The Marquis of Farnese frowned and closed the book he was reading.

“Has the Earl come at this hour? Didn’t I clearly express my refusal in the letter?”

“Yes, but… the Earl has arrived.”

The butler lowered his head. The Marquis pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a short sigh.

In response to the letter asking if a visit was alright, he had clearly replied not to come, yet the guest had visited as if ignoring such a response.

If they were going to visit regardless of the response, why even bother asking in the first place? He was definitely not the person the Marquis knew before.

Could his personality have changed so much in the short time they hadn’t seen each other?

As the Marquis’s frown deepened, so did his worries.

“…Guide him to the drawing room.”

In the end, the Marquis reversed his decision regarding the visit.

*

Blake, who had traveled far enough that the ducal residence was no longer visible, gradually slowed his pace.

Even without Eriel’s request, Blake had no intention of taking Lucy with him on dangerous tasks.

However, he wanted Lucy to directly confirm even the smallest piece of information with her own eyes. Even a tiny bit of information was fine.

Seeing and feeling the situation outside firsthand was vastly different from simply hearing a report from someone else.

This was also the reason why Blake didn’t completely entrust tasks to his subordinates.

Without personally going out to examine the scene, the obtainable information was limited, and information with set limitations would someday become a fatal flaw.

Verifying things directly, even if it was troublesome.

Blake had set out to teach Lucy such things.

Of course, he also had the intention of finding out more about Earl Scala and digging deeper into what Lucy was hiding.

“Only two of you stay, the rest go to work. Since we’ve come this far, there won’t be any major issues.”

“Yes, understood.”

Except for two, the remaining subordinates quickly descended, and Blake began climbing towards the mountainside.

Lucy’s face twitched. As Lucy’s hand tapped against Blake’s chest, Blake lowered his head.

Green eyes emitting a faint glow in the darkness were looking up at him. Small lips moved as if asking for permission to speak.

Blake nodded to the child, indicating it was okay to talk.

“Uncle, why are we suddenly climbing the mountain?”

Lucy asked in surprise, as they were originally supposed to go to the Terios Church today, but abruptly started climbing the mountain.

The church was in the city, not on a mountain.

“We’ll see the church from here.”

“F-From the mountain?”

“It will be visible at a glance.”

Blake gave Lucy a brief answer and raised his gaze forward again.

His thorough steps, not leaving any unnecessary traces, resumed.

Blake stopped at a certain point halfway up the mountain.

Standing at the edge of a cliff where the wind howled, he looked down.

“Lucy.”

At Blake’s call, Lucy poked her head out again.

With her head stuck out, Lucy quickly covered her mouth. A short “Wow-” sound echoed.

The Terios Church was visible at a glance. The tall church building seemed to pierce the sky.

Lucy quickly grasped Blake’s collar tightly with the hand that had been covering her lips.

“It’s a bit scary. It’s so high.”

At the child’s words, Blake readjusted his hold on Lucy and gestured with his chin towards the bottom.

“From here, we estimate where the building’s perimeter and entrance door are and how far the distance might be, Lucy. Even if we receive blueprints or have subordinates draw a map, there is a huge difference compared to seeing it directly with our own eyes. Confirm everything from here without missing a single detail.”

The small hand tightly gripping the collar rustled. The collar was slowly released, and the child’s face stretched out a bit more.

Lucy’s long eyelashes moved slowly. Green eyes followed the church’s walls, examining the building’s topography.

That’s when it happened. With a thud, mountain birds fluttered into the moonlight.

Blake quickly concealed Lucy, who had been poking her head out completely, into his cloak and twisted his body.

The sound of a crossbow rang out from somewhere, accompanied by the roar of a beast.

As one subordinate moved towards the source of the sound, Blake hid his body in the dark thicket.

There was no way someone would be hunting at this hour, but judging from the beast’s roar, it was a large creature.

It could have crossed over the mountain range, but to hunt it in the middle of the night…

Blake’s movements quickened.

A nearby lord could handle it, or an order could have been issued from the imperial palace, but either way, they wouldn’t want their knights to be wasted on dealing with a beast in the middle of the night.

The possibility of it being a mercenary group that received a request wasn’t zero, but if a mercenary group had moved, there was no way Blake wouldn’t know about it.

Then perhaps…

“Uncle.”

Lucy wriggled out from Blake’s arms as he was rapidly descending the mountainside. Her voice calling out to Blake was resolute.

“Let’s go see it.”

Blake, who had slowed down on the dirt path, stopped at Lucy’s words.

“You want to go see that beast?”

Lucy quickly nodded at Blake’s question.

“This… doesn’t seem like a mountain managed by the Terios Church. It’s the… closest, right?”

At Lucy’s words, Blake unknowingly smiled.

If he raised her well, not to marry her off to some strange guy like her sister, but to truly raise her as his subordinate, it would be great.

It would make better use of Lucy’s abilities, and the child would like it too, wouldn’t she?

“Shall we go take a look?”

Although he had brought her along, vowing not to involve her in dangerous tasks, Blake flipped his mind like flipping a card.

There was no way there would be any danger while she was in his arms anyway.

His eyebrows rose in a good mood.

*

“Greetings, Marquis.”

The Earl, who was sitting inside the drawing room, slowly rose from his seat.

“It’s late, Earl Shannon. At this hour… do you have something to say?”

The Marquis responded coldly, not bothering to beat around the bush.

“I’d like to discuss what happened at the launch ceremony.”

“Ha… Earl.”

Marquis Farnese let out a long sigh and closed his eyes tightly.

It would have been better if he had been completely unaware of Earl Shannon’s affairs. To think that he, of all people, had turned a blind eye to it.

The Marquis felt both self-reproach and anger at the fact that his momentary misjudgment had made him, the leader of the aristocratic faction, look ridiculous, and as a result, the entire aristocratic faction had been made to look ridiculous.

Perhaps it was a desperate attempt, knowing that if things went wrong, the image of the aristocratic faction would become even more absurd.

He had harbored a vain hope that Earl Shannon’s affairs might bring vitality to the entire aristocratic faction.

The result was devastating, and it only led to chaos for the entire aristocratic faction.

“I have nothing more to say about that matter.”

The Marquis, who hadn’t even taken a seat, flatly refused.

The Marquis, who had hastily turned his body, cut off the conversation with the Earl before even taking two steps into the drawing room.

“…Don’t you find it strange?”

The Earl’s calm voice echoed behind the Marquis’s back as he was about to leave.

Strange? What on earth was?

The Marquis frowned and slowly turned his head back.

“If the entire aristocratic faction was toyed with, what do you think?”

As soon as Marquis Farnese heard Earl Shannon’s words, he took a deep breath. The anger boiling up from within his lungs was unbearable.

“I also thought it was my misjudgment!! My own judgment to try to overlook it somehow, even knowing it was wrong, with your return. Today, I truly regret my actions that day! Earl, because of your mistakes… Ha… Earl. Come to your senses. How can you, who were so intelligent, be like this because of a woman…?”

Marquis Farnese, who had been angrily speaking, closed his eyes with a sigh-like lament.

“…Enough. I won’t have any more expectations of you, and don’t attend the meeting either. Don’t muddy the waters for no reason. Since your face is injured, use that excuse, which is the best thing for us and taking responsibility for your actions.”

The Marquis shook his head.

Earl Shannon silently listened to Marquis Farnese’s words, staring straight at him.

Only when the Marquis was about to give his final words of dismissal did he open his mouth again.

“There is a spy. What if all of this was planned by someone?”

“…What?”

The Marquis’s head instantly turned.

“Don’t you think it’s strange that there isn’t a single traitor within the aristocratic faction, whose cohesion and power have weakened compared to three years ago?”

The Marquis blinked and stared at Earl Shannon. Taking a deep breath in and out, strength entered the Marquis’s eyes.

“If everything was planned, you’re also that traitor. Do you know that?”

“Wasn’t there a case of fabricating a rebellion? The aristocratic faction has been constantly suspected of who is pointing the blade towards the ducal residence.”

The Marquis couldn’t help but focus on Earl Shannon’s words as he abruptly changed the subject.

“However, the culprit ended up being the doing of a low-quality mercenary group from a guild.”

“Wait a moment. Earl Shannon. Didn’t you say you were just pursuing your love for the Duchess? How can I trust you when you suddenly bring up such political talk while cornered?”

“That’s right.”

The Marquis was taken aback by Earl Shannon’s sudden admission. However, Earl Shannon softened his eyes.

“I found out because of love. I could tell from the fact that Eriel… came to find me after receiving my gauntlet.”

“What?”

“Eriel probably didn’t know the true meaning of that gauntlet. Because I didn’t tell her. I lied to her with the hope that my love would be fulfilled.”

The Marquis closely observed Earl Shannon’s expression while trying not to miss a single word of his story.

“But Eriel definitely came to find me.”

Looking at the Earl’s face full of conviction, the Marquis’s mind only grew more complex. There was no falsehood.

He had seen countless people trying to get by with lies using tricks in the political world.

“Marquis, why don’t you take a seat? It seems the conversation will be long.”