After finishing the conversation in the reception room, Serena Astel reluctantly paid her respects and withdrew, then returned to her bedroom. Her jaw ached from forcing a smile for too long.

“What? Only 20 minutes?”

Serena looked at the clock in her bedroom with an expression of disbelief. Though it felt like 2 hours, the time they spent alone was only 20 minutes.

“Young lady, did the audience go well?”

Anna, who happened to be passing by, spoke kindly and naturally tidied Serena’s clothes and disheveled hair.

“How could it? It was the worst.”

As Anna repositioned a slightly crooked hairpin, Serena pouted. Though already twenty-four, even Serena was always docile before Anna’s attentive touch.

“We can’t communicate at all. He has no intention of accepting that our engagement is void!”

Hoo, Serena let out a deep sigh as if complaining. With so much to do before the harvest festival, she couldn’t understand why she was held up by Lucas.

“Remember Peter said His Highness sent three messenger birds?”

“Yes? Of course.”

“He seems to have some confidence. He told me to discuss again when the messenger birds arrive.”

Crunch, Serena bit her lip.

At first, she thought he had abandoned her, and then she thought she had abandoned her fiancé, so she never expected this day to come.

“Well, fortunately, I have preparations made just in case.”

Though it was quite a troublesome task, once Serena set her mind to it, she was thorough to the end, so the preparations were sufficient.

For a noble young lady in her prime marriageable years, being neglected by her fiancé for 6 years was almost like punishment, so she could garner appropriate sympathy.

“Yes. I don’t think you need to worry too much. So don’t frown on that fair face.”

“There’s still an annoying matter left. No, it just came up a moment ago.”

“An annoying matter?”

“His Royal Highness the Crown Prince says he wants to learn and inspect while accompanying the lord who rules the Astel duchy.”

It wasn’t exactly what he said, but the content was the same.

“But the Duke is away.”

“I answered that, but he said it’s the same since I’m the acting Duke.”

As soon as she arrived at the Astel estate, Serena learned many things in the study used by generations of Dukes. As frustrated and angry as she was, she couldn’t deny that Lucas was right.

“It seems our Astel’s prosperity looks quite impressive.”

To Anna’s eyes, Serena’s face, feeling both dislike and a strange sense of superiority, looked as cute as a child’s.

“So now an uninvited guest will be involved in all my schedules. Starting with lunch together right away.”

Is Lucas’s purpose really to learn Astel’s management secrets?

Anna somehow felt that Lucas’s purpose was entirely different, but she didn’t say anything to Serena for now.

“I should hurry and inform the kitchen.”

“Leave it. Just add one more portion.”

“But His Highness the Crown Prince…”

Serena’s gaze was resolute.

“If he’s curious about Astel, we should show him as it is. I’ll follow the royal order, but that doesn’t mean special treatment.”

Anna nodded with an unsure expression. Failing to properly serve the Crown Prince was a great offense, but it was also meaningless in the current situation.

“This might be for the best. If he follows me around for just one day, he might give up after seeing how busy and tired I am all day.”

“But His Highness has experience with arduous wandering, training, and battlefields.”

Serena, who had plopped down on the sofa, raised her index finger and wagged it left and right.

“Anna. Everyone has their own battlefield.”

Serena, who smiled arrogantly, was indeed an eccentric young lady.

“His Highness was born with noble status, so he’s never received the same treatment as others. Even on the battlefield.”

She wasn’t looking down on Lucas’s training and battlefield experience. Seeing his transformed appearance, one could tell he had lived with firm resolve and will.

“No matter how strong a warrior, no matter how much he wandered the continent, His Highness would have always received special treatment. That’s how it must be.”

“Young lady, no matter how much you dislike His Highness, you mustn’t treat him rudely.”

“I know. But since His Highness personally said he wants to experience the same life as me, isn’t this following his orders?”

Her blue eyes shone particularly mischievously.

“Rather, giving special treatment to the Crown Prince would be disloyalty.”

Serena’s interpretation was thoroughly self-centered. It was also because she viewed this whole situation as a fight that Lucas had initiated.

“Since he wants to know the life of a lord, tell everyone not to give any special treatment except for the basic courtesy due to royalty. For meals, travel, official duties, everything.”

“If that is truly your wish, young lady…”

As Anna trailed off, Serena suddenly caught a thought that crossed her mind.

“Anna.”

“Yes?”

“To truly feel the life of a lord, wouldn’t it be better if the imperial guard knight stepped aside?”

What is she going to say now? Anna looked at Serena with uneasy eyes.

“I mean Sir Cedric, His Highness’s knight. If by chance the knight becomes free today, we might have an opportunity to exploit.”

“What kind of opportunity?”

“We have Peter.”

At those words, Anna slowly nodded.

“Wasn’t Peter originally a knight? And the captain of the Astel knights at that.”

“Yes, that’s right. He was injured trying to protect the Duke on the battlefield, and even after retiring, he became the head servant, saying he would remain loyal to the Duke.”

Astel had a strong knighthood befitting its prosperity. Though not very numerous, they were all excellent swordsmen with loyalty no less than the imperial knights.

Thanks to this, Peter’s loyalty became a model for the Astel knights, and even now, the captain’s position remained vacant in his honor, with the vice-captain leading the knights.

“Any young knight like Sir Cedric would admire a retired knight who shared joys and sorrows with his lord and kept his loyalty.”

“You mean to use Peter as a spy?”

“No. No matter how young, he’s the Crown Prince’s attendant knight. He wouldn’t betray his lord with such a shallow trick. But if they talk as knights, maybe we can hear about the hardships he’s been through with his lord?”

Anna wanted to say that was exactly what spying meant, but she just nodded. She knew from experience that when Serena’s eyes shone like that, no one could stop her.

“I’ll let Peter know.”

Serena nodded, still with a mischievous smile on her lips.

Lucas added a few more items to the small notebook he always kept in his breast pocket. It was a method he had learned from his mentor since he was very young, and it had been a great help in organizing his thoughts and gaining knowledge.

“Do you have that much to write again?”

As Cedric asked, seeing the familiar sight, Lucas nodded and continued moving his pen.

“There’s no end to my curiosity about Astel.”

While wandering the continent, he had seen wealthy domains and fertile domains, but it was the first time he had seen a place with such an inexplicable yet clearly established system as Astel.

“More importantly, when do you think the messenger birds will return?”

Tap, Lucas asked as he closed his notebook.

“Since you sent them yesterday… It will take a good three or four days for all to return. However, the imperial palace is not that far, so it might come as early as tomorrow.”

“No. I don’t want to reveal my cards one by one.”

Lucas had decided to challenge Serena when all three replies were gathered. The similar attitudes of the two people conflicting over marriage was a strange and amusing sight to others.

“Rather, I need to investigate that blasphemous rumor I heard yesterday.”

“Pardon?”

“The rumor that Grand Duke Farel proposed to the Duke’s daughter!”

Innocent boys didn’t know how to filter their words and were just excited to brag about how great the young lady was, chattering away about the Grand Duke’s tearful proposal.

“The Grand Duke wouldn’t acknowledge it based on just the testimony of some common children.”

“That’s why I’m telling you to find out. Talk to the young lady’s close associates and gradually get them to open up. You know… naturally.”

The two of them didn’t realize it, but what they were trying to do now was similar.

“I’ll try my best, but I’m not good with words, so I can’t promise anything.”

“Today I’m scheduled to spend time with the young lady acting as Duke, so naturally step away from assisting me and find a suitable conversation partner.”

“Yes.”

Lucas stood by the window, gazing at the bright autumn sky. Perhaps it was his mood, but the autumn sky in Astel seemed more beautiful than anywhere else. Maybe it felt that way because of the beauty of its owner.

“Cedric.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Was the Duke’s daughter like this at the engagement ceremony too?”

Cedric blinked a couple of times at the incomprehensible question.

“She was wearing formal attire then.”

“No, I mean, was she like this then too… I mean.”

“Her height seems similar to back then.”

“I know that. I mean, a little more…”

Having brought it up first, he couldn’t quite get out the question he wanted to ask.

“I only saw her veiled appearance then, so I’m not sure.”

Lucas too knew only that Serena’s features were elegant and her face was fair beneath the veil at the engagement ceremony.

That’s why he felt even more shabby next to her taller figure and ended up getting angry for no reason. Moreover, due to the height difference, he kissed her hand instead of her lips as was customary, so his memory was faint after such a long time.

“What’s the matter, Your Highness?”

“Nothing.”

Serena’s face in the increasingly deep blue dress was still vivid. At first, when she entered the reception room, he was so flustered by her appearance that he didn’t even know what he said.

“It’s nothing.”

Lucas ended up evading his own words. He couldn’t bring himself to ask Cedric if Serena’s appearance had always been this lovely and beautiful.

“Honestly, I thought I might be disappointed when I saw the young lady again.”

It was training that began because he wanted to surpass her. Sometimes he worried that he might feel nothing for her after achieving only that goal and reuniting.

“It was truly a needless worry.”

Lucas smiled, raising the corners of his mouth as he thought of Serena.

Serena was exactly as Lucas had dreamed of her. No, she was even more slender and elegant, and her face, glowing with vitality, felt incredibly beautiful.

That alone meant Lucas’s dream was half fulfilled.