“Damian, His Highness the Crown Prince has sent a gift…”

Eriel, who entered the bedroom to deliver the good news, immediately covered her face with her hands upon seeing Damian.

Damian, shirtless, was exercising with one hand on the floor, relying on one leg.

Damian, dripping with sweat, stopped his exercise and pushed his cumbersome hair back.

“…Gift?”

At Damian’s question, Eriel called for the butler.

“Your Grace, this is the gift sent by His Highness the Crown Prince.”

As the butler handed the cane to Damian, he nodded.

“A cane, I see.”

It was a sleek black cane with a glossy finish.

The handle was made of leather, and when Damian grasped it, it fit perfectly as if custom-made for him.

The physician, called just in case, quickly supported Damian to help him lean on the cane.

“It must be painful… Are you alright?”

Damian, relying on the cane, tapped the floor a few times and nodded casually.

“I think it’s fine.”

Damian’s face slightly grimaced as he took a few steps, but he nodded again, indicating he was alright.

Seeming very pleased, Damian took a turn and looked at Eriel.

Eriel received a dry towel from a maid and approached him.

“Damian, are you really okay?”

Eriel asked as she wiped the sweat from his face with the towel.

“I’m fine. More importantly, Eriel. You’ve been spending a lot of time with Lucy lately. Haven’t we been neglecting our prayers?”

Damian naturally wrapped his arm around Eriel’s waist while holding the cane with the other hand.

As Eriel flinched and shuddered while wiping Damian’s sweat, the physician and servants tactfully left the bedroom.

Eriel, looking at the closed door, tapped Damian’s nose bridge with the towel.

“What if the servants see us like this?”

Damian, with a smirk, lightly kissed Eriel’s lips and pulled away.

“Eriel…”

Damian’s voice resounded lowly in the bedroom, now empty of servants.

Their gazes met in the air, intertwining, and Damian slowly lowered his head, biting the dry towel in Eriel’s hand.

Slightly turning his head to the side, Damian spat out the towel and slowly approached Eriel’s face.

The sound of the towel falling to the floor was heard a beat later, and Eriel, matching Damian’s pace, slowly closed her eyes.

His unique scent mixed appropriately with the smell of sweat.

Eriel, feeling Damian’s warmth now close enough for their noses to touch, slowly raised her hand resting on his chest.

Just as her pale arm was about to wrap around his neck, it happened.

“Young Lord! Young Lord!”

The butler’s urgent voice rang out, unable to stop Blake outside.

Eriel’s eyes snapped open, and she pulled her face away from Damian. Her arm that had encircled his neck quickly lowered.

Due to the commotion outside, Eriel gently pushed against Damian’s chest, not separating from him.

Damian’s eyebrows twitched as he looked at Eriel, but she had already averted her gaze from his eyes and turned her head.

“Sigh…”

Damian let out a sigh and bit his lip.

Frowning at Eriel’s averted gaze, he relaxed his expression and briefly rested his face on her shoulder.

“Damian?”

When Eriel called his name carefully, Damian nuzzled her shoulder with his forehead and whispered in a small voice.

“Just a moment.”

As Eriel was about to reach out to him at Damian’s words, it happened again.

“Young Lord!”

The butler’s voice rang out even louder this time. It was much closer than before, causing Eriel to completely break free from Damian’s embrace.

“Sister!”

Blake’s desperate voice rang out. Outside, the voices of the butler and maids trying to stop the young lord sounded like cries.

When Eriel finally opened the bedroom door and stepped out, Blake’s hugely dilated pupils met hers right in front of the door.

As Eriel slightly tilted her head to the side, she saw the maids and butler clinging to Blake’s coat behind him.

“Rey. If someone saw this, they might think sister was kidnapped or something. Right?”

“Sister!”

But regardless of what Eriel said, Blake, grasping her wrist, glared at Damian inside the bedroom.

Blake immediately pushed Eriel behind his back and shouted.

“Sister!”

Looking up at her overgrown younger brother from behind, Eriel let out a deep sigh.

She had expected this, but to think it would actually happen.

However, that’s when it happened. Unexpected words came out of Blake’s mouth.

“Brother-in-law tried to pickle me.”

A brief silence followed.

Sparks flew between the gazes of the two men, excluding Eriel.

Damian, facing Blake’s light banter, vowed to himself that after this matter was over, he would definitely dispose of his brother-in-law first in the empire.

“Rey. Sigh…”

Eriel, breaking the silence, frowned.

“What are you saying to your brother-in-law who is confined to the bedroom, unable to move due to his injured leg? No matter what, you shouldn’t say such things. Are you trying to drive a wedge between me and your brother-in-law?”

Eriel reprimanded Blake, not seeming to believe his story at all.

“Damian. I’m sorry. I’ll apologize on Rey’s behalf.”

When Eriel apologized to Damian, he gave her a gentle smile.

“Why are you sorry? You don’t need to apologize.”

Blake, looking very aggrieved, tried to explain to Eriel what had happened to him, but Eriel didn’t seem to have much trust in Blake.

“I’ll go down first, so apologize to Damian and come. Rey. I’ll ask Damian about it, okay?”

Eriel passed by Blake and went downstairs alone.

Blake stared at Eriel’s back in disbelief.

“Sister…”

With Eriel’s departure, all the servants followed, leaving only Damian and Blake facing each other across the open door.

“Brother-in-law.”

When Blake called out to Damian, Damian merely nodded his head.

“You got injured on purpose, right? To stay at the mansion. Ha. Of course, you wouldn’t have told her properly. Did Bruno safely arrive at the Eastern Continent? Don’t talk nonsense. To sister…”

Just as Blake was about to mention Eriel while growling, Damian approached, tapping the cane he was holding on the floor.

“Well. It seems you haven’t gained Eriel’s trust, brother-in-law.”

Damian, who had slowly walked over, leaned his body against the doorframe at an angle.

“I’ll tell Eriel that you apologized, judging by her face.”

“What? Ha.”

Blake momentarily tossed his bowler hat aside.

His fingers, brushing his hair back from his forehead, trembled with rage.

“Right. You should have just let me pickle you as I intended, brother-in-law.”

With that, the bedroom door closed.

Blake, who hadn’t even managed to say half of what he wanted to say, let out an incredulous laugh into the air as he stared at the closed door.

Once this matter was over, he would truly make his sister divorce. Before anything else.

The person in this house was not a duke. Just a snake-like human who had rolled on the battlefield for seven years.

Someday, he would pickle that snake and drink it.

*

Five nobles were seated at the Marquis of Scala’s mansion.

When they heard the news of the believers being captured, they were shaken, but when they heard about Damian’s injured leg, they had smiled.

They thought that with Damian completely removed from the battlefield, they could gradually sway public opinion in the meantime.

That’s not all. Anyway, since Bruno was dead, they intended to use it to cast doubt.

Wasn’t Damian trying to kill his half-brother?

But it all turned to dust in an instant.

Yes, all because of that woman named Jessica or something!

The five who had gathered urgently had their faces hardened, each lost in thought.

“Is it true that Bruno has arrived at the Eastern Continent as an envoy?”

At that story, the Marquis of Scala’s nose wrinkled.

Jessica’s statement was a problem, but an even more unbelievable story followed.

“I heard that the Eastern Continent’s imperial family sent a letter stating that Bruno had arrived safely and they had received the envoy’s gifts well.”

The nobleman across from him calmly recounted the facts he had heard, perhaps not seeing the Marquis of Scala’s grim face.

“So! Do you think that makes sense?!”

The Marquis of Scala slammed the table.

“Didn’t they say he was dead? Didn’t they say he was dead?!”

He shouted like that, but no one could say a word.

The believers who had been deployed in the operation had all met their deaths without exception.

Those who were said to be captured had almost all committed suicide, and the one believer who had succeeded in being gagged was immediately eliminated by the Marquis of Scala’s side, just in case.

And the person who had come to report it had also died due to severe bleeding.

Although they had heard that Bruno was dead, no one had directly witnessed it.

Even the corpse could not be found.

They searched the area, but nothing was left.

To inform the imperial palace of Bruno’s death, at least one piece of related evidence should have remained, but they had absolutely nothing in their possession.

The Marquis of Scala, clenching his fists tightly, gritted his teeth.