The duke, who was busy with his official duties, suddenly asked the butler a question as if something had occurred to him.

“How is she doing?”

“She is attending basic etiquette classes.”

With that question, as the duke turned his head back to his documents, Eric, the secretary standing beside him, felt like he was going crazy with frustration.

As if he could no longer hold back, Eric burst out with the curiosity he had been suppressing until now.

“Your Grace. Is she really a commoner? I hear she already has quite refined manners for a commoner.”

At Eric’s words, the duke snorted.

“Of course. She’s a woman I personally selected.”

The duke couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of Adeline pretending to be a commoner and receiving basic etiquette education.

‘She must be having quite a hard time receiving the same education again.’

And for a duke’s only daughter to act as a mistress. How humiliating.

Casius moved his gaze back to his documents with a satisfied expression.

“What? Could she perhaps be a noble’s illegitimate child? Your Grace, what exactly happened?”

As the duke continued to not answer his questions, Eric moved even closer.

Eric felt incredibly frustrated by the questions that remained unanswered.

“Your Grace. Are you really going to take her as your mistress?”

“Of course. Isn’t that what the imperial family has been wanting, for me to have a woman?”

Eric felt like he had eaten a hundred sweet potatoes at the duke’s words.

“What the imperial family wanted was a duchess, not a mistress!”

“A woman is a woman. I’m quite looking forward to presenting her. Don’t you think?”

For a moment, Eric thought the duke had gone mad. Presenting a mistress to the imperial family?

Wasn’t that just asking to be openly mocked?

“Who would present a mere mistress to the imperial family!”

Eric raised his voice, unable to hide his frustration.

“Eric. You’re pushing your luck.”

Something seemed to have irritated the duke. His eyes were now filled with killing intent. Surrounded by the murderous aura, Eric had no choice but to quickly shut his mouth.

Eric felt sympathy for the commoner named Del who had become a mistress, thinking she would have to deal with the duke’s personality rather than enjoy the luxurious life.

The duke recalled the memories of the past.

Before leaving Horn’s villa, Casius looked at Adeline sleeping exhausted in his arms.

What exactly about her family would make her throw herself at him without hesitation, even for loveless acts?

The duke needed to understand everything that had happened to him. And to do that, he had to return to being the duke. It had been quite some time since the duke lost his memory and stayed at this villa.

The Torpeo domain was eerily quiet despite the empire’s duke being absent for nearly a season.

Upon his hasty return, the duke confirmed that he had been disguised as having gone on an expedition by the crown prince’s orders.

‘An expedition, of all things.’

This made it even clearer that the crown prince had tried to assassinate him.

The duke ordered the servants to keep silent about his return to the Torpeo duchy.

Being attacked and collapsing at the hunting grounds was the crown prince’s plan. But the duke fleeing to Horn’s villa when his life was in danger was not part of the plan.

‘How did she know to come to the villa?’

The duke couldn’t understand at all why Adeline had been at the villa.

‘She couldn’t have known I would come, was the villa her goal?’

The duke suddenly recalled the only portrait left in the basement. If the Credion viscounty knew his secret and that’s why they searched the villa, the duke couldn’t let Adeline go even more.

“Now that you’ve come to me. I have no intention of letting you go, Adeline.”

The duke intended to give Adeline, who had deceived him, a taste of hope and torment. That was why he had left for the duke’s residence alone, leaving Adeline behind.

He planned to give her both hope and fear, expectation and despair, even more than what he had experienced.

However, if Adeline had discovered anything at the duke’s villa, he needed to cut off all possible routes for Adeline to communicate with the viscount as soon as possible.

That’s why the duke hurriedly ordered for Adeline to be brought to his residence.

When he first ordered for Adeline to be brought, the duke had only intended to imprison her and not let her go.

It would be good to interrogate Adeline about why she had waited at his villa, and to use her to threaten the viscount’s family.

The duke had expected Adeline to beg for her life, trembling in fear as soon as she was dragged before him. But contrary to his expectations, Adeline shamelessly continued to act as the commoner Del.

Seeing Adeline’s act, the duke came up with an interesting idea.

The humiliation of being a mistress for the Credion viscount’s daughter who had deceived and betrayed him.

And the brilliant idea of presenting to the crown prince the woman who had refused to become the crown princess and run away, now merely occupying the position of a duke’s mistress.

One day, a spy planted in the Torpeo duchy by Crown Prince Trashi sent a letter.

This letter brought a storm to the imperial palace, as if to offset the peace that had lasted for a while.

Enraged by the letter, the crown prince summoned the man who had led the duke’s assassination attempt once again.

“What are you going to do?”

At Crown Prince Trashi’s call, a man limped hurriedly forward.

It was the man who had failed in his attempt to assassinate the duke at the hunting grounds. Kneeling down, the man bowed his head and protested.

“Y-Your Highness. There’s no way he could have survived falling from that cliff…!”

The man couldn’t finish his sentence.

Before he could finish speaking, his throat was cut, silencing his voice.

All the furniture in the crown prince’s office was black.

This was because the crown prince couldn’t afford to change the furniture every time he saw blood in his fits of madness.

A pool of blood on the white carpet placed in the all-black office.

That grotesque sight further intensified the fear of the servants.

“Ah. I have to change the carpet because of this worm. Useless even in death.”

He showed no reaction to the dirtied carpet.

The crown prince, who just needed a trash can to vent his anger, continued to stab the man whose body and head were already separated.

“Hubert.”

He called for the servant standing guard at the door.

“Send a letter to the duke’s castle immediately to confirm if the duke has returned.”

It had been a week since the duke had locked the doors of his residence and issued a gag order.

The crown prince, who had been persistently pursuing the duke’s life or death, finally discovered the truth a week after the duke’s return.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The servant hurriedly left at the crown prince’s order, hoping that knife wouldn’t be turned on his own neck.

As the servant left, the crown prince burst into a laughter tinged with madness.

“Puhahahahaha!”

Roughly running his hand through his hair, the crown prince exploded in anger.

The duke who should have died had returned alive!

‘He hid well like a rat. Tough bastard.’

Unable to contain his anger, the crown prince turned even the corpse in front of him into rags, his eyes flashing dangerously.

Thanks to the duke who somehow always found spies planted in his territory, the crown prince didn’t know the details. He was just frustrated.

He needed to clean up the mess he had made in his haste to eliminate the duke.

He had to figure out how the duke had survived and returned, and how he would react.

Trashi, who had become extremely sensitive, pulled out all the fingernails of a maid because the sound of her trembling nails bothered him.

Also, saying that the temperature of the morning washing water was not right,

He dunked the maid’s face into a basin full of hot water, finding fault with the servants every hour.

It was two days later when a letter arrived that would change the icy atmosphere of the crown prince’s palace.

For the servants in the crown prince’s palace, those two days felt like an eternity.

As soon as the duke’s letter arrived, the crown prince tore open the envelope as if he would rip it apart.

Upon reading the letter, the crown prince began to laugh, clutching his stomach.

The contents that could be confirmed from the letter were as follows:

‘The fact that his memory was lost from the time he went to the hunting grounds until he woke up after the accident.’

‘He heard that he had gone on an expedition by the crown prince’s order, but he had no memory of that time due to an unfortunate accident.’

‘The fact that he had taken as his mistress a commoner woman who had saved and nursed the memory-lost duke during that lost time, and asked for understanding that he couldn’t yet pay respects to His Majesty at the imperial palace due to his still unrecovered body.’

“Ahahahaha. The duke took a commoner mistress? Did his refined tastes change when he lost his memory?”

Unable to stop laughing, the crown prince called for his servant with a satisfied expression.

“Hubert. It’s such a pity that the duke is still unwell, isn’t it? Tell him not to mind the expedition I ordered. Since the duke met with misfortune, we should understand with a generous heart, shouldn’t we?”

“……”

“Ah, tell him he has permission to rest fully at his duchy until his body is completely recovered.”

At the news that the duke had lost his memory, the crown prince pretended to show great generosity, as if the assassination attempt had not been ordered by him.

“A commoner woman. The empire’s only duke was saved, but he takes her as a mistress because she’s a commoner. Isn’t that unkind to someone who saved his life?”

The crown prince’s eyes flashed as if he had thought of something.

“As a central noble, one should properly repay kindness. Tell him that the imperial family wishes to personally express great gratitude to the commoner who saved the duke’s life. Instruct him to be sure to bring that mistress along when he comes to pay respects later.”

“Yes, I understand.”

The crown prince found the commoner who saved the dying duke annoying, but thanks to that woman saving the duke, he felt he could do something interesting.

“A duke and a commoner, what a fitting combination.”

The crown prince couldn’t stop the laughter that kept escaping.

“I should personally bestow a great favor upon this commoner.”

For such a precious woman who even saved the duke’s life, she couldn’t be left as just a mistress.

Trashi intended to encourage the duke to make the commoner woman his duchess.

Trashi was very much looking forward to seeing the duke’s distorted expression when told to make his mistress the duchess.

Little did he know that the woman was actually the Credion viscount’s daughter to whom he had sent a marriage proposal.