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The last time I saw Mary, she was more beautiful than ever. Just a few hours after I left the Battle Hall, everything had changed.
Perhaps that woman had not fully understood what the identity of a Norman Empire officer truly meant in a place that had just been occupied by the Norman Empire.
The young master of the Gregory Family had not understood a few hours earlier either. He probably understood by then.
It was already late that night. Pedestrians on the streets had nearly vanished, and the night wind carried a chill.
Mary was dressed like a princess attending a banquet, like a gift wrapped in a crystal evening gown. Trembling, she waited outside my apartment door. Waiting with her was Pavano, the Gregory Family's old butler—an elderly man, elegant and meticulous, dressed in a black tailcoat.
In the hearts of ordinary people in Black Flame City, the status of a Gregory Family butler was already far beyond their reach, enough to crush an ordinary person's life and family into dust.
Pavano had come on behalf of the Gregory Family to apologize for what had happened a few hours before. Mary was the gift the Gregory Family had sent me.
Under the old butler's stern gaze, Mary trembled as she spoke the words I had once longed to hear from her—words that were somewhat shameful for a woman to say.
I had thought I would be delighted and smug at that moment. But when the woman entered my apartment and shed tears like a lamb walking to the slaughterhouse, I discovered that