That night, when thick darkness had fallen everywhere and silence descended upon the Vansfelt townhouse, Kisa secretly slipped out of her bedroom and headed toward the back garden.
After intense deliberation, she had decided to at least have a conversation with Daniel.
If the grave and dangerous secret mentioned in the letter turned out to be merely a lie to lure her out, she would leave without looking back.
By the way, the secret door he had designated as their meeting place referred to a hole in the garden wall that had been there in the past.
In his childhood, when Daniel was forced to frequently visit Vansfelt by his father, he would often sneak out through that hole without the adults knowing.
The Marquis of Lowens had brought him to get acquainted with his fiancée, but for a boy at that age, playing with dolls alongside a girl of the same age seemed to have been quite a torment.
[Daniel, don’t go!]
[Shh, Kisa. Be quiet.]
[Where are you going?]
[I promised to play war games with my friends.]
[Don’t go. Play with me instead.]
[No. You’re boring.]
[…Then, I want to come with you!]
[Are you crazy? Do you want to get killed by your father?]
[Daniel…]
[Shut up, I’m going. Just stay in your room and pretend I’m still here!]
Recalling what could now be considered a memory of the past, Kisa smiled bitterly.
Back then, whenever Daniel disappeared through the hole, young Kisa would wander aimlessly around the garden, waiting for her departed fiancé to return.
Though the hole was large enough for Kisa to pass through as well, she lacked the courage to defy her father’s wishes and venture into the unknown world outside.
Usually, when this happened, servants would notice something strange about Kisa, realize Daniel was missing, and the matter would conclude with Daniel being dragged back and thoroughly scolded by the Marquis of Lowens.
To top it all off, Daniel would blame the innocent Kisa, saying it was her fault he got caught.
But now, their positions were reversed.
The one waiting at the hole for someone who wasn’t coming was no longer Kisa.
Walking with only the moonlight to guide her, Kisa eventually arrived at the spot where the hole had once been, but was now sealed up.
“Daniel?”
When Kisa confirmed in a small voice, an immediate answer came back.
“Kisa! You finally came.”
He was really there. Daniel. On the other side of this wall.
“I thought you might not come.”
“What are you doing here?”
Unlike Daniel, who couldn’t hide his delight, Kisa’s voice was strictly businesslike.
“Didn’t you read the letter? I’ve been waiting for you.”
“No, I read it. I’m not asking why you really came, but why you’re doing something so incomprehensible.”
“What do you mean, why…?”
“We’re not tragic lovers in a romance novel, so what are you doing right now?”
Perhaps taken aback by Kisa’s cold response, Daniel hesitated for a moment before answering.
“Is it wrong to worry about you? I’m out here being dramatic in the moonlight because you’re in danger.”
“Danger? What danger?”
“Let’s talk face to face first. Could you open the back door from the inside? There’s a guard stationed there, but if the door is open, I can slip in while his attention is diverted.”
“What? No. Just talk here. We can communicate perfectly well like this.”
One of the reasons Kisa had come here was because she knew the hole had been sealed long ago, which meant she could talk to Daniel without having to face him.
“It’s quite a long story. Besides, we can’t discuss such an important matter without seeing each other’s faces.”
“I don’t want to see your face. Have you forgotten? At the charity event, you tried to lock me in a room. Why would I trust you enough to let you into the house?”
“Hey, that was because you wouldn’t listen to me at all—”
He awkwardly stopped his protest and, after a few seconds, said in a subdued voice:
“I’m sorry, Kisa. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have done that… I’m sorry.”
The great Daniel Lowens apologizing for his mistake.
As far as she could remember, this was the first time he had apologized without a hint of sarcasm.
Of course, this didn’t mean she was moved or saw him in a new light.
No matter how you looked at it, it was just a soulless apology to placate Kisa and get out of the current predicament.
Well, even if it had been a sincere apology, their relationship was already beyond repair to view Daniel positively at this point.
Kisa quickly said what she needed to say:
“Never mind the apology. Just get to the point. What’s this problem regarding Seyard that you wrote about in the letter?”
Those words seemed to irk Daniel.
“Seyard? Since when are you close enough to call him by his first name?”
Growling, he was upset not because Kisa wouldn’t open the door or because she had ignored his apology, but about something completely unexpected.
“What business is it of yours what I call Seyard? And what’s wrong with calling the person I’m about to be engaged to by his first name?”
“You really…”
Once again, Daniel seemed to have a lot to say but suppressed his voice as if holding back.
“Fine. There’s no use talking to someone who doesn’t know anything. So you absolutely won’t open the door?”
“That’s right, so if you have something to say, say it quickly and leave.”
“Then let’s meet separately later. Somewhere people won’t see us. Tell your father or that guy that you have other business to attend to. That much is possible, right?”
He was still a person who wouldn’t listen.
By this point, Kisa was becoming increasingly convinced that the issue he had raised about Seyard was completely false.
“As it happens, there’s someone I’d like you to meet—”
“I was a fool to believe you.”
Kisa cut off Daniel mid-sentence and turned to walk back toward the mansion.
“Hey, come back!”
Hearing her footsteps, Daniel frantically tried to stop her, but Kisa didn’t halt.
“If you leave like this, you’ll definitely regret it! Are you listening? Kisa!”
Until certain words were spoken.
“Did you know that bastard has a woman?”
Her steps halted. Noticing this, Daniel spoke in a sneering tone:
“I guess you didn’t know that far. You’re being deceived right now. That bastard pretending to be a good person—it’s all a red-hot disguise.”
Who on earth was “that bastard”? While the context clearly indicated who the term referred to, Kisa momentarily struggled to connect “that bastard” Daniel was talking about with the person she knew.
As if to kindly inform Kisa, Daniel mentioned the person’s name.
“Seyard Hillan, that bastard is a hopeless thug.”
Kisa slowly inhaled and then exhaled a breath of air. She needed a moment to respond to Daniel’s statement.
“This is ridiculous.”
The content was so absurd.
How dare he insult Seyard?
With the absurdity and rising anger, Kisa unconsciously walked back toward the wall.
“Is this what you’ve come to say? Your mighty pride was hurt because I broke off our engagement, so now you’re going to slander innocent Seyard? Do you think scaring me into canceling this engagement will restore your pride?”
“It’s not about pride! I’m worried about you. You don’t know who that guy really is.”
“I know him better than I know you, at least.”
“Do you really think so?”
Kisa couldn’t immediately retort that she did.
His voice carried an insinuating tone, as if he knew something about Seyard that Kisa didn’t.
“I recently met someone by chance. Someone who knows about his past.”
“…His past?”
“Yes, apparently he’s from Bonzmos. This person knew what kind of things that guy did during his time at the monastery.”
And then Daniel blurted out an utterly unbelievable story.
“Seyard Hillan was a thug who frequented gambling dens. He even had a woman. Kisa, can you accept this? You, who couldn’t even tolerate Hazel? Even though Hazel and I merely shared pure friendship…”
Ignoring Daniel’s subsequent words about Hazel, Kisa carefully considered only what he had said earlier.
It was true that the monastery where Seyard had stayed was in a region called Bonzmos.
He was a celebrity, and his profile had been covered in newspaper articles several times, so Kisa knew this.
But of course, that fact alone wasn’t enough reason to believe Daniel’s claims at face value.
“How can I believe what that person says?”
She threw a question across the wall.
“No, I can’t even trust your claim that you met such a person.”
Daniel didn’t hide his displeasure at her defensive attitude.
“After all the years we’ve spent together, you trust that guy, whom you’ve only known for a short time, more than me?”
“Who was it that ruined those years? Don’t be mistaken. We’re nothing to each other now.”
“…Kisa, if it’s about Hazel arbitrarily coming here last time, I’ll apologize on her behalf. But I didn’t tell her to do that. I only found out later. And don’t mind what Hazel said. She was just saying whatever out of concern for me—”
Kisa couldn’t understand why Hazel’s name was suddenly being brought up.
“Don’t blame others. It wasn’t that woman who betrayed me; it was you.”
“…”
After a long silence, Daniel spoke as if stepping back:
“Fine. Let’s talk about the details when we meet.”
“I’ve told you I don’t want to meet you.”
“I’ll introduce you. A witness who knows about that guy’s past.”
“What?”
“You said you couldn’t believe me? Then you can see for yourself and judge whether that person is lying or not.”
It was a perplexing proposition.
****
“Kisa?”
“…..”
“Kisa?”
“Ah, yes?”
Kisa awoke from her thoughts and looked at the person sitting across from her as fingers waved in front of her eyes.
“I’m sorry. You didn’t answer when I called you.”
Seyard replied playfully, with a smile that made it impossible to see him as a person of bad character.
Today was their second date.
