The greetings and courtesies flying towards Kaella were not perfunctory. Knights immediately stopped in their tracks and saluted when they saw the Grand Duke and Duchess passing by.

Even distant servants and maids bowed deeply, whether the Grand Duke and Duchess saw them or not. Even the nobles working in the castle showed polite respect to Kaella, making her wonder what was going on.

Having been a princess of Ostein for a long time, she accepted the greetings with composure, but the events unfolding were quite strange and suspicious. There was no reason for them to be so friendly towards her.

“Your Highness, thank you.”

“Thank you so much.”

Moreover, some of those who met her even expressed gratitude along with their greetings. Kaella looked around, puzzled, and her eyes met with Peon, who was calmly escorting her. He knows something.

“Hm?”

Though she had merely looked at him without saying a word, his purple eyes curved. A rarely seen brilliant smile appeared, and he laughed. Peon smiled while looking at Kaella.

Is he mocking her? Logically, there’s no reason to smile like that at a woman who snuck in at night and recklessly got pregnant.

Despite confessing such a secret, Kaella couldn’t understand why Peon still smiled when looking at her.

Or perhaps she just didn’t want to understand.

“What is it, Kaella?”

Peon turned towards her. His concentration on her was almost frightening.

“…Ah, it’s nothing.”

He is the son of the evil dragon. Kaella reminded herself never to forget that fact. One mistake in front of the evil dragon’s son, and who knows what might happen.

She wanted to avoid troublesome, difficult, and painful things as much as possible. Even asking why they were acting this way was bothersome; she didn’t want to create more problems.

“Nothing?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Come on, you’re curious why everyone is greeting you, aren’t you?”

The peculiar handsome man smiled faintly. Kaella, who had spent her life watching his every move and trying to please him until death, could tell immediately.

Peon had changed. He was still Peon, but not the taciturn man who only looked at his goals and charged ahead without regard for anything else.

The sharp atmosphere that used to flow through his entire body was no longer tightly coiled as if ready to stab someone. It had spread out widely. It was loose and languid. Yet it felt even more impenetrable.

He was no longer as desperate as before, nor was he struggling alone with all his might to somehow resolve the situation.

However, he was a predator playing with his prey. He had played with all of Lüsenford, and now he was playing with Kaella.

Regardless of whether his feelings for Beatrice had been cut off or not, wasn’t it unpleasant to have a woman sneak into the bedroom? Why was he smiling? Why was he smiling as if he was in a good mood? He kept smiling at her desperate state.

“Are you mocking me?”

The blunt question was delivered in a nonchalant tone, but it was enough to make the smile disappear from Peon’s face.

“Mocking you?”

He asked back as if he couldn’t understand. The surroundings were instantly cut off. The flow of air was abruptly stopped, and passersby couldn’t recognize the two at all.

The two saw only each other. Peon had always been like that, and Kaella had no choice but to look at him since he had blocked off the surroundings.

“Me? You?”

Kaella thought she should take a step back. She saw something like betrayal in his questioning eyes. No, it’s all an illusion.

How would she know, when she had become distrustful of all smiles after not understanding why people laughed every time she spoke? And if it was a negative emotion like betrayal, that would be rather fortunate. That was more familiar.

“I didn’t do anything. But you laughed.”

“That’s right. You didn’t do anything. You were just beautiful on your own.”

Kaella blinked. She didn’t understand what that meant either.

“I’m just an idiot who’s thrilled that his wife is pretty. What other reason do I have to smile besides you? And.”

He lowered his head further. Since his wife was much shorter, the giant man had to bend down a lot to meet her eyes. In fact, even her smallness was precisely to his taste.

“If anyone should be mocking, you should be mocking me.”

You should at least mock me.

“You should mock me now that you see me properly, calling me a foolish and obscene bastard who’s chasing after you saying I like you.”

You should mock me, slap my face, and spit on me. He would be ecstatic even with that. If the silent Kaella showed condemnation, hatred, and anger, he would lick it up greedily and suck it all in.

“I won’t do that.”

The woman who reluctantly said she wouldn’t do that had nothing. The numerous emotions that had been surging in her blue eyes disappeared like phantoms.

“Why? Don’t you dislike me? I ignored and mocked everything you said and even killed you. If we’re being honest, you should take revenge on me, Kaella.”

His tone was somehow desperate as he kindly reminded her, as if asking if she still didn’t understand.

“When I smile, you should be disgusted, thinking ‘that foolish man is delighted without even thinking about what he’s done.'”

You should mock me. You should take revenge. You should be disgusted. You should hate me for taking away even that damn poison.

Peon, who had been trying hard to instill that this was the natural order of things, lost all energy when he saw Kaella’s clearly uncomfortable expression.

She hunched her shoulders and avoided his gaze. At this rate, he was only threatening her. He was a threatener threatening her to take revenge.

“Am I not even worth that?”

Not understanding why he was imposing such things, Kaella slightly furrowed her fine brow.

“…Am I, am I not even worth that?”

The softly whispered voice trembled, causing Kaella to raise her gaze to him again. His once firm eyes were shattered and shaking. Even while shaking, they couldn’t break away from her.

Ah, I see. This man was now begging for something. But Kaella had nothing to give. She had absolutely nothing. What she could give, she had already given to him before. So there was nothing left.

Don’t hatred and revenge require strength too? She was exhausted to the bone, withered to the core.

She didn’t have an iron will like Peon, nor could she be as vibrantly radiant as Beatrice. She had done her best to exhaust herself, and the result was death.

Whatever she did would lead to death, and even if she gave her all for revenge, it would just be death again. If it’s death anyway, why was he demanding the impossible for the sake of cost-effectiveness and efficiency? No, why was he pleading?

The question she didn’t particularly want to know kept persisting.

Why is he acting like this?

“Just…”

Even if she just opened her mouth, the man’s already intense eyes grew darker, and his concentration heightened.

He listened to every word she said without even breathing, trying to engrave it in his brain. Yet it wasn’t worth that level of attention.

“Before, no matter what I said, everyone here laughed, so…”

Ignorance of the reason, a desperate defense mechanism for survival, yet still remaining at that level of pitifulness…

The words she spat out were so crude that they all embarrassed her. No matter how many times she did it, revealing her own flaws was still embarrassing and shameful.

“Even if I didn’t do anything, they laughed. I’m sorry.”

So the end was always an apology that lowered herself. It was too insignificant, not even worth Peon listening so fervently.

“…Maybe they found your Ostein accent interesting.”

After a long time of thinking and reasoning, he said seriously.

“I know.”

Later, she tried speaking in the Kraine way. But it was the same. When she used the Lüsenford accent to try to blend in with them, they laughed even more.

“Because you were sophisticated and pretty, they deliberately put you down like that.”

Since grown adults engaged in such childish behavior, the young Grand Duchess couldn’t help but become sensitive to people’s laughter. She became less talkative and more passive in her expressions.

It was pitiful. It was a bit heartbreaking too. But every time he felt that way, as if mocking him, as if reprimanding him not to think that way, clues that Kaella was the Emperor’s spy would pop up. They were quite blatantly laid out.

If he had been in his right mind, he would have doubted those clues first, but at that time, he was destined to absolutely believe those clues. The loyal Peon faithfully performed his role as well.

Those fools, lacking intelligence, tried to suppress the dragon with such ignorant acts to prevent its awakening. Unfortunately, the dragon was large. It didn’t just quietly submit alone, but also crushed the woman beside it.

“I’m not sophisticated or pretty.”

It made her interpret even compliments as attacks, mockery, or traps.

“You’re sophisticated, pretty, smart, and wise. All the men make excuses about wanting to protect you just to get a word in, wanting to get closer. You’re too small and anxiously pretty.”

What does it mean to be anxiously pretty? While she was puzzled, not knowing what that meant, Peon frowned fiercely and grumbled as if extremely annoyed.

“Here or in Kraine, wherever you go, the knights keep glancing at you for no reason, that’s why. It was annoying. I’ll pluck out all their eyes.”

“No! Don’t do that.”

At least that was sincere. Feeling the sincerity, Kaella quickly replied and shook her head.

A man who had surely plucked out his own eyes several times wouldn’t hesitate to pluck out others’ eyes. She aimlessly moved her steps towards the outside that Peon had blocked off. So he had no choice but to open the surroundings again.

“Why? When you hate it so much. Aren’t you angry?”

You hate it, don’t you? You resent it, don’t you? You should take revenge. The one standing at the pinnacle of that revenge kept whispering for her to stab him.

“Your Majesty. If you want to commit suicide, use that poison you took.”

“I told you I threw it away. And I don’t want to commit suicide, I want to be killed by your hands.”

“I won’t do such a thing. I don’t know how.”

“Shall I teach you?”

“No.”

“You could let someone else kill me.”

“I don’t want that either.”

Peon walked alongside her again. In spring, people were much busier than in winter, so there was hardly anyone left indoors. Everyone had gone out to work, so the Grand Duke and Duchess crossed the hall alone.

“It sounds like you want me to live.”

“Yes, that’s right. Live.”

Kaella spoke dryly as she stopped walking. Strangely, Peon stopped with her. As if walking together with her was that important.

“You didn’t let me die either, so why are you trying to die, Your Majesty?”

Her upturned eyes were full of resentment. Peon barely found the suppressed anger among that resentment. He was glad to find it.

“You should live too, Your Majesty.”

“Okay.”

The empty blue eyes rippled.

“Live and endure.”

This painful life had to be endured. If it was so painful and difficult, all the more reason.

“Alright.”

He nodded. Since Kaella told him to do so, he changed his decision as easily as flipping his palm. The man who had solemnly answered as if obeying an absolute order suddenly realized. A chilling light flashed in his purple eyes.

“You, that’s why you asked to spare Doris Windgood.”

The man who had brought back and killed the exiled former head maid nodded.

“If you had been conscious, you would have asked to spare Rolf Anderson too.”

It wasn’t a question that needed an answer. He was certain.

“I see. Death is a blessing to you, not a punishment.”

He muttered as if confirming. Then, he chuckled. In an instant, the already chilly hall grew darker. The temperature dropped sharply and a cold air rushed in, but strangely, Kaella didn’t feel the cold. It was a comfortable darkness.

“So that’s why you were trying to die.”

He didn’t allow death to those who tormented her. Because it was her most desired wish. He understood what she meant. Peon nodded.

“Then live with me, Kaella.”

Peon murmured with a sad face that seemed too sorrowful to be incomprehensible madness.

“At least it won’t be boring.”

The surroundings brightened a little again. Even so, the hall was originally dark, so it was just a matter of the shadows becoming slightly lighter from their previous intensity.

“Let’s go, Kaella.”

As if intending to immediately keep his promise of not letting things be boring, Peon jerked his head slightly.

“We’ve already walked around the castle once. We’ve finished our walk.”

“We’ve only come down the stairs, Your Highness.”

Peon laughed shortly as if dumbfounded and pulled her hand.

“You’re curious why people are greeting you, right? Let’s go see why.”

“I’m not curious.”

“Then let’s go see even if you’re not curious.”

The man who had always been reticent and tried not to converse with her more than necessary became talkative again, but only with her. Just like her kind older brother when she was young.

Come on, stop it, Kaella. Just go with your brother. Hold my hand. Let’s go.

A forgotten memory settled onto the hand that had grown larger and more calloused.