The time Duke Grant spoke of had come.

He ordered to instigate social circles’ opinion to establish Arasila’s scandal as a fact once it broke.

Nora, who had returned to social circles and regained some power with help from the Grant ducal family, had no choice but to comply obediently.

However, she too was genuinely surprised that Arasila’s scandal partner was none other than Crown Prince Frederick.

‘If I step in wrongly on a scandal involving the Crown Prince, won’t I be the only one getting screwed?’

Nora became rapidly anxious. No matter how influential the White ducal family was, they were obviously no match for the imperial family.

Moreover, it was a well-known fact among those in the know that Frederick and Arasila had been close since their academy days, and she feared the backlash when the scandal was proven false.

When she voiced these concerns to Duke Grant, the duke snorted and retorted.

“I can’t tell if the young lady is naive or stupid. Why fear the future? If you don’t follow my words, you won’t even have a future to worry about.”

“……”

“Above all, what you’re worried about won’t happen, so stop with the useless thoughts and just do as you’re told.”

Nora bit her lip at the duke’s overbearing attitude. But a small doubt bloomed in her mind.

What Nora worried about most was Frederick’s retaliation. Yet if there was no need to worry about that…

After pondering for a moment, she blurted out a question.

“Does His Highness the Crown Prince know about this?”

Nora knew that Duke Grant was Frederick’s maternal uncle. So it could mean Frederick wouldn’t punish his blood relative.

But there was no reason for the duke to spread a scandal harmful to his nephew in the first place.

The person who should protect Frederick more than anyone and remove obstacles in his way, telling her to intensify the scandal was too strange.

Then the only conclusion was that Frederick was somehow involved in this scandal.

“Could it be that His Highness ordered…”

“That’s not for the young lady to worry about.”

Duke Grant, dismissing Nora’s words, turned away coldly. Nora had no choice but to withdraw silently.

Even if she complained to her parents, they would only say similar things.

The White ducal family had already agreed to let the Grant faction use their useless eldest daughter as a tool.

In the end, Nora went around social circles spreading words that cemented Arasila and Frederick’s scandal as truth, as they wanted.

“Actually, I felt that Lady Vandermir was neglecting her family because she was too close to His Highness the Crown Prince.”

“Really? Well, Lady White, you once liked Duke Vandermir, so you must have noticed such things more easily.”

“That’s right. We attended the academy together for 2 years, so I felt that the lady had special feelings for His Highness since those days.”

In fact, during their academy days, Frederick had false rumors with Paula or Arasila. Of course, everyone dismissed them as mere gossip.

But now that the scandal between the two had broken, those false rumors from back then were being dragged out as prophecies that had pierced the truth.

“Looking at it this way, it’s understandable that Lady White was angry at Lady Vandermir then. You must have known your loved one was being toyed with.”

Nora hesitated at someone’s consolation, then nodded with a forced smile.

“Even so, it doesn’t change the fact that what I did to Lady Vandermir was rude… Now that things have turned out this way, I feel somewhat bitter.”

The last words were Nora’s true feelings. In fact, hadn’t she once tried to put Arasila in trouble by spreading a scandal with another man?

Being on the receiving end, only her own faults were exposed, and she had painfully admitted her mistakes.

However, the future that awaited her after repenting was just this, making it all the more bitter. When the thing she had once so desperately wanted to achieve actually came true, it wasn’t purely joyful or good.

‘…I wonder if I would have felt this way back when I fervently liked Duke Vandermir?’

Probably not.

She would have been the happiest, eagerly trying to tarnish Arasila’s reputation with lies and bring her down to rock bottom.

She definitely wouldn’t have felt the current bitterness and discomfort.

Thinking this, Nora suddenly felt ashamed of herself and embarrassed by her past self. To think that emotions she harbored for 4 years were only at this level.

Why did she arbitrarily like a man who didn’t return her feelings, and hate the woman by his side?

It felt pathetic and petty enough to make her cry. If only she could turn back time. She would have felt that way even if this incident had been of her own doing.

But.

‘…No, it’s too late. I can’t turn back now.’

What the White ducal family and Duke Grant wanted from her was clear. To keep adding fuel so the scandal’s fire wouldn’t die down.

Nora had already played that role multiple times.

So if Arasila overcame the scandal and returned, she would be the first to fall.

Even if she couldn’t live a new life, to maintain her current one, she had no choice but to push forward despite knowing it was wrong.

The 1st Prince’s Palace where Lucas stayed was located not far from the imperial government office.

If you went straight out to the left from his palace garden, you would reach the government office.

“I’ve missed you, Duke Vandermir!”

Lucas, who had been waving his hand happily since Demian appeared in the distance, hugged him tightly as soon as the distance closed.

“It’s hot, Your Highness.”

“Oh my, your cold response is still the same. Is it that hot in autumn, not even summer?”

“Yes, it feels like I’m dying from the heat.”

Lucas chuckled at the firm reply and let go of Demian.

Since their study abroad days, they had always maintained their relationship by exchanging conversations like this. Lucas deliberately teasing, and Demian responding just as prickly.

However, in truth, their feelings of considering each other as friends were no different.

“Thank you, Your Highness. I owe you a great debt.”

Demian bowed his head politely. It was gratitude for Lucas readily granting the difficult request to see the remains of the exploded lamp being kept at the government office.

Lucas had reserved an expensive restaurant for him and sent all the government office people there under the pretext of a company dinner.

Thanks to that, the government office was currently empty except for a small number of guards Lucas had bribed.

“Haha, what debt! Are you a fool? Don’t you know friends don’t say such things?”

Lucas laughed heartily and patted Demian’s shoulder. He had granted a favor, not incurred a debt at all.

“Come on, let’s go in quickly. Shouldn’t we take a look before the government office people return?”

Nodding, Demian entered the building. Sally and Rudy followed behind him.

That day, sitting face to face in the carriage, Demian had asked the two for cooperation to uncover the truth of the explosion accident. He was a layman in magic, so he wouldn’t understand even if he saw it.

Sally and Rudy naturally accepted Demian’s proposal. It was an opportunity to restore the honor of their respected senior and bring her back, so they couldn’t miss it.

The three went down to the basement to find the evidence storage. Inside were numerous boxes containing various pieces of evidence lined up.

The two magicians searched among them for the box containing the lamp’s remains. Demian stood by the door as if keeping watch.

“Let’s see, let’s see…”

“Ah, I found it!”

Rudy exclaimed upon discovering a box labeled ‘Evidence from the Magic Lamp Explosion Incident’. Sally quickly approached his side.

The two crouched down on the floor with shining eyes and opened the box. Lamp fragments, burned black with more than half gone, appeared.

Rudy, taking out prepared gloves and a magnifying glass from his bosom, carefully picked up a fragment.

While he closely examined the fragment through the magnifying glass, Sally checked if there was any magic cast on the lamp.

“There’s no separate magic cast on the lamp.”

“Is that so? I’ll look a bit more.”

Demian leaned against the door with his arms folded, quietly watching the two.

Then, after observing this way and that for a while, an “Uh…?” sound escaped Rudy’s lips.

“What’s this?”

“What, what?”

“There’s some strange powder-like substance stuck here.”

Rudy handed the magnifying glass and the remains to Sally. Receiving them, Sally narrowed her eyes and looked closely, then nodded.

A faint white powder could be seen stuck like dots on the blackened surface of the light stone.

“You’re right! But it’s strange, there was no powder-like substance around when senior made the lamp. There’s none in our lab itself either.”

“Tsk, suspicious. We should find out what this powder is.”

“Agreed.”

The two, having reached an agreement, wrapped only that light stone in a handkerchief and put it in their pocket, then put the rest back in the box.

And after returning the box to its place, they dusted off their hands and approached Demian.

“Is it done?”

“Yes, we’ll need to investigate the rest outside.”

“I see.”

Demian carefully left the building with the two.

Just then, the government office employees who had unexpectedly feasted returned in droves, but they didn’t notice them by a hair’s breadth.

Thus, the three quietly left the government office.

A few days later, Sally and Rudy uncovered the shocking identity of the white powder.

“This is a powder that explodes when heat above a certain temperature is applied. The temperature inside a magic lamp is sufficient to meet that condition.”

“Such materials are often used when inventing offensive magical tools.”

The problem is that Arasila’s lab had never dealt with such powder.

After reporting to Demian, Sally and Rudy exchanged conversation with serious faces.

“How did powder we’ve never used in the lab get inside the lamp?”

“When I put the completed lamp in the box, no such powder was stuck on it.”

Sally, who had carefully examined it while placing the box containing the lamp on the bookshelf, spoke as if affirming.

Then, in the time after that until Arasila took the box home for packaging, it was highly likely that someone had infiltrated the lab and sprinkled the powder.

But who could have opened the tightly locked lab door and entered?

Sally, pondering deeply, suddenly opened her mouth at a memory that came to mind.

“Rudy, do you remember when I lost the lab key at the classmates’ dinner?”

“Yeah, so I kept being in charge of locking up when entering and leaving work.”

“I thought I had dropped it somewhere by mistake then… But thinking about it now, I don’t think so. Didn’t someone at that gathering steal the key?”

An incident that was dismissed as insignificant at the time now seemed quite suspicious upon reflection.

Sally was meticulous and rarely lost things. Even when drunk, she had a habit of hugging her bag tightly to her chest when going home, so it was strange how she lost only the key.

“I’m sure, someone stole the key from me then. And there are only two people who could have done it.”

“Who?”

“Sherman and Billy. They’re the only ones who saw me take charge of the key after locking the lab door that day.”

To accurately target Sally’s bag and take the key, one had to have seen her with the key that day.

As soon as Rudy heard Sally’s words, he pointed out the culprit assertively.

“Then it must be Billy.”

The people in Sherman’s lab had always been favorable to Arasila, but Billy and his lab senior Travis were not.

Above all, Travis was Arasila’s biggest competitor and the one who desperately wanted her to fail.

“That bastard Billy! He must have conspired with Senior Travis and stolen the lab key!”

“Since they can’t match up in skill, they resorted to such cowardly tricks. Those wretched bastards.”

Sally and Rudy cursed Travis’s people, filled with indignation. Demian, who had been silently listening to the conversation, abruptly threw a question.

“Who is this Travis? And Billy?”

The two then explained with all their might who Travis and Billy were. Half of their words were curses about them.

Demian, learning about Arasila’s competitors for the first time, furrowed his brow.

“There’s a high possibility that guy is the culprit.”

“For sure! But we only have circumstantial evidence and no physical evidence, what should we do?”

To Sally’s worried question, Demian answered indifferently.

“Then we make some. Bring Billy to me.”

Due to Arasila’s absence, Travis rose as a strong candidate for the next Magic Tower Master.

As his senior was doing well, Billy’s shoulders also gained strength, but a corner of his heart was a bit uncomfortable. It was because of stealing the key to Arasila’s lab.

In fact, he didn’t know exactly what Travis had done. However, he could guess that the key he stole had played a significant role in her downfall.

Being human, he felt guilty, but of course, he didn’t have the courage to tell the truth. He would be punished too if he did.

Instead, he remained silent even when Sally and Rudy passed by, not picking fights. He reduced his words and became quiet as if he had become humble.

He couldn’t shake off the thought that all of this was like a sand castle that would be washed away if a wave hit.

“Hey, Billy!”

Someone called out to him as he was trudging out of the Magic Tower. When he turned his head, he saw Sherman waving happily as he approached.

“Going home?”

“Yeah.”

“Man, why so lifeless? How about a drink today?”

“No thanks, I’m tired.”

“Come on, don’t refuse. I’ll treat you, let’s go.”

Sherman dragged Billy along forcefully. Though annoyed, Billy, who inwardly wanted to change his gloomy mood, obediently moved his feet.

And it was when the two arrived at the pub in the alley that classmates often frequented.

‘Hm? The place is unusually quiet today.’

Normally, it would be so boisterous that the noise could be heard outside, but inside was infinitely quiet. Not just beyond the door, but the surroundings were strangely deserted too.

Feeling a sense of discomfort, Billy tilted his head as he entered the store, then opened his eyes wide in surprise. It was because the pub was completely empty.

No, to be precise, it was empty except for one table.