Just as she wondered what to do, Cabelased caught the falling frame from the floor.

Surprised by his quick reflexes for a moment, Jieselgrante soon blamed herself for her dullness.

‘To not notice until he came so close…!’

The rug on the floor was quite soft.

That’s why she couldn’t hear his footsteps.

Being deeply lost in thought also played a part in not noticing him approach so close.

Though finding the cause was already too late.

Jieselgrante bit her lower lip, blaming herself for her foolish mistake.

And then.

At the end of her lowered gaze, the back of the frame came into view.

Unlike moments ago when it was fitted snugly in the frame, the picture inside was slightly askew.

And behind the frame, there was a short phrase.

“In Rugal……”

There seemed to be a following sentence, but it wasn’t visible.

“Seems you were bored of waiting.”

Saying that, Cabelased handed the frame he was holding to the butler.

The butler, after checking the picture in the frame, made a troubled expression.

As Jieselgrante was about to ask about the portrait in the frame while watching this,

The maids entered the reception room pushing trolleys.

They swiftly cleared the empty teacups from the table and set new teacups and desserts.

“Sit down.”

Only after the butler and maids left the reception room did Jieselgrante apologize for the earlier incident with the frame.

“I apologize for my rudeness earlier.”

“……”

Despite Jieselgrante’s apology, Cabelased made no particular reply and brought the teacup to his lips.

Touching someone’s belongings without permission in an unoccupied space was clearly a breach of etiquette.

But she couldn’t not ask.

“Is that a portrait of the previous Duchess of Cardia?”

Jieselgrante asked, deliberately feigning ignorance.

“Did it look that way?”

“Was it not?”

“I’m not sure what you want to hear. You didn’t come all this way to interrogate me……”

Cabelased slowly looked her over with narrowed eyes.

Then, slightly raising the corner of his mouth, he continued.

“……Didn’t you have business with me? Something urgent and important enough to come here in that state.”

As expected, Cabelased was not an easy person to deal with.

Noticing that he wanted to change the subject, Jieselgrante had no choice but to bring up the original purpose of her visit to the Duke of Cardia’s residence.

“There’s someone who can play a big role in Your Grace’s great work.”

Cabelased looked at Jieselgrante quietly with furrowed brows.

He seemed to be thinking about what his great work was and how she knew about it.

But before long, he opened his mouth.

“I’m a bit curious who that might be.”

“It’s the daughter of Count Greykin, who was Princess Trinity’s lady-in-waiting.”

“If I’m not mistaken, the daughter of Count Greykin is currently under house arrest?”

Jieselgrante nodded slightly and said.

“That’s right. But since the last trial, someone has appeared who wishes for the daughter of Count Greykin to disappear from the world.”

Cabelased nodded with an expression of understanding.

Jieselgrante continued immediately.

“I hope Your Grace would protect the daughter of Count Greykin. Then she will surely repay the Duke of Cardia appropriately for helping her in difficult times.”

“I tend not to make verbal promises.”

“What would it take for you to believe?”

Just as she was about to say she would write a contract if he wanted, Cabelased proposed first.

“I think we’ll need someone to guarantee those words.”

“I will guarantee it.”

Jieselgrante answered without hesitation.

“Alright, let’s do that.”

Contrary to her expectation that persuasion would be necessary, Cabelased gave an affirmative answer.

The relief was short-lived as Cabelased immediately continued.

“But let me add one condition.”

Returning to the mansion, Jieselgrante curled up in a hot bathtub.

The bath water, slightly hotter than body temperature, seemed to wash away the day’s fatigue.

After briefly enjoying the warmth of the water touching her skin with her eyes closed, the conversation she had with Cabelased invaded her mind.

‘I promise to protect the safety of Count Greykin’s daughter.’ @italic

Her joy at those words was short-lived. Cabelased had made a completely unexpected request.

‘To visit the Duke of Cardia’s residence periodically through the Radcliffe Guild….’

She couldn’t quite grasp his psychology, what intention he had in saying that.

She mulled over their conversation for a while to understand his intentions, but no matter how much she thought about it, no answer came.

She decided to set aside the unsolved questions for now.

Jieselgrante recalled the phrase written on the back of the portrait.

‘Rugal. Where have I heard the word Rugal before….’

After much thought, she easily remembered that Rugal was a small place name marked on the empire’s map.

And that it was located on the border between the Duke of Cardia’s territory and Count Fortress’s territory.

But that was all.

It wasn’t a territory belonging to a powerful family, nor did it have any specialties that would immediately bring to mind like Perpetuom Mountain when mentioning silk, so her impression of Rugal was vague.

‘But the fact that I still remember it means it’s related to something.’

She closed her eyes in frustration as she couldn’t immediately recall what it was, and after a while, she remembered something she had forgotten.

She had heard that when her mother, the previous Empress, was about to give birth to her, she left the Imperial Palace and prepared for the birth in Rugal.

As her frustration about Rugal somewhat subsided, a new question arose.

‘But why Rugal of all places?’

Of course, it wasn’t entirely without precedent, but it was certainly a different approach from previous empresses who prepared for childbirth in the Imperial Palace under extreme protection.

Leaving the Imperial Palace to give birth.

At the time, many people questioned the Emperor for allowing the Empress, pregnant with their precious first child, to be away from the Imperial Palace.

It would have been a better choice to keep the Empress close by and watch whether the child to be born would be a prince or princess who might aim for his neck.

Jieselgrante, who had been pondering these unresolved questions until the moment she fell asleep, headed to the library as soon as she woke up the next day.

Hoping to find clues about it.

But it was unreasonable to expect to obtain as rare information as in the Imperial library.

This would be the same even if she went to a bookstore.

‘It would be nice if I could go to the Imperial library.’

As she was thinking this while leaving the library, Lindsey came running breathlessly and shouted.

“My lady! Please look at this.”

Lindsey held out a parchment, and Jieselgrante hurriedly read its contents.

It was a letter of greetings sent to her elder sister Lindsey from Olga.

“This part.”

Lindsey quickly pointed to a part of the letter.

There was a phrase hinting at the death of Count Zimmer’s daughter.

Although she had expected the Empress to counterattack, the speed was truly surprising.

Considering that she dealt with the related person in less than a week after the trial.

If she hadn’t quickly evacuated her, Count Greykin’s daughter might have lost her life like Count Zimmer’s daughter.

“My lady. Someone from the Radcliffe Guild has arrived.”

At the butler’s words, Jieselgrante hurriedly made her way to the reception room.

Pratt, who was waiting in the reception room, bowed deeply and held out a parchment.

“Here is the list of ordered items. Please confirm.”

Jieselgrante quickly scanned the list of items she received from Pratt.

Since she had created it herself, she could interpret it immediately without a separate cipher table.

It contained the news of Count Zimmer’s daughter’s death and Count Greykin’s daughter’s disappearance that she had just heard from Lindsey, stating that Count Zimmer’s daughter was found dead by the lakeside of the villa where she was under house arrest.

‘Wait, lakeside?’

Jieselgrante’s brows furrowed slightly.

She had visited Count Zimmer’s daughter in person before the trial.

And there was no lake anywhere near the villa.

There was only a shallow stream crossing the fields.

But if news spread that Count Zimmer’s daughter had died by slipping and falling into the water at the lakeside, other people would undoubtedly accept it at face value.

But would Count Zimmer?

She had heard that Count Greykin had made a deal with the Empress over his daughter’s life.

Agreeing to keep silent in exchange for just saving her life.

Presumably, Count Zimmer had also likely made a deal with the Empress.

Agreeing to give up something in exchange for saving his daughter’s life.

Nobles were sharp in calculations.

But his daughter, who had been living peacefully, suddenly died.

And around the same time, Count Greykin’s daughter also went missing.

Count Zimmer was not dull enough to accept the reported facts as they were.

There was a high possibility that he would retaliate against the Empress who broke her promise, whenever that might be.

Of course, the Empress would say that it was Count Zimmer’s daughter who broke the promise first.

The question was whether such an excuse would reach Count Zimmer’s ears now that he had lost his family.

With this, the Empress had lost the support of yet another person, no, the support of the Zimmer family, one of the empire’s powerful families.

Losing the nobles closely connected to Count Zimmer was an added loss.