“……”
Ken and Helen, who had been sitting on the sofa waiting for Lea, turned their gazes to the uniformed handsome man standing beside them. Was his name Ian? After Lea disappeared, he stood there with his arms crossed and eyes closed, not moving even slightly. The atmosphere suggested he would remain like that for a lifetime if she didn’t return, so the two prayed for Lea to come back quickly. And surprisingly, their wish was granted. Ian’s eyes, which seemed like they would never open, slowly opened and he unfolded his arms. At the same time, Lea appeared before them.
“Sorry I’m late. Is your luggage all packed?”
“……”
Ian quickly scanned Lea as she looked at Ken and Helen and asked her question. After confirming she had no injuries, he bowed and disappeared back into thin air. Only then did Ken quickly stand up and approach Lea, whispering.
“From now on, when you go anywhere, make sure you take that person with you. Got it?”
“……”
She could roughly guess what happened. Given Ian’s personality of absolute obedience to orders, since he couldn’t follow her, he must have stayed put in that spot without budging until she returned. Since he was already an expressionless person doing that, the people around couldn’t help but notice…
‘To be so inflexible…’
Lea clicked her tongue inwardly. Ian was a very capable person both as a shadow and as a guard knight. If Ian really tried to hide, she would probably have to deploy her qi-sense just to find him. In that respect, he was one of the essential talents for what she planned to do in the future, but he was too by-the-book. Lea shrugged her shoulders slightly. Well, what could she do about it anyway? She decided to think about Ian slowly and said to Ken and Helen.
“Let’s move locations first and then talk.”
****
That night, a black shadow silently slipped through a second-floor window into Count Roman’s estate. Moving invisibly like darkness deep into the estate, his footsteps paused briefly in front of a room from which light leaked. That room had been the Countess’s room for generations, and surprisingly, from the widowed Countess’s room came the rough breathing of a man along with a woman’s cries of pleasure. After hesitating briefly, the black shadow began to peek inside as if unable to pass up such a good show. Then the sight of a man and woman naked and intertwined on the bed entered his eyes explicitly. On top of the lying man, a voluptuous woman with deep red hair was moving her body rhythmically with her eyes closed. With each movement, cries of pleasure flowed from her mouth and her large breasts swayed like waves.
“…Ah! …Mmm~~ Aah! Good… so good… Rosman…!”
As the name Rosman flowed from the woman’s reddened lips, the black shadow finally realized who the man lying beneath the woman was. Rosman was the name of the late Count’s adopted son and the son of the widowed Countess.
‘…Then that woman is…?!’
The black shadow’s pupils shook as if struck by an earthquake. There was only one woman with deep red hair in the Roman Count household. Rene Roman, the widow of Count Roman and Rosman’s mother. Having witnessed an unexpected scene of incest, the black shadow froze like stone. But that wasn’t the only surprising thing.
“…It’s troublesome if you say this is good enough, Rene.”
“Hyeok… Aah!!”
When the man grabbed the woman’s waist with both hands, lifted her up, and slammed her down hard, the woman arched her back and writhed in pleasure. After moving like that several times, the man seemed unsatisfied and sat up, laid the woman on the bed, grabbed one of her legs and hooked it over his shoulder, then thrust himself into the woman’s body all at once. Then, holding the woman’s shoulder to keep her from moving, he began moving roughly. The room filled with the sound of flesh slapping against flesh and wet squelching sounds.
“…Haa… As expected, Rene is the best… The firmness… is no joke… Plus, right now we’re publicly… haa… committing incest… ugh… doesn’t just thinking about it… excite you?”
At the man’s words, the woman let out a scream as if she would faint while slapping his back hard enough to make a smacking sound.
“…Wh… what… nonsense… Aak! Incest… Aak! is… Aaaah! You and… ugh!! I are… Aah!! strangers… Aah!! I’m… going… crazy…!! Hurry… hurry…!”
At the woman’s urging, the man began thrusting frantically and the woman began screaming breathlessly. And at some point, the man’s movement stopped and the woman also trembled as if reaching climax. The black shadow who had been watching the two of them in hiding began moving back into the darkness. In addition to the steamy spectacle that was hard to see, he had also obtained an unexpected harvest.
‘The widowed Countess Roman and her son are strangers and in an affair… I should report this well to the Deputy Commander.’
Though his expression couldn’t be seen behind the black mask, the black shadow was clearly grinning as he slipped deeper into the estate. And when he reached a certain point, he stretched out his hand and began feeling the wall. When the black shadow’s groping hand felt something, he smiled wickedly.
****
Two days had passed since Ken and Helen came to the Duke’s residence following Lea. Though she had asked Jerome to assign their rooms next to hers, both of them seemed uncomfortable at the Duke’s residence and didn’t come out of their rooms much. She understood why Ken didn’t come out since she knew the reason, but she hadn’t expected even Helen to stay in. Though she wasn’t certain why Helen was acting that way, she could only guess that appearing before people seemed burdensome for her. Though she felt sorry for Helen, it was something she couldn’t help with, so she could only feel regretful. Today too, she had invited them to have dinner together, but the two who felt burdened by Duke and Duchess Kaien said they wanted to eat in their respective rooms, so in the end only she came down for the meal. When she entered the dining room, the Duke and Duchess were already seated and conversing. When she approached, both of them looked at her simultaneously.
“I’m late. I apologize.”
As Lea sat down and apologized, her mother Rien smiled gently and replied.
“What does it matter if you’re a little late? Just being able to eat together as a family like this makes me happy.”
Her voice was full of affection. And beside her, the Duke was nodding as if agreeing with Rien’s words. The Duke’s gaze was also only gentle and warm. At the sight of such parents, a smile unknowingly appeared on Lea’s lips.
‘When did I become so accustomed to this?’
At first, it was certainly unfamiliar and awkward. When her parents looked at her with affectionate gazes dripping with honey, she felt so burdened she didn’t know where to look. But now, while it felt tingly, she was somehow happy. Moreover, she was now secretly looking forward to mealtimes with her parents. Today too was a pleasantly good mealtime like always. At least until the word “debutante” came from her mother Rien’s mouth.
“Darling. How about having Lea debut at next month’s debutante? I want to officially introduce Lea to people.”
Cough. Suddenly she coughed low as if the tea she was drinking had gotten stuck in her throat.
Debutante… She had heard about it during etiquette lessons. Though each country had different names for it, in the Empire, the debutante ball that introduced noblewomen or upper-class women who had come of age to society was called “debutante.” Particularly in the Empire, since the Emperor and even the Emperor’s direct descendants attended the debutante, it was said to boast the largest scale and most splendor among the balls held throughout the year… She secretly hoped her father would oppose her mother’s words, but as expected, her father was on her mother’s side.
“If you want it and Lea is fine with it, then do so.”
“Thank you, darling~ Lea, would you be alright with it?”
At the Duke’s permission, Rien smiled brightly with joy and immediately passed the question to Lea. With her mother’s eyes sparkling with such anticipation waiting for her answer that refusal was impossible, Lea sighed inwardly but outwardly forced a smile and nodded. However, just thinking about high society, which was said to be full of rumors and subtle conflicts, already made her head throb.
After finishing the meal and returning to her room, she sent away all the maids and collapsed onto the bed. Though she wished she could just sleep like this, since she still had things to do, she got up again, took off her dress, and changed into pants and a blouse that were easier to move in. After removing all the accessories from her hair that the maids had carefully styled, she tied her naturally flowing long hair up into a single ponytail. Finally, Lea took out a robe from her spatial storage and draped it over her arm, then opened the window and stepped onto the balcony, saying.
“Ian. I’m going out for a bit, will you come with me?”
At her words, Ian appeared.
“It’s too late to go out. And going out through the balcony can hardly be called going out.”
“However I leave, if I go outside it’s going out. I’m not running away, am I?”
Ian fell silent, not knowing how to respond to the young miss who so brazenly called sneaking out “going out.” Though he hadn’t met many people in his life so far, he had observed many people while performing missions as a shadow. Michelle had also been a surveillance target, and thanks to her, he had no choice but to see the various words and behaviors of noble ladies and wives whether he wanted to or not. And as time passed, what he felt toward women was disillusionment. They made no effort beyond decorating themselves and acted as if catching a good husband was their only goal. Of course, there were very rarely ladies who seemed uninterested in marriage, but their behavior was the same. But the young miss who suddenly appeared was completely different from them. If possible, he wanted to open her head and see how it worked—she made him flustered every time to that degree. It was the same now.
“So what will you do?”
Looking at Lea whose eyes clearly said, “If you don’t want to follow, don’t. I’m going,” Ian sighed invisibly. Though he had an ominous feeling that he would continue to be swayed by the young miss in the future, he deliberately ignored it, bowed his head slightly, and answered.
“I will escort you.”
“Then let’s go.”
At Ian’s answer, as if she knew he would say that, Lea suppressed her presence and jumped lightly from the balcony to the garden like a feather. And Ian followed behind her. Though the Duke Kaien residence was famous for its iron-clad defenses, it was impossible to stop Lea and Ian who had concealed their presence. Having carefully left the Duke’s residence without being detected, Lea moved toward the location from the documents Berchel had given her. The house she was looking for was on the outskirts of the capital. It was an ordinary-looking ironware shop on the outside, but the shutters were tightly closed and there wasn’t a person or even an ant to be seen nearby. Lea spread her qi-sense widely.
‘Two fairly skilled individuals on the first floor, one in the basement, and…’
She detected a faint feeling of life and her face hardened slightly. Though they seemed to be alive, their condition appeared very poor. As if they might be extinguished at any moment.
‘There must be an entrance…’
Lea waited calmly. After waiting for some time, she saw a man slipping out from the side of the ironware shop.