In a way, I was relieved to learn that it hadn’t been Kaelyn who sent the maid.

  That relief didn’t make the truth any less disgusting.

  Thosen had genuinely believed I would accept it.

  The realization settled like rot in my stomach. It confirmed what I’d already suspected: we were different kinds of villains. And he fully deserved the future waiting for him.

  I didn’t even consider telling him to stop his visits to the whorehouse. If anything, I felt tempted to move him there permanently and be done with it.

  Not to mention that with this, he could’ve fucked what I managed to build with Elowen and make it impossible to try with Kaelyn.

  He almost ruined my plans and didn’t even know it.

  The dog…

  Still, once the initial surge of hatred faded, a hatred sharpened and amplified by whatever remained of Valen inside me, I forced myself to breathe. To slow down.

  Anger now would only cloud things.

  So I went back to sleep for a few more hours, this time in the bed, with Myrsky curled nearby.

  I woke early, untied the bandages around my wound, and checked the damage, only to find myself completely healed.

  A far better start to the day compared to yesterday.

  After silently praising the old healer’s hands and feeding the gold-chewing Wyrm another dragon heart, I was escorted by a maid toward the same hall as the day before, this time for breakfast.

  A brief exchange of greetings passed between Elowen and me, noticeably colder toward our hosts, before I sat down and focused entirely on finishing my meal before something else decided to fly my way.

  The atmosphere in the room was heavy, thick with things left unsaid from the day before.

  But I didn’t stress.

  I could’ve worried that Thosen had ratted me out to the others, painting me as some evil extorting the poor woman after her alleged mistake. But I knew he wouldn’t dare.

  After all, I knew his secrets. And unless I told him myself how the night truly went, he wouldn’t know anything either.

  Why? Because I had a plan.

  “About yesterday,” I said once breakfast was finished. “I want to employ the maid. Have her enter my service instead.”

  Elowen turned toward me instantly, eyes wide with shock.

  They widened further when Thosen nodded as if I’d asked for nothing more than extra salt.

  The man could be noble in some matters, and utterly revolting in others.

  I distinctly remembered him judging Valen for having too many fiancées, acting righteous and superior, only to leave and cheat on his wife with half a whorehouse.

  Forgive me if I found him disturbing, to say the least.

  Still, he accepted.

  What wasn’t surprising was Kaelyn’s silence. She feigned ignorance, eyes fixed on her food, as if none of this concerned her.

  “By the way, Count Valen,” Thosen said casually. “Something urgent has come up in a nearby village. I’ll need to leave early with the troops. Would it be acceptable to delay our talks until tomorrow or the day after and have you enjoy the sights of our territory for the day instead?”

  “And who exactly will be joining?” I asked, ignoring the fact that Elowen looked dangerously close to stabbing me with that pin again.

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  “You, Lady Elowen, Kaelyn, and anyone else you wish to invite,” he replied.

  “So be it,” I nodded. “Then have the maid transferred into my service immediately. We may need her assistance during this outing you’ve prepared.”

  A deep frown tugged at his face. Hate. Clear as day.

  Still, he agreed.

  Why?

  Because he hated me and believed that Valen's accumulated greed and hatred would ruin me, he threw whatever was needed at me, thinking he would be quickening my downfall. But not too quick, though, since he still needed my men. So you see, trash in human shape.

  Perhaps he even hoped I’d meet an unfortunate accident on the road, send assassins to get me.

  But I wasn’t worried.

  If he were sending his daughters with me, he wouldn’t risk anything too blatant.

  For all his hypocrisy and filth, Thosen genuinely loved his daughters.

  Otherwise, he might’ve noticed the double standards.

  “What do you mean by employing her? Are you crazy? What about all that ‘I’m done doing things the old way,’ stuff you’ve been saying?” Elowen asked, back in my room after breakfast.

  My purpose back here was to pick the now-filled Myrsky and get ready for the day ahead, but of course, I was followed by my lovely fiancée and her floating nightmare, who began throwing questions at me even before she closed the door behind her.

  I almost felt like crying right then and there, but it was expected that she would react to this plan of mine. I was just happy to see that she reacted this openly.

  It just went to show how much our… relationship advanced.

  So I didn’t overreact when I turned to her as Valen’s body demanded, and only looked at her as she made her way deeper inside the room, heading straight toward me.

  She grabbed me by the collar of the blouse I was wearing, staring into my eyes.

  “Speak,” she demanded.

  And as the Lady demanded, I began telling her the truth by first pointing with my chin toward the table, toward the note still sitting there half-open.

  “Read it,” I said.

  She turned to it, then back to me, then let go of my collar with a light push before she moved to look at the note.

  After she read it, as confusion at the words written started showing on her face, I began speaking.

  “Last night, after you left, right as I was about to go to sleep, someone knocked at my door. It was the maid,” I moved toward the clothes I had prepared for me and began changing into them as I continued. “She was standing in front of the door in a nightgown, clearly scared and not wanting to be there, so, figuring out someone sent her, I invited her inside.”

  I knew Elowen wanted to speak, throw a sassy remark my way, or an insult for inviting the woman inside, but I raised a hand before she could.

  “Wait,” I requested, my voice a deep coldness as I met her eyes for a moment, before returning to the clothes before me. “After she made her way inside, she began trembling even more violently than before. She was terrified and clearly forced into the situation. I moved toward the table, and, as you can see by the cups still there, invited the poor woman to tea. Nothing else.”

  “What do you mean by nothing else?” Elowen demanded to know.

  But I could only shrug. “That’s it. We stood there for a long time in silence, as I waited for her to get comfortable to speak with me, but before she could have a chance to, I fell asleep. When I came to, she was gone and had only left the note in your hand behind.”

  At my explanation, she turned her eyes back toward the note, clicking her tongue in frustration, “The dog…”

  “Mhm,” I agreed with her with a sigh, having finished dressing in better clothes. “It wasn’t like I needed the woman for anything, but knowing how the man is, what he does in his free time, and how easily he sends people my way, it is easy to imagine how low he can go.”

  “Says the one standing at the bottom of the barrel itself,” she threw an insult, meeting my eyes. “Do you swear this is what happened?”

  “On the Goddesses,” I nodded. “I told you, I’m trying to be better.”

  “What for?” she asked, curiously tilting her head to the side, approaching slowly, “What changed?”

  “Nothing changed,” I kept steady, looking at her, “But perhaps, everything did too.”

  She paused her approach, frowning deeply. “Did you hurt your brain in that carriage crash we had?”

  “Would it be that bad if I did?” I asked while chuckling, amused by her words. “You hate my guts now, don’t you? Would that not change as well if… I changed, too?”

  It was very risky to do this now. But I needed a seed in her mind.

  A seed of doubt, a seed that would hopefully grow roots deep in her brain and slowly change her mind about me.

  Not to mention that it was a precaution, just in case I was wrong and Thosen would tell a lie about the events of last night. If Elowen knew the truth before, saw the evidence for it, and had said seed of doubt in her mind, hopefully, she would believe my words instead of his.

  Kaelyn could wait a while, even if she distanced herself even more. As long as she didn’t plan to kill me by herself today, I was safe for a while longer.

  But Elowen and her Anger were paramount to persuade.

  However, the moment Elowen seemed to open her mouth to speak, my door shot wide open, and the earlier-mentioned wolf entered the room, staring at the two of us.

  “Time to go,” Kaelyn spoke with clear disgust toward me, her voice harsh but charming.

  We both nodded to her before she left the room, leaving the door wide open behind her.

  With a sigh, I returned to Elowen, but she already turned, moving casually toward the door, stopping only to look at me for a second, a confused, thoughtful look behind her eyes, before she was out.

  And as I turned to Myrsky, who only stared at me from the bed, I could only grin at my brilliance.

  Seed planted.

  “You villain of a man…” she sent in my head with a chuckle, before she started flying toward me.

  But I only shrugged at her as she took her spot, coiling around my neck before I rushed out the door toward the two fiancées waiting.

  One seed was successfully planted. One needed to follow.

  But… that’s always easier said than done… no?