Not long after Peon was practically driven out of Lysenford, Beatrice Lavalier also frequently visited Lysenford. This was because she had nowhere else to go due to her family’s declining circumstances.

At Lysenford, she was always a welcome guest. Even more welcome than the Duchess, who was the Emperor’s niece but the daughter of a mistress.

The nobles of Lysenford held both longing and hatred for the capital. They secretly liked the vibrant and lively Beatrice. After all, she was the flower of high society.

She liked to establish hierarchies. From a very young age, she wanted to show that she was always superior to Kaella, who was the Duchess.

The nobles of Lysenford joined in, and if Kaella tried to counter by asserting her authority as Duchess, they would immediately run to Peon. She had a powerful spell called prohibition.

“Peon and I are so close, you know.”

Beatrice retorted to Kaella’s words without batting an eye. For Kaella, who had liked Peon since childhood, simply mentioning the special relationship between Beatrice and Peon was enough. It was always Beatrice’s victory.

Kaella recalled the widespread rumors that Beatrice had cried in front of Peon because of her.

More precisely, it spread as ‘The Duchess made Lady Lavalier cry.’ She remembered the coldness of Lysenford where every action was restricted and it was suffocating.

“I was worried because he suddenly said he was getting married, wondering if that cold and inconsiderate boy would be alright. As you know, he never understood your feelings.”

Peon never called Kaella separately or took any action at those times. He just always left her alone as usual. He did nothing, and the nobles and people inside the castle took care of it themselves.

“Well, I guess it’s good. You get rewarded for being so persistent?”

Peon consistently referred to her as the Duchess, even though she wasn’t properly treated as one.

Kaella was convinced that this was the only attack that the emotionless man made. Isn’t it an insult to call someone a Duchess who isn’t really one?

“As Peon’s closest friend, I’m just worried, so don’t take it badly.”

It means ‘You’re not that narrow-minded, are you?’ after thoroughly scratching at someone’s insides.

Beatrice smiled with her eyes. It feels like everything around brightens up. It’s as if a spark of light appears in the middle of the palace corridor where people come and go. The gazes of people who were quietly watching were all drawn to Beatrice.

Kaella knew well how much power Beatrice’s beauty and atmosphere held.

If it weren’t for that, Beatrice would have just been from a faded noble family on the verge of disappearing. It was amazing that she had managed to hang on this far. Kaella sincerely thought Beatrice was remarkable.

“I understand completely. I don’t take it badly.”

So she had to just accept what Beatrice said as right. Because it actually was. Who was Kaella to interfere between Peon and Beatrice?

She should think, they must really like each other and be happy. What else could she do? Compared to Beatrice, she was an unattractive and charmless wooden block that her husband never even looked at.

“I can see how specially you think of Peon.”

So there’s nothing more foolish than trying to be sharp towards Beatrice here. Anyone can see that it’s natural for the Duke of Lysenford to choose Beatrice. No, at least in Lysenford it was.

“Well, you would know best. You’ve been watching us for a very long time, haven’t you?”

Beatrice smiled gently with her eyes. Kaella nodded calmly. Her expression was calm, but inside, a fire was burning fiercely.

“That’s right. I know you’re much closer than I am. Everyone in Crania knows how the Duchess has taken care of him attentively, and how you grew up together since childhood. As you said, it’s a very special relationship.”

I understand that, but. Did you really need to call out the busy new bride in the palace, in front of everyone, just to have this power struggle?

If it had been before she died, Kaella would have just listened with a smile, nodded kindly, maintained all proper etiquette, and then come back and felt upset for no reason.

At that time, besides not knowing the tricks, she still wanted to have goodwill. That’s how naive Kaella was.

“What a shame that you and the Duke won’t be able to attend my wedding this time? With such a special relationship, I was hoping you’d come to congratulate us. It’s disappointing.”

Even if you have goodwill, it won’t save your life. Then how about ill will?

Kaella, who had died and come back, started to cross the line she had always kept. What’s the worst that could happen if she crossed it? If she dies, it’s good because it’s comfortable. If she doesn’t die, it’s good because she tried something she hadn’t done before.

“Sister, please take good care of him for me too. As you said, you know him better than I do.”

Since when had Beatrice been deceiving the Duke and colluding with the Emperor?

Kaella could no longer distinguish whether what was rising inside her now was jealousy and inferiority, or a sense of injustice.

In the end, she felt so wronged and angry at the fact that the Emperor’s spy, whom they had tried so hard to point fingers at and root out in Lysenford, was not Kaella but Beatrice.

Blinded by first love and old memories, and trying to maintain his beliefs somehow, Peon had practically handed over Lysenford’s secrets to Beatrice.

And then Beatrice had poisoned Kaella while mocking her pitifully.

Of course, the Beatrice that Kaella remembers has nothing to do with the current Beatrice. Strictly speaking, they are different people. But people don’t change easily. One must experience death to become a different person.

“I was thinking I’d be much more comfortable thanks to you.”

Though she hated using the term ‘elder sister’, strangely it came out smoothly. It was very easy to return it exactly as Beatrice had done. Seeing her expression change now, she could say ‘elder sister’ without any problem.

Indeed. Kaella had just said that since she was busy, she wouldn’t take care of her husband, so his mistress should handle it. In fact, this was a political marriage, so it was enough to be faithful to the ‘politics’.

Kaella had never openly said such a wicked thing before, so she spoke while tightly holding her pounding heart.

“Come to Lysenford often. My husband and I will always welcome you together.”

As the wealthy Ostein princess and future duchess, she need not be concerned about her husband’s mistress, just bear an heir and that’s it.

Though she extremely despised fights between wives and mistresses by nature, Kaella was certain she had hit the mark seeing Beatrice’s eyes harden in an instant.

At the same time, she felt self-loathing for doing something she despised, but Kaella decided to be brazen. She had already hit rock bottom.

Yes. She should have done this from the start. She should have spoken her mind freely and fanned the flames for the quick downfall of the two people who ruined her.

Being pointed at as the daughter of a mistress, and with her husband also being called a bastard, she shouldn’t have foolishly tried not to treat Beatrice as a mistress.

“Give my regards to the Duchess as well.”

“Of course. Certainly.”

Beatrice did not lose her smile till the end. She had tried to greatly ridicule Kaella, casually speak to her and upset her, but even though she was attacked, she didn’t completely crumble. Next time, she would prepare more and attack. It was obvious.

“And also be sure to let her know that unlike the imperial palace, the doors of House Ostein are always open to the Duchess.”

If you’ve done something wrong, you should come apologize. Kaella paused briefly after saying “be sure”.

“To inform her.”

But do you and your mother need to be taught even that you should come apologize to me?

The surrounding nobles widened their eyes at Kaella’s strong comeback.

“The two of you are always welcome at our house as well.”

Since Kaella couldn’t achieve the same effect by imitating Beatrice’s eye-smile exactly, she just smiled faintly. She knew how to smile too.

“I’ll take my leave first as my schedule is busy. See you next time, elder sister.”

Attacking and putting down someone wasn’t as refreshing or satisfying as she thought.

The nobles of Lysenford and people of the castle, the Emperor and Beatrice, Duchess Monde and everyone else who did this so enthusiastically, they sure have a lot of energy. Unlike her, they must be very healthy.

Leaving Beatrice behind, Kaella turned away and smiled bitterly seeing the tops of the nobles’ heads as they hurriedly disappeared after eavesdropping.

Rumors would spread that the daughter of a mistress marrying a bastard treated the flower of high society as a mistress.

Well, when had anything good ever happened to her? It was always the same old life.

*

The first to hear the news that Beatrice and Kaella had met at the imperial palace and even conversed was Peon. He closed his eyes tightly at the conversation content hastily sent by the surveillance he had placed on Beatrice.

‘Where do I even begin to resolve this…’

He wanted to go to Kaella right away and apologize again, but that was absolutely not possible.

Looking at the conversation content, he was already firmly branded as a man with a mistress in her eyes. Going now would only make him look like a fool coming to apologize on behalf of his mistress to his heartbroken fiancée.

No, in fact, the apology was an excuse, he just wanted to see her. The feelings he had desperately ignored in Lysenford and only now began to acknowledge swept over him to the point of fear.

He forcibly suppressed the shameless urge to rush to Kaella. This is why he ignored it again and again. What a fool he was.

“Kaella said she’d ‘be much more comfortable thanks to’…”

He was so dumbfounded he could barely speak properly.

“She said to take good care of me?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

She retorted well. Honestly, she did very well.

Beatrice was someone gentlemen looked up to and wanted to speak to even once, not someone to be treated as a mere mistress. Only someone like the Ostein princess could treat her as a mistress.

But Kaella, who had braved the cold to find the Duke and meticulously explained in correct words ‘how Lady Lavalier was infringing on the Duchess’s authority, and how this situation should be resolved’, said such things?

‘That can’t be…’

Peon’s brows furrowed even more severely. The Duke, sitting on a soft, low sofa with his long legs crossed, rested his elbow on the armrest and his chin in his hand, lost in deep thought.

In fact, whenever Beatrice came to Lysenford, something always happened. Peon always experienced it in the same order. Beatrice would come running to him in tears, or he would hear reports from the butler or head maid.

It was always about how Kaella did this or that, or how Her Highness the Duchess did such and such. The cause was always Kaella. Then he would console Beatrice appropriately.

It was enough to perfunctorily respond to her ringing complaints. Then a few days later, he would accidentally encounter the Duchess whom he had left alone because he couldn’t do anything.

Damn it, Beatrice would come crying and complaining again.

“Wilberk.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Lady Lavalier will come crying by the end of today.”

Earl Wilberk looked at the Duke, who was staring into space with a cold gaze while giving instructions, in a state of high tension. The Duke, while speaking, seemed to swallow for a moment as if irritation was welling up.

“Have the carriage wait as it is. I’ll be out in 5 minutes, no, 3 minutes.”

“Yes.”

Anger on the verge of explosion simmered in the commanding voice. How amused would the Emperor be to hear this? It was obvious he would mock that bastards were marrying each other and even engaging in affairs.

For Peon, it was familiar as he always experienced it, but for Kaella, who was forced into an unwanted marriage, what an ordeal. It must be a huge humiliation for the future Duchess of Ostein.

Earl Wilberk, who withdrew leaving the Duke clearly suppressing his anger, marveled as Lady Lavalier came running exactly 30 minutes later.

Peon, who looked as if he didn’t even want to let her into the office, stood in front of his desk looking at documents, regardless of whether Beatrice entered crying or not.

“Peon, I…”

“I already know what you’ve been saying to whom outside. The rumors have spread everywhere.”

Beatrice, who had come prepared with a perfect ending of ‘I’m so hurt that the person you’re marrying treated me badly, but congratulations on your marriage, don’t forget me’, couldn’t even begin her planned introduction. She glared at Peon, who had his back completely turned to her.

“I heard Kaella asked you to take good care of me.”

“You also said you’d take good care of me.”

“I meant as a friend…”

“Kaella meant it as my fiancée. If it’s as you say, there’s no difference, so why are you here?”

Beatrice was greatly shocked by this annoyed and insincere question.

“You, are you doing this because you’re angry that I rejected your proposal? What power do I have, how can you treat me like this?”

Again with that damned prohibition. Peon looked up at the ceiling and sighed with a helpless expression. You need to communicate to resolve things through dialogue.

“The very act of coming here to complain after hearing those words is you treating yourself as a mistress, Beatrice. If you’re upset, you shouldn’t come here, but take your mother to House Ostein and apologize first.”

Beatrice was left speechless, her mouth agape. When there was no response, Peon finally turned to look at her.

“Didn’t Duchess Monde tell you? She came here to get angry, so I sent her back.”

Though he said ‘sent back’, his tone was closer to ‘drove out’. Like Kaella did, Peon also deliberately brought up the matter of her mother, which was Beatrice’s greatest weakness right now.

“It seems only you know about me asking you to marry me. That’s why your mother came to me in anger.”

“How, how can you say such things! What if someone hears!”

“Then you shouldn’t have dared to speak to the princess either. The mother ignoring greetings, the daughter speaking up and volunteering to be a mistress.”

Who would have thought such words about being a mistress would come from that gentle princess’s mouth? Beatrice, who had stepped forward thinking she should put that well-bred Kaella in her place, was hit hard and thought it was really strange.

Wasn’t Kaella not that kind of person? Wasn’t she similar to Peon?

The so-called noble type who thought they’d die if they lost their dignity. A foolish girl who didn’t have the courage to confess her unrequited love, but just modestly devoted herself thinking she’d be noticed someday.

Moreover, Peon was really strange too!

“Get out, Beatrice. I’ve never kept a mistress like you.”

“What?”

“I said get out. It seems your mother didn’t tell you either, but I clearly said that you and I are nothing to each other.”

Nothing to each other? In front of Beatrice, who felt like she had been repeatedly hit, Peon opened the door himself.

If he didn’t marry Kaella and lived completely as a stranger, he was willing to use his relationship with Beatrice just as Beatrice and the Emperor had done. He could have thrown away all his beliefs and fallen together.

But if Kaella was involved with him, it couldn’t be.

“Get out and never come back.”

Beatrice felt Peon’s leash, which she had always held tightly, slipping from her hand.

Beatrice, who had prided herself on adequately controlling women in high society and finding it much more fun to play with men, was on the verge of staggering from the heat rising to her head due to what had happened over the past few days.

Peon had always listened to her cries, but now he was cutting her off completely as if he had died and become a different person. Why, when she had naturally placed that prohibition on him?

The prohibition was still valid. She had checked it habitually every time they met, and layered spell upon spell on top of it. However, Peon now didn’t seem like someone under the prohibition. It was strange, and strange again, and scary.

But she couldn’t let her last bit of pride crumble. Beatrice stood up abruptly, held her head high as she walked, and then at the doorway, she slapped Peon’s cheek hard.

“You’ve betrayed me and Her Majesty the Empress, who has suffered all this time, for a few measly coins.”

“I’ve always been a bit of a disgusting ba***rd.”

When the noble knight nodded and said such things with his own mouth, Beatrice was shocked. How did Peon, who never uttered a single curse, end up like this? He seemed like a completely different person.

“You…, you…, what’s wrong with you?”

Instead of answering, Peon irritably called for Earl Wilberk.

“Wilberk!”

“Yes, Your Highness. Lady Lavalier, this way.”

After driving Beatrice out like that, Peon could accurately summarize the gossip that would circulate tomorrow. The future Duchess treated the queen of high society as a mistress, and the queen ran after her and slapped the Duke’s cheek.

No matter how you look at it, it’s obvious the Duke is a jerk, but it will be said that the princess and the queen of high society fought over the Duke, Peon reached for alcohol in broad daylight. He kept dragging the most noble woman he knew into the mud.

The sin keeps getting deeper.