At that precise moment, Danté Bord Schneider went to meet Evony Vonieck.

Benjamin the butler, who had been following him around like a stalker, subtly urged him to go see her. Danté had just returned from a long trip in the heat, and all he wanted to do was wash himself in cold water. He eyed Benjamin with dissatisfaction.

“Okay, okay. I’ll go.”

“Yes, Master. As you should.”

Tsk. Shaking his pitch-black, curly hair, Danté thrust his hands into his pockets and opened the door with his foot. Watching him do this, Benjamin quickly picked up a jacket and followed suit.

“You’re on your way to see the young lady, yet this is how you’re going? Please wear something more proper.”

“What’s wrong with my attire?” Danté wondered.

“Are you seriously asking?”

Benjamin eyed him reproachfully. Danté was at a loss for words. The sole owner of this large estate was himself, and no one had the authority to stop him from doing whatever he wanted, no matter how crazy his behavior may be.

This was true not only on the premise of this castle, but anywhere in the kingdom.

Benjamin, who knew well the free-spirited character of Danté , wasn’t the type to nag. He would mostly nudge and offer advice when his master’s actions crossed the line.

But now he handed Danté the jacket with a stern look on his face.

“On a day as hot as today, you want me to throw this on?”

“I do not want you to throw it on; I wish the master would wear it.”

“I’d rather go naked.”

Benjamin glared at him as if he was a beast.

Danté asked if this was a form of mutiny, but the butler seemed determined not to answer, and his wrinkled mouth stayed closed.

The jacket was thrown into a corner of the room. Danté , with his hands still in his pockets, sluggishly made his way to the second floor.

Evony Vonieck.

He flashed back to the day he’d decided to bring her to the castle. Danté happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, the only one dozing due to lack of enthusiasm while other nobles vocally expressed their disapproval.

He wasn’t being nosy, nor did he feel responsible in any way. At first, he couldn’t care less, then grew more irritated at the process of listing excuses for refusal. At the end, he relented.

“Do as you wish.”

But when his chief secretary ran up to him and opposed her with fervor, Danté sparked interest in Evony Vonieck for the first time.

“So, you’re telling me she killed two people? Two men of nobility?” Danté had asked.

“It would have been better if she killed two strangers. Then, it would have been an execution without a doubt. But that’s not the reason Evony Vonieck has become infamous in all of Karcass.”

“Then what is the reason?”

“She killed the man she was to marry at age of 18, and then not a day later, she killed her own father.”

“Wow.”

“Your Excellency! It is not something to marvel at. Do you not see how shocking this incident is? That in Karcass, a woman goes about murdering her husband and father?”

Danté smirked as he recalled the exchange. The faces of the pigs who desperately tried to avoid her came to mind. They were afraid that she would kill them as well.

“But that’s not all.”

“What else is there?” Danté asked.

“Evony Vonieck said something during her trial. I could never… I could not forget what she said.”

Danté ’s secretary was a genius and quite competent. At the time, he was working as a legal analyst of the Karcassian government when Evony's case became news. He used his spare time to observe the trial.

“What did she say?” inquired Danté .

“People die easily. Whether that be my husband or my father.”

In that trial, Evony Vonieck was sentenced to death.

Danté was already in the hallway of the second floor. His elongated shadow created by the moonlight glimmered with each movement.

It was the perfect day for a ghost to appear. As one Karcassian classic tale went, on a night where the moon is especially bright, a person’s shadow disappears and reappears. They claim it is actually a ghost’s doing. Danté glanced at his shadow and smiled.

Of all times, when he was thinking of supernatural tales, he heard someone’s sob.

It sounded like a strangled ghost crying. Danté quickly raised his head. Goosebumps formed on the back of his neck. Danté roughly ruffled his hair with one hand as he stepped towards the room prepared for that Evony girl.

The weeping grew louder as he approached nearer. When he was just inches from the door, the crying had turned to wailing. Now Danté knew who was crying.

Evony Vonieck.

What a sad cry, he thought. The cries were so loud it sounded like she was screaming.

Danté did not knock. Again, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and kicked the door open with his foot. He crossed the empty room and entered the bathroom.

Evony was crying in the bathtub, on her knees and half doubled over.

Marsha, completely taken by surprise by the master’s sudden entrance, hurriedly rose to her feet.

“Oh dear! Master.”

Marsha quickly tried to cover Evony, but she continued to wail. Danté ’s blankly stared, and neither moved. On top of that, the unwashed Evony was caked with dust and dirt.

After letting out a deep sigh, Marsha looked at Danté reproachingly.

“Master, where on earth are your gentlemanly manners?”

“I was not born a gentleman, so I do not have any.”

“You and your tongue.”

As the two conversed, Evony continued to sob. Her eyes were bloodshot and spit flowed from her mouth, but she was in no state to bother with embarrassment. She kept on crying her heart out.

Wet hair stuck to those scrawny shoulders of Evony's naked body. The same was happening to her bare back which revealed every spinal bone. Her bruised and scarred chest, half-covered in the water, was a mess in the bubbles.

Even worse, blood flowed from some of the fresh scars that hadn’t fully healed.

Her thighs where the guard had freshly whipped spilled the most blood. Evony was indifferent to the wounds, as if she couldn’t feel the pain. Now, stuck to the edge of the tub with her body crunched up, Evony could only sob.

Danté , who up until now stood there and stared at Evony, slightly moved his lips.

“Marsha.”

“Yes?”

“Go and rest. I’ll be fine on my own now.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Marsha, who tried to stop Danté , covered her mouth with her hands in shock. Her master had stepped into the bathtub with his clothes on, abruptly and swiftly — the same way he had entered the bathroom.

His hands were still in his pockets. He even had his shoes on as he stepped into the water, with foam and hot water and blood swirling as he moved his feet.

“Master, what in heavens are you doing?!”

“Whatever the master feels like he should do.”

“Oh, I cannot believe this! Benjamin, come over here!” The shocked Marsha ran out of the bathroom to bring the butler in. She intended to kick the Master out by force.

But all Danté did was stand there in the bathtub and blankly stare at Evony.

Evony's wail was working towards its climax. She scratched down the slippery sides of the bathtub and hunched her small body into a curl like a scared, wild animal.

To Danté ’s eyes, her body seemed tiny.

Evony.

This small and unalluring woman. Now she was his responsibility.

Danté swallowed the sigh rising in his throat, bent his long legs, and sat down in front of the girl.

“Look here.”

The hot water drenched his long legs. His pants stuck to his legs. But Danté ’s gaze was fixed on Evony.

“I don’t mind the crying, but wash up first.”

Evony, her body scrunched up like a porcupine, did not budge. It seemed like she was not listening to him at all. Danté reached for her skinny shoulder.

But this small movement of his made Evony gasp.

As soon as she saw his long fingers on her shoulder, and when she spotted him in the tub with her, it all came rushing back — where she was and the situation she was in.

She must have been crazy. She was so startled that she stopped crying.

“Oh, uh, um… I’m so... so sorry.”

With a splash, Evony bowed down on her knees. It would be more appropriate to say that she rammed her head on the bathtub floor. Her face plunged underwater. She didn’t hold her breath, so as soon as she took the plunge, she quickly rose up with her mouth spraying water in all directions.

Danté , completely taken aback, grabbed Evony's shoulders and lifted her.

“What are you doing!”

She coughed. “Oh no, I’m so.. sorry.”

Her face was drained of blood and a mess from the tears and the bubbles. Even though the water was warm, the body in Danté ’s hands felt cold.

“What is there to be sorry about?”

“I’m sorry…?”

“I’m the one who should be sorry.”

Evony couldn’t think properly. All she could do was lower her gaze. She couldn’t meet his eyes, after all.

“You’re not even dressed, and I have you in my grasp. I’m being the most disrespectful I have ever been in my life.”

“Please… let go. I am dirty.”

Evony told him to let go because she was dirty. Danté frowned as what she said sunk in.

She was sitting down, completely naked in front of a total stranger, yet she was telling him to not touch her because she was dirty.

Danté didn’t know much about Evony, but he could see that there was something clearly wrong with her train of thought. It was probably due to her long sentence in prison.

“Look, I stepped in the water you were washing in with my shoes on. I’m the one who is dirty and I’m the one who has done wrong, am I not?

“I’m sorry…?”

“And I’m about to help you wash. That’ll be the most heinous thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

“You’re going to help wash… me?”

“So, we are on equal terms. No need to apologize.”

Danté closed his lips as if to tell her that he did not want to hear further. After he rolled up his sleeves, Danté splashed the warm water onto Evony's stiff shoulders and arms and slowly scrubbed them with his palm.

Very naturally. As if he’d been washing her all along. Evony could not fathom what this person was doing.

Danté ’s actions were relentless. He wasn’t using force, nor was he demanding. All he was doing was continuously splashing water onto the parts of Evony's body that were outside the water and scrubbing them with his palm. Then when his fingers came across a scar or a wound, he would stop for a moment to study the skin.

His long and warm fingers touched her neck. Evony sat there absent-mindedly and loosened her tightly clenched jaw. Her wet hair draped over her chest. Her black hair never did have a shine to it, and now that it was wet, it was the color of the sewer.

Watching Danté ’s long fingers fall from scrubbing her neck to combing through her hair, She belatedly felt a sense of embarrassment and cringed.

Dirty Evony. Black as ashes.

Watching the clear, hot water become dark from the filth on her body, Evony became so embarrassed that she wanted to sink into the ground.

She had not been allowed to wash freely in the cold, dirty prison. They permitted her to wash her face once a week and to bathe once a month. All throughout the year, she had to hastily wash in an open space with freezing cold river water, where the prison guards whipped them to hurry along.

Bath bombs and soap were luxuries.

Older women who were imprisoned with Evony all had their heads shaved like men. This was to prevent infestation. But Evony hated the cold more than bugs. She thought that if she didn’t grow her hair, she would freeze to death in the winter.

That long hair whose purpose was survival in prison, was now flowing from between Danté ’s fingers. Evony was mesmerized by the man’s fingers going through her hair, carefully untangling the locks.

Stop, is what she wanted to say. It’s dirty. Please don’t touch my hair.

But the words didn’t come out.

She thought maybe, even during this moment, that it was all a dream. Maybe she’d finally lost her mind and was unable to distinguish between imagination and reality.

Ironically, that was exactly what she had wished for. To completely lose her mind so that she could be tricked into happiness even during the most painful of times.

With loud clattering, two people barged into the room and Benjamin and Marsha’s silhouettes appeared in the bathroom.

“Look! Our master has gone mad!”

Benjamin did not believe Marsha’s words even on his way to the room, but now that he witnessed Danté ’s actions for himself, he was speechless. His wrinkled face turned red.

“Your Excellency! You must get out of the Lady’s bathtub this instant!”

Even as he shouted, he instantly turned his back to the scene, away from Evony's naked body.

Seeing the gentle Benjamin shout gave Evony the hiccups. Her skinny chest was now pathetically jumping out the water that was now dark and foul from the dirt washed from her skin.

That first day Evony Vonieck arrived at the Schneider castle, the grand duke and the butler were kicked out of the upstairs bathroom and sent to the first floor.