Chapter 3

Maxim pulled back from the window and sighed. Even in the gesture of running his hand through his hair, he couldn’t hide his deep fatigue.

“I’m tired. I want to go back quickly.”

There was a faint edge to his urging voice. Elena hesitated. Actually, she had no idea what state of mind had brought her this far. She had walked aimlessly and arrived at Cress Bridge. It was the same pattern every time, but today was just a bit special.

Because this noble-looking man had intervened.

The man sighed once more and turned his head.

“I think I’ve meddled excessively at this point. I’ll be going now…”

“Please give me a ride. If you go over that hill, it’s the first house you’ll see. I’d be grateful if you could let me off somewhere far before we arrive.”

Elena spoke rapid-fire and went around to the carriage entrance. A well-dressed coachman opened the door and escorted her. The coachman’s smile gave Elena courage.

“Thank you.”

Elena, who whispered her thanks to the coachman in a small voice, swallowed. Actually, getting in this carriage was a kind of gamble. It would be fine if the man was a bad person and she died like this, and if he was really a good person, she would get a carriage ride. Elena had nothing to lose.

The inside of the carriage was larger than it appeared from the outside, and the man riding inside was large enough to match it.

Rather than strange, it felt like elegant savagery.

‘Is savagery the right word?’

Elena quickly turned her head. She couldn’t even believe she was having such thoughts. In bewilderment, she bit her lips tightly.

“Ah.”

That made her split lip hurt. Elena covered her face, pretending to rub her cheek with her hand. To show such a sight in front of someone so neat and a real nobleman she was seeing for the first time in her life. Embarrassment washed over her. Her toes twitched involuntarily.

She felt the man’s gaze brush past Elena’s feet. The man’s gaze, which had been observing her briefly, stopped around her face.

He was probably looking at the wounds on her face. They were wounds she had gotten from being pushed around and hit by Cecilia.

Elena closed her eyes and counted numbers, hoping this carriage would stop quickly.

The carriage moved steadily, and the two of them retraced the path Elena had walked alone. The carriage stopped. Elena ran away like a startled rabbit through the politely opened door. Watching her retreating figure, Maxim smiled. There were no words of thanks or introductions.

She was pitifully like an attacked herbivore. Was she timid or rude?

After the woman ran away, the coachman’s face appeared beyond the door. It was a face that looked somehow proud. All the servants in this household were strange. Maxim clicked his tongue. He didn’t know how the head butler managed people. They were all nagging busybodies.

“Are you satisfied now?”

“…Everyone in the imperial capital will admire the grace Your Grace has bestowed.”

Maxim clicked his tongue and personally closed the door with a sound.

---

Maxim found each day in Levonto unbearably boring. His aunt was doing everything to keep Maxim tied to this place. She had refused to see him for a week, lying down with the excuse of being sick.

‘Grandfather only doted on aunt.’

Maxim ground his teeth. That’s why she was still so willful even at 60.

His aunt should definitely understand what a tremendous loss this was for a businessman to whom every minute and second was important. Still, today his aunt would have no choice but to show herself. Today was his aunt’s 60th birthday banquet.

Once today passed, Maxim would also leave this boring Levonto.

Of course, Maxim wasn’t the only one called down to Levonto.

Camellia was also in Levonto. Since Camellia and Maxim’s connection was long-standing, they naturally ended up sitting at the same table. Just because they had known each other for a long time didn’t mean they got along well. Kales approached them as they sat side by side, maintaining silence without exchanging a single word.

“You two are probably the only ones here with such bored faces. Others might think there’s some great trouble in your families.”

“Thanks for saying so.”

Camellia answered monotonously and turned her head. Countess Presto seemed to have invited all the nobles residing in this area. Well, Count Presto was putting all his effort into marrying off his only son.

Even if their intentions were different from Countess Presto’s, what both wanted was the same. Gathering many nobles here. Since they had scattered invitations to the capital as well, all those hoping to form connections with the Presto family would have come.

Camellia, who had been sitting with a bored expression, narrowed her eyes.

“…Still, that woman was too much.”

Camellia muttered.

At the end of her gaze stood Cecilia Joseph, dressed up like a peacock. Though she was trying to hide it by crudely attaching this and that, the hem of her dress was worn and frayed, and the jewelry she wore was tacky.

Clothing that didn’t match fashion at all and thick makeup.

Everything combined made Cecilia look like a clown.

“Do we have to invite even women like that? Maxim, what would you do if your aunt tried to marry you to a woman like that?”

Maxim, whose name was called while raising his wine glass, slowly turned his head. Where Camellia gestured, a woman who couldn’t adapt to this place and was being left out stood fidgeting.

White, small, and somehow familiar.

That kind of woman.

Maxim blinked.

‘Someone familiar I seem to have seen somewhere.’

Since his own impression was like that, it seemed he had encountered her in the past. The woman standing in a short skirt that barely covered her ankles, a faded dress, and a dress that seemed too big for her as if it wasn’t hers, was pure unlike her attire.

Transparent blue eyes that seemed to occupy half of her white face were sparkling with moisture.

Her hair ornament was already a mess, having been touched by some hand, and was about to fall off. People’s murmuring was focused on the woman.

The woman looked like a small animal looking for a place to escape.

The moment Maxim looked down at the woman’s feet again, he recalled the pure white feet that had been exposed. Feet that were just white, though dirty.

“Ah.”

At Maxim’s exclamation, Camellia followed the end of Maxim’s gaze.

It was that woman from back then.

A week ago, the day when he thought he had saved her at Cress Bridge but instead watched a fleeing rabbit with the heart of a hunter. Maxim chuckled. Who would have thought they’d meet like this?

“Do you know that woman?”

It was Kales who answered Camellia’s hurried question.

“I can roughly guess. That woman over there is called Cecilia Joseph. Seeing that their clothing is similar, she must have brought her daughter. Poor thing. What would it feel like to be born as the daughter of such a woman? Like becoming a bird to be mocked?”

Maxim narrowed his eyes.

Joseph, Joseph.

…Elena Joseph.

Now I even know her name. Maxim smiled coldly.

That day when Maxim gave Elena a ride was something that happened due to the coachman’s strong insistence. The coachman had loudly chattered away. He had imagined at least seven worst-case scenarios Elena could encounter wandering outside in such a state in this weather. With that level of imagination in such a short time, shouldn’t he become a writer?

When fatigue was added to nagging and Maxim couldn’t stand it anymore and turned the carriage around, the coachman shouted with a voice full of joy.

[‘I knew our Duke was a kind person! I believed in you!!’]

What exactly did he believe in, and what… Ha. He had thought countless times that he should have taken the train. He didn’t want to be crowded with others, and since he couldn’t get train tickets, he had no choice but to choose the carriage, only for this to happen.

Anyway, it was a woman he had met through such a connection.

Though he never thought she would appear here looking like that. Looking at the mother’s behavior of roughly dragging her daughter around, their intention was clear.

The woman was here to be sold at an expensive price in this marriage market.

Maxim narrowed his eyes.

Even though her attire wasn’t disheveled and she was wearing shoes, that completely messy appearance at Cress Bridge looked better than today.

Camellia glanced at Maxim. An intense emotion swirled in her eyes and then disappeared.

Camellia turned her head away from Maxim again. Surely Maxim wasn’t interested in such a woman?