The dream always started the same way. A man with black hair and blue eyes knelt before Riena on one knee, looking up at her.

It was a posture reminiscent of a knight’s oath to his lady.

The only difference from a knight’s oath was that the man’s eyes were red, as if he were about to cry.

There was no trace of the solemnity of an oath anywhere. What occupied the man’s face was an intensely strong sadness and desperation.

This was the fifth time she had this recurring dream since her father, Count Dyke, died two months ago. The content of the dream was always the same, as if replaying a magical video recording.

“I can no longer leave you be.”

In this dream too, the man pleaded with Riena. While Riena clearly didn’t know him, he treated her as if he knew her very well, perhaps even more intimately than that.

Riena wanted to ask. Who are you? Who are you to look at me with such concern? Why are you pleading with me like this?

But no voice came out. She tried to move her lips to speak, but as always, they only flapped uselessly, her vocal cords silent like the little mermaid who had lost her voice.

Why? Why couldn’t she control her own dream?

As she struggled to produce a sound that wouldn’t come out, pondering these questions, the man spoke again.

“Are you saying no this time as well?”

His voice, laboriously uttering each syllable, was quite pitiful. Even though it was a simple question, he seemed to find it incredibly difficult to say those words.

The man, who appeared to be a head taller than Riena and likely twice her build, could barely breathe. Probably because he was crushed by despair.

While Riena couldn’t identify the man, she could strangely feel his emotions acutely.

Despair and frustration, regret and sorrow, and pain. All sorts of negative emotions resided in the man’s heart.

Her heart fluttered in response, and she felt like she might cry.

“I am prepared to give up everything for you, if that is what you wish.”

He was clearly a stranger. Yet, Riena always wanted to answer him like this:

You don’t need to do that for me. Forget about someone like me and walk your own path.

But once again, her thoughts didn’t make it past her lips, and in the end, she couldn’t convey these words either.

The man continued as if he had heard Riena’s inner thoughts.

“My life has no meaning without you. If I could have you, I would be satisfied even if I had to give up everything else.”

No, don’t do that. You shouldn’t throw away all your wealth and honor for someone like me. Rather, you’re too good for me.

Riena muttered inwardly, despite knowing nothing about the man.

“So please, Lady Riena.”

The man took Riena’s hand and pressed his lips to the back of it. As her sleeve rode up, her arm was revealed to be covered in bruises and wounds. Riena instinctively tried to pull down her sleeve to cover the injuries, but the man was a beat faster.

He gently caressed around the newly healing wound with his thumb. Drip, drip. The man’s tears, unable to be held back, fell sorrowfully onto the wound, one drop at a time.

It was strange. Though it was clearly a dream, all the sensations felt so vivid. The hot, ragged breath touching the back of her hand, and even the sensation of cold tears falling on her wounds.

As if this wasn’t a dream but reality.

“Just say you’ll leave with me, that’s all I need.”

I can’t do that. I will only ruin your life.

“If you say no this time as well, I will take you away even if I have to kidnap you.”

Don’t do that, please.

The unspoken words disappeared like bubbles.

She had to tell him. That she couldn’t go with him, but please don’t cry because of her.

What expression would he make if she said that?

But the answer to that was far out of reach. As soon as that thought crossed her mind, everything went dark.

The dream ended, as always, leaving only questions behind.

As soon as she opened her eyes, hot tears flowed down her temples. Realizing she had dreamed again, Riena stared at the familiar ceiling and tried to catch her breath.

But even after taking deep breaths and biting her lip, her heightened emotions showed no signs of subsiding.

All because of a man she had only seen in a dream. A man whose name and status she knew nothing about, whose very existence she couldn’t even be sure of.

Yet, despite knowing this was an irrational reaction, Riena cried every time she dreamed of the man, as if she had lost something precious.

A sense of loss as great as when she lost her father, Count Dyke, two months ago, engulfed her entire body. It felt as if someone close to her had just left.

She couldn’t understand why. It had just been like this every time she woke up from the dream that had repeated five times since her father’s death.

If only she knew why the man had such a sad expression.

No, if only that man actually existed. Why did he only live in her dreams?

If he were someone she could never meet, he shouldn’t have looked at her with such intense eyes. He shouldn’t have pleaded with such a desperate voice.

Today too, Riena buried herself under the blanket and cried silently.

Even Riena herself didn’t know where these emotions came from. She only knew that the fact she couldn’t meet the man made her sad.

“Lady Dyke is so docile, it’s quite nice. My ex-wife had such a strong personality, I could never really feel affection for her.”

The brown-haired man, Baron Rothman, licked his lips as he looked Riena up and down. It seemed he was completely oblivious to the fact that she was staying still because she disliked dealing with him.

Until her father’s death, Riena had been what her stepsister Bianca called a ‘tomboy’, galloping freely across the fields on horseback.

The modifier ‘docile’ didn’t suit her at all originally. Yet, the reason she was enduring all this humiliation was to avoid tarnishing her father, Count Dyke’s, reputation.

Her father, a knight who valued goodwill, had always taught Riena not to tolerate injustice, but also not to carelessly harm others.

Even if Baron Rothman was displeasing and spoke rudely, he was a guest at the Dyke household. As a member of the family, it would be impolite to get angry at a guest.

However, as Riena remained quiet, Baron Rothman began to cross the line more and more.

“But I wish you had changed into a different dress before coming.”

He smacked his lips as he looked at Riena’s attire.

The dress she was currently wearing was black, covering everything from her neck to her wrists and ankles, with not a single area of skin exposed. It was mourning attire to honor her father.

Riena glanced over her own clothes once before responding calmly.

“It hasn’t been long since my father passed away. As his child, I must fulfill my duty.”

Her tone was as if stating an obvious fact, like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.

However, considering that Countess Dyke on the opposite side, her daughter Bianca, and Riena’s half-brother Aaron were all wearing elaborate clothes, it was quite a contradictory statement.

So these words were not only a rebuke to Baron Rothman but also a criticism of the other family members.

Feeling ignored, Baron Rothman’s face turned red and blue alternately. Thanks to the freckles all over the bridge of his nose, his face looked exactly like a withered strawberry.

“I too regret Count Dyke’s passing. But it’s already been two months since the funeral, hasn’t it? Everyone else has already taken off their mourning clothes. If you alone continue to wear mourning attire, won’t it make the mansion atmosphere even more gloomy?”

Typically, in the Empire, the period for wearing mourning clothes was about a month. It wasn’t legally mandated, but it was a social convention.

The other members of the Dyke family had started wearing elaborate clothes as soon as that month passed, as if they had been waiting for it. Unlike Riena, who was still immersed in grief, they seemed to have little regret about the Count’s death.

In any case, just because social convention dictated a month, wearing mourning clothes for longer than a month was not at all a flaw. Rather, in the Empire, there was a prevalent belief that the longer one wore mourning clothes, the more they loved their family. Therefore, Riena’s behavior should have been praised as that of a filial daughter.

In fact, it’s said that when the previous Emperor lost his beloved Empress, he wore mourning clothes for a year. Considering that, two months is short.

Yet, to speak in such an admonishing tone. She inwardly sneered and opened her mouth again.

“Well, I suppose Mother’s affection for Father wasn’t very deep.”

This time, Countess Dyke’s face turned red. Riena shrugged her shoulders at her as if to say ‘What’s wrong?’, and took a spoonful of the lemon sherbet served as dessert.

The sherbet was certainly sour enough to make her eyes close involuntarily, but perhaps due to the bitterness in her mouth, she couldn’t taste anything at all.