Clasping her comforting arm, Klaus gazed intently, causing Roselia to blush and turn her head.

“Sorry, I, I apologize. I haven’t mastered control yet. I’ll try my best.”

With her blushing cheeks, Klaus’s gaze intensified, and he remarked, “You don’t need to make an effort in front of me.”

Confused by Klaus’s comment, Roselia looked up with a puzzled expression, asking, “What?”

The atmosphere between them became static, and Klaus’s deep indigo eyes, like the night sky, seemed to envelop her. Only the rough sound of uncertain breaths echoed in the carriage, with no indication of whose it was.

Then, the coachman’s voice broke the silence, “We’ve arrived.”

Startled, Roselia regained her composure, coughed, and said, “Um, I’ll get off first.”

In a hurry, she opened the carriage door and descended. However, Klaus, leaning back in the carriage as if drained, let out a deep sigh.

His gaze, as if pulled back like a magnet, lingered on Roselia’s retreating figure.

Unaware of his sudden honest words, Roselia nodded with a composed expression.

In the mahogany-furnished dim room, only the moonlight seeping through the partially opened glass window dimly illuminated the surroundings.

The furrow between the Duke Rubellio’s brows suddenly deepened as he seemed lost in contemplation, sitting with his eyes closed.

Approaching him, the black-clad figure was Antonio, disturbing the Duke’s contemplation.

Sensing the Duke’s troubled state, the figure lowered his head with tension.

“Antonio has returned.”

The Duke’s expression, which seemed unable to grow any darker, contorted harshly at the mention of Antonio.

“Bring him here.”

At the Duke’s call, the attendants, who had entered the study after receiving the signal, dragged Antonio inside.

With his arms restrained by the black-robed figures, Antonio, appearing terrified, wandered around before spotting the Duke and began lamenting.

“My, my lord! I’ve done everything you asked! I’ve exposed that Roselia is a woman to the Marquis!”

The Duke’s expression was incredibly inscrutable when looking down at Antonio.

According to the Duke’s reports, the Marquis already knew Roselia’s true identity. However, the Duke couldn’t hide the disgust on his face as Antonio, seemingly aware of the truth, falsely reported the matter.

Due to the dimly lit room, Antonio couldn’t properly discern the Duke’s expression. Oblivious to this, he crawled toward the Duke, still groveling.

“So, about the promised reward…”

Staring at Antonio acting like a whipped dog, the Duke coldly uttered a single word, “Scum.”

“What?”
“If you were to die, it would be better to die gracefully on the street than crawling all the way here like a beggar.”

Finally realizing that something was amiss with the Duke’s atmosphere, Antonio cautiously opened his mouth while glancing around.

“A beggar…”

In an instant, the voice he heard when the Marquis tried to kill him echoed in his mind.

The voice that cried out that he would be helpless if the Duke killed him.

Now realizing that he had brought trouble from the Marquis to the Duke, Antonio, with a haggard face, prostrated himself.

“I-I… I didn’t know! I just ran away to survive…”

“Wouldn’t it have been better to die right there without trying to survive?”

The Duke’s voice was excessively indifferent as he uttered, “You would have died with less pain.”

Bewildered by the Duke’s dry and emotionless words, Antonio mumbled, “What…?”

“Take him away and deal with him.”

With a nonchalant tone, as if telling someone to remove an obstructing object, the Duke, still indifferent, spoke to the attendant standing by his side.

“The shadow of the Marquis.”

“He concealed his traces near the mansion.”

Hearing the attendant’s report, the Duke, gripping the glass tumbler he held, squeezed it tightly.

“Damn, I shouldn’t have trusted such a wretched guy!”

Unable to contain his anger any longer, he forcefully threw the glass tumbler, which shattered with a loud noise upon hitting the wall.

Seeming displeased with the recurring incidents, the Duke, breathing heavily, suddenly focused on the glass shards scattered on the floor.

“Hold on…”

Bending down slowly, he picked up a glass shard in his hand and murmured as if speaking to himself.

“If I can’t handle that woman with my own hands, can’t I borrow someone else’s? I’ve been thinking too hard.”

Looking at the sharp glass shard, he chuckled and laughed quietly, not paying attention to the attendant nearby.

Amidst their consolation, the screams of Antonio, emanating from the underground of the mansion, reverberated like a newly emerged echo.

Sitting by the window and reading a book, Roselia, trying to ignore it, coughed awkwardly at Klaus’s uncomfortable gaze.

“Um… Is it okay for me to leave now?”

“It hasn’t been an hour yet.”

With Klaus’s indifferent response, Roselia sighed and lowered her gaze back to the book she was holding.