Although it was a contract to receive information about her parents’ death from Enrico, she did not expect to be so constrained in her every move.

And she never dreamed that she would be increasingly swayed by his whims.

‘It’s too dangerous to keep relying on him.’

To receive information, she had to not go against his mood. But she wasn’t confident how long she could maintain this precarious tightrope walk.

Also, she wanted to stop worrying about suddenly becoming useless due to his whims.

‘I need to establish my own foundation first. Everything is too much his.’

Not only receiving information, but she was also too naturally relying on Enrico for housing and debt.

“Lady Emilia?”

Emilia finally spoke softly to Fabio, who was carefully observing her reactions.

“Then shall I visit starting next week?”

“…Yes.”

Fabio slightly tilted his head as if something felt off about Emilia, who seemed to be in a bad mood but quickly hid her expression and accepted it willingly.

“Are you alright?”

“Yes.”

Emilia calmly closed her eyes, then opened them and turned her gaze out the window. Fabio awkwardly closed his mouth at her attitude that seemed to be cutting off the conversation.

‘You weren’t after money. Don’t forget you need to stay by my side.’

Perhaps Enrico had immediately warned her about this in front of Ranireo out of concern.

It seemed he had said those words in case she might do something troublesome with her parents’ assets, needing to keep her under his control at his feet.

‘If that’s the case, I should use that money even more…’

At first, she didn’t even hear about the inheritance and only prioritized news about her parents.

But upon careful reflection, she leaned towards thinking it would be better in many ways if she could use it to dig into the case more freely without having to be mindful of his moods.

Looking at the current situation, Alessandro seemed to be the most likely suspect. So it seemed these thoughts came more strongly as it appeared best to approach him directly with this suspicion.

If she were to carry this out, Enrico would clearly be the biggest obstacle.

Also, since there was a limit to hiding her ankle condition anyway, it would be better to prepare before he discarded her first.

‘I’m sorry to my parents, but even if it comes to a situation where I have to hand over all the assets to him, getting away is more important for now.’

She no longer wanted to be interfered with in future matters, to the point of wanting to pay all the penalties incurred by breaking the contract with Enrico.

Even if it was dangerous, she wanted to get closer to Alessandro.

No matter how much she pretended not to know, she was aware that Alessandro was favorable towards her, so she wanted to use that to at least try to sound him out.

Of course, he wouldn’t carelessly tell her everything, but she wanted to uncover even the tiniest bit of information herself.

Emilia clasped her hands together as she spotted a blue roof in the distance. Once she made up her mind, she felt like going to Enrico right away.

But it seemed too impulsive a choice, and she thought that going to him without any plan might only invite his mockery.

‘I should prepare some money first.’

He might not accept it right away, but that was uncertain. It seemed better to prepare in advance, as he might immediately reclaim the house or debt to intimidate her or out of annoyance with her whining.

Of course, for housing she could go to a hotel in a pinch, but the debt amount was large. Even if it was cowardly rationalization, she didn’t want to move hastily.

‘When I go to meet next week, I’ll tell him then.’

By that day, she must also sort out the feeling in her chest that became stifling whenever she saw him, whether due to anger or some other reason.

“Fabio.”

“Yes?”

“Could you please relay a message to the Duke? As you know, my mind is currently very complicated, so I’d like to rest alone on Sunday. I know he’s a busy person and won’t come, but I’m telling you just in case.”

“Ah… He is indeed busy, but I can’t guarantee he won’t come. I’ll try to convey the message to the Duke. However, please understand that I can’t give you a definite answer.”

“Yes. I’d appreciate it if you could just pass along the message.”

“…Understood.”

The carriage gradually slowed down. Fabio’s gaze trembled anxiously as he looked at Emilia, who spoke in a way that felt resolute. He had a bad feeling for some reason.

Thwack, a dull sound echoed in the room. The brown-haired man standing in front of Alessandro’s head turned sharply to the side.

Although he had slapped with his palm, it sounded as if he had punched, and the intensity was such that the man’s cheek instantly turned red and swelled up.

“Is that how you handle things?!”

Alessandro raised his hand again as if still not satisfied. Thwack, thwack – as the sound gradually changed to something bursting and the situation intensified, the brown-haired man endured Alessandro’s beating without a single groan.

“Damn them…”

How much time had passed? In the room that had suddenly turned cold, only Alessandro’s heavy breathing and crushing curses could be heard.

Alessandro’s appearance, which always maintained a neat and tidy look, was greatly disheveled, and red blood dripping from his hand was staining the luxurious white carpet.

Alessandro closed his eyes tightly and then opened them, as if still not satisfied even after hitting him like that.

Usually, he tried to suppress his cruel nature as much as possible, but occasionally, when he reached his limit, his uncontrolled temper would emerge without regard for the situation and cause him to commit acts.

Because of his anger at Emilia, he had impulsively taken a woman who turned out to be a noble from the Kingdom of Caernt. When it rains, it pours – all sorts of things were tripping him up.

It was too late to release her as she had already seen his face, and he couldn’t kill her right away as he needed to observe the situation for a while, but things had gotten way out of hand.

Even then, when he heard that Princess Vivian had gone to see Enrico, he ordered the woman to be killed, but those idiots had missed even that timing and she had escaped.

His blood boiled to the point of wanting to chew up those useless fools right then and there.

“I apologize.”

The brown-haired man, seemingly unaware of the pain from his swollen cheek and lips, immediately took out a handkerchief and wrapped Alessandro’s hand. Alessandro nervously pushed him away and wiped the blood-stained hand as the man carefully tried to examine it for any wounds to the esteemed person.

Alessandro threw the blood-stained handkerchief on the floor as if it was dirty. His hand had a slight redness but no wounds.

“Hah… You can’t even properly handle one woman? What kind of shadows are you supposed to be?”

The brown-haired man bowed his head deeply after confirming that Alessandro had no injuries. Alessandro sneered, rolling his eyes at the man’s attitude of not even making excuses, as if ready to die if ordered.

“If any nonsense leaks out to the public, know that not just you, but all your subordinates will die.”

“…I apologize. We have placed surveillance on Duke Michele’s mansion. It seems the target is currently unconscious. We will quickly infiltrate and deal with it decisively before she wakes up.”

“You call that an answer? Go kill her tonight!”

“We can try, but currently the security at the Duke’s residence is even tighter than before. At worst, there’s a high risk that we could be caught and our identities exposed.”

It seemed that since they had to clean up after Alessandro’s secret hobbies, they couldn’t use just any mercenary.

Therefore, the shadow unit known as the “hidden dogs” provided by the royal family had to handle such matters, and if caught, Enrico, as a royal, would easily find the symbol mark hidden in their teeth.

“Since one shadow member was already caught in Bacorta, they may already be watching our side.”

“…You think I don’t know that?”

Alessandro cursed through gritted teeth.

In Bacorta, since opportunities for Enrico to be alone in such a lax environment were rare, he had deliberately sent assassins including a shadow member, but he didn’t expect that monster to handle it so easily.

He knew Enrico exercised regularly, but he didn’t know he was that skilled in combat. If it weren’t for the one who observed from afar and came to report, he wouldn’t have believed it.

‘I must kill him no matter what. He will ruin my future somehow.’

To think he would find the place I had hidden so easily. Enrico seemed to have even better information gathering abilities than imagined, making Alessandro feel an even more terrible sense of crisis.

“You dealt with the witnesses for sure, right?”

“Yes.”

Though he knew, he wanted to confirm once more just in case. Alessandro turned towards the window, brushing back his disheveled hair. The window covered with blackout curtains didn’t let in a single ray of light.

If only Emilia hadn’t presumptuously pushed him away that day, he wouldn’t have had the impulse to kidnap the Caernt noble. Looking at it, the cause of the incident was rightly with that woman.

He had been patient because he didn’t want to carelessly discard his long-time plaything, but now she was starting to become annoying.

‘She can’t because she has a fiancé? Then is it okay for that bastard because he’s alone?’

Alessandro thought it was time to stop indulging Emilia’s coy act with her now docile face.

After staring at the dark curtains for a long while, he slowly inserted his hand through the gap in the curtains. The burning sunset flickered through the slightly open gap.

“Find Enrico Michele’s weakness again.”

“I will obey your command.”

Even for someone obsessed with art, he can’t have no weaknesses throughout his life. Recently, Enrico has been keeping Emilia Este close, so we’re watching for now, but originally that woman was someone I had my eye on first.

“I guess I need to give him a sense of crisis.”

I lost the order to Enrico during the last performance accident, but what if I appear and help when Emilia is in danger again? I should use the crisis as an opportunity to get a hold on her.

“About that criminal doing hard labor that I told you to watch before…”