“Sir Lidan,” came a knock on the door, “It’s 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 warming up by the sofa.

“Come in.”

The door clicked open, and Harth carefully stood in front of him. Harth was the guard who first brought Ilyin to the winter region. He had yet to even 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 warm?”

Harth was quite resistant against the cold but even he couldn’t handle the April cold with his bare body.

“Even with the Duke of Winter here,” Lydan chuckled.

***

As soon as Milo informed the Viscount of Aden’s intention, the Viscount agreed to come right away and ordered that the Duke be given the utmost importance. It was quite unusual for a noble to be so submissive.

After contacting Viscount Arlen, Milo returned and carefully spoke, “I’m not sure if the Viscount is looking for another dealer.”

“That’s probably not it.” The words left Ilyin’s mouth before she realized it.

Milo and Aden simultaneously turned to her.

The three of them were now in the Master Merchant’s office deep inside of the Acid Merchant building. Ilyin had been here before. As she looked around, the first time she came here to ask Milo to deliver a letter came to mind. Back then she didn’t realize the people here would become some of her closest allies.

Her gaze turned to Aden. Monster Duke, that was how she knew him before; that was his reputation in the warm region. Ilyin didn’t realize her gaze had turned into staring. When Aden noticed he simply returned a soft smile.

He’s so nice to me, thought Ilyin, but she knew that he could immediately put up a scary front when necessary. With the power tree in Biflten, it was essential to have an intimidating reputation.

“Perhaps… do you know something?” Milo asked carefully.

Ilyin tried to open her mouth to speak but found she was unable to do so. She was going to talk about her family’s shame, it rightfully 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, “They seem to attend luxurious parties daily and throw money at the subordinates, but the truth is that they have nothing.”

Ilyin began telling the story of her family. Viscount Arlen’s was a family that just barely got by with income from their small farm. The master of the family at that time was one who had no aspirations to become a noble and had no desire for honor.

It soon changed when someone with a greed for honor became the master for this generation. The subordinates turned their back on the master who was keener on showing off than taking care of the farm.

It was when Viscount married Ilyin’s mother that he was able to obtain financial stability. The woman who showed up one day was very beautiful. Her origin was unknown, but it didn’t matter as she was so beautiful, she immediately caught Viscount Arlen’s heart. The subordinates of the Viscount House and even the woman’s own family were against the marriage.

Surprisingly enough it was the woman who showed more interest in the Viscount than the Viscount to her. Since the woman’s family couldn’t dissuade their daughter, they had to give a huge amount of dowry to quiet down the subordinates’ protests. The dowry was enough for the revival of the Arlen family.

“But that money just ended up exacerbating my father’s spending habit,” said Ilyin.

“I am sorry, but may I ask you one thing?” Milo spoke suddenly but shrunk at Aden’s cold glare.

“Ask away.” Ilyin tugged Aden’s arm to let him know it was okay. Aden let out a short huff and reluctantly looked away.

Milo hesitated then asked, “May I ask regarding Mistress’s mom?”

Milo had been investigating this matter but decided that asking Ilyin would be a much safer and quicker option. The topic of Ilyin’s family seemed to be such a sensitive subject that even Aden avoided talking about it.

Ilyin turned quiet.

Aden shot Milo a glare so deathly, the back of Milo’s neck became cold with sweat.

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