I felt the servants and maids holding their breath all around become noticeably tense.

Even Peiron, whom Erina usually thought of as dull and stupid, seemed to sense the atmosphere as he turned around.

Rose, who had been quietly observing the atmosphere at the top of the central staircase visible upon entering the mansion, was startled when attention suddenly focused on her.

Erina was amazed at Rose’s appearance, looking around like a stray cat as if she had been waiting for this atmosphere.

“Rose…?”

Peiron’s eyes were filled with bewilderment as he looked at Rose with shaky eyes.

Rose, who had been secretly watching, quickly flew down the stairs and threw herself into Peiron’s arms.

“Ron!”

Erina couldn’t help but inwardly marvel at Rose’s attitude of openly throwing herself into her husband’s arms in front of the legal wife.

Erina really wanted to know if she was so confident that her actions here wouldn’t be heard beyond the mansion, or if she just lacked any sense.

“Lady Asila.”

“Ah! I’m sorry, Countess.”

She deliberately flinched and emerged from Peiron’s arms, bowing her head deeply like a frightened person.

Her appearance was so pitiful that if Erina had been an observer of this situation, she would have felt sorry for Rose.

Peiron, who had been staring down at Rose, erased the brief suspicion that had bloomed and patted Rose’s shoulder.

“Lady Rose Asila.”

“Yes, yes.”

Erina couldn’t help but laugh at the trembling voice and deer-like eyes that seemed about to burst into tears.

“The lady…”

“Erina.”

As if Rose’s trembling body had pressed some switch in Peiron, he stopped Erina who was about to ask again.

“Count Iolse.”

At Erina’s cold call, Peiron’s hand comforting Rose paused momentarily.

Peiron found the sense of distance in her way of addressing him strangely irritating.

She had always been desperate to appear close, calling him “honey” or using his name.

It was truly unpleasant to see her trying so hard to have everything beyond her station.

It was nauseating to see her greedy appearance, coveting others’ possessions on top of what she already had in hand.

Clearly, it was Peiron himself, not Erina, who had been keeping his distance.

It should have been himself, not Erina, who needed to keep his distance.

Peiron thought this unpleasant feeling was surely due to that reason.

“Where should I start explaining for it to be properly explained? Ah, would it be useless to explain anyway?”

“What do you mean by that?”

Erina smiled silently.

Even if she opened her mouth, it was questionable whether he would believe, and if Rose made a fuss before she could speak fully, the result would be the same anyway.

“Ron, let me explain. The Countess yesterday…”

“Yesterday, before going out, I met Lady Rose Asila and the Dowager Countess Iolse.”

It wasn’t only Rose who could preempt.

“What?”

“I was looking for Revil, who had made an appointment to go out but hadn’t shown up by the appointed time, and would you believe it, Lady Asila and the Dowager Countess were holding Revil and scolding him.”

“Countess! What do you mean by scolding!”

Rose exclaimed in alarm, refuting Erina’s explanation that poured out without stopping.

“So when I tried to take Revil away, the Dowager Countess suddenly struck my cheek.”

At Erina’s extremely calm tone, everyone except Erina drew in their breath with shocked faces.

Peiron’s face in particular was quite a sight.

His crimson eyes, which always looked down on others as if they were insignificant beings, grew so large they seemed about to pop out.

The servants and maids who weren’t present yesterday started whispering among themselves, as if this was the first time they were hearing this story.

Would they gossip about Iolse’s behavior that had crossed the line, or would they pity Erina?

Peiron’s gaze fell on the long red wound that had slightly subsided but was still visible.

“Even if I was angry, what could I do? The one who hit me was none other than my mother-in-law, the elder of Iolse. So I left the place and moved in the family carriage.”

Erina’s face was spotlessly calm and clear.

Unlike the shocking words she was uttering, she surveyed the insignificant people and backgrounds with a gentle gaze as if looking at a beautiful scenery.

Her jewel-like golden eyes that slowly closed and opened gleamed coldly.

“So I asked. How did the lady, who clearly knew I had gone by carriage, know that the carriage had not returned?”

“Is this… true?”

When Peiron asked Rose in disbelief, Rose, who had been trembling and bowing her head, momentarily flashed sharp eyes.

But it was only for a moment.

Erina, who had been watching everything like an observer, couldn’t hold back a smile at Rose’s face that seemed very accustomed to controlling emotions.

“I saw the Countess leave by carriage, but I didn’t know she hadn’t returned since then.”

Rose, once again acting as the lovable and pitiful adulteress from the original story, carefully looked up at Peiron.

“As Ron knows… I’m here as a guest.”

The cunning Rose deliberately touched on the part he was most cautious and apologetic about.

A tragic couple who love each other but cannot lead to marriage.

That’s how Peiron and Rose thought of each other.

Erina watched their ridiculous behavior of communicating with their hearts towards each other, then snorted and moved.

As Erina passed by the two and tried to return to her room, a flustered Peiron hurriedly called out to her.

“Erina.”

Erina did not stop walking at Peiron’s call.

“Erina!”

Erina deliberately put strength into her shoes to make a clicking sound as she stopped at Peiron’s shout.

Turning only her head, Erina’s gaze glaring at Peiron was terribly cold.

“Do you know who is the most at fault here?”

One corner of Erina’s mouth rose fiercely.

Although she didn’t continue her words, Peiron’s ears burned at Erina’s gaze speaking with her eyes.

It was pointing out the carelessness of the head of the family who doesn’t properly know the internal affairs of the mansion and can’t even handle them, and his stupidity in not even being able to deal with it.

As Erina turned her back on them and moved again, Revil and Heila, who had been suppressing their presence, followed behind Erina.

“Bring the coachman right now! Right now!”

As Peiron shouted in a burst, the three entered Erina’s room, turning their backs on him.

Peiron, having received a great shock, was too focused on what was in front of him to ask about the two people following behind Erina.

But Rose, who had buried herself in Peiron’s arms, keenly observed the three whose backs were barely visible.

“Madam! You’ve returned!”

Erina didn’t like Rennie’s suspiciously enthusiastic welcome as soon as she entered the room.

“I believed you would return.”

“Really?”

Sensing something odd in Rennie’s words, Erina gestured to Heila, who was about to enter, to stop.

Understanding Erina’s intention, Heila stood beyond the door where Rennie couldn’t see and listened to her words.

“I didn’t believe the story that you left the house heartbroken because the Count brought a woman.”

Erina just smiled quietly at Rennie, who was telling her what she was curious about without even being asked.

“How could you, when you love the Count so much.”

“Haha, me?”

“Even if you don’t say it, I know.”

Rennie’s words, boasting baseless confidence just because she had worked as a direct maid for a short time, were so ridiculous it was astounding.

“If the Count knows of your love, he will surely return. I’ll help you by your side!”

“You?”

“Yes!”

A laugh involuntarily burst out at Rennie’s words overflowing with confidence.

Erina knew that Rennie reported her every move to Peiron without fail.

She also knew about Rennie reciting her petty flaws to her mother-in-law, Mirea, who wanted to cut her down by any means, while receiving jewels.

“You, of all people?”

How ridiculous.

Peiron and Mirea look down on me, so really all the people of the Iolse family look down on me.

Anger welled up as she felt this fact anew.

“Leave.”

“Madam, if you think carefully, you’ll surely need me…”

Heila, who had boldly opened the door and entered, approached in one step and stood in front of Rennie, threateningly repeating what Erina had said.

“Leave.”

A mere maid could not withstand the murderous intent overflowing from the gaze of a knight.

Rennie, turning pale, looked back and forth between Erina and Heila before hastily fleeing the room.

As Erina sighed, Revil, who had been watching from afar, hesitated whether he could enter. Erina gestured for Revil to come in.

Revil tiptoed in and carefully closed the wide-open door.

“It’s truly a remarkable family in a strange way.”

While mocking them, Heila began to look around Erina’s room.

It was too simple to be the room of a Countess.

“I can’t even imagine how you could have lived here.”

The husband who should be worried about his wife who went out and didn’t return is angry instead, and the adulteress who should be hiding to live flaunts her affection openly.

On top of that, even the maid doesn’t respect Erina, let alone treat her as a superior.

Could she have lived here breathing?

Heila’s heart ached somehow at Erina’s detached attitude, as if brushing off these things as natural.

It was too familiar. With unreasonable and unjust treatment.

Heila couldn’t even bring herself to ask ‘Why?’

“It’s a week from now, right? The time to leave this place.”

“That’s right, Heila. It’s only a week left now.”

Erina sat on the edge of the unmade bed and carefully stroked the crumpled bed sheets, different from when she left.

“Are you curious why I don’t get angry at them, why I don’t do anything?”

A faint-colored hair got caught on the slender white fingers stroking the bed sheet.

Erina picked up the hair with her fingers.

It was a pink hair that looked as sweet as cotton candy.

“Because there’s no need to do anything.”

Although the furniture in the room was out of fashion and simple, this was officially the Countess’s room.

She must be so envious.

Even without deliberately imagining, she could picture what Rose would have done entering this room.

“I don’t want to care about a place I’ll be leaving soon.”

She probably rummaged through the few cosmetics, sitting in front of the cherry-brown dressing table, imagining becoming the Countess.

She might have rolled around on the plain bed, hoping I wouldn’t return.

“Heila, don’t bother paying attention to them either.”

Anyway, she will abandon everything she gained here and leave with everything she took from them.

They probably won’t even realize they’ve lost everything, and will just be happy without noticing.

No, I won’t let them be happy.

I will make them as unhappy and miserable as I have suffered.

Just ruminating on that fact made Erina’s whole body tingle with excitement.

“There’s no need for that.”

Anyway, after Erina leaves, they will blame themselves, beat the ground, and regret.

So there was no need to unnecessarily waste emotions.

Erina threw the pink hair she had been holding onto the floor and crushed it with her shoe.

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.