Damian watched Lucy, who was chatting with Eden while beaming with laughter, in disbelief.

“Damian.”

Seeing her husband staring at their daughter as if he was about to bore holes in her face, Eriel called out to him carefully.

“Damian.”

Eriel called him again, but Damian continued to stare at the spot, frowning deeply at Lucy’s flushed face as she looked at Eden.

They say a thief who learns late doesn’t know when dawn breaks.

Eriel, who had been watching Damian from the side, let out a soft sigh.

Ignoring her husband, who had frozen like a stone and was stuttering like a broken clock, Eriel put on a smile and addressed the children.

“Damian and I will follow behind as you tour the garden. Lucy knows the garden well, so she’ll explain it well to Your Highness.”

Although they could have sent the children alone with a knight since it was inside the ducal residence, Eriel didn’t want to let her guard down even within the residence, especially since it hadn’t been long since the kidnapping incident.

“Your Highness! I’ll show you the garden of the ducal residence this time.”

As Lucy said this to Eden with a bright smile, Eden blinked in surprise and then smiled as brightly as Lucy.

Instead of answering, Eden nodded and stood up first.

Eriel watched the two with great satisfaction.

As it was in the imperial palace, it was so cute to see the children’s emotions openly displayed without hiding them.

Moreover, she was delighted to see a side of Lucy she hadn’t seen before.

“To go together… wouldn’t it be better if we held hands?”

Eden bravely extended his hand to Lucy.

Eriel covered her mouth at the sight.

She made a mental note to tell Her Majesty the Empress about Eden’s behavior today.

Just as Eriel had momentarily forgotten about her husband, she saw Lucy shyly nod her head.

“No.”

Damian’s voice poured cold water on the beautiful scene.

Moreover, Damian blocked Eden’s hand just as Lucy was about to take it.

With an incredible movement, he stood up abruptly and inserted his large hand between Eden’s.

Damian’s blue eyes, which looked at Eden as if he were an impurity, were fixed on Eden as if facing a love rival.

And he ostentatiously took Lucy’s hand.

Eriel was so dumbfounded by the scene that she couldn’t even think of intervening.

The daughter, whose hand had been taken by her father, seemed to feel the same as Eriel, looking up at Damian with bewildered eyes.

Lucy, who came to her senses faster than Eriel, pulled her hand out of Damian’s grasp.

“I’m supposed to show His Highness around the garden today, how can I do that holding your hand, Dad? …Mom.”

After scolding Damian, Lucy turned her head and gave Eriel a silent look.

Eriel, who had come to her senses, approached Damian and whispered.

“You wait here while the children tour the garden.”

It seemed that drastic measures were necessary.

At this rate, we won’t be able to see all of our Lucy’s cute moments!

*

At that time, Bruno was sitting in his mansion’s study, still wearing the clothes he had been thrown out of the club in.

His anxiety and unease had reached its peak, and he couldn’t sit still for a moment.

All the objects were already shattered, and there was no room to step on the floor. He occasionally walked by, stepping on the scattered glass on the floor.

The sound of glass breaking under his shoes echoed in the study, but such noise didn’t reach Bruno’s ears.

On the only clean desk, Bruno’s gaze was fixed on one spot.

The memo that Jessica had received from his brother yesterday.

Bruno closed his eyes tightly and bit his lower lip.

“Bruno.”

Jessica’s voice rang out instead of the butler’s.

In just one day, the mansion where Bruno was staying had become so clean that not even a mouse could be seen.

His brother’s influence had caused all the servants to leave.

At the same time, all the records had disappeared during that brief moment when Jessica and Bruno were out of the house.

Nothing remained.

It was no different from barely maintaining a life that seemed meaningless.

However, even this was a life that could end at any moment.

“…Bruno.”

The door creaked open.

When Bruno didn’t answer Jessica’s call, she entered the study.

“Hah…”

Jessica sighed as she looked at Bruno, who was trembling on his legs while stepping on glass.

Today was the day they had to go to the imperial palace for investigation.

It was time for him to move, but he didn’t seem to be in the right state of mind at all.

“Rather than this…”

Bruno, muttering to himself, met Jessica’s eyes as she entered the study.

“Since my brother took all the records, maybe it’s better to bring down Count Scala along with us…”

“What are you saying? Bruno! Sending us as envoys to the Eastern Continent means he’s at least sparing our lives. For now, let’s undergo the investigation and go to the Eastern Continent. From there, we can…”

“Do you not know what it means to go to the Eastern Continent?!”

Bruno’s voice rose as if it would tear.

“We’re going to die anyway! Even if my brother doesn’t kill us, we’ll die living like beggars in a foreign land, so it’s better to die here!”

“We have Derek! Lucy won’t become the duchess. Who knows! Derek still has…”

“Derek? Right, that was the problem from the start. That stupid son blocked his parents’ future!! Why did he have to take after your brains!”

Jessica’s face, who had been standing, crumpled.

“What did you say?”

“I didn’t expect him to be as smart as the daughter of Marquis Borghese, but why is he so incompetent? Has he ever come close to that woman’s level? Huh? If you had taught Derek well, this wouldn’t have happened! What on earth did Derek say to my brother for things to come to this!”

Tears rolled down Jessica’s eyes as she stood there.

“Hah…”

Jessica, who exhaled a sigh filled with anger into the air, gritted her teeth.

Bruno didn’t even blink at Jessica’s tears and instead raised his voice even more.

He shouted at the top of his lungs, blaming everything on Jessica.

“…I must have been crazy. To marry the son of a mere courtesan.”

“What?”

“Boasting that you could become a duke while drinking every day, and now barely maintaining your life? I must have been crazy to believe in you as my husband and wait. And Derek being stupid and greedy, he takes after you completely. From his hair to his eyes, everything is your blood. The blood of a courtesan!”

“Have you gone mad!”

Bruno approached Jessica with tremendous force and slapped her cheek.

With a loud smack, Jessica’s face turned.

“Courtesan? You can barely hang on to even the son of that courtesan. What? Your family is a noble family? With that so-called noble blood you speak of, you couldn’t even put food on the table. Without the money from that courtesan’s son, your birth family couldn’t have maintained itself. You now are just one of my possessions. What noble, what person. You’re just one of my walking possessions. I was too lenient because I considered you my property.”

Jessica’s head, holding her cheek, slowly turned.

Tears were still flowing from Jessica’s eyes as she looked at Bruno, but there was no affection in those tears filled with anger.

Feeling all these changes in emotion, Bruno chose words that would hurt Jessica even more.

“Marrying such a worthless person. Do you even know how much money went into your baron’s family? It’s because your birth family has no power that I’m going through this trouble now. If only my father-in-law had been politically strong, I wouldn’t have been expelled from the empire like this!”

“…With barely half a drop of Genova blood.”

Jessica laughed dryly and looked straight at Bruno.

“Is there even a single part of you that resembles the late Duke Genova from head to toe?”

“What?”

“I may be a noble, but you’re just… a noble’s bastard at best.”

“You, you… bitch!”

The only sound that followed was Jessica’s scream.

After Jessica’s voice, which had been ringing for several minutes, stopped, Bruno, pulling down the button on his collar, left the study.

“…Father.”

As he came out into the hallway, Derek, overcome with fear, grabbed Bruno.

But even that irritated Bruno, and he shook off the child’s hand.

“Stupid son.”

Bruno stomped down the stairs.

Everything had become useless.

If they went as envoys to the Eastern Continent, they would live on the streets again.

There was no money left in hand, and no assets to dispose of. Everything had come from the Genova duchy, and now even that was blocked…!

It might sound good to be sent as an envoy, but in reality, it was no different from abandoning a person in a foreign country.

Bruno briefly recalled the life he didn’t want to remember, the life before entering the ducal residence.

Hard bread and a dirty room.

A life that was barely maintaining existence, with no other purpose.

To return to that…

How he had crawled up to this point, and now to maintain just his life at the crossroads of death again!!