I leaned against the window and gazed down at the garden for a while, eventually stepping outside alone.

Days with the sun shining well in the northern region were rare, so my heart was excited from the start.

The midday sun was blazing down on the dark garden.

I strolled through the garden alone for a while like that.

As a habit, I approached the ‘Gift from the Demon King’ flower bed and touched the purple petals. Startled, I recoiled.

“W-What is this?”

It was a fearsome Northern King Bee from its name.

It, about the size of a thumbnail, hid behind a flower petal and suddenly attacked me aggressively.

True to its name, the creature looked threatening from its appearance.

“N-No… Ugh!”

A scream burst out involuntarily.

I would rather deal with a straw doll with no eyes, insects were genuinely terrifying.

I screamed continuously, waving my arms frantically.

Then, suddenly, the gatekeeper servant who stood in front of the entrance to the Dark Mansion rushed to my side.

He looked to be in his early twenties with a youthful appearance.

“Your Excellency, what’s going on!”

“B-Bee… A really big king bee…!”

I couldn’t even articulate my words properly.

How much did I wave my arms frantically with a bluish face?

The gatekeeper servant suddenly grabbed my both arms and gently whispered as if giving a warning.

“Right now, the creature is sitting on Your Excellency’s hair.”

“What? On my hair?!”

“Hush. I will remove it, so please wait a moment, Your Excellency.”

“Ugh…”

Holding my trembling hands, I tightly closed my eyes, and he cautiously approached.

At that moment, as the two got closer.

Thud!

Suddenly, a sound echoed, and my eyes widened.

“Did you catch it?”

But when I hurriedly looked up, the unexpected person stood there.

“…Cedric?”

Cedric, who appeared out of nowhere, stood there glaring at the servant while firmly gripping his wrist.

“Why are you trying to touch the Duchess with ill intentions?”

In Cedric’s voice, there was even a sense of killing intent.

As the chill in his blue eyes gradually deepened, the servant’s complexion turned pale and contemplative.

“Yo-Your Grace…!”

The servant trembled in fear, his cheeks shaking.

As he slowly spread the hand that Cedric had been holding, the lifeless body of the bee fell with a thud.

“I-I just… I was just trying to remove the bee that stuck to Your Excellency…”

The servant stammered, but Cedric continued to scrutinize him with a guarded expression.

Then, for some reason, as if something else didn’t please him, Cedric tightened his grip on the servant’s wrist once again.

“Ugh…!”

As the servant’s face contorted in pain, I quickly stepped forward.

“That’s right, Cedric! I was enjoying the flowers, and suddenly, a really big bee appeared.”

“…”

“So, this person helped me when I was surprised!”

I tried to explain, attempting to separate Cedric and the servant.
Cedric, for a while, glared at the servant while grinding his teeth, then abruptly withdrew his rough hand and stepped back.

“So, the discomfort I’ve been feeling lately was real.”

Only then did Cedric properly look at his face.

Perhaps due to the darkened area below his eyes, Cedric’s sharp eyes, already piercing, took on an even more edgy and decadent impression.

After gazing at his familiar yet unfamiliar face for a moment, I slowly parted my lips.

“Have you been going through something unpleasant lately?”

Cedric looked at me in silence for a while.

Unlike his tightly sealed lips, numerous words flashed through his blue eyes.

“…Yes, I have.”

“…”

“But fortunately, I felt a bit better just a while ago.”

Cedric’s gaze, having spoken those words, didn’t leave my face for a while.

For quite some time. Cedric turned his attention back to the servant.

With his lips new, the voice, now colder compared to before, flowed out.

“Then, I saw ‘someone’ again, and I felt uncomfortable once more.”

As he finished speaking, the servant’s cheeks trembled.

“I-I was just trying to help Your Excellency…”

The servant instinctively seemed to realize that ‘someone’ meant him.

Cedric’s lips, looking down at him like that, curled up mockingly.

“Oh, really? You were trying to help the Duchess…”

“…”

“I should give you a reward for being so grateful.”

A languid yet threatening attitude, as if hunting herbivores like a predator.

Cedric, after a while, without letting go of the servant’s wrist, spoke forcefully.

“Come with me to the office right now.”

The air in the office became even colder than before.

The source of that atmosphere, Cedric, sat at the desk and coldly flipped through the documents.

One by one.

Every time Cedric leisurely flipped through the papers, the shoulders of the gatekeeper servant standing in front of him shivered.

“You’re from the Jenova region of the Demon World?”

“Yes…? Oh, yes! Yes!”

The gatekeeper servant hastily answered.

Cedric glanced at him over the top of the document file and furrowed his brow.

He wasn’t interested in the personal information of a mere gatekeeper servant.