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Chapter 4
“Surely the soup won’t be watery… This is my first meal at Iglesia, the so-called embodiment of wealth.”
It would be nice if it had plenty of ingredients.
Just imagining a warm soup filling her stomach made saliva gather under Rosetta’s tongue.
As she was about to head inside, she glanced back toward the rear garden. Madam Kyrillos was still standing there as if rooted to the spot.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to guide me to my room?”
“……”
Backlit by the light, the woman’s expression was hard to see. Rosetta simply shrugged, unbothered.
“You’re not planning to make me dine with him without even changing, are you?”
“……”
Still no answer.
Equally unconcerned, Rosetta stopped a passing servant.
“Excuse me. Which way is the bedroom?”
“Pardon? Ah—th-the bedroom is…”
The flustered servant glanced behind her. Before he could finish, Madam Kyrillos had already approached and passed Rosetta.
“The elevator is that way.”
Her tone was noticeably colder than before.
Watching her walk ahead, Rosetta let out a quiet chuckle.
“That’s rather obvious.”
It seemed she wanted to suppress her from the very beginning—but not a chance.
“I’ve dealt with people like you my entire life.”
How many had tried to trip her up while smiling sweetly? Tricks like this were barely worth noticing.
“One mountain after another… but they’re still just mountains.”
Climb long enough, and you reach the summit eventually.
Keeping her smile, Rosetta followed.
* * *
“This is the ‘Valerie’s bedroom.’”
Standing before a carved door, Madam Kyrillos opened it.
Rosetta stepped inside, catching a glimpse of the woman biting the inside of her cheek—and then she gasped.
“Wow…”
It was an antique-style bedroom.
The ornaments and artwork placed throughout looked over a hundred years old, and in a vase beside the bed, eucalyptus and pink lisianthus bloomed abundantly.
Lisianthus.
After a few seconds of silence, Rosetta spoke.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Of course. Lord Rike personally oversaw everything.”
Madam Kyrillos straightened proudly. Her tone carried unmistakable pride, and Rosetta realized she was telling the truth.
“Sol arranged this room himself…?”
Rosetta’s expression turned subtle as she looked at the flowers.
“How did he know I like these?”
He had acted like he didn’t remember her at all.
“No… he probably just chose them because they’re pretty.”
Turning her head, Rosetta looked at the canopy bed.
It was elegant, draped with delicately embroidered lace, and the bedding looked incredibly soft.
When she ran her hand over it, it felt like silk—made from the finest material, smooth enough to please with the slightest touch.
A smile formed on her lips.
“I should thank him.”
“Let us begin with changing your clothes.”
At Madam Kyrillos’s clap, waiting maids entered. Rosetta rose from the bed.
Rosetta’s first meal at the Solarium was lavish.
Fresh seafood, tender lamb and beef, and a variety of vegetables filled the table.
Among them, Rosetta’s eyes lit up as she tasted the appetizer—a feta cheese salad made from goat’s milk.
It was delicious, fresh, and plentiful. It had been so long since she’d had such a fine meal.
“What should I eat first?”
Excited, she hesitated between lasagna made with mashed potatoes and minced meat in sauce, and pistachio macaroni—
“Do you like the room?”
Sol Rike spoke, dabbing his lips with a napkin.
“Ah, yes. It’s very beautiful. Thank you.”
Swallowing her bite of lasagna, Rosetta finally looked away from her plate.
While being shown the study earlier, she had been debating whether to ask about the flowers.
“Since we’re talking about the room, maybe I should ask now?”
Just as she made up her mind—
“Good. I’ll come tonight, so prepare yourself.”
—Clatter!
At the sharp crash, reddish-gold brows lifted.
A maid had dropped a glass and was now kneeling flat on the floor.
“I-I’m sorry, Lord Rike! Please have mercy…!”
Her ears, visible through her trembling light-brown hair, were bright red.
Sol Rike spoke indifferently.
“Clean it up.”
“Y-yes, sir.”
The maid hurriedly gathered the shattered pieces into her apron.
Watching her, Rosetta tilted her glass slightly.
“By ‘prepare’… he means the wedding night, doesn’t he?”
The first night.
Once that happened, the marriage would be fully consummated.
“He said he didn’t expect much… just that I stay in position. I thought he meant only in name.”
So they really would share a first night?
“So that’s why he arranged the room himself.”
Not to suit her taste—but his.
Lowering her gaze, Rosetta slowed her movements.
Suddenly, she felt a sharp, stinging gaze.
“…Hm?”
Turning her head, she met the eyes of the maid.
The maid, now leaving the dining room with the glass shards, was glaring at her intensely—as if she wanted to bore a hole through her.
Rosetta let out a faint laugh.
“It’s no different here either.”
Servants attending the meal.
The calm atmosphere filling the dining room.
The rich food and elegant music.
All things she had never enjoyed in Pavinu.
There, having fallen out of favor with the head of the house, she hadn’t been allowed even the smallest comforts.
The servants of Iglesia were just as unfriendly toward her.
“Well, the head butler was like that—no surprise the others are the same.”
But Rosetta didn’t care.
After everything she had endured in Pavinu, this was nothing new.
The servants’ displeasure didn’t matter.
What mattered was the man before her.
Sol Rike Iglesia.
The kingdom’s sole Guardian Duke—
and the man who had helped her escape when she was kidnapped as a child.
And—
“Run.”
“Y-your wound—at least let me stop the bleeding—!”
“No time!”
—the man who had nearly died in her place.
“If we’re both going to die meaninglessly, at least one of us should live.”
The memory of his blood-soaked hand urging her to go made her golden eyes glow red in the candlelight.
As he drank his wine, Sol Rike observed her expression.
* * *
After dinner, Rosetta returned to her room and sat at the vanity.
“I thought they’d start preparing me for the wedding night right away…”
But Sol had said he still had work to finish and told her to rest.
Under the pretense of letting “Lady Valerie rest comfortably,” Madam Kyrillos had not assigned any maids to attend her.
“Works for me.”
Contrary to the woman’s intentions, Rosetta found the solitude comforting—it allowed her to calmly think through what lay ahead.
“First, even if the servants dislike me, I need at least one or two on my side.”
You couldn’t control people’s hearts—but you could build favorable relationships.
“If not, then at least I must make it impossible for them to ignore my position.”
A marriage between the kingdom’s only Guardian Duke and the daughter of a declining count’s family clinging to past glory—
It was an unequal union in every way.
And yet, it had happened solely because the head of the Iglesia family had willed it.
“If I want the loyalty of servants devoted to their master… I need to be useful to that master.”
Rosetta unlocked the wooden case on her vanity.
“For now… I just need to get through tonight safely.”
