“I heard a strange sound.”

The child responded with clear eyes.

Her attitude seemed to suggest that there was not a single shred of deceit in her words.

Seeing this, Cailius narrowed his eyes. The child continued, disregarding the suspicious gaze.

“So I came out to check, and a suspicious person went into the Duke’s room. But there was no one around…”

Tears welled up in her large eyes, as if she would burst into crying at any moment.

“Did you not think about the danger you could have faced? How dare you, without any fear.”

“I was scared too! But since the Duke was also in danger…”

The child finally sobbed. Philen, who was beside her, looked at the dropping tears with a sympathetic expression.

“Our little lady, you must have been so frightened…”

Not stopping there, he took out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to the child.

“Sniff, thank you. Philen.”

“You’re welcome.”

Cailius narrowed his eyes and examined the child.

‘She’s lying again.’

Cailius easily saw through the child’s lie. It was the same as when she had come to him the other day, saying she would give him a cookie in the morning.

The child was lying to hide something.

Cailius rolled his eyes.

Even if he questioned further, the cunning child would continue to evade answering in that manner.

Moreover, when he had seen the child crying upon seeing him for the first time, he didn’t care, but for some reason, now the child’s crying was very irritating.

After sending the crying child back to her room, Cailius thought.

‘She’s definitely hiding something.’

No clues that seemed easy to catch came to mind. Then, Philen muttered beside him.

“My lord, I will further strengthen the security of the mansion. Even if we leave what they are doing alone, it would be a big problem if the little lady witnesses such a thing again.”

“…Again?”

“Yes, last time they even attempted poisoning, remember? Fortunately, the little lady was in her room at that time.”

Suddenly, a memory that he had lightly passed over came to mind.

“Ah.”

He had caught the clue. Cailius gave a hollow laugh.

* * *

It was a peaceful morning like any other. I, who had failed to escape even after staying up for several nights, woke up with difficulty.

‘It’s impossible to attempt to run away right now.’

Due to the assassin who had barged in the other night, knights were deployed throughout the mansion, and the security of the ducal family was further strengthened. In this situation, it was impossible for me to leave the house without others noticing.

In the end, I decided not to attempt to run away for the time being.

‘I might get into bigger trouble if I get caught trying to run away.’

The Duke had already called me separately to question me.

Fortunately, I was quite good at lying, so I was able to get past yesterday’s incident safely.

Judging by Philen’s reaction next to me, it seemed like I had acted well enough.

Unlike Philen, the Duke didn’t even blink an eye.

That part was a little concerning, but since the Duke rarely showed any change in expression anyway, I decided to let it go.

I wriggled under the blanket, thinking about what to do today in my head.

‘Save more emergency funds, eat snacks diligently, and have good meals.’

Since I decided to stay longer, I planned to spend my time very productively.

However, regardless of the plans I made in my head, drowsiness poured over me.

‘This is all because I saw that scene last night.’

Actually, it wasn’t just because I was pondering that I stayed up all night.

Perhaps because I directly witnessed the scene where the assassin barged in yesterday, I couldn’t easily close my eyes. The scenery of that day kept appearing in my mind.

‘Yawn…’

“Little lady, it’s time to wake up now.”

Just then, Sophia entered. Seeing Delma following behind her, I went back under the blanket and wriggled.

“Are you very sleepy? But you shouldn’t wake up too late.”

“Mhm.”

I slowly got up. As I let out a big yawn, Sophia chuckled beside me.

‘I think my eyes are swollen too.’

Perhaps because I couldn’t sleep at all, my eyes were full of eye crust today.

I got up unsteadily to follow Sophia to the bathroom, when suddenly I saw a huge silhouette behind her.

‘Who is that?’

I naturally thought it was Delma, but it wasn’t. Delma wasn’t that tall.

“Sophia.”

“Yes?”

“Who is that over there?”

“That is the knight who will be in charge of guarding the little lady for the time being.”

Guard?

“The Duke was very worried because of yesterday’s incident. He said he would assign a guard until the end of the overall recruitment period.”

The Duke was worried about me? That sounded highly suspicious. And a guard at that.

‘I’m just staying at home though?’

By the way, the silhouette seemed somewhat familiar.

As I raised my head with a yawn, not thinking much of it, my body froze stiff.

The knight whose eyes met mine approached and greeted me.

“Hello, I am Yan Beiholt, who will be in charge of guarding from today.”

“…”

“It is an honor to be the young lady’s guard.”

Yan gave me a gentle smile. Sophia, who was beside me, spoke with a laugh.

“Come to think of it, you were the knight who escorted the little lady on the first day, right? You must be happy, little lady.”

“…”

I silently entered the bathroom and gently closed the door.

“Oh my, why is she acting like that?”

* * *

A faint smile appeared on Cailius’s lips as he was working. Seeing this, Philen was startled.

“Y-You’ve finally made up your mind?”

Upon hearing Philen’s words, Cailius’s brows narrowed instantly.

His expression was filled with coldness as if he had never smiled.

“About what?”

“To finally punish that ignorant and rampaging thing…!”

Cailius’s eyes turned frosty as he looked at Philen.

Seeing his reaction that seemed to have completely misunderstood, Philen asked again with a puzzled look.

“Then why do you look so pleased?”

“Me?”

“Yes, my lord.”

Philen tilted his head. The conversation didn’t seem to be progressing normally.

“You must have seen wrong.”

Cailius replied bluntly.

Philen was quick-witted.

He knew that Cailius didn’t want to continue the conversation any further.

However, he wasn’t the type to just let go of what he had clearly seen with his own eyes.

“No, my lord, you definitely smiled like this just now.”

Philen even purposely raised the corners of his own mouth to demonstrate.

Well, to be more precise, rather than smiling, the corners of Cailius’s lips had just slightly risen.

Anyway, to Philen, it was as if Cailius had grinned from ear to ear.

Cailius raised his head, eyes narrowed. Silence flowed.

The quick-witted Philen hurriedly grabbed the signed documents.

“Then I’ll be going.”

Before Cailius could say anything, Philen ran away, his back disappearing. The door slammed shut.

Cailius’s dissatisfied gaze remained fixed on the door for a while. It was an expression that seemed to say, should I call him back or not?

If it weren’t for the work piled up like a mountain, he would have called that irritating fellow back.

However, Cailius let out a short sigh and began reviewing the documents again.

After a few minutes, the corners of his lips that had defied his will slightly rose.

‘Well, it was a bit amusing.’

Who would have thought that the sound at that time was that child.

A few days ago, when he was dealing with the assassin who had attempted to poison him, he had heard small footsteps outside the door.

At that time, the presence had been so trivial that he had simply ignored it.

No, even if he had known that the sound that day belonged to someone other than Philen or the servants, he couldn’t have immediately suspected that child.

After all, she was only a 4-year-old child.

If it were a normal 4-year-old child, they wouldn’t be able to pretend they didn’t see such a scene. When they see such a scene, wouldn’t it be normal for them to immediately sit down and cry and fuss?

But that child was different.

She pretended not to have seen it, not to know, and deceived him and everyone in the mansion.

Now that he knew the child’s intention, everything fit together like a puzzle.

Roaming around the mansion as if exploring during the day and encountering her at the main gate every morning.

‘She must have been trying to leave the house.’

Perhaps she thought this place was dangerous in her own way and tried to leave.

He had brought her here with the intention of using her appropriately, but it became a bit of a headache that she didn’t move according to his intentions. Even if he told her not to leave, she wouldn’t have listened if she were a child who would listen.

Rather, since she was a clever child, direct threats might have worked.

However, the problem, if it could be called a problem, was that he didn’t feel like doing that to that child.

On the other hand, it wasn’t in his nature to just let this go either.

So instead, he decided to warn the child in a different way.

The guard assigned to Diane starting today had that kind of meaning.

Let’s see how his daughter would react.

‘Now, let’s see how my daughter will come out.’

A curve formed on Cailius’s lips.

There was a clear look of amusement on his face.

* * *

‘That evil villain Duke!’

As the carefully stacked blocks suddenly collapsed, Delma, who was next to me, came closer with a startled look.

“Little lady, is playing with blocks not fun? Shall we do a puzzle instead?”

“…No, it’s fun.”

I muttered with a face that showed no enjoyment at all.

Delma tilted her head but sat beside me and helped me stack the blocks again.

I had chosen to play with blocks, which required concentration, in order to intentionally calm my mind, but it wasn’t very effective. My heart still wouldn’t settle, and my mind was boiling with anger.

‘What a wicked villain! The Duke is the worst among villains!’

“Oh my, little lady. If you put so much force on the blocks, they will collapse soon.”

Delma said as I stacked the blocks roughly. I took deep breaths to find stability.

Still, the fact that the Duke was bad remained unchanged.

‘He did it on purpose, on purpose!’

Even while stacking blocks, my thoughts were only filled with that.

It was about the reason why the Duke had assigned a guard to me.

‘He noticed, for sure.’

It was already suspicious anyway. I should have realized it when he calmly let me go yesterday. The Duke must have figured out that I had been attempting to run away all this time.

He blatantly assigned a guard to me.

Sophia and Delma said the Duke did it because he was worried about me, but I didn’t think so at all.

‘It must be to keep an eye on me.’

Anyway, he brought me here because he needed me.

He would probably try to keep me in his grasp until my usefulness ran out.

I had no intention of leaving for the time being anyway, so that wasn’t a big problem.

However, I had a big problem at hand.

‘He never does this on any other day!’

Originally, I always got up before Sophia or Delma came. Also, my face might be a little swollen in the morning, but not to this extent.

And I always go wash my face as soon as I wake up!

But why did Yan have to be there of all times!

‘Sob, it’s all ruined.’

Unable to hide my gloomy mood, I buried my face in my hands.