I couldn’t do anything about the candy I had already eaten, but the Duke took back the wooden sword and puppy doll, saying they needed to be inspected.

I remembered how the knights following him had slumped shoulders.

‘They said they were going to spar, right?’

It must have been just the right time for sparring.

I wanted to watch, but the Duke said he’d show me next time and told me to go rest early today.

But it seems the news that I had a fever spread throughout the mansion in just one day.

Even the employees I met on the way up to my room all greeted me.

“Young miss, I heard you were sick. Are you alright now?”

“Young miss, is your fever gone now? How dare a cold affect this tiny body!”

“Young miss, come here for a moment. I have something for you. Ah, it’s a secret from Sophia!”

The maid cleaning the window sill, the servant fixing and hanging a frame, and Kusses the chef in charge of my meals – everyone worried about me and pressed something into my hand.

They were mostly jellies, candies, and small snacks.

‘Everyone’s overreacting.’

Among them, I popped a jelly into my mouth and burrowed into the blankets. Maybe it was the sweet fruit-flavored jelly, but the corners of my mouth tingled.

Is it because it’s the first time so many people have worried about me?

Even knowing it was fleeting attention, I couldn’t help but feel warm inside.

‘I wonder if Clemens heard about it too?’

Thoughts of Clemens came naturally. Just then, someone knocked on the door.

When I opened it, I was really surprised.

“Clemens?”

“Hi, Diane. Hello.”

Clemens smiled at me casually.

‘Clemens isn’t much of a gentleman either.’

“What brings you to my room?”

“Well, I heard you were sick. I heard you got better after taking medicine, but I thought I should come check on you anyway.”

Clemens looked at my face with a kind gaze. When I met that gaze, the voice of reason trying to stay calm suddenly popped up in my mind.

‘It’s a lie, Clemens is just pretending to be worried.’

“Are you okay now?”

Clemens asked gently again. I answered a little late that I was fine.

After Clemens left, I thought about everything that happened today.

The inspected wooden sword and dog doll were placed side by side next to the bed.

I decided to eat only a moderate amount of the snacks given by the employees each day, as Sophia advised.

And the chocolate the Duke gave me was sweet. Clemens came to my room because he was worried about me.

I shouldn’t give my heart to villains, since they’ll soon do bad things to the protagonist.

…But you know, what if I end up liking these villains?

* * *

The next morning, maybe because I took medicine before sleeping, I felt much more refreshed than yesterday.

Thanks to that, I could walk around outside in even lighter clothes than yesterday.

I came to the library carrying a thick book and looked for where this book was originally shelved.

This was the book that contained methods for sealing divine beasts, the book that made the silver snake leave the house.

As I put the book back in its original place, I thought again.

‘It’s a good thing.’

It was good that my cold got better in just a day, and it was good that the silver snake left the house.

‘Of course it’s a good thing, yeah, that’s right.’

The divine beast wasn’t supposed to be by my side in the first place, and it wasn’t supposed to make a contract with me.

Although I didn’t intend to drive out the divine beast, I felt at ease since it left the house on its own.

‘So I don’t need to worry about it at all.’

Thinking that, I walked out into the hallway, and through the window I saw an unfamiliar carriage entering through the main gate.

‘Did guests arrive?’

It wasn’t as lavish as the vassals’ carriages from before, but this unfamiliar carriage was quite ornately decorated.

‘It could be the Duke’s guest.’

I was about to dismiss it as nothing significant, but I had to stop in my tracks.

It was because of a man who got out of the carriage.

If his clothes had been ordinary, I would have thought he was one of the vassals I saw on recruitment day.

But for a vassal who values honor, his clothes were too flashy.

‘It’s all white.’

From head to toe, he was wearing all white clothes and accessories, as if he had been painted entirely white.

His appearance must have been quite eye-catching to others too, as the gazes of the gardeners tending to the garden all turned to him at once.

Regardless, he got out of the carriage as if dancing. Then he began to direct the people who had followed him.

People dressed similarly in white clothes unloaded all sorts of fabrics, shoes, bags, and more from the luggage carriage.

‘What kind of person is he?’

That question was quickly answered thanks to Yan, who was watching beside me.

“He’s Madam Basil, the owner of the most famous shop in northern Hessera. Since moving to Hessera, he’s been in charge of making clothes for the Lord and the young masters.”

“Madam Basil?”

“Yes, there will be a banquet in the east hall soon. It seems he’s visiting to fit clothes for the young master to wear at the banquet.”

Clemens returned after taking classes at the academy for three months. It was often explained in the original work that the Duke always held a banquet for Clemens when he returned after being away from the Duke’s mansion for such a considerable period.

No wonder I’ve been able to watch the employees busily moving and carrying furniture these past few days.

‘Well, the Duke does pay special attention to Clemens after all.’

In the original work, the Duke lavished unlimited support on Clemens.

If Clemens had black hair or resembled the Duke even a little, people might have thought he was the Duke’s real son.

‘In the original work, Clemens would have believed the Duke even if he said he could bake bread with beans.’

The Duke probably played a big part in why Clemens became a villain.

In fact, if we’re talking about objective abilities, the twins’ magic was more valuable than Clemens’.

Although Clemens had the ability to interpret ancient languages, that was an ability that could be found quite commonly among smart children.

On the other hand, the twins were born with an unprecedented and infinite amount of magic power in all of human history.

However, the Duke chose Clemens as his successor.

‘Because Clemens was more obedient than the twins.’

The twins were difficult children to control.

Born with a large amount of magic power, there weren’t many who could treat them carelessly from birth.

As a result, they grew up with willful personalities and became tremendous troublemakers.

It was common for them to reduce everything around them to ashes or collapse buildings if things didn’t go their way.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the twins disobeyed or defied the Duke.

The twins took great pride in the fact that the Duke had chosen them as his adopted children.

Still, it seems the Duke thought Clemens was more suitable as a successor.

‘The twins weren’t interested in that position anyway.’

If the twins and Clemens had fought over the successor position in the original work, it might have been advantageous for the male lead.

He would have only needed to sit back and watch the villains tear each other apart and fall to ruin.

However, unfortunately, the twins liked Clemens just as much as they followed the Duke.

As for Clemens, well, the twins’ magic power was an ability that couldn’t be found anywhere else, so he had no reason not to be good to them.

‘Of all things, the villains get along well with each other.’

I grumbled as I moved along.

* * *

I returned to my room and woke up from a nap.

I was thirsty and wanted to drink water, but the water bottle in the room was empty.

‘Water…’

It wasn’t dinner time yet, so Sophia and Delma hadn’t arrived.

In the end, I had no choice but to leave the room, rubbing my half-closed eyes.

I went to the kitchen and drank cool water with the help of the servants, then came out to see several people gathered in one corner of the spacious living room, displaying clothes.

It was the slender man dressed all in white that I had seen earlier.

‘Madam Basil!’

Seeing that he was still in the living room, it seemed he hadn’t met Clemens yet.

‘By the way, he really brought a lot of clothes.’

Hessera was a city even larger than the capital. The reason this city with abundant resources and high development potential had been neglected until now was purely due to the danger of magical beasts.

As the Duke drove out all the magical beasts, Hessera developed noticeably in just a few years.

As a result, even those who were prominent in the capital frequently moved to Hessera.

‘Especially people who made mistakes with the imperial family or fell out of favor with the emperor.’

As far as I knew, this person called Madam Basil had left the capital for similar reasons.

He was skilled but vain and quick-tempered.

The reason he moved to Hessera was because he was caught gossiping about the emperor’s mistress without realizing she was present, and had to pay a huge fine.

After paying the fine and returning, he was very resentful.

‘No, is it even reasonable to charge me with insulting the royal family for badmouthing some woman who isn’t even a real royal?!’

Whether he felt wronged or not, it was obvious that he could no longer operate his shop in the capital.

‘Looks like he’s adapting well here too.’

The reason I know about him is because later, he makes clothes for Eliezer and re-enters the capital.

‘Even in the original work, his skills were said to be the best in the empire.’

As I was passing through the living room, Basil issued orders to his companions in a sharp voice.

“The young master will be coming down soon, hurry and prepare!”

“No, no! Don’t place it like that! Shouldn’t the young master be able to view comfortably?”

“Put that catalog down in front! Open it to the page where my masterpiece is drawn!”

But he must not have seen me because he was busy moving around. The white man was hurriedly carrying clothes when he suddenly stopped in front of me.

“Oh my, what a surprise! You startled me!”

The white man looked down at me in shock. His booming voice startled me as well.

“What’s this child doing here?”

The white man waved his hand as if annoyed and walked past me.

‘I shouldn’t get in the way.’

I stepped aside to avoid bumping into him as much as possible. But suddenly, people started bustling back and forth in front of the stairs, displaying fabrics.

Having no choice, I carefully made my way through the crowd of people, when a man carrying a clothes rack suddenly passed in front of me without seeing me.

‘Ah!’

Fortunately, we didn’t collide, but I lost my balance backwards. I fell back with a thud before I knew it, and I heard someone gasp in surprise behind me.

‘Oh no, don’t tell me…’

When I felt the floor, I touched a very, very soft fabric.

Sure enough, when I glanced back, what I was sitting on were the fabrics that people had been carefully piling up.

Just then, a long stick suddenly popped out from the side.

“Oh my, oh my! Are you crazy?!”

A thin stick waved in front of my eyes.

“How dare you sit on my clothes with your dirty bottom?!”