Chapter 4

Seven years later, the Herbron estate.

Seven years ago, during the mere three days Rene stayed here, she finalized Adel and Ethan’s marriage.

And at dawn on the third day, Baron Millium had already assembled the family’s knights and come to the Herbron estate to fetch Adel.

There were many who wanted to curry favor with a family soon to become relatives of the imperial house, so rebuilding the family’s knight order with their support would have been no trouble at all.

But he could not simply take away a daughter who had already completed her marriage vows.

Watching from afar as her father and sister argued, Adel could do nothing but fret.

In the end, her father left Herbron empty-handed, and Rene followed after him.

And the day after Rene left, Ethan, too, departed for the capital.

There was the pretext of broadening his horizons in the capital, but Adel was not young enough not to know that he had fled the estate to avoid her.

Six years after that, in the year Adel came of age, he returned to the estate for the wedding.

A full year had already passed since the two had held their wedding.

Today, too, Adel was wandering all over the mansion in light clothing.

And she also knew that Susan was watching her with anxious eyes.

“Don’t tell me you climbed a tree again today?”

Not answering questions unfavorable to herself was an old habit of Adel’s, who could not tell lies.

“You haven’t forgotten what day it is, have you?”

As if she could forget.

It was a grand word to call it a conjugal night, but in noble families, days were set two or three times a month for sleeping with one’s wife.

Over the past year, whenever that day came, Ethan had invented excuses.

Some days he worked late, and on others he left at dawn saying he was going to inspect the estate and returned the next day.

The only night they had slept together was their wedding night, but even that was a memory Adel did not want to recall, because Ethan had come in so drunk he could not hold himself upright.

For the husband who avoided her, Adel had also often stepped forward to invent reasons for him.

But now neither of them had any excuse left to offer.

With an expression that said there was no helping it, he left word for her to wait in his room tonight and went out for a light hunt.

“You absolutely must do your skin care today.”

“No. I’m going archery.”

“With whom?”

“Who do you think?”

Adel often visited the place where the family’s knights trained.

The two knights who had guarded the drawing room door on that day seven years ago when her sister Rene visited had now become very close to Adel.

One of them, a knight named Cedric, had even been serving as Adel’s swordplay teacher for several years.

At the time, Cedric was so tall that Adel thought he must be much older than she was, but he was only seventeen. He was merely an apprentice knight who had just finished his probation.

“Still, I won’t be too late.”

She tried to act as usual, but in truth Adel’s heart had been restless all day.

Once, in her childhood, Adel had casually asked Ethan what kind of woman was his ideal.

At first he only smiled, but when Adel asked again and again, he gazed into the distance for a moment.

And then he said this.

A woman who walks like air, speaks like a butterfly, and smiles like a flower….

Ever since first hearing those words, Adel repeated them in her heart every day.

She knew she could never walk like air or speak like a butterfly, but she wanted to become a wife who pleased him as much as possible.

So Ethan did not know that Adel was the sort of person who rode fast horses, shot a bow roughly, and went out to the market to mix freely with people.

But now, after long years, Adel’s heart had become utterly empty, like a tree rotten inside with only the outer shell left.

“That’s a relief, at least. Then today I’ll make your hair shine.”

“All right.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Then how about applying honey to your body?”

Since Adel was unusually obedient today, Susan did not miss the chance and tried to push through everything she had wanted to do for her mistress.

Even if you say no, just for today, I absolutely will….

“Yes, do it.”

“Pardon?”

Quite apart from Adel’s heart being empty, she did not want to be criticized for not making an effort as a wife.

Until now there had been little pressure because Ethan had not stayed in Herbron, but a year had already passed since he returned to the estate.

She could no longer avoid the family’s pressure about an heir.

Soon Adel had to immerse herself in a bath that reeked of honey.

While Susan bustled about preparing for the night, Adel once again reviewed the sites for installing the waterway system.

The Herbron estate was more livable than other places, but it went without saying that its conditions were harsh.

Most noble mansions were well equipped with waterworks, but the estate’s people living in remote corners or near the mountains had to walk all day to get water.

For the past several months, Adel had poured much time and effort into this project.

She had not only dug up and examined the waterway system in the annex, but had also spent all day at the fountain in the mansion’s rear garden, claiming to be researching something.

Besides, with the current waterway technology, even a smooth supply of water was difficult.

But not long ago, she had devised a way to send water farther and more safely using differences in air pressure.

If it had not been for Aide Hank, it would have been something she could not even have dared attempt.

Susan, thoroughly excited, chattered like a lark all day and tended Adel’s golden hair strand by strand.

Before long, as the sun began to sink, all her efforts to focus on work came to nothing.

It was a night she had once wished for without ceasing, and now did not want.

Adelaide, who had loved only that man, no longer existed.

The man remained the same, but Adel had grown over the years from a child into a woman.

“Please stop looking at documents now.”

“Hmm? Ah, all right.”

The moment she took her eyes off the documents at Susan’s urging, Adel heard a kind of noise she had never once heard since coming to this house.

And soon the head butler Ben appeared.

“A guest… has arrived.”

“A guest? Who is it?”

When a guest arrived, it was the head butler’s duty to first state who had come.

But he hesitated and could not reveal the guest’s identity, and suddenly she felt an ominous premonition.

“Perhaps someone from my family?”

“That is not the case.”

Since she had not yet changed into comfortable clothes, Adel brushed off her skirt and rose from her seat.

She could have asked again who had come, but Ben’s troubled face bothered her, so she decided to simply go to the drawing room.

On the way down, Ben revealed the visitor’s identity in a lower voice than usual.

“She is a maid who once worked at this mansion. Her name is Annaston Lowell.”

Just as she thought the name was quite elegant for a maid, Ben continued.

“The other maids simply called her Anna.”

Adel’s steps halted abruptly, and she stopped where she was.

That name was one she could never forget, no matter how she tried.

On their wedding night, Ethan, thoroughly drunk, had put his mouth to Adel’s ear and called that name over and over.

The name Ethan had whispered like tinnitus rang recklessly, without permission.

〈Anna, Anna, my Anna….〉

At the repeated voice, she could not breathe properly, so she took a deep breath until her chest felt full.

“Are you unwell?”

“Ah, no. Let’s go quickly.”

When the drawing room door opened, a woman and a boy came into view.

When Adel appeared, the woman rose from the sofa and walked slowly to stand before her.

She thought the way the woman walked with her back straight was quite beautiful.

“I greet the Countess.”

The woman, who spoke in a quiet voice as if whispering, soon smiled softly.

“I am Annaston Lowell.”

Truly, she was a woman who walked like air, spoke like a butterfly, and smiled like a flower.

* * *

It was a breathtaking sight that made everyone watching hold their breath, but Adel tried to accept the situation calmly.

Adel turned her head and looked at the boy standing blankly beside the sofa.

About nine years old, perhaps?

But what caught her gaze first was the child’s blue eyes, deep as the sea.

Annaston, noticing Adel’s gaze, went to the child, took his wrist, and led him before her.

“He is the Count’s son.”

“And your son as well?”

Susan flinched at the Countess’s cold voice, which she had not heard in a long time.

At first glance, the Countess, with golden hair that seemed to drip honey and lovely pink cheeks, was far more rational and cool-headed than expected.

“Th-that is correct.”

“His age?”

“He is eight.”

Even in this wretched moment, having to ask the child’s age and count the years backward made her feel miserable and dizzy.

The child had inherited Ethan’s blue eyes and the woman’s brown hair exactly.

His impression was gentle and soft, but the slightly drooping corners of his eyes were a little sharp, and he resembled Ethan exactly.

“His name?”

“Lewein. Lewein Devryan.”

The woman, who spat out the family name as if in provocation, looked straight into Adel’s eyes.

Adel had never once permitted this woman to compare herself to her.

Yet a strange sense of victory lingered on the face of this unfamiliar woman.

Her gaze seemed to force Adel to feel defeat.

“The head of the family will be here soon.”

But Adel had no intention of being swept up in such childish emotional games.

Without even sitting down, she left only those words and turned away.

But at that moment, a crash of noise came from outside, and the drawing room door burst open.

The only person in this house who could open that door so recklessly without permission was Ethan Devryan, the master of the mansion.

For a moment, Adel thought she had met Ethan’s eyes.

She resolved to listen calmly to his explanation and do as he wished.

But.

“Anna!”

As if Adel were not there at all, Ethan flew to the woman.

And without a moment’s hesitation, he snatched the woman into his arms.

“Where on earth have you been, and why have you only appeared now? Do you know—do you know how long I have searched for you?”