“Ah, Your Highness!”

“Have you arrived?”

Wherever she went, there were many who welcomed Kaella rather than Peon. It was strange. She had driven out the head maid and even the butler, so Kaella should have been treated as a rolling stone trying to dislodge an embedded stone in Lüsenford by now.

“What’s so surprising?”

She hadn’t said anything and barely changed her expression. But Peon, who was studying her face, chuckled.

“Why are these people so friendly? I didn’t do anything, why? That’s the kind of expression you have.”

“It’s because the head maid and butler were all driven out because of me.”

She hadn’t done nothing. She had only done things that the people of Lüsenford disliked.

“Ah. That. There were some rumors.”

In one corner of Lüsenford, there were whispers here and there about how the Grand Duke had terribly dealt with those including the former head maid and butler.

There were complaints that the Grand Duke had bowed too quickly to handle the matter, thinking of Ostain’s gold.

“That I’m too considerate of my father-in-law.”

Kaella looked up at the man who was unlikely to do such a thing.

“It’s obvious who said such things.”

Those who wanted much from Peon. People who wanted to raise their voices more in this region. Yet they had the audacious dream of visiting Kraine once, so they tried to make connections with Kraine too. They were all the same.

Kaella recalled the nobles who had been specifically named and drafted by Peon when the battle with the allied foreign tribes took place at Fort Pueten, only to end up dying in battle.

They were typical examples. They were the ones who pretended not to notice but actually forced her to eat when Kaella collapsed after eating Perenco.

“But our emperor was in such a good mood.”

This was news to her.

“So, he said I handled the attempted poisoning of the Grand Duchess very well and told me to take care of the rest of the punishment as I see fit?”

So he let it slide and quelled the complaints.

“So I confiscated their property and stripped them of their titles.”

I see. Kaella nodded quietly, but after taking two steps, her eyes widened belatedly and she lifted her head sharply. Wait, so those families all had their heads die, their property confiscated, and their titles stripped?

Peon, who had been waiting for her to react, burst into laughter. As the clear laughter echoed through the castle, people reflexively turned their heads to look in the direction of the sound.

The tall Grand Duke was grabbing the face of the petite Grand Duchess and kissing her wildly… um, let’s not look. People smiled warmly and turned their heads away again.

“Your Highness, people are watching…!”

“I’m big and you’re small. It’s all covered up.”

While saying something nonsensical, or rather, somewhat sensible, Peon kissed Kaella’s cheek once more. He couldn’t help it because she was too pretty.

“You should maintain your dignity.”

“What dignity for a bastard and mongrel.”

Kaella looked around at the sarcastic remark and lowered her voice a bit more.

“Your father is here. Don’t say such things.”

“Ah. Are you threatening me?”

“No.”

“Then are you going to hide the fact that I have a father?”

What nonsense. Is it because he’s a dragon? Kaella felt her mouth hurt a little. Come to think of it, she had been talking to him much more than necessary ever since the day Peon came to ask for forgiveness.

“We’re partners in crime.”

Peon pressed his forehead against Kaella’s, who no longer bothered to respond, and smiled for some reason. He wasn’t like this.

He had never shown such affection even to Beatrice whom he liked so much, never been close to any woman, and rarely talked much with anyone.

So the current Peon was not in his right mind. That much was certain. Because he wasn’t in his right mind, he didn’t kill her. And he slaughtered the native nobles of Lüsenford. Everything was rolling along strangely.

“Ah, have you two come out?”

Just then, Lord Renard, who could butt in with good humor, approached. A very delicious food smell wafted through the door he had closed behind him. It wasn’t mealtime yet.

“Have you come to see the kitchen renovation? Ah, Your Highness hasn’t seen it yet. It’s very clean and splendid.”

Lord Renard grinned and went back the way he came. Come to think of it, the walls around here were new bricks, and the stairs were wide.

The kitchen, which had been completely redone from the entrance, was full of busy sounds as soon as the door was opened. Chefs were working in the kitchen visible over there, and on this side was a spacious dining hall.

Clean and sturdy tables were lined up in the dining hall. Most were empty, but some showed knights having late meals. They were just now catching up on their meals after digesting the events happening in Lüsenford.

“You need to chop all the onions! Yes, that needs to be sautéed for a long time. Sauté until your arms fall off.”

The head chef with enormous forearms was giving instructions to the cooks in a booming voice. Meanwhile, he was even teaching a suspiciously young and skinny girl how to peel onions, as if it was doubtful how she had gotten in.

“Do it slowly as I taught you. When you’re done peeling, wash your hands and come back. Don’t rub your eyes. It’ll sting.”

The gruff-speaking head chef’s eyes widened when he saw Lord Renard waving his hand and the Grand Duke couple standing behind him.

“My, what brings you here?”

He hurriedly ran over and bowed. The knights who had already noticed them also stood up abruptly, interrupting their meals. Peon waved his hand dismissively.

“My wife has recovered enough to come down to the kitchen, so we came to show her the renovations. Don’t mind us and continue with your work.”

“Has she recovered a lot? That’s wonderful!”

Kaella looked curiously at how this giant’s face brightened so much. His voice was so loud that even the cooks standing behind him, who had been awkwardly standing and bowing, also brightened their expressions along with his words.

“We are so grateful. You don’t know how worried everyone here was, Your Highness.”

“Thank you.”

This kind of reaction was new, and although she wasn’t sure what to say, Kaella responded as the lady of the house.

“Thank you for taking care of the kitchen renovation. Thanks to Your Highness’s careful attention to every detail, we now have a very proper kitchen. You’d be hard-pressed to find such a spacious and clean kitchen anywhere else in the empire.”

The head chef took the opportunity to show them around, encouraging them to take a look. Large windows had even been installed in the cramped, smelly, poorly ventilated kitchen.

The butler had said as soon as he saw the blueprints that it was a waste to put windows in the kitchen and dining hall used by the castle people when it wasn’t even for decoration. Of course, Lord Renard had told Kaella this.

“Your Highness said it was important to eat meals in the sunlight. That’s right. Why would anyone pack a lunch to go out when the weather gets warm?”

Did I say such a thing? Kaella had never said that. As she tilted her head in confusion, her eyes met Peon’s. Standing a step away to let her freely inspect the new kitchen facilities, he seemed to know something.

“It’s so nice to be able to use clean water right away. Your Highness said not to place limits on food purchases, so we’ve fully stocked the pantry.”

“These days, every single dish that comes out of the kitchen is delicious, Your Highness.”

Lord Renard added. When the head chef changed, the previously unappetizing food completely transformed.

Once the kitchen renovation and dining hall expansion were completed, they could eat their fill of flavorful, delicious, and even fragrantly enticing food in a pleasant environment. That was extremely important to everyone.

When knights who had finished training buried their faces in their bowls and ate frantically, the generous head chef would laugh heartily and heap more food onto their plates, saying there was plenty so they should eat a lot.

Not only that. Unlike before when only three meals a day were provided, now there were snacks too, and anyone who was hungry could stop by the kitchen for some refreshments. Right next to the serving counter was a basket piled high with large loaves of bread.

The girl peeling onions would occasionally steal glances at that bread. That bread wouldn’t be hard, but soft. Just by looking, you could tell it was white bread with lots of butter.

Only the naval base in Ostain or the emperor’s knights were fed white bread. Lüsenford’s finances had certainly become strangely abundant.

Not only that. If the knights had to go on patrol or briefly visit an outer fortress, the head chef would always pack lunches and hand them a basket.

“Your Highness especially said to feed the knights well.”

The head chef, who didn’t skimp on ingredients and used a variety of ingredients and spices that the people of Lüsenford Castle had never experienced before, never failed to mention the Grand Duchess with a grin when handing out lunchboxes.

“When I receive that basket, I don’t know how to repay the grace I’ve received from Your Highness…”

“Repay it with your life.”

As Kaella gradually turned red at Lord Renard’s half-fawning, half-sincere praise that kept flowing, Peon cut him off appropriately.

“Ah, of course. In fact, I’m not the only one grateful in this castle.”

It wasn’t just that proper meals were now provided. Darinka, appointed as the Grand Duchess’s personal physician, not only took care of the Grand Duchess but also made medicine and took good care of the sick in her spare time, examining anyone.

In this place where doctors and medicine were scarce, even the children of poor laundresses and stable hands were examined. As a result, many people became healthier. The fact that there was an abundance of goodwill in the castle also meant that everyone had more leisure.

It hadn’t been long since the war with the allied foreign tribes, and there had been another friction with the evil dragon, but unlike before, everyone treated each other with smiling faces and generosity. Even if mistakes were made, they were understood and overlooked.

With the abundance, even the eyes looking at the Ostain-born maids and the Grand Duchess, who had been ostracized as foreigners, became much softer. Above all, as everything they ate, wore, and used became more plentiful, people were full of gratitude, thinking it was all thanks to Her Highness.

That’s why everyone they met on the way here bowed their heads in gratitude.

“It wasn’t me who did it, but the Grand Duke.”

How would Kaella, who had drunk poison herself and been bedridden all along, know? She was involved in the early stages of construction, but the finishing touches were something she knew nothing about.

“I just did as my wife told me to.”

Peon simply passed the credit that came back to him to her again. Did as she told him to? There was no such thing. Kaella looked at the shiny faucets and baskets full of fresh ingredients.

It was the kitchen she had dreamed of before her regression. It was the image of the kitchen she had been actively voicing her opinions on and trying to include in the expansion plans. Peon must have remembered that plan from back then.

“Ah, just a moment.”

The head chef excused himself and approached the child who had already peeled five onions and washed her hands. Then he cut some white bread and made a sandwich with ham, onions, and apple. The child began to eat the sandwich ravenously.

“I apologize. She’s an orphan who was caught trying to steal food.”

“I heard about it.”

Peon nodded, speaking as if he knew about it.

“She lives outside the castle, but I thought we shouldn’t just leave her like that, so I’m trying to teach her some cooking. There needs to be an adult to teach her that hard work is rewarded.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“It’s all thanks to the care of Your Highnesses. In that old kitchen, with the old budget, oh my, it would have been unimaginable.”

The head chef, who had been appointed after several changes following Kaella’s collapse from eating Perenco, shook his head as he recalled the fights over budget with the dead butler and the terrible state of the kitchen.

While doing so, he asked Kaella in detail if there were any special foods she wanted, and how the meals being sent up separately these days were. As Kaella said it was fine, Peon added a word.

“We’ll be ordering goods from Ostain soon, so make sure to include ingredients for dishes my wife wants to eat in the order.”

“Ah, yes. I’ll make sure to do that, Your Highness.”

The head chef bowed, unable to hide the joy on his face.

Having no choice but to mention a couple of foods that came to mind, Kaella took one last look at the child who was now receiving a glass of milk while ravenously eating the sandwich, before leaving the kitchen.

“We’ve started the expansion too. The main work will begin a bit later though.”

Why is that? Because it’s spring and there’s a shortage of workers?

“Because it would be noisy while you’re resting.”

Kaella stared at Peon for a moment before looking at her reflection in the newly installed window.

The woman in the window was unpleasantly thin and looking at her blankly. She looked unappealing and desolate. But she didn’t know how he had guessed what she was thinking.

“By any chance.”

Lord Renard didn’t follow. The Grand Duchess didn’t need an escort knight right now.

Because the strongest being in Lüsenford, no, honestly in the entire Krania Empire, was protecting her. That being bent down to match the rhythm of the Grand Duchess who was looking up at him and whispering softly.

“Yes?”

Peon wasn’t a person who smiled often. In fact, he rarely smiled because there were few occasions to smile. He only smiled occasionally when seeing his mother.

But in front of Kaella, he grinned like someone who had a screw loose. She only did cute things, how could he not smile?

“Can dragons read people’s minds too?”

“If they could, would my father have been so blatantly deceived by the emperor?”

Ah, is that so. He was deceived. Kaella was about to nod and say “Ah,” but stopped abruptly and widened her eyes again. That’s what’s cute, you see.

“Then how do you know all my thoughts?”

Ah. He just wanted to drag her to bed. Peon momentarily suppressed the simmering heat. Kaella was excessively cute to the point of triggering such violent impulses.

“It’s because I’m very interested in you.”

And when he says such things, she faces him with eyes that have quickly turned cold. Is it disbelief? Or reproach for why he’s doing this now? Or perhaps, disgust?

At first, Peon tried to find something. Even knowing it wasn’t there, he couldn’t accept it and tried to find it. He even thought he’d plant it if it wasn’t there.

But now, instead of looking for it or planting it, he just kissed her forehead.

Kaella doesn’t frown or resist saying she dislikes it. She just stays still, as if thinking, “I suppose that’s how it is.”

“Kaella.”

Peon instinctively knew. This woman would only drive him mad. Not the Grand Duke of Lüsenford, not a dragon, but a being steeped in madness and running wild.

“Let’s look around more.”

Even that was welcome. He wanted to be influenced, swayed, and colored by Kaella in that way, to be eternally mixed together. After all, all that remained for him was an endless void.