Suddenly, a heavy pressure weighed down, sending chills throughout my entire body.

“What were you supposed to do today?”

“…”

“Weren’t you supposed to stay quietly in your room?”

Even though his expression wasn’t much different from his usual emotionless face, my breath caught and my whole body tensed up.

It was an incomparable fear to when I had faced the assassin earlier.

I barely managed to open my mouth. But contrary to my will, my lips trembled.

“I, I, well, that is…”

“My lord, it seems the young miss is quite startled as well.”

Philen seemed to pity me and tried to save me. However, the duke paid no heed to his words.

“Diane, say it with your own mouth. What you promised me last time.”

Hearing those words, I understood why the duke was so angry.

It was because I didn’t keep my promise.

‘Of course, there’s no way the duke would have worried about me.’

I spoke with my gaze lowered to the floor.

“I was supposed to stay in my room.”

“Then why were you out? I see you even changed your clothes.”

“…”

“Did you have no intention of listening to me from the start?”

“No, I…”

“Just tell me why you were out.”

The continuous interrogation suddenly made me feel choked up with sorrow.

“…I was trying to find the bad person who entered your room, Duke…”

“So you’re saying you caused this accident while doing unnecessary things I didn’t ask you to do.”

Before I could finish speaking, the duke let out an irritated sigh.

At that response, I tightly shut my mouth.

‘What on earth was I expecting from the duke?’

It’s not like the duke would have been in a life-threatening situation from those assassins anyway.

Even in the original story, he meets his end at the hands of the adult male lead.

No, even putting aside the original story, those with merely that level of skill could never kill the duke.

Knowing that, why did I still want to find the culprit?

Why couldn’t I just stand by and watch the duke fall into danger?

The words ‘unnecessary things’ pierced through, pricking my heart.

I tried to take a deep breath calmly.

‘It’s okay, I didn’t do it expecting appreciation from the start.’

Whether the villain duke appreciates it or not, I did it because it was dangerous for me.

I did it for myself.

…But why do I feel like this.

“My, my lord.”

“What.”

“The young miss is…”

The duke looked down at me with an expression unable to hide his surprise.

Philen fidgeted and took out a handkerchief, but it was of no use. Even before he could offer the handkerchief, tear drops fell to the floor like chicken droppings.

“Are you hurt somewhere? Are you injured?”

The duke examined me with very confused eyes.

Beside him, Philen said, ‘I don’t think she’s crying because of that,’ but the duke didn’t seem to hear.

“If you’re hurt, say so.”

“…”

“Stop crying and speak.”

“…Uugh.”

The tears that had started flowing eventually poured out like a broken dam.

The duke lifted me up like a bundle and carefully set me down on the floor.

The duke’s face, now level with mine, showed clear signs of bewilderment.

“Sniff, waaah…”

It had been a long time since I’d really cried like this.

I kept wiping away tears with the back of my hand, but they flowed too heavily to be wiped away so easily.

“It doesn’t seem like you’re injured.”

The duke looked me over this way and that. His hands hesitated around me, not quite daring to touch me.

‘I feel so wronged, really.’

I was surprised too, I was scared too.

I knew it was dangerous, but I actually did it for the duke’s sake.

Just then, I saw Sophia approaching from afar with a surprised face.

Beside her, Philen was running along too, so it seemed he had called for Sophia.

I quickly ran to her.

“Sophiaaa!”

* * *

Sniff, sniff.

My vision blurred.

Soon, tears like chicken droppings rolled down my cheeks.

“Young miss…”

Beside me, I could see Sophia and Delma fidgeting anxiously.

I didn’t want to cry just from seeing them, but tears kept leaking out.

In the meantime, my eyes quickly filled with tears again.

I roughly wiped them with my sleeve and then opened my mouth.

Sophia, as if she had been waiting, popped in a fruit pudding.

Though it was a pudding wet with tears, it was sweet and tangy.

“Would you like more pudding?”

Sophia seemed to feel sorry for me like this. The pudding was delicious, but after crying so much, I felt very hungry.

When hungry, cookies are better than pudding, but pudding is delicious too…

“But Sophia.”

“Yes, young miss.”

“I… want to eat cookies too…”

I mumbled dejectedly. The pooled tears dripped onto the back of my hand.

At that, both Sophia and Delma’s expressions became solemn.

“We’ll need to bake fresh cookies. I’ll go bake some with lots of chocolate, so please wait a little!”

“Then I’ll bring more pudding!”

Delma and Sophia left my room in an instant.

Left alone in the room again, I chewed on the sweet pudding still in my mouth.

‘Two puddings and cookies too in one day.’

It’s sad, but that’s one good thing.

‘It’ll be delicious.’

Still, my tears had subsided a little from before. Earlier, I really couldn’t control myself and tears just kept flowing endlessly.

I blew my nose into a handkerchief.

‘I was really scared.’

It was the first time I’d ever seen the duke so angry.

I know I did wrong too, but I really was in a life-threatening situation.

But suddenly being interrogated by the duke with such a fierce look, I couldn’t help but be startled.

‘…And I did it for whose sake?’

I was trying to prevent the duke from drinking poison.

Of course, it’s natural that the duke wouldn’t know my intentions.

But getting angry without even asking for a reason, saying I ignored his words, is too much.

‘I was really scared.’

Thinking about it made me feel wronged again. My vision started to waver once more.

“As expected of the villain duke.”

I did it all for the duke’s sake. Now I won’t worry about the duke anymore. Whether assassins come again or not, whether he drinks poison or not.

‘I absolutely won’t care anymore.’

I rubbed my eyes again with my right sleeve.

But suddenly I felt an oppressive gaze from the side.

There was only me in the room, how strange.

‘What is it?’

When I turned my head, I saw a slender silver body and bright red eyes.

“Oh, it’s that snake from earlier.”

It was the silver snake that had saved me from the assassin earlier.

I was wondering if I had seen wrong when it suddenly disappeared earlier.

But seeing it appear again like this, it seems it wasn’t completely an illusion.

The silver snake was coiled up on the floor, I don’t know since when.

If this was my first time seeing this snake, I might have been startled out of my wits.

However, I knew this snake had saved me earlier. So rather than being creeped out, I felt more curious and glad to see it, but it didn’t seem to feel the same.

[What did you just say?!]

“Huh?”

An angry voice echoed in my head. Flustered, I looked around.

[I’m asking what you just said!]

Gasp, come to think of it, this was the voice I had heard earlier.

The voice that suddenly shouted to dodge before the display case fell over.

“What, what?”

[I’m asking what you just said! Why can’t humans understand when told once?]

The silver snake grumbled. I answered in a daze.

“As expected of the villain duke, is what I said…”

[Not that.]

“Um… then, ‘Oh, it’s that snake from earlier’?”

[Eek! Yes, that!]

The coiled snake raised its body.

It brought its head close to me, flicking its red tongue and making a hissing sound.

[You dare compare me to a mere beast?!]

“What? Is this you talking?”

[Yes!]

“Huh? How can a snake talk?”

[You, you…! You called me a snake again! Well you’re the most worthless and talkative human among all the lowly creatures in this world!]

The silver snake swung its head around as if agitated.

Its tail slapped against the floor.

Just then, the door burst open.

“Young miss! I brought the pudding first… huh?”

Delma’s head turned stiffly. Her mouth opened and closed silently.

“Th-that, sn-snake…”

And then she fainted.

* * *

“Really, I’m telling you! There really was a pale snake in the young miss’s room!”

Delma kept repeating the same words while gesticulating with both hands.

I said nothing and kept chewing on the cookies Sophia had brought.

“Delma, you must have seen wrong.”

Sophia wiped off the cookie crumbs on my mouth.

Meanwhile, I stuffed the last piece of cookie into my mouth in one bite.

“But I really saw it…”

Delma trailed off, tilting her head while looking wronged. With no evidence left before her eyes, she seemed unsure as well.

“You didn’t see it, young miss?”

“Huh?”

“The snake, there was definitely a silver snake here earlier, right?”

“Well, about that…”

I rolled my eyes around. Seeing my reaction, Sophia cut in.

“Delma, it can happen when you’re tired.”

“That’s right, Delma must have been tired.”

I quickly agreed with Sophia’s words. Delma pressed her temples with both hands and said:

“Ugh, I guess that must be it? If so, that’s really a relief. I have been feeling a bit tired lately. I mean, a snake in the young miss’s room! It’s too horrifying to even imagine!”

I apologized to Delma in my heart.

‘Delma, I’m sorry.’

Actually, what Delma saw wasn’t an illusion. I saw that silver snake too.

I even talked with it.

However, the silver snake had slipped under my bed while Delma was unconscious. It even threatened me before going in.

[Don’t say anything about me! If you do, I won’t let you off easy, you lacking and foolish creature!]

It was probably still under the bed listening to everything we were saying.

But even without the snake’s threat, I had no intention of talking about this incident. It was obvious that only I would get a headache if I did.

Just then, someone knocked on the door. It was Philen.

“Um, what is the young miss doing?”

Philen looked around the room searching for me.

I quickly slipped under the covers and pulled them up over my head.

The reason Philen came looking for me was obvious.

“As you can see, the young miss is feeling a bit… Could you please tell them she’s taking a nap for now?”

“…Yes, I understand.”

At Sophia’s words, Philen dejectedly agreed and left.

Sophia must have returned to my side, as she gently patted the blanket.

“The duke was probably worried about you and that’s why he acted like that. You really could have been seriously hurt.”

Sophia continued speaking softly.

“He was probably angrier at himself than at you.”

That can’t be, Sophia.

I let out a deep sigh under the blanket.

‘If that were the case, he would have asked if I was okay before getting angry.’