“Please give me just one day.”

Liz’s face was filled with questions as she recalled Ishar’s last words.

How could he make an unheard-of dish within a day? It wouldn’t be easy, starting from obtaining the ingredients.

‘Most likely, tomorrow, he’ll apologize and say he couldn’t make it, no matter what.’

Liz didn’t expect much.

Suddenly, her eyelids began to droop.

Since she started having many thoughts, she couldn’t fall asleep easily for a few hours, but recently, she had been falling asleep early.

She thought she would fall asleep as soon as she closed her eyes today as well. At that moment, a heavy footstep sound echoing in the marble corridor alerted Liz’s consciousness.

Hersis had come.

“I must have woken you up.”

He apologized when he noticed Liz’s drowsy eyes.

Liz raised her head as she sat up.

“It’s okay. But what brings you here?”

“I came briefly to see my wife’s face while she was working.”

“Is your work not finished yet?”

Liz looked at the wall clock.

“It’s past ten.”

“If I don’t work, what will a vigorous man like me do on a long night?”

His eyes expressed dissatisfaction and frustration. Liz felt somehow sorry.

Hersis laid Liz back down and covered her with a blanket up to her chest.

Then, he sat at the end of the bed, looking down.

“Lie down a bit.”

“I might feel like getting drunk if I lie down.”

Liz decided not to insist further.

… Her body condition wasn’t great for enjoying leisure with him. Especially with the sharp, throbbing pain in her lower abdomen, Liz was on the verge of falling for Noiroze.

There were also menstrual issues, but they didn’t play a significant role.

It had been dripping all day, but it completely stopped by the evening.

Ending in a day was unprecedented.

“Have you seen a doctor?”

“Yes.”

Liz knew he already knew, but she also knew he wanted to hear it from her.

“I feel like I have the flu. They said it would get better if I take medicine and rest for a few days.”

“Fortunately. It’s not too severe.”

Hersis spoke with a relieved expression. Liz, for a moment, was captivated by his warm gaze, then remembered something she had forgotten.

‘Come to think of it, there was medicine. I’ll endure a little more, and if it doesn’t work, I should take the medicine.’

“How was Esmond?”

Hersis asked.

“She was fine. Weakness is a disadvantage, but she has some interesting qualities. It wasn’t bad to have her by my side.”

It wasn’t easy to lie to him, but she had no choice.

Since Hersis, like Ishar, thought that Liz wanted to have the female of the Esmond family under her control for the unity of power, lying was essential to please him.

“Okay. But if she alone doesn’t seem enough, you can bring in a few more. My mother had three.”

“One is enough. We have Rosa.”

Liz said.

Hersis gently stroked Liz’s red hair again and again.
It felt as if my body was relaxing in his hands, entrusted to him, making me lethargic.

My eyes closed again.

“I’ve sent a dinner invitation to the Marquis and his wife Morson.”

My eyes opened wide again.

“Really?”

Hersis nodded with a smile.

“It will be two days from now, at noon.”

A fluttering and tingling feeling, like insects flying in my heart.

“How much could those two have changed? I wonder if I won’t recognize them.”

“I don’t think they’ve changed at all. At least not in the way you’re concerned about.”

Hersis said.

He knew Mirabel and Jonathan as well as he knew himself, so Liz thought his words might be true.

“Mirabel must have scolded you a lot.”

“Probably.”

“Mirabel will undoubtedly be a good mother. She even made a rascal like me play the role of a person.”

It was meant as a joke, but Hersis’s expression was unexpectedly serious.

Looking down at Liz with a tender gaze, he said,

“You’ll be a good mother too.”

“Yes, I have to. But later, not now.”

“Why not now?”

Liz was the type of woman who didn’t hesitate about decisions she was determined about.

“Because there’s a lot to do now. I’ll have a child later. If I have one now, it’ll just be a burden.”

Hersis swept Liz’s red hair between his fingers, making a faint smile.

He had no intention of forcing her.

What was important to him was Liz first and Liz second.

Children didn’t fit into those priorities.

Moreover, a child that hadn’t even been conceived.

Liz had a dream.

It was a dream where the ending of the novel repeated endlessly.

“Indeed, wouldn’t it have been better to just die gracefully? Then your head would still be attached. Only those wretched surgeons would suffer.”

Duke Montaner left cruel words with a wicked smile.

Even in dismay, Hersis didn’t lose his dignity.

He bit his lips and stared at his uncle’s face.

As if determined to remember even after several lives.

The Duke opened a vial of herbal liquid and let the potion flow into his mouth.

And while the antidote cleansed his veins, he instructed his subordinates as if he needed something to watch during the detoxification.

“Strike.”

A man raised his sword. The Duke’s cruel subordinate was not.