## The Gold Ring
I spread my hand in front of Hannah.
There was a thread ring on my left fourth finger. It was plain, but it suited my thin, pale fingers rather well.
"Oh. Did the Duke really give you this?"
"Yes. Isn't it pretty?"
I sat by the window and looked at it in the gentle morning sunlight.
No matter how small or thin it was, it was gold.
As I moved my hands, the sun danced back and forth across the curved surface of the yellow precious metal.
Hannah said to me—who was looking at this with a pleasant expression and a flushed face—
"See? There isn't a man alive who wouldn't like a beautiful woman."
I did not answer.
Hannah's words were ambiguous.
First of all, I wasn't a beauty, and Kaian couldn't exactly be said not to hate me.
Shouldn't people usually have some movement in their facial expressions?
Kaian didn't seem to be an ordinary person if I thought about it that way.
He looked cold and somewhat angry, glaring at me with his bright red eyes, his eyebrows raised at the corners.
In any case, I couldn't say I liked it, and I couldn't say I didn't like it either.
*I can't help it because I'm from Vermont.*
It was a loveless marriage.
So I never wanted affection.
Having spent the night with the redhead he loathed, he seemed to feel humiliated by his own arousal.
Contempt and coldness coexisted in his excited and heated eyes.
Facing that made me sad, so I'd closed my eyes tightly the entire time Kaian held me.
That's why I'd planned to do the same even when there was nothing to give me as a gift during the first night.
He'd wanted to show off his dislike to the point of deliberately avoiding what had become a custom.
However, it seemed that I—who had just turned twenty—had harbored secret expectations I hadn't known about.
Hundreds and thousands of times I'd pictured in my mind the humiliation I might suffer through marriage to Temnes.
It was just an extension of the cold treatment I'd imagined when I walked out of Rowen Castle in the rain, my bridal dress soaked in mud.
But the sense of loss from having something precious to me as a woman taken away, despite my modest upbringing, was a different matter entirely.
When I realized I hadn't received the customary gift, I felt deprived of something inside me.
My father, the Duke of Vermont, had sold me and taken the reward, leaving me with nothing for myself.
I'd just wanted to receive a first-night gift from him.
Even if it was just one flower, I would have been satisfied with what I received.
That night, I'd been trying to clean up the mess of clothes that had fallen on the floor because I couldn't stand the awkward atmosphere and felt like I had to do something.
I'd been startled when something fell from his clothes—I thought I was going to get beaten for ruining them.
I'd felt the urge to try putting it on my finger after seeing that it looked like it would fit perfectly.
The ring looked just like a ring, to the point where it was hard to think of it as merely the bezel of a button.
That's why I'd liked it.
*Can I have it?*
Even though I'd asked that, I didn't think he would give permission.
Still, after the first night together, I'd thought Kaian wouldn't visit me again, but he came again.
When he'd casually mentioned that he had failed several times, I'd suddenly gained a little courage.
*I have nothing to give to Vermont.*
I was confident that I wouldn't be hurt even if those words came back to me.
*Anyway.*
Even though it was said coldly, his permission had been clear.
"The Duke wasn't obligated to come last night, right? But since he came to see you, it's clear that he likes you."
Hannah seemed more excited than I was.
"The gifts will get better and better."
I did not answer her words.
Because I had no desire to receive anything better.
I'd received something, and that was enough.
"I'll bring you breakfast. Are you going to eat?"
As my illness worsened, I could barely eat.
This was because the claw-like pain inside my chest became worse when I took a deep breath or chewed and swallowed food.
I nodded because I felt like I could eat something today. After all, I was in a good mood.
"Yes. I'll eat."
"I'll quickly go to the kitchen and get it."
The spirited Hannah disappeared in her excitement.
I looked at my gold ring, shining on my finger in the stillness of the morning that enveloped me.
"...I got it."
---
## Hannah's Mission
Hannah hummed as she headed toward the castle's kitchen.
Today was the third day since she'd come to Rowen Castle.
The fact that she had to go to the castle's kitchen herself meant that the maids on the floor where Claudel stayed ignored all of Hannah's requests.
So she was so angry that steam practically billowed from the top of her head every time she went to the kitchen.
"Ugh. Hehehehe."
But today, a humming tune caught in Hannah's throat.
"I hope you will be so happy. How wonderful that he gave it to you yesterday."
While Claudel had lived as well as a princess at Castle de Valmonde, Hannah had socialized with the maids.
The maids of the castle had felt sorry for Hannah, who'd lost her parents in an accident at a young age and been brought to a strange place.
She was only ten years old.
It may also have been because Hannah was too young to do the heavy chores of the castle.
Most of the maids working in the castle were serfs with large families. They said that looking at Hannah reminded them of their younger siblings, whom they'd left behind at home, and they often gave her candy.
However, they were still young women and couldn't filter the dirty talk in front of Hannah.
The older girls, who were subjected to various advances by servants at the castle at an age when they were at the peak of their curiosity, were all very interested in the news of someone who'd been taken to the castle lord and spent the night there.
Unfortunately, Castle de Valmonde did not have the young, energetic, and handsome lord they wanted.
The Duke of Vermont was older, and his relationship with the Duchess of Vermont was quite amicable.
Although they only had one daughter, Irena, they were so close and loyal that the failure to have a son didn't lead to problems with the succession.
It was clear that the setting where scandals occurred was not Castle de Valmonde.
They would talk about all kinds of gossip without any filter, and when little Hannah would blink at them, they would giggle to themselves in embarrassment and say,
*Because one day Hannah will find out, too.*
Her sharpness made her understand them quite early, but she only shared with Claudel the sweet cookies and candies she got from her maid sisters.
She'd learned early on about the dirty and heartless side of the world, and the reason she'd learned about it so quickly was because she'd thought that understanding her situation was a form of protection.
Claudel, who was growing up as a 'Lady' in this large and wonderful castle, was like a sanctuary to Hannah.
So Claudel did not need to know this, nor should she.
Claudel, too, had lost her parents on the same day as Hannah, but she was Claudel, and she lived a different life.
That Claudel would meet her handsome, noble husband—who would not lay a hand on the castle's young maids, which was very important to Hannah—and that Claudel would be loved abundantly and live happily ever after.
But the groom was Temnes!
There was no way Hannah didn't know the meaning of this marriage.
No, since Hannah had grown up seeing the Duke and Duchess of Vermont closer than any of the maids in the castle, she understood better than anyone.
"I should have killed that old fox with my own hands."
The Duke of Vermont had sold Claudel.
He'd exchanged Claudel for a month's worth of food to feed his people.
When she'd found out the news, Hannah's blood had boiled.
Even though she'd known how important blind loyalty was to nobles as an employment criterion, she'd rushed into the Duke of Vermont's office and screamed at him, *How could you do that?*
The Duke of Vermont hadn't punished her, saying only, *Now she dares to crawl up here to see me*, but instead, he'd avoided Hannah's eyes and said, *If you want, you can go to Rowen Castle with her.*
She'd gritted her teeth and walked out of the lord's office. Hannah felt she'd grown in strength since that day.
She wielded a heavy wooden block at night when everyone was asleep.
Hannah knew better than Claudel how a wife lived when she was abused by her husband.
In particular, unlike common marriages, noble marriages made divorce more difficult due to the families' interests.
Even if the daughter, who was the subject of the contract, suffered harsh treatment that led to her death.
As the written marriage endured, the woman who was the greatest victim couldn't escape the name of her husband's family that had driven her to death.
In Temnes and Vermont, even those without black hair and red hair often fought and ended up hurt or killed.
If the person who died or was injured in a fight was an enemy, the head of the family would reward them for doing a good job.
There was no way that the delicate flower-like Claudel could survive there.
So Hannah had to protect Claudel, even if she had to do it alone.
However, after the marriage was decided, Claudel had begun to eat less and grew thinner day by day.
When Hannah saw that, she was so upset she nearly went mad.
Claudel's wedding had been arranged as a political marriage and was held quickly within a month, and as she'd approached the wedding day, it was doubtful whether she would wither away before being struck down by Temnes.
The doctor at Castle de Valmonde kept repeating that she was healthy and that there was nothing wrong with her, and since Claudel herself said she was fine, Hannah could only assume that her terrible marriage to Temnes must be causing her great stress.
In any case, Hannah was at a loss as to how to console Claudel, knowing what a blow it was for her not to receive a first-night gift.
To be so happy with just one small ring.
Hannah decided to raise her evaluation of Kaian—who was hitting rock bottom—by about five points.
As soon as she entered the castle kitchen, the servants suddenly stopped their gossiping.
She felt it was strange, but she found a tray, put a bowl on it for soup, grabbed a plate for bread, and headed to the oven.
"Vermont has no pride."
At that moment, the servants' ridicule flew in.
"What?"
"The redhead you serve, Miss. I heard she stole an ornament from the Master's clothes yesterday?"
"What are you talking about?"
The maids narrowed their eyes and laughed at Hannah.
"In the morning they said she showed you a button-piece that was supposedly a gift from the Duke?"
"But the seamstress said it fell from the Duke's clothes."
*Clink.*
The tray fell from Hannah's hands and the dishes shattered.
---
## The Confrontation
Kaian headed to Claudel's room.
Tonight, the third day, there was a banquet to be held with her.
He was curious whether preparations were going well, and he also wondered if the two of them should have lunch together.
*Is this for no reason?*
Even though she was from Vermont, Claudel didn't make him uncomfortable.
The anger he'd felt before the wedding had now largely disappeared.
"That's stealing!"
"What? This is absurd! How dare you say something like that!"
However, in the hallway in front of Claudel's room, a fight was going on between maids tearing at each other's hair.
"In Vermont, don't you think it's fine to have sticky fingers?"
The servants and maids, who'd been in the middle of chaos, retreated all at once when they saw Kaian suddenly appear.
Claudel was standing in the doorway of the room, and in front of her was her maid, hair and clothes torn to pieces.
"Master! Why are they saying such nonsense!"
"What's going on?"
One of the maids quickly answered obediently.
"Well, she stole the button decorations from the Duke's clothes and had them made for her. Put it on her hand as if it were a ring."
At those words, one of the servants shouted loudly.
"Even though they looked at our Duke strangely, they've been looking at you strangely for a long time. Are you the kind of person who would give something like that as a gift?"
Claudel looked at him with an embarrassed expression.
However, Kaian was equally embarrassed.
He was the lord who reigned over them.
The leader of Temnes seemed like a laughingstock to his own servants.
"There's no way I would give something like that as a gift."
---