It was when Adeline was swallowing hard, watching Beil slowly rising.

Casius, who was standing next to her, blocked Adeline’s path.

“You are still mischievous. To a lady who has come to greet you for the first time.”

Perhaps thanks to Casius blocking her way, Trashi took a step back.

“Hahaha. Was I being too tricky? I was just so glad to see you. We shouldn’t just stand here. Come in quickly.”

Only then, perhaps realizing he had kept the two standing for too long, Trashi turned around.

Approaching the central table, Trashi sat down first.

Leaning deeply into the chair as if lying down, he gestured with his chin towards the opposite seats for the two people standing dazedly.

“Sit comfortably.”

As Adeline sat down next to Casius, refreshments began to be set on the table.

Desserts and teacups that seemed freshly brought out were placed.

As if they knew Casius would be coming, various types of desserts were prepared.

Unlike the rather grand welcome earlier, silence fell during tea time.

Trashi, sipping his tea as if savoring the aroma, followed Adeline with his eyes.

From the moment she first entered the audience chamber until now. He consistently couldn’t take his eyes off Adeline.

Under his persistent gaze, Adeline’s heart gradually began to race. Wondering if this fox-like man might have recognized her true identity.

“Do the desserts made by the palace’s renowned patissier suit the taste of the Duchess of Torpeo?”

Adeline was startled by the voice while nibbling on a cake.

When she looked up, there was Trashi, resting his chin on his hand, looking at her.

“…Yes. It’s very delicious.”

“That’s fortunate. You may hear this. These are rare desserts that you probably haven’t tasted in your life, my lady.”

Adeline’s fork stopped in mid-air as she was cutting the cake.

It was an extremely rude remark, but Adeline could do nothing but smile.

“I am grateful for Your Highness’s consideration.”

“No need for thanks.”

Trashi’s eyes suddenly changed as he waved his hand towards Adeline.

“But about the color of your hair, my lady.”

Adeline’s upturned corners of her mouth stiffened as she watched Trashi speak of her wheat-colored hair.

“It’s too noble a color for a commoner to have. It’s unusual. Is this what captivated Duke Torpeo? Ah, don’t take it too personally. I’m just very straightforward, you see.”

It was when Adeline was moving her lips, not knowing how to respond.

“Your Highness seems to have a lot of interest in my wife.”

Casius said as he put down his teacup.

There was a moment of silence at Casius’s pointed words, then laughter burst out from Trashi.

“How can I not be interested? She’s the only duchess in this empire. How could I not be interested?”

Trashi’s sinister gaze fell on Adeline.

“Duke Torpeo. Were you just some ordinary central nobleman? You, whose position is comparable to that of a grand duke, got married. And to a commoner at that!”

“…”

“Everyone seems curious about what kind of woman she is. This isn’t just my curiosity. The people of the empire are also paying attention.”

It was an unspoken pressure to reveal her face now that he had even mentioned the empire’s people.

‘I can’t take off the veil like this.’

Her hair color had long since returned to its original Credion color.

Moreover, Adeline had greeted the Crown Prince at her debutante ball.

The marriage proposal was probably sent by the Crown Prince who had seen Adeline then.

If she removed the veil, he would surely recognize that the ‘commoner’ Duchess was actually the young lady of the Credion Viscount family.

Adeline looked at the Duke through her veil.

It was a gaze as if asking what to do. But the Duke didn’t look at Adeline like that, instead tapping his teacup.

A smile gradually appearing on Casius’s face. It was an expression so subtle it was hard to tell if it was a smile or a sneer.

‘…Are you smiling?’

He had told her to just trust him. The tension that had been endlessly pressing down on Adeline eased a little at his expression that seemed to have something up his sleeve.

Come to think of it, he wasn’t the kind of man to act without thinking.

As if reading his subtly changed expression, one of Trashi’s eyebrows twitched and twisted.

Casius stood up from his seat and approached behind Adeline’s chair.

“Since you’re so curious, I should show you.”

And then he slowly removed the veil covering her face.

From her chin to her lips, to the tip of her nose. When the veil finally disappeared from view as Casius guided it up.

“…!”

Trashi’s face, sitting opposite, crumpled mercilessly.

His scarlet eyes, always shining nobly, were greatly shaken.

No wonder, for the identity of the Duchess, whom he had believed without doubt to be a commoner, was Adeline.

“This is my wife, Adeline.”

The moment Casius smiled, embracing Adeline who had fully revealed herself from behind.

“There was a lot of talk in public about her being a commoner and whatnot. But I didn’t feel the need to explain, so I didn’t add any words, and the rumors were quite rampant. Adeline is the daughter of the Credion Viscount family, whom Your Highness knows well.”

A spark ignited in Trashi’s eyes that had been quietly dormant.

“Ha.”

Trashi let out an exclamation at the scene unfolding before his eyes.

The spring when the debutante ball was held.

Clear wheat-colored hair and sky-blue tinged gray eyes. Adeline Credion, standing nobly among the women having their debutante ball, trying to show off like peacocks.

As soon as Trashi saw her, he felt a surging desire to possess her.

To think that she, who had stimulated his desire for conquest, was now Duke Torpeo’s.

She was already a woman with whom Trashi himself had been in marriage talks. He wanted to argue that it was impossible for her to be with a ducal family, ignoring the imperial family, but his pride wouldn’t allow it, so he could only swallow his anger.

But was Trashi a person who had lived hiding his emotions? The eyes engulfed in anger could never be concealed.

Until just before seeing the Duke and Duchess, he had occasionally smiled wickedly at the thought of catching the fleeing Adeline and keeping her by his side to torment her, but it was mind-boggling that this prey had long since escaped his grasp.

“I’m not feeling well.”

Trashi, who felt like he could only quell this anger by twisting Adeline’s neck right now and slicing Casius’s throat with a knife, waved his hand as if not wanting to see the scene unfolding before him again.

It was a clear dismissal.

At the Crown Prince’s gesture, Casius escorted Adeline out of the audience chamber as if he had been waiting for it.

From the moment they left the audience chamber until now, Adeline had been consciously exerting force just to maintain her steps due to the tension rushing over her.

They had walked about ten steps into the corridor. At the sound of breaking glass and metal scraping coming through from the audience chamber, Adeline’s skin crawled and her legs gave out, causing her to collapse in the middle of the corridor.

“Huh.”

Just from the sounds she could hear, it felt like the situation in the audience chamber was unfolding before her eyes.

The fear that all the broken glass shards seemed to be rushing towards Adeline like thrown blades kept coming over her.

Watching the pale Adeline, Casius frowned deeply and unfastened the cape attached to his uniform to wrap around her.

“Just a moment. It’s alright, Adeline. I’m here.”

Wrapped in the cape, Adeline now felt her feet leaving the ground.

Casius, unable to leave Adeline in a panic state, had fully embraced her.

Embracing Adeline, Casius boarded the carriage and began to urge it on. They hurriedly headed towards the townhouse.

Even when the carriage arrived in front of the townhouse, Adeline was still trembling like an aspen leaf, as if the fear had not subsided.

Hurriedly carrying Adeline again and heading to the bedroom, Casius continued to call out to her.

“Are you alright?”

Finally, Adeline opened her mouth to the continued calls.

“I’m going to die now.”

“You won’t die, Adeline.”

Casius firmly grasped Adeline’s trembling hand, but Adeline shook off Casius’s hand as if to fill the subsiding fear with betrayal.

“You saw the Crown Prince’s eyes too! How much I…! Ha…”

Adeline’s eyes were already filled with tears.

The tears that kept welling up in her large eyes were now overflowing and dripping down.

Watching this sight, Casius felt a tingling in one corner of his heart.

He had thought it would be enough just to protect Adeline from the Crown Prince’s advances.

Looking at Adeline’s reddening eyes, a corner of his chest felt tight.

He was particularly weak to this woman’s tears.

This was Casius’s lifelong wish that he had been waiting for. It was something that had to be done, and something that must be done.

But seeing the woman shaking with her shoulders heaving, Casius felt like his heart was plummeting.

“Adeline.”

He called out to her in a low voice.

He knows well how ruthless the Crown Prince is. Although he did this for himself.

None of what he had said to Adeline was insincere.

He had clearly said he would protect her.

And he had no intention of watching Adeline be toyed with in the Crown Prince’s grasp.

“I told you I would protect you. Why can’t you believe my words?”

At his following words, Adeline’s teardrops began to well up again.

Not knowing Casius’s feelings, what Adeline felt was clearly a sense of betrayal.

Over time, as they spent more time together, he had changed.

He was affectionate even when he tormented and hated her as if he would kill her.

It felt like he liked her, as if she was loved by him.

But what Casius had done was so unlike him that it made all the moments he had shown pale in comparison.

She couldn’t feel even a speck of consideration for Adeline.

She thought he had chosen marriage for her sake.

When she realized this man wasn’t like that, Adeline couldn’t control her intensified sorrow.

Only tears kept flowing. Thus, the misunderstanding deepened.

Meanwhile, Crown Prince Trashi, who had issued the dismissal in the audience chamber, was screaming in frustration, not satisfied with just throwing everything in the audience chamber.

At that moment, someone opened the door to the audience chamber and entered.

“Crown Prince. You fail to control yourself again.”

The person entering with a deep sigh as if it was pathetic was the Empress, the woman who had given birth to the Crown Prince.

“If I don’t do this now, I might go crazy.”

“Why on earth are you unable to suppress your anger like this! This mother doesn’t understand why the Crown Prince is acting this way.”

“I gave birth to you so you could have everything from the highest place in this country, what is there to be dissatisfied about that you throw tantrums like this!”

“Do I have the qualifications to go to the highest place?”

Trashi’s expression, countering the Empress’s angry voice, was coldly calm as if he had never been angry.

A chill seemed to be sweeping between the two, as if it would freeze everything in the audience chamber.