– Thud.

The cabinet door closed at the same time the butler entered the room. Leah helplessly collapsed between the Duke’s legs.

If they had been even a little later, the butler would have caught the two of them together. Leah’s heart felt like it would burst after barely managing to hide herself by such a close margin.

– Miss Leah?

The butler’s voice searching for her could be heard from outside the cabinet.

‘Why did this man pull me in?’

He could have hidden by himself.

This is the pharmacy! It’s natural for the pharmacist to be here!

She could see the Duke in the pitch-black darkness inside the cabinet. He also seemed to have acted on impulse, avoiding Leah’s gaze.

‘Why did you do that, Your Grace!’

Leah had to swallow back that question she wanted to ask.

“Shh.”

The Duke pressed his index finger to her lips, signaling her to be quiet. Then he carefully braced his arms against the cabinet walls.

It was different from when he had braced against the desk earlier, starting with the distance. The man’s body was so close their noses could almost touch.

– Thump, thump, thump.

As she realized this fact, her oblivious heart began to race wildly.

‘You’re too close.’

The Duke and herself were pressed together like magnets. So close they could feel each other’s heartbeats through their skin.

– Gulp.

Leah unconsciously swallowed hard. Every time the Duke’s breath touched her forehead, heat blossomed there.

Plus the heavy masculine scent that had been tickling her nose.

He had seemed sickly before, but in this moment, he felt like the strongest man.

– Leaving candles lit like this and going somewhere. Did he go to the bathroom?

Was he looking for something? The sound of Bayern rummaging around could be heard.

‘Please don’t come here…’

But as always, desperate wishes don’t come true. The footsteps stopped in front of the cabinet. And then.

– Rattle.

Just as Bayern seemed to place his hand on the doorknob to open the cabinet, the door opened slightly.

– Creak.

A chilling sound echoed as the rusty cabinet opened.

‘Oh no!’

Leah squeezed her eyes shut as light seeped into the dark, cramped cabinet. How on earth would she explain this situation to the butler?

As all sorts of thoughts swirled in her mind…

– Ah, there it is.

Bayern muttered, then closed the cabinet door again. Fortunately, he seemed to have found what he was looking for, as the sound of him closing the pharmacy door and leaving could be heard.

The two people let out the breaths they had been holding as the butler’s footsteps faded away from the pharmacy. The Duke and Leah’s breaths intermingled in the narrow cabinet.

However, perhaps because they had been so tense, the two didn’t realize their bodies were pressed together.

“He’s gone, right, Your Grace?”

When Leah whispered softly, he nodded.

“It seems so.”

The Duke must have been very tense in this situation too, as he finally removed his hands from the wall. As the tension eased, Leah felt resentful towards the Duke.

She didn’t need to enter this cabinet in the first place. Why did he have to pull her in and cause this trouble…

Leah felt upset, thinking she had worried for nothing.

“I was so startled when you suddenly pulled me in, Your Grace. Why did you bring me in too?”

“I was planning to watch what the butler was going to do here.”

He let out an incredulous laugh at Leah’s bold words that seemed to be reproaching him.

“You almost got us caught doing that.”

It was good that he wanted to watch the butler, but if they had been discovered here, wouldn’t all their efforts so far have been ruined?

“We didn’t get caught in the end, so it’s fine, isn’t it? And the butler didn’t even need to open the cabinet in the first place.”

“What? Then did you know what the butler was looking for?”

“Yes. I have a general idea. But before that…”

He gestured towards the door with his chin.

“Shall we open the door now?”

Leah was startled by the Duke’s words. She had forgotten they were in a cabinet while conversing.

“Oh, I’m sorry!”

Strangely, when talking with the Duke, she tended to get too immersed in the situation without realizing it.

Shaking her head as if she found herself ridiculous, Leah pushed on the cabinet door.

But.

“What’s wrong?”

“Huh… This is strange.”

Tilting her head for a moment, Leah put more strength into pushing the door again. Even though she pushed harder than before, it didn’t budge.

– Click, click. Thud, thud!

“The door won’t open…”

“What?”

The Duke asked back with an expression of disbelief. A long arm stretched out from behind Leah as she pushed against the door.

– Bang, bang!

Even when the Duke pushed with all his might, the cabinet door wouldn’t open.

“It really won’t open, right?”

She had thought it might not be opening because she was weak, but seeing the Duke’s hardened face, it was clear he couldn’t open it either.

“…Why. Is this cabinet designed not to open from the inside?”

Akkia asked Leah in a voice tinged with bewilderment. His usually arrogantly upturned red eyes were trembling incessantly.

“I-I wouldn’t know! I’ve never opened it from the inside before!”

Leah fumbled with her hands to examine the door’s locking mechanism.

“What should we do? It seems to be a double lock, only openable from outside!”

Come to think of it, when would anyone ever open a cabinet from the inside? In a way, it made sense that it could only be opened from the outside.

Leah looked at the Duke with a dumbfounded expression.

“What do we do now? We can’t get out unless someone opens it from outside… Then we’ll have to explain why we went in here, won’t we?”

The flustered Leah struggled to get out of the cabinet. At first she hadn’t felt so suffocated, thinking they would naturally be able to get out.

As the thought of being completely trapped in a small enclosed space hit her, her breath caught in her throat.

The Duke’s expression darkened rapidly at Leah’s restless fidgeting, and he quietly murmured.

“Stop moving.”

“Pardon?”

Leah couldn’t hear the Duke’s words well because the cabinet shook every time she moved. As she tried to turn her body to hear him better, the Duke let out a low groan.

“…I said, stop moving.”

“Why? Are you uncomfortable somewhere?”

The low, subdued voice sounded ominous. Leah turned completely towards the Duke to get a better look.

“That’s… Just stay still when I tell you to stay still.”

“Are you in pain somewhere, Your Grace? Now is not the time to stay still. We need to get out of here somehow before someone comes.”

The Duke was frowning deeply, but he didn’t seem to be in pain anywhere in particular.

Leah couldn’t understand why the Duke was telling her to stay still when they should be breaking out of the cabinet if necessary.

At Leah’s bold words, the Duke brushed back his sweat-drenched hair. Then he spoke even more quietly than before.

“Hah, it keeps touching.”

“Pardon? What’s touching? Why have you been…”

In that moment, she felt an unfamiliar sensation she hadn’t noticed until now.

A heaviness pressing against her. A tactile feeling more alien than anything else was poking her.

‘Ah…? No way.’

A bead of cold sweat dripped down Leah’s forehead.

‘Is it what I think it is…?’

She squeezed her eyes shut as if trying to deny the reality of what was happening to her. Thinking it might have been better to be caught by the butler instead.

Was it from that moment? That Leah’s movements decreased dramatically.

Not just her movements, but her words too – a heavy silence fell between the two, their faces flushed redder than Leah’s crimson hair.

Inside the small cabinet barely big enough for two people.

The distance between the two trapped inside was very close, and their night was long.

“Haah…”

Early morning. As if to show she hadn’t slept, dark shadows hung under Leah’s eyes.

The two were finally able to escape from the cabinet. Of course, the cabinet door was damaged beyond repair.

“What excuse should I give to the butler…”

The Duke had told her to come up with something herself and returned to his room, leaving all the aftermath to her.

And more than worrying about being scolded by the butler, other thoughts dominated her mind.

A deep sense of shame washed over her, making her want to kick off the blankets right away. Leah began to wrestle with the practical concern of how she should face the Duke now.

‘Ugh. At times like this I don’t want to do the morning check-up.’

If there was just a check-up, she would have taken the day off. The item the butler had taken from the pharmacy yesterday was none other than the Duke’s recent medical chart.

She had to give a report, so it was unavoidable to seek out the Duke. As Leah walked with slow steps towards the Duke’s bedroom…

‘What’s going on?’

From the first floor to the third. She could see maids busily tidying up the mansion.

It wasn’t even cleaning day. She wondered at the sight of maids cleaning as if determined not to leave a speck of dust.

‘Is someone coming? They’re cleaning the guest rooms?’

Moreover, she saw them cleaning unused guest rooms. Leah, walking down the corridor, called out to a maid approaching from the opposite direction.

“Is a guest coming? The mansion seems bustling.”

“Ah. Yes. We’re expecting guests from the imperial palace tomorrow.”

“Guests?”

Guests coming from the imperial palace. The maid added to Leah, who had widened her eyes in surprise.

“Yes, yes. The imperial doctors will be coming. It’s the Duke’s regular check-up day.”

“Ah. Thank you.”

They said there was an annual regular check-up, and it seemed that was tomorrow.

Having arrived at the Duke’s bedroom, Leah knocked and entered the room.

She could see the Duke sitting in the distance. Seeing him, memories of last night suddenly came to mind, and Leah quickly moved her steps.

She intended to finish her work quickly and leave before strange thoughts kept arising.

After taking Alpharadia, the Duke had started eating properly. Today too, Leah was secretly proud to see the bowl about one-third empty.

Approaching the Duke, Leah handed him zizyphus tea.

“Your Grace, I’m glad your appetite has improved.”

“Useless talk. Well, did you confirm that?”

The Duke furrowed his brow as if telling her to stop with her banter.

“Yes. I checked and it was the medical chart as you said, Your Grace. It was the recent chart. The butler seems suspicious. I’ll keep an eye on him.”

Akkia silently nodded as he sipped the zizyphus tea. It was a sign of approval.

‘Well, that part is done.’

As she took out the examination tools she had brought to do a simple check-up, Leah spoke up.

“Oh right. I heard guests are coming from the imperial palace tomorrow? Seems it’s the regular check-up day.”

“…”

“Did you know… Your Grace?”

She had talked assuming he would naturally know, but Akkia was frozen in place, still holding his teacup.