Chapter 1
Translated by: ME
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*****
「Could you just give it a rest?」
Siegfried glared at his wife, Rose, with clear irritation.
In half an hour, it would be time for his rendezvous with his mistress, yet Rose was persistently trying to convince him to come watch their son’s competition today.
He couldn't help but think she was doing this intentionally to block his path, as if she knew exactly what he was planning. He loved his son, but today was his mistress’s birthday. He had already planned a trip to the theater—a performance featuring a popular actor she had been begging to see for a month.
Because she lived in the shadows as a mistress, he felt a sense of guilt toward her; he wanted to celebrate her birthday at the very least. That desire made him view his clinging wife with even greater loathing.
Their marital relationship had cooled significantly after the birth of their child, reaching its peak of frigidity years ago; Siegfried had not touched his wife in eight years.
「Please, Siegfried. Today is the first time Alfred is serving as a squad leader in the competition. It’s his final tournament for the school year.」
As she spoke, Rose tried to entice him to accompany her to the academy.
But at those competitions, the spectator seats were so far away that Alfred would look no larger than a matchstick. Siegfried saw absolutely no point in attending.
「I’m sorry, but I made plans for a dinner meeting with a client a month ago. I need you to understand how important my work is. You’re not a child.」
His voice grew increasingly cold.
Was she throwing this tantrum because he hadn't explicitly stated his reason for leaving was "work"? He let out a sigh, and today, Rose’s face looked particularly stricken with sorrow.
Seeing that unadorned face of his wife only irritated him further.
(If Catherine made a face like that, my heart would ache with a tight, painful squeeze. With Rose, this is all I feel.)
Siegfried, a Count by rank, had only married Rose because of his family's debts. His parents had arranged the engagement specifically to get their hands on the dowry from her father, a Viscount.
In the beginning, Rose had been fresh and quite cute.
However, after childbirth, she had filled out a bit. One day, when he took her hand to escort her, it felt soft and plump like a piece of white bread. Rose was intelligent and a good conversationalist, but lately, he only saw her as a pedantic intellectual. Increasingly, he felt as though she was looking down on him.
Setting aside the fact that he had always hated studying, his young mistress seemed adorable to him precisely because Catherine was younger and knew so little of the world.
Catherine would always say with mock humility, 『Oh, Sieg, you’re so knowledgeable and mature. I feel so childish and embarrassed next to you.』
She really was darling.
The Count’s household had recovered thanks to Rose’s dowry, and now their finances were comfortable. Of course, Siegfried’s own allowance had grown as well—enough that he could now provide Catherine with a handsome allowance of her own.
Initially, he hadn't been keen on marrying a woman from a Viscount family with a background in trade, but his feelings changed once he was able to flash a substantial wallet at the social clubs.
He was blessed with an heir, and his parents were living a life of leisure. They spent their days relaxing in the royal capital’s manor, which had been fully renovated.
Rose was the third child of her family, and apparently a long-awaited daughter. Raised with a bit of spoiling, she was trusting and knew nothing of the world’s darker side.
She had pale chestnut hair and fair skin. She was a talented woman, having graduated from an elite advanced academy that was quite expensive for a young lady. Her appearance was plain with little makeup, and because she never begged for clothes or jewels like the women he had dated in the past, she was incredibly naive regarding men. This was true on their wedding night as well; his time in the bedroom with her was strictly for "making an heir." Rose managed the household, and having been trained by the Viscount’s serious wife, she was flawless at it. And then there was that substantial dowry.
『I’m happy, but there’s no excitement.』 Siegfried, having become Count Pendleton, eventually grew dissatisfied with his married life.
It started as a lighthearted, one-night affair, but now he lived a fulfilled life traveling between his home and Catherine's house. This lifestyle was now in its second year. It was his first time keeping a steady mistress, and he took advantage of the fact that Catherine didn't demand "marriage," enjoying his days to the fullest.
(One shouldn't seek love in a noble marriage, but things are working out surprisingly well. My wife is obedient... though her persistence today was unusual. Perhaps she's caught wind of Catherine. Just to be safe, I’ll buy some flowers on the way home to smooth things over.)
While his thoughts were mostly on Catherine, the image of Rose’s sad face flickered in his mind, prompting that sudden idea.
He would be home late, but if he brought a bouquet to her room, she would likely cheer up. Once that inspiration struck, he felt he would enjoy the theater and the tryst afterward even more than usual; he couldn't stop smirking.
After the theater, Catherine dragged him to a jewelry shop, where she made him buy the most expensive necklace he had ever purchased. It was a masterpiece adorned with several rare rubies mined in the Halocott region; it certainly looked exquisite against Catherine’s black hair.
『This is the only thing I truly like. I don't want anything else but this.』 When she put it that way, he had no choice but to buy it.
It felt like he was being bled dry. But Catherine smiled happily, saying with satisfaction, 『I bet you’ve never bought such an expensive necklace even for your wife, have you? Thank you so much for prioritizing me. I couldn't help but test your feelings, Sieg. But you bought it for me!! I’ll show you my thanks in bed!』
That night, Catherine was as lewd and hedonistic as a courtesan, truly leaving Siegfried satisfied.
When he returned home in the middle of the night, the butler greeted him looking somewhat flustered.
Siegfried, pleasantly buzzed from drink and the passion of the night, found it unpleasant that the old man’s face didn't match his own jovial mood.
「Master Alfred and the Madam have not yet returned.」
For a moment, he didn't comprehend what was said.
「What did you say?」
「Yes, as I said, the Madam and the young master are not back yet. They were supposed to return together after going to the academy, but...」
The butler began to speak flatly, making no effort to hide his pale complexion.
When the time for their return passed with no word, he was certain something had happened and tried to notify Siegfried. However, when he went to the merchant guild address he had been given, the master was not there. He then visited the manor of the noble client Siegfried claimed to be meeting, only to be turned away and told, 「We had no appointment today.」
Thinking they might be at his parents' home, he sent a horseman, but the parents had heard nothing. Upon learning that her grandson Alfred was missing, the Dowager Countess became hysterical and collapsed.
With no way to reach Siegfried, the butler turned to the last resort despite the late hour: he contacted Rose’s family, the Kirklands. A search was launched under the assumption of a possible kidnapping. So far, they had only managed to find a single abandoned carriage in a very rural area... and the investigation was ongoing.
「My Lord... where on earth were you during this dire emergency?」
The butler, looking exhausted, turned his clouding eyes toward Siegfried with a sigh.
Siegfried couldn't answer.
Naturally, he had kept his mistress a secret from the people in the manor. Well, given his disheveled clothes, a sharp person likely suspected something, but they wouldn't have uncovered the "who" or "where." Catherine was the daughter of a Baron from a fallen house.
Her family was so destitute they couldn't even afford the funds for her to enter society; she had been prepared to sell herself. With a slender frame and black hair, she wasn't flashily attractive. Their connection began when he called out to her while she was wandering in search of work, so there were no prior ties. A few of his friends knew about Catherine, but of course, there was a tacit understanding to keep each other’s secrets. If infidelity were exposed, it would bring nothing but trouble to any noble house.
(What rotten luck...)
He regretted not naming one of those friends as his "client." Because he had used a legitimate business contact as his fake destination to make the lie believable, the butler had been unable to reach him. Siegfried’s head was so full of self-preservation that he couldn't yet imagine the disaster that was about to unfold.
「Count Siegfried Pendleton. You admit to your infidelity, then?」
His brothers-in-law glared at him with cold, piercing eyes. A stack of documents investigated by a famous law firm was tossed carelessly onto the tea table. Siegfried panicked.
On the morning of the sixth day since Rose disappeared, the Kirkland brothers stormed into the Pendleton estate. The brothers had been making a massive scene every day over their missing sister. Siegfried, harboring a suspicion deep down that Rose might have run away because she discovered his cheating, hadn't been able to bring himself to search for them as loudly as the other two.
The brothers’ anger eventually boiled over at Siegfried's sluggishness. Even the elderly Pendleton parents had barged in, shouting, 「Are you not worried about your own son?!」
However, it had been nearly a week. Siegfried was finally beginning to realize that his initial theory—that she was hiding at her brothers' house—was likely wrong. Without his knowledge, the brothers had hired an incredibly expensive law firm to find Rose, and in the process, Siegfried’s affair had come to light.
Those documents detailed his movements on that fateful day, recording the flirtatious behavior of the two in shameful detail. He wanted to bury his head in his hands out of sheer embarrassment, wondering how he could have been exposed like that.
The Kirkland brothers had already visited Catherine’s home before coming to see Siegfried. Catherine had initially laughed off the brothers' visit. Without hiding the fact that she was his mistress, she told them, 『I am the one Siegfried loves,』 and showed off the necklace. In response, the brothers tossed her a document written by the lawyer demanding "compensation for infidelity," and lectured her on the law with fluid precision. Apparently, Catherine had let out a small scream the moment she heard it all.
Siegfried turned pale upon hearing this.
「W-Wait! She has nothing to do with this! We met by chance... I was the one who sought salvation from her because my marriage wasn't going well and asked to see her.」
His love for Rose had long since died, but he still felt passion for Catherine. Siegfried instinctively moved to protect his mistress, causing his eldest brother-in-law to furrow his brow.
「Count Pendleton, you believed your marriage with Rose wasn't going well? Even with a child? Are you suggesting Rose was cold toward you? Ha! Do you think we aren't aware of the sad expression Rose has been wearing? You've certainly underestimated the Kirklands.」
Folding his thick arms, the eldest brother, Douglas, leaned back against the sofa and curled his lip in a sneer. Faced with this intimidating man, Siegfried found himself unable to say another word. Despite the rank difference between a Count and a Viscount’s heir, Siegfried was painfully aware that he couldn't stand up to this family.
He felt it acutely—the brothers knew the truth. Though they hadn't shared a bed in eight years, Rose had fulfilled her duties as a wife and made efforts to reach out to him.
Rose had wanted a second child; once their son was older, she had spent the last three years pleading desperately with Siegfried. He was the one who had brushed her off, and he suspected she might have told her brothers about it.
Many nobles kept mistresses, but in Siegfried’s case, his very lifestyle was built upon the support from the Viscount’s family, which put him at a severe disadvantage.
Just as he opened his mouth to try and make an excuse, the butler, Doril, knocked on the door.
「My Lord!! The Madam!! The Madam and the Young Master have returned!!」
The Kirkland brothers stood up with such force that their chairs rattled, and they sprinted toward the entrance before anyone else. Siegfried hurried after them.
In the entrance hall stood Rose, her chestnut hair down instead of tied up, wearing an elegant navy blue dress, alongside their son, Alfred. Supporting Rose was a stranger—a large, silver-haired man.
「「Rose!!」」
Ignoring the gazes of the servants, the brothers ran to them and pulled them into an embrace. Alfred broke into a wide grin and was scooped up by the younger brother, Paley. Alfred was nine years old and not small, but the tall Paley lifted him with ease.
Siegfried felt relief at seeing his wife and son after so long, but at the same time, he stood frozen like a pole, feeling pathetically excluded from the atmosphere. Whether the eldest brother Douglas noticed Siegfried or not, he stroked his sister’s cheek repeatedly after hugging her, peering into her eyes with worry. Once the excitement settled slightly, Alfred gripped his mother’s hand tightly and beckoned the man behind them forward.
「This is Count Logan Goldsmith. He is the one who saved us. He rescued us when we were in danger.」
This massive, silver-haired man was a Count?!
Siegfried couldn't hide his shock, but he finally managed to find his voice.
「Count Goldsmith... I don't know how to thank you... Thank you truly for saving my wife and child. I am eternally grateful. Um... where exactly have they been this past week?」
He felt embarrassed by his own halting words of gratitude, but Siegfried took a step toward Count Goldsmith and reached out for a handshake.
*****
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