It was before the sunlight entered the bedroom.

Eriel woke up early due to Damian’s busy movements beside her. She also hadn’t slept well.

“Damian? ……Do you have to go so early in the morning? At least eat something before you leave.”

Eriel grabbed his arm, urging him to have breakfast.

Damian, already fully dressed, gently patted Eriel’s hand and slipped out of her grasp.

“Sleep more. I’ll be late.”

Damian rejected Eriel’s offer and picked up his necktie.

Eriel quickly got out of bed and grabbed the end of his tie.

“Let me do it.”

Damian slowly nodded and handed the tie to Eriel, who stood in front of him.

She buttoned the top button of Damian’s collar and wrapped the tie around his neck.

Only the rustling of Eriel’s movements echoed in the bedroom.

They hadn’t fought, but yesterday’s clash had brought an awkward silence between them.

Eriel, trying her best to maintain her composure, bit the soft flesh inside her cheek and took a deep breath.

“About yesterday.”

Eriel opened the conversation, her eyelashes fluttering.

Though she was tying the knot, she didn’t have the courage to look up at Damian.

“I went to the tailor’s shop, remember?”

Eriel brought up yesterday’s story in a calm tone.

“There’s a glove artisan there. They say he personally measured Count Scala. Just in case, I asked him to make gloves for you. To measure the size…”

“Eriel.”

Damian, interrupting her words, grabbed Eriel’s hands as she was about to finish the knot.

“I’ll do it.”

Damian took the tie from Eriel’s hands just as she was about to make the final loop.

Eriel lowered her hands and swallowed hard.

“…Damian.”

“Since you’ve already mentioned it, the other party’s focus might shift a bit. It’s dangerous.”

“But Damian. If we cancel a promise we’ve already made…”

“Eriel.”

Damian, who had correctly tied his tie, stepped closer to Eriel.

Like yesterday, he grasped her shoulders and looked down at her.

Under his silent urging, Eriel lowered her eyes.

As she quietly nodded, Damian kissed her forehead.

“Don’t wait up, go to bed early today. I told your brother to come to the duke’s mansion last night, so he’ll be here in the afternoon. I need to talk to His Majesty about increasing the knights, so stay at the mansion until then. Once we increase the knights, I’ll make it so you can go out lightly.”

Eriel shook her head at Damian’s words.

“Thank you for calling Ray. But the knight increase is fine. I just won’t go out. I’m okay, so don’t tell His Majesty about increasing the knights. …Okay?”

Damian nodded at Eriel’s request.

“Alright.”

“…Be careful.”

Damian removed his hands from Eriel’s shoulders at her farewell.

“I’ll be back.”

*

Blake, after reading Damian’s letter, didn’t like the proposal he was making, but he moved his feet because of the semi-threatening content that Eriel could be in danger due to the information he had provided.

When his sister married a half-wit who couldn’t even protect one wife, he should have stopped her more actively.

He should have just broken the lock his father had secured by force.

Regret washed over him, but his sister was rational yet difficult to understand in some aspects.

He couldn’t understand why that nonsensical contract of binding each other until death under the name of marriage existed in this world.

Not money, but the condition of the contract being the nonsensical emotion called love.

Ah, of course, most noble marriages don’t involve emotions. It was just another business transaction between families.

So, really, he couldn’t understand his sister.

It wasn’t like commoners contracting based on invisible emotions. A business transaction between families, and for that damn father.

A woman who would lose the Borgese name and honor anyway, why on earth would she marry for Borgese’s sake?

Had she fallen in love with that half-wit who couldn’t even protect his own wife? Or was it loyalty to their father?

“Ugh.”

Blake shook his head as if disgusted and quickly cut off his thoughts as he recalled his father.

“Should I go and play with glass marbles again?”

Blake’s lifeless green eyes recalled the boring glass marbles.

It was better than thinking about his father, but this wasn’t pleasant either.

He was about to double as a nanny in addition to being a guard for the duke’s mansion.

“Anyway, I have to go.”

His brother-in-law was clearly more adept at threatening and slaughtering than protecting something.

That seven-year battlefield experience must be coming in handy in a place like this.

“Anyway, sister is different.”

Blake slowly nodded as he suddenly recalled his sister’s image.

“Sister seems good at threatening too.”

*

Blake, who had lightly entered through the balcony of Lucy’s room, landed gently on the floor.

The direction of the sofa had already changed, as if they had been notified in advance that Blake would come.

In the center of the sofa facing the balcony sat Lucy, dressed in an all-black dress, with a very serious face.

Unlike her serious face, her legs that couldn’t reach the floor and were floating caught his eye.

“Uncle, are you here?”

Blake tilted his head. Looking around, Eriel was nowhere to be seen. Lucy, reading Blake’s thoughts, gave an answer to an unasked question.

“Thanks to me whining to the butler that I wanted to play with uncle, mom will come a bit later.”

Blake’s gaze turned to the table where they had played with glass marbles.

Games he had played once were no fun. Usually, he got bored after playing once.

Especially against a child. There’s no way to find fun in a game you always win.

“Uncle.”

However, Blake’s gaze lowered at Lucy’s solemn voice.

Lucy, who was barely visible even after looking down for a while, had come down from the sofa and approached in front of Blake.

“Uncle, you’re as strong as my dad, right?”

Blake’s eyebrow twitched.

“…More than that.”

Blake, who had clearly informed the ranking, emphasized that he was definitely higher.

“Then what about the baby dragons?”

“Baby dragons? Ah… They are my subordinates.”

Going down there, Blake frowned. Unfortunately, his subordinates were far below Damian.

To begin with, if there were enough knights like Damian in the empire to have as subordinates, that would also be a problem.

If the empire was overflowing with guys who could slaughter dozens alone, the emperor of that era probably wouldn’t have unified this world.

“They’re still strong though.”

Blake, who hated to say that his subordinates were below Damian even if he died, spoke indirectly.

Lucy nodded.

“Then, can you place a few subordinates near mom and go out for a bit?”

“Without sister knowing?”

“Yes.”

Lucy’s proposal should have been rejected outright.

If it went wrong and reached Eriel’s ears, Blake would certainly not be able to handle his sister’s anger.

That would really be a troublesome thing. Moreover, Lucy seemed to be a being that his sister valued more than her own life.

If anything went wrong while taking Lucy out, it was as good as confirmed that he would receive his sister’s hatred for life.

Before, when his sister looked troubled, he had pointed a knife at her belly, and Eriel, who immediately read Blake’s thoughts, got incredibly angry.

It was hard to visit even after two years, but thanks to his brother-in-law going off to a long war, he was able to appease his sister’s anger.

Still, Blake was curious about Lucy’s story.

“…Why?”

“There’s a glove artisan named Jarvis at the tailor shop, who even measured Count Scala. Mom thought of that and decided to have dad’s measurements taken. But the appointment was canceled.”

“…So?”

“How about you wear a glove this time, uncle? I’ll give it to you as a gift. A glove in return for your help!”

“Hmm…”

Blake looked at the child with a face that didn’t seem very willing.

Then he plopped down on the sofa.

“No. I don’t want to go.”

“Why not?”

When Lucy asked, Blake, who had arrogantly crossed his legs, twitched his eyebrow.

“The risk is too high compared to the return.”

“You’re saying this to your niece’s request?”

“It’s not a request. It’s a deal. You said you’d pay the price.”

Blake, who had accurately pointed out Lucy’s words, tilted his head.

“Then how much more should I pay?”

At Lucy’s question, Blake, who had raised the corners of his mouth in a grin, slowly leaned his body forward, which had been deeply buried in the backrest.

Yes, a being that his sister valued more than her own life!

A light he had never seen before flashed in his eyes.

“The amount of money you can pay is meaningless. Instead, let’s make a different deal.”

Lucy’s eyes narrowed slightly.

She immediately sensed her uncle’s extremely dangerous aura.

“What kind of deal?”

Blake, who had paused for a moment, tried his best to lower the corners of his mouth that were trying to rise, and brought up the contract conditions.

“…On the premise of sister’s divorce. How about it?”

“Mom’s divorce?”

Blake nodded, looking at the green eyes that were the same as his.

“Then I’ll help. But I promise to help only as much as that. This is a deal, after all.”

Blake took out a fountain pen and a memo pad from his chest, dipped the pen tip in the ink on the table.

Then he quickly wrote something on the memo pad.

I need to separate sister from this idiot.

Blake resolved.