‘How could this happen?’

Beatrice wanted to grab someone and ask, but the only people who came to visit her in the somewhat warmer room she stayed in after leaving the hideous and cold Grand Duchess’s bedroom were the maid who brought her three meals and the doctor who came once a day. This couldn’t be happening.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, there had been some problem during the journey, so she couldn’t bring even half her trunks. She was missing essential clothes and accessories like dresses for having tea alone, pajamas to wear when in a bad mood, a fur hat for small gatherings, a fan, pearl necklace and bracelet, light shoes for balls and riding boots.

“Damn, and the medicine too…!”

She snapped in irritation, then cough, cough, a severe fit of coughing erupted. Her throat still hurt terribly, and her voice was strangely hoarse. Beatrice lay down and huffed.

‘No, I don’t need any aphrodisiacs.’

That’s not what’s important. With her years of experience, why would she rely on such tricks to seduce a man? She could do it without them now. Binding that stupid, dull Peon was as easy and natural as breathing.

But she didn’t have the chance!

“Excuse me. I’m coming in.”

That female doctor who knocked and entered before getting permission also really displeased her.

Lucenford was too barbaric a place, completely ignorant of refined manners. The way the lower classes showed respect to their superiors was a mess. But Beatrice was having trouble breathing, so she could only glare at the doctor with her eyes.

“You seem lively. You’ll be up soon.”

“Don’t you know any manners?”

Oh my, this young lady is throwing a fit again. Darinka thought she wouldn’t even need to examine her, seeing that spirit.

“Seeing how well you speak even with that barking voice, you should be fully recovered in about two weeks.”

Pretty face, but eyes full of venom. The castle staff said this young lady was the Grand Duke’s first love and childhood friend, but Darinka didn’t see it at all.

They may have been childhood friends, but still. Many childhood playmates don’t stay together for life, do they?

When the trajectories of their lives diverge, they naturally grow apart without mutual effort. Effort is based on affection. And affection starts with basic liking.

In Darinka’s view, this young lady was not to the Grand Duke’s taste. So it would be difficult for the fondness, affection and effort to blossom that would allow them to endure together for long.

“Let’s start by taking your temperature.”

And yet they were childhood friends and first loves? How strange, Darinka thought. Even boys who play together normally start swinging swords and spears as soon as their heads start to thicken a bit.

“You still have a slight fever. Be careful of cold drafts. Drink plenty of water.”

“The water is ice cold.”

“I told you to keep it by the fireplace. Walking a bit will also help move your muscles. It’s not good to just sit in bed too much.”

“Hey.”

First of all, this form of address was a problem. It didn’t suit the Grand Duke at all, who strictly adhered to etiquette and respected those beneath him.

“Has the investigator… arrived?”

She finally asked in a hoarse voice mixed with lingering coughs, so Darinka answered for now.

“Yes.”

“Then why isn’t there a banquet?”

The tone of her quick retort was full of incredulity. After that she coughed so much that Darinka quietly brought her a glass of water.

She’s only now drinking water because she’s too lazy to walk the few steps to the fireplace. At this rate, it will take quite a while to recover. Though with that temperament, she probably will recover eventually.

“They were going to…”

And? Beatrice looked at Darinka, who was answering slowly, as if urging her to continue.

“But the investigator said not to.”

“Why!”

“Don’t shout. It’s bad for your throat.”

Beatrice quickly gestured while drinking water again. Hurry up and answer, she meant.

“He said what welcome banquet when he came to investigate His Highness’s affairs, and told them to postpone it. Maybe they’ll have a brief one when he returns to Kline?”

“Damn, that blockheaded bastard Isidore…!”

No matter how quietly she whispered, there was no way Darinka, who had treated women on the streets, wouldn’t understand the curse.

See? I told you she’s not the Grand Duke’s type. Darinka quietly observed Beatrice Lavalley, who acted insolently towards her inferiors as if they had no eyes or ears.

“You can’t attend the banquet even if they have one.”

“What?”

“How could you go out in that condition? It would be terrible. Terrible. If you get pneumonia, you won’t be able to move at all.”

“I don’t get things like that.”

“Oh my, you caught a cold but you can’t catch pneumonia?”

“Speak properly. I can’t understand what you’re saying. Why do all of you have that accent?”

To Beatrice’s ears, the Lucenford people’s accent sounded rustic and crude.

Peon used a clean and sophisticated Kline accent, but occasionally a Lucenford accent would slip out, and Beatrice would cringe at how rustic it sounded every time.

“It doesn’t matter what the accent is as long as you speak properly. Young lady, you can’t even speak properly. Stop talking, it’s hurting your throat. Oh my, you must be struggling.”

Darinka soothed and comforted Beatrice as if coaxing a naive younger sibling. If another maid had done this, objects would have been flying or cheeks slapped by now, but Beatrice just frowned deeply and lay back down.

“When will they have the banquet?”

“Well, I don’t know. Who knows how fierce the investigator’s momentum is.”

“Damn, that shouldn’t happen…! Is there nothing else?”

“Oh come on, you keep using your voice. What else?”

“A ball, concert, tea party, play, ballet performance, something like that?”

“Oh my, where would you find such things in Lucenford? Really, young lady. There’s nothing like that. Unless His Highness does something, but not in this situation.”

Darinka gestured all around. Indicating that the investigator’s people were spread everywhere.

“Not a chance. Not a chance at all.”

Damn it! Beatrice fumed. This wouldn’t do. There needed to be a banquet, ball, concert, anything that could be her arena where she could take charge.

While coming and going to Lucenford, she had created plenty of devotees here too, even if it was a bit shabby and provincial.

‘I need to use those people to crush that even more shabby Kaella de Chasseur, but that bastard Isidore is no help, no help at all.’

The flower of high society exerts her strongest influence in high society, so what could she possibly do buried in this gloomy, unpleasant bed!

Moreover, banquets, balls and concerts are important opportunities to meet Peon, in addition to gathering many people.

Just one such occasion. Just once would be enough to put Kaella, who dared to take away Peon who belonged to her, in her place and also accomplish the mission the Emperor sent her here for.

“Take your medicine. I’ll come again tomorrow.”

“Uh huh.”

“And don’t use your voice.”

“I have no one else to talk to. The only person I could talk to was stolen by a girl who doesn’t know her place. Those types are always stupid. They need to be taught their place periodically.”

Darinka left quietly without replying.

Beatrice was no longer watching the departing doctor. She recalled the man she had looked up at from the bottom of the stairs on a very cold, late night. He was suddenly the most captivating man she had ever seen.

Alone in her bedroom, Beatrice giggled in her hoarse voice.

Ah. Men really do become much more tempting after marriage.

*

“This is a complete mess.”

Isidore Dakiten furrowed his brow at the words of the investigator who was seasoned in such matters. The fireplace crackled cheerfully as logs burned, and the investigators pored over the dense case files.

“How could they serve something His Highness clearly said he couldn’t eat, and to no less than Her Grace the Duchess of Ostein? Does this make any sense?”

“I’m telling you, this place is no ordinary peculiar place. They may fly the Crania Empire flag, but they ignore all laws and manners as they please… tsk tsk.”

“His Highness must have had such a hard time. To face such insubordination as soon as he arrived in this cold place.”

“By the way, these records are surprisingly objective, Investigator. They match the testimonies, especially that doctor who became the attending physician. She doesn’t seem to be lying.”

Darinka, with her medicine bag slung over her shoulder, testified without hiding how critically ill the Grand Duchess had been at the time, her eyes wide.

“I thought they would try to cover it up, but the records are thorough and the witnesses are cooperative.”

Isidore, who had been listening silently, muttered.

“The Grand Duke always has perfect paperwork.”

The investigators fell silent and looked at Isidore.

“I need to poke his head once.”

Isidore stood up.

“Where are you going?”

“To His Highness.”

“Are you going to interview him now?”

“No. To ask him to hold a welcome banquet.”

It would be better to see the Grand Duke in such a setting. Faced with an unexpected situation, Isidore immediately changed his strategy.

He planned to ask the Grand Duchess, his childhood friend and sister figure as well as the victim, to set the stage, while he would keep an eye on the perpetrators.

He walked through Lucenford Castle, more desolate than winter in the early spring. No matter how he looked at it, this was no place for Kaella who loved flowers.

Then again, it was difficult for a noble lady to have the marriage she wanted, let alone a “good” one. Families without money tried to become in-laws with wealthy families.

Families with short histories sought to form ties with long-established houses. Families with both money and history tried to maintain their dignity. If one stood at the pinnacle of power, they would inevitably be swayed by the Emperor like Kaella.

‘The Duke of Ostein must have tried to arrange a marriage without conditions.’

A marriage that even the bride’s father couldn’t control freely creaked badly from the start. The signs were quite ominous. Then again, Isidore’s aunt, the Empress, was also forced to marry the Emperor, so perhaps it was her son’s fate to have an unhappy marriage as well.

As Isidore entered through the door opened by a maid, he inadvertently smiled when his eyes met Kaella’s.

“Welcome, brother. Would you like some tea?”

“That would be nice. What were you doing?”

“Nothing, really.”

Isidore gave a bitter smile as if he understood.

“There’s not much to do in Lucenford, is there?”

One must answer an investigator’s questions carefully. What was I doing around this time? Kaella, sitting blankly in her office, habitually traced her memories. She had been clashing with the head maid, redoubling her efforts to improve the castle.

But she was repeatedly driven back into her room, so she seemed to have been in shock the whole time. Even more stubbornly, she tried to secure the Grand Duchess’s office and figure out how to do some real work from there.

She burned with an inability to give up. She sought out work, and if there was none, she created it. If I just do a little more, they’ll recognize me, they’ll acknowledge me – it was around this time that she endlessly started trying to prove herself.

Perhaps that’s how she tried to cope with the shock of her father’s death and the emptiness of having everything taken away. She clung blindly to things not worth clinging to.

“Thanks to your visit, I’m resting, but there’s a lot to do. As you can see, there are countless places that need attention.”

“I see. It’s a bit surprising. But it’s good that at least the kitchen is under construction.”

Whether that’s where it starts, or where it ends, I can’t tell.

“News of your collapse must have reached the Duke of Ostein as well.”

“I’ve already sent a letter telling him not to worry.”

Besides the letter she gave to Marie, she wrote and sent a new one.

“He can’t help but worry in this situation, Kaella. Are you really alright?”

Peon had not only applied the charge of attempted murder, but naturally also applied the charge of disobeying orders and dealt with it severely.

How much pain and shock must Kaella have received from being insulted by mere provincial nobles, including the head maid? If it were Isidore, he would have ordered all their heads cut off, but she was so kind even in that situation that she spared the head maid’s life.

“I can’t waver.”

“I knew you’d say that. If you stand firm, will my brother support you from behind? Why did that Beatrice come here? How did she come?”

Well. Not knowing that, Kaella fell silent, when there was a knock and the door suddenly opened.

“Your High-, I’ll be stepping out for a moment…”

Peon, who had entered naturally, paused briefly upon discovering Isidore.

“Ah, were you in conversation with Lord Dakiten?”

Isidore rose from his seat.

“It’s nothing. I heard you were planning a welcome banquet, so I came to request that it be held this evening. I haven’t started the interview yet, Your Highness.”

As Isidore explained, shaking his head, Peon slowly nodded a couple of times.

“I see. Your Highness, I will be briefly patrolling the border. I’ll return before the banquet.”

“Ah, yes. Have a safe trip.”

Kaella didn’t understand why he was bothering to say where he was going, but after hesitating, she added:

“Please be careful.”

Peon was about to turn away, but looked at her and smiled slightly.

“Yes.”

Then he left the Grand Duchess’s office again. Isidore looked back and forth between the door and Kaella.

“Is he always like that?”

“We share a bed, so…”

Kaella muttered indifferently.

“Ah, I don’t want to hear about that. You and my brother, ugh… We used to all play hide-and-seek together, it’s strange.”

“We’re not the only ones like that.”

Not just Kaella and Peon. Peon and Beatrice are like that too.

“Anyway, brother, you said you’d have a welcome banquet?”

She shifted the topic, moving away from thoughts that were eating at her.