Yuri sat across from the investigator with a dark expression.

She pleaded to the investigator, who had become quite familiar to her after spending time together:

“Um… How much longer do I have to stay here? Is there still no news from the Klaus mansion?”

Although she was receiving special treatment here thanks to the investigator, she felt frustrated by the lack of news.

The investigator frowned, flipped through some documents a few times, then folded them.

Then, narrowing his eyes, he asked Yuri:

“Is it true that Duke Klaus is really on your side?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It certainly doesn’t appear that way to me.”

The investigator tapped his quill pen on the desk a few times as he looked at her.

Straw-colored blonde hair and uncommon red eyes.

A beautiful body and a voice like a chirping bird.

Everything about her was extraordinary, but what Yuri claimed didn’t seem to be the whole truth.

Especially considering the mail that had recently arrived at the office.

“We received a letter of protest from Duke Callian Klaus.”

Yuri’s eyebrows twitched.

She had sent several letters to Callian, but he hadn’t replied.

She had even written a letter threatening to tell Esika about the night they had spent together, worried that Esika might have seduced Callian.

A letter of protest…

“He asked us not to deliver letters from the prisoner and requested a fair investigation.”

“That’s impossible!”

Yuri stood up, slamming her hands on the desk.

Her red eyes were swirling with murky feelings of betrayal.

Of course, Yuri hadn’t truly loved Callian either, having been drawn in by his background and wealth…

But she never thought he would treat her this way.

After all, he had embraced her tenderly the morning after they spent the night together.

Perhaps she had been too hasty in sending those letters?

“There must be some misunderstanding. Maybe that devilish woman Esika did something…”

“But it was certainly sent by Duke Klaus. It had his seal on it.”

“Investigator!”

Tears welled up in Yuri’s eyes once again.

The investigator froze at the sight of her tear-filled eyes, which were meant to evoke sympathy.

Yuri stood up and went in front of him.

“You said you would always believe me.”

Another tear fell.

The investigator stared, mesmerized, at the tear that clung to her collarbone.

It was a crime that should have resulted in years in prison, but she had managed to charm the investigator into reducing her sentence to just one year.

She would return to the Klaus mansion, no matter what it took.

**

“My lady… are you really alright?”

Before Callian’s letter reached his desk, Esika had received a copy of Yuri’s letter through Hans.

“How could the Duke have…”

Cella, who had read the contents of the letter beside her, covered her mouth with her hand.

“This is truly unbelievable. How could His Grace hide such a fact and act so nonchalant towards you? And why aren’t you confronting him about this, my lady?”

Cella’s eyes were filled with anger and despair.

But unlike Cella, Esika seemed detached.

There was no reason for her emotions to change just from seeing in writing what she already knew.

But even if she appeared calm on the outside, Cella thought that Esika must be burning up inside, and she felt upset and didn’t know what to do.

“If I had condemned the Duke for his infidelity, he would have felt guilty towards me, even if uncomfortable. He would have also justified himself and might have reached out to Yuri for comfort.”

“What… do you mean by that?”

“It’s one of the old tactics of turning lazy and foolish enemies against each other.”

“My lady, surely you don’t mean…”

If it were Cella, she would have grabbed her husband by the collar and wailed at him.

How could he have an affair with her friend?

But Esika saw through Callian’s character and was looking much further into the future.

“I am one, and the enemies are three. Nothing is more important than preventing them from joining hands, making them distrust each other, hate each other, and loathe each other.”

The corner of Esika’s lips twisted calmly.

“That child Yuri is hasty. She’s overestimating her own worth. And as for Callian…”

This was also an old story she had.

“Listen, Cella. Some men are like this. They reach out so desperately for things that are hard to obtain…”

Esika’s lips moved.

“But they don’t care about what they already have.”

“What an untrustworthy man.”

The corner of Esika’s lips twisted as she recalled someone from her past life.

“So throwing away your life for such a man is foolish.”

It was a lesson learned by throwing away one life.

And it was a lesson etched into her bones when she realized her past life as her second self stood on the same cliff.

“I simply made him turn his eyes to me, and made him somewhat tired of Yuri.”

Through Shupert, she had leaked news about the Klaus family to the prisoners.

Things that would make Yuri anxious, like how the Duke and Duchess were getting along very well.

Callian, who finally received Yuri’s threatening letter, had already grown cold.

And now Callian will not save her.

The Yuri in the book she had once read was different from the current Yuri.

Since Esika had changed, she too had to be different.

She will hasten her own steps in the direction of falling into the abyss.

“Callian absolutely detests women who cling to him.”

The Yuri he had taken a liking to was only the Yuri who was submissive to him.

Yuri will return. This too was one of the traps Esika had set.

And whatever Yuri has, if she starts clinging to him and crying or confronting him…

“…”

Esika knew Callian’s contempt well.

She had been receiving it for a very long time.

And she also knew how he dealt with crises.

“You know, Callian is actually…”

Esika intended to fan those flames a few times.

She wanted to see her enemies burn.

“…a terribly avoidant person.”

A twisted smile settled on her lips.

**

The next day, Esika left the Duke’s mansion not long after dawn.

A letter had come from her family home under Shupert’s name.

It stated that something had happened in the family and there was an urgent matter to discuss, asking to meet briefly near the western square marketplace.

Clatter, clatter, the sound of the carriage wheels rolling and crushing leaves or branches could be heard.

Esika, seated in the carriage, closed her eyes feeling the morning sunlight pouring in from outside the window.

Her long eyelashes cast shadows under her eyes.

Neigh-

The carriage came to a stop long before reaching the western square marketplace.

Esika quietly opened her eyes, feeling the breeze through the open window.

Her blue eyes were shining brightly.

From the moment she received the letter, she had a rough idea of what would happen today.

“Hehehe.”

“Is that the woman in the carriage?”

About ten men appeared in a secluded alley where few people passed by, as if by appointment.

“He said to disgrace her and then kill her. Don’t touch her face… We need to be able to recognize her to get paid by him.”

The men chuckled, showing their blue daggers at the orders of the man who seemed to be their leader.

Esika showed no signs of annoyance as she gripped the window frame and put strength in her legs to stand up.

She could tell it wasn’t Shupert’s handwriting as soon as she saw it.

There must have been a reason for imitating it so elaborately.

‘Really, there’s no time to rest peacefully.’

Now she just needed to beat them up and calmly listen to what they were trying to do to her.

Even if they were hired thugs, their level wasn’t much different from the guys she dealt with at the weapons shop last time.

But before she could fully stand up, Esika’s eyebrows twitched.

She heard the sound of a single horse approaching from afar.

And, a deep aura and presence…

Thud, she hears him dismounting from his horse. He’s behind them.

“It’s been a while since we’ve played with a noble bitch. Hehehe.”

“I wonder what sin the noble lady committed to meet us. Let’s have a little chat, peek-a-boo.”

The man’s words as he opened the carriage door were not continued.

Because his head immediately fell off.

“…Kuk.”

“Uck.”

Those who at least managed to utter a dying scream before going to the other world would know they were dying.

But some died without even knowing they were dying.

“Heurk… Uurk…”

“Uhuuurk…”

Five seconds, or perhaps a little less than that.

Nine out of ten men lost their lives, and only one remained alive, collapsing and fainting.

Probably left alive for the purpose of securing testimony.

And amidst the thick scent of blood rising, there he was, with his black hair slightly faded by the sunlight, swaying gently, gazing at Esika inside the carriage with intense golden eyes.

Blood was dripping, drip, drip, along the long sword he was holding.

Seeing his demonic appearance, she could understand why he was called a war maniac.

But it was also true that even in the midst of cutting down people like that, he exuded the noble dignity befitting a member of the royal family.

He sheathed his sword and walked to the front of the carriage, opening the door.

As he extended his hand, gloved in white, as if to escort her, Esika felt her heart tighten somehow under his intense gaze from those golden eyes.

“Hello, Esika.”

His low voice seeped into her ears.