After attending Blake’s lessons for several days, Eriel kept her mouth shut about the surprisingly normal classes.

Just in case they might be doing something, she secretly searched through Lucy’s room and playroom thoroughly, but fortunately no suspicious notes were found.

There were only thick books piling up that Damian wanted Lucy to learn from.

While she sighed in relief every day, Eriel watched the two closely, always wary of some kind of deal between Blake and Lucy.

And as it happened, the departure ceremony that children don’t attend was approaching.

Damian had started preparing as soon as he returned from the war, but it had been postponed little by little due to other matters until now, when it could no longer be delayed and the departure ceremony was decided.

In most noble families, when there was a schedule that children couldn’t attend, they would leave the child with a nanny or the butler would take care of them.

However, in Lucy’s case, Blake was to take care of the child in his capacity as a tutor.

It was clearly judged that entrusting Lucy to Blake would be safe, but…

After Blake arrived at the ducal residence, Eriel kept feeling uneasy about leaving the two of them as she left the mansion.

With reluctant footsteps, Eriel had already gone up to Lucy’s room several times to give words of caution.

“Ray.”

“Sis, you’ve already exceeded two fingers in the number of nagging times.”

“Still, listen. Don’t forget what you promised me. Your job is to study with Lucy and play with Lucy. Got it?”

Blake gestured as if he was now too bothered to even answer.

Eriel looked back and forth between Lucy and Blake in Lucy’s room, not forgetting to remind Lucy as well.

“Lucy. You understand, right? Promise Mommy. Don’t do anything dangerous, okay? You have to tell me what you learned from uncle and what you played while I’m gone. Understood?”

“Yes, yes. I got it, Mommy! Have a good trip!”

Eriel smiled back at the child’s bright smile and closed the door one last time before going down alone.

*

After reassuring his sister until the very end, Blake moved to the balcony with Lucy.

Lucy waved her hands enthusiastically towards the departing ducal couple.

“Mom, Dad! Have a safe trip!”

Lucy’s loud voice rang out.

In response to Lucy’s send-off, Eriel also waved her hand, and she grabbed Damian’s wrist, who was standing quietly beside her waving his hand slightly, and waved together.

Blake watched Eriel and Damian for a moment, then took Lucy back into the room.

“Uncle.”

Lucy looked up at Blake with shining eyes.

“It’s today!”

The child’s small fist clenched tightly and raised towards the sky. Lucy had been waiting for Eriel to leave the ducal residence.

Blake had already made up his mind to side with his niece rather than his sister.

It seemed his sister would not be able to abandon that fool of a brother-in-law anyway. And since it appeared to be another source of happiness for his sister to be by his side, he decided to change his mind after that night.

Even when she was hurt and crying like that, just one feigned illness from her brother-in-law was enough to fill his sister’s head with worries about him.

Lucy wasn’t different from his sister, but Blake thought he could at least raise Lucy to be tough when her father acted like a fool.

However, there were a few things he needed to confirm first.

Blake had realized a few things by teaching and asking Lucy some questions he had been curious about for days under the pretext of being a tutor.

The genius Lucy…

Blake’s eyes narrowed.

“Before that, it seems you need to answer a few things. Lucy. The path you thought the gloves held great significance is strange.”

Blake stared at Lucy.

Unlike Eriel, who believed everything with just the word “genius”, Blake had already figured out exactly which areas Lucy excelled in.

It wasn’t to say she wasn’t a genius. She grasped things much faster than others. It was definitely not at the level of a 7-year-old.

Her ability to judge information was certainly genius, regardless of age.

To the extent that he thought he might be able to put her to work under him if she grew up well.

“Uh, yes…?”

“Due to your words, we’re already investigating the gloves, and it seems that content is indeed a secret held by the other side. But after teaching you for a few days and talking with you, uncle has found many questionable points.”

Lucy’s green eyes trembled enormously as she gulped.

“Wh-where…?”

“The method of not getting kidnapped turned out to be more efficient. No matter how I think about it, that part alone is truly incomprehensible. So I tested your tendencies while teaching you a few things. There I realized it was even stranger. When there’s a big event, you too follow the stable route, there were no cases where you followed a challenging route.”

Lucy took a step back at Blake’s words.

“Un-uncle… is it okay to find out about me secretly like that?”

“As a teacher, one should naturally learn according to the student’s tendencies. It’s only natural.”

“But at that time, Dad also sent Charles…”

“That’s the biggest question. In the process of resolving the kidnapping, it was a plan that completely trusted your father. As if certain that your father would come and slaughter the kidnappers. If so, wouldn’t it have been easier to tell your father in the first place, why did you, a young child, have to confirm that?”

“Because I ha-hated Dad back then!”

Lucy said as if it was obvious.

However, Blake pointed out even that emotion.

“Why would you hate your brother-in-law? When he’s such a loving father now. You might be awkward with your father who returned from suppressing the rebellion, but there’s no need to show such hostility.”

As Blake’s investigation net tightened, confusion rose more and more on Lucy’s face.

Lucy, who was unconsciously stepping back, kept swallowing her saliva in vain.

“Well, what! I can hate him too!”

In the end, all she could say was to believe her without logic.

Blake was certain that Lucy had a big secret. Something that Blake couldn’t guess.

“Hmm…”

Lucy clenched her fists under Blake’s gaze.

“Then, why did you try to leave the empire when you cared for Mom so much!”

“That’s because your father returned. There was no need to stay in the empire.”

“If Dad, if Dad had acted stupidly! Like you said, Dad was just a stone back then. When I asked you to look into the rebellion suppression on behalf of Bruno instead of Dad, you said Dad’s actions were… idiotic!”

“He was an idiot.”

Blake frowned.

“So. What if Dad, um? Kept agreeing to Uncle Bruno’s affairs and Mom could have been in danger.”

“I just thought your father was a war maniac who liked war. That can happen.”

Blake nodded, rubbing his chin as if it was no big deal. Lucy’s mouth fell open.

“No. If Dad keeps acting like an idiot, it could be a threat to Mom too. Especially in a situation without an heir.”

“Really? Just looking at your sister’s personality, it seems your father would have trusted her enough to leave. He’s the Duke of the Empire, so he’d have a sense of responsibility from that, and how many vermin must he have seen during the war. If he returns victorious to the Empire and those fools lose and ruin things again, wouldn’t that be even more troublesome?”

Lucy closed her open mouth at the unexpectedly plausible words.

“More than that, it seems he would have definitely thought about having an heir from your sister. It’s natural even now. And…”

Blake nodded his head, meeting Lucy’s gaze.

“If it were your father, he might have even thought about making his daughter the heir. That’s one of the few good points that idiot has.”

“You couldn’t have thought that Dad was being played by Bruno’s schemes. So… that’s why Uncle was going to leave the empire.”

“Left?”

Blake questioned the tense at Lucy’s words, as if there had been such a past.

“Ah, no. I mean, if I hadn’t called Uncle, you would have left the empire, I thought.”

Blake’s eyebrow twitched. Not only the tense, but the sentence about her father being played by Bruno’s schemes was also strange.

Looking at it now, it was rather Bruno who fell into his own trap and collapsed.

He said he went to the Eastern Continent, but in fact, he was buried underground.

Her father being played by Bruno’s schemes?

Where exactly?

Blake looked down at the child deep in thought with a serious face and closed his mouth.

He wanted to ask more, but if he asked further here, it was obvious the child would clam up.

It was strange how she acted as if she knew from experiencing the events.

And her strange obsession with those gloves also bothered him.

It was true that those clearly from Count Scala’s forces tried to kidnap Lucy, but it was strange that she wasn’t afraid at all and insisted they must be caught.

As if she felt she had to take revenge on them.

As if she held a grudge against someone among Count Scala’s forces.