“Father, the rumors were true.”

“You must have seen wrong.”

“No. I saw it clearly with my own two eyes! How could I have mistaken a kiss right in front of me!”

“Still, it doesn’t make sense. How could His Highness kiss the daughter of the Odoi family in front of you?”

“Mother!”

Aria was in agony all day after returning home.

Worried about Aria’s condition, the Duke and Duchess inquired through the coachman about where she had been.

When they heard that she had been to the Crown Prince’s palace, they couldn’t understand.

She had always brightened up at the mere mention of Admund.

They couldn’t fathom why she would fall ill after meeting him in person.

According to those who followed her, she wasn’t even turned away at the door.

So they had no choice but to wait for Aria to bring up the story herself.

When they heard Aria’s story with their own ears, the Duke and Duchess were taken aback.

“You must have seen wrong.”

“Father, are you saying you don’t believe me?”

The Duke clicked his tongue.

No matter how much he loved his daughter, there were limits to what he could believe.

In the Duke’s eyes, Admund was a person in whom it was difficult to find any emotion at all.

What he felt when facing Admund was that he was a person as cold as ice.

A person who pursued practical benefits rather than personal feelings.

Thinking that such an Admund had no reason to keep Clea Odoi by his side, he shook his head.

The Duchess also thought her husband’s opinion was correct.

“Why won’t you believe me!”

Aria, irritated that her family wouldn’t believe her words, stood up from her seat.

“Aria! Won’t you eat a little more?”

“I’m full.”

“Aria, Aria!”

Aria, who suddenly stood up, left her seat, breathing heavily. The two called her name pleadingly.

But Aria didn’t stop and moved to her room.

The Duke and Duchess hurriedly followed her.

They should know how to be firm in the face of their grown child’s tantrum.

But in their eyes, they only saw Aria as she was in her childhood, always sickly.

“Aria, please open the door. Aria!”

The Duke sighed as Aria locked herself in her room.

“What should we do?”

“Ha, it seems the Crown Prince must have said something.”

“Now is not the time to say such things! She barely ate anything!”

To the Duchess who was at a loss with worry for Aria, the Duke told her to calm down for now.

“I’ll go to the palace myself and ask, so don’t worry too much.”

“I’m upset because of His Highness. How could he have spoken to make her like this, when she was already depressed from not being able to meet him recently?”

“We’ll find out everything when we inquire directly.”

The Duke sighed and stood up.

While it was true that he loved Aria dearly, there were proper procedures for everything.

Especially this time, he thought they were clearly in the wrong first.

‘Even between friends, there should be appropriate boundaries.’

More than that, the Duke had something on his mind.

What should he do if what Aria said was really true?

He had always thought the position of Crown Princess belonged to Aria.

Aria was special.

She was beautiful and loved by everyone.

He firmly believed that if such a person became the Crown Princess and then the Empress, the Empire and the royal family would surely become more stable.

‘But if the daughter of the Odoi family surpasses Aria here.’

Thinking about it, the Duke felt terrible.

It would be a moment when things went terribly wrong.

Imagining how the Hersher family, who had sworn loyalty to the royal family, would be ridiculed, the Duke felt like he might vomit.

He tried to reassure himself that it couldn’t be, as he looked ahead.

‘I need to meet the Crown Prince.’

He sent a letter to Admund with contents that contrasted with the carefully written script.

* * *

“You are forbidden from going out from now on!”

“Father, you can’t do this!”

“Have you still not come to your senses!”

Meanwhile, the Grand Duke’s household was in complete uproar.

The servants of the Grand Duke’s household were doing their best to stop the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess.

Lloyd was the only heir to succeed the Grand Duke’s family.

They thought that such a precious heir should not be injured.

But despite this, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess had completely lost their grip on reason.

They were furious that the child they had trusted until now had been deceiving them.

“Didn’t I tell you clearly? Be kind to Clea if no one else!”

“Father! This is a misunderstanding!”

“Misunderstanding? Misunderstanding? This boy still hasn’t come to his senses! Hey, someone bring me my sword!”

“M-Master! Please calm down! You’ll collapse at this rate!”

“Butler! You’ve been helping Lloyd’s misdeeds behind my back all this time, haven’t you?”

The Grand Duke’s anger, sparked by Lloyd, was directed elsewhere as well.

The Grand Duke felt an even greater sense of betrayal that the people he had trusted had all been deceiving him.

Even if the child was the only offspring of a family that valued children, it was wrong to overlook mistakes without pointing them out.

The Grand Duke had not heard from anyone about his child’s wrongdoings.

Surely countless eyes and ears must have been directed at Lloyd.

The butler completely cowered before the Grand Duke’s anger.

“Have everyone who knows of Lloyd’s misdeeds write them down and bring them to me.”

“Your Grace, this is too harsh a measure, no matter what.”

“What?”

One of the retainers next to the butler spoke up to the Grand Duke.

The Grand Duke recognized who he was and frowned.

Seeing the Grand Duke’s expression, others signaled to him with their eyes, telling him to keep quiet.

“There’s no reason for you to act this way over a mere noble lady of the Odoi family. Even if you were humiliated, a marriage between the two families would have been useless. Rather, it might be better to consider this a good thing and look for another family…”

“It seems I’ve been too incompetent all this time.”

“Darling, I should have been managing the household.”

“How could I leave it all to you alone, my lady? I simply stood by while such a person became one of Lloyd’s closest retainers.”

Hearing the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess’s response, he flinched.

But it was already too late.

“Expel all the clan members related to that person, and don’t let them come near the Grand Duke’s house.”

“G-Grand Duke!”

“And butler, this is your last chance as well. Act according to my orders.”

The atmosphere had completely sunk.

Those who thought they should somehow stop the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess for Lloyd’s sake were no longer present.

The Grand Duke narrowed his brows at them and gave a final warning.

“You’re not mistaking Lloyd for the master of the Percy family, are you?”

“How could that be? I am a loyal servant who is entirely devoted to you, master.”

Lloyd, who had been silently watching this from behind, frowned.

He was displeased that those he trusted had chosen his father over him out of fear.

He thought he would never forget this and looked back at the Grand Duke.

Meanwhile, the Grand Duke noticed his son’s unpleasant gaze and realized there was no sign of remorse.

“If you were human, how could you hurt that child? The one who suffered so much because of you.”

“I didn’t like the idea of that child becoming my wife. Yet it was none other than you, Father, who forcibly kept her by my side.”

“You didn’t like it? Haha, you didn’t like it. Are you sure you won’t regret those words later?”

Lloyd didn’t understand what the Grand Duke was saying.

Regret? What could he possibly have to regret?

He nodded and said,

“I won’t regret it.”

Hearing this, the Grand Duchess felt her insides burning. She felt like beating him if she could.

Although, how much pain would a grown child feel even if she hit him with her own hands?

She was furious thinking about the big and small wounds her son must have inflicted on that child.

She wondered how badly the Odoi family must have treated her for such a patient child to leave home.

Everyone in the capital already knew that people from that family didn’t treat Clea well.

However, they didn’t know exactly how they mistreated her.

The Grand Duchess wanted to see Clea.

Even though she knew she shouldn’t, given that it was her own child who had hurt her, she wanted to know how she was doing now.

“And what my retainer said wasn’t wrong either!”

“What?”

The Grand Duke thought Lloyd still hadn’t come to his senses and was about to slap him to bring him back to reality.

But before the Grand Duke’s hand could reach him, Lloyd’s words rang out first.

“She was going to die soon anyway! She had a chronic illness but hid it and tried to marry into the Grand Duke’s family. Isn’t this actually for the best!”

“Chronic illness? What on earth!”

The two of them showed bewilderment on their faces at words they had never heard from the Odoi Duke’s family.

On the other hand, Lloyd, thinking they were finally listening to him properly, began to speak more excitedly.

“She coughed up blood right in front of me! We can’t give the position of the Grand Duke’s family’s mistress to someone like that, can we?”

“Say that again. Clea coughed up blood?”

Hearing Lloyd’s words, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess thought.

That not only Lloyd but also something must have happened in the Duke’s family.

‘I need to find out exactly what happened.’

They deeply regretted.

That their decision to entrust everything to their child due to what they felt towards the parent generation might have been too irresponsible.

What they felt most guilty about was realizing that there was a victim in all of this.