To an outsider, it might seem like Larches and Lepherentia were deeply in love.

It was a look of loneliness and pain convincing enough to deceive even me.

“So, there’s something I want to hear.”

Larches got up from the desk where he was sitting.

“If this talk gets long, my legs will hurt, so excuse me for a moment.”

“Ah!”

He pulled the hand he was holding and swiftly changed our positions. Then, he gently grabbed my waist, and before I could ask what he was doing, he lifted me and placed me on the desk.

The very spot Larches was just sitting on.

“Why suddenly…….?”

“I want to hear about Lepherentia Nirel from your perspective.”

My heart felt like it was dropping, faced with his gaze.

It almost felt like he was asking if I was Lepherentia.

Larches extended his hands to either side of where I sat. As he leaned in, our eyes were level, and his face came closer.

The loosely wrapped bandage on his wrist fell down.

Larches was still in his rolled-up sleeves, having been interrupted during his wound treatment.

“I’m just… a maid.”

“I know.”

“How would I know Lepherentia Nirel?”

“I know. But I’m curious about your perspective, what you saw and heard about Lepherentia. No one knows her.”

“……Why does that interest you?”

“Just like you were curious about my choice. I need to know for when I get another chance to decide.”

Larches kept talking in riddles.

‘My story?’

All I can think of are painful deaths that I can’t reveal.

Wanting to escape the topic, I stepped back, causing something on the desk to catch on my finger and fall.

It was the book Larches had been reading.

My gaze instinctively dropped to the fallen book.

A line on the opened page caught my eye.

‘……The abilities of the four guardians?’

Books related to the guardian families are forbidden.

To prevent any tarnishing of the sacred origins of this empire, all information about the guardian families is strictly confidential.
If it was written down, there was a high risk of leakage, so it was passed down directly from the head of the family to the successor during their coming-of-age ceremony.

Of course, my father didn’t nominate me as a successor and planned to pass the family to a trained successor, so he never imparted anything to me.

There was much opposition when it was announced to train a direct successor for the family line. The bloodline of a guardian was crucial. Guardian families were supposed to pass the succession only to males to continue the bloodline.

However, after a tragic accident that took my mother and grandmother, and the death of two uncles, only my father, who was a son-in-law, was left in the Nirel family.

Ultimately, my grandfather, for the first time, passed the succession of the Nirel family to my father, who was not of the direct bloodline, along with a will to pass it on to me, born between my mother and father.

However, my father seemed reluctant to do so. He protested against placing me, a woman, in the role of a successor, and eventually, everyone agreed to train a successor.

‘Why is this forbidden book here……?’

Wondering what was written, I turned my gaze, but Larches was quicker.

He leaned over and closed the book with his large hand.

“……Did you see it?”

Reading a forbidden book could lead to execution.

I couldn’t die here just for reading a line from a forbidden book, especially when I came here to live.

I quickly shook my head.

“You really enjoy reading books.”

“It’s just something I flip through before sleeping.”

Larches threw the book far towards the bed.

“Like those fictional stories, you can tell me a story too. Feel free to make it up.”

“…….”

“As you know, even though I asked everyone, no one really knew Lepherentia properly.”

“……Yes. She was very shy.”

It was the first time someone was interested in my story. And the first time I would tell my story as a man to someone else.

Suddenly, my childhood memories came flooding back.

“So tell me anything. What she liked, her personality. I never met her while she was alive.”

Larches whispered softly. What I liked, my personality.

The countless years I spent in the Nirel mansion and the miserable past days came to mind.

I couldn’t help but let out a self-deprecating smile.

“Can’t you see, Duke?”

“What?”

“She was foolish enough to be betrayed by a trusted fiancé and friend, and when she was ill with an incurable disease, no one shed a tear for her. Just that alone shows how she lived her life.”

I was resurrected countless times, but nothing changed. No one tried to save me; I always died.

No one genuinely cared or cherished me; only those who deceived and used me abounded.

“She didn’t properly mingle with people even during the social season. They said she was shy, but that’s not true. She was just afraid to stand alone. But her only family, Count Nirel, didn’t even realize that. It just shows how distant their relationship was.”

“That’s not what I wanted to hear.”

It was a life I had never opened up about before.

Once I started, it poured out uncontrollably.

“You asked me earlier if I ever thought of saving Lepherentia. Because she was from a guardian family, you said you wanted to save her.”

“……Calm down and stop.”

My breath shook. My heart throbbed painfully as I placed my hand over it, but it was too tense to soothe.

I took several deep breaths, but my stiff body wouldn’t relax.

“No, Duke. ……No one wanted Lepherentia to live. ……That’s the story of Lepherentia I know…….”

“Lea.”

Larches cut me off.

It was the first time he had called me by my name.
His deep voice calling me snapped me back to reality.

I am not Lepherentia. I am Lea.

Through the haze of frustration, Larches’ face finally became visible to me.

His face was all crumpled up as if he had just heard a painful story, almost as if he had been severely injured in battle.

“Lea.”

He called me again, and my intense emotions instantly settled down.

“The last thing you said was wrong.”

It was a calm murmur, but the look in his eyes was burning with intensity.

“There’s a mistake in saying that no one wished for Lepherentia to be alive.”

“Huh?”

A question filled with disbelief was followed by a voice full of conviction.

“I was there. I genuinely wished for Lepherentia to live.”

“……Ah.”

“Lepherentia’s story made you suffer; I didn’t realize that. Let’s end this conversation now.”

Larches helped me down from the desk and grabbed my wrist.

“It’s late. Let me finish the rest of the treatment, and let’s go.”

“Where to……”

Where to go?

“Let’s go to the bedroom where you belong.”

He opened the bedroom door and led me, still dazed, through the hallway.

The Violentus Castle, so different from the Nirel mansion, came into view.

Unlike the warm spring breeze of the Nirel mansion, a cold wind blew through the Violentus Castle.

I am not Lepherentia Nirel.

I am Lea, a maid of the Violentus Castle.

Larches stopped walking in front of my bedroom. He gestured lightly for me to enter.

“Uh…”

But I was still dazed. Unable to do anything, I just stared at Larches, who then reached out and opened my bedroom door. The warmth inside was unbelievable for the North.

The fireplace was blazing with fire.

“Goodnight, then.”

Larches pushed me into the bedroom and offered a light farewell.

“See you tomorrow.”

The door closed with a bang.

I stood in front of the closed door, motionless.

‘I wanted to save Lepherentia. Sincerely.’

His words from earlier echoed in my ears.

Lies. He contemplated killing me.

‘Let’s go to the bedroom where you belong.’

Why would he, of all people, say that to me?

‘See you tomorrow.’

Why would he, of all people, talk to me about tomorrow?