Translator: Khan

Editor Group: Liber Reverie

"… Count. long time no see."

"Yes. Long time no see, Vika. How are you? "

"Of course."

Vika couldn't ask the Count how he was, and he finished with a smile, the Count nodded to the Marquis beside him and asked him who he was.

"Ah, he was a little helped by Count the other day."

"It's Pia. I've been grateful to you the other day."

"I see. I'm sorry I can't remember you. "

"No. You can do that. There were a lot of rumors that you were doing great grace to the poor."

"Haha. Was it? I would be very happy if it was."

The look of the Count who replied was so bright. For he could no longer serve as active, but simply mentioning the glory of the past could have made him a great favor, despite having never met.

This allowed Vika and the Marquis to have a long conversation with the Count. They delayed the time as long as possible and waited for Aria, but she didn't come out of her room.

"Oh, time is already here. It's already dinner time."

And the Countess, bored by their visit, gave a secret order to leave to the Marquis and Vika. But the Count did not want them to leave, so he offered them dinner so that they could stay at the mansion for a little more.

"Have you had dinner?"

"No, not yet."

Vika bit the bait, wondering if Aria would show up at the dining room, and the Countess gave an uncomfortable look and ordered servants to prepare dinner for the two of them. It was not difficult to add a meal for two people because the ingredients were well prepared.

So Vika and the Marquis could sit in the dining room with the Countess and waited with a throbbing heart for Aria to come down. Soon after, the figure they were waiting for appeared in the dining room.

"We had a guest?"

The Marquis, who turned his head in a clear, transparent voice, had to be hardened as if time had stopped, and Vika's eyes sparkled and he smiled as he was watching it.

"You are Mr. Vika, right?"

"It's been a long time, Lady Aria."

"… yes, what brings you here?"

"I came to ask after the health of the Count."

As Vika replied, and Aria's face was mistrustful, knowing that Vika was not a pure-minded man, and that he was not in a position to worry about the Count. Vika, who spoke vaguely with a laugh and pretended to be the owner of the house, talked to her to take a seat.

"The food will cool, When it cools, it will taste bad."

'... OK, I've never seen this gentleman before.'

This time Aria's eyes turned to the Marquis. The familiar clear green eyes… If the strangers saw her, they might think her eyes resembled the Countess, but not to the Marquis, and those clear, beautiful eyes were certainly close to the eyes of Chloe. It was hard to notice because the colors were different, but it certainly was. So were the pupils, and the overall appearance was the same as Chloe's.

Someone, who knew their faces of Chloe and her, would never have thought of other people, and if she cut her hair short, she would be Chloe. So when the Marquis was captivated and could not answer as she asked, Vika replied on her behalf,

"Ah, he had an acquaintance with the Count a little, and he came to say hello and then he joined the dinner."

"Is that so? He is rather a quiet person."

As she said so, her eyes were very sharp, glancing the Marquis, because she did not believe Vika's words.

She seemed to think he had a secret design, and even the look on her face looked like Chloe's.

He had not come to look for Aria, but to find her mother, and when he met her, he did not give any interest to the Countess. The Marquis's eyes were only on Aria.

"… you are very rude."

And even though Aria pointed that out, he was moved rather than offended or apologetic. How couldn't he be impressed by his own flesh and blood that he met in a foreign country?

"You are beautiful, and he can't help it."

Vika made a hasty excuse for the Marquis, who could not even say a word of apology; but the Marquis's rude gaze was never taken away. If she had felt the carnal desire in his eyes, she might have splashed water, but he was shocked and surprised, not by the lust for the opposite sex, and Aria began to eat as if she had given up.

The Marquis seemed to have a lot of questions to ask her, but he could not speak to her until she had finished her meal.

* * *

"Mr. Asterope! Mr. Asterope!"

Asher answered, frowning at Vika, who had come to him frivolously this late night.

"Why?"

"You don't have to answer that as if you're being so annoying!"

"Why?"

There were some things that bothered him to answer, but it was a bigger reason why he was nervous about not being able to meet Aria because he was busy in the last work.

"Could you see who I brought?"

"Who is that?"

Asher spoke with a surprised face.

"Did Lady Aria visit me this late at night?"

It seemed a little less in the past, but lately, everything concluded to Aria and Vika answered with a little irritation.

"No, it's not. Do you say so, knowing how busy Lady Aria is? He is not as good as Lady Aria, but he is the one who you have waited for."

Before he could get angry at the convulsive words of Vika, someone opened the door to the office and came in, even though he had not yet allowed it. He was a stranger with white hair and close to an old man.

"Who is it?"

"I see Your Highness, my name is Piast from Croa."

Asher's eyes widened at the Marquis's introduction.

If he was the Marquis of Piast, he was the man who he had been waiting for, as much as Aria. And this was how he came to…

"I guess you've finished confirming."

As he said it, his eyes were shining, because he could see the results without listening.

"Your Highness… how and what did you know?"

As the Marquis of Piast asked directly, Asher recommended him to move to another place.

"I think we should move over, and that's not the story of standing up and talking."

"… yes."

Vika called a servant quickly and ordered him to bring tea out. The servant had been waiting since he had appeared near the office, and two cups of tea were ready, and Asher and the Marquis of Piast moved to the lounge, which was prepared in the next room of the office.

"I was not the first to know. It was Frey."

"If it was Frey…?"

'Frey, Violet's eldest daughter?' Although she had been separated since Chloe and Violet had been deported, it was possible for her to recognize Aria at a glance because she had stayed with Chloe for a long time.

"Yes, Franz Frey, you know her well."

"... how is she?"

"She seems to be well. It wouldn't be too bad to go and see her."

'How could I who had taken all of her family away from her?' Of course, it was the imperial royal family that had taken Violet first, but as a result, Frey had been left alone in the empire, so he could not go to see her proudly. And she was not his own blood.

"... thank you." So, he didn't look grateful but rather wanted to talk about something else.

Asher, who noticed this, did not waste time, but immediately came to the point. "Anyway, that's why I investigated about Chloe. I remembered seeing his face when I was a little child. The more I investigated, the more overlapping it was with Lady Aria, and I could not help but doubt it."

"That's why you came to me, to confirm the truth."

"Yes. I couldn't think of anyone else, except you who took the mother and son who had been deported from the empire. And if a powerful man couldn't help, there would be no way I couldn't have obtained any information out of it."

"…"

The reasoning was quite plausible, and this had been almost broken but connected. It was bad news that the Countess had been married, but it was much better than the past when he did not even know where she was. He could even find the presence of Aria. Asher asked the Marquis, who drank tea with a trembling hand with joy.

"Did Chloe not know about Aria?"