Chapter 4
Lonely.
It hadn’t even been ten days since she’d transmigrated, so loneliness had never crossed her mind.
If anything, she’d spent each day simmering in resentment, consumed by anger.
Especially since the witch Cersinia had lost her parents at the young age of fifteen, she was already accustomed to being alone.
Perhaps because of that, solitude felt natural to her.
“Well… not really?”
At her answer, his eyes trembled ever so slightly.
He seemed genuinely surprised by her response.
Soon after, he nodded faintly, as if accepting it.
“I see. You’re strong, Cersinia….”
“Just call me Cersinia.”
She spoke casually, unaccustomed to being addressed so formally.
“Ah—yes. Cersinia….”
He murmured her name as though savoring it.
There was envy in his voice—envy for something he himself did not have.
Cersinia quietly took in the shadow that fell across his face.
“I don’t have one. A name….”
The image of his dejected face from earlier resurfaced in her mind.
A strange heaviness settled in her chest.
It was sympathy—for someone who lacked something everyone else naturally possessed.
He was only a child she’d brought along as collateral, someone she’d return once the viscount came up with the money in a week.
If she grew attached, parting later would only be troublesome.
But still… I can’t just call him “hey,” or “you,” or “that kid.”
She needed something to call him while he was with her.
That was all.
Cersinia finished rationalizing with herself.
Then she spoke to him, who was still quietly repeating her name under his breath.
“You need a name too.”
Her reflection was faintly visible in his pitch-black eyes.
“A name… for me?”
“Yeah. A name. You should have one too.”
“I… I’ve never had one before….”
His shoulders drooped, like a scolded puppy.
Wow. This is seriously dangerous for my conscience.
Anyone who saw him like this would feel their heart ache.
Pressing down on the dull ache in her chest, Cersinia spoke.
“Hmm. How about Ben?”
It was the only name that came to mind right away.
Simple. Easy to say. Easy to remember.
She briefly wondered if it was too careless a choice for someone’s first name—
“Ben…?”
He repeated it softly, his face fragile.
“Ah—don’t like it? Then maybe—”
“N-No! I like it! I like it. Ben…!”
He cut her off in a rush, blurting it out.
Seems her naming sense wasn’t too bad.
An odd sense of satisfaction crept in.
“Alright. Then from now on, your name is Ben.”
“Ben….”
As if answering her, Ben smiled sweetly, his eyes curving into crescents.
He looked almost sacred—like an angel carved into the walls of a grand cathedral.
Cersinia found herself staring, momentarily lost.
Ben beamed at her, cheeks flushed pink, grinning shyly.
Count Montene Delmonde let out a strangled gasp as he stepped into the exchange office.
The desk had been split clean in two.
A flowerpot lay shattered on the floor.
The chair was completely wrecked.
It was utter chaos.
He’d assumed the woman would be gone by now and returned—only to find the place looking as if thieves had ransacked it.
“What in the world happened here?!”
The employee left behind, Louis, was sitting on the floor like a man who’d lost his soul.
The count grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him hard.
“Have you lost your mind?! What happened here?!”
The vacant look in Louis’s eyes slowly focused as if he’d come back to his senses.
“M-My lord!”
Recognizing the count, Louis looked on the verge of tears.
Montene’s anxiety spiked.
Don’t tell me…
He remembered the important documents stored in the safe.
In a hurry, he pulled the key from his inner pocket and opened the safe built into the broken desk.
Inside were the gambling house permit, land contracts, and every document that should have been there.
So it wasn’t a robbery.
He let out a small sigh of relief and straightened.
Only then did Louis scramble to his feet.
“What happened?” the count demanded again.
“Th-That woman….”
“That woman?”
Montene’s eyebrow twitched.
The woman who’d destroyed his gambling house.
He’d invested an enormous amount of time and money to establish this place and legalize it.
He’d poured nearly all his wealth into bribing officials so the proposal would reach the emperor—and had even gone into debt because of it.
An entire year.
After a year of effort, he finally secured imperial approval for a legal gambling house.
Of course, a portion of the profits had to be paid as tax—but falsifying records later would solve that.
The problem was, the gambling house was still new.
There had been no profits yet.
And then that woman appeared.
She hit the jackpot three times in a row.
The chips she won amounted to thirty million shillings.
If he paid that out now, with no income and heavy debts, it would mean bankruptcy.
So the count had fled.
He couldn’t let everything he’d built collapse because of one woman.
The plan had been to lie low, send her away, and later hire men to make sure she never returned.
So why did Louis look as though he’d stared straight into death just recalling her?
“Sh-She turned the whole place upside down….”
Montene scowled at the trembling man.
“Pathetic. You couldn’t even handle one woman.”
He clicked his tongue in disapproval.
To let a slender woman do this much damage.
Clearly, security needed strengthening.
“It’s not that! She’s insane! She split the desk in half with one kick—and she even tried to use some kind of strange power!”
At Louis’s frantic protest, the count’s eyes gleamed.
“Strange power?”
“Yes! Strange power! A wind suddenly started blowing around her, and the air turned scorching hot! How could wind blow in a sealed room like this?!”
A windowless private room.
Wind shouldn’t have been possible.
Yet the man was begging him to believe it.
Montene stroked his chin.
Louis might be timid, but he’d been with him from the planning stages of the gambling house.
He’d never lied before.
So what exactly was this “strange power”?
He had felt something odd about her from the start—but he’d dismissed it as nothing more than her striking appearance.
“Her red eyes looked like they were burning….”
It wouldn’t hurt to look into it.
A dark glint passed through the count’s eyes.
He shoved the still-shaking Louis and ordered him to clean the room.
Then he dropped heavily onto the sofa, surveying the space again.
Aside from the desk, chair, and flowerpot, nothing else was damaged.
Hmm…?
Something was missing.
He scanned the room, eyes darting back and forth.
“Where is the slave?”
The slave he’d purchased just the day before was nowhere to be seen.
These days, the empire was gradually discouraging nobles from openly keeping slaves.
That was why he’d kept the boy here instead of at his estate.
Louis, who had been gathering the broken flowerpot pieces, hesitated.
Sensing something off, the count snapped.
“Where is the slave?!”
“Well—my lord… I had no way to stop her….”
“And?!”
“So… so I gave him to her as collateral….”
Before Louis could finish, the count hurled a cushion from the sofa.
Montene’s face flushed crimson with rage.
“How dare you! Do you even know what that thing was?!”
The cushion struck Louis square in the face.
He slammed himself flat onto the floor, prostrating in apology.
“I-I’m sorry, my lord! But there was truly no other way—”
“Enough! Where did she go?!”
Panting like a wild beast, the count sprang to his feet.
That slave was no ordinary slave.
He was a treasure—like a pearl found in mud—discovered at the slave market.
He’d planned to gift the boy to Count Enetio, a famed tycoon of the empire.
It was an open secret that Enetio indulged in men—especially young, beautiful ones.
That was why Montene had gone so far as to purchase the slave despite his dire finances.
With all his assets drained and debts piling up, he desperately needed Enetio’s support.
And then he’d found that boy.
The perfect gift.
He’d even sent a handwritten letter, confidently promising a present—
And now that woman had taken him.
The count ground his teeth.
A brutal sound, like an animal crushing bones, escaped his mouth.
Terrified, the employees pressed themselves flatter against the floor.
“I don’t know where she went… but she said she’d return in a week for the money. She’ll definitely bring the slave then!”
“Silence, you useless fool! Find her at once and retrieve the slave immediately!”
“Y-Yes!”
As the count’s fury crashed down like a tidal wave, Louis scrambled out of the exchange office.
Still seething, Montene threw the remaining cushion.
Thump.
It fell limply to the floor.
As long as she held the slave as collateral, she wouldn’t give him up without the money.
Montene had no intention of paying her a single coin—but the slave had to be recovered.
With only a week left before he was to visit Enetio, he needed a plan.
“There’s only one way.”
A way to take everything.
A faint killing intent flickered in his eyes.
