Even seeing it with her own eyes, Edit couldn’t readily accept it, feeling as if time had come to a standstill.

No matter how you looked at it, the woman in the portrait was a younger Lady Lea. Moreover, the painting in front of her closely resembled the small portrait inside the rocket she received as a farewell gift, right down to the artistic style.

In the framed painting, there were a total of four women, and judging by their similar physical features, they seemed to be sisters.

With all four standing side by side, considering Lady Lea’s height, it seemed like she was the eldest.

In an instant, Edit recalled the information she had heard from Benjamin.

“Lexion is a bloodline that inherits magic through their veins. The eldest daughter of an unknown Duke and Duchess was overwhelmed by too much magic inheritance and was terminally ill.”

“In fact, at the Capital News Agency, the task I was assigned was to dig up rumors about the Duke. The Duke’s eldest daughter… What was her name again? Anyway, there was a rumor that the Lady secretly gave birth to a child.”

If Lady Lea is the Lexion Lady, all the puzzling points she had wondered about made sense.

The expensive jewelry and numerous outfits for a wandering Lady, and even her use of the excessively elaborate Capital etiquette that not even Lady Gray could imitate.

If she was originally the noble eldest daughter of the Lexion mansion, it all seemed quite natural.

The unraveling mystery wasn’t only about her identity.

Edit vividly remembered Elizabeth and Eisen’s conversation overheard in the secret passage.

“I plan to hire about 40 assassination members disguised as employees.”

“We also need to take care of anyone who might help Baelter. If we leave someone capable alive, there will undoubtedly be consequences.”

Whether it was the Huangbi family, who kept a check on Lexion more than anyone, or the two who were under the influence of Count Gerturk, it raised the question of why they were trying to kill the stable boy that the Duchess had imprisoned.

Now, the words spoken by Jeffrey, a gambling friend of Lady Lea’s who tried to kidnap her during the pregnancy congratulations party, made sense.

“The child you’re pregnant with isn’t the seed of the Duke but the bloodline of the kidnapped stable boy, isn’t it?”

“If you delay your answer, it’ll be obvious that you’re lying. Could it be that the Duchess overturned the plan and laid hands on you?”

Jeffrey spoke as if implying that Nicholas’s original plan was to have Baelter father the child, and the reason why Lady Lea was after Edit was now understood.

“Why would Baelter…?”

For the first time, the impression Edit had when she first encountered him in the duchy turned out to be accurate.

“Baelter was Isark.”
He had become proficient in handling magic to the extent that he could release his confinement magic in a short period, which was entirely possible if he had Lexion’s bloodline.

His behavior, dominating others as if it were innate, and the aspect of destroying the mansion itself when confined, perfectly matched the well-known rumors about Lexion.

As Edit pondered this, the matter of the child was more critical than anything else.

“Oh my God. Why did I lie about being Isark’s child to deceive Baelter as the father?…”

It was as if she screamed to herself that she had no other man in her life but him. Was there anything more embarrassing than being infatuated with the same person twice?

Thinking that if Baelter found out everything, he would mock her with great satisfaction, she already felt a throbbing sensation in her head.

But there was something more important than his teasing voice.

“If Baelter is Isark and a direct descendant of Lexion, then our child is…”

Edit had never spent a night with another man besides Baelter. His arrogant power ensured that no other men caught her eye.

If, as Edit concluded, Baelter was Isark, and Lady Lea Lexion’s child was correct, then the child would also be an unavoidable direct descendant of Lexion.

However, according to common talk, Lexion strictly managed bloodlines to control the power flowing through the blood. Although Lady Lea and the Duke mentioned that their father was managing bloodlines for the sake of their inherited power, the widely known image of the Duke and Lady Lea was quite different. This discrepancy left Edit even more perplexed.

What on earth was the truth? Trying not to show her confusion, Edit bit her lip to suppress her trembling.

“Madam, is there a problem?”

Although the time Edit paused to look at the painting on the wall was very short, Bain was perceptive enough to notice even the slight hesitation she showed.

“No, it’s just that I was admiring the painting hanging there.”

Edit forced a charming smile.

However, inside her head was a chain of tension, wondering how much the Duke knew and why he summoned her, or if he was aware of her pregnancy. She needed to confirm what was the truth first. There might be exceptions to cruelty, and Lady Lea may have been kind only to her or become fiercer due to her disappearance.