ASPB 7

Chapter 7

The next day.

Ottilie woke up feeling refreshed after enjoying a good night’s sleep for the first time in a long while.

The mild headache that had lingered throughout the previous day had completely disappeared, and thanks to her deep sleep, her mind felt clear and sharp.

She got up lightly, finished her breakfast quickly, took a thorough bath, and was now dressing herself up as beautifully as possible.

“Liese, please find me a white puppy. One with soft fur and black eyes.”

Ottilie made this unexpected request to Liese, who was busily braiding her hair.

Liese, who was completely absorbed in styling Ottilie’s hair, took a while to respond.

“A puppy… all of a sudden?”

Ottilie affectionately watched Liese, who had her head bent low and was busily working with her hair.

Liese was definitely one of the things I wanted to protect.

“Yes. A small, white puppy. Make sure to bring one before noon.”

When Liese finished the final touches, Ottilie’s hairstyle was finally complete.

Her reflection in the mirror was perfect.

Her silver hair was beautifully braided, her makeup was light, and a gentle smile rested on her lips.

“Before noon today…?”

Now that she had finished styling Ottilie’s hair, Liese finally came to her senses and asked again.

“Yes.”

Ottilie turned to look at Liese and spoke clearly.

“I’m going to visit the Altenbrück Duchy with that puppy. This afternoon.”

“This afternoon?”

Liese’s eyes widened.

“Out of nowhere… with a puppy?”

“Yes.”

As if she had no intention of explaining anything further, Ottilie slowly stood up and left the room.

The young lady hummed softly as she walked away, looking to be in an exceptionally good mood.

She certainly didn’t look like someone who had asked to break off her engagement just yesterday.

After the cheerful Ottilie left the room, Liese was left standing there alone. She blinked in confusion for a moment before hurriedly rushing after her.

Well… Since my lady ordered it, she must have a reason. But where am I supposed to find a white puppy right now…?

Liese’s steps grew faster as she struggled to figure out what to do.

\* \* \*

Ottilie quietly gazed at the puppy in her arms.

In just a few hours, Liese had managed to find exactly the kind of puppy Ottilie wanted.

It had white fur, pitch-black eyes, and a tiny body that looked even smaller in Ottilie’s slender arms.

Anyone in the world would find this puppy adorable.

And that man, Rotvin, would be no exception.

Ottilie’s eyes sparkled as she gave a broad smile.

The innocent puppy, unaware of anything, simply stared up at her.

Ottilie recalled the times she had met him in her previous life.

After all, Arno, who had been the Emperor at the time, had arranged the marriage proposal between the two ducal families. So Rotvin must have had no choice but to meet her as well.

On the day she first met Rotvin, he had worn the same expression as countless gentlemen who had fallen for Ottilie at first sight.

His mouth was slightly open, his eyes were wide, and his gaze followed her every movement intently.

Yes, now that she thought about it, Rotvin might actually have fallen for her at first.

Despite his reputation in high society as an arrogant and ruthless man, he had tried quite hard to behave like a gentleman toward her.

If all of that had been an act from their very first meeting, he would have been the greatest actor in the history of the Empire.

But when had his feelings changed?

Or perhaps his feelings had never changed, but the interests of his family had simply taken priority over them?

Well, what did it matter now?

The only undeniable fact was that he had branded her a witch and left wounds that neither she nor her family would ever forget.

Anyway, back when they were still on good terms…

She had once gone for a walk with him.

As they strolled through the park in front of the Altenbrück Ducal Residence, they had come across a group of dogs.

There was a white mother dog and three snow-white puppies that looked exactly like her.

Rotvin had stopped and gazed at the puppies for a long time. By the time they returned home, he had personally instructed his butler to arrange a place for the dogs to live.

Later, when Ottilie was alone with Rotvin’s butler, the old man had quietly spoken to her as if he were revealing an important secret.

“His Grace the Duke of Altenbrück is famous for being rough and headstrong, but in truth, he is a very warm-hearted man. He especially adores white puppies with pitch-black eyes. Perhaps he is afraid of becoming attached to them, so he never raises them himself, but his affection for them is genuine.”

The old butler’s loyalty toward the duke he served was unmistakable.

Even if one tried to see him in the best possible light, it was difficult to describe that man as warm-hearted.

“Lady, we have arrived.”

At the knight’s words, which brought her back to reality, Ottilie snapped out of her thoughts and looked around at the world before her.

The carriage had stopped in front of the very same park located right outside the Altenbrück Ducal Residence, the place she had visited in her previous life.

“Liese, I’m going to take the puppy for a short walk in the park. Send the escort knights who came with us back. And secretly remove one of the bolts from the carriage wheel.”

Ottilie slowly stepped down from the carriage with the puppy in her arms and quietly whispered the instructions to Liese alone.

At this unexpected command, Liese’s eyes widened once again.

“A bolt from the carriage wheel…?”

Once again, her unreasonable young lady offered no explanation. She simply smiled sweetly, held the puppy close to her chest, and gracefully walked toward the park.

The park’s paths had been cleared of the thick snow piled along both sides. Apart from the cold, it was quite a pleasant place for a walk.

As Ottilie slowly walked into the park, she exhaled a warm breath into the air.

Her hot breath spread like smoke through the cold air before quickly disappearing.

And through that fading mist, a large figure appeared in the distance.

Even without getting any closer, Ottilie instinctively knew who he was.

Rotvin de Altenbrück.

The very man who had brought her out for a walk in the park with a puppy in the middle of winter.

Was meeting him here a stroke of luck or misfortune?

It was misfortune that she had encountered the man she hated so much, but it was good fortune that she had found the man she needed to meet today so easily.

Her original plan had been to pretend that her carriage had broken down, then visit the Altenbrück Ducal Residence with the puppy in her arms and ask for help.

If she had been alone, things might have been different, but she believed Rotvin wouldn’t simply turn away a woman holding a puppy in her arms.

It was a reckless plan, but since Ottilie knew him to some extent, she didn’t think it was entirely impossible.

But to think she would run into him so easily!

Meeting him here like this almost felt like an arrangement by the God of Rinea, or perhaps one of that god’s little tricks.

Ottilie decided to believe that, just this once, the gods were on her side and slowly began walking toward him.

Wrapping the shivering puppy tightly in the shawl she had brought, Ottilie approached him while looking around at the park as though she were simply out for a casual stroll.

With every soft crunch of her footsteps against the frozen ground, his blurry figure became clearer.

The largest man in the capital, Arserna.

She had felt it in her previous life as well, but the sheer intimidation that came from his enormous physique was truly extraordinary.

Can I really seduce that man?

Ottilie suddenly felt overwhelmed.

In her previous life, he had eventually branded her a witch for the sake of his family’s interests.

Could her plan in this life really work? She intended to charm him, uncover the weaknesses of the Altenbrück Ducal Family, or deliberately show herself spending time with him to drive a wedge between him and Arno.

Was any of this actually realistic?

Ottilie suddenly stopped in her tracks, like a lost child who didn’t know where to go.

Just then, the large man who had been looking ahead slowly turned around.

Jet-black hair, dark as the deepest night, and distinctively black eyes.

His brows were slightly furrowed, and his arrogant, cold expression made it seem as though he looked down on everything in the world.

At the time of the Holy Inquisition, when he had insisted that Ottilie was a witch…

His expression had been exactly the same.

The moment she looked at that cold face, the memories of that day came flooding back.

“Lady Falkenberg has not attended the birthday celebration at the Temple of Rinea for more than ten years now. As a member of a noble family, turning away from the day of God is a clear act of impiety. This is not something that can simply be dismissed as her failure to attend a ceremony.”

His deep, resonant voice filled the courtroom.

Using a more polite tone than usual, he was doing everything he could to prove that Ottilie was a witch.

“Are you claiming that my daughter is a witch simply because she didn’t attend a ceremony?!”

Her father protested, his face red with anger.

“Isn’t the reason she doesn’t visit the temple important? Ever since she was young, whenever she went to the temple, she would suffer from a fever for several days, wouldn’t she?”

How had he known about that?

Even Arno hadn’t known.

“It wasn’t that she developed a fever because she went to the temple. She went there to pray even when she was already sick. The reason she hadn’t attended during those years was simply that Ottilie happened to fall seriously ill quite often around that time. Even at home, she offered plenty of prayers.”

Colrat calmly presented a rebuttal filled with nothing but lies.

Unable to bear watching her brother deceive the people in the courtroom and even lie to God just to protect his younger sister, Ottilie stubbornly kept her eyes fixed on Rotvin.

The man who wanted to destroy her.

His dark, emotionless eyes looked down at Ottilie coldly.

Now, wearing the same arrogant expression he had worn back then, he was approaching Ottilie in a threatening manner.