Alessandro had been told since birth that the throne was naturally his.

Even if he did mischievous things, the king and queen would turn a blind eye to some extent. But now, the royal couple’s occasional behavior suggesting this position was not entirely secure irritated him.

When he was young, they never said anything even when he repeatedly did bad things to animals and servants.

Of course, he knew they weren’t the type to make trouble unnecessarily, given their weak temperament, and would just observe if there wasn’t a big problem. So as Alessandro grew up, he gradually took advantage of that ambiguous gap.

But the problem was that this gap didn’t apply only to him. The royal couple left Enrico Michele alone just as carelessly, and of course that part kept bothering Alessandro.

My only uncle, Enrico Michele, pretended not to be interested in the throne, but he was a gloomy person who might bare his teeth at any moment. Only Alessandro didn’t take lightly Enrico’s actions of cleverly expanding his territory and raising his reputation while acting like he was only obsessed with art.

‘He’s been annoying from before, and now he’s even fawning over Emilia.’

Since he always stood out wherever he went from a young age and was good at acting demure, his reputation was quite good, so he was subtly compared to Alessandro, who wasn’t much older.

Enrico’s reputation rose just by living quietly and treating those around him smoothly. Thanks to Alessandro.

In his youth, when he didn’t know any better, those who looked at Alessandro with uneasy eyes for playing pranks on animals are no longer in this world, but his anger still wasn’t resolved.

Even if it was a bit cruel, how dare those lowly beings look at him like that. Because of their uproar, even the royal couple came, and eventually the blood-soaked forest was discovered, and after that day their eyes changed to displeasure, which was the problem.

As if he had been marked as a person of concern, Alessandro became unable to leave the palace for a while. And thanks to that punishment, he met Emilia Este, who walked into his hell on her own.

‘She was cute when she was young and naive, but these days she’s become harder to handle, perhaps because she’s thinking more.’

Her gentle and beautiful face that aroused sadistic desires captured his heart at once.

To his eyes that had only seen everyone fear him, Emilia, who looked at him with pure eyes and even smiled brightly, was the only existence that strangely made him feel good.

Perhaps because she looked similar to the small animals he used to play with, so at first she seemed just right as a new toy, and he casually got along with her to lower her guard.

But rather, just as Alessandro’s heart was starting to soften, who knew the Este Viscount would hear rumors about him. Those living in some rural corner sure get news fast.

Seeing him guarding against himself and hiding Emilia, he guessed there would be quite a few troublesome hurdles until he could grasp her, as long as that man was around.

“Why did she go to Bacorta? Surely that wench hasn’t caught on, has she?”

He looked at Count Valmont, who was looking at him anxiously, with eyes like he was looking at a cockroach. He should have recognized it when he brought Giorgio as an accomplice, saying birds of a feather flock together, but his impulsive choice from his youth had come back to bite him.

It was too late to kill him now, as Count Valmont knew too much. That old raccoon who was surprisingly good at saving his own skin must have set aside something to pressure him separately.

“Get rid of Giorgio now. He should have brought proper compensation for gladly vacating that position and even being seated there, but he hasn’t done anything so far.”

Giorgio had failed to fulfill either of the two compensations demanded: the investment rights in the Este Viscount family that Count Valmont requested, and Alessandro’s demand to bring Emilia Este down to become his mistress.

Moreover, he even recently lied about finding evidence of the investment rights, dragged out time, and even got caught taking more money, so there was no reason to keep him alive.

If there had been talk of a sponsorship relationship between Enrico and Emilia in the first place, he should have come running to him right away, but to confess it much later. He suddenly regretted not killing him then.

Originally, Emilia, who had lost her parents, was supposed to grow up in hardship and be pressured by Giorgio as soon as she became an adult, and he would appear to capture that lonely heart, but nothing had gone as planned.

Ah. There was one thing that went right. Inciting Count Valmont to kill the Este Viscount couple, disguising it as an accident.

“Ah, I understand. I will quietly take care of Giorgio.”

Count Valmont immediately agreed, seeing Alessandro staring into space with a cruel smile, whatever he was thinking.

He was already in a situation where he would bolt upright even while sleeping because of being duped by Giorgio’s lies and getting backstabbed after excitedly spending money.

He had no particular objections, as he wasn’t satisfied with just giving punishment and also agreed with Giorgio’s incompetence.

However, he had kept him around just in case because of the investment rights, but seeing that no trace had been found so far, it seemed better to proceed without Giorgio.

Then how would he handle the family that lost its head? It was quite frustrating that he couldn’t deal with it as he pleased since he couldn’t predict anything related to Emilia.

‘What is it about that wench Emilia Este that makes him obsess so much.’

He recalled asking before if he was going to marry Emilia, and Alessandro looking at him as if he was pathetic, saying he had a fiancée and would just keep her as a mistress.

It didn’t make sense that he was causing all this trouble just to keep her as a mistress, but he only needed to wait for the crumbs to fall beside him, so he watched Alessandro’s mood.

“…What will you do about Bacorta? Should we just send someone to check?”

“No.”

Alessandro muttered, rolling his unfocused eyes.

“I need to clear out some annoyances while I’m at it.”

Emilia blinked her tired eyes. Fortunately, she had barely managed to avoid the situation by telling Enrico several times that night that she was just surprised when he said he would call a doctor, and that she would be fine if she took a hot bath to relieve the tension.

Who knew her ankle would hurt at that timing. She inwardly groaned, wondering if she should call the duke’s personal physician as soon as she returned to Deciro. Before she knew it, a whole day had passed. In fact, she hadn’t even been able to go to the basement at all because of him practically forcing her to stay in bed.

‘But I didn’t know he would help like that.’

Emilia recalled him enveloping her. For the first time, his embrace, which had always felt overwhelming and burdensome due to his large size, felt stable.

She was too surprised to think about it then, but she never dreamed he would even block the box for her.

‘No matter how much he values his possessions, does he protect them to the point of throwing his body like that….’

Emilia’s expression became subtle. If it had been someone else, she would have thought they helped out of goodwill, or wondered if this person was interested in her, but the other party was Enrico.

His expression as he urgently rushed to her, his strong arms that held her tightly, his firm body that turned to cushion her fall and prevent her from hitting the floor. One by one, memories of that day came back.

“Haa…”

She thought she was going crazy thinking about this all day yesterday, but it was starting again. Her ears heated up as if the hot body temperature she felt when falling onto his chest had transferred to her. Moreover, she felt like the sound of his violently beating heart was still ringing in her ears.

There was no way an answer that didn’t come yesterday would come today. She shouldn’t try to understand him in the first place, but she kept deluding herself.

‘Don’t think unnecessary thoughts, the other person is Enrico Michele.’

Emilia took a deep breath, reminding herself that when she returned to Deciro, she would have to become a dancing doll again and kill her emotions in front of him.

‘I really need to leave the room today.’

Emilia looked at the letter she had carefully placed in the desk drawer. It was fortunate that she had brought her father’s letter, otherwise she might have thought the incident in the basement was a dream.

She got up from the chair she was sitting on and stood in front of the mirror, checking her outfit. Wearing a simple beige blouse and a long scarlet skirt, she adjusted the lace part that came to the middle of her neck and headed towards the door.

“…I can really move around a bit today.”

But who knew she would run into Enrico as soon as she opened the door.

How he happened to be standing right in front again, she reflexively blurted out words upon meeting his eyes. Seeing her cautious attitude, Enrico looked down at her for a moment, then raised one eyebrow and turned around.

“Are you alright from falling then?”

Though she considered going later, she followed Enrico, thinking she should at least greet him.

“You ask quite quickly.”

“Ah…”

You didn’t give me a chance to speak. Emilia swallowed her words and stood beside him. Slowly examining him, fortunately there didn’t seem to be any visible wounds. As she looked at his beautiful face that seemed impeccable today as well, she clasped her hands in front.

“I’m sorry. I should have been more careful, but my mind was in too much of a rush. Thanks to you, I avoided an accident. Thank you very much.”

He finally stopped as her steps gradually slowed. His eyes looking down at her bowing politely were deeply sunken. His eyes that seemed complicated somewhere disappeared as she raised her head.

“…Be careful next time. That body isn’t yours alone.”