to think of it, she became very curious why the great Cain had come to find her.

Cain, who had become the Duke of Hastings a few years ago, had risen to a position welcomed anywhere he went.

It wasn’t simply because he was a duke, but a position he had achieved on his own.

Except for the queen, there was no one he couldn’t meet when he wanted. It was said that even the door to the queen’s bedroom opened when he wished.

Heys Trading Company.

He, who had suddenly left the Kingdom of Emblun 7 years ago, started to get involved in the trading business and grew it into an enormous business entity.

Not only that. He imported technology from abroad and established a railway company in the Kingdom of Emblun, receiving all authority over the railway business from the queen.

It wasn’t just the queen who trusted him. All citizens of the Kingdom of Emblun respected Cain.

Because he had ended the war with the Kingdom of Instan that suddenly broke out 5 years ago.

He was a war hero, a great wealthy man, and a duke who had the queen’s trust.

“Judging by your expression, you seem to have heard rumors about me.”

“Yes. You appear in the newspapers often.”

She was suddenly afraid he might be disgusted if she said she had looked up news about him, but she couldn’t take back words already spoken.

“I…”

Instead, as she tried to change the subject, Cain cut her off mid-sentence.

“No need to speak. I don’t care how you’ve lived.”

Jane closed her mouth.

In the past, he would sometimes act as if he had entered and left Jane’s mind.

When Jane would be startled, Cain would smile and say,