Eriel, seated at the table, picked up a teacup.

Blake, who had played with Lucy for quite a while, said he would come back when he found out something.

Although she had told him to send word at that time, judging by Blake’s casual hand gesture, it was clear he would come as he pleased again.

“More importantly, the Church of Therios.”

Eriel’s gaze, which had been lowered while smelling the tea’s aroma, shifted to the dark night sky.

“The rebellion is crude, and I can’t believe he said that to Bruno. But for it to be a religious matter…”

Eriel’s eyes narrowed slightly.

If Count Scala’s objective was related to the church, it meant it wasn’t the count’s personal decision, but that of a group.

“The leader… Count Scala?”

Eriel formed a hypothesis.

The leader is Count Scala, and he leads the nobles through that doctrine.

“…No. If the leader were a count, he wouldn’t be at the forefront like this. He could send out other nobles who devoutly believe, there’s no need to risk exposing himself.”

Eriel shook her head.

“Then there must be someone Count Scala trusts and follows.”

Eriel furrowed her brow as she tried to connect the threads of thought.

It would be someone as elderly and from a powerful family as Count Scala within the Empire, and surely it would be a long-standing relationship rather than a hastily formed one…

Eriel sighed after recalling a few individuals from her complex thoughts.

The seven-year gap wasn’t just for Damian. It was for Eriel too.

“Madam, the Duke has arrived.”

At the butler’s words, Eriel put down her teacup and stood up.

It seemed she should discuss this with Damian as well. She also needed to apologize for Blake’s rudeness.

“…Damian.”

Damian, who had entered the bedroom, nodded at Eriel’s call as he unbuttoned his sleeve cuffs.

Despite the late evening, he seemed to be planning to go to the study again today, rolling up his shirt sleeves and wiping his hands several times with a handkerchief.

“Yes.”

“Today… Blake came. He said he sent you, um, a letter… Did you know?”

Damian chuckled at Eriel’s words.

“No. When I went to the palace, I found he had left me a memo. Why?”

“Ah, I was wondering if Blake might have been rude?”

Feeling awkward, Eriel pressed her own shoulder. Damian slowly shook his head.

“No.”

She hadn’t meant to test him.

She quickly realized her question was wrong. She had asked something too subjective.

Anyone could say Blake’s behavior was rude by common sense standards, but asking Damian like that was Eriel’s mistake.

He might be reluctant to say it was rude.

Eriel should have stated the facts from her side, but she found herself asking the question without realizing it.

“You sent a reply to Blake right away. I happened to read it.”

She was grateful to him for firmly saying no despite that.

Eriel spoke with a deeply flushed face, avoiding his gaze.

Damian, who had pulled off his tie and placed it on the table, unbuttoned one more button up to his neck.

“You read it?”

Eriel gulped at Damian’s question.

“Yes… I was shocked to see Blake had sent it like that. I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry? It’s not something you did to me.”

Eriel lowered her gaze. It was a kind thing to say, but she still felt embarrassed all the same.

“…Eriel.”

Damian, who had somehow approached Eriel’s side, wrapped his arm around her waist.

“If you still feel sorry towards me, how about praying to God to forgive that sin?”

“…Pardon?”

Damian’s arm pulled Eriel closer.

As they pressed together, Damian’s head lowered.

*

As soon as the final investigation was over, the Imperial Family officially concluded the rebellion incident of Duke Genova.

Based on the ‘crude’ evidence found in the Duke’s mansion, they announced that the culprits’ forces were not that large.

They also stated that the forces who kidnapped the princess and those who led the rebellion were the same, and that some of those forces had already died by the Duke’s sword.

Additionally, they concluded by saying that the Imperial Family would find the remaining rogue forces to the end and hold them accountable for their crimes.

And on the day the official stance was announced, Bruno was confined to an outer reception room of the palace.

The reason given was that there was a risk of escape.

The Imperial Family announced that the schedule for going to the Eastern Continent as an envoy had changed to an unofficial schedule, along with the Genova Duke’s rebellion incident.

Then, they officially announced that Bruno would be the noble going to the Eastern Continent as an envoy.

Of course, all stories connecting Bruno and the rebellion incident were kept secret.

The nobles who received this news vaguely knew that Bruno had done something wrong, but thought it wouldn’t be a big incident.

After all, going to the Eastern Continent as an envoy was something Bruno was supposed to do anyway, and even if the schedule had changed to unofficial, going to a foreign country as an envoy was not particularly humiliating.

They thought he would go to a foreign country for a short time as a form of reflection and soon return.

Because the rebellion incident was such a big event, they thought the Imperial Family had decided it was too much to announce Bruno’s affair as well, whatever he had done.

Of course, no nobles were unaware that this decision was made considering Damian’s status as the leader of the pro-Emperor faction.

However, it was natural for the Imperial Family to consider Damian’s status.

*

“…No way.”

Lucy, holding a fork, opened her eyes wide and glared at Damian.

Despite his daughter’s reaction, Damian didn’t even nod, showing what true ignoring was as he slowly continued his meal.

“No way! Mom and Dad always sleep together! Today I’m going to sleep with Mom!”

Now the whole family ate breakfast together every day, but there was never a quiet day. Eriel just sighed helplessly, stuck between Damian and Lucy. The two engaged in a battle of nerves at every meal.

During the ten-day period, Lucy’s record was 10 losses, 0 wins out of 10 matches.

This was because Lucy had been losing to Damian in their exchanges at the single word “little brother.”

However, on this eleventh day, Lucy finally couldn’t hold back and burst out in frustration.

“Little brother.”

Once again, Damian brought up the little brother.

At first, Lucy had handed over Eriel obediently with hopeful eyes, but seeing her facial expression gradually worsen, it seemed she had resolved not to give in at breakfast today.

Eriel decided to take her daughter’s side today.

“Damian, today with Lucy…”

“Dad!”

Just as Eriel was about to gently persuade Damian.

Lucy’s loud voice rang out over the dining table.

“Benjamin said he got a sibling as soon as his dad came back! Dad! Why! How on earth! Do you pray that a little brother doesn’t come right away?”

Eriel immediately looked at Damian’s face with a hardened expression.

She could see his pride breaking into two pieces over his straight face.

“Mom couldn’t have done anything wrong, so it must be Dad’s fault! This is!”

“Lucy. There’s nothing wrong with Dad.”

“Then why? If there’s nothing wrong, why on earth! Then is it just that Duke Orsini prays better? Dad… are you not good at praying?”

Lucy shattered Damian’s pride into four pieces, eight pieces.

However, Damian, who had frozen while holding his cutlery, turned his head not to Lucy but to Eriel.

“What do you think?”

“…Pardon?”

Eriel asked, trying her best to smile at Damian’s sudden question.

“Your opinion is important. Do you think I’m not… good at it?”

There’s nothing he won’t say in front of the child. Really.

“Well. I’ll think about it. In that sense, I’ll sleep with Lucy today.”

At Eriel’s words, Damian’s pride shattered into sixteen pieces.

“…So, Mom! You’re sleeping with me today, right?”

Lucy asked Eriel with an excited face.

Eriel nodded to Lucy with a very bright smile.

“Of course. Let’s sleep together today.”

*

On the morning when Lucy gained a sweet victory at the Duke’s mansion, the Imperial Palace was turned upside down.

“Captain, we have a big problem.”

A knight who came running in, out of breath, whimpered with a face that looked like he might cry at any moment.

“What’s the matter?”

“The confined noble has disappeared.”

“…What did you say?”

“He was definitely inside until last night, we checked… but he’s gone.”

“The noble we were supposed to send as an envoy to the Eastern Continent today, you’re saying he’s disappeared now?!”

The knight said that when they opened the door in the morning, Bruno, who had certainly been confined from the interrogation room to the reception room, was gone.

“Find him immediately!”

The footsteps of the knights guarding the front of the reception room became busy, but in the end, they couldn’t find Bruno.

And that story reached the ears of Count Scala.

This was because one of Count Scala’s underlings, who had been hiding in the Imperial Palace planning to kidnap Bruno the moment he crossed the border as an envoy to the Eastern Continent, heard it.

One underling sent a carrier pigeon to Count Scala, and the Count, after confirming the contents, slammed the table.

“Bruno has disappeared! Then what about his wife and son?”

“…I will find out urgently.”

The butler bowed and hurriedly left the room.

“We need to completely crush the Duke! But Bruno! Useless fool!”

The Count, who had been raging like that, suddenly flashed his eyes.

He immediately picked up a fountain pen nearby.

“It’s Damian. This couldn’t have happened without Damian stirring things up. Charles hasn’t been seen for a while, so I thought I had been completely fooled by what was said at the club then!!”