Our deal ended there.

I will cover up all matters related to Lord Grayan. In return, he acknowledges my alias in the palace entrance records while retaining the right to continue probing the letter issue.

I’m really incredulous.

Duke Kaidel spoke impassively.

“Misha is learning her own survival skills, and there’s probably nothing you can do to help. Farewell.”

He turned and left. Gone was his usual formal etiquette; his demeanor resembled that of parting with a friend or foe.

Even if I try to see him in a good light…!

I stared incredulously at his retreating figure and returned to my room.

“Pfft……”

Duke Rocard hardened his expression when a passing servant looked at him strangely, but his suppressed laughter resurfaced quickly.

The thought of Lorisha trying to overdose on medication because he went ahead of her was unbearable in its hilarity.

Her reaction was as he’d expected, but the pleasure he derived far exceeded that expectation.

However, he felt a slight emptiness when he returned to his room and opened a book. Several more points to tease her had come to mind.

‘I should have teased her thoroughly earlier.’

Today’s situation was unexpected in many ways. He had been going to sneak Lorisha out of the Princess’s palace.

The reason Princess Milliora had summoned Misha Loar was obvious: she intended to tear Lorisha’s soul apart.

It was Tagar’s brutality.

Even if Lorisha was strong, making her endure such pressure was unfair. Duke Rocard thought so.

There was no answer to why he would deliberately pass up an opportunity to trip up a future competitor.

Simply that Lorisha shouldn’t be subjected to that. She needed to entertain him in the future.

So, he didn’t want to see her crumble and be expelled from the palace.

But he was too late, and by the time he arrived after facing Phinid’s scorpion, Lorisha was fine. So fine, in fact, that she was concerned about Misha Loar.

It was an unexpected development.

He had conducted a secret investigation on Lorisha. After learning that Lorisha Loar was this year’s top academy entrant, he couldn’t help but investigate.
He needed to know why she had taken the entrance exam under a pseudonym and disappeared, turning him into a false valedictorian.

His investigation didn’t provide the answer he wanted, but it allowed him to make an educated guess.

Most of what he learned about Lorisha’s life stemmed from the unfair treatment she had received from the Countess and Misha Roar.

Had he not known that, he might not have taken steps on her behalf today.

And yet, she could still worry about Misha Roar.

As time passed, he couldn’t understand Lorisha Roar.

Had he found that incomprehensibility dangerous, Rocard would have been on high alert around her. He might have decided to nip the problem in the bud.

But strangely, it was the opposite. Earlier, she had worried about Misha as if she were her own sister, although she would never admit it.

Everyone in the academy knew that Misha Roar served as a maid to the young lady of Ankhart. They also knew her unnatural rise in grades was the result.

But that was not something Lorisha could intervene and help with. She would do better to focus on her own life’s issues.

Because the challenges she would face going forward would be difficult even at her best.

She first had to learn how to distinguish friends from foes. Because in the palace, there were neither friends nor foes. So, making the wrong enemy a friend was dangerous.

This convoluted expression would be understood only by those who have spent time in the palace.

“Is it outside?”

Rocard called a servant to bring macarons. The servant didn’t even understand his request immediately.

Repeating the word ‘macarons’ to the servant, he felt a slight embarrassment.