As soon as Kay turned his gaze away, Alford came to his senses. Only then did the shame hit him. To have wet himself in front of others. But this was not the time to worry about that.
The Lavent gold mine he had intended to give to Duke Whitlow was, in truth, a mine that would soon be shut down. Nearly all of the buried gold had already been extracted. Giving away such a mine would not have mattered.
But there was no way he wanted to give it to Kay, the man who had taken away “his Iris.”
“Th this does not change anything! Even so, I cannot give you my gold mine! I will go to the Holy Kingdom and formally protest to the Pope about this!”
Alford shouted with every ounce of courage he had left and spun around. He intended to run away immediately.
But he could not.
Three masked men were standing in front of the door, guarding it. The moment he saw them, the memory of the mysterious attackers who had ambushed his carriage on the way to the Whitlow Ducal Estate a few days ago flashed through his mind, and a chill ran down his spine.
“Wh what are you doing? Move aside!”
Alford shouted at them, unable to even approach. The men stared straight ahead as if they had not heard a single word he said.
He wanted to turn around and protest to Kay, but he was afraid. For some reason, it felt as though something demonic stood behind him. He could not move.
Black fear crept up from the tops of his feet, slowly swallowing him whole. For a moment it felt as though the place he was standing was no longer part of this world.
“A are you really going to be safe after doing this, Count Green?”
Alford spoke while his legs trembled violently.
“N no matter how much you threaten me… I will… I will certainly report this matter to the Pope. No, I will even tell the journalists.”
Once he began speaking, his fear eased slightly. Only then was Alford able to turn back toward Kay.
“Your lordship forcibly took Iris away even though she promised to marry me. And when I came here to protest, you locked me in a torture chamber and humiliated me. If people learn that such a torture chamber exists in the estate of the so called faithful Guardian Relic House, it will already be a huge problem. And imprisoning me there and threatening me will become an even bigger scandal.”
Kay grinned.
The masked men guarding the door snickered as well.
Alford felt uneasy because he could not understand why they were laughing.
“Viscount. Thank you. You made me laugh.”
Despite the words, Kay’s eyes turned cold.
“The fact that you thought you could leave here safely and go meet the Pope. That is truly amusing.”
Only then did Alford understand the meaning of those words.
Startled, he jumped and rushed toward the door. But the masked men blocked his path, preventing him from reaching it.
One of the masked men, a large man, suddenly grabbed Alford by the throat.
“Urk!”
A choking sound escaped from Alford.
The masked man lifted him into the air while gripping his neck. Alford kicked his legs desperately, but the brown eyes visible through the mask were merciless.
“Kh… khk…!”
Alford thought the masked man would release him after frightening him a little.
But the strength in the man’s hand did not lessen. Instead, the strength gradually drained from Alford’s body.
The world turned black.
“Gah!”
When Alford woke after being drenched with cold water, Kay was standing before him.
Alford had not forgotten the terror of death he experienced just before losing consciousness. In front of death, feelings like shame and humiliation meant nothing at all. Only now did he finally understand that.
Alford jumped to his feet and dropped to his knees before Kay.
“I I will give it to you.”
Kay sent him a languid glance.
“What?”
“The the gold mine. The Lavent gold mine. I will give it to you. Yes. I will.”
“What a pity.”
“Pardon?”
“I wanted to try using this.”
Kay was holding a terrifying device in his hand, something Alford neither knew the purpose of nor wanted to know.
Looking at the instrument covered in spikes, Alford swallowed dryly.
At Kay’s signal, a masked man quickly brought a document.
It was a contract transferring ownership of the Lavent gold mine to Iris Green.
“I Iris…”
The moment he saw the name written on the document, Alford muttered without realizing it.
“Viscount.”
Kay pointed the dreadful device toward him.
“Do not casually call another man’s wife by her name. There is a perfectly good title. Countess.”
“S sorry.”
Alford no longer wanted to anger Kay.
All he wanted now was to leave this torture chamber as quickly as possible.
‘Just wait until I get out of here. I will not let this go.’
Only after signing the contract transferring the gold mine, pressing his fingerprint, and stamping his seal was Alford finally allowed to leave the torture chamber.
Kay even escorted him to the front gate of the estate.
Alford planned to run straight to a major newspaper, tell a reporter everything that had happened, and then head for the Holy Kingdom.
“Viscount. Let me tell you a rather nourishing story for your benefit.”
Story or not, Alford wanted to leave immediately. Still, he forced himself to look up at Kay.
“You are a greedy merchant guild master. And I am the Guardian Relic House.”
“If you start spouting nonsense, I will have to respond. And when that happens… whose words do you think people will believe?”
“The merchant guild master? Or the Guardian Relic House?”
“…!”
“The moment you start barking nonsense, the shadows you saw earlier will come looking for you.”
“What do you think will be faster?”
“My shadows finding you?”
“Or you meeting the Pope of the Holy Kingdom?”
Alford felt as though his heart had dropped straight to the ground.
“Behave yourself, Viscount. I will be watching.”
“So just let me keep watching quietly.”
“You can do that, right?”
+++
“There are unpleasant rumors spreading among the maids because of the man who came earlier.”
Lisi listened to Krisina’s report while gazing out the window.
“It seems the maids believe that man’s story. And… Miss Gillette has even joined in spreading it.”
Krisina trailed off.
At the same time, a faint whisper of a curse overlapped her words.
“That crazy woman…”
It sounded like Erwelle’s voice, but Lisi decided she must have heard wrong.
“Lady Iris, about Miss Gillette…”
The usually taciturn Erwelle finally opened her mouth.
A dull thud sounded.
Startled, Lisi turned around and saw Erwelle staring at Krisina with wide eyes while clutching her side.
“Erwelle?”
“I think we should not leave Miss Gillette alone like this, Lady Iris.”
Krisina said.
Erwelle lowered the hand clutching her side as if nothing had happened. Though her lips still pouted slightly, as if dissatisfied.
“If Miss Gillette, who is your personal maid, spreads such stories, the other maids will believe those ridiculous rumors even more.”
At Krisina’s words, Erwelle nodded vigorously, her lips moving as if she wanted to say something.
“Erwelle, do you have something to tell me?”
“Ah… Erwelle is not very talkative…”
Krisina answered on her behalf.
That was not true at all. It looked like she had a great deal she wanted to say.
“You can leave Gillette alone.”
At Lisi’s words, Erwelle frowned.
She might be quiet, but her expressions were quite varied, Lisi thought.
She decided to deal with the problem of Gillette a little later. For now, Gillette was still working diligently, and there was no proper justification to drive her out of the count’s household.
If she expelled Gillette without a reason, people would assume the new countess had chased away the maid out of jealousy.
Even if she said Gillette had been rude to her, no one would believe it.
People preferred siding with the injustice suffered by the weak rather than believing the strong.
As Lisi gazed out the window, she saw Alford walking toward the front gate of the estate with Kay.
Alford hurried along as if he were fleeing.
Soon afterward, Kay came to see Lisi.
At Lisi’s signal, the maids left the room.
Kay held out the contract to her.
“I obtained the Lavent gold mine, Lisi.”
On the contract, the name Iris Green was written clearly.
Iris Green.
In her previous life, Lisi had lived as Iris Whitlow, and after marriage she had lived as Iris Huchis until the day she died.
Recently people called her the Countess Green, but seeing a document with the name “Iris Green” written on it made her chest tighten strangely.
“Well done, Kay.”
“That is all?”
“What more do you need?”
“Praise to make me proud. Or a reward.”
Praise to make him proud.
No matter how much she thought about it, she could not come up with anything beyond “Well done.”
“Shall I brush your fur?”
She had meant it as a joke.
But Kay exclaimed, “Oh!” and immediately transformed into a wolf.
Lisi panicked.
She had never actually intended to brush his fur.
When Kay transformed into a wolf, the clothes he had been wearing fell off. Which meant Kay was now completely naked.
And she was supposed to brush the body of a naked man?
But before Lisi could protest, Kay had already trotted to her dressing table and returned with a large brush clamped in his mouth.
He placed the brush down and lay obediently in front of her.
He looked like a large, well trained dog.
For some reason, that sight made a part of her chest itch pleasantly.
‘Well… dogs consider their fur to be clothing anyway.’
Nobles took perfect care of the fur of the dogs they raised.
Dog grooming had even become a respectable profession.
Lisi picked up the brush, sat gently beside Kay, and began brushing the fur along his back.
The wolf’s fur was coarse, but it had a glossy sheen that made it feel soft when touched.
As she brushed his fur, the thoughts filling her mind gradually fell away one by one.
‘Brushing a dog’s fur is healing for the person doing the brushing too.’
Completely unaware that Lisi was thinking of him as a “dog,” Kay closed his eyes and made low pleased sounds.
Grrr… grrrr…
+++
Kay’s younger sister, Jeresien, heard an unimaginable story at a small tea party hosted by a friend she had not seen in a long time.
The sharpness of Jeresien’s slightly upturned eyes grew even sharper.
“What?”
“So you see, the Countess Green. The woman who became your sister in law is apparently having an affair behind your brother’s back.”
“What do you mean…?”
Jeresien’s blue gray eyes trembled.
The friend who delivered the news patted Jeresien’s shoulder sympathetically.
“Ridiculous, right? Meeting another man while leaving your brother aside… and they have not even been married that long. According to rumors, your sister in law had already been dating that man before the marriage. They say the man even came to your brother’s estate.”
“Ha… that is impossible.”
“Of course it is impossible. Jen, you should not stay shut up in your estate all the time. Come out and hear what people are saying. You are the only one who does not know this story. It was even printed in a magazine last time. Apparently a reliable source reported it.”
“Wow, that is really unbelievable.”
Jeresien grabbed her short bobbed hair with both hands.
“My brother, seriously…”
The friends attending the tea party looked at Jen with sympathetic expressions.
Looking at them, Jen asked,
“When did they get married?”