Kaella originally planned to open today’s mail after reading the newspaper, issue instructions for requests from Lucenford, and attend to the numerous duties of a grand duchess.

The grand duchess’s duties always included overseeing the financial situation and managing the estate’s affairs meticulously. In that sense, the enormous sum of 83 million rekets suddenly loaned out could not be ignored.

“When exactly did you lend out so much?”

Kaella folded the newspaper sharply and set it down with a thud.

“Was it right after you became the Grand Duke of Lucenford? But did Lucenford even have that much money? I didn’t think it was that wealthy. Besides, Monde has quite a few creditors.”

The interrogation began in an instant. Peon seemed greatly amused.

“I only established the merchant guild recently. Lucenford doesn’t have that kind of money either.”

“Then?”

With her eyes wide open, Kaella’s full attention was focused on this sudden unpaid debt.

Instead of answering, Peon pulled out a box from thin air. No longer surprised by such things, Kaella glanced at the fairly large box as it was placed on the dining table.

“Open it.”

Though a lady would not touch anything without the owner’s permission, once permission was granted, she had the spirit to immediately pounce and fling the box open. She picked up one of the neatly arranged file folders inside.

They were all promissory notes written to House Monde by various people, along with documents stating that the debts specified in those notes were being transferred to a merchant guild called .

“You collected all of these?”

Faced with the stack of documents proving he had contacted countless creditors one by one to buy up the debts, Kaella was at a loss for words.

“With what money?”

“Turns out I inherited quite a sizable fortune. This much is pocket change.”

83 million rekets is pocket change? That’s an enormous sum that would force even gold-rich Ostein into austerity measures for about 5 years to deal with the aftermath. Yet the face of the man calling this amount pocket change remained impassive.

“Why did you do this?”

“Why do you think?”

Peon was staring straight at Kaella, his expression now blank. His gaze, though seemingly nonchalant, somehow seemed to warn ‘Don’t give a silly answer if you know.’

“Come to think of it, that seems to be Your Highness’s private matter. You don’t have to answer.”

Kaella decided to avoid that intense gaze.

“I’m curious why you came to that conclusion.”

But Peon was very persistent. No matter how much Kaella found it annoying as she desperately tried to draw a line by consistently using honorifics, he was too relentless to shake off.

“It doesn’t make sense, Kaella. I share all my financial information with you, so why is this suddenly a private matter?”

Kaella sighed.

“I’d rather not get involved between Your Highness and Lady Lavallee if possible.”

Peon grew serious.

“To even say such a thing is insulting enough to be considered the worst relationship.”

“Whatever kind of relationship it is doesn’t matter. I just don’t want to know because I’m so sick of it.”

As she snapped back, silence fell over the dining room.

“If Your Highness so meticulously gathered Monde’s widely scattered debts to this extent, one would normally think you intended to pay them off.”

Peon, who had been dreading precisely that answer, rubbed his face.

“But it’s too inefficient. If you wanted to pay them off, you could just gather all the creditors and pay them at once. Why go to the trouble of creating a fake merchant guild and choose to become the creditor by collecting all the debts instead of paying them?”

She tapped the newspaper.

“Seeing how you deliberately barged into the banquet to ruin it and made a big show of the seizure, you clearly had other intentions, which means it’s Your Highness’s private matter.”

Her tone suggested there was no need to ask further. Even now, Kaella didn’t ask whether he had really just interrupted the banquet, or what he might have said when facing Beatrice.

If it were Peon, he would have obsessively interrogated her about every little detail like a madman. He would have asked what was said, how long she stayed, questioning again and again in anxiety.

“…I’m sorry for making you so sick of it.”

He reached into the box and pulled out the folder from the very bottom, opening it.

“This is the current state of Monde’s assets. I intend to make it all vanish into thin air.”

Kaella quickly raised her head from the documents. Peon quietly stood up.

“That’s a human way of revenge, isn’t it?”

Having properly reported the cash flow and future tasks to his wife as a husband should, he excused himself and left the place.

“Just a moment.”

He rushed out of the dining room, trying to be careful not to startle Kaella while moving roughly. He shuddered at the memory of past days when he had lost his sense of self and squeaked like a manipulated music box, only saying words Beatrice put in his mouth.

With his whole body bound, eyes covered and ears blocked, only his jaw joint creaked as it moved. He was forced to maintain an unwanted intimate relationship. As soon as he left the dining room, he bent over and vomited in a cave near Lucenford, not in the hallway.

Peon. I have no one but you.

Beatrice’s disgustingly hateful voice crawled all over his body like insects. He leaned against the cave wall and held back. The wall made of solid rock caved in deeply along his hand.

Some things don’t disappear even after regression. The relationship Beatrice unilaterally created will remain in history forever, following the accounts of the Grand Duke and Duchess of Lucenford. There was no greater disgrace for a noble.

If Peon hadn’t been bound by the taboo, he would have naturally grown distant from Beatrice.

As they grew older, he and Beatrice had fewer and fewer things in common, becoming increasingly incompatible. But Peon was stripped even of the freedom to naturally grow apart, trapped in a relationship Kaella described as sickening.

Peon could never show this side of himself to Kaella. After all, it was his doing. Even if it was brainwashing, even if it wasn’t his will, he was the one who hurt Kaella.

It’s nauseating.

Was it the taboo’s defense mechanism or his own will that made him angry at Kaella, who shook him despite not knowing about the taboo that bound him?

Peon vomited again with a retch, already knowing the answer. So he dared not show it or speak of it anywhere. It was something he had to swallow alone for life.

“Your Highness?”

Kaella’s thin voice was heard.

“Your Highness, where are you?”

Peon gasped for breath. Though Kaella shouldn’t be able to find him, hearing her voice so clearly must be an auditory hallusion. He felt nauseous again.

“Your Highness!”

In the midst of throwing up, he sensed Kaella again. It seems she’s looking for him at the Klein townhouse.

“Um…”

A voice cut off abruptly echoed in the cave. Faint breathing could be heard, and a weak, warm body temperature was felt.

Peon wiped his mouth and turned around. Kaella was standing there with a slightly surprised expression, tightly holding the green box full of promissory notes. Here, in the cave.

“Ah.”

She must have followed through the door he left open. Kaella dislikes dark places. Peon hurriedly rinsed his mouth and straightened up. Magic is so convenient at times like this. He was about to go back first, but unexpectedly, she spoke first.

“This box contains important documents, so I couldn’t just leave it…”

“It’s okay. You can leave it. Did you come looking for me because of that?”

The darkness retreated behind Peon’s back, hiding his unsightly appearance. Kaella carefully looked at him, then lowered her confused eyes and hugged the box tightly. She didn’t really want to see this.

“A letter… came. I was going to… look at it together, but suddenly ended up here.”

“I must have left all the doors open for you. You must have been surprised, I’m sorry.”

The surroundings changed in an instant. The cave completely disappeared, and they were suddenly standing alone in the hallway outside the dining room.

“No. It’s okay.”

Kaella quickly shook her head.

“Do you want to… go look at the letter? There seemed to be a lot of important ones.”

Peon smiled faintly with effort as he looked at her pointing towards the dining room.

“Alright. But, just a moment.”

“There are a lot of letters.”

Kaella blurted out to Peon as he was about to go somewhere again.

“Really… a lot of… and this box too…”

He quickly took the box from Kaella’s arms. It must be heavy.

“I’m not going anywhere. I was going to change clothes.”

“But you’re clean? Didn’t you use magic to clean up like this?”

“Well, yes, but…”

“Come here. There are so many letters.”

It was too flimsy an excuse, but Peon had no ability to refuse Kaella. The enormous man, almost tall enough to touch the door of the huge mansion, was led along by the tiny woman.

“What kind of letters are they?”

“Here, this is a telegram from Dad, and this is an invitation…”

Kaella quickly piled a heap of invitations from the silver tray onto Peon’s hands.

“The only important one here is the one from your father-in-law, Kaella.”

She pursed her lips.

“Is there somewhere you want to go? I don’t know much about Klein’s social circles.”

He smiled and held out the telegram to Kaella. He gestured for her to open and read it quickly. She exclaimed “Ah” and hastily opened and read the telegram from her father.

“He says he arrived in Klein this morning.”

“That’s good. Shall we go in the afternoon?”

Now that the Duke of Ostein had come to Klein, the Crown Prince’s engagement ceremony was drawing near. As nobles began to come up to the capital, the newspapers were in a frenzy over the humiliation of the queen of high society.

“…Let’s go together.”

Peon nodded at the command from his queen.

“Alright.”

“And tell me what you’re going to do with this 83 million rekets.”

“Are you curious?”

That was unexpected. Didn’t she say she was sick of it? Does she have something she wants to do?

“Is there anything you want to do? Anything you want? Do you want a castle or a villa?”

His voice grew more excited as he asked, and the questions became more detailed. Kaella glanced up at her husband, who had gone alone into that pitch-black cave, still clutching the telegram.

“Is it okay for me to get involved?”

“There’s nothing you can’t do. I’d follow even if you told me to give it all up.”

“That won’t do! It’s 83 million rekets, we have to collect it!”

Kaella bristled, asking what he was talking about.

“Ah… sorry. I don’t think we can collect it all. Did you see that list of assets earlier?”

Though it’s unclear how many more jewels Beatrice might have, even if she sold everything, it wouldn’t be enough to repay the debt. She looked at him with an expression of lost words before finally opening her mouth.

“Just how much money do you have?”

With the 83 million rekets he used to buy up all of House Monde’s debts, that box of promissory notes alone was more than enough to easily prove his immense financial power.

It was already mind-boggling that House Monde had incurred that much debt, but now the scale of Peon’s wealth, treating that amount as pocket change, was truly staggering.

Even Kaella, who had grown up very wealthy and seen many rich people, was starting to feel dizzy and overwhelmed. She knew it was a lot, but she hadn’t expected the specific numbers to be so astronomical.

“Well, I haven’t counted.”

Not only that, but acquiring debts of this scale also required enormous financial resources and manpower.

If someone had started collecting the Duke of Monde’s debts, rumors would surely have spread, but the fact that no one knew until it was revealed this time showed incredibly skilled handling and confidentiality.

“But I can show you.”

“You’ve already shown me plenty…”

This is crazy. Kaella sighed as she looked at the green box full of promissory notes.

“Oh, is this enough?”

“What else were you going to show?”

Her curiosity was piqued.

“Whatever you want. Is there anything you want? I can buy you anything money can buy.”

Peon said this with an utterly nonchalant expression. If it were a lie, at least the Peon that Kaella knew wasn’t the type to boast, if nothing else.

“Ah, I wasn’t thinking of anything like that…”

“You weren’t?”

Oops, her thoughts just slipped out. Kaella hurried to cover it up.

“Of course, buying a company or a castle would be nice too.”

“Besides that, what? What kind of thing? Tell me.”

He was quietly waiting for her answer, like when they were young, no, like before they got married. With an expression full of trust, as if he would fulfill anything.

“What do you want to do?”

He asked gently, as if asking a young sister.

“No, since I’m a dragon… I was thinking of a mountain full of gold coins, or something like that…”

Isn’t that it? Kaella muttered, glancing at him, and when Peon started laughing, her ears turned red.

“You want to see something like that? If you want to see it, you should.”

He smiled brightly and held out his hand, which had completely dried and become slightly cold.