Carl ordered Kassel to station the troops at the Count’s residence as soon as possible. He wanted to immediately bring in the army and fill the entire Count’s territory with them, but that was not possible.

Even if they moved as quickly as possible, it would take at least half a day to gather the knights, give orders, and actually move them. Kassel would probably come here with the knights as soon as dawn broke.

Carl was worried about the empty time before the knights arrived at dawn. So he decided to spend the night at the Count’s residence instead of returning to his mansion.

“You’re going to stay out overnight? At the Count’s residence at that?”

Clovis jumped up in surprise, but Carl had no intention of listening to him. If I say I’m doing it, then I’m doing it. With a dignified voice, he quickly silenced Clovis.

There were plenty of vacant rooms in this spacious mansion. However, at the sudden declaration of the Grand Duke’s overnight stay, the innocent servants of the Count’s residence were frantically moving to prepare a bedroom for the unexpected guest.

When he saw Celeste lying on the bed with a pale face like she was dead, his heart sank. It was the same when he saw her lose consciousness on the train, but today the shock was a bit greater.

That was probably because this was the capital, and so he had a sense of relief or carelessness that she was within his sphere of influence. He had not expected such a thing to happen again in the capital without his knowledge.

“Do you have any suspects in mind, Your Highness?”

As Linke examined Celeste’s condition, he asked Carl if he had any suspects in mind separately.

There was no physical evidence, but there was circumstantial evidence. The moment he was asked the question, both Carl and he knew that someone had come to Carl’s mind.

However, Linke did not persistently ask who it was. Perhaps it was because he could make a rough guess even without hearing the name.

Moreover, Linke was a neutral bureaucrat who tried to do his best in his assigned duties without being biased towards either side.

Even if Carl had openly pointed to Franz as a suspect, Linke probably would not have reacted much.

He said that the black magic that had seeped into her body had disturbed the energy throughout her body. As the head of the Ministry of Magic, Linke used recovery magic to help Celeste recover quickly.

Adding that he had done his best here, and that the rest required sufficient rest for the Countess, Linke left the Count’s residence.

Trusting Linke’s words that she would soon wake up now that her disturbed energy had been somewhat organized, Carl pulled up a chair and sat by the sleeping Celeste’s side after waiting for an hour.

It seemed that he could only be reassured if he saw her wake up with his own two eyes.

“Father.”

As if having a nightmare, Celeste, who was writhing in pain with her eyes closed, called out for the deceased Count Louisette. It seemed like she had come to her senses, but it was sleep talk.

He thought she would quiet down soon, but Celeste’s tossing and turning grew worse and worse.

Eventually, her hand that rose into the air waved in the air as if searching for something, and Carl gently held her anxiously trembling hand, as her appearance looked so precarious.

It was a lie that Celeste grasped his hand tightly in her sleep.

When he held her hand down like that, Celeste noticeably calmed down. As if his hand was a comfort, her thrashing body gradually found peace.

Warmth returned to her ice-cold hand. As her body temperature was gradually conveyed through their clasped hands, Carl felt his own heart settling down as well.

Had they ever been in contact with each other like this before? Valerie was clear evidence that the two of them, he and Celeste, had once been very close. Carl still could not believe the fact that he had a child, and a daughter at that.

In a way, when he saw Valerie, who could be called the fruit of love, Carl was seized by a strange feeling.

Of course, Valerie was not really a child made as the result of him and Celeste loving each other, but anyway, wasn’t she the clear proof of a night he couldn’t remember? He couldn’t help but feel embarrassed when he saw Valerie.

Those who had seen him and Valerie all said in unison that she was a lovely child who took after her father.

His own child who resembled him. When Valerie called him “papa” in a cute voice, the inside of his throat tickled.

Was it because he couldn’t remember that night two years ago? Even though only one hand was touching, Carl felt his heart beating faster than ever before.

The soft back of her hand was very small and young. The sensation of holding a woman’s hand felt truly unfamiliar.

Thump, thump, thump. As his heartbeat quickened and his ears felt hot for some reason, Carl coughed for no reason. It was funny to him that his ears were getting hot just from this, when he was not a fourteen-year-old boy suffering from a fever of first love, and it had been a while since he had even had his coming-of-age ceremony.

Perhaps if Celeste had not opened her eyes then, Carl’s face might have turned uncontrollably red.

Carl laughed as he found his own thoughts amusing. These sentimental thoughts did not suit him.

Carl consciously began to picture the next day’s schedule in his mind. The things that needed to be solved every day were increasing.

Let’s focus on dealing with those first, he consoled himself. As Captain Kassel and the troops arrived, Carl closed his eyes, calculating what he should do first.

As Carl had expected, the army arrived as soon as dawn broke. The number of troops that Captain Kassel brought was three units in total, and considering that thirty personnel were assigned to each unit, it meant that nearly a hundred soldiers had come to guard the Count’s residence.

Literally iron-clad security. He sighed deeply as he watched the knights filling the garden densely through the window.

He hadn’t been able to go out and see the outside for a while because he had been taking those damn bridal lessons. It was the moment his promise to go out and see the city with Liv once the mourning period was over was ruined.

With the establishment of iron-clad security where not even an ant could be glimpsed, there was no way they would let me out.

“I feel stifled.”

Using the excuse that I was not feeling well, I declared a self-imposed cancellation of all of today’s bridal lessons. Even so, I could not go outside the mansion. This vigilance would probably only intensify in the future, not decrease. A sigh escaped automatically.

With all classes canceled, the schedule was completely free. I had a lot of time and nothing to do, and I was bored.

When I showed Liv the most pitiful expression possible, Liv, who kept repeating no and that he wouldn’t fall for it, eventually raised the white flag and gave in to me. We decided to take a tour inside the mansion as a last resort.

Liv’s hope was that as my memory slowly started to return, walking around the mansion would help me regain my memory faster.

“All the way to the end of this field is the Count’s territory.”

“All the way over there too?”

“Yes.”

The Count’s territory was much wider than I had known so far. When I heard that all parts from the garden hill to the mountain were owned by the Louisette family, I thought I was going to faint.

This wasn’t just a matter of having a wide garden, it would be more appropriate to say that the mansion was nestled against a mountain.

“You really are a big shot.”

My mouth fell open at the enormous scale of the Count’s estate. It wasn’t for nothing that the original story explained that Celeste turned up her nose at the numerous noble men who proposed to her with bundles of diamonds.

Moreover, I wondered why they built a mansion on such a wide site, but it turned out that beyond the mountain immediately to the right of the garden, there was the Louisette family’s winery. They said that a winery was something that even a fairly wealthy family would not dare to operate.

Celeste was really… literally a woman who had everything. In modern terms, she was the very embodiment of a chaebol heiress with both looks and education.

“This is a space for aging wine.”

We also visited the underground storage where all kinds of precious foodstuffs were stored, and the storage for magical gemstones mined from the mines. The magic stone storage was protected under strict security.

“Would you like to go inside? But to enter here, you have to report to the Imperial Palace first with a transceiver.”

“Even though it’s owned by the Count’s family, you need imperial permission to enter?”

“Yes. A law was enacted a few years ago that all magic stones must be managed under imperial supervision.”

Still, up to this point, I had heard about it when studying the family history. The next place we headed to was a location I had never heard of before.

The vine-draped entrance looked at first glance like just a thicket of overgrown shrubbery.