“Hold on tight, don’t let go.”

However, I couldn’t put strength in my hands as I thought.

Is it sweat from nervousness? My hand in the Grand Duke’s grasp feels like it might slip. Will I die falling like this?

At that moment, the Grand Duke leaned his body into the exhaust pipe.

His face came down to my eyes. Seeing those blue eyes, I froze. Those eyes I knew, those eyes I thought I’d never see again, were staring at me.

He pulled my arm with all his might. I was flung out of the exhaust pipe like a grasshopper with wings.

I survived.

When I came to my senses, I was on a blue carpet. As soon as I raised my head, I saw the Grand Duke kneeling on embers.

“Your Grace! It’s hot!”

The ashes on the fireplace floor where the pechka was still had a red glow as if just extinguished.

As I crawled on my knees to approach, he raised his hand to stop me. Then he stood up as if nothing had happened and passed by me.

He sat on a blue velvet chair trimmed with white pearls.

He stared at me. He was wearing a white shirt with a wide front placket and black pants, having removed his military attire.

The twenty-two-year-old Grand Duke Sion Belfast.

He looked at me with coldly frozen eyes.

Was the fiercely burning gaze he showed while saving me just moments ago my imagination?

I stared blankly at him, forgetting even to speak.

He was looking at me without blinking once. I quickly bowed my head to the floor.

“This nameless one greets Your Grace, the Grand Duke.”

“What is your name?”

He persistently asks again.

“As I said before, I’m just called ‘Bug’.”

“I do not trust those without names.”

I looked up at him. His eyes were steadily fixed on me.

“Esther. My name is Esther.”

I blurted out that name without realizing it.

In the past shown by the dagger, my mother called me that. ‘Esther’. That must be my real name.

In my previous life, I said my name was Bella. But now, even recalling that name is horrifying.

It was a collar Medeia put on me under the guise of affection. A hypocrisy she offered to control a monster starved for love.

The Grand Duke said nothing. When I raised my head, I saw his face strangely hardened. His eyes were very slowly examining me.

Does he think I’m lying?

At last, he opened his mouth. It was a slightly trembling voice.

“I see, is that your real name?”

“Probably, yes.”

“Probably, yes.”

Why is he acting like this? Nitpicking words is unlike the Grand Duke I knew.

Then I inwardly let out a dry laugh.

Did I have enough familiarity with that person to make such judgments? Isn’t that not the case? On what basis am I thinking what is or isn’t like the Grand Duke?

“Why did you come to find me? Bug.”

Bug, he says.

He doesn’t believe me.

“Seeing you came out from there, you must have used a secret passage. Who are you and why did you come to find me? It would be better to speak honestly.”

I glanced at the sword placed next to the Grand Duke. A sword openly displayed to me.

I must tell the truth. A truth he can believe.

“I am a servant of the Southern Grand Duchy of Lahert, and a subordinate of the Grand Duchess, Medeia Lahert. Lady Medeia is my master, and I am raised to do anything she orders, destined to become an assassin in the future.”

I continued speaking without checking the Grand Duke’s expression.

“But I don’t want to become an assassin. I’ve also come to realize that the Southern Grand Duchy doesn’t always do the right thing.”

“What is right and what is wrong?”

It was an unexpected question.

Is he testing me?

“I think it’s wrong to go against the natural order or cause others pain for one’s own desires. And… that’s why I came to stop the wrong thing Lady Medeia is trying to do.”

His blue eyes pierce through me.

I lowered my head again.

“The Lady has her own poison garden. And today, I saw the keeper of the poison garden visiting her. That person always comes here on days when poison is used importantly.”

“I see.”

“I secretly overheard their conversation. They are targeting Lord Arcadia Nugent. They will probably poison him.”

“The reason?”

“Pardon?”

I was surprised by his excessive calmness. He asked.

“Why Arcadia and not me?”

I was taken aback.

What answer should I give?

I can’t just say to believe me because it’s all going to happen as I’m speaking as someone who has returned. Who would believe such words unless they were insane?

Moreover, he’s not reacting to the information about the use of poison itself, but showing antipathy towards the fact that Arcadia is the target. Is it not surprising to you that they are preparing poison?

Perhaps he’s already expecting it?

“I asked why Arcadia.”

“……”

Arcadia Nugent’s father, Count Hern Nugent, was assassinated by the Black Bugs.

Hern Nugent governed the North for 7 years on behalf of the young Grand Duke who was held hostage in the capital. When Count Nugent met his death disguised as an accidental death, the North was thrown into chaos.

But because of that, you, Sion Belfast, were able to return to the North. Because there was no proxy.

And 7 years later, Arcadia Nugent commits suicide in the Southern Grand Duchy. Although he died because of me, the incident was concluded as him jumping off the balcony himself.

As if he had been secretly suffering from depression due to his father’s death and made an extreme choice.

Following Count Nugent, the Nugent family was engulfed in anger after losing Arcadia, the second son loved by the Count.

− As the First Vassal family, they shouldered the hardest times, the winter of the North, on behalf of the young Grand Duke.

And they even sent their second son, Arcadia, along with the young Grand Duke when he was sent as a hostage. As the Grand Duke’s companion and right-hand man, his confidant. But even that second son died.

What was the Grand Duke doing while the head of the family and his right-hand man were dying!

Their sense of loss led to anger towards Sion Belfast, the Northern Grand Duke. This became the starting point of the North’s division.

The Southern Grand Duke’s web of lies and discord slowly ate away at the North. And eventually, the upright North became prey to the spider.

I am trying to prevent that, Grand Duke.

But I can’t say all these words to this person now, at this moment.

What should I say?

“Directly touching Your Grace would come with great risks, but it’s different for your subordinate. Lord Arcadia has the pain of the late Northern Regent, Count Nugent. If something happens to Lord Arcadia, they can use that pain as a reason to fabricate the incident. After all, the death of the head of the Nugent family was an event that shook the entire empire.”

Slowly, I articulated my thoughts word by word. It wasn’t easy, but I managed.

Did my words reach you?

I raised my head to look at him again. The Grand Duke slowly rose from his seat. Then he took a step towards me.

“You said you were a subordinate of Lady Medeia. Then why are you telling me this?”

His blue eyes wavered differently from before. Like waves.

“…Because I think it’s not right.”

“Was that important to you?”

It was a question that hurt like a needle. But I must answer.

“It became important at some point.”

It was the truth.

I will only speak facts and truths to you.

In my previous life, I heard it before.

That the Northern Grand Duke has the power to see through people. Eyes that see through the good and evil of the inner self, that see through the truth.

That it’s the power of the Belfast bloodline.

I didn’t avoid his gaze. He took another step closer to me.

That’s when it happened. Footsteps approached from outside the room.

At that moment, the Grand Duke covered me with his outer garment that was draped over the sofa. Then he pushed me behind the bedroom.

‘!?’

He stood in front of the black curtain covering the bedroom as if to hide me, and at the same time, the door opened.

The Grand Duke spoke.

“Knocking is basic for civilized people, Arcadia.”

“Ah, Your Grace. Why are you so surprised, it’s not like I’m the Southern Grand Duke. Well, even if they wanted to come, our guards are spread out everywhere, so those Southern bastards couldn’t even peek inside here.”

“The problem is that you keep peeking at me.”

“It’s for Your Grace’s safety, safety. You know they’re such snake-like bastards.”

“Well, to catch a snake, we need a Northern snake catcher like you.”

“That’s too much, Your Grace.”

“Arcadia, I need my own time too. I was just about to change clothes, I was startled thinking it might be a strange woman.”

“Oh my, Your Grace, you’re naughty. Is that what you were secretly hoping for?”

“Ar. Ca. Di. A.”

The Grand Duke called Arcadia’s name in staccato. A playful threat. Arcadia retreated with a laugh at that threat.

“Yes, yes, this Northern snake catcher will withdraw. Oh, by the way, the evening banquet will be held in the main castle.”

“That’s a relief.”

“It was hard breaking the stubbornness of those Southern bastards who kept trying to come this way.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing. To create a diversion, I had to do at least this much.”

Arcadia left with an exaggerated farewell. I recalled the Arcadia from my previous life, with his long platinum blonde hair and green eyes. He was a pure and mysterious man.

But it turns out he was quite mischievous.

They are very close, aren’t they?

Then suddenly, I realized I was pressed against the Grand Duke with just a curtain between us. He was standing in front of me, holding the curtain with one hand to prevent it from opening.

He hid me.

The Grand Duke had a scent of the Northern wind that I seemed to have smelled before. A scent that mixed the smell of grass, trees, and snow.

Suddenly, it was so dizzying that my spine chilled.

If I can smell the Grand Duke’s scent, wouldn’t the Grand Duke be able to smell me too?

Frozen, I inhaled the smell coming from my body. It smelled of the acrid and musty underground passage.

How embarrassing.

My cheeks flushed without me realizing.

That’s when the Grand Duke spoke.

“You’re still covering the uninjured side of your face.”

My heart sank.

He remembers me, the Grand Duke does.

“I can’t let you out, so you’ll have to go back the way you came. Will that be alright?”

“It, it’s fine.”

I answered like a wooden puppet. But I must say my final words.

“Your Grace, please be careful of everything. I don’t know when or how they will administer the poison.”

Instead of answering, the Grand Duke nodded.