Chapter 4
After leaving the banquet hall, Mikhail leaned his slightly drunk body back against the car seat.
“Open the window a bit. It feels stuffy inside.”
“Yes, sir.”
As the driver lowered the window, the cold night air brushed against his face.
Mikhail turned his gaze toward the wind. In the distance, he could see the clock tower of Fritz, with the moonlight behind it.
The clock tower stood in the square in front of Fritz Station. Anyone arriving in Fritz would see it first. Because it was late at night, the square was almost empty.
The only thing noticeable—
was a single woman standing under a streetlamp at the crosswalk.
Her clothes looked very poor. There was nothing fashionable about them, and her skirt was so long it nearly dragged on the ground, like something from a century ago.
She didn’t even have proper clothing to keep herself warm—just a thin, worn shawl.
“Dressing that poorly is almost a talent.”
With clothes like that, the small bag she was holding probably didn’t contain anything valuable either. Still, she clutched it tightly with both hands, as if afraid someone might take it.
She wasn’t looking for someone.
She simply couldn’t cross the street.
Like a child afraid to step onto a broken bridge, she would try to step forward—but whenever a car approached, she stepped back again.
“Anyone would think she’s being told to walk through fire.”
Mikhail had heard that people from the countryside sometimes feared the sound of car engines. Considering her appearance, she was probably a girl who came to Fritz from a rural area looking for work as a maid.
“The countryside…”
Having just talked about the Visvaren family, Mikhail thought about the girl he had proposed to—a week had passed, yet he still hadn’t received a reply.
The Visvaren daughter.
Even the name felt dull.
Xavier had confidently said she would be rigid and boring. Everyone in Fritz’s society knew that the Visvaren matriarch had a strict and demanding personality.
If the grandmother was like that, the granddaughter would be the same.
With that simple assumption, Mikhail spoke to the driver.
“She looks like she’s trying to cross. Stop for a moment—and turn on the lights.”
“…Yes, sir.”
The black car stopped in front of the crosswalk.
The woman looked startled at first, but when the headlights blinked, she seemed to understand.
Her pale face quickly regained color, like a flower blooming again.
“Thank you very much.”
It looked like she mouthed those words.
Though her clothes were shabby, she still checked her appearance once before crossing. Then she walked forward with small, steady steps.
Slow, but straight.
Only after she safely reached the other side did Mikhail close the window.
“Let’s go.”
As the car moved away, her long blonde hair swayed behind her.
A poorly dressed woman who clearly came from the countryside.
Mikhail looked away as she turned into an alley.
“For a maid… she has a face that’s too good to waste.”
When Sincere’s grandmother, the Visvaren matriarch, saw her granddaughter arrive so late at night, she couldn’t hide her surprise.
She quickly brought her inside and held her cold hands, scolding her.
“What was so urgent that you came all the way to Fritz at this hour? And with that leg of yours, too. You should’ve come slowly.”
“It was hard to get a train ticket, Grandmother. You know the trains from Shincel to Fritz are always full.”
“That’s a nice excuse. Your talking skills have improved a lot. I didn’t raise you to be like this.”
Sincere simply smiled innocently.
Seeing that, the old woman clicked her tongue quietly.
What could be so important that this child came all the way here like this?
Her clothes were far too thin and shabby for the cold night.
Sincere was smiling, but it wasn’t as bright and pure as before.
That bothered her grandmother.
“I should have raised you myself. But because my health was poor, I left everything to Hugo… and now look how you’ve turned out. Such a mess.”
Though her words were harsh, Sincere finally smiled sincerely after hearing them.
After losing her parents, her grandmother was the only person she could rely on. Even if she was strict, everyone knew she deeply loved her granddaughters.
Thinking that made it easier for Sincere to breathe again after receiving Erze’s letter.
“How has your health been? You didn’t mention anything in your letters, so I was worried.”
“You worry too much. Fritz has the best medicine. You should worry about yourself. That couldn’t have been an easy journey.”
Her grandmother’s tone softened.
Sincere lowered her gaze and smiled faintly.
“Luckily, it was late, so there weren’t many cars. It would’ve been harder during the day. So it worked out better this way.”
“I see. That’s good. But Fritz has many cars. If you plan to stay here, you should get used to them.”
“Yes, Grandmother.”
After saying goodnight, Sincere went to her room.
It was the brightest room on the first floor—the room she once shared with Erze before Erze was officially adopted into the Visvaren family.
The quiet room hadn’t changed much.
A bed slightly too big for one person.
A bookshelf filled only to a child’s height.
A piano where the sisters used to sit together, playing clumsy melodies.
Sincere set down her small bag and walked to the window. Moonlight poured into the room.
The night sky looked the same—whether in Fritz or Visvaren.
Only then did the feelings she couldn’t say earlier rise up.
“…Grandmother, I’m sorry.”
Please forgive me for not telling you the truth.
Her grandmother was already weak due to illness. If she learned that Erze had run away, the shock might be too much.
That’s why Sincere couldn’t tell her.
The truth—
that the train had empty seats,
and that there were still cars on the road even late at night.
“I had almost forgotten…”
After the accident that took her parents and injured her leg, Sincere had developed a fear of cars.
Even the sound of engines made her freeze. Seeing a car pass close by made it hard to breathe.
In Visvaren, she rarely saw cars, so she had almost forgotten.
The problem was that she arrived in Fritz too late—every carriage rental place was closed.
To rent one, she had to cross the road.
And that was the hardest part.
“I came all the way here to find Erze… and yet I froze just because of a crosswalk.”
It felt foolish.
“It’s a good thing that kind car stopped for me.”
The black car that had stopped and even flashed its lights.
Thinking of it, a small smile appeared on Sincere’s lips.
