“Well, anyway, why don’t we finish what we were talking about before? Serin Reiner, was it…? The duchess is well acquainted with the mistress of the Reiner family?”

Irene nodded in response to Ian’s question.

“Yes. I heard my mother shared a very deep friendship with Mistress Reiner in the imperial castle.”

“Hooh? Is that so?”

It certainly made sense. Before marrying into the Pendragon Duchy, Elena was close with his own mother as well. As such, there must have been a connecting point between Elena Pendragon and Lady Reiner, a cousin of the empress.

“But as far as I know, Lord Reiner is quite old…”

Ian remembered that Grida Reiner, a middle official of the imperial court, was already well over fifty. Although there were exceptions, nobles tended to marry those who were close in age. Except in special cases, the age difference between the two people tended to be less than ten years apart.

This meant that the mistress of Grida Reiner was at least in her mid 40s.

“Yes. Mistress Reiner is of a similar age.”

“Well, is that so? Then the age of the lady named Serin Reiner is…”

It was considered disrespectful to ask the age of a woman, and even more so in the case of maidens. As such,...