My eyes didn’t open easily. I struggled to open them.

Perhaps because I had fallen asleep crying, my eyes seemed to have swollen up.

‘Blanket…’

Looking out the window, it was already deep into the dark night.

I fumbled with one hand, searching for the blanket. Then someone pulled the blanket over and covered me up to my neck.

Naturally thinking it was Sophia, I turned my head.

However, the one who had covered me with the blanket was the Duke.

Sleep fled instantly. As I opened my eyes wide, he spoke indifferently.

“Sleep more.”

“Where are Sophia and Delma?”

“They left earlier.”

Half-asleep, I was about to go back under the covers with my eyes tightly shut, but I paused.

‘Why is the Duke in my room anyway?’

A sigh was about to escape involuntarily. Even with my eyes closed, I felt as if I could vividly sense the Duke’s gaze.

Sure enough, when I slightly opened my eyes again, I met the Duke’s gaze directly.

In the end, I slowly sat up.

“Why are you getting up instead of sleeping?”

‘How can I sleep when you’re staring like that…’

I shook my head without replying.

And I steeled myself mentally. I didn’t want to cry in front of the Duke again like before.

It was obvious why the Duke had come here, even without asking.

‘Because I didn’t keep my promise.’

He probably came to confront me about that.

As I quietly waited for him to speak, the Duke spoke first.

“Did you cry again?”

“…I didn’t cry.”

“Your eyes are swollen.”

“They always swell when I sleep.”

I feigned innocence.

I pressed the back of my hand against my swollen eyes. It wasn’t that I was denying crying out of pride.

I imagined what the Duke would say.

Why didn’t you keep your promise, how dare someone like you ignore my words, since you didn’t keep your promise I’ll change your guard back, and so on.

‘If I had known it would be like this, I should have just stayed still.’

There’s no point in worrying when the Duke wouldn’t appreciate it anyway.

At that moment, the Duke snapped his fingers in front of me.

“You’re doing it again.”

“?”

“Such a small thing, yet with so many thoughts.”

I closed my mouth tightly and then lowered my head. Then I carefully opened my mouth again.

“Are you going to change my guard to someone else?”

“You mean Yan Beiholt?”

When I nodded, the Duke crossed his arms and rubbed his chin as if pondering.

“Well, should I change it this time?”

“No!”

I quickly shook my head. He raised one eyebrow.

“That makes me want to change it even more.”

At those words, I opened my eyes wide. He truly had a contrary nature.

“What’s so good about that guy that you’re like this?”

“Yan is kind.”

“Is being kind all that matters?”

“No, it’s not! Yan is kind, and gentle, and affectionate…”

The Duke’s expression hardened. It seemed he wanted to refute my words but couldn’t find anything to say.

“And Yan saved me.”

I still remember the first day I met Yan.

When my mother was about to hit me, Yan appeared and firmly grabbed her hand.

“I shouldn’t have sent him that day after all…”

‘What is he saying?’

The Duke muttered to himself, grinding his teeth.

Anyway, there were more reasons why I liked Yan.

He was on the protagonist’s side, his smiling face was handsome, and I could see that he genuinely cared for me.

Then the Duke clicked his tongue lightly and spoke again.

“I never intended to change your guard in the first place.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

I felt a little better at the unexpected answer.

I wiped the dried tear stains on my face with a handkerchief nearby.

If he wasn’t changing my guard, getting scolded by the Duke was nothing.

“Then if you’re going to scold me, do it quickly.”

“Scold you?”

“Yeah, didn’t you come to scold me?”

At those words, the Duke frowned again, displeased about something.

“What do you take me for? Do you think I came all the way here in the middle of the night just to scold you?”

“Yes.”

It was quite plausible for a villainous duke.

At my firm answer, the Duke wore an expression of disbelief.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally sighing.

“I will scold you, but not now, so just rest.”

“Then?”

“What, would you prefer I scold you now?”

“No. Don’t scold me now or later.”

“If you don’t want to be scolded, then don’t act so—”

“See, you did come to scold me.”

“…I didn’t.”

Silence fell again.

After a little while, the Duke spoke again. In a much softer tone than before.

“I came because I was worried, they said you were crying.”

“…I wasn’t crying because of you.”

“But you did cry.”

“…”

I fell for it. He truly was an exasperating duke.

I kept my mouth shut tight.

“I want to sleep.”

I turned my back on the Duke and lay down.

It was a silent request for him to leave, but unfortunately, the Duke didn’t take the hint.

‘Leave, please leave…’

As I was chanting in my head, I felt a light weight patting the top of my head.

It was patting me indifferently.

‘What’s this.’

Unlike Sophia’s patting, it felt heavier.

If Sophia’s felt like a gentle lullaby, this felt like a clumsy thumping.

‘Is he telling me to sleep or not to sleep?’

Grumbling to myself, I stubbornly squeezed my eyes shut.

Surprisingly, sleep found me faster.

* * *

After Diane fell asleep, Cailius quietly left the room.

As he walked silently through the corridor, a dark figure followed him.

“As you commanded, we’ve locked them up in the underground prison.”

The Duke immediately headed towards the annex.

After descending to the first floor, he opened the door at the end of the corridor and went down the stairs.

When he lit the lights in the prison, he saw two men trapped in the iron bars.

The young man was covered in blood, lying on the ground with his hands and feet bound.

Unlike him, Count Ripe had no injuries except for minor bruises.

However, regardless of that, Count Ripe’s face was full of shadows.

“Your Grace, Your Grace!”

Seeing the Duke appear before him, Count Ripe urgently approached the iron bars.

“Please believe me, Your Grace! That bastard did it all on his own! I really didn’t order anything!”

“Well.”

With a light gesture from the Duke, the knights entered the cell and dragged out the young man.

“We’ll just have to ask him about that, won’t we?”

* * *

From early morning, Delma secretly brought me chocolate milk without Sophia knowing.

Having tasted it for the first time in my life, I was shocked.

It was a whole new world different from chocolate cookies.

‘It’s so delicious!’

While eagerly sipping through the straw, I looked around the room again.

‘I guess the Duke just left.’

The Duke who had visited me last night seemed to have quietly stayed in the room and left.

He didn’t scold me, and my guard wasn’t changed.

Maybe it was because I drank chocolate milk, but my mood, which had felt like it would sink into the ground until yesterday, was now floating in the sky.

It definitely wasn’t because the Duke said he came because he was worried about me yesterday.

“Delma, the person who tried to harm me yesterday was Count Ripe’s servant, right? Did Count Ripe really order it?”

“Um, well…”

Delma trailed off, looking troubled.

It seemed she was cautious about telling me, given the nature of the incident.

‘In times like this, there’s a way.’

I drooped my eyebrows and put on the most pitiful expression I could.

It was the expression Delma was weakest to.

“I was so scared, so I’m curious about what happened to the bad people…”

“Oh, don’t worry, young miss! The Count and his servant are both locked up in the annex prison. They won’t be able to bother you anymore!”

“Really?”

“Of course!”

“That’s a relief.”

Delma answered vigorously. I gave her a bright smile in return.

‘So they were locked up there after all.’

I knew there was an underground prison in the Duke’s mansion.

Originally, when an imperial citizen commits a crime, regardless of their status as commoner or noble, they are tried by the imperial direct investigation agency and receive a sentence according to their crime.

However, the exception is in cases like now, where it’s difficult for the imperial influence to reach.

In such cases, a great noble like the Duke, who is the lord of the region, can directly impose punishment.

Of course, no great noble would use this right on their vassals who aren’t commoners.

Even great nobles couldn’t completely ignore the sentiments of their vassal families due to various interests.

Therefore, when a noble committed a crime, it was common for great noble families not to handle it themselves, but to send the criminal to the capital for trial.

But it seems the Duke doesn’t care about human relationships or anything like that at all.

Well, he’s the kind of person who wouldn’t hesitate to throw vassals off a cliff or feed them to monsters if things go wrong.

If anything, it’s fortunate that even a great noble can’t arbitrarily carry out executions.

‘He’s quick to handle things, at least.’

I thought as I drained the last drop of chocolate milk into my mouth.

As I expected, Count Ripe’s servant was the assassin who had tried to kill the Duke and escaped last time.

I could be certain of this because of two things that happened today.

The strong perfume and the wound on his right arm.

When the servant came close to me, he smelled of strong perfume. I suspected him from that moment.

Perfume was considered quite a burdensome luxury item. Moreover, many high-end perfume merchants wouldn’t even show their products to commoners.

In other words, it wasn’t something a servant working for a noble could easily buy and use.

Even if he had luckily obtained perfume, it was suspicious to use such expensive perfume so liberally.

Perfume is usually used to cover up other smells.

So I tested by firmly grasping his right arm.

‘The Duke’s sword had cut his right hand back then.’

The wound wouldn’t have healed, no matter how slight, because of the poison.

Actually, I wouldn’t have thought of this if Philen hadn’t explained it to me.

‘It’s a very, very dangerous poison. It prevents wounds from healing and makes flesh rot.’

That’s why he used the perfume. To cover up the smell of rotting flesh.

After that, I snuck into the Duke’s room to find more concrete evidence.

I thought that if he went to the trouble of disguising his identity to come here again, he would surely visit the Duke’s room as well.

Of course, I didn’t expect to be caught by the culprit right away.

It was a close call, but since he was caught red-handed right in front of the Duke, the Duke would take care of the culprit.

That should be enough.

‘Why do I keep feeling like I’m missing something?’

However, I soon realized what I had been missing.

It was late afternoon when I woke up from a nap.

I was awakened by loud noises coming from outside.

“…trying to frame…”

“Our master…Your Grace…”

“…please…mistake…”

‘What are all these sounds?’

They were coming from outside. I dragged the chair next to the table towards the window.

Looking out the window, I saw at least twenty people gathered in front of the main gate.

‘Why are so many people gathered there?’

And in front of the villainous Duke’s house, no less.

I quickly opened the window.

When I opened the window, the sounds became clearer.

“Please, Your Grace! The Count has done nothing wrong!”