I leaned against the window, gazing down at the garden for a while before finally venturing out alone.

Such sunny days were rare in the north, which lifted my spirits.

The afternoon sun spread widely across the dark garden.

I strolled alone through the garden for some time.

Habitually approaching the ‘Demon King’s Gift’ flower bed, I was touching the purple petals when I suddenly jumped back in surprise.

“W-What is this?”

It was the terrifying northern giant bee.

About the size of a thumbnail, it had been hiding among the petals and suddenly started aggressively charging at me.

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

“N-No… Ahhhh!”

A scream burst out involuntarily.

Insects were my absolute weakness – I’d rather face a faceless straw doll.

I waved my arms frantically while screaming continuously.

Soon, the gatekeeper servant who had been standing in front of the Dark Mansion’s main entrance came running breathlessly to my side.

He appeared to be a young man in his early twenties with a youthful impression.

“Your Highness, what’s the matter!”

“B-Bee… A huge queen bee…!”

I could barely string the words together.

How long had I been waving my arms, pale with fright?

The gatekeeper servant suddenly grabbed both my arms, lowering them, and whispered softly as if in warning.

“It’s sitting on top of Your Highness’s hair right now.”

“What? On my head?!”

“Shh. I’ll remove it, so please wait a moment, Your Highness.”

“Mmm…”

I tightly closed my eyes while trying to clasp my trembling hands, and he began to approach me cautiously.

As the distance between the two of us gradually closed, at that moment.

Thwack—!

My eyes flew open at the sudden sound.

“Did you catch it?”

However, when I hurriedly looked up, I was faced with an unexpected figure.

“…Cedric?”

Cedric, who had appeared at some point, was standing there glaring at the servant while gripping his wrist firmly.

“For what reason were you trying to touch the Duchess?”

Cedric’s voice as he asked this was laced with murderous intent.

As the chill in his blue eyes gradually intensified, the servant’s face turned ashen.

“Y-Your Grace the Duke…!”

The servant trembled, his cheeks quivering with fear.

As he slowly opened his hand that had been caught by Cedric, the dead bee’s corpse fell with a plop.

“I-I was just… trying to remove the bee that was on Her Highness…”

The servant stuttered out his words with difficulty.

However, Cedric merely continued to scrutinize him with an expression full of wariness.

Then, as if something else displeased him, he tightened his grip on the servant’s wrist once more.

“Ugh…!”

Seeing the servant’s pained face, I hurriedly stepped forward.

“That’s right, Cedric! I was looking at flowers when suddenly a huge bee appeared.”

“…”

“And this person was helping me because I was startled!”

I said, trying to separate Cedric and the servant.

Cedric glared at the servant for a while, grinding his teeth, before roughly withdrawing his hand and taking a step back.

‘I heard he’s been in a bad mood lately, I guess it’s true.’

Only then did I properly look at Cedric’s face.

Perhaps due to the darkening under his eyes, his already fierce gaze seemed even sharper, giving off a somewhat decadent impression.

I stared blankly at his face, both familiar yet unfamiliar.

After a moment, I slowly parted my lips.

“Have you been having some unpleasant experiences lately?”

Cedric looked at me silently for a while.

Despite his tightly closed lips, countless words seemed to flit through his blue eyes.

“…I had been.”

“…”

“But fortunately, my mood improved a little just now.”

As he said this, Cedric’s gaze lingered on my face for a long time.

After quite a while, Cedric turned his eyes back to the servant.

From between his lips came a voice incomparably colder than before.

“Then I saw ‘someone’ and became irritated again.”

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

“I-I was just… trying to help Her Highness…”

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

The corners of Cedric’s lips curled up maliciously as he looked down at him.

“Ah, is that so? You were trying to help the Duchess…”

“…”

“I feel like I should give you a reward, I’m so grateful.”

His attitude was languid yet threatening, like a predator eyeing its herbivorous prey.

Cedric finally broke the suffocating silence and spoke firmly.

“Follow me to my office right now.”

The atmosphere in the office had grown even chillier than before.

The source of that atmosphere, Cedric, sat at his desk with a coldly hardened face, continuously flipping through documents.

One page, then another.

Each time Cedric leisurely turned a page, the gatekeeper servant standing before him flinched.

“You’re from the Jenova region of the demon realm?”

“Yes…? Ah, yes! Yes!”

The gatekeeper servant hastily replied.

Cedric glanced at him over the file and frowned.

The personal details of a mere gatekeeper servant shouldn’t have been of interest to him.

It certainly wasn’t important enough to personally summon him to the office to inquire about.

However, Cedric’s mood was thoroughly twisted right now.

To the point where he wanted to needlessly pressure the servant by asking useless questions.

Thwack—.

Cedric closed the file as if he had seen enough and raised his head to look over the servant again.

Under normal circumstances, he would have been a man with an unremarkable impression… or rather, bordering on plain.

However, now, to Cedric wearing the glasses of jealousy, he appeared to be quite handsome.

His rustic impression transformed into a youthful boyishness, and the red freckles covering his cheeks became a charming point emphasizing his freshness and vitality.

‘Rebecca said her tastes had changed. Is this the type of man she likes now….’

As that thought occurred to him, the servant standing before him became even more unpleasant to look at.

Glaring at the servant with eyes full of wariness, Cedric secretly ground his teeth.

“You should be transferred to the townhouse in the capital.”

“What? Your Grace, w-why!”

At that moment, the servant felt his hair stand on end.

Being reassigned to the townhouse where the Twins family didn’t reside meant ‘demotion’ among the servants.

“Whatever I did wrong, please… please just let me stay in the Duke’s castle, Your Grace!”

The gatekeeper servant’s expression became even more desperate.

However, seeing this, Cedric only set his jaw even more firmly.

“Why must it be here?”

“Th-That’s obviously…”

“Is there someone you want to keep seeing here?”

“What? Someone I want to keep seeing, what do you mean by that…”

At that moment, as Rebecca’s face flashed in his mind, Cedric unknowingly ground his teeth again.

“How dare you try to take from me…”

Cedric’s sinister muttering suddenly stopped.

He had almost blurted out ‘How dare you try to take Rebecca from me.’

Cedric remained silent for a while, shocked at himself.

‘Why am I acting like this?’

After a long moment, a faint crease gradually appeared between his brows.

It was because the image of Rebecca in the past, losing her reason and raging, flashed through his mind.

‘How dare you try to take the Duke from me? What right do you have to always be by Cedric’s side!’
‘Fire that wench right now, right this instant!’

Jealousy boiling like lava, possessiveness that couldn’t be suppressed by reason.

And the extreme obsession resulting from it.

Cedric couldn’t deny that his current self and Rebecca from the past were like mirror images of each other.

“…”

He lowered his head for a moment, showing a flustered expression.

Was his current state due to the imprinting, or…

‘Rebecca, because of her?’

Even in that fleeting moment when Rebecca’s name crossed his mind, the thought of wanting to see her face flashed by.

‘Whatever the cause, it’s clear I’ve gone completely mad.’

Cedric self-deprecatingly mused.

A faint sigh escaped from between his lips.

“That’s enough, you may go now.”

At that, the servant’s eyes sparkled with relief.

“R-Really? You’re really letting me stay in the Duke’s castle?”

At those words, Cedric’s eyes turned cold for an instant before settling again.

“…Yes.”

The servant bowed his head repeatedly.

“Thank you! Thank you, Your Grace!”

What was there to be thankful for, having been dragged here innocently and subjected to needless interrogation?

Though he knew the man was innocent, Cedric felt inexplicably annoyed once again.

“That’s enough, get out before I change my mind.”

Cedric’s gaze sharpened once more as he barely held himself back.

At that, the servant fled as if truly afraid the Duke might change his mind.

How long had it been since the gatekeeper servant left?

After standing there blankly for a while, Cedric finally sat down wearily, leaning against his office desk.

He remained silent for a long time.

“Lehmann.”

At Cedric’s call, the assistant approached his side.

“Change that servant’s assignment to the Light Mansion.”

“Pardon? But, Your Grace…”

The assistant blinked in confusion, showing a bewildered expression.

“Being assigned to the Light Mansion isn’t a demotion… it’s practically a promotion, isn’t it?”

Just moments ago, Cedric had seemed ready to demote that servant or even fire him immediately if that wasn’t possible.

Whatever it was, the assistant thought that servant must have committed some terrible crime for the Duke to personally intervene in a mere servant’s assignment.

‘But suddenly… a promotion to the Light Mansion?’

Even for the veteran assistant Lehmann, it was difficult to easily grasp the current situation.

However, Cedric answered as if it were obvious.

“It doesn’t matter. As long as it’s not the Dark Mansion, anywhere is fine.”

Somehow, a trace of impatience could be sensed on his face as he replied.

Lost in thought, he tapped his long index finger against his temple a couple of times before looking at the assistant again.

“You’ve increased the number of knights guarding the castle entrances, right?”

“Yes, as you ordered, we’re thoroughly checking not only people trying to enter but also those leaving.”

“There must be absolutely no gaps. Even during shift changes, security cannot be lax.”

“Yes, of course.”

Cedric scanned through the documents detailing Rebecca’s schedule once more before continuing.

“Especially if the Duchess makes any unscheduled outings, report it to me immediately.”

Strong determination could now be seen in Cedric’s eyes as he spoke emphatically.

“Without my permission, Rebecca must absolutely not be allowed beyond the castle gates.”