“Eriel?”

Damian looked at Eriel and immediately frowned.

Eriel glanced over Bruno and Jessica sitting in their seats, ignoring Damian.

“I was heading to the reception room in case you were badly hurt, but I heard you went up to the study.”

Eriel smiled slightly and then lowered her gaze to Bruno’s leg.

“It seems your leg isn’t seriously injured. That’s fortunate.”

“Ah, well…”

As a flustered Bruno tried to continue speaking, Eriel didn’t give him a chance and immediately sat down on the sofa.

“Oh, since I came up to the study, I have something to discuss with Damian. We were talking about our family trip yesterday but had to stop… Lucy keeps asking about it. I should discuss it and go back down.”

“…A family trip?”

Seeing Bruno’s face crack, Eriel clenched her hand tightly under the table. A suspicion flashed through her mind.

The talk of Derek’s successor pierced Eriel’s heart like a poisoned arrow, slowly spreading.

It didn’t take long for it to dominate her entire mind.

Like someone paralyzed by poison, the veins on the back of Eriel’s hand bulged.

Her finger joints had turned white from gripping too tightly.

Meanwhile, her face was so calm that no one present could read Eriel’s true feelings.

Eriel glanced at Bruno’s leg and tilted her head, looking at the tightly wrapped white gauze.

The doctor said to refrain from walking for a while…

“Bruno. I need to talk with Eriel for a moment, so if you’re not busy, it would be better to talk again later.”

Damian tried to send Bruno and Jessica out of the study first.

However, Bruno, seated on the sofa, showed no sign of getting up.

“It seems I need to discuss something quite urgent with you. Since it will likely be about family matters… Jessica, go down to the children first.”

Bruno looked at Jessica as he spoke.

As Damian nodded in agreement to Jessica’s withdrawal, she slowly rose from her seat.

At the same time, both men’s gazes fixed on Eriel.

“…Lady Eriel?”

Bruno called out to her when Eriel didn’t leave even after Jessica had closed the door and left.

“Didn’t the doctor say to refrain from walking for a while…”

When Eriel brought up the doctor’s words, Bruno nodded while lightly touching the gauze wrapped around his leg.

“Yes. It’s not a serious injury, but it’s only been a few days since I was hurt. In fact, I have a concern that arose from getting injured so soon. It seems it will be related to family matters. First, Lady Eriel…”

“Family matters? I’m curious. I happened to have something related to that to discuss with Damian. What good timing.”

Eriel smiled at Damian.

Damian’s eyebrow twitched upward. He seemed quite taken aback by Eriel’s behavior, which was different from usual.

“Well…”

As Bruno trailed off, Eriel smiled gently at him.

“I’m curious what this is about. You said it’s related to your leg injury?”

As Eriel lowered her gaze to Bruno’s leg again, he lightly touched it once more, as if hiding something.

Like someone who touches their nose or avoids eye contact when lying, Bruno touched his leg whenever Eriel looked at it.

“It hasn’t been long since I fell off a horse, and I fell again. It seems this is putting some strain on my entire leg.”

Seeing Bruno’s awkward smile, it seemed he was about to ask Damian for another favor.

“Actually, just before the rebellion was suppressed, His Majesty the Emperor ordered my brother to briefly visit the Eastern Continent as an envoy. At the same time, I had to go out to suppress the rebellion.”

Bruno’s gaze shifted to Damian.

Realizing why he had gone to suppress the rebellion, Eriel pressed her fingernail into her finger.

“I was planning to go as an envoy to the Eastern Continent within six months. But my leg… I wasn’t in a condition to ride a horse and travel for a long period. It’s gotten a bit better now, so I just ordered preparations to be made for the Eastern Continent trip yesterday. I wanted to have a final reunion with my brother, but… this…”

Bruno glanced down at his leg and furrowed his brow.

“It’s become difficult…”

He then glanced at Damian, subtly lowering his gaze.

Eriel nearly let out a laugh at this ridiculous speech and act.

This was diplomacy with the Eastern Continent granted to the Duke of Genoa by imperial decree.

Regardless of having gone out for six months to suppress the rebellion, Damian would surely offer to go if Bruno said he couldn’t.

Bruno likely knew this as well as Eriel did.

It was the moment Eriel’s suspicion turned to certainty.

“Oh my, Damian’s schedule won’t work for a while because we’ll be busy with a family trip.”

Eriel spoke to Bruno, who wasn’t even looking at her.

“Eriel.”

Damian’s low voice resonated through the study.

However, Eriel had no intention of backing down.

Even if he didn’t intend to eliminate Damian, it seemed he clearly planned to prevent the successor Eriel saw.

That’s why he kept sending Damian out.

“How about… a prayer trip this time?”

“A prayer trip?”

Eriel nodded and looked at Damian as if nothing was wrong.

“I heard it’s so good to pray in other places to deepen one’s faith.”

“You can pray at home, why go all the way to another place?”

Damian asked, seemingly suspicious of the true meaning behind Eriel’s words.

“W-well, since you can pray in various places, wouldn’t it deepen your faith from multiple angles?”

“I see. That does sound good.”

Damian nodded in agreement, rejecting Bruno’s request.

Eriel was surprised that Damian accepted her suggestion, but she couldn’t show that emotion here.

Nodding slowly as if it were natural, Eriel listened attentively to Damian’s words with her hands clasped gently.

“Unfortunately, the family trip is already promised, so it won’t be possible. The role of envoy is a very honorable position, so it would be best to choose one of the vassals instead of me.”

“I see. A family trip when you’ve just returned from war…”

Disbelief was evident on Bruno’s face.

He clearly thought Damian wouldn’t do such a thing.

He was right. Damian wouldn’t. But Eriel would.

“At times like these, a trip is even more enjoyable. Haha. It sounds like it will be very fun, brother. You said you had something to discuss with Lady Eriel, so I’ll take my leave now.”

Bruno composed his expression, nodded, and stood up.

Eriel accepted his greeting with a gentle smile. At the same time, she didn’t forget to add one more thing.

“The doctor said to refrain from walking, but it doesn’t seem to be too strenuous.”

Bruno, who had taken one firm step, turned his head stiffly and then smiled brightly.

“There’s just pain in walking itself, but it’s not too strenuous. It would be troublesome if used for too long, though.”

“I see. It’s really impressive that you don’t even frown despite the pain. My husband is like that too.”

“Haha. Even if there’s pain, we in the Genoa ducal family learn not to show it. Well then, I’ll really be going now.”

*

As soon as the door closed with a thud, Bruno’s expression crumpled.

The person who had been wearing a kind smile until just now was nowhere to be seen.

There was nothing unusual about his gait as he walked.

Bruno, walking like that, clenched his fist tightly and trembled.

He roughly pushed his hair back and opened his mouth as if letting out a silent scream.

The area around his neck, where veins were bulging, turned red.

Bruno, who had completely stopped walking, whipped his head around.

“Why is that woman suddenly acting like this?”

Bruno, who had clenched his molars tightly, slowly tilted his head.

All he could see was the door to the study, but anger built up in his eyes as if projecting Eriel beyond the door.

She was a woman who only knew how to smile and couldn’t speak well, but suddenly she came to the study and interfered.

It was hard to rebuke her in front of his brother, who had only one thing he cared about if anything, and that was that woman.

That would rather play a bad role in turning his brother’s heart.

Bruno messed up his hair again and scrunched up his face as much as he could.

As he went down the stairs like that, Bruno started to rack his brain.

Since when…

What made that woman like this?

Bruno rolled his eyes and paused in mid-air for a moment.

“Could it be… the talk about Derek and Lucy at the conferment ceremony didn’t sit well?”

Bruno, with only one corner of his mouth raised distinctively, cursed into the air, saying, “Huh, really…”

“They said she was desperate for the kid, but she’s causing this interference just because someone said something to that little girl?”

Bruno continued to curse into the air as if in disbelief, chuckling as he went down to the first floor.

“Alright… I should make that beloved brat completely lose his mind. Just need to make sure he can’t completely leave the side of that useless little girl.”

Bruno chuckled one last time and headed towards Lucy’s room.