As soon as Kay shifted his gaze, Alford regained his senses.
Only then did the shame hit him. To have wet himself in front of another!
But now was not the time to worry about such things.
The gold mine in Lavent that he had intended to give to Duke Witlow was, in truth, a gold mine about to be shut down. It was because almost all the buried gold had already been extracted.
It didn’t matter if he gave such a gold mine to someone else, but to Kay, who had stolen “his Iris,” he absolutely did not want to give it away.
“T-this doesn’t mean… this doesn’t mean I will give you my gold mine! I will go to the Holy Kingdom and file a formal complaint with the Pope regarding this matter!”
After shouting with every ounce of courage he could muster, Alford turned abruptly.
He intended to run away, but he couldn’t. Three masked men were standing guard in front of the door, though he hadn’t noticed when they entered.
Seeing them, a chill ran down his spine as he remembered the ruffians who had attacked his carriage while he was heading to Duke Witlow’s mansion a few days ago.
“W-what are you doing? Get out of the way!”
Alford couldn’t bring himself to go near them and shouted.
As if they couldn’t hear him, they just stared straight ahead.
Alford wanted to turn back and protest to Kay, but he was terrified. For some reason, it felt as though something demonic stood behind him, and he couldn’t move a muscle.
A dark fear crept up his legs and consumed him. He felt as if the place where he stood was no longer of this world.
“D-do you think you will be safe after doing this, Count Green?”
Alford said, his legs trembling.
“N-no matter how much you threaten me… I will… I will surely tell the Pope about this matter. No, I will inform the reporters as well.”
Once he started talking, his fear subsided slightly. Only then was Alford able to turn to look at Kay.
“You forcibly took Iris, whom I had promised to marry, and when I came to protest, you locked me in a torture chamber and humiliated me. It would be a huge problem if it became known that the mansion of such a ‘devout’ guardian of holy relics even contained a torture chamber like this, and it would be an even bigger issue that you locked me in there and threatened me.”
Kay flashed a grin. The masked men guarding the door also giggled.
Alford felt uneasy, not knowing why they were laughing.
“Viscount. Thank you. For making me laugh.”
Unlike his words, Kay’s eyes grew cold.
“To think that you believed you could leave this place safely and see the Pope. Truly amusing.”
Realizing the meaning of those words a beat too late, Alford jumped in shock and turned to run toward the door, but he couldn’t reach it because the masked men blocked his way.
A burly man among the masked group gripped Alford’s throat.
“Gack!”
Alford gasped. The masked man lifted him up by his throat.
Alford kicked his legs, but the brown eyes visible through the mask remained ruthless.
“Gu… guh…!”
Alford thought the masked man would put him down after giving him a proper scare. However, the pressure from the man’s hand did not loosen; on the contrary, the strength drained from Alford’s body.
The world turned black.
***
“Ugh!”
When Alford woke up, drenched in cold water, Kay was standing in front of him.
Alford did not forget the fear of death he had experienced before he fainted. He realized only now that in the face of death, feelings like shame or humiliation were inconsequential.
Alford scrambled up and knelt before Kay.
“I… I will give it to you.”
Kay sent a languid gaze his way.
“Give what?”
“T-the gold mine. The Lavent gold mine. I will give it to you. Yes, I must give it to you.”
“A pity.”
“Pardon?”
“I wanted to try using this.”
Kay was holding a terrifying instrument, the purpose of which Alford could neither understand nor wanted to know.
Seeing the thorn-covered device, Alford gulped dryly.
At a nod from Kay, a masked man quickly brought over some documents.
It was a contract transferring the Lavent gold mine to Iris Green.
“I-Iris…”
Seeing the name written on the contract, Alford muttered unconsciously.
“Viscount.”
Kay aimed the terrifying instrument at Alford.
“Don’t call another man’s wife so casually. You have a good title like ‘Countess’ to use.”
“I-I apologize.”
Alford no longer wanted to offend Kay. He only wanted to escape this torture chamber as quickly as possible.
*Just let me get out of here. I won’t let you get away with this.*
Only after Alford signed the contract to hand over the gold mine, left his fingerprint, and applied his seal, was he allowed to leave the torture chamber.
Kay accompanied Alford to the main gate of the mansion.
Alford planned to run straight to meet a reporter from a major newspaper, tell them everything, and then head toward the Holy Kingdom.
“Viscount. Let me tell you something nutritious for your own sake.”
Alford wanted to leave immediately, but he endured and looked up at Kay.
“You are a greedy merchant head, and I am a guardian of holy relics. If you blather useless nonsense, I will have to respond… Who do you think people will believe? A merchant head? Or a guardian of holy relics?”
“……!”
“The moment you utter any bullshit, the shadows you saw earlier will come to visit you. Which do you think will be faster? My shadows finding you? Or you seeing the Pope of the Holy Kingdom?”
Alford felt his heart sink to the floor.
“Behave, Viscount. I will be watching, so just let me watch. You can do that, right?”
***
“There are bad rumors circulating among the maids because of the man who visited earlier.”
Rishi listened to Krisina’s report while looking out the window.
“It seems the maids believe that man. And besides… even Miss Gillette has joined in on spreading those stories…”
As Krisina trailed off, a whisper of a curse overlapped.
“Crazy bitch…”
It sounded like Erwel’s voice, but Rishi decided to assume she had misheard.
“Lady Iris, that Gillette…”
The reticent Erwel spoke up for once, but there was a *thud* sound.
Startled, Rishi turned to see Erwel with her eyes wide, clutching her side while glaring at Krisina.
“Erwel?”
“I don’t think we can just leave Miss Gillette alone, Lady Iris.”
Krisina said.
Erwel lowered her hand, acting as if nothing had happened, though she pouted her lips as if dissatisfied.
“If Miss Gillette, Lady Iris’s exclusive maid, continues to spread such stories, the maids will believe the rumors even more.”
At Krisina’s words, Erwel nodded vigorously, her lips moving as if she had something she wanted to say.
“Erwel, do you have something to say to me?”
“Ah, Erwel is a woman of few words…”
Krisina answered instead.
*That’s not true. She seems to have a lot to say.*
“You can leave Gillette be.”
At Rishi’s words, Erwel furrowed her brows. *She has few words, but a wide variety of expressions,* Rishi thought.
Rishi decided to deal with the Gillette issue over time.
Right now, she had no justification to kick out Gillette, who was working quite diligently in the Count’s household.
If she kicked Gillette out without reason, people would think the new Countess was jealous of the maid by the Count’s side.
Even if she told them that Gillette had been rude to her, no one would believe her. People preferred to side with the perceived grievances of the weak over the strong.
Looking out the window, Rishi saw Alford walking toward the mansion’s main gate with Kay.
Alford was hurrying his steps as if he were fleeing.
A moment later, Kay came to see Rishi.
At a nod from Rishi, the maids left the room.
Kay handed the contract to Rishi.
“I’ve obtained the Lavent gold mine, Rishi.”
The name ‘Iris Green’ was clearly written on the contract.
Iris Green.
In her past life, Rishi had lived as Iris Witlow, and then, after marriage, lived her entire life as Iris Huchis until she died.
Lately, she was called Countess Green, but ‘Iris’…
Seeing the document with ‘Iris Green’ written on it made my heart ache in a new way.
“Well done, Kay.”
“Is that it?”
“What more do you need?”
“Praise to make me feel proud, or a reward.”
Praise to make him feel proud?
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with anything better than “Well done.”
“Should I brush your fur?”
I said it as a joke, but Kay went “Oh!” and immediately transformed into a wolf.
Rishi was flustered.
She hadn’t actually intended to brush Kay’s fur.
When Kay turned into a wolf, the clothes he had been wearing would come off.
That meant Kay was naked…
Brush the body of a naked man?
But before Rishi could say anything, Kay had already brought a large comb from her vanity in his mouth.
Kay set the comb down and lay down obediently in front of Rishi.
With his appearance like a well-trained, large puppy, a part of her heart felt ticklish for some reason.
‘Right, well… for dogs, fur is basically their clothes.’
Nobles took perfect care of the fur of the dogs they raised.
So much so that being a dog groomer had become one of the emerging occupations.
Rishi picked up the comb, sat gently beside Kay, and brushed the fur on his back.
The wolf’s fur was coarse, but it was glossy, and as she touched it, it felt soft.
As she brushed his fur, the thoughts that had filled her mind began to fall away one by one.
‘Brushing a puppy’s fur—it’s a healing experience for the one doing the brushing, too.’
Kay, who had no idea that Rishi thought of him as a “puppy,” let out a pleasant purring sound, *grrr, grrrr*, and closed his eyes.
+++
Jeresien, Kay’s younger sister, heard an unimaginable story at a small tea party she attended with her friends for the first time in a while.
Jeresien’s sharp eyes, with their corners slightly upturned, sharpened further.
“What did you say?”
“I’m saying, Countess Green. That your new sister-in-law is having an affair behind your brother’s back.”
“What kind of…”
Jeresien’s blue-gray eyes wavered.
The friend who had delivered the news patted Jeresien’s shoulder as if in pity.
“It’s truly ridiculous, isn’t it? Meeting another man while she has your brother… and they haven’t even been married that long. Rumor has it that your sister-in-law was seeing that man even before she got married. They say he even visited your brother’s estate.”
“Ha… that’s ridiculous.”
“Right, right. It is ridiculous. Jen, that’s why I’m saying you shouldn’t just hole yourself up in the estate; you should come out and listen to what people are saying. You’re the only one who didn’t know about this story. It was even in a magazine recently. They said it was reported by someone reliable.”
“Wow, that’s truly ridiculous.”
Jeresien grabbed her short bobbed hair with both hands.
“My brother, what on earth…”
Jen’s friends who were attending the tea party cast pitying glances toward her.
Looking at those friends, Jen asked.
“When did they get married?”