The room attached to the butler’s office had no windows at all, so there was no light whatsoever. Even when her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could barely see what was right in front of her.

Kaella approached closer and almost let out a scream the moment she confirmed the person who had covered her mouth.

“Shh. Quiet.”

The very soft voice sounded like an authoritative command. Even in the darkness, intense violet eyes drew near distinctly.

Kaella gripped his forearm that was spasmodically covering her mouth. She had been caught by Peiron. He hated her.

Despite hating her, why had he tried to treat her like the Grand Duchess? Because Kaella wasn’t a bucket with a broken string this time? No, because if Kaella disappeared, Beatrice Ravallet would sit firmly in the solidified position of Grand Duchess?

Peiron’s hand was so large that it covered not only her mouth but also her nose. It was a hand thick enough to suffocate her if pressed like this.

Wouldn’t it be too easy a death? Kaella, who reached this thought in just a few seconds, struggled to remove Peiron’s hand. Seized by fear, proper thoughts did not flow.

“Kaella, Kaella. Shh. We snuck in here.”

Peiron whispered urgently, emphasizing the word ‘we’. He deliberately used a friendly tone he had used in the past to calm her down, but it seemed to be of no use.

Above the hand slightly covering her face, eyes holding the cold sky were looking at him, stricken with fear. Peiron, who had experienced countless battlefields and died on them, easily recognized fear. And he was also used to fear directed at him.

However, he did not want to see fear directed at him in Kaella’s eyes.

“Calm down. I snuck in too. I’m sorry.”

Shh, he soothed, and as he slowly removed his hand, the warm and fragile breath exhaled in surprise faded away.

He also saw the small fingertips that had gripped and scratched his forearm trembling. Kaella pressed her lips tightly together and glared at him, clutching her coat pocket.

“I startled you. I’m sorry.”

What did she put in her pocket? In an emergency, untrained people tended to unconsciously grip a weapon to defend themselves or an object that must not be discovered.

Especially when threatened. To her, he was nothing but a threat right now. No matter how many times he apologized, Kaella tightly gripped her pocket.

“I snuck in too.”

How did he know and follow her? Kaella, who was pressed tightly against the wall, was not even aware that she was breathing heavily. To her, the most fearsome being was the one who ruled Lucenpord, only one person.

Why did it have to be him? Her blue eyes wavered and scanned the surroundings. Could it be that he brought knights with him? Was he trying to catch her doing something and accuse her of being a spy?

“Kaella.”

Peiron hurriedly bent down and even folded his knees.

Even so, he lowered his large body that might appear threatening to the small woman who was utterly terrified. Showing his palms, he felt the miserable feeling of everything he had stood on collapsing.

‘I’m scary to her.’

He was the best at smelling the scent of fear. Fear directed at him brought him victory. The fear of enemies, the fear of castle people, and sometimes the fear that flashed in the Emperor’s eyes along with contempt had always worked in his favor.

He used fear as effectively as he was good at detecting it. In fact, for Peiron, who had few weapons, it was a weapon he could not help but use.

However, he never thought he would see that fear in Kaella’s eyes. He had been too complacent. As he had always done until now, this time too he was stupidly late, and accepted the already sentenced hell without resistance.

“I only meant not to make a sound, but I startled you. I’m really sorry. Your elder brother was wrong.”

He earnestly pleaded, saying that he was the elder brother who played affectionately with her when they were young, asking her to remember that.

“I won’t do it again. I’m sorry for startling you.”

Around that time, Kaella, who finally came to her senses and bit her lips, nodded. For now, there were no knights following him, and Peiron was dressed lightly enough to go to bed.

“Aren’t you cold?”

It didn’t seem like something that could be done with just a shawl over sleepwear. Peiron stepped back a little more from her and carefully asked.

But Kaella only shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. She was busy racking her brain on how to handle this situation.

Would he let it go? Or should she ask? If she asked, how much should she answer, and where should she die? For now, she had to face Peiron, the most fearsome being, without any preparation.

“No one knows we’re here.”

Peiron muttered, putting his index finger in front of his lips. He was fearsome, and at the same time, unrealistically beautiful even in the darkness. That made him even more frightening.

“It seems we came to check the same thing.”

He whispered softly to Kaella, who still couldn’t even speak properly.

“I came to see this.”

The tip of Peiron’s finger pointed to the cabinet Kaella had tried to open. She still didn’t say anything.

Rather than speaking clumsily and making a mistake, she had to hear everything Peiron said first. Of course, if he started asking questions, she would have no choice but to answer.

But instead of asking, Peiron took out a small key. Kaella didn’t want to react, but she couldn’t stop her eyes from widening involuntarily.

Because that key looked exactly like it would fit perfectly into the keyhole of the cabinet. Her eyes unconsciously followed Peiron inserting the key into the hole and turning it to open.

With a click, the cabinet opened. Peiron fully opened the cabinet doors and took out all the drawers.

“As you know, I haven’t learned much.”

Kaella thought it was literally a ridiculous thing to say. What had Peiron not learned? Even when the Empress was practically imprisoned, she did her best to educate her only son, which Kaella, who played together in the Imperial Palace, knew best.

Even when Peiron asked if he could play more with Beatrice, the Empress sent very resolute tutors.

Beatrice and Kaella also often had to study together. Beatrice easily got bored and found ways to escape alone, but Kaella foolishly studied together because she simply liked being by Peiron’s side.

At that time, the subjects Peiron learned were very diverse. Despite knowing that the Emperor was watching, the Empress secretly taught her son military science and politics from an early age, and taught him the sword from the very beginning.

It seemed she had made full preparations for her son to stand alone, foreseeing that they would be separated someday. The academics Peiron learned were so vast and profound that it seemed difficult for a young child.

“I only know how to fight with a sword. Estate management or smooth social skills are not my specialty.”

Indeed, there was a limit to what a young child could learn in a short time. After that, he was immediately sent to Lucenpord, so Peiron grew up not as a noble of Klein, but as a rough man of Lucenpord.

If he had been adept at sophisticated politics, the situation where Lucenpord was branded as a rebellion would not have happened. No, before that, Peiron would have only slightly cooperated with the murder of Duke Ostein and would not have had to do the absurd thing of forcibly marrying his daughter.

At that time, he had gained merit but only shouldered the burden. Still, while neglecting Kaella, had he not thought of Duke Ostein?

“So I heard it somewhere, that important items should be personally checked by the owner.”

Peiron looked down at the silverware that looked even more distinct in the pitch-black darkness.

“You, who are much smarter than me, would have already known.”

Although they came here with the same purpose, Kaella did not agree that she was smarter than him.

Smart? Where? Where and how was she, who had worried about the man who killed her only family despite knowing it, smart? She, who had to remind herself countless reasons to hate that man, was not wise and intelligent, but foolish and stupid.

Hatred was not something that arose only when you searched for a reason. It just had to arise. Kaella de Chacer was precisely the foolish girl who was crazy about that man.

“It’s too much for me to count alone, will you count together with me?”

To be precise, they were not silverware, but silver products used in the castle. It included silver trays on which the butler placed letters and candlesticks.

All nobles naturally had to have a set, and as they were expensive, the butler had to polish them separately and store them safely. It was an item that was taken out and placed on the table when noble guests came.

When Kaella felt something suspicious in the ledger numbers, she naturally thought of the silverware.

If the ledger was suspicious, wouldn’t the silverware management be suspicious too? Just by counting the number of visible silverware, she might be able to catch physical evidence that the butler had been negligent in management or had embezzled.

Kaella silently nodded, still keeping her mouth shut. She had planned to count them over several nights anyway. There were more than just four basic knives to count.

The couple stood in front of the cabinet and began counting the number of dessert spoons and forks.

“There are thirty-four spoons.”

At his words, Kaella muttered the final fork count.

“…Thirty forks.”

It already didn’t match. It was faster to check the small ones first. Kaella confirmed that there were nine of the large tools that looked like combs for cutting cakes, and fourteen forks for stabbing large meat dishes.

There were only five ladles for scooping various sauces and pouring them over dishes. Of course, such tools used by servants to carry food at a grand banquet would be produced in small quantities, but still, the numbers couldn’t differ this much.

“What’s this, Kaella?”

“For cutting food and pushing it.”

“This is…, only seven. Wait a moment.”

The numbers to remember were gradually increasing. Peiron went back to the butler’s office and brought paper, pen, and ink. While he was briefly away, Kaella’s sharp gaze followed him, as if she had been tense.

She was afraid of him. She was afraid of him.

“How many dessert spoons were there earlier?”

So Peiron asked even more desperately as if it were nothing. Like the affectionate elder brother from the past, actually from a childhood that felt too distant even for Peiron.

“Thirty-four.”

But he knew it was already irreversible, yet ignored it. Once instilled, fear was difficult to uproot. No, it was almost impossible.

“Ah, right. Thirty-four. Thirty dessert forks.”

The light voice he deliberately put on was detestable. Quickly, he had to send Kaella away quickly. To a very far place, a safe place where warm, golden sunlight resembling her poured down.

“The cake-cutting silverware is nine.”

Peiron felt dizzy at the sudden approach of body heat, weight, and a whispering voice. The tip of the pen he pressed down heavily bled dark ink.

Kaella wondered if he was writing because he could see it, but Peiron clearly saw that black stain. The black desire spreading in dots, the mistake, the stain left on Kaella’s life. A stain that wouldn’t be easily erased even if it got on his hands.

“…You said nine.”

The already small woman beside him nodded her small head. A faint floral scent came from her loosened hair.

The scent preserved in old memories enveloped him again. The scent he had forgotten in between the brutal clashing of spears and swords, the sharp blade winds tearing the air, and the splattering blood, occasionally lingering around him, was remembered.

This scent was Kaella’s scent. He had it without even knowing it suddenly disappeared one day. It was quite natural. Peiron had lived not knowing and losing all the good things. So even if it returned, he had no right to hold onto it.

Someday, when he found something completely unrelated to Kaella that he liked, he must cherish it. He must not forget and lose it.

He made resolutions, but Peiron didn’t think there would be a good being or object unrelated to Kaella. He had just realized who the most perfect being he knew was, so how could there be a being surpassing her?

“The largest fork for cutting meat dishes is fourteen. Five ladles for sauce.”

The quiet and calm voice speaking softly, the prissiness of ambiguously using just numbers without making it clear whether she was using formal or informal speech, the boldness and wisdom to notice with just a few ledgers and come to check the most definite physical evidence, were all Kaella.

All the traces he had been missing without even knowing he missed them in old memories were all her.

He didn’t know what he liked and cherished, so he didn’t even realize he liked it even when he did, and pushed her back to make her fall.

Peiron was already suffocating under the weight of the void that made him suffer terribly only after losing it.

“Five… What else?”

“Seven food pushers. Four ice cream knives.”

“Four is really too much.”

A weight he will carry for life. It is an excessive punishment for a foolish and stupid sinner who has committed an irreversible act, even if his heart is already crushed and cries out in pain. Peiron tried even harder to act more calmly and ordinarily.

“Do you know what this is?”

“A ladle for scooping out only the solid ingredients in soups.”

“Then what about this?”

“Ones shaped like that are all for seafood.”

“There are hardly any shaped like this.”

Kaella’s blue eyes stared straight at him even in the darkness. They were saying, ‘That’s why it’s a problem.’

“Are there supposed to be many originally?”

She nodded her head largely once more. Peiron smiled, seeing Kaella, who was staring only into the drawer even in this situation where a lot of silverware had disappeared.

“I see. I didn’t know.”

There were so many things he didn’t know that it was embarrassing, and at the same time, he could only keep newly realizing the fact that he couldn’t even dare to stand shoulder to shoulder with Kaella in this pathetic situation. He was far too lacking.

“Let’s stop here for today.”

Why? Kaella looked up at him.

“It’s cold. The night is deep, and there’s too much to count. Not tomorrow, come the day after tomorrow and let’s count together.”

The butler would be here late into the night tomorrow. What would Kaella, who was looking at him suspiciously, think was important? Peiron, who was deep in thought, emphasized the part he guessed once more.

“Together. I’ll come pick you up at night. Your lips are already turning blue. Let’s go.”

He folded the paper, put it in his bosom, and tidied up the cabinet, closing and locking it. Erasing traces was Peiron’s specialty. He left the office, held Kaella’s hand, and walked down the dim corridor.

“I won’t rashly expose this. There are too many holes for the butler to escape through.”

Again, eyes asking ‘Why?’ looked at him. Peiron whispered softly in a voice only Kaella could hear.

“Lucenpord has the powerful excuse of military funds, you know.”

Aha. Kaella nodded slightly, understanding. No matter what, if the butler prostrated himself and pushed it into military funds, even Peiron would have to consider it to some extent.

“For now, let’s just figure it all out. Our lady needs to select a new head maid and butler, so please find a successor.”

Can those words be trusted? Eyes full of suspicion looked up at him. Then, unavoidably, she answered in a small voice.

“Yes.”

The Grand Duke laughed absurdly again. The desolate midnight corridor was quite good for a stroll.