“But I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to put the woman I had in mind in trouble with my own hands.”

“… What!”

“W-Woman you have in mind! … Could it be!”

The nobles exchanged glances in surprise. As they tried to press him again, Elliot shook his head stubbornly. Then he started walking again and spoke.

“Don’t worry. This will be the last time I mess things up with my personal feelings. I’ll take responsibility for stopping this imperial marriage of the princess.”

“… Duke.”

“Then I’ll take my leave first.”

Elliot crossed the hallway, leaving behind the nobles who were staring at him with astonished expressions.

Just as he reached the end of the hallway, Elliot encountered Duke Yusten standing by the pillar at the end.

It seemed he had been waiting for Elliot and had overheard his conversation with the nobles. Duke Yusten greeted Elliot with an exaggerated smile.

“Oh my! If it isn’t Duke Haven!”

Elliot snorted and said:

“Cut the fake greetings and get to the point, Duke Yusten. Why were you waiting for me here?”

At those words, Duke Yusten’s smiling face froze awkwardly. Then, trying to compose himself, he opened his mouth.

“Haha. No need to be so guarded, Duke Haven. I simply wanted to thank you for providing a good compromise. Then by chance, I happened to overhear your conversation with those nobles.”

Elliot stared expressionlessly at the duke who was rambling on. It was obvious that his purpose was not merely to offer “thanks”. He clearly wanted to probe for something.

Sure enough, Duke Yusten spoke with a sly smile.

“You had quite an interesting conversation with those nobles. … ‘I didn’t want to put the woman I had in mind in trouble with my own hands.’ Hearing that made me prick up my ears, thinking the recent rumors in high society might be true.”

“… So, what is it you want to say to me?”

Elliot asked bluntly, getting annoyed by the duke’s roundabout way of speaking. Duke Yusten responded as if he had been waiting for this.

“If I may be so bold, could I ask who this lucky woman is who has captured Your Grace’s heart?”

“…”

“Perhaps this person you have in mind, could it be the daughter of a family I know well?”

The duke’s eyes glinted with a strange light as he asked.

Elliot easily discerned the intention behind the duke’s gaze and questions. Duke Yusten was trying to probe him right now. Elliot deliberately remained silent. Seeming impatient at his reaction, Duke Yusten questioned Elliot again.

“I don’t have any ill intentions in asking. If the empire’s best catch like yourself were to be paired with one of my close associates’ daughters, what could be more joyous? … However, what I fear … is that you might be using that child to stab me and Duke Klein in the back cowardly. That’s all.”

“…”

“Surely you’re not approaching the daughters of my close associates to plot such a cowardly act…”

Duke Yusten deliberately trailed off. Elliot inwardly scoffed. It was just as she, Christine, had said.

‘She said we couldn’t just rely on Duke Yusten’s trust and let our guard down. She was right.’

Elliot marveled once again at her insight. Her guesses and predictions were so consistently accurate that he wondered if she might be glimpsing the future through some forbidden magic.

Not wanting to fall short of her, he intended to faithfully carry out the plan they had set in advance. Elliot answered the duke’s words in a seemingly indifferent but passionate voice:

“Don’t worry. It’s just my unrequited love.”

“… Pardon?”

Duke Yusten’s eyes widened in surprise at Elliot’s answer. The duke pretended to be awkward, avoiding eye contact as he spoke.

“I deeply like that person, but she keeps rejecting my courtship. That’s all there is to it.”

“… Th-That’s… Impossible… You’re in unrequited love, Your Grace?”

The duke asked in bewilderment. And for good reason. Countless women had approached Elliot before, but he had never spared a glance for any of them. He always pushed them away with harsh words, saying he had a mission he must accomplish and had staked his life on it, so he had no room to open his heart to anyone.

But now, unrequited love? And for a woman connected to his rivals Duke Yusten and Duke Klein?

He made a choice that could endanger Princess Ella, to whom he had sworn lifelong loyalty, because of unrequited love for her?

Duke Yusten found it hard to believe. There must be some scheme behind this. The duke pressed Elliot again.

“Wh-Who on earth is this person?”

“Do I have any obligation to answer that to you?”

Elliot asked coldly. The duke bit his lower lip once, then questioned again.

“What’s there to hide? It’s not like I’m going to harm the lady. I don’t understand why you’re being so defensive… It makes me suspicious that you might have feelings for someone inappropriate.”

The duke added mockingly. Elliot snorted and said:

“I have nothing to be ashamed of in my heart. If possible, I could kneel before her and confess these feelings in front of all the nobles in high society. I just can’t do that because it might trouble her.”

“Trouble her…? What do you mean?”

“It’s not a crime to be in unrequited love with a woman who has a fiancé, is it?”

Elliot said, looking straight at Duke Yusten as if driving in a wedge. Hearing his words, Duke Yusten’s mouth fell open in shock and surprise.

Elliot turned his back on him without hesitation and walked out to the garden. There, maids who had been eavesdropping on his conversation with the duke scattered in all directions, pretending to be busy. Elliot found the sight amusing and laughed with a deflating sound.

Having dropped such blatant hints, for a while everyone in high society would be gossiping about him and that “woman with a fiancé”.

Anticipating the commotion and events to follow, he felt somewhat excited. Elliot hurried his steps out of the palace.

As Elliot had anticipated, the rumors spread quickly like wildfire across a dry field.

The nobles who had been speculating about who received the brooch from Duke Haven were now buzzing with curiosity about the identity of the “lady with a fiancé from a family aligned with Duke Yusten and Duke Klein’s faction”.

Of course, these noisy rumors also reached the Klein ducal house.

Leonard, who was catching up on backed-up work to help his father who had resumed political activities, glared at the spy who was reporting and said:

“Did that bastard Haven really say that?”

“… Yes, he did. Right now the nobles are throwing around all sorts of guesses about who it might be. Some say it’s Lady Evelyn, the second daughter of Count Charrington, others say it’s not her but Lady Gwen, the eldest daughter of Baron Deven, opinions are divided but…”

“Don’t trail off, speak clearly. So?”

The spy hesitated, then carefully opened his mouth.

“… According to what my informants have gathered, the woman in the rumors is believed to be Your Lordship’s fiancée, Lady Christine Sapiel Yusten.”

“… What? Who did you say?”

Leonard asked sharply. Intimidated by Leonard’s fierce glare and furrowed brow, the spy hastily added:

“O-Of course, nothing is certain yet! I just wanted you to know that this is what my informants are speculating.”

“… Tch, from now on, don’t report to me unless you have confirmed information. You know what I’ll do to you if I act on your baseless speculation and mess things up, don’t you?”

“… I’ll be more careful next time.”

“You may go.”

Leonard coldly dismissed the spy. Once he left the office, Leonard threw down the quill he was holding in irritation.

“… Damn it.”

He cursed under his breath, his face still twisted in an ugly expression. His mood had been decent before the report, but hearing that Christine might be the subject of the rumors made uncontrollable anger surge up.

Leonard recalled in his mind the scene he had witnessed at the Emperor’s birthday celebration – Haven kissing Christine’s hand, calling her as beautiful as a rose on a spring night, and her shy response.

Roughly messing up his neatly combed hair with one hand, Leonard muttered to himself:

“Damn! I thought that bastard’s eyes looked strange then… Come to think of it, that bastard showed up uninvited to Viscount Miles’ daughter’s birthday party and said some weird things. Don’t tell me he came to meet Christine then too? Damn it!”

Leonard slammed his fist on the desk. The seed of doubt planted by the spy’s words grew larger the more he thought about it. Now that he reflected on it, all of the duke’s actions that he had dismissed as insignificant at the time bothered him – the way the duke looked at Christine, his gestures, his affectionate attitude.

No matter how he looked at it, those were the actions of a man in love, but blinded by Danae’s charms, he had overlooked it.

While berating himself for being so careless, Leonard burned with intense jealousy towards Duke Haven.

“… That vile bastard. How dare he set his eyes on my fiancée? Christine is mine. She’s my woman.”