Of course, Charlotte remembered.

Contrary to her ability to blur others’ memories, she herself was an owner of astonishingly accurate and meticulous memory.

When she could recall events from ten years ago as if they happened yesterday, there was no way she couldn’t remember a conversation that took place barely two hours ago.

“Of course I remember. So, what do you want me to do? Use my charms on Baron Lirald and lure him to that gloomy room, or what?”

“You seem to have great confidence in your beauty.”

“If you looked like this, you’d understand how I feel every time I look in the mirror.”

Matiel burst into laughter again. For someone who rarely smiled even once in a day, sometimes not for three or four days straight, this was quite unusual.

Of course, even those who knew him well would have been equally surprised.

With her head tilted slightly and chin raised, Charlotte wore a disinterested and arrogant expression, but it only served to enhance her beauty.

Like the most magnificent and thorny rose standing out among the vines.

Matiel gazed at that face with satisfied eyes for a moment before smiling faintly again.

“It’s better to have confidence than not. And it’s much better to be smart than dumb. You have both, so I won’t have much trouble in this tedious party.”

Charlotte’s gaze grew fiercer as she looked up at Matiel.

“Are you saying…”

Matiel blinked, flexing his gloved hands a couple of times before nodding.

“You’re right. I’d like you to use that beauty, which makes even you marvel at yourself every time you look in the mirror, to bring Baron Lirald to that room. I’ll take care of the rest from there.”

What an outrageous man. Charlotte thought. Not only the proposal but his attitude was so brazen it was even offensive.

“Do you think I’m some escort who flirts with men?”

“I didn’t say a word about that.”

“Telling me to use my beauty to lure the Baron into the room is exactly that. I’ll pass on such help.”

Charlotte was about to turn away abruptly.

Matiel clicked his tongue as if frustrated and grabbed her wrist, but when Charlotte twisted her shoulder and pulled away, he stepped back with his palms up.

However, it wasn’t a complete surrender… of course not.

“We don’t have time for this. While you and I are whispering and arguing here, things are progressing moment by moment. If Baron Lirald smuggles it out before us, this is over. It becomes irreversible.”

Whether it became irreversible or not, whether he ended up in some awkward situation or not, it wasn’t really Charlotte’s concern.

If she hadn’t said she would “promise,” she would have left long ago. But…

‘Damn it. Why is everything going wrong today? Nothing is going right.’

Charlotte thought.

She suddenly thought of giving all the ominous bills in her wallet to an abnormally tired-looking beggar, not being able to eat the lunch she wanted because of that, meeting Taemi, and how she would fail to keep her word to him that she “wouldn’t be late.”

The time she spent lost in thought with furrowed brows was brief, but Matiel, as if unable to wait even that short time, spoke again.

“If need be, I could grab him by the collar and drag him myself, but we can’t cause a commotion. To get him out quietly, this is the only way for now.”

Charlotte licked her dry lips with the tip of her tongue and made a clicking sound.

It was a habit that sometimes emerged when she was deep in thought, and Matiel suddenly fixed his gaze on her red lips before startling at his own action and looking away.

Charlotte said,

“There are ways other than such outdated methods.”

Baron Lirald was drinking when he heard the news that his wife had collapsed, but he had no intention of going to check on her.

He didn’t even ask exactly what had happened.

It was known not only to the Baron but to everyone working in the mansion, from high-ranking servants to the apprentice boys who only polished shoes, that the Baroness had been acting like a neurotic patient for the past few months, often showing hysterical reactions to trivial matters, suddenly laughing loudly, then angrily flaring up again.

At first, he was a bit worried, but before long, he grew sick of his wife’s changes.

Even when he occasionally heard from the head butler that his wife had severely abused the maids, he ordered to ignore it.

He had long since lost interest in Baroness Lirald even before ‘something’ began to parasitize her, so it was easy for him to ignore his wife, who seemed to be deepening her mental illness even at a glance.

And above all, he had an important issue right now…

An issue more important than his wife, whom he hadn’t married out of passionate love in the first place.

‘I should finish the work soon. I hope that idiot hasn’t fallen asleep in the middle. If he has, I’ll twist his nose with the biggest clamp he has.’

Whether it was easy or not to cut Lord Rogers’ diamond was not Baron Lirald’s concern.

The man he hired, who mumbled about “the goose of the revolutionary government” and feared mice, was named Lance, and he was skilled in making imitation jewels or appraising the authenticity of gems.

Lance had many other miscellaneous skills, and Baron Lirald took note of his hobby of making miniature models of real objects, as small as a fingernail.

The models he made were often things that were uncomfortable to show others, but his skill was remarkable, and there were many that made it difficult to guess what the original material was.

‘I should go check. If he’s being lazy, I’ll kick his ass… It’s best to move when there are more people around to be less noticeable.’

Baron Lirald put down his empty glass and said,

“Ah, excuse me for a moment. I must go see if my wife has woken up.”

The eyes of the people, who were getting bored with the conversation as the party was winding down, flashed sharply like carnivores finding new prey.

As soon as Baron Lirald turned away, they began to gossip about how the Baroness seemed to have gone mentally unstable recently.

This new topic revived the conversation, and it became even more boisterous as those who were loitering around looking for interesting stories joined in.

The Baron heard the conversations taking place right behind his back but showed no reaction. In fact, he felt no emotion at all.

He didn’t care whether they disparaged his wife or not, whether they belittled her or not…

When he had almost crossed the hall, the head butler, who was most trusted by the Baron, suddenly appeared and blocked his way.

“My lord, there is a young lady waiting in your study. She earnestly asked me to bring you to her.”

For a moment, Baron Lirald felt all his nerves stand on end.

In his mind, only the giant diamond necklace that was being carefully disassembled—if Lance wasn’t dozing off—was clearly visible.

If the Baron had paid more attention to the head butler’s unusually blank eyes instead of the diamond necklace, things might have gone in a different direction.

However, Baron Lirald merely asked this.

“Which study do you mean? And who is this young lady?”

“I didn’t get her name. She was a very beautiful young lady with silver hair. It’s the study on the left side of the corridor. She said she wanted to meet you as discreetly as possible.”

The study on the left side of the corridor. Baron Lirald strode past the still dazed butler.

Along with fear, a strange excitement washed over him.

His heart was racing from the anxiety that no one should find out what was happening there, or more precisely, below that study, and from the explicit message of the “beautiful young lady” and “wanting to meet discreetly” that the butler had mentioned.

The study was dark with the lights off, just as he had left it.

However, Baron Lirald could clearly see the silhouette standing by the window where moonlight was faintly seeping in.

Even though the curtains were covering most of the window, and thus only a very faint light source existed and the mysterious visitor was showing only her back… the Baron suddenly felt his mind burning.

It was the most beautiful backside of a woman he had ever seen in his life.

“Ahem.”

As the Baron cleared his throat, the woman, Charlotte, turned towards him.

The way she first turned her shoulders, then her chin very slowly while keeping her lower body still, was captivating.

Baron Lirald’s face flushed red in the darkness.

“Hello, Baron.”

When Charlotte’s voice flowed between her lips, Baron Lirald was already striding towards her.

However, when about two steps of distance remained, Charlotte raised her hand as if to tell him to stop.