Delphia promptly visited the mansion of Duchess Lukella.

The atmosphere in the mansion was rather peculiar. As she walked through the corridors, the maids greeted her with flushed faces.

‘Why are they all looking so happy?’

The maids of this mansion had been serving Duchess Lukella for roughly over twenty years.

In other words, they had been attending to Duchess Lukella even before Delphia had left for military training and frontier inspections.

‘Weren’t they always maintaining a cold demeanor as per the Duchess’s preference?’

Cool rationality, dignified behavior, and a tranquil atmosphere.

To say these three were the motto of the maids in the Duchess’s mansion wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

The atmosphere of the Duchess’s mansion had turned rather strange during the few months she had been away.

And it wasn’t long before she heard talk of something, or someone, called “Honey Bread.”

“Ah… will Honey Bread grace us with a visit today?”

“Today, we’ve made tarts with fresh fruit; I hope he comes…”

“I’d be content just touching Honey Bread’s chubby cheeks.”

Delphia, true to her Mirmod lineage, had sharp ears.

She heard the maids continuously talking about someone named ‘Honey Bread.’

‘What on earth is Honey Bread?’

Why had the maids changed like this?

Harboring a profound question, Delphia was guided to where Duchess Lukella was.

She easily entered the chamber where Duchess Lukella was.

The Duchess was sitting at a round table, arranging flowers, looking dignified and graceful.

However, Delphia noticed. Those flowers had consumed much poison; they were toxic flowers that could kill those around them.

Of course, she is exotic and dangerous.

Treating her like an old lady in the backroom would be foolish. Delphia furrowed her eyebrows as she took a seat opposite the table.

“How have you been?”

“Soso.”

“It’s good that your stomach is strong, considering you’re living in this moldinfested place.”

“It’s more peaceful than killing monsters in the frontier.”

Duchess Lukella skillfully parried Delphia’s sarcasm. She had the ability to fend off such youthful irreverence with ease.

Delphia, whose skills were not yet fully honed, muttered under her breath.

“Ah… killing monsters is better than killing time catching molds.”

Duchess Lukella didn’t take the bait of the petty provocation. She stared intensely at Delphia’s unruly silver hair.

“The point.”

“Cien Mirmod.”

Duchess Lukella did not respond. Instead, she broke off the stem of the toxic flower she had been touching and threw it toward Delphia.

Catching the poisonous flower abruptly, Delphia looked puzzled.

“Uh, what’s this? A duel invitation?”

Throwing a poisonous plant was a unique form of duel invitation in social circles.

Just as knights would throw their swords, ladies would throw flowers. But this, so suddenly?

“Don’t meddle with Cien Mirmod.”

Delphia sensed restraint in her oddly calm face.

‘Nonsense. Someone as icy as Duchess Lukella wouldn’t be holding back her anger.’

Duchess Lukella’s words pierced the confused Delphia.

“You must not.”

Her resolute tone implied it was highly unadvisable to meddle with Cien Mirmod.

The woman who was stiff and formal around children.

Once a feared entity among all the noble children.

Such an expression from the Duchess was…

…the hypothesis that Cien Mirmod had manipulated Duchess Lukella was increasingly gaining weight.

But a child couldn’t possibly do that. Normally, the Duchess would scare him into wetting his pants.

“No… why?”

Caught off guard, Delphia unconsciously reverted to formal speech.

Either way, the Duchess lightly tapped the table and issued an expulsion order.

“Leave.”

Delphia mumbled to herself, eyebrows twitching.

“What, like she’s so precious that someone even gave her a pet name…”
Children of the Mirmod family die easily.

So, when someone who isn’t family gives a child a pet name or nickname, it means they love the child more than anyone else… It was also laden with the implication that they would protect the child.

In response to Delpia’s provocative words, Duchess Lucella opened her mouth with a click of her chin.

“I don’t say it three times. Leave.”

Delpia knew one thing for sure about Cien Mirmod.

Probably Cien Mirmod, excluding himself, was a fact that everyone else knew.

She tossed the topic provocatively at Duchess Lucella one last time.

“That child, might not be Matthias’s real daughter, you know?”

“…What?”

“Do you think you should protect a child who might not even be a real daughter of the family?”

At her words, the poison that had touched Duchess Lucella’s hand withered quickly. And the scent began to circle around Delpia’s nose tip.

As she met the terrifying gaze of the Duchess, Delpia instinctively noticed.

It was poison.

The lady had dispersed the smell of poison in this private room.

(This is a time divider.)

Coughing hoarsely, Delpia left the Duchess’s chamber.

“At your age, still so spirited…”

She quickly escaped with her illusion magic, but had she been a bit later, she could not have guaranteed her life.