“……Huh.”

Damion chuckled in disbelief at her mischievous behavior. However, he was also intrigued.

He was curious and excited to see how that woman would react.

But the result was somewhat disappointing.

The woman did not retaliate.

She just lay face down, sifting through the sand.

Damion took a step forward. His gaze remained fixed on the woman.

Only after feeling the rough sensation of sand seeping into his shoes did he realize he had walked onto the beach.

“Damn it.”

But what could he do now that he was already here? Damion continued walking towards Ansi de Rubella.

As he got closer to her, her figure became clearer. Her dry expression, devoid of any emotion, somehow irritated Damion.

And the next moment.

His eyes met with the woman who had risen from her spot.

“……”

But the woman simply turned her head away.

She neither acknowledged him nor asked to be rescued from this unjust situation.

Why?

A question arose in Damion’s mind.

He had clearly told the woman he liked her. Shouldn’t she look at him as if she had found an ally?

The woman looked rather uncomfortable instead.

Her face, which had seemed indifferent before, now contorted upon seeing Damion. She even looked like she wanted to flee from this place.

Somehow, it left a bad taste in his mouth.

It felt like being rejected without even confessing. No, he had already confessed, so was this just a straight rejection?

A woman who neither felt his necessity nor was glad to see him.

His confidence that the lunchtime meeting would reach a good conclusion wavered.

Moreover, the words he was hearing now didn’t sit well with him either.

“Your mother will die if she doesn’t take her medicine, right?”

Ziden’s daughter hurled rude words at Ansi de Rubella, who was behaving submissively.

Damion was certain that Ansi would simply bow her head this time too. After all, she had crawled on the ground to pick up fallen cookie crumbs, so surely she couldn’t fail to endure mere words.

If that were the case, even if she didn’t want it, even if she hadn’t requested it, he was willing to gladly shatter that false peace.

Ansi de Rubella would become Damion’s chess piece, and he disliked the idea of others using her carelessly.

However, the woman’s reaction was, once again, different from what he expected.

“Pardon me, young lady. But I have done nothing to warrant kneeling or apologizing.”

The blue eyes that had been quiet suddenly swirled fiercely. The firm voice that escaped from her small, plump lips was as sharp as one could never have imagined from her calm appearance just moments ago.

Like a wave that crashes over its opponent when they let their guard down.

In any case, the woman ended up ignoring him until the moment Damion reached her. As if asserting that she didn’t need his help.

Damion felt childishly spiteful.

He too wanted to ignore her.

Until that woman called his name.

Ansi flung open the door to the man’s room without knocking and strode in.

It was better to enter like this, even if a bit rude, than to risk being seen by someone passing by while waiting for the door to be opened.

The man was closing the curtains of the window. Without showing any sign of surprise, he finished what he was doing with a leisurely hand and turned around, smiling languidly.

“It’s been a while.”

The man’s greeting seemed oddly formal. Hadn’t they been in the same space all day since the beach this morning? Although this was the first time they were actually conversing.

“Did you tell the Ziden family about me?”

Ansi walked briskly towards the man and immediately asked the question.

Before having a proper conversation, she needed to confirm this first. The direction of the subsequent dialogue would be determined based on this.

“About Rain? Or about Ansi?”

The man raised his eyebrow slightly as he asked. He was playing with words.

Ansi looked straight at him and spoke once more.

“About ‘me’.”

Ansi had no intention of playing along with his word games.

Damion lowered his gaze to look at Ansi. Her image filled his downcast eyes completely.

Her eyes glaring at him were piercingly transparent. While harboring impatience, they shone boldly.

As if they might shatter if provoked further.

“I didn’t. Not a word.”

In the end, Damion took a step back first. After all, she was the one who spoke first, so in a way, they were even.

“Thank you.”

“Leave this place, Ansi.”

A gentle voice. However, the tone was closer to an order than a suggestion. Ansi’s eyebrows rose, unable to hide her dissatisfaction.

“This isn’t a place where you should be working under such treatment, is it?”

Ansi glared at Damion with her lips tightly pressed.

This man doesn’t know. How much had happened just for her to get in here.

She had come down to the south alone, as if fleeing, but had nowhere to go. Robbed of her jewelry by a porter, she faced gazes that scanned her like hyenas.

As Ansi, all she could get was either pity or contempt. She barely created the name Rain and applied for jobs in numerous places, but she knew nothing.

It was the first time. That she felt so powerless.

So she became numb even to ‘such treatment’. That numbness became indifference.

But.

In front of this man, emotions that seemed to have been corked up burst out. The shame she had tried so hard to ignore raised its head.

She realized she was in an uncivilized situation only when someone else’s gaze fell upon her. That brought an uneasiness greater than shame.

But such emotions were unnecessary now as well.

Instead, Ansi decided to use even this dirty feeling if she could. If it was Damion de Orphe who had made her aware of her cesspool-like reality, then perhaps things had become easier.

Rather than mocking him for how easily he told her to quit, Ansi asked in a rather polite tone.

“If you pity me, could you grant me one request?”

Damion slightly raised his eyebrows, as if surprised by Ansi’s question. The corners of his mouth, which had been stiff, curled up slightly.

“If it’s for your own good, as much as I can.”

“Please let me work at the Orphe family mansion.”

“……”

It didn’t seem to be a welcome request. A troubled expression spread across Damion’s face.

However, for Ansi, this was the best path she could take right now.

To bring down Orphe, she needed continuous interaction with Orphe.

Rather than being in an unstable state where she might not know when she would see this man’s face again after having a cup of tea, it would be much more advantageous to constantly observe and monitor Orphe through work as a servant.

Ansi spoke calmly, deliberately, to persuade him.

“I adapt to work quite quickly. I’m also quite meticulous. You can check with the other servants at the Ziden baronet’s house if you’d like.”

“I don’t need to check. I could tell just by seeing you today.”

“Then, about working at the Orphe house……”

“That’s not possible. I know you’re Ansi de Rubella.”

“Is that important?”

“It is to me.”

“Why?”

“I told you. That I like you.”

Ansi was at a loss for words at the confession that came like an attack.

His gaze was quite serious. She thought he was teasing her, but it seemed he really did like her.

Ah, the naive and romantic young master of Orphe. What was he trying to do? Useless emotions like love neither put food on the table nor exacted revenge.

“If you really like me, couldn’t you grant my request?”

“That’s not possible. Instead, how about this?”

Damion gently enveloped Ansi’s left hand. Ansi’s gaze fell to his large hand.

His long fingers pressed down on her hand firmly. Unlike Labou’s rough grip, this gentle pressure evoked a strange sentiment.

“Let’s date, Ansi.”

The man’s soft voice overlaid on top of that.

Ansi blinked rapidly and only understood his words after about 3 seconds had passed. She quickly raised her head to look at the man.

“Do you mean you want me to become your mistress?”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“If that made you uncomfortable, I’ll rephrase it as ‘lover’.”

Damion furrowed his brows. A troubled sigh escaped from between his reddish lips.

But no matter how he tried to dress it up, wasn’t that essentially what he was proposing?

Many nobles kept lovers for brief amusement before or after marriage. Most of them existed not as serious romantic partners, but as objects of play.

Instead of offering her a job as a servant, he wants to date. He probably means to cover her living expenses in exchange for romance.

An unpleasant churning rose up. Ansi bit the inside of her lip and swallowed this dirty feeling.

It was a humiliating but not bad proposal. After all, if she could maintain a continuous relationship with this man in that way, she might be able to uncover Orphe’s weaknesses.

“If you prefer to keep a low profile, I suppose we’ll have to meet frequently in the south.”

“Well. While Rain Arel might go unnoticed, dating Ansi de Rubella would attract attention one way or another.”

“Does that mean… you want a public relationship?”

“I prefer that to a secret affair.”

“The name Ansi is one I don’t use anymore. It’s also a name tainted with a bad reputation.”

“If you attract attention in a different way, that stigma will be erased to some extent.”

Damion bent slightly at the waist to meet her eyes. A calm tone resembling a whisper continued.

“It might sound unpleasant, but the Orphe modifier is quite useful. Rumors of dating an Orphe will overshadow existing evaluations of you or the Rubella family, and public perception will change considerably.”

“What if Orphe suffers damage due to that stigma?”

“That won’t happen. Don’t worry.”

It was a confident attitude.

This man had no idea that her goal was to render that Orphe modifier useless.

“It’s not a bad proposal for you either. In a month, you can start a tutoring job or a business under your own name. Not as Rain Arel.”

“What happens after a month?”

“You choose. Whether to break up with me, or……”

He smiled slyly. The corners of his mouth rose elegantly and languidly.

“To marry.”