Chapter 198

“What’s wrong? Gasp!” The other maid also saw Ben and froze in shock.

“…”

An awkward silence ensued. The maids looked down, flustered.

“Um, Mr. Butler.”

“We didn’t mean…”

“There are many listening ears, even inside the castle.”

“…”

“Be careful in the future.”

“…Yes, Mr. Butler.”

“We will be mindful.”

The maids bowed their heads and quickly disappeared from his sight. Ben, now alone in the corridor, swallowed down a small sigh.

‘Hah.’

He now knew whom his master had been waiting for just minutes ago.

‘Madam…’

Ben pictured Yelena’s face in his mind and then shook his head.

He knew Yelena well. He believed in the Yelena he had seen all this time.

‘She isn’t someone who would avoid Master for no reason.’

There must be a reason, but getting involved in his master’s personal affairs wouldn’t look good.

‘I don’t know what’s going on, but I hope it gets resolved as soon as possible…’ Ben thought to himself and then started moving again. The look on the old butler’s face wasn’t only that of worry.

Surprisingly, he was also touched.

‘To think that I would live to see Master worried and restless over someone else.’

Kaywhin was calm in every situation, to the extent that Ben wondered if he had lost his emotions. He was particularly indifferent towards other people, exceedingly so, which Ben had been secretly worried about.

There were times when Kaywhin went out of his way for other people, like when he had saved Anna and Hans’s families, but he didn’t do those acts because he expected anything or had any emotional attachment to those people.

Ben’s heart hurt whenever he looked at his calm master because he knew that the latter hadn’t always been like that. There was a time when he had been interested in and expectant of other people…

When Kaywhin was young, he had been an ordinary child who even knew how to sometimes be greedy for things.

‘…Madam’s presence here is truly a blessing.’

A warm smile spread on Ben’s face. He suddenly looked out a window.

The sun, concealed by clouds, created faint shadows in the garden. The shadows were like the conflict between Kaywhin and Yelena.

But Ben wasn’t too worried because he knew that the sun would eventually break free from the clouds and brightly shine down on the garden again.

‘Nevertheless, please resolve the matter as soon as possible, Madam.’

***

Yelena was in agony. Extreme agony.

“Eugh,” she whimpered as she dug her palms into her face.

A few days ago, she had a dream, and not just any dream…

“I can’t believe I dreamt something so lewd!”

Yelena’s face was on fire. She sat in front of her desk in the library and threw a silent tantrum.

‘I’ve never dreamt anything like this, even during that problematic period.’

The period of adolescence, in which sexual curiosity is in full swing as boys and girls become men and women. Yelena had heard of many experiences where people would dream of erotic scenes.

But those experiences didn’t particularly pertain to Yelena.

‘Right, I definitely wasn’t like that.’

Yelena wiped her palm across her face. She swallowed down a sigh.

“…This is driving me crazy,” she said in a voice filled with angst.

An erotic dream. Fine, it was just a dream. It could happen to anyone.

What was the problem? It wasn’t like she had dreamt about some other man outside her marriage. All she had done was dream about a wife and her husband… doing something that a married couple had every right to do. There was nothing wrong with it morally, socially, or physically.

But…

‘I can’t face my husband!’

A problem arose in her daily life.

The dream had been too intense, vivid, and stimulating.

Perhaps that was why Yelena couldn’t erase it from her head all this time.

And because of that, Yelena couldn’t face her husband properly for several days.

‘Whenever I see his face, I’m reminded of what happened in my dream…’

Yelena had been a mess on the day she had woken up from the dream. The shocked Yelena avoided her husband all day that day, so as to not even get a glance at a strand of his hair. She couldn’t even give her flustered husband a proper explanation.

It couldn’t be helped. Yelena was the type that felt less shame than others, but “less” didn’t mean “none at all.”