The chill was sweeping through Lyssenford Castle today, which was too shabby to be called a “castle”.

Winter brings blizzards that cover everything and plunge it into silence. The castle had become even quieter due to the recent unfortunate incident.

The newly married duchess nearly died, resulting in an execution, and the head maid who ruled the castle was banished.

The castle employees, who lost their leader overnight, anxiously looked around, unsure of what would happen, and relied on Butler Rolf Anderson for now.

But even he didn’t have a good solution. The duke’s gaze was ominous, and he had ordered everything to be as peaceful as possible until the duchess fully recovered.

At the tail end of this silent winter where everyone held their breath, only the crying children made noise obliviously.

“Sasha, Sasha, stop crying now. Hush, hush.”

Children born to castle employees usually came to the castle with their mothers and played together where the employees were, as there was no one else to look after them.

“If you don’t stop, a dragon will come and eat you! Hurry and stop.”

From a young age, children grew up with fears of the biting cold, the fearsome emperor, and the dragon who commanded an army of spirits and ghosts that couldn’t cross the border. Those who raised children used that fear effectively.

The pale-faced mother grabbed her daughter who was crying loud enough to shake the castle and ran blindly. Her Royal Highness the Duchess, the Emperor’s niece, was barely recovering now, and who knows what would happen if it became noisy where Her Highness was staying.

His Grace the Duke personally said that where Her Highness stays must always be peaceful. The nobles excluding the head maid ended up being hanged, so the terrified mother quickly picked up her child and moved as far away from the inner castle as possible.

The sound of wailing echoed through the castle.

In a huge stone building where no sound can be heard, even small noises reverberate loudly. Thinking that disturbing Her Highness the Duchess’s peace would be disastrous, the face of the child’s mother, who worked as a laundress in the castle, turned pale.

“I said stop!”

Not knowing what to do, the laundress slapped the child’s bottom with her cold, chapped hands. Waaah, the child’s cries grew louder.

“You have to be quiet in the castle! Stop it right now!”

Just as the laundress, panicked and terrified, was about to hit the child again and try to run as far away as possible, it was at that moment.

Unexpectedly, she spotted three knights and maids standing in the open outer courtyard. Among the maids stood a noblewoman wrapped tightly in glossy fur.

There is only one “noblewoman” in Lyssenford Castle right now.

“Oh, my goodness!”

The laundress collapsed right there, still holding her child. The ignorant woman thought she was surely dead now. She had never felt so resentful and pitiful of her foolish daughter who was still wailing loudly enough to shake the entire castle.

“I’m sorry! The child is sick, I didn’t mean to make noise…!”

The graceful duchess, who looked noble by anyone’s standards, looked at the laundress for a moment before turning her gaze to the doctor who had come out with her.

“She says the child is sick.”

The reddened child screaming and crying looked concerning.

“Examine her.”

Darinka, who had already been observing the girl’s condition from afar, turned to the duchess in surprise.

“Is that alright?”

“Don’t you have nothing to do right now?”

Well, not exactly. The doctor who had insisted on at least taking a walk, saying the duchess should move little by little, quickly went towards the child while still dutifully doing his job.

“You must walk around this inner courtyard once, Your Highness. Don’t rush, take it slow.”

By the time Kaella nodded, Darinka was already kneeling in front of the child. Kaella, who had to forcibly take a walk despite being so bundled up by the maids that it was hard to even walk, stared blankly at the trembling woman.

The newly married duchess might not know what this woman did, but Kaella immediately recognized her as a laundress working in the castle laundry room.

The wet apron, hands red and swollen from soap and cold water, and even a headscarf wrapped around – if it was a young woman, she was probably someone who had come in to do one of the hardest jobs, laundry.

Once obsessed with the idea that as duchess she should know everything happening in Lyssenford Castle, Kaella was now tired of the fact that she could figure out quite a bit just by looking at that laundress.

Though tired of it, she still asked the nearby knight. Whenever Peon was away, he assigned one of his most trusted knights to Kaella. Today, Sir Wilberk was in charge of Kaella’s escort, so he happened to be by her side.

“Why is she acting like that? Isn’t this a place where castle employees also come and go?”

There’s no need to turn so pale and still keep her head bowed to the ground, trembling like that. Rather, Kaella was more used to even laundresses like her whispering while looking at her from afar.

She knew all sorts of rumors circulated among the castle employees and outside – that she was a witch sent by the emperor, that she was a cold stone who couldn’t even bear children. Kind words were rare, while harsh words easily reached her ears, being so numerous.

“It seems to be because of the order His Grace the Duke issued.”

“What order did he give?”

“He said that since peace and quiet would help Your Highness recover, everyone should be as quiet as possible.”

Isn’t that a bit much? Silence in a castle where over a thousand people come and go. Kaella unconsciously tilted her head.

“I’m fine though…?”

That was precisely the statement that everyone except Kaella would absolutely disagree with. Though she had just gotten up, Kaella still looked like a clearly ill patient to anyone, barely walking around with a face completely devoid of color.

With rumors rampant that the young duchess had been greatly shocked by the Northerners’ typical forceful way of pushing things and was forced to eat, it was only natural for the duke to treat the duchess like fragile porcelain.

“It’s only natural for a child to cry when they’re sick. That much is fine.”

The laundress, who was already bowing her head, now prostrated herself completely.

“Thank you, Your Highness! Thank you!”

“How is the child’s condition?”

Just looking at her, the child was even thinner than the employees’ children Kaella had seen in Ostein. Lyssenford, built on barren land, was terribly harsh.

Peon took on all the burdens here alone, running around trying to somehow make this a livable place.

Kaella once tried to share in that intention. She tried to fix the poor facilities in the castle and somehow secure funds to carry out more construction. She had been so presumptuous even though Peon didn’t want it.

In the end, those things together had a big impact on Kaella’s confinement.

Her efforts to help Peon somehow and make Lyssenford look like a proper duchy by running here and there ended up becoming a noose around her neck. Here, she should have just done nothing.

“She has a fever. If left like this, she’ll become seriously ill, and it could spread among the children in the castle.”

At Darinka’s diagnosis, the laundress’s face turned ashen. If she gets kicked out for spreading disease, where will she earn money? If she loses this hard-earned laundress position, she’ll have to starve starting today.

“If it spreads in the castle, it will spread outside too. Take her and treat her until she’s fully recovered. Check if it has already spread among the children.”

“Is that alright?”

Darinka asked, brightening. Though forced to watch over the duchess’s condition as the duke ordered, she had been itching for something to do, with almost nothing to do by the duchess’s side.

“Do it. It’s a waste of talent to just leave a capable doctor idle.”

She had no intention of expanding the fortress, digging deeper moats, or changing the castle’s infrastructure, but surely it would be fine to let a doctor who usually cared for the poor do his job? Yes. That should be just right.

Kaella gazed distantly at the little girl who was wheezing after crying herself out. The child was clinging tightly to her mother’s arms.

The mother was also holding the child close. It must be a precious joy. Kaella turned her gaze away. It was something she would never know in her lifetime.

*

Rolf Anderson, the butler of Lyssenford Castle, was struggling to run the castle in the current absence of a head maid.

He always proudly called himself a “baron” and believed he carried out his duties with great responsibility and loyalty.

To others, his pride seemed to outweigh his sense of responsibility, causing problems, but not everyone can be objective about themselves.

So he felt a serious crisis because of the doctor suddenly coming and demanding to open the storehouse.

“No, those are such precious items, how can you ask for them! Is that really necessary for treating Her Highness the Duchess?”

That woman, whether an apothecary or whatever she was, who barged in on the butler with Sir Wilberk in the lead, seemed like a completely wrong choice to Rolf Anderson.

In his view, women were dull-witted and excessively emotional, making them unsuitable for productive and important work like treating someone. But since His Grace the Duke had chosen her, he had no choice but to reluctantly accept it.

“Her Highness said to give them out.”

Moreover, that female apothecary had quite an impertinent look in her eyes and was not at all docile. She was so blunt she could rival the knights, just saying those words and nothing more.

The newly arrived duchess couldn’t even digest a mere tour berry without causing a fuss, so why was she now ordering precious soap and medicine to be handed over?

With mountains of work to do, Rolf was extremely annoyed and irritated that he had to go to the storehouse himself in the midst of all this.

With Sir Wilberk quietly watching from behind, he had no choice but to go to the storehouse and open the door for now, but the apothecary’s words throughout grated on his nerves.

“My goodness, if you pile things up like this without managing them, they’ll all go to waste. I need to take them out quickly.”

How can she talk so much while taking away precious medicines and soap to use?

In this cold place, one always had to pile things up, save, and economize! After firmly locking the storehouse door again and returning to his post, Rolf thought for a moment and then got up again.

As the butler overseeing Lyssenford Castle, he needed to know exactly how those items were being used.

Rolf had a perfect grip on the castle, and he immediately found out where that woman was using the precious medicines on some order from the duchess.

Those precious medicines were being used on, good heavens, dirty children!

“Tell us about the dragon!”

Rolf peeked through the crack in the door at the sight of the employees’ lowly children sniffling and whining to the apothecary.

“Dragons are born from ashes.”

“Not from red fire?”

“They’re born from the ashes left after fire burns and burns and burns again. And then they breathe terrifying flames that burn everything. Now, let’s see here? That’s right. Looks like you have a fever.”

As bright eyes suddenly turned towards Darinka, Rolf quickly left the place. The duchess was foolish!

How could she give such precious items, things that should be given to the wounded if a dragon attacks, to such lowly creatures! How to deal with this wasteful habit of someone raised delicately, knowing nothing and spending money like water!

‘And yet His Grace the Duke knows nothing and is just bewitched…!’

What did Head Maid Doris say when she was banished? That His Grace the Duke, whom they had preciously raised, had been bewitched by a woman.

And not just any woman, but bewitched by a Southern woman, the Emperor’s niece! Well, young men infatuated with women are known to be blind to everything else.

The castle ruled by the duke was running in a strange way, and keys were slipping out of the butler’s grasp one by one. That won’t do.

“It won’t do. It won’t do at all.”

The butler overseeing Lyssenford Castle picked up his pen with a purely concerned heart for the duke. Everything in Lyssenford must not change.

Everything must stay in its proper place, for the moment things change, it all starts to shake. How can the castle guarding the North be like that! The banishment of the head maid was enough. Now it was time to return.

The pen began to draw mysterious codes rather than Kraine letters. After meticulously completing the coded message, Rolf sealed it in the same way he had always used and handed it to his confidant who was always wandering around the castle.

“To the usual place.”

The confidant, who disappeared after just bowing his head without answering, returned with a reply not long after. Rolf closed the door tightly and opened the envelope sealed in the same way he had sealed it, reading the code.

Already reported.

Ah, of course. Rolf slightly furrowed his brow. What a vile emperor’s dog. So they’ve already reported to Kraine that the duchess has collapsed?

“So quick. Really…”

Just waiting for crumbs to fall from Kraine. Of course, Rolf had also essentially told them to inform the emperor that the Lyssenford duchess had collapsed, but he was merely using them.

It is the role of a guardian to properly catch a young person who is temporarily lost and wandering.

In that sense, if the emperor hears the news and once again, as he always has, sends an envoy to stir up Lyssenford, the duke will come to his senses. He will realize that the duchess is just a Kraine woman sent by the emperor, not a person of Lyssenford.

Since she was the emperor’s niece anyway, that was unavoidable. It was just frustrating that the duke hadn’t yet realized what everyone else knew.

‘Sometimes a rod is necessary too. That’s right.’

This was all out of a desire for the duke to grow up properly. The emperor would do the beating in place of the rod, and the butler would just use all of that to establish the Lyssenford duke as a proper duke.

Rolf felt proud as he thought once again about how wise and sagacious he was for thinking this far.

As always, he was a person overflowing with pride.

Outside the tightly closed castle, spies who had already become the emperor’s eyes and ears were moving quickly. Inside the castle, in the warm, fire-lit infirmary, the dragon story for the children was still continuing.

“Dragons hold golden treasures. Even the hottest fire cannot defeat a dragon.”

In the distant realm of the evil dragon, an ominous black shadow or smoke rose up.