Despite it being late at night when she would normally be asleep, Adeline could not easily fall asleep.

The anxiety she had been trying to suppress in a corner of her mind gradually raised its head as time passed.

Throughout the night, the duke did not return to Adeline’s side. Adeline curled up in a corner of the bed, endlessly waiting for the duke.

She could only wrap her arms around her trembling body, anxious. There was nothing else she could do now but wait.

The long dawn passed, and the morning sun rose.

Sunlight seeping through the window touched Adeline’s eyes. Adeline, who had briefly dozed off, woke up with a start.

‘Mel?’

An empty bedroom. Adeline was still alone in this villa.

She couldn’t just keep waiting like this for the duke to return.

The anxiety creeping up was uncontrollable. She had to know what had happened.

‘Could his memories have returned?’

Adeline quickly headed towards town.

Thinking that if the duke had regained his memories and returned, it would be headline news.

Heading to the center of town, Adeline approached a boy selling newspapers.

“Do you have today’s newspaper?”

“Of course! Which publisher’s would you like?”

“Give me all of them.”

Adeline handed over a silver coin as soon as the boy gave her the newspapers.

She began to frantically read through the articles from all the newspapers. Contrary to Adeline’s expectations, there was no mention of the duke anywhere.

Unable to understand the situation, Adeline sat down by the fountain, her head seemingly in a muddle.

‘What on earth is happening.’

Adeline began wandering around town.

She had no expectation of finding the duke who had vanished suddenly, but it was a desperate attempt.

Perhaps because Adeline had poured all her energy into it, her strength was rapidly draining.

The quiet world felt just like the calm before a storm.

‘Right. Even if the duke had returned, news wouldn’t travel quickly to this remote village.’

The duke might have hidden himself, but she just hoped that wasn’t the case.

Adeline hurriedly returned to the villa right away.

There was a small hope that the duke might have returned in the meantime.

But the moment she entered the villa, Adeline’s face darkened at the chilly air that hit her.

‘Did you really… go back?’

If the duke was Mel, he wouldn’t have made Adeline wait like this without a word.

Because he, who had been living with her, not as Duke Torpeo, was kinder than anyone else.

A man who cared for Adeline’s well-being more than anyone wouldn’t leave her alone in such a villa.

Adeline clenched her fists.

Unless something had happened to him, it had to be assumed that the duke had returned on his own.

Adeline walked into the villa with hurried steps.

‘Please, it has to be there…’

With an anxious heart, she headed to the bedroom and rushed to the bed.

And as she reached deep under the bed, Adeline’s expression relaxed somewhat as her fingertips touched something.

‘It’s still here!’

What was in the box she pulled out was a seal. The seal of House Torpeo.

Adeline hugged the box containing the seal preciously to her chest.

As the seal represented the head of the family, it couldn’t be easily made.

Surely, if the duke had regained his memories and gone to the duchy, he would have noticed this seal missing right away.

As it wasn’t something that could be easily made, he would surely try to retrieve it.

‘Thank goodness. Yes, if I have at least this…’

She wondered if she could demand something in return for saving the duke’s life. If not, at least a deal might be possible.

Adeline thought of taking the seal hidden in the bedroom and fleeing to Hailo.

If she hid in Levrance County, wouldn’t she be safe for now?

From the crown prince who might be looking for Adeline, and from the duke who had been completely fooled by Adeline.

Just as she stood up…

– Clunk, clunk!

The sound of old door hinges creaking came from somewhere.

‘Mel?’

Could he have returned? Yes, something might have happened, preventing him from contacting her.

Only then did a faint color return to Adeline’s face.

She would have to scold him properly. To prevent him from leaving without a word in the future.

Just as she ran to the bedroom in one breath and placed her hand on the doorknob…

Thud, thud, the footsteps of a stranger echoed on the wooden stairs, getting closer.

It was a chilling sound of the wooden stairs sinking under the heavy weight of the person climbing.

Adeline couldn’t move. Her two feet felt as heavy as if they were tied to dozens of lead weights.

Because the approaching person was not the duke.

Adeline’s face turned deathly pale in the suffocating tension.

After riding for three days and nights, the duke finally arrived at the Torpeo duchy.

As he was in a hurry, Casius had forgone the carriage and ridden the horse himself.

He surveyed his surroundings as he walked through the castle.

Although he had returned to the castle after a couple of months, it was frighteningly unchanged from before he left.

He walked down the long corridor and went straight to the bedroom.

He opened the wardrobe and changed into a dress shirt that his hand touched.

His glance fell on the old clothes thrown over a chair.

It was one of the clothes Adeline had chosen for him when she had led him into town.

‘…How ridiculous. To think I wore such things.’

It was of such poor quality that even nobles from nominal families in the frontier wouldn’t wear.

He fastened all the cuff buttons on the sleeves. Then, with a graceful hand, he wrapped a black cravat around his neck and tied it.

After buttoning up his jacket, the duke stared at his reflection in the mirror.

The clothes fit his body perfectly, as if they had met their owner.

Unlike the ready-made clothes that woman had bought him, no part was too small, nor was the length too short.

The suit that fell perfectly from his broad shoulders, the soft silk fabric that clung to his body. Everything came together to enhance Casius’s appearance, but…

‘…How strange.’

Oddly enough, it felt awkward. His own reflection in the mirror, that is.

He had only lived as ‘Mel’ for one season, yet he had already become accustomed to that appearance.

As he ran his hand through his hair, the strands briefly brushed between his fingers.

His once long hair would have taken quite a while to brush through. But the hair that caught on his fingertips was unfamiliarly short.

“Ha.”

What a troublesome woman. Just imagining Adeline, who had changed everything about him, made him sigh involuntarily.

Just as he was rubbing his forehead…

– Knock, knock.

A short knocking sound echoed through the bedroom.

Where the duke turned, there was a middle-aged man bowing his head towards him. It was the butler who had served Casius for a lifetime.

“It’s been a while, butler. It seems you’ve gotten more wrinkles in the meantime?”

“Your Grace! How can you joke like that! Where have you been all this time?”

The butler approached with uncharacteristically hurried steps at the duke’s greeting pleasantry.

Perhaps because the duke greeted him as if he had seen him just yesterday. Emotions showed uncharacteristically on the butler’s face, which would normally have been expressionless.

“Do you know how worried I was? You didn’t return from the hunting competition, and there was no answer even when we inquired at the imperial palace…”

The butler’s face could be seen changing color moment by moment.

The duke looked at him and smirked. Then he approached and patted the butler’s shoulders, which seemed narrower than usual today, a couple of times.

It was clear how much the butler and the people here must have worried.

Perhaps because the butler’s feelings were conveyed, the duke’s sharp gaze softened slightly.

“There were circumstances. Was there anything unusual at the castle?”

“No. We said that you were staying at the townhouse for a while. Occasionally, local nobles came asking about you, but other than that, there was nothing unusual.”

Of course.

Even the crown prince wouldn’t be able to say that the duke had gone missing at the hunting festival hosted by the imperial palace.

Perhaps thinking of the crown prince, shadows fell across Casius’s face.

He sat down at the table in the center of the bedroom.

Then, as he tapped the table, flicking his fingers, seeming lost in thought…

“Eric, are you outside?”

He called for Eric. The castle’s secretary and Casius’s confidant.

“Yes. I’m here.”

Eric closed the half-open bedroom door as he entered.

He walked in with efficient steps and knelt on one knee in front of the duke, saluting.

“Please give your orders.”

“You’re quick-witted as always.”

It was such a natural action, as if he knew the duke would call for him.

The duke’s hand, which had been flicking the table, stopped.

“I need you to gather people and go to the villa in Horn immediately.”

“The villa in Horn…”

The butler’s eyes widened.

It was understandable, as Horn was not on the list of Torpeo family villas.

“Yes. My mother’s villa.”

A secret place deep in the forest, where no one knew the location of the villa.

Casius’s lips curved up into a slanted smile.

“Eric, go there and capture the woman. A woman named Del.”