‘Should I have just accepted it?’

I glanced to check if Sophia and Delma were standing nearby.

I felt uneasy, perhaps because I had immediately rejected Clemens’ gesture of goodwill.

“Well, alright.”

Clemens casually withdrew the cookie he had offered.

After that, we didn’t exchange any conversation until we arrived at the dining hall.

It was a slightly uncomfortable silence for me.

However, refusing the cookie from Clemens was unavoidable.

Poison was Clemens’ preferred method for dealing with those he disliked.

Knowing how many lives he had taken using poison in the original novel, I couldn’t easily accept it.

If there was any consolation, it was that Clemens didn’t seem particularly upset.

A gentle smile still graced Clemens’ lips.

‘It’s because of that expression that makes it harder to read him.’

Soon after, we found the Duke already waiting in the dining hall.

As I followed Clemens in, one of the Duke’s eyebrows slightly raised.

‘Oh no, is he angry because we’re late?’

The Duke’s gaze seemed quite fierce. I tried to quietly hide behind Clemens, but he gestured slightly to the side.

As I cautiously moved back to Clemens’ side, he spoke first.

“Father.”

“How come you two are arriving together?”

“We met on the way here.”

Cailius’ gaze shifted slightly towards me. I gave the same answer as Clemens.

“That’s right, we met on the way.”

“I see.”

Cailius gestured to us.

“Come here and sit down.”

As Clemens went to his seat, he looked around and then turned his gaze back to me. Looking alternately between me and the table, he said,

“Jenville, it would be better to bring a child’s chair for Diane.”

“Yes, young master.”

It was my first time coming down to the dining hall for a meal. There wasn’t a chair suitable for my height in the dining hall.

At Clemens’ words, a waiting servant brought a baby chair in front of me.

I followed the servant to the front of the high chair and looked up.

It was a height I couldn’t possibly climb without someone lifting me up. I looked around. There wasn’t anyone suitable to ask.

The Duke was seated, and although Clemens was standing nearby, to ask him…

I carefully tugged on the clothes of the servant next to me.

“Lift me up.”

“Ahem!”

The servant whose eyes met mine made a strange sound. I stepped back slightly, feeling burdened, but the servant suddenly extended his hands to me.

“Yes, miss! I will…!”

“Wait.”

“Just a moment.”

The Duke and Clemens suddenly stopped him. The servant’s two hands, which were reaching out to me, froze in mid-air.

‘Why are they doing that?’

Thinking there might be some problem, I looked back and forth between them. The Duke’s eyes were filled with intensity.

The servant’s face turned pale as he met the Duke’s ominous gaze.

“Ah, oh! I just remembered something else…”

The servant retreated and left the dining hall. I watched his retreating figure with disappointment.

‘He should have lifted me up before leaving!’

He seemed to have forgotten in his panic. I slightly raised my tiptoes and put my hands on the chair.

‘How am I supposed to climb up here?’

Even having a meal is difficult. Phew, as I sighed, suddenly the Duke spoke to Clemens.

“Clemens, you’re probably not tall enough yet.”

“No, look. I can do it.”

Clemens, responding as if provoked by the Duke’s words, came to stand next to my chair to show.

While Clemens alone seemed more than capable of sitting, he appeared slightly insufficient to lift me up.

Perhaps sensing this himself, Clemens’ brow furrowed slightly.

“See, it still seems a bit too much for you.”

At the Duke’s words, Clemens silently stepped back.

Then the Duke approached me.

Before I could think ‘Surely not?’, the Duke put his hands under my armpits and lifted me up.

I was gently placed on top of the high chair.

I was bewildered by the sudden turn of events.

‘The Duke lifted me up…’

* * *

Once everyone was seated, the servants began bringing out dishes that smelled sweet and savory, as if they had been waiting.

Yellow soup with various vegetables, stir-fried fish and vegetables, chicken sautéed in tomato sauce topped with cheese, and mashed potatoes mixed with sweet cream, among others.

Although I didn’t know their names, an array of colorful dishes that caught the eye was laid out before me.

‘It looks delicious!’

There were far more varieties compared to what I ate in my room.

As I waited patiently for when I could eat, the Duke opened his mouth.

“Diane, let me introduce you again.”

The Duke moved a bowl of soup in front of me and continued speaking.

“This is Clemens. He’s the first son I brought in. Clemens, this is Diane, the daughter I found.”

Clemens smiled and said,

“Nice to meet you, Diane.”

It was such a beautiful smile that it was hard to believe he was a villain. It was like a rose that hides its thorns and beautifully blooms its bud.

“Yes, me too.”

I answered as naturally as I could.

The meal began. I watched how the Duke and Clemens ate before picking up my fork.

Until I entered the dining hall, I had been very nervous, but once I smelled the food, the tension melted away like water.

Perhaps because of that, I was now very hungry.

‘Let’s eat first.’

I stabbed my fork into a meatball, which was finely minced meat shaped into a round form.

Or rather, I tried to.

However, the meatball was not something that could be eaten so easily. As soon as I pierced it with the fork, it oddly received force and flew into the air.

I followed the parabola the meatball drew with trembling eyes.

And it flew straight in the direction where the Duke was sitting and struck his cheek!

Thud, thud, thud…

The meatball that hit the Duke’s cheek and fell to the floor made a light bouncing sound.

‘Oh no!’

I froze stiff in the posture of having just picked up the meatball. I felt desperate.

‘Why, why did it have to go there…’

Everyone seemed taken aback by what had just happened, and for a moment, only silence filled the surroundings.

The one who first broke the silence – which was like thin ice, at least to me – was Clemens.

“Uh… Father, are you alright?”

At Clemens’ words, a servant who had frozen like me hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief and approached.

“Master, are you alright?”

The Duke silently took the handkerchief offered by the servant.

“Duke…”

“…”

“I, I didn’t do it on purpose…”

“…”

He silently wiped off the cream sauce on his cheek with an expressionless face.

“I’m, I’m sorry…”

I hurriedly apologized before he could say anything.

Fortunately or not, a major disaster of the sauce getting on the Duke’s expensive clothes didn’t occur, so he quickly returned to normal as if nothing had happened.

No, in fact, a major disaster had already occurred.

My mind went blank. And to think this happened in front of Clemens, who deeply respects the Duke!

‘I’m going to disappear without a trace now…’

As I waited for my fate with a miserable feeling, the Duke muttered in a chilly voice.

“You must have been very hungry.”

I didn’t have the courage to look at the Duke. It was obvious that he would be glaring at me fiercely.

Despite the feast laid out before me, no one started eating in the heavy atmosphere.

Even Clemens, who seemed quite taken aback, didn’t speak first.

Of course, I was too tense to move a finger.

Not long after, it was the Duke who first picked up his utensils.

The Duke silently picked up one of the meatballs I had stabbed.

Seeing that, I unconsciously gulped.

‘Why did he pick that up?’

I stared at the Duke with an uneasy heart.

Then, the Duke called me in an indifferent tone.

“Diane.”

“…?”

“Ah, open.”

At the Duke’s words, I unconsciously opened my mouth slightly.

Then something warm and savory entered my mouth. I instinctively chewed on what had entered my mouth.

Wondering what was happening, I slightly opened my tightly closed eyes.

The Duke was casually cutting the meatball he had put on his plate into smaller pieces. Then he suddenly brought the small cut piece to my face.

“Here.”

“?”

“Open.”

I blankly opened my mouth again. The meatball on the Duke’s fork slipped into my mouth.

‘What’s going on?’

I chewed the meat full of juices while watching the Duke’s reaction.

“Duke.”

“What.”

“That…”

The question of whether he was trying to get revenge on me rose to my throat.

I barely managed to keep my mouth shut before those words could come out.

It wouldn’t be good to ask and risk changing the Duke’s mind.

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

The Duke smirked at my words. Then he repeated the same action he had done to me just before.

After giving me meatballs a few times, the Duke asked in an indifferent tone.

“What’s next?”

At the sudden question, I pointed to the fish dish that caught my eye.

“This?”

The Duke cut the fish steak into small pieces just like he had done with the meatballs and picked it up with his fork.

He brought it to my mouth again.

‘Is he warning me not to do such a thing again?’

I carefully picked up my fork again.

“That was a mistake earlier. I can eat by myself,”

“Just eat.”

While I was speaking, the Duke put the fish into my mouth.

‘…It is convenient to be fed.’

Suddenly, my eyes met Clemens’.

Clemens had a somewhat displeased expression.

Just then, the Duke offered me food again. I looked at Clemens and shook my head.

“I’ll eat mine myself.”

The Duke raised one eyebrow but soon withdrew his fork, saying he understood. As I picked up my fork again, another food suddenly popped up in front of me.

It was Clemens who had stabbed it with his fork and offered it to me. When I turned my head, his previous expression had disappeared and he was smiling as usual.

I was confused. Why is he suddenly giving this to me?

‘Surely it’s not something suspicious?’

For instance, poison, or poison, or poison…

What saved me then was the Duke.

“Clemens, that looks too spicy for Diane to eat.”

“Is that so?”

Clemens withdrew his fork. Then, the Duke, whom I thought had given up, offered me chicken topped with white sauce again.

While I was eating that in a daze, I saw Clemens also offering me another dish without red sauce.

I hastily declared.

“I’ll eat mine by myself!”

When I said it firmly, they finally withdrew their forks. I thought to myself with a complicated feeling.

‘…I just want to eat alone.’