“What did you just say…?”

Ansi, not Rain or Larwil.

At those words, she felt as if all the blood had drained from her body.

Originally, she wouldn’t have accepted this if it wasn’t Orphe who came out here today. Even though her hair color and style were different from before, if someone who remembered her face appeared, it would have been a huge threat.

But because it was Orphe, it was an adventure she tried, rationalizing that this man wouldn’t know her.

When Ansi came to the South, Damion de Orphe was still a soldier, and before that, she had never encountered him. Just as she didn’t know him, it was right that he didn’t know her either.

But the adventure failed.

“I thought so. I had my suspicions since that day at the viscount’s mansion.”

Ansi’s body stiffened at the piercing gaze. Damion raised his hand to stroke her hair. The long brown hair shimmered red in the sunlight.

“Your original hair color suits you better.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, my lord…”

“I thought it looked just like the night sky.”

He was now certain that the woman before him was Ansi de Rubellsa.

There was no point in denying it further. Although she didn’t enjoy social activities much, there were a few photos left from when she lived as Ansi. Comparing with those photos, it would be quickly revealed that they were the same person.

So what would he do now? Would he tell the Jidden viscounty about her identity? Would he demand compensation from the Larwil family for sending an impostor to deceive Orphe?

Either way, Ansi had to decide her next move.

The thought that she might really have to kill this man made her mind suddenly clear. From the fact that she couldn’t overpower a man with military background in the water, to the thought that he probably knew how to swim.

If so, she had to make use of what might be her last chance now.

If she apologized and said she’d do anything on the condition of covering up her mistake, it might become a way to get closer to Kardian de Orphe.

“I’m sorry for deceiving you. Regardless of my intentions or circumstances, I think it was wrong…”

“No, that doesn’t matter.”

However, the man’s reaction was, once again, unpredictable.

“Was it difficult?”

A gentle voice rang out. Ansi’s mind went blank. As she realized what those words meant, her pupils trembled.

Was it difficult – it was perhaps a question she had never been asked before.

Not when she lived as the daughter of Count Rubellsa with nothing to envy. Not when she lost everything and was driven to the edge. Not even now as she lived under the name Rain.

“I’m… fine. I was fine.”

Ansi struggled to part her lips, trying to hide the emotions tangled in confusion. The man had already let go of her hair and was quietly gazing at her.

“A year ago, when you disappeared, I was very worried. Worried that you might have made a wrong choice, hurt by people’s sharp gazes.”

His low voice was truly filled with concern. He was worried? Ansi couldn’t understand his reaction at all.

“Did you know me? How?”

“The Jeff family’s charity event.”

“Ah…”

It was an event she had attended. She had only shown her face briefly, so she had no idea this man was there too.

“Are you curious how I recognized you when we barely crossed paths, not even exchanging words?”

Damion asked as if reading her mind.

Ansi nodded with a wary expression.

Could it be that he also knows what his brother did to Rubellsa? If that’s why he knows her.

“I didn’t know then either. I realized later. That I…”

Damion furrowed his brow as if about to say something difficult, trailing off. The man who had been full of confidence at every moment was now hesitating.

But before the silence could stretch on, he burst into a helpless laugh and continued his next words.

“That I fell in love with you at first sight.”

“…What?”

“I liked you. I, you. And maybe… I still do.”

The man’s voice was more forceful than before. As if he became more certain after verbalizing his ambiguous feelings.

Ansi, on the contrary, was at a loss for words.

This situation was truly absurd.

He liked her? He likes her? How could he say such things?

How dare Orphe, who made Rubellsa so miserable, say this.

Looking at her now, having lost her honor and fallen from grace. Looking at her ridiculous appearance, pretending to be a lady while impersonating someone else.

She was disgusted by this man who wrapped pity in the guise of affection.

How noble and generous he was. She barely held back a scornful laugh.

She felt dirty, as if being toyed with by reckless and petty emotional games.

But on the other hand, the thought that this might be an opportunity crept up.

If she could use this man to get close to Kardian. Maybe, she could expect something different than the empty ending of just killing that bastard.

“…Thank you for thinking well of me.”

An ending where she would repay what she received twofold.

An ending where she would drag the Orphe name down to the ground.

“Will you meet me again after today? As Ansi de Rubellsa, I mean.”

Ansi looked straight at Damion.

He lifted one of Ansi’s hands and bent at the waist. Soft lips touched the back of her hand. Ansi bit hard on the inside of her lip.

“Then it would be my honor.”

The man looked up at her with a languid smile. Under the spring sunlight, the man’s face, smiling as if pleased, was transparent and beautiful.

“Next time, I’ll come to the South. How about the Verdi Hotel lounge at 1 o’clock, a week from now?”

“Alright. Then I should be going now.”

“Where are you going? I’ll escort you.”

“No, I have an appointment nearby.”

“That’s a shame. It feels like the week will be long.”

“…I see.”

I wanted to say I felt the same, but those words just wouldn’t come out. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like he had thrown those words expecting agreement.

“Then take care on your way home.”

Soon after, Damion turned and left. Ansi quietly watched his retreating figure. She even raised her hand with a gentle smile to the man who looked back as if regretful.

And when his figure was no longer visible.

“Ugh…!”

Ansi rushed to the bushes and vomited. Her whole body ached.

Pretending to be happy and excited for the brother of the man who killed her father.

Just the thought made her nauseous. Her head was dizzy. She glared into empty space with reddened eyes before moving her feet somewhere.

The place she arrived at was her father and brother’s grave.

It was her first visit in a year.

She had been to the capital many times during that period to find work, but she couldn’t come here. She couldn’t bring herself to.

Seeing the grave made their deaths, which she didn’t want to accept, feel too enormous. She was afraid to accept it. Even though she needed to hold herself together, she felt like she would crumble in an instant.

But if she had known the gravesite would be in this state, she would have come earlier.

“Ah…”

Ansi’s face hardened. A pained sound escaped from her.

On her father and brother’s tombstones, numerous graffiti had been carelessly engraved.

Ansi rushed to the grave as if about to fall. She collapsed to her knees and pulled out a handkerchief with trembling hands. Her lower lip quivered. But with her lips tightly closed, she scrubbed at the tombstone.

Grave of a traitor. May all of Rubellsa die.

The graffiti wouldn’t come off. Rather, it seemed to be engraved clearly in her heart. Even when the handkerchief fell, Ansi couldn’t pick it up.

“Why…”

A great pain came to her heart. Ansi curled up, pressing both hands to her chest. She bowed her body until her forehead nearly touched the ground, only raising her head to look at the tombstone.

A fierce light swirled in the blue eyes set in her reddened face.

Yes. Even if she killed Kardian Orphe, it wouldn’t restore Rubellsa’s honor that had fallen to rock bottom.

Rather… it would only add the word ‘murderer’ to this tombstone.

“So just killing that bastard would be futile and unfair, right?”

The cracked question was thrown out.

No answer came, but she already knew the correct answer.

She would surely bring down all of Orphe.

She would use that man who approached her to destroy them.

She would bury them in the mud so they could never rise again.

“It seems your meeting was enjoyable.”

Rennet, the driver, casually asked. He wasn’t usually the type to speak up like this. Only then did Damion realize that a faint smile was on his lips.

“Yes, quite.”

Leaning back in the car seat, his violet eyes were filled with interest.

Ansi de Rubellsa, who disappeared a year ago.

At first, he wasn’t sure if it was her.

After all, the first and last time he had officially met Ansi was at the Jeff family’s charity event. Even then, by the time he arrived, she was already leaving, so he had only caught a glimpse of her.

Before that, he had seen her long ago when they were very young, but.

There was no need to bring up that incident which she wouldn’t remember.

When he uttered her name today, the woman before him trembled, afraid of something. Looking at her hair dyed reddish-brown, he was reminded of the deer he had hunted last autumn.

Eyes that shone brightly, looking straight at the opponent even while trembling in a corner.

A gaze pure yet arrogant, as if knowing deep in her heart that she was the noblest in the world, even while her mind knew what her situation was.

But Damion didn’t mind all of that.

Rather than digging too deep, it was easier to deal with someone who had a moderate amount of stubbornness.

As long as she didn’t try to take her life again, this time she would be worth using.

Ansi de Rubellsa.

After all, she was the woman who would take away his misfortune.