Unlike Cedar, who had thick, firm lines, Grisha was delicate and elegant.

His appearance reminded Briar of the petite duchess, which made her dislike Grisha.

‘If he said he was going to become a mage and left for the academy, he should have just put down roots and lived there. Why did he have to come back?’

Briar’s heart was anxious.

‘I should have made Cedar the duke while Grisha was gone!’

Now that the Duke of Granite had collapsed and had not regained consciousness for a long time, it was a good opportunity to pass on the dukedom, but in the end, Briar failed to solidify her son’s position.

Before the duke collapsed, he had left the following condition for succeeding the dukedom:

He must be married and have children.

In other words, if Cedar gets married and has a child, he can immediately become the Duke of Granite.

However, the problem was that Cedar would not move according to her wishes.

‘When he needs to get married and have a child right away, he goes and marries a woman in a coma without my permission!’

When Briar brought a bride candidate, Cedar rebelled and ran out, saying he didn’t like the woman, and the woman he wrote on the marriage oath was a woman in a coma.

Anyone could see that he had married a strange woman just to rebel against her.

While wasting time like that, Grisha graduated from the academy and returned.

As a full-fledged mage!

‘Damn it! I should have eliminated him before that. The old people who insisted that the eldest son should inherit the family will gain strength again.’

The swordmasters produced by the Granite family are called the Sword of the Empire, but mages are just as rare.

‘If Grisha gets married and has a child first at this point, Cedar will be immediately pushed out of the dukedom.’

She had worked so hard to get her hands on the Granite family, she couldn’t let all her efforts go to waste now.

‘So I have to persuade Grisha well and prevent him from getting married.’

The worst case would be if he got married at the academy and came home with a child… but if that had happened, he wouldn’t have entered so meekly.

‘First, let’s make him stay at the Granite mansion. That way, it will be easy to manage his every move.’

Having finished her complicated calculations in her head, Briar smiled brightly and spoke to Grisha.

“Duchess sounds so distant. Call me Mother, Grisha.”

“The closer the relationship, the more distance we should keep.”

Grisha took a step back, drawing a line against Briar, who was approaching him closely.

Briar’s smile cracked, unable to miss the coldness.

But she couldn’t show her displeasure at Grisha’s next words.

“I would like to see my father.”

Grisha’s father, the Duke of Granite.

It had been 5 years since he had been confined to his sickbed.

During that long time, he had occasionally regained consciousness, although it was not known to others.

And each time, he had looked for Grisha.

‘If he meets Grisha when he comes to his senses…!’

He might even step forward himself and say he would pass on the dukedom right away.

Briar smiled brightly and quickly cut off Grisha’s words.

“Before that, you need to wash up and rest. It’s your home that you’re returning to after a long time, right? It must have been a very long journey.”

“What could be more important than seeing my father?”

“It’s for his health. He just fell asleep. It would be better to see him tomorrow morning.”

“Duchess.”

Grisha’s eyes were as deep blue as if sapphires had been cut into them.

It felt like those eyes were rummaging through her insides, and Briar unknowingly gasped for breath.

Grisha warned her in a cold voice, enunciating each word.

“I don’t care what ulterior motives you have, Duchess. But if you attack me and my loved ones, I won’t hold back anymore. Because I’m all grown up now.”

“L-Loved ones! Do you mean you have a lover?”

“What if I do?”

Briar lost her composure now.

Forgetting to manage her expression, she reached out to grab Grisha, who was turning around.

“Wait, Grisha! Let’s talk more! And where are you going? This is your home!”

At Briar’s words, Grisha, who was about to ignore her and just leave, stopped and replied coldly.

“This is not my home. I came here to warn you.”

And as if he no longer considered her worth dealing with, he went out the front door of the Granite mansion.

Briar, who had been blankly staring at where Grisha had disappeared for a while, threw the fan she had been gripping with all her might to the floor.

“Ugh!”

Grisha Granite! The second son, who had nothing better than Cedar except that he was the son of that woman who was much younger!

In Briar’s eyes, Grisha’s very existence seemed like a wall of bloodline that she could not overcome no matter how much she struggled.

As if mocking her own hereditary flaw, she had to remain a maid for a long time even though she had a beautiful face and gave birth to the duke’s first son.

Biting her nails for a while, Briar turned around and muttered.

“I have to meet Cedar.”

No matter how foolishly rebellious he was against his parents, he wouldn’t disobey his parents’ words even when someone who could truly take away what was his appeared.

[This is the timeline separator]

A week had passed since Cedar had broken the Granite family’s custom of “having meals together.”

According to Hail, Cedar seemed to be very busy because of the subjugation battle that would take place soon.

[Wow, there’s a lot to prepare in the first place! There are also things that Her Ladyship couldn’t do during that period because she was unwell!]

When asked why Cedar wasn’t coming, Hail answered like that while sweating profusely.

Seeing Hail’s face also bright red, it seemed that the entire Knight Order was very busy because of the subjugation battle or something.

I quickly told Hail to go and rest too.

‘It’s good not to eat vegetables.’

Even if Cedar stayed in the Blue Dragon Knight Order, there was little change in my life.

Hail took care of the meals, but Hail’s cooking skills weren’t great either, so the meals consisted of just bread bought on the way to work, soup, and a little salad.

Compared to when Cedar took care of it, it was lacking and the menu wasn’t varied, but I didn’t have any complaints because I originally had no attachment to food.

Once.

[It’s troublesome, you don’t need to come and find me like this. Just buy the ingredients all at once and leave, and I’ll take care of eating.]

When I said that.

[Alas! This is my joy! I have to pay my dues to Her Ladyship like this… I, I feel guilty enough even now? I’m sorry!]

Hail answered as if having a seizure.

His reaction was so intense that I couldn’t ask twice, so I just ate the meals he prepared three times a day.

‘But what does he keep saying he did wrong?’

Even thinking about it, I couldn’t think of anything, so I just tilted my head and gave up.

Anyway, I’m not good at understanding people’s hearts, so even if I hear a proper explanation, I might not understand the feeling of being sorry.

Anyway, while Cedar was gone, I worked hard to cultivate the herb garden.

I explained the necessary herb seedlings to Hail and also told him about the seeds.

I was worried if there was anything he couldn’t get, but fortunately, Hail brought everything I asked for.

Wearing the straw hat Cedar had prepared and the dress with the shortest length among the ones I had because I didn’t have clothes suitable for touching the soil, I put on an apron and stood in the field with a hoe.

‘If I try to plant all the seedlings in one day, I’ll collapse.’

I now knew that my stamina was worse than an ant’s. So I drastically lowered my goal.

Just plant one row a day!

So now, in the field, a row of herbs planted yesterday was gently swaying in the wind.

According to what I read in a book, when transplanting seedlings, plants are also likely to die from the stress of a sudden drastic change in environment, but I didn’t feel any such signs from the seedlings I planted yesterday.

“Fortunately, the soil is good.”

There’s no way I planted them well, so it must be because the land where the plants were planted was good. After drawing that conclusion, I diligently planted today’s share of seedlings.

Since Cedar had already made the furrows, all I had to do was gently dig a hole in the soil, put the seedling in there, and cover it well with soil.

As I was fiddling with the soil like that, I could definitely feel the difference between the places Cedar had softened with a pickaxe and the ones he hadn’t.

“Is it because he’s a Sword Master? He definitely has good strength. Unlike a mage.”

How on earth did he use the pickaxe? There were no large pebbles where he had pounded.

I was thinking of Cedar working hard with the pickaxe, but soon I shook my head.

‘Isn’t Cedar different? I don’t know because I’ve never met other Sword Masters.’

I’m not sure, but it didn’t seem like everyone would kindly use the pickaxe like Cedar.

It didn’t seem like they would be good at using the pickaxe like Cedar either.

‘I should thank him later. I should give him the magic potion first when I make it. I don’t know if Cedar will need the fatigue recovery potion that I want to make first.’

Somehow, the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like it wouldn’t be helpful to Cedar, so I felt strange.

I just stopped thinking about Cedar and focused on diligently planting today’s seedlings.

I carefully took out the seedlings so as not to damage the roots, covered them well with soil, and sprinkled water abundantly on top, and my forehead was also drenched in sweat.

I wiped my forehead and smiled with satisfaction.

“It seems I can make magic potions smoothly.”

At this rate, I will plant all the seedlings within this week.

As I was looking at the green leaves with water droplets, the sound of a horse galloping rang out.

‘Huh? Why is there a carriage here?’