Eriel laid Lucy down on the bed and lay down beside her. She intended to read Lucy a book for her nap.

“Mom, what clothes should I wear for His Highness’s birthday?”

As soon as they lay down, Lucy’s question poured out. Since Crown Prince Eden’s visit, Lucy had asked Eriel the same question over thirty times.

From lunchtime until this moment before nap time.

Having received the same question thirty times in just two hours, Eriel thought she had no choice but to put Lucy to sleep quickly.

“Let’s definitely go to the dressmaker’s tomorrow, Lucy.”

Eriel lightly kissed Lucy’s forehead and opened the storybook.

“Now, today’s story is about a hero who was indebted to a pitch-black dragon.”

“A pitch-black dragon?”

It was then.

Suddenly, an enormous shadow fell beside the bed where Eriel and Lucy were lying.

The bright summer sunlight was swallowed up by darkness.

A pitch-black coat fluttered.

“…It’s a dragon!”

Along with Lucy’s voice, Eriel let out a scream.

*

“Please, Ray.”

Calling her younger brother’s nickname, Eriel got up from the bed, stroking her startled chest.

Dressed entirely in black, he was an unpredictable figure like the dragon from the storybook she was about to read to Lucy.

Blake, who had the same green eyes as Eriel, smiled brightly despite her call.

The open balcony is the problem since it’s summer. Hah…

Eriel glanced at the balcony and sighed.

There was no way Blake would come through the main entrance proudly, but she hadn’t thought he would climb the wall and enter through the balcony.

“If you’re not coming through the main entrance, at least send word before you come.”

Eriel’s furrowed eyes scolded Blake. However, she couldn’t completely hide her affection for her brother whom she hadn’t seen in a long time.

The gentle way Eriel rose and approached immediately conveyed her affection.

“I heard Lucy was kidnapped and rushed back to the empire, but you went to the club, I heard. From Maribel. …Hello? Niece.”

Lucy, who had followed behind Eriel, looked up at Blake with shining eyes.

Blake had visited to see Lucy before, but it was when she couldn’t even speak, so it probably wasn’t in Lucy’s memory.

“Uncle!”

But is this what they call blood ties? Lucy recognized Blake’s existence at once.

Blake grinned and bowed his waist.

“Yes, I’m your uncle. Half of the foreign toys you used when you were young were sent by me.”

“But why don’t you come to my birthday, Uncle?”

“I’m busy because I’m popular.”

Blake nodded toward Lucy and straightened up from his bow.

At his words, one of Lucy’s eyebrows raised slightly.

“You’re just like Dad.”

Eriel and Blake’s gazes converged on Lucy in an instant. Eriel blocked Lucy’s front.

As his eyes suddenly turned cold, Eriel gulped.

His eyes, with the whites flashing, reached Lucy behind Eriel’s skirt.

When Eriel got married, Blake was angry.

He asked why she was marrying such a ‘thing’. He had a huge fight with Father too… At the wedding, Father’s greatest concern was confining Blake.

Naturally, after the marriage, the relationship between Blake and Eriel was not good.

Her younger brother couldn’t understand Eriel, and Eriel felt disappointed in Blake who couldn’t understand her.

It would have been good if things had ended there, but unfortunately, Blake visited the Duke’s mansion when Eriel’s morning sickness was at its worst.

She remembered her brother speaking coldly, saying the problem was what was in her belly.

The knife he was playing with in his fingers pointed precisely at Eriel’s stomach.

Of course, she got extremely angry, and Blake left with a frown.

It was only two years after Lucy was born that Blake came to the Duke’s mansion to apologize for that day.

Honestly, she wanted to turn him away at the door, but her husband’s life or death was uncertain due to the war, and she was having a hard time with first-time parenting.

At such a time, a family visit was also a moment of relief for Eriel, so she couldn’t turn him away.

Fortunately, contrary to her concerns, Blake smiled satisfactorily for the first time upon meeting Lucy.

‘She looks a lot like you, sister.’

Blake’s voice acknowledging the child’s existence lingered at the end of her memory.

“Ray.”

Eriel called Blake firmly and stood up to him.

“He just has a bad personality and is only handsome.”

In the quiet silence, Lucy’s voice was heard from behind Eriel’s skirt.

“That’s right.”

Blake’s eyes, which had been staring down at the child as if about to eat her, returned to normal.

As Eriel, completely deflated, was about to let out a sigh of relief, Lucy’s voice was heard once more.

“Uncle, you should know it’s thanks to me.”

Lucy, tightly gripping Eriel’s skirt, looked up at Blake.

“…Yes, thank you.”

Eriel’s head slowly tilted at the incomprehensible conversation between niece and uncle.

“…Lucy?”

She felt that something she didn’t know about was happening to Lucy again.

Especially if it was related to Blake, it could be something dangerous!

When she turned her gaze to Blake with a look that demanded an explanation, Blake shrugged his shoulders.

“I left my location in the toys. Just for fun. I was also curious how smart my niece was.”

“And?”

“Last year, I think. When your husband boarded a ship for suppressing a rebellion, she sent me a letter asking to find out the reason.”

Eriel’s eyes widened.

“Lucy sent a letter to Ray?”

“So I sent a reply.”

“You sent a reply? When? No, what did you write…”

Eriel asked, a bit anxiously. There was no way Blake had given a proper answer.

“I wrote that an idiot was doing idiotic things.”

…Oh no!

It was clearly referring to Damian. Eriel covered Lucy’s ears.

“How could you say such vulgar things to a child! Ray!”

“Lucy asked me what ‘idiot’ meant. So I told her it’s the shape of a person made of stone. Your husband is an idiot.”

“Stone? Don’t tell me, pebble…!”

Eriel closed her eyes tightly. She had wondered where Lucy’s pebble analogy came from on the first day Damian returned from suppressing the rebellion… It was from Blake.

“Oh, and she also asked if I wouldn’t take over the club. She said there must be a lot of fun things there. You’ve seen it too, right? There are a lot of fun things there.”

Blake grinned and waved a piece of paper at Eriel.

Eriel took the paper from Blake and scanned its contents.

The aliases from the list she had received from Bruno were written as they were.

The difference was that along with the aliases, their real family names and names were also written.

“But you’re saying our Lucy talked about taking over the club?”

Eriel’s gaze shifted to Lucy.

Lucy’s green eyes rolled around, avoiding Eriel’s gaze.

“Lucy.”

When Eriel called Lucy firmly, Lucy bit her lower lip.

“Well… No, Uncle told me about why Dad went to suppress the rebellion…”

Lucy’s gaze reached Blake.

It was a look urging him to continue. Three pairs of slightly different green eyes moved busily.

“Ray?”

At Eriel’s cold call, Blake let out a short sigh and flopped down on the sofa.

“I just told her the facts.”

Blake made excuses to Eriel even before revealing the content. Eriel’s eyebrows twitched.

“So. What are these facts that you’re making excuses for first?”

Blake glanced at Eriel’s face, frowned, then avoided her gaze and forced a smile.

“I told her that Bruno was a bad person while explaining his living area. Um… and I also slightly mentioned what kind of place the club is. Just slightly. When I explained, Lucy said it sounded like there would be a lot of fun things there, and asked if it wouldn’t be good to try taking it over.”

“You told all that to a 6-year-old child? Even about the club?”

“Sister.”

Blake called Eriel with true meaning.

“Ray…!”

“You know too, sister.”

Blake cut off Eriel’s words coldly.

“That Lucy is not ordinary. Lucy is more precocious and smarter than you think. I know you want to raise a genius as normally and prettily as possible.”

Eriel’s eyes, which looked like they were about to burst into anger at any moment, shook violently.

“But what’s the use? She was already born extraordinary.”

Blake shifted his gaze to Lucy.

“She remembers seeing me when she was 2 years old.”

Blake smiled.

“Because I included what I said to Lucy then as a question in the riddle I made to explain the location in the toys.”

Lucy blinked and slightly turned her gaze to Eriel.

“Well… Uncle said to find Kerpin if I needed him. So when he sent toys, I found Kerpin.”

Eriel’s eyes widened.

“Lucy…”

“That’s right, Mom! I, actually…”

Lucy raised her head.

“I’m actually a genius!”