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Chapter 15
As soon as she entered the room, Lauren collapsed as though the strength had left her legs. Lize and Anna hurried over in surprise, but Aster raised a hand to stop them. Seeing her trembling hands, he clicked his tongue softly and guided her to sit on a long couch. Then he ordered Lize to bring alcohol.
“Lauren, are you alright?”
“…Yes, I’m okay. I’m sorry. I don’t have time to be like this. You said Jasmine came?”
“No, that was a lie. I thought getting rid of that woman first was more important.”
Aster frowned and tugged one corner of his mouth upward. Lauren stared blankly at him, and a faint smile drifted across her lips. But it looked forced somehow, which left an unpleasant feeling in his chest.
Aster instructed Anna to help Lauren change clothes. Lauren protested, saying the work wasn’t finished yet, but Aster ignored her entirely. She let out a small sigh, and he merely chuckled and shrugged.
When she came out after changing, Lize returned carrying a tray with liquor and glasses at almost perfect timing. Aster dismissed the maids and personally arranged the drinks on the low table. Sitting on the couch, Lauren quietly looked at him as he sat opposite her.
“Have a drink.”
“The sun… hasn’t even set yet.”
“You need rest, Lauren. Do you know how you look right now?”
Even after changing clothes, Lauren stubbornly resisted. Her attitude suggested she would go back to work immediately if allowed. Frowning, Aster spoke to her in a low voice.
Lauren bit her lip tightly and lowered her gaze. Even with her head down, she could feel his worried eyes on her. She must really look terrible.
She glanced toward the vanity mirror across the room. Her face was pale, ghostlike. A small sigh escaped her unconsciously.
Aster poured alcohol into the glass in front of her. Like before, it wasn’t even half full.
“Drink it and lie down.”
Leaning forward, Aster placed the glass into her hand. Lauren only stared at it.
After a long silence, she finally spoke.
“…Why aren’t you asking me anything?”
“Would you rather I asked?”
Lauren couldn’t answer.
Part of her wanted to tell someone, yet she also wondered whether talking about it would solve anything at all. She didn’t want to burden him unnecessarily.
As she hesitated, Aster laughed quietly.
The expression in his eyes when Lauren looked up wasn’t his usual sharp, bitter smile—nor mockery.
“You don’t have to force yourself to talk. Later… if you ever want to tell me, you can.”
Though his brows were furrowed, Aster’s smile was gentle.
He had said alcohol helped people forget.
Lauren wanted to erase today from her mind.
She stared at him silently for a while, tightened her grip on the glass, and before he could stop her, drained it in one gulp.
Seeing that, Aster exhaled sharply.
“That’s pretty strong.”
“It… is.”
Startled by the burning alcohol in her throat, she slowly exhaled.
Well, the alcohol Aster drank was notoriously strong, and Lauren wasn’t used to drinking. Perhaps because she swallowed it all at once, heat spread through her body instantly. Even her breath felt warm.
Without realizing it, she fanned at her collar.
For some reason, she felt unbearably hot.
“You’ll suffer tomorrow.”
“I suppose… I will.”
Her pale violet eyes blinked sluggishly.
Since she wasn’t accustomed to alcohol, intoxication seemed to come quickly. Lauren smiled with flushed cheeks.
Whenever Lauren drank, she smiled surprisingly easily.
Even though there was nothing worth smiling about.
At this rate, he shouldn’t give this woman alcohol.
Aster sighed softly and stood up.
Lauren’s unfocused gaze followed him.
“Go to sleep early.”
He turned to leave the room.
But a tiny force caught his sleeve.
Aster glanced down absentmindedly.
Lauren’s small white hand was gripping his sleeve tightly.
“…Ah.”
As if startled by herself, Lauren let out a small sound.
She quickly released him and looked up with widened eyes.
Aster frowned when their eyes met.
Her pale violet eyes were filled with moisture, swollen with tears.
“Oh dear… why am I like this? I’m sorry.”
The tears in her eyes quickly became large droplets and rolled down her cheeks.
Flustered, Lauren wiped them away with her sleeve.
But no matter how much she wiped, the tears wouldn’t stop.
Eventually, as though escaping his gaze, Lauren buried her face in both hands.
Perhaps because she lowered her head, the tears only continued.
It wasn’t strange.
Lauren had recently lost her parents, abandoned everything she had built over many years, and come to the duke’s estate.
And now someone connected to all those memories had appeared.
It was only natural for emotions to overwhelm her.
On top of that, she had been drinking.
Lauren’s shoulders trembled faintly.
Aster clicked his tongue inwardly.
No matter how many rumors painted him as a bloodless killer without tears or compassion, he couldn’t simply leave someone crying like that.
“It’s okay, Lauren.”
Aster approached her carefully.
He hesitated briefly about what to do, but eventually reached out.
His hand gently patted her shoulder.
“The guest has left, however…”
Aster came out of Lauren’s room only after quite some time had passed.
After crying for a long while, Lauren, with swollen red eyes, had asked him to stay beside her until she fell asleep.
And he couldn’t refuse.
Lauren had fallen asleep holding onto his sleeve, smiling faintly in relief.
Why couldn’t he reject her request?
Aster stared at her sleeping face for a long time, thinking.
Well, he hadn’t found an answer.
“So?”
Calvin reported to him as he sat at his office desk.
Unlike usual, Calvin trailed off awkwardly, which irritated Aster for some reason.
Even his voice urging an answer sounded sharp.
“I’m not sure whether I should say this regarding a young lady from a noble family, but…”
According to Calvin, she had shouted that she wouldn’t leave unless an appointment was arranged immediately.
She seemed ready to throw herself onto the dirt and make a scene.
Unable to do otherwise, they had forcibly scheduled a dinner meeting for two days later.
Aster pressed a hand to his forehead.
“My apologies, Your Grace.”
“What’s done is done.”
“Should we inform Madam?”
“That would be best. Lauren should know as well.”
Lauren didn’t seem to like that woman.
But now that things had come to this, they would have to meet at least once.
Resolving it properly would prevent future trouble.
What did that woman want?
Leaning back in his chair, Aster thought quietly.
If a few jewels or dresses could solve it, that would be ideal—but she didn’t seem like the type to back down that easily.
Rather, she might cling tighter after finding a wealthy benefactor.
Considering she came all the way to a murderer’s estate just to see Lauren, she had quite a bit of nerve.
“We’ll have to put the kitchen to work.”
“They’ll probably be delighted. Haven’t they lacked opportunities to show their skills for years?”
At Calvin’s gentle smile, Aster frowned and pulled at his lips.
Calvin’s words weren’t something he could simply laugh off.
Calvin likely understood that too.
Apparently Calvin had grown fond of Lauren.
Understandably so.
Lauren had proven capable as a duchess.
Aster had granted Lauren authority to access everything except top-level secrets, as well as the right to reorganize the estate.
Everything she did was reported to Aster through Calvin, who worked alongside her.
Lauren—the capable administrator—was equally skilled at managing the duke’s household.
Truthfully, money was abundant.
Not only the wealth passed down through generations of Dukes of Lilywood, but also the rewards Aster earned risking his life on battlefields.
Not enough to share equally among every common soldier who fought beside him, but still substantial.
And despite barely overseeing his territory, taxes flowed steadily to him.
Even so, the reason Aster neglected the estate wasn’t laziness or ignorance.
He wasn’t strong at administrative matters, but he wasn’t incompetent either.
Aster rose and looked out the window.
The garden once overrun with weeds was becoming a thing of the past.
The estate he had deliberately ignored had begun changing little by little after Lauren arrived.
The first thing to change was the curtains.
The mansion, once dark and chilly even at noon because the curtains remained shut, was now filled with sunlight.
Unlike him, who rarely ate properly, Lauren happily enjoyed whatever the kitchen prepared, delighting the servants.
Naturally, the atmosphere of the estate changed.
Time had begun to flow again in a mansion once so quiet it felt frozen.
At this rate, it almost seemed as though the old vitality from long ago might return.
Whether that was a good thing or not—
Even Aster didn’t know.
“If Madam says she doesn’t wish to meet the guest…”
Calvin’s voice pulled Aster from his thoughts.
Looking away from the flower garden swaying in the wind, he turned toward the butler.
No one had wanted this estate to change more than Calvin.
So his loyalty toward Lauren was understandable.
Even if the object of that loyalty was merely a marriage formed by mutual necessity.
“Then throw her out. I don’t care if you scare her.”
“As you wish.”
Calvin bowed briefly and left the office.
Silence soon settled.
Lettie had been on leave since yesterday, meaning today’s miscellaneous work would inevitably fall to Aster.
He sat in the chair where Lauren had likely worked only moments before and looked down at the documents spread across the desk.
Better not touch these.
Pulling up one corner of his lips, he pushed the papers aside.
He was curious what they contained, but even if he looked, it wasn’t as though he could process them properly.
If it were something he needed to know, Lauren would tell him.
That was how things had always been.
Aster’s gaze shifted toward a silver tray placed on one side of the desk.
Every day, Calvin polished that tray and decorated it with a fine lace handkerchief.
It was something he had done continuously since the day Aster inherited the ducal title.
Even when Aster told him to stop such pointless things, Calvin only laughed and insisted it was the natural duty of a butler.
Aster could never argue further.
Calvin was always like that.
Things that seemed meaningless to Aster—Calvin devoted himself to earnestly.
That was probably why he was genuinely pleased with Lauren’s way of doing things.
In any case, the only letters arriving for him were usually reports from his territory or military units.
As he flipped absentmindedly through envelopes, checking the names written on them—
His hand stopped.
His dark green eyes stared for a long moment at the seal and name stamped on one particular envelope.
