The moonlight seeped through the balcony, gently illuminating Lucy’s room.

Eriel approached the child’s bed, and Lucy, who had not yet fallen asleep, looked up at Eriel.

“Mother……”

“Hm? Not asleep yet? Our Lucy doesn’t seem to be sleepy.”

Eriel knew the reason why the child had not fallen asleep was because of what happened at the toy store, but she sat on the bed and gently stroked Lucy’s forehead with a soft touch.

Lucy, holding the packaged music box in her arms, had been lost in thought the entire way back to the mansion.

Eriel waited patiently for the child because of her pensive appearance.

It seemed she had been thinking until now, without even sleeping.

“War seems to be a truly terrible thing.”

Eriel nodded in agreement as she looked at the child’s distorted face.

“Mother, you know… Watching my loved one die would be a very, really very difficult thing to do. Right?”

“Yes. It would be a very difficult thing.”

“I… I don’t want to experience that.”

“Of course. Lucy won’t have to experience that.”

Eriel firmly reassured Lucy’s worries. However, at Eriel’s words, Lucy’s eyes turned sad.

“…Yes. I won’t lose you, Mother.”

Lucy turned towards Eriel and hugged her body.

“…I feel sorry for Father.”

Lucy, with her face buried in Eriel’s embrace, struggled to let out the words in a very small voice.

“To have experienced losing his loved ones so many times. I, I… I don’t think I could live like that. If it were me, I might run away from the battlefield, not wanting to go through it again.”

Eriel patted the child’s back.

“So I feel a little sorry for Father.”

The rustling child raised her face from Eriel’s embrace.

“I had no idea he had such circumstances.”

At the child’s words, Eriel also felt a pang in a corner of her heart.

It was the same for Eriel. Let alone the battlefield, she had never even properly held a sword.

Eriel dared not even fathom the sorrow, anxiety, and all the negative experiences Damian must have had.

“It hasn’t been long since Father returned from the war. So let’s be patient, Mother.”

Lucy held Eriel’s hand.

“He must be quite confused, don’t you think? The fact that the war, where his subordinates died before his eyes, has ended. It might be hard for him to believe that he has returned to a peaceful empire.”

Eriel was surprised to see her daughter empathizing with Damian’s situation more deeply than herself.

“…Lucy, you’re trying to understand Father’s situation more than Mother.”

Eriel smiled as she stroked the child’s eyes.

Lucy closed her eyes without a word.

Eriel quietly wiped away Lucy’s tears with her finger, as it seemed like moisture had gathered between the child’s fluttering eyelashes.

*

As expected, the next day, Damian did not say anything to Eriel.

“Eriel.”

All he endlessly called out was her name.

He started looking for Eriel as soon as he woke up in the morning, bringing up the topic of breakfast for no reason, and even talking about the weather, which he rarely did. In the end, he called out to Eriel again.

“…Yes.”

Eriel wished Damian would be the first to bring up the story about himself, but from the topics of conversation he was bringing up, she felt once again that he would not readily talk about it first.

In the end, even in calling Eriel’s name now, he would not bring up that story.

Eriel answered his call in a tone of not expecting much.

After eating and going up to the bedroom for a while, Eriel looked at him.

Eriel did not make an unpleasant expression, but her face was not smiling either.

Eriel’s face, close to being expressionless, turned towards Damian.

“……”

Damian approached Eriel silently and fiddled with his necktie for a moment. Damian, who had lowered his gaze to the necktie in his hand, quickly raised his head.

However, it seemed that no special words would come out of Damian’s tightly closed lips.

“If you have nothing to say, I’ll leave.”

Eriel turned her body.

“…Eriel.”

Damian called her name once again. This time, his hesitation was short.

“…I heard Viscount Farnese had an audience with His Majesty the Emperor. And coincidentally, he also met with Count Shannon the day before.”

As it was not a particularly surprising fact, Eriel nodded at Damian’s words.

“Is that so… I will be attending the Viscountess’s tea party soon. I will put an end to the talk about Count Shannon there so that it no longer circulates in social circles. I will make sure that my affairs do not connect to your political aspects, so don’t worry about that.”

Damian seemed a little surprised by Eriel’s composed attitude as she spoke calmly.

“If that happens, wouldn’t it be difficult to continue the relationship with Count Shannon, even if you had talked to him beforehand?”

“…What did you say?”

Eriel frowned deeply at Damian’s words.

“No. Since you said you would do that, I will follow without any objection.”

Damian nodded. Eriel’s lips parted as it seemed like the corners of his mouth slightly lifted.

“Don’t tell me… you think I actually had an affair with Count Shannon?”

At Eriel’s question for confirmation, Damian’s gaze pierced into her.

“No. But… since you said you won’t treat me as your husband, from now on, at any time…”

Eriel closed her eyes tightly at Damian’s fading words.

“Please, Damian. If I had such feelings for Count Shannon, I wouldn’t have married you. Stop belittling me any further.”

Eriel shook her head and turned around abruptly.

“…Then Eriel, you marrying me means…”

Eriel’s gaze turned to the wrist that was suddenly grabbed.

Damian did not pull her towards him as usual, but he let go of her wrist while looking at her with a tense face.

“Who knows? Then can you answer? Our marriage…”

“Because I love you.”

There was no longer any wavering in the blue eyes directed at Eriel.

“Whether I close my eyes or open them, I could only think of you. Someone told me, that’s what love is.”

“…Then why did you participate in the war for so long?”

Eriel was surprised by the answer, but she was rather disappointed. Eriel unknowingly blurted out the thought she had been having all along.

Then, realizing it, Eriel flinched and bit her lip.

“No. I didn’t mean to say anything about your participation in the war.”

Eriel shook her head.

Just then, there was a knock on the door, and the voice of the butler calling for Damian was heard.

Eriel looked at him, still unable to tie his necktie, and took a step back.

“Finish getting ready and come back.”

Eriel left the bedroom before Damian.

Damian was scheduled to stay at the imperial palace for a while once he left the mansion today. Eriel thought it was rather a good thing.

*

On the second day since Damian went to the imperial palace.

As she had told him, Eriel set out for the Orsini Viscount’s residence to completely digest the tiresome rumors with Jerald.

“…Greetings to the Duchess of the Empire. Thank you very much for accepting the invitation, Your Grace.”

Upon arriving at the tea party, the Viscountess welcomed Eriel.

She and Eriel were on friendly terms, but the Viscountess paid polite courtesy to Eriel.

“No, thank you for inviting me.”

Eriel sat at the table, exchanging greetings and being guided to a seat by the Viscountess. At the same time, the gazes of the noblewomen momentarily pierced Eriel.

They seemed not like elegant noblewomen, but rather like beasts that had discovered prey.

“Greetings to the Duchess of the Empire.”

The noblewomen’s greetings resounded in unison across the table.

Eriel responded to their greetings with a benevolent smile and bowed her head slightly.

After a round of greetings, the commotion settled down.

As the hunting festival was approaching, originally there would have been much more talk about the hunting festival, but given the recent rumors about Eriel, the noblewomen were undoubtedly more interested in the story related to Count Shannon that would come out of Eriel’s mouth.

Perhaps it would also become a hot topic along with who would become Jerald’s remarriage partner.

Eriel was convinced that if she couldn’t properly put an end to this rumor today, her story would spread again in social circles along with Jerald’s remarriage.

What the noblewomen were curious about wasn’t the truth or falsehood that would come out of Eriel’s mouth anyway.

Rather than the facts, they would surely try to infer the relationship between her and Jerald from Eriel’s explanation.

Eriel silently picked up the teacup and smelled the aroma of the tea.

There was no need to rush.

Amusingly, all the power was in Eriel’s hands.

More than half of the attendees were from the Emperor’s faction.

Curiosity was not bound by political colors, but there was always a price to pay for wagging one’s tongue.

At a time when the power of the Emperor’s faction, led by Damian, was so strong, if they recklessly aimed their arrows at the Duchess, their husbands might not have a single word of say in the nobles’ council.

Eriel put on a very faint smile on her lips.

From the moment she was born, Eriel had never been pushed back by anyone in her entire life.

That was the destiny of Eriel, born into the Borghese Viscount family, and the right she fully acquired upon becoming the Duchess.