“Sir Lidan,” there was a knock on the door, “this is Knight Harth.”
Lidan of Blue North was staying on the fourth floor of the Biflten mansion.
This part of the mansion was Blue North’s territory.
It was safe for him to relax, but he was standing by the window instead of basking on the couch.
"Between."
The door opened and Harth carefully stopped in front of him.
Harth was the guard who first brought Ilyin to the winter region and he had yet to brush the snow off his shoulders.
“The Delrose carriage has arrived at the Acid Merchant,” he bowed deeply.
Lidan laughed after being quiet for a moment, “Isn’t this April particularly hot?”
Harth was quite resistant to cold, but even he could not handle the April cold with his naked body.
“Even without the Duke of Winter here,” Lydan laughed.
As soon as Milo informed the viscount of Aden's intention, the viscount agreed to come immediately and ordered that the duke should be given the utmost importance.
It was quite unusual for a noble to be so submissive.
After contacting Viscount Arlen, Milo returned and spoke carefully:
“I’m not sure the viscount is looking for another drug dealer.”
“It’s probably not that.” The words were out of Ilyin's mouth before she knew it.
Milo and Aden simultaneously turned to her.
The three of them were now in the Master Merchant's office, deep inside the Acid Merchant building.
Ilyin had been here before and as she looked around, the first time she came here to ask Milo to deliver a letter came to mind.
At that time, she didn't know that the people here would become some of her closest allies.
His gaze turned to Aden.
The monster duke, that was how she met him before and that was his reputation in the hot region.
Ilyin didn't notice that his gaze had become fixed.
When Aden noticed, he simply returned a soft smile.
'He's so nice to me,' thought Ilyin, but she knew he could immediately put up a scary facade when necessary; with the power of the tree in Biflten, it was essential to have an intimidating reputation.
“Maybe… you know something?” Milo asked carefully.
Ilyin tried to open his mouth to speak, but found that he couldn't.
She was going to talk about her family's shame, it rightly bothered her.
After a while, with the help of Aden's reassuring gaze, she gathered her courage and spoke.
"Viscount Arlen is currently in financial trouble.
When I left, the family had almost no money," she couldn't help but blush, "He seems to attend lavish parties daily and throw money at his subordinates, but the truth is that he has nothing."
Ilyin began to tell the story of his family.
Viscount Arlen's family was a family that could barely survive on the income from their small farm.
The family master at that time was someone who had no aspirations of becoming a noble and had no desire for honor.
It soon changed when someone with greed for honor became the master of this generation.
The subordinates turned their backs on the boss who preferred to show off than take care of the farm.
It was when the viscount married Ilyin's mother that he managed to obtain financial stability, the woman who appeared one day was very beautiful.
Her origins were unknown, but it didn't matter as she was so beautiful that she immediately won Viscount Arlen's heart.
The subordinates of the Viscount's House and even the woman's own family were against the marriage.
Surprisingly, it was the woman who showed more interest in the viscount than the viscount did in her.
As the woman's family was unable to dissuade their daughter, they had to give a large dowry to calm the protests of their subordinates.
The dowry was enough for the rebirth of the Arlen family.
“But this money ended up exacerbating my father’s spending habit,” said Ilyin.
“I’m sorry, but can I ask you something?” Milo spoke suddenly, but flinched under Aden's cold gaze.
“Ask freely.” Ilyin tugged on Aden's arm to let him know it was okay, Aden let out a short huff and reluctantly looked away.
Milo hesitated and then asked.
“May I ask about the Lady’s mother?”
Milo was looking into this matter, but decided that asking Ilyin would be a much safer and quicker option.
The matter of Ilyin's family seemed to be such a sensitive subject that even Aden avoided talking about it.
Ilyin was silent.
Aden gave Milo such a deadly look that the back of Milo's neck felt cold with sweat.