“Oh, so it was Lady Evercline… She must have quite the charm.”

“After that incident, she completely withdrew from the social scene, and now she’s here like this.”

Curious eyes surrounded them like hyenas. Ana’s smile stiffened. Her eyes trembled as her tightly clasped hands turned pale.

“…”

Just like Ana, Raiden also heard the whispers around them. His gray eyes glinted beneath his thick eyebrows. Her expression seemed to convey curiosity about how she would emerge unscathed from these packs of predators.

“…”

However, the agitation was brief, and Ana returned to her composed expression. Raiden narrowed his eyes in apparent displeasure, but Ana didn’t seem to notice.

‘People’s words don’t intimidate me.’

However, Raiden himself was intimidating. He must have heard people whispering. Was he also thinking of her as a mere plaything, like they were? The thought terrified her, and that’s why she was desperately holding back her tears, determined not to let them fall.

“Lady Evercline.”

A resounding voice cut through the hall, silencing the crowd. All of a sudden, the surroundings fell quiet. When Ana looked up, she found Raiden standing with one hand over his chest, bowing respectfully. Following proper etiquette, Ana bent one knee and greeted him.

“Raiden…”

Her lips trembled fearfully, making it hard to speak. Not knowing why he was here or under what circumstances, she couldn’t continue the conversation. If the bank’s president himself came to see him off, then he must be quite wealthy or esteemed.

However, the Raiden Malls she knew was just a commoner and a squire, living alone with his mother.

‘Can I call him by that name now?’

Instinctively, it felt like she shouldn’t. Raiden seemed to catch her inner turmoil, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

“You can address me as Marquis Marcus.”

“Marquis… Marcus?”

As she hesitantly repeated the name, a memory resurfaced. Wasn’t that the name mentioned in the conversation among the noblewomen back in the reception room?

‘What in the world happened while he was gone…?’

Ana stared at him with wide eyes. Raiden, on the other hand, lifted the corners of his lips to offer a smile.

“As it turns out I’m a direct descendant of the former Lord Marcus. Fortunately, I was chosen by him to inherit the title. Because of that, I’ve been quite busy, which is why I could only return now.”

“I see. That’s good.”

Ana’s face lit up, and almost instinctively, she spoke without any of the formality she had shown earlier. He must have left in haste due to this unexpected development. Not to mention, inheriting a title would surely involve an immense amount of learning and responsibilities.

Ana couldn’t contain her happiness for the firm footing Raiden had found in his life.

‘But… he could have at least contacted me.’

A pang of lingering resentment and doubt crept up from the depths of her mind. But she quickly brushed it aside.

‘What matters is that he didn’t forget me and came back.’

Moreover, he seemed to have some form of apology for his absence. Ana believed that their relationship would resume back to normal, just like before.

At that moment, Raiden added something enigmatic.

“I’m sure it is. After all, this is the way you prefer it, Lady Evercline.”

“…Huh? What did you say?”

Lost in her thoughts, Ana missed his words. Raiden shook his head as if to say it was nothing important.

In his mind, he heard the echoing voice of a woman he had encountered long ago.

[The young lady feels very sorry for you. It might have been better if you were an orphan. You could have been handed over to a suitable noble and raised as an adopted child. But since your mother is alive and well, she must have thought she couldn’t do such a thing.]

[…]

[Still, there’s not necessarily no solution. After all, what unethical things wouldn’t a noble do?]

Raiden’s pulse quickened. He took a step back, trying to hide his emotions, and lowered his gaze.

“Seems like many eyes are watching.”

The already busy hall became even more crowded with people who were curious to observe them. Raiden spoke gently.

“May I come and visit you later?”

“!”

Ana’s eyes widened. A joy she couldn’t contain flooded her pale face. Upon seeing that, Raiden stiffened as though he had been slapped.

Ana shyly nodded her head, tucking her hair behind her ear with her fingers.

“Of course.”

“…”

But Raiden didn’t respond. Sensing something odd, Ana raised her eyes slightly. Raiden was staring at her with an expressionless face.

“Raiden?”

“Ah, excuse me. I was lost in thought for a moment.”

He answered calmly as if he had never been quiet. Ana was puzzled, but she quickly dismissed it. It was due to the sudden realization of how much both she and Raiden had changed since they last saw each other.

‘This reunion is so different from what I imagined.’

If they were to meet again, she had planned to embrace him tightly and pour out all her resentment and longing from the past. He would then hold her gently, and apologize for being late due to his circumstances, and she would gladly forgive him.

They would be filled with emotion, he would lift her, and they would smile at each other in happiness, ending it all that way. At least, that’s what she had thought…

However, in reality, there were only polite greetings exchanged with a sense of distance.

“Well then, Lady Evercline, I shall take my leave.”

“Please, take care, Marquis Marcus.”

With the perfect demeanor of grand nobility, the two of them parted ways. As Ana turned at the voice of the attendant calling her from behind, she looked back at him with regret.

He had disappeared from her field of vision.

‘But he said he’ll come back.’

It wasn’t an indefinite farewell like before. Just that fact alone filled Ana with energy. She took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders, and followed the guide accordingly.

“…”

Swiftly walking down the stairs outside Somerset House, Raiden, without glancing at the aide beside him, asked,

“How are things at Oxborough?”

“Running smoothly. We’re transferring everything under the name of Baron Cayden. Once the paperwork is sorted out, it should be all set.”

“We’re going to return everything as it was, no need to transfer everything. Anything else?”

The aide swallowed a dry gulp and answered cautiously,

“We’ve safely completed the relocation.”

“Good.”

His steps subtly slowed down. Raiden’s expression remained unchanged, but the aide could roughly sense his state of mind. It was only natural considering that relocating wasn’t something he had longed for.

‘But then again…’

The aide cast a quick glance back and asked Raiden with a slightly nervous tone as he walked toward the carriage parked by the roadside.

“Was that just now…?”

“Yes.”

Raiden responded curtly, cutting off the question. The attendant bit his lip and refrained from speaking, but as they reached the front of the carriage, he spoke again.

“Where shall we go?”

Raiden climbed into the carriage and replied coldly,

“To my mother’s place. Returning after all these years and even having relocated, it’s only natural for a son to go and pay his respects.”

As soon as he ended, the carriage started moving.

Although Ana had gone all the way to Somerset House, no significant progress had been made. Nevertheless, the fortunate thing was that none of the properties had been disposed of yet.

Returning to the mansion, Henry, the butler, informed her with a troubled expression that there had been no progress in the search for the estate manager.

“Yeah, I expected as much.”

Ana calmly acknowledged before retiring to bed early, feeling exhausted.

In her dreams, as always, Raiden appeared. Just like before, he greeted her with delight, and she ran to him with all her might. He lifted her, spinning her around, and laughed heartily. Overwhelmed with joy, Ana clung to him and wept as he held her head against his chest.

Her sobs resembled the sound of the rain pouring outside the window.

That evening, a man stood in the rain at the cemetery of the largest church in the capital. He gazed at a freshly constructed grave. The headstone was inscribed with the words, “Beloved Wife of William and Respected Mother of Raiden.”

“…”

Raiden remained as immobile as a stone statue from the scriptures. Raindrops fell steadily from his thick eyelashes and the sharp bridge of his nose. His face was pale like a corpse within a coffin.

However, the emotions flickering in his gray eyes fixed on the grave were the only sign that he was alive.

The aide waiting at the entrance of the cemetery under an umbrella was reminded that even the most splendid cemetery in the Empire turned somber at night, like the tomb of a forgotten soldier. The rain falling steadily only added to the eerie atmosphere, sending shivers down the spine.

He absentmindedly glanced towards his master, clicking his tongue and inwardly worrying,

‘What if he falls ill from standing out here like this…’

His brown eyes, framed by silver-rimmed glasses, stared worriedly at the young man who stood still as a statue in front of the cemetery. Despite wanting to advise against it, he couldn’t. After all, until relocating here, the young man’s mother had been laid to rest in a lonely and desolate place.

Knowing well what the young man had endured over the past five years, the aide sensed that today was a day when Raiden’s resolve was solidifying. Perhaps that’s why, in the back of his mind, he found similarities between the young man’s figure and the barren landscape where his mother used to rest.

“…Let’s go.”

Only after the sun had completely set did Raiden move. The aide quickly approached and held an umbrella over him.

“Have you checked on the old man living in the nearby hut?”

“Yes. We arranged for him to move to a suitable estate within the city and hired several servants to ensure he can live comfortably.”

“I see.”

A faint blush tinted Raiden’s pale face. The old man had been the one to offer him a place to rest, even if it was a storage room while Raiden was hovering between life and death in his past circumstances. He had even helped him dig a grave for his mother.

“But…”

He paused, alternating his gaze between the sky pouring rain and the ground that had turned into a mud puddle.

 
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