Grisha, who entered the Granite ducal residence, opened his eyes that had been closed.

‘Nelly.’

As he carefully recalled the past, all that remained was Nelly Periway, only her.

He was truly glad that she relied on him when she lost her magic and became powerless.

Just as Nelly was the one who reached out to him when he was struggling and lonely, he was happy to be able to help Nelly.

And now he was free after leaving the academy. He had the power and wealth to protect Nelly.

‘Now I want to be Nelly’s strength.’

If he could obtain the position of Duke Granite today, the fence protecting her would become even more solid.

‘I’ll nullify Nelly’s marriage first. My elder brother is using Nelly’s compassion to constrain her.’

He had to break the shackles of an unwanted marriage.

Then punish Diana Periway who pushed Nelly into those shackles.

As Grisha was recalling one by one the things he had to do, a red flag went up in his mind when he stood in front of Duke Granite’s door following Lady Briar.

All this time, Grisha and the vassals supporting him thought that the duke’s collapse was entirely Lady Briar’s scheme.

Because it was Lady Briar who had seized control of the Granite family’s vast wealth and all human infrastructure after the duke secluded himself in his room.

‘Not content with poisoning my mother, now even father. What a greedy woman.’

That was Grisha’s thought.

But when the duke’s door opened and Lady Briar called the duke in a familiar voice, Grisha felt that something was wrong.

“Darling.”

Lady Briar always called him ‘Duke’ or ‘Your Grace’ in front of others.

Some people mocked her for not being able to shake off her past habit as a maid.

But now, hearing her call the duke like any ordinary wife would, an unpleasant feeling ran down his spine.

Grisha unknowingly clenched his fists.

And the duke’s voice, which he thought would not answer, flowed out of the room.

The faint voice, like a candle about to go out, was clearly the duke’s voice.

“I thought… I told you not to come…”

“It’s no longer possible for me to stop them.”

“I don’t want to show you my unsightly appearance…”

An affectionate conversation continued. Grisha gritted his teeth.

‘Wasn’t he collapsed like my mother? I thought he was addicted to drugs, gradually withering away.’

So he secretly thought it served him right.

After all, it was the duke who loved that woman enough to have a son with her.

As a fitting end for living without integrity, to be poisoned by the woman he loved.

If that was really the situation, what was this conversation he was hearing now?

Lady Briar, who had been talking softly with the duke in the room, opened the door wide.

The smell of pungent herbs stung their noses. Lady Briar bowed her head slightly and said.

“He says to come in.”

“……”

Grisha hesitated, unable to step forward immediately even after hearing those words. A vassal guarding Grisha’s back called out to him in a small voice, as if urging him.

“Young master?”

“…Let’s go.”

There was no turning back now that they had come this far.

Grisha thought he should see the truth clearly with his own eyes.

But he didn’t want such a cruel truth.

“It’s been a long time, Grisha. You resemble your mother a lot.”

The man sitting on the bed was so emaciated that it was hard to believe he was the once robust duke.

Not only Grisha but even the vassals bowed their heads involuntarily at the strange wretchedness.

‘So it was true that he secluded himself because he didn’t want to show his unsightly appearance.’

Just as animals enter deep into the forest because they don’t want to show their dying appearance, the duke had also confined himself to his room.

“Everyone seems anxious. Though the answer is already decided.”

The duke sneered as if he had expected this. Then he looked around at everyone and said in a cold voice.

“Since there are many witnesses, I’ll leave my will now. After my death, the title of duke will pass to my firstborn son, Cedar.”

“Why…!”

Grisha, who had been bowing his head, raised it abruptly at those words.

An indignant feeling that had been hiding somewhere in his chest erupted like a volcano.

“If you have even the slightest feeling of regret towards my mother, you can’t act like this! Not only taking away the position of firstborn son and the name of sole legitimate heir, but now even the title!”

That’s why Grisha had to leave the Granite family as if fleeing, despite having a princess as his mother.

And Cedar enjoyed all the good things that he could not.

Humanly speaking, if he had taken so much away to give to an illegitimate child of a mistress, shouldn’t the title be given to him?

But the opinion of his father, the duke, was completely different.

“Taken away? Do you think all of my things are naturally yours?”

He laughed incredulously.

“Don’t you think that you and your mother were the ones who took things away?”

With each word that followed, it felt like the ground was crumbling beneath him.

Grisha’s vision turned black.

As Cedar said, after walking a bit on the mountain path, there was a hut used by hunters while hunting.

The blanket was musty from being inside for a long time, but fortunately Cedar had brought something else separately.

After lighting the fireplace, filling the lamp with oil, laying out the blanket he had brought in advance, and boiling water with tea leaves in the kettle, the old hut instantly became a cozy shelter.

I nodded my head in admiration once again.

“You really are well-prepared. I felt that when staying at the mansion too.”

“You’re just too careless. If I hadn’t brought a blanket, you would have just wrapped yourself in that musty blanket, right?”

“That…”

‘How did he know?’

As he said, I was so dull that even when I was staying at the academy, mold grew on my blanket.

Of course, that wasn’t just my fault, but the academy’s fault for not even putting windows in the dormitory rooms.

Not wanting to admit it readily, I rolled my eyeballs around and then clapped my hands.

“Ah, we can get rid of the moisture with magic! Should I do it for you right now? In that sense, how about a kiss…”

“You really never get tired of aiming for my lips. No.”

“Hmph.”

I tried to sneakily fill up some magic power, but I was flatly rejected again.

‘Even though it’s overflowing and uncontrollable anyway. So stingy. Just give me some.’

If this is how it’s going to be, why did he ask if it was good to monopolize the test subject? What’s the use of monopolizing if the subject won’t cooperate with the experiment!

I pursed my lips like a duck. But since I was the one who wanted it, even though I was sulking, I sat down right next to Cedar.

Sitting close like this again, magic power flowed in tantalizingly.

Still lingering, I poked Cedar’s side with my index finger.

Cedar, who was turning over the kindling with the poker, laughed quietly as if in disbelief.

“…Do you like it that much?”

“Ugh, that’s such an insensitive question.”

“Then what should I ask?”

“Instead of words, if you could show me with actions…”

I’ll let you know how good it is by eagerly sucking on your lips. At my shameless answer, the corners of Cedar’s eyes became coy.

“You’re really just after my body, aren’t you? Shameless.”

“Ah, I told you that’s not it!”

I denied it loudly, but I couldn’t stop my gaze from constantly going to his lips. I hugged my knees with both arms and buried my face in them.

‘Thinking too much about useless things.’

Isn’t it fine if it’s good for both him and me?

What’s wrong with the body being the goal! That’s how you get attached and become closer.

I felt like a cat that couldn’t eat the delicious fish right in front of its eyes.

As I was grumbling, Cedar handed me the fully brewed tea.

“Drink this and calm your mind.”

“That’s easy for you to say! It doesn’t calm down just because you say to calm down.”

He didn’t seem to know at all how attractive he was to a magician who had once lost all their magic power.

I used my limited vocabulary to explain why I was so desperate to kiss him.

“It feels like clean, cold water gushing into your body. But when you’re drinking that water, an overwhelming sense of elation comes over you, like you can do anything in the world. Do you understand what it feels like?”

Cedar didn’t understand at all. Judging by his irrelevant answer while rubbing his chin.

“Is it similar to the feeling you get after running in the training ground until your stamina is completely drained?”

What nonsense is this person talking about! I was so dumbfounded that I retorted loudly, unlike my usual self.

“When your stamina is drained, you should just sleep. Where do you find ecstasy in that?”

“It’s because you’ve never pushed your stamina to the limit. If you try exercising once, you’ll understand too.”

“Pushing yourself to the limit is no different from self-abuse.”

“You’ve done that plenty when it comes to magic, haven’t you?”

“I, I can’t deny that. But are magic power and physical strength that replenish over time the same?”

Cedar put down his teacup and gently pressed various parts of my forearm as he answered.

“Physical strength replenishes too. It even increases if you keep using it. I’m quite shocked by how little muscle you have… Let’s start by building up your erector spinae muscles first. If you live like this, you’ll only be able to lie down with back pain when you get older. Even now, you sometimes can’t get up at once because your back feels stiff, right?”

“Ugh.”

Is he spying on me? How does he know my situation so well?

At this rate, I won’t even get the skinship I want, and I’ll end up just making exercise plans for health management.

I suddenly grabbed his arm and asked.

“Cedar, do you dislike skinship with me?”