Eddie Lev, who clearly seemed to have rushed over, had anxiety plastered all over his solemn face.

It was because of the report that came in yesterday.

News that the First Prince Boloniko had visited the Lev family tomb.

“Boloniko?”

“Moreover, I heard your wife returned home later than usual yesterday. Isn’t that right?”

“What are you trying to say?”

Clard’s face twisted with displeasure.

“So you’re saying Boloniko suddenly visited the family tomb, and Yuan was there. But why does it seem to me that you’re more suspicious than worried?”

“I heard they were talking in front of Louise Peliesse’s gravestone. It didn’t seem like just exchanging greetings. Additionally, I don’t know what they did, but she returned only after sunset on a trip that should have taken two or three hours at most? Isn’t that too suspicious?”

“She said she got motion sickness. Her complexion was poor all day yesterday.”

“I could make such excuses too. I just finished questioning the coachman. While they were taking a short rest at the estate with the carriage waiting, your wife got in, and then some strangers suddenly drove the carriage into the forest!”

“What?”

A more serious expression appeared on Clard’s face than when they were talking about Boloniko.

Eddie Lev continued, looking as if his words were finally getting through:

“When we rushed after them, those bastards had already fled, and your wife said not to make a big deal out of it-”

“Are you telling me that the servants in my household didn’t report to me that my wife was nearly kidnapped?”

Eddie, who had been speaking heatedly, froze with his mouth open.

He couldn’t understand why Clard was fixating on that when there were so many suspicious things about his wife.

“What are you saying?”

“You’re saying the servants and my wife conspired to not tell me anything. To me, it sounds like a dangerous situation. Both Yuan’s encounter with Boloniko and someone hijacking the carriage.”

“You’re the one in danger, Clard!”

Eddie shouted in frustration.

“Where is your wife now? Every morning she heads to the chapel beyond that forest. She says she’s praying, but she always disappears towards the cemetery and strange sounds are heard not long after.”

Clard’s face immediately clouded with displeasure. His sharp eyes pierced Eddie Lev’s face.

“You had someone follow her?”

“Lancelot said he ordered someone to check if there was anything uncomfortable. Did you think we were tailing her?”

“So you did have someone follow her.”

“Clard!”

Eddie shook his head in disbelief.

He had not an ounce of personal feelings for Clard’s ninth wife.

However, the top priority for him and the Lev family was solely Clard Yufris, this troublesome person.

Clard sat up straight and tapped his long fingers on the table at a steady pace.

Staring intently at that sight, Eddie suddenly blurted out a hidden truth.

“Igor Yufris. Because of that damned emperor, countless people died.”

On that day when the former emperor Alexei was gravely injured. Most of the former emperor’s closest aides who had gone on the hunting festival together were severely injured or lost their lives.

On that day when the current emperor Igor brought the northern troops into the capital under the pretext of suppressing the suddenly risen rebels and protecting Prince Clard Yufris.

There were countless deaths now buried.

The shadow of those deaths, even 10 years after Igor became emperor, would still cast the Lev brothers into a vague terror whenever they were about to forget.

If the Marquis Lev had not been by Clard’s side that day, the Lev brothers would have lost their father too.

“You can’t stand even a single insect dying in this mansion.”

“…”

“But I, Clard Yufris. Even if everyone in this mansion dies, if I could save you alone, I would do so.”

It was an excessively cold statement for someone who had long been acquainted with the servants while coming and going from the mansion.

But Eddie was sincere.

The ill-fated former crown prince Clard was the one whom the anti-emperor faction, who had bowed their heads under Igor’s tyranny, protected with all their hearts.

The treasure of Yufris.

The hope of Yufris.

To Eddie and Lancelot, Clard was a first cousin no different from a blood brother and their most beloved friend in the world.

They could not allow even the slightest possibility of danger near him. Until now, Clard had been cautious on his own, but now…

Eddie Lev glared at the book asserting its presence at the edge of the desk piled high with documents.

A collection of medical treatises that Clard had personally requested Lancelot to obtain from the marquis’s estate.

There was no way Eddie couldn’t guess who that was for.

“I don’t want to suspect your wife either. I admit, most of the credit for getting you up and working hard goes to her. Damn it.”

“…”

“But I’m anxious to the point of insanity about someone with even the slightest connection to the imperial family being by your side.”

“I’m neither a fool nor a child. If there was anything suspicious, I would have noticed first. You know me, Eddie Lev.”

“I hope so too. I hope it’s just my misunderstanding. If your wife is innocent, the problem will resolve itself.”

“…”

“Since you’re frowning like that, I’ll refrain from hasty suspicions. But I can’t help but keep watch from afar. So you should also be careful until it’s certain that it’s a misunderstanding.”

“Be careful.”

“I mean don’t give your heart.”

Clard shook his head as if he had heard something completely unsuited to him, then chuckled.

“Who was it that said if you can’t treat her well at night, at least treat her well during the day? I think it was your brother who said something like that.”

“Who said you can’t treat her well? I said don’t give your heart. Your heart.”

Eddie’s straight index finger pressed firmly against Clard’s chest.

“That vow to never love anyone. That confession that you couldn’t love anyone. Just as you told your father that since you couldn’t love, all you could do was treat them well. Don’t change from that.”

Eddie Lev passed by Yuan, who had returned to the mansion, with a brief bow.

Though it was with a somewhat chilly gaze, Yuan, who had been anxious all day about whether she might suddenly get a nosebleed or collapse, had no mental space to dwell on it.

Unaware of Yuan’s anxious mind, the maids chattered with Michelle, the dressmaker who came to the mansion almost daily.

Yuan stood still like a mannequin in the reception room, wearing the dress that Michelle had brought out, saying it was almost complete.

The dress, revealing her long neck and delicate shoulders, flowed calmly along her soft body lines.

The dress, decorated with a large organza ribbon on the chest to remove plainness, was faithful to the modest yet sparkling design unique to debutante dresses.

Yuan watched through the full-length mirror as the maids touched up her hair while putting on a set of pearl earrings and necklace, and even a small tiara also made of pearls.

The peach-colored blush that Monica had gently applied shone in the sunlight.

‘You’ll die soon too.’

I’m not going to die.

The reflection of Yuan in the mirror was small in stature, but anyone could see she looked young, healthy, and beautiful.

Yuan thought that even if others were fooled, she at least should not be deceived by her uncle’s boasts and lies.

Her uncle was nothing but a quack who used people’s anxieties to sell the medicine Yuan made, and was busy bragging about diagnosing patients’ pain that Yuan had personally experienced through his own examinations alone.

It would be the same this time too.

Because of the Peliesse business that must have lost its reputation after Yuan left.

A hypocrite pretending to care for her because he had become needy.

Just a fat hyena trying to tie her down in the name of family.

‘You’ll die soon too.’

Yuan quickly shook her head at the sentence floating in her mind.

I won’t be fooled.

‘I will never, ever go back.’

Just then, there was a bustling sound of footsteps outside, and soon the reception room door opened noisily.

The eyes of the startled people in the room turned towards the door.

Outside the door, the usually calm butler Gustav was panting.

In his wrinkled hand was a golden envelope sealed with purple wax.

The seal pressed into the wax bore the image of a wolf’s face.

It was sent from the imperial palace.

With a feeling as if her heart had sunk, Yuan took trembling steps forward.

As soon as she stood before the pale-faced butler, a hand suddenly reached between them and snatched the envelope.

“An invitation to the imperial palace debutante. The sender is… Boloniko Yufris?”

It was Clard.

Following his low voice resonating through the reception room came the excited reactions of the dressmaker’s staff and Michelle.

Leaving behind the voices of people full of anticipation, Yuan looked up at Clard, who was standing in front of the reception room door, slowly scanning the invitation.

Soon, he held out the invitation to Yuan without any comment.

Yuan did not take the invitation Clard was offering, but stared at it blankly before looking up at him again.

She did not want to hold anything related to Boloniko in her hands.

“It says you’re invited to a debutante ball held at the imperial palace. It overlaps with the day of the one at the marquis’s estate.”

Clard said as he squeezed into the reception room.

Michelle’s face, who had been gaping and focusing on what the beautiful mansion’s owner was saying, turned bright red.

“T-the imperial palace!”

The excitement of the dressmaker, who had been stuck in the northwest unable to properly showcase her skills, quickly began to spread to those around her.

The dressmaker’s staff quickly began to discuss as if there was no option of not going to the imperial palace debutante.

However, the butler and maids hesitated, waiting for the former crown prince couple’s reaction.

Clard leaned against the window on one side of the reception room, holding the invitation.

As the butler Gustav grew impatient at the master’s usual behavior, he finally spoke first.

“If you decline and go to the marquis’s estate after being personally invited to the debutante at the imperial palace, it certainly won’t be well-received. Unless you decline to attend both due to health reasons…”

The worried voice flowed between the quiet couple.

The first to react to the butler’s voice were the dressmaker Michelle and her staff gathered at a distance.

A chill like a well-honed sword passed over Michelle’s usually smiling face.

“Decline?”