Gauzer came out with a sullen face, still not fully sober. He looked nothing like the man Lisi remembered.
When he worked for the ducal house, Gauzer had always worn a formal suit. His hair, fixed neatly with pomade, never had a single strand out of place. He had looked sharp and orderly.
But the man standing before Lisi now had hair that had not been cut for a long time and hung in disarray. His beard was thick and unkempt, and his clothes were wrinkled and dirty.
If not for Gauzer’s distinctive amber eyes, Lisi might have thought she had come to the wrong person and turned back.
“What do you want?”
Even his tone had changed.
Gauzer was looking not at Lisi but at Kay. Without answering, Kay raised his palm and indicated Lisi. Only then did Gauzer’s gaze move toward her.
Shock filled his dull eyes.
“M miss...?”
Gauzer was one of the few people who had called Lisi “miss.” Remembering the serious expression with which he had always addressed her that way, Lisi gave a bitter smile.
In her previous life she had only known that Gauzer later became the imperial treasury administrator. She had never known how he lived before that.
‘So this is how you lived. Alone after your wife and child left you, suffering like this... until you eventually came to your senses and rose to that position.’
“Are you... are you really Lady Iris?”
When Lisi did not answer immediately, Gauzer asked again. Just as Lisi barely recognized him, Gauzer also struggled to recognize her.
“Yes. I am Iris. Though I am no longer a young lady.”
“What? In the end... did those people drive you out? No, no... perhaps being driven out would have been better than the way they treated you...”
Still half drunk, Gauzer pressed his temples and muttered.
“I was not driven out. I left on my own. I got married. To this man here, Count Kayvrant Green.”
Gauzer’s eyes widened so much they seemed about to pop out as he looked up at Kay.
“Count Green... Ha...”
He studied Kay’s face for a long moment with parted lips. Then tears gathered in the corners of his eyes. Sniffling, Gauzer suddenly grabbed Lisi’s hand.
“Thank goodness... thank goodness, miss. To have married such a fine and admirable gentleman... truly... thank goodness... sob...”
Kay had been glaring at the hand gripping Lisi’s, but the words “such a fine and admirable gentleman” softened his expression.
“Ah, I am sorry. I was so overwhelmed that I lost myself. I thought those damned bastards... ah, pardon me. In any case, those people from that family would have... no, never mind.”
Lisi knew exactly what Gauzer had been about to say.
Those people from that family would have sold the young lady to someone like Alford.
He must have stopped because Kay was present.
“First, first please come inside. Ah... the house is a mess... just a moment...”
“Gauzer. Wait.”
Lisi stopped him as he tried to enter the house.
“I came because I have something important to discuss with you. First sober up, then come to the tavern next to the central square.”
+++
In her previous life, Alford—who later ran the largest merchant guild on the continent—had loved taverns.
It was not just for the alcohol. Taverns were places where every kind of rumor circulated, and if one filtered those rumors well, they could be very useful for business.
Lisi had also liked it when Alford went to taverns. When he went, he usually did not return home for a day or two.
What he did there or what women he met did not interest her in the slightest.
When Lisi and Kay entered the tavern, the people talking at various tables fell silent and turned to look at the elegant pair.
Reflexively, Lisi pressed down the brim of her fedora to hide her face and followed Kay to a seat in the corner.
“See? I told you you’d stand out.”
Kay said as he sat down.
“That’s because of you. You’re too big.”
“I doubt it.”
“Then it must be because of my hair color. It’s unusual.”
Lisi said as she twirled the end of her reddish silver hair around her finger.
“If you do not want to stand out, you should wear a hooded robe, Lisi. From head to toe, you have an appearance that makes people want to keep looking.”
As if to prove his words, Kay’s eyes never left her.
Strangely, whenever Kay looked at her with that steady gaze, Lisi felt restless. Her chest tickled, tension gathered in her waist, and her toes curled.
“By the way.”
Fortunately Kay turned his gaze aside.
“You know that the rumor about a secret relationship between you and Viscount Alford Huchis is gradually being treated as truth, don’t you, Lisi?”
“I know. Recently there was even an article about it.”
“You know the source of the rumor... So how long will you leave it alone?”
“Have you personally suffered any damage because of it?”
“No. But who knows about the future.”
“In that case, let’s watch a little longer. Things taste better once they have ripened.”
Since they had not eaten yet, Lisi checked the menu.
“How about salted lamb, cheese, rye bread, vegetable stew, and grilled dried mushrooms? Oh, and I’m thinking of having a mug of beer. What about you?”
Kay asked.
“I’ve never drunk alcohol.”
“Oh, really?”
For some reason Kay’s eyes shone with delight.
“Why that look?”
“What look?”
“The kind that means you’re plotting something.”
“Plotting? I simply thought it would be nice to do something with my wife that she has never done before.”
“I see.”
Lisi had a good idea what Kay was thinking.
He had probably assumed she would be weak to alcohol since she had never drunk before and given the impression she gave.
He likely planned to watch her drunken antics with amusement.
There was something Lisi had not told Kay.
In this life she had never drunk alcohol.
But in her previous life she had.
A lot.
Lisi knew very well what happened when she drank.
“Let’s skip it today. Gauzer will arrive soon.”
When they had almost finished eating, Gauzer entered the tavern.
“Well look who it is! Gauzer? I hardly recognized you!”
“You drank all night until this morning and now you’re drinking again? You’ll die like that!”
“But why are you dressed up today? Trying to seduce Jelin or something?”
Gauzer must have been well known here because everyone recognized him and laughed.
He gave them halfhearted replies and walked toward Lisi and Kay. Because people’s eyes followed him, Lisi regretted choosing this place to meet.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, miss.”
Gauzer said politely.
“You seem popular, Gauzer.”
Gauzer’s face turned red.
“Ah... I was drinking to forget the shock...”
“Sit.”
As soon as Gauzer sat down, Lisi went straight to the point.
“Gauzer. Work for me.”
“Pardon?”
“La...”
Lisi stopped mid sentence when she realized the people nearby were listening closely.
“It seems this place won’t do.”
They paid the bill and went outside, heading toward the crowded market. For a secret conversation, a bustling place like this was actually better.
Walking between Gauzer and Kay, Lisi spoke quietly.
“There is a gold mine in Lavent.”
“Yes. It belongs to Viscount Huchis.”
“Now it belongs to me.”
“Pardon?”
“I want you to manage it.”
“Ah...”
Gauzer stared at her in disbelief.
“You continue to surprise me, miss. The Lavent gold mine belongs to you now?”
“Yes.”
“And you want me to manage it?”
“Yes. Hiring the workers, managing the minerals extracted from it—everything. I will entrust it all to you.”
“Well...”
Gauzer rubbed his chin with his palm. He looked both pleased and troubled.
“I appreciate that you trust me, miss... but I cannot take responsibility for something so important. As you can see, I’m nothing more than a drunk now.”
“Whether you can do it or not is not important.”
“Pardon?”
“What matters is this.”
Lisi stopped walking and looked up at him.
“I want to entrust the only property I have to you. Gauzer, that gold mine must be yours to manage.”
Her tone was gentle, but it was a command.
Some might have taken it poorly, but Gauzer did not.
He remembered Iris Whitlow from the ducal house.
A child who belonged to Whitlow yet did not truly belong there. A pitiful child. A child who was not even allowed to raise her head and look at the sky.
A child battered by the wind and wrapped in darkness, so fragile she seemed ready to shatter and scatter at any moment.
Now that child had become a dignified countess and was giving him an order.
The feeling pierced him deeply, and tears gathered in Gauzer’s eyes once again.
“You have changed greatly, miss. No... Countess.”
Lisi smiled.
“Is it a good change?”
“Very much so.”
Gauzer closed his eyes tightly for a moment, then opened them again.
When he protested to the duke about Iris’s treatment, he had been framed with false accusations and expelled from the ducal house. Because of the accusations Duke Whitlow placed upon him, no one would hire Gauzer.
His wife, exhausted by poverty, left with their child. The child, holding his mother’s hand as they departed, looked back at him with resentment and contempt.
With nothing left, Gauzer drank to forget the pain and loneliness, hoping that when he woke the world would have ended.
But the world had not ended.
Instead, the pitiful child he remembered had grown into a proud woman and come to find him.
The girl who could not even meet a maid’s eyes now looked at him confidently and said:
I trust you enough to entrust everything I have. Live for me.
There was only one answer.
“I will live for the Countess.”