Grisha, who had been briefly reminiscing about the past, lifted his eyes to look at the woman sitting in front of him.

Unlike Nelly in every way, a bright and vivacious beauty smiled and greeted Grisha.

It was none other than Nelly’s younger sister, Diana.

“Hello, Magician. You came to see my sister?”

Grisha, who had been habitually looking for similarities to Nelly, nodded with an utterly businesslike attitude.

“That’s right.”

Even if there were any resemblance to Nelly, he would never feel any affection for this woman.

He already knew what she had done to Nelly from Nelly herself.

‘If this woman hadn’t tried to kill Nelly, Nelly wouldn’t have lost her magic.’

He wanted to kill her right then and there. But Grisha held back. There was only one reason.

He didn’t know Nelly’s thoughts on the matter yet.

‘If she wants her dead, I’ll kill her. If she wants her to live and suffer unbearable pain forever, then that’s what I’ll do.’

Grisha’s blue eyes darkened like the deep sea.

Unaware that her life was hanging by a thread right before her eyes, Diana twisted her lips seductively and continued.

“Oh dear, what shall we do? My sister isn’t here.”

“…Did you send her to a sanatorium or a villa?”

“Hmm, I can’t just give you that information.”

At Diana’s playful tone, cracks appeared in Grisha’s expressionless face. He frowned and asked.

“What do you want?”

Diana leaned forward. There was only one reason why she was deliberately trying to provoke Grisha.

‘Could he possibly know something about my sister?’

Just recently, she had received a crystal ball message asking if Nelly had woken up.

And then this male magician, who looked younger than Nelly, showed up right away.

‘It must have been this man who contacted her.’

She had gone to the Granite duchy to inquire about Nelly’s condition but was flatly refused entry.

Now that a man with a possible lead had appeared, it was only natural for Diana not to let this opportunity slip away.

First.

“How about exchanging it for the handsome magician’s name? I’d like to know your name.”

Diana’s flirtatious manner was a calculated move on her part.

For some reason, when she showed interest in someone, most people tended to underestimate her.

“No thanks.”

Grisha’s dismissive response suggested that he hadn’t caught on to Diana’s ploy.

Diana’s narrow eyes scrutinized Grisha’s face.

‘They don’t seem to be mere acquaintances.’

Diana watched Grisha, who was about to stand up immediately, and casually dropped a piece of information.

“My sister is married and staying at her husband’s house. As one would expect.”

“…Married?”

“Yes. There was someone who loved her passionately and said he’d be fine even if she was in a vegetative state.”

Grisha couldn’t hide his agitation at those words.

Diana, having confirmed her suspicions, smiled slyly. It was a sneer at Nelly, whom she had written off as a useless existence.

‘Even a worm will turn, I guess she managed to seduce a man at the academy?’

And quite a decent-looking one at that.

For Diana, who had always considered Nelly clearly beneath her, the fact that Grisha liked Nelly was unbearably irritating.

But she wasn’t going to just look at him with disgust.

‘Then he must know a lot more.’

Since it was the woman he liked, he must have been even more passionately interested in her condition.

Realizing that there was information to be extracted from him, Diana changed her sitting posture.

Grisha glanced at Diana with a wary look.

“You acted like you’d never tell me earlier, but now you’re spilling everything. Why is that?”

“It’s such a famous love story. Only someone who hasn’t stepped outside the academy for over a decade wouldn’t know about it.”

“I suppose the person claiming to love the Grand Magician is quite famous?”

“Of course. Even a child in the empire would know who he is.”

It wasn’t a lie. Nelly’s husband was someone that no magician who wasn’t completely shut off from imperial news at the academy could not know.

“It’s Cedar Granite. The commander of the Dragon Knight Order. The Swordmaster who protects this country.”

“…!”

At Cedar’s name, Grisha’s pupils contracted sharply, like a cat’s in bright sunlight.

Mistaking this for a reaction to the appearance of a Swordmaster, Diana rested her chin on her hand and smiled seductively.

“So give up on my sister, and let’s chat more. I’m curious about many things too.”

And then she brought up what she really wanted to know.

“Has my sister woken up?”

I was still hiding behind the tree, ears perked up.

“What on earth are you doing here?”

Cedar’s cold voice, devoid of any warmth, sounded so unfamiliar to me.

But what surprised me even more was the woman’s response to Cedar’s interrogation.

“This. Can’t a mother visit her only son’s house?”

‘Mother?’

It felt like severe dizziness hit me all at once.

I forgot I was hiding and poked my head out from behind the tree.

‘That was Cedar’s mother?!’

The two people glaring at each other bore no resemblance at all.

Cedar had tanned skin, but the woman was as white as snow. Their hair color, eye color, nothing matched.

If there was any similarity, it was that they were both attractive? But even that was a different kind of beauty.

While Cedar was rugged and large, that woman was delicate and soft.

‘She looks more like she could be Grisha’s mother.’

I frowned, recalling the most delicate and refined man I knew.

While I was marveling at the mysteries of genetics, the argument between the two didn’t subside.

Cedar shouted at his mother in an even sharper tone.

“Go back! What kind of mother breaks down the front gate to enter?”

At those words, the woman who had been pretending to smile raised her voice again and kicked the gate with her high heels.

“If you hadn’t locked it in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened! And you call this a gate? There’s not even a keyhole!”

“Why is there no keyhole…”

At the mention of the missing keyhole, I flinched and hid behind the tree again.

My heart was pounding. Though I didn’t have eyes on the back of my head, I felt like Cedar was somehow glaring at my back.

‘No, I was in such a hurry that I melted it without realizing.’

What else could I do when it looked like she was about to break in at any moment?

If I had more time, I might have been able to think of a more peaceful spell, but at that moment, melting was the only thing that came to mind.

Perhaps deciding to look into the keyhole issue later, Cedar continued speaking to his mother instead of pursuing the key topic.

“This is exactly why you’re like this, Mother! I hope this becomes an opportunity for self-reflection.”

“Self-reflection? Is that something a child should say to their parent?”

“I wish you would realize what kind of parent you are, Mother.”

“Cedar Granite!”

The woman, furious to the tips of her hair, shouted loudly.

Even though it wasn’t directed at me, her sharp criticism made my whole body flinch.

“How long will you keep rebelling so childishly? She’s back! She’s come to take your place!”

“It’s not being taken. It was never mine to begin with.”

“You’re the eldest son of the ducal family! Why do you say it’s not yours!”

“Mother, stop with your unnecessary greed!”

I wondered why Mother suddenly came, but it seems it’s about the ducal title.

‘Am I allowed to hear this?’

Cedar asked me to maintain our contract marriage, but he didn’t tell me about this situation.

But before I could ponder an answer, their argument only grew more intense.

“You really are a foolish child. Foolish and pathetic! How can you throw away your title over mere pride?”

“It’s not because of pride! Mother, why do you keep forcing a life upon me?”

“You think your life is yours alone?”

The woman jabbed Cedar’s chest with her finger unpleasantly as she spoke.

“Who do you think gave you that paltry talent, fame, and the environment to nurture your abilities? It was all obtained by grinding away my youth. And now you’re gloating as if you achieved it all on your own!”

‘Wow, that’s textbook gaslighting.’

By that logic, did Cedar ask to be born into the Granite ducal family?

Burdening him with things that happened without his will was something anyone would find objectionable.

And Cedar wasn’t weak-minded enough to be swayed by such words.

Despite his mother’s sharp insults, Cedar remained unmoved and replied brusquely.

“No matter what you say, my life is my own. Just as your life is your own.”

“I can’t believe this.”

The woman, at a loss for words, let out a hollow laugh, then lowered her eyes gracefully as if she hadn’t just been yelling so aggressively, and said.

“I’ll come back tomorrow, so I hope you’ll break this lock and welcome me properly by opening the door.”

Cedar shrugged his shoulders.

“I haven’t been staying at home lately. If you have something to say, come to the Dragon Knight Order. I don’t understand why you want to enter this house in the first place.”

“Because I want to see that precious wife of yours!”

At Cedar’s words, the woman who had been pretending to be fine lost her composure again and shouted.

Suddenly finding myself back in the spotlight, I too tensed up and hunched my shoulders.

The woman sharply interrogated Cedar.

“Do you even have a wife? Or is she already dead and you’re hiding it?”