“I have a carriage parked on Bellon Street. Please just take me there.”

Though I had instinctively asked for help upon seeing Lady Roma, I couldn’t impose any further. This was something she had to deal with.

Roma held out the hat. As Ansi reached out to take it, she suddenly realized she was still holding the gun in her hand.

She hurriedly put the safety on and tucked it into her pocket. She didn’t know what to do with Geris’s gun, but for now she needed to get it out of sight.

“What’s that gun for?”

“I’m going to get rid of it.”

Roma rolled her eyes at the curt tone. She pulled back the body she had leaned forward.

“I see. So you’re saying you don’t need me anymore, so get lost?”

“That’s not it.”

Ansi hurriedly explained. She had some decency too. She didn’t want someone who helped her in an emergency to feel that way. Moreover, Roma was one of the few who knew Ansi when she was Rein.

“It’s that man, right? The one who was looking for you in the South.”

“…Yes, that’s right.”

Ansi finally nodded.

“My goodness. You said you didn’t know him back then. I knew something was off. Is he some guy who’s been following you around because he likes you?”

“No! He’s a debt collector.”

Ansi denied the absurd speculation.

“I’ve already paid off the debt. But I don’t know why he’s acting like this…”

Ansi trailed off. She really had no idea why he was looking for her. That rotten bastard. What did he want to get from her, coming all the way to the capital and doing this…

“That explains it. That crazed look in his eyes. It’s clearly a crime of passion. He must have fallen in one-sided love with you and become obsessed.”

The image of Geris grabbing her hair flashed through her mind. As well as the times he would come looking for her, threatening her to pay back the money.

Ansi shook her head.

“That’s not possible.”

“Well, you don’t need to understand. The important thing is that there’s no reasoning with a guy like that. Be careful for a while, and tell your husband to do something about that guy.”

Tell Damion about Geris?

At that thought, the feeling she had once experienced on the sandy beach in the South came over Ansi.

The humiliation of being stripped bare and placed under a bright light. The feeling of becoming so small that she couldn’t even lift her face.

Ansi shook her head.

At least from Damion, she didn’t want him to find out more.

She didn’t want to know what that man would think when he learned that she had debts, and that a debt collector had come all the way to the capital because of it.

She didn’t know why she felt this way. Before, she thought it was because he was an Orphe, because it was in front of the Orphe she hated…

But now she wasn’t sure.

“I don’t want to worry my husband.”

“Look at you! That’s what being a married couple is about. The husband protects the wife, and the wife protects the husband.”

A relationship of protecting each other. That wasn’t it. Ansi had married to bring down that man’s family, to bring him down.

But…

“Ansi, you two are married.”

Ansi couldn’t answer those words.

Strangely, her heart fluttered.

Kardian, who had bent over with his elbows on the terrace railing, tapped his chin with his finger.

He chuckled as he watched Geris fuming impatiently in the narrow alley.

This alley was where Kardian’s gambling den was located.

Just as he had come out to the terrace for some fresh air, he saw Ansi entering the alley.

It was a coincidence that could be called fate.

But then a man appeared and snatched her hat. Kardian was displeased by this sight, but he made no intervention. He merely observed quietly.

He had watched the entire exchange between Ansi and Geris from here. It was such an interesting narrative and spectacle.

How perfect it was right up to the ending. The scene of Ansi threatening the man who had been harassing her with a gun as she left the alley was something he wanted to record and watch over and over again.

However…

Kardian gazed at Geris with eyes full of interest.

It may have been the end for Ansi, but it didn’t seem to be the end for that man. If so, a narrative with that man as the protagonist would be needed as well.

Kardian decided to create a stage for that narrative. Through a bit of consideration and intervention.

“Can you bring that man over? Tell him I’ll let him know where the woman called Rein is.”

“Yes, sir.”

As he pointed to the area below the terrace and spoke to his servant, the servant immediately set off.

Kardian turned his gaze back to Geris. His eyes mixed with contempt and interest.

Geris was still angry. It was a brutish and ignorant attitude, completely devoid of any dignity.

He was just the right talent to be the protagonist for the narrative on stage that Kardian was thinking of now.

The sound of a car was heard from the darkened window outside. Ansi, sitting on the sofa in the room, listened intently to that sound while clutching her book tightly.

Simon, who was tidying up the bedding, said cheerfully.

“It seems the master has returned, madam.”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes, I thought I heard a car just now. Didn’t you hear it?”

“I’m not sure, I was reading.”

In truth, she was reading the first page of the book for the twelfth time. She just couldn’t concentrate. Even though evening had already passed, the events of the day kept coming to mind, preventing the letters from staying in her eyes and slipping away.

What if Geris came looking for her again? Should she carry a gun at all times just in case? Should she tell Damion about this? Thoughts kept chaining together.

It was fortunate that Damion had some business and couldn’t have dinner together today. If she had seen his face, it would have only been uncomfortable. That’s why she pretended not to hear when she heard that man coming.

“Sigh.”

Ansi, who had sighed without realizing it, pulled the lamp on the table a little closer. She thought maybe if it was brighter, this awful concentration might improve a bit.

“Is it dark? Should I bring another lamp?”

“No, it’s fine. It’s just my problem.”

Simon’s eyebrows furrowed at the word ‘problem’. By now, Ansi could tell. When she made such an expression.

“Simon.”

“Yes, madam.”

Simon approached Ansi.

“That day, it was you who called Elize, wasn’t it?”

“Ah…”

When Ansi thought Damion was ashamed of her. When all the gazes around her felt sharp. Just then, Elize had come. And she had insisted on staying together. As if she knew something.

It was only after returning from Sobelvio that Elize revealed it. That there had been a request from Simon.

“I’m sorry if I overstepped, madam. I just thought you might feel better if you saw your friend…”

“Thank you.”

“Oh, it’s nothing, madam. I was just doing my job.”

Simon, who had been blinking for a moment, waved her hands. This wasn’t something she had done to receive such thanks. She had just been worried because the madam had looked so precarious at that time.

Recently, her face had been looking much better. She often smiled when she was with the master. The fact that her cheeks, which had been just pale when she first came here, now seemed to have a pink tinge to them was a frequent topic of conversation among the servants of the mansion.

It was a fortunate thing. Simon smiled bashfully yet happily.

Ansi smiled along with her. As she conversed with Simon, it felt like the fear she had felt during the day was being diluted.

“Then I’ll be taking my leave now, madam.”

“Yes, get some rest, Simon.”

Ansi lowered her gaze back to the book.

The letters still wouldn’t enter her eyes. As she was alone again, Damion de Orphe, that man’s face filled her mind.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Perhaps Simon had left something behind.

“Come in.”

The door opened. But Simon’s voice wasn’t heard. Ansi looked up.

“What book has you so focused?”

Damion smiled freshly. At those words, Ansi closed the book without hesitation and abruptly stood up. She almost involuntarily leapt towards him.

Ansi caught herself and stopped her body.

Why did she do that? She had just been thinking how fortunate it was not to see this man today. Was this heart pawned to Amor the problem?

“It’s just… a book analyzing various plants.”

“That sounds interesting. What kind of plants are in it?”

I don’t know. Not only was nothing left in her mind, but she hadn’t been able to concentrate and had just been reading the introduction on the first page over and over.

“Have you eaten dinner?”

Ansi changed the subject. Not knowing Ansi’s true feelings, the man smiled prettily.

“Yes, I had a dinner meeting with a business partner.”

In fact, he had come from a meeting with the elders, but he deliberately didn’t mention such details. Well, in the grand scheme of things, the elders were also Damion’s business partners, so it wasn’t a lie.

“You must have been busy.”

“I have an early meeting tomorrow as well.”

“Where?”

“…By the lake in Dede Forest.”

There was a moment’s hesitation in Damion’s answer. In his appearance, Ansi once again saw the water-soaked boy from her childhood.

The lake in Dede Forest, if it was that place… it must have been where Ansi met that boy when she was young.

“Perhaps…”

Ansi opened her mouth. Their eyes met. A moment of tension enveloped the two.