“This is pretty good. Doesn’t look like it’ll break easily either. More importantly, using someone like you as an opponent would be an insult to my sword.”
Though she was merely lifting the cane and lightly tapping it against her palm, Abram felt an inexplicable terror and hastily shouted.
“Fibien! Where are you, Fibien!”
He had naturally assumed Fibien would be standing outside the office door, but not only did he not enter, there was no sound of a response either. Only then did Abram realize something was wrong.
“What is this…!”
Having completely lost his composure, his eyes rolling wildly, Abram watched as Lea approached with the cane, smiling brilliantly. And she kindly answered just as her father had told her to.
“You see, the Kaien ducal house also has shadows. Not trashy garbage like those in your organization, but the real deal.”
“Don’t tell me…”
“You’re thinking correctly.”
As Lea kindly confirmed it, Abram backed toward the desk where he had hidden his sword and spoke urgently.
“Do you think they’ll just stand by if you touch me? If something happens to me…!”
“That a woman named Michelle will spread a fragrance to kill Father and Sir Hugo?”
Abram’s movement stopped instantly. His eyes were shaking violently in disbelief.
“How did you…”
“I know because I neutralized the poison myself. Anything else you’re curious about?”
Lea looked at Abram, who was once again sneaking backward toward the desk, and smiled. Then she tapped the floor with her cane and continued.
“Don’t hold back, grab it. I’ll wait until you do.”
Abram’s movement stopped again. She knew he was going to get his sword. Could he really grab it? The moment he did, wouldn’t she use it as an excuse to kill him? As he hesitated in conflict, he was startled by the voice he heard and looked at her.
“Where did all that initial confidence you had when dealing with Joseph go? How boring.”
With those last words, the smile vanished from Lea’s beautiful face as if washed away. And Abram remembered. Where he had seen the look in her eyes. It was the same look in Duke Kaien’s eyes from 17 years ago—filled with rage after losing his wife and daughter. That intense, merciless gaze that seemed to freeze whoever it fell upon to the bone. He had seen a colleague’s head fall off right before his eyes from the sword the Duke wielded. That place, with blood splattering and screams ringing out, was truly hell. He had barely survived by hiding under his colleague’s corpse. As that memory he wanted to forget, had tried to forget, resurfaced, he forgot even to draw his hidden sword and stared blankly at her approaching. He saw the Duke from that time overlapping with her.
“They say a mad dog needs the whip as medicine. And I completely agree with that… Why are you suddenly like this?”
Lea, who had been looking forward to using her hands for the first time in a while, made a baffled expression at the sight of Abram collapsing weakly, having lost all will to resist. She had even brought a cane, saying a mad dog needs the whip, but it felt anticlimactic. No matter how bad a person was, beating someone with no will to fight wasn’t her hobby.
“Really, one thing after another.”
Annoyed, she struck Abram’s solar plexus with the cane to knock him unconscious.
…..
‘What is this…?’
Fibien doubted his eyes. The place where he stood was, unbelievably, the very room where the Duchess had been imprisoned. It was a place he had gone back and forth hundreds of times over a long period, so there was no way he could be mistaken. He had definitely confirmed it had all burned down, yet it looked exactly as it had before, as if nothing had happened. The only difference was that he was there instead of the Duchess.
‘What happened?’
Standing blankly for a moment, he barely managed to remember the situation from just before. After bringing Joseph to Abram, he had come out to the corridor at the eye signal telling him to leave. And then… Fibien’s eyes widened as his gaze shook violently. When he, standing in front of the office door, had raised his head at the sound of small footsteps, what entered his eyes was Joseph’s little sister who had burned to death. That girl was looking at him from a distance of 2-3 meters with the same emotionless eyes as when she was being transported by carriage.
‘It’s a hallucination.’
Fibien shook his head roughly as if trying to regain his senses. Then the girl’s mouth opened and an emotionless voice flowed out.
<You think it’s a hallucination? Then I’ll show you something more interesting.>
And then he seemed to have lost consciousness for a moment. When he woke up, he was in this place.
‘What on earth happened?’
Fibien hardened his face and approached the door, trying to open it. But the door didn’t budge at all, as if nailed shut. The window was the same. Only a small gap left for air circulation was open, and no matter how much force he applied, it showed no intention of opening. Only then did he realize he was trapped. Flustered, he picked up a chair and threw it at the window. Then amazingly, as if the window absorbed the chair, the chair disappeared the moment it touched the window. It was the same with the door. Realizing there was no way to escape no matter what he did, he drew the sword at his waist and stabbed his own neck. Feeling his heart stop along with tremendous pain tearing through his throat, he collapsed forward. But shortly after, Fibien opened his eyes again in a perfectly intact body. Whether he stabbed his stomach or his heart, it was useless. Realizing he could only feel tremendous pain but couldn’t even die, he screamed and threw down his sword. And he collapsed weakly to the floor.
…..
“Why is he like this too?”
Having tied up the unconscious Abram and came out to the corridor, Lea looked down at Fibien, who was kneeling with dilated pupils, staring blankly into space, and slightly frowned her beautiful brow. Whether the family was cursed or what, both master and servant were strange.
“It’s nothing, I just cast a light mental magic spell on him.”
As Lea chuckled at Abel, who was smiling refreshingly, a man wearing the Kaien Knights uniform emerged smoothly from thin air and knelt on one knee before her. He was the captain leading the shadow unit within the Kaien Knights—a handsome man in his mid-twenties with navy blue hair and cold, sharp black eyes. Was his name Ian… She remembered how he had accepted it calmly without a surprised expression even when the Duke introduced her. He was the most emotionless-looking man among the people she had seen. As if he had been born without emotions.
“As ordered, cleaning inside the mansion is complete, Miss. Awaiting your next command.”
Now there was only one thing left. The rest just needed to be tidied up.
“Please find all the confidential documents these people have hidden. They must not have had time to hide them, being suddenly attacked. I’ve asked the other knights to handle the rest of the cleanup, so you don’t need to worry about it. Just make sure no one escapes until they arrive. I’ll go to the ducal residence separately with Abel. I’m counting on you.”
Thinking she should stop by to see Rien before going to the ducal residence, Lea looked at Ian at his low but firm voice.
“The order I received from the Duke is to follow your commands, Miss, but the Duke’s order that takes precedence over that is to protect you. Going separately is not permitted. If it’s urgent business, then at least I will accompany you.”
It seemed the Duke was quite worried about her. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand that feeling, and she knew that with Ian’s skills he would be useful in many ways, but the problem was something else.
“You’re welcome to follow. However… I’m going to move by spatial teleportation with Abel’s help—will you be able to follow?”
“…”
Silence flowed for a moment, and Ian’s emotionless gaze shook in confusion, though only for a very brief instant. Looking at him, Lea smiled and said before disappearing while holding Abel’s hand.
“Then I’ll see you at the ducal residence.”
After Lea disappeared by spatial teleportation, Ian slowly stood up. His new young mistress was very similar yet different from the Duke. And that feeling approached him not unpleasantly.
****
Rien was sitting in the garden, looking up at the clear sky. Being in such a free state felt like a dream. And she couldn’t believe she had also seen the face of her daughter, whom she thought she would have no regrets even seeing just once. When her daughter was young, she thought she would resemble her husband based on her hair and eye color, but the daughter she actually saw resembled her husband even more than expected. Moreover, even looking objectively without thinking of her as her daughter, she was truly beautiful.
‘Well, Eric was the Empire’s greatest handsome man when he was young. It would be strange if our Leas, who resembles him, wasn’t beautiful.’
She unconsciously formed a gentle smile on her lips. Having lived imprisoned for so long, the only things she had mastered were composure and patience, so even if Lea didn’t come to get her quickly, she wasn’t impatient or frustrated. Thinking of 17 years, a few days really was nothing to her.
‘I want to hold her… Leas too… And him as well…’
As her thoughts shifted from Leas to the Duke, Rien unconsciously blushed slightly. The last time she had seen him was when he left for the battlefield. She had been spreading her wings of imagination, thinking he must have become more attractive with age, when Lea and Abel suddenly appeared before her eyes, making her eyes widen in surprise.
“…Mother. I’ve come to bring you as promised.”
At Lea’s appearance, extending her hand with slightly reddened ear tips as if the title “Mother” wasn’t yet familiar, Rien did what she had wanted to do—she pulled Lea’s hand and hugged her tightly.
“My baby…”
Held in Rien’s embrace, Lea stiffened in surprise. But with the fragrant, sweet scent and soft, warm feeling from her mother’s embrace, the strength was already draining from her body. It was a different kind of coziness from her father’s embrace. Feeling her mother’s hand gently stroking her head, Lea blinked, and when it seemed her mother wouldn’t let go easily, she spoke carefully.
“…Mother… we should go meet Father. He’ll be waiting a lot.”
Only then did Rien come to her senses and release Lea. The child in her arms was so lovable that she had been lost in thought.
“…Hold my hand… Mother.”
Rien grasped Lea’s hand, extended with a reddened face as if embarrassed, tightly with both hands as if she would never let go again. And the three of them disappeared from that spot.