Chapter 17 - The Little one and the Duke, the Daughter and the Father

Everyday he went on to name me every time I had dessert.

"Alexandria."

That's what he called me one day.

"Maximus."

Another day it was called that.

Realizing that his naming sense was not very good, I turned it down.

But,

'Evil Angel.'

'Dark Armstrong Power.'

It's not English, but it's a name with a completely different meaning in the language of the world. It's still a name, but what kind of terrible naming sense is that?

"······ The ruler of the Red Twilight."

'Was that even a name?'

I think he worked too hard on it.

I insisted that I didn't want it.

"… But, why are you suddenly trying to name me?"

In front of the fountain in the eastern garden, a blue skylight splashed over his black hair.

These days, I was slightly tired of seeing the scenery of the duchy, and I moved here just in time when he's eating lunch.

"I just felt the need to distinguish you from others."

Henriette's gaze at me seemed a little looser than before.

"Because you're afraid of the assassin."

He was obviously frowning a little, but somehow he didn't look angry, so I wasn't too scared.

Rather, I bursted into laughter.

"Why are you laughing?"

"The Duke, you can't name. Hehe, the ruler of the Red Twilight, ······ Poohoo."

"…"

It was so funny that I couldn't stop laughing.

Even when I curled up with my hands covering my mouth, I kept laughing.

Then, after a long time, I realized that Henriette kept looking at me, and so I stopped laughing in a hurry.

"T- take- take- I take it back! No!"

I scurried to take back what I said, but Henriette's eyes were on me.

Sure enough, he reached out to me over the table with a stiff face.

I closed my eyes tightly in fear, and his hand touched my head.

"What, uh..?"

Then he stroked it. Like when I dozed off in the orchard.

Strangely, it was a warm touch even though he's a villain.

Is it because he's my real father?

And I don't know why he's laughing so faintly at me these days.

But I still have one serious problem left.

I was going back to my room with the maids after lunch, and I felt bloated.

I have an upset stomach again today.

The taste of Henriette's cookies was getting better, but the amount was increasing.

In addition, how does a nobleman, who has never had a hand in cooking, try to bake cookies for the first time compare to a dessert made by chefs who devoted half of their lives to cooking?

Naturally, I was more into other desserts than his cookies, but I couldn't stand his gaze.

Thanks to that, I had to have an upset stomach every day of the week.

As I returned to my room bloated again today, Peina handed me medicine to help digest without saying a word.

"Good job today, miss…"

"Woong······,"

Peina patted him on the back.

A man's life is totally unfathomable.

I used to live on an empty stomach, but now I have an upset stomach and need to take digestive medicine.

'Not like this.'

But shouldn't we live and see for now?

I was determined to take extraordinary measures.

So, the next day, I ran away just before Henriette came.

The maids will suffer instead of me, but I can't help it.

Slightly out of the room, then went to the kitchen on the first floor.

"Oh, my god, Lady! What brings you here?"

"Oh. I'm here for a snack now."

"You've been eating with the master all this time, and you've decided to eat separately today, haven't you? Now, wait a minute, please."

The chef kindly led me to a table in the kitchen.

I almost crawled up to the high chair and sat down. The other chefs, as soon as they noticed I was here, began to get busy.

Today's snack was cherry juice with whipped cream, a slice of carrot cake, and sweet cheese ice cream.

I started eating with excitement, and the chef, who was watching me with a happy face, asked.

"I know the Master is cooking for you these days. I still have something left that he made before, do you want it?"

After hearing that, I opened my mouth, looking at him with a solemn face.

"In fact… I prefer the one made by chefs and cooks, not the one that the Duke made."

"Lady..!"

"This is a secret? Okay? It's a must."

Chefs and cooks stared at me with moved faces, eagerly asking if there was anything else I wanted them to make.

Thanks to this, I was able to get several butter cookies full of chocolate chips.

Then, I traveled alone throughout the castle, where I was quite used to the structure.

If I go straight back to my room, I might bump into Henriette.

Still, dinner will always be with him anyway, so at the end of the day, I had to go back to my room and figure out an excuse to take out.

"Where did you go during the day?"

As expected, Henriette asked as soon as he saw me at dinner.

I answered nonchalantly, pulling the spoon out of my mouth.

"I went to see the greenhouse."

"The greenhouse. Did you go alone?"

"No, with the maids."

Actually, I went alone, but I lied a little.

Glancing at the ladies' faces, they smiled softly, saying they understood that I had run away.

Looking again at Henriette, relieved, he said, scooping up the soup.

"Do not go to the greenhouse alone as much as possible. Especially deep inside the greenhouse, there are other sealed creatures."

"What is it?"

"It's a subspecies of the Holy Spirit. But it has enough power to pose a threat."

When I heard that, I suddenly remembered the white arms that pulled me into the lake last time.

Was that the subspecies of the Holy Spirit?

Holy Spirits are generally divided into human, animal, and plant types.

They all live in different places, have different habits, and looks, but they are said to have one thing in common.

It's eating people.

They said it hated people and tried to take flesh and blood because of the curse on the poor human race.

If it were a subspecies of holy spirit, would the arms that dragged me from the lake eat me?

Suddenly I got a chill down my spine.

"I'm the only one who can get in and out of it freely. If you really want to go deep, find me."

"Yes."

And another thing, I had an idea that suddenly went through my mind.

If Henriette is the only one who can freely enter and exit the depths, then no way.

Was the pretty boy I saw that day a subspecies of holy spirit?

'Maybe it's because you're not human that your eyes were unique.'

I don't think he's a monster or a subspecies because I've never seen him properly.

There's also a human type, but he was too human.

But why did they keep the subspecies of the Holy Spirit sealed inside the greenhouse?

So, did Henriette make that transparent glass inside the greenhouse that we saw last time?'

There was a flood of questions but without actually asking, I went on for dinner.

Henriette looked at me with a stiff look and couldn't even feel his gaze.

***

"Does this make sense?"

Boom, he stood while hitting the table.

The old aristocrat looked around at the other aristocrats who entered the palace with a bloody look, and stopped looking at a man.

It was a middle-aged man with a mustache.

That guy was always the problem.

A person who inherited the family as the eldest son of the historic Marigold family. A man who once devoted allegiance to the imperial family as a loyal subordinate of Duke Wensgrey, but is now immersed in the opposition of the current imperial family.

But he was always on the fence.

Count Eveline yelled.

"The conversation I had with Count Semond the other day seems to have flowed out to the outside world. In the Mines of Mithril, Marquis Calemond's son's scholarship to the Celencia Academy, even the money laundering was discovered! Who's mouth is this?"

In nearly a week, half of the forces led by Marquis Alpeir were swept away.

Stories that should never have been leaked from the outside leaked out, and the nobles standing at the center were detained in the dungeon of the Imperial Palace.

In an instant, even the unprecedented charges were made. Bribery, tax evasion, subversion charges.

Half of their forces were put on death row in a day. Those who are in better circumstances would be sentenced to life in prison.

"Duke Wensgrey, I can't believe he was alive…!"

Count Semond sweated a lot.

He was not a man of any ambition or mettle.

He repeatedly puts his feet here and there just to choose a place where he can take care of the deal peacefully or where I can feel full.

Now that his ambiguous feet are at a disadvantage, it would be enough to stick to Duke Wensgrey's close aides again, but there were more than one or two things that shocked him.

The Duke of Wensgrey has been deliberately hunting nobles, with the focus on Count Semond, except for his close aides.

Only his sphere of influence is safe. Rather, it has become a stranglehold for Count Semond.

He wasn't safe even here right now.

Ambiguous position, that was the problem.

At this moment in time, there is no one outside but Count Semond who could leak their stories.

"And, by the way, Count Semond has always taken a step back from important matters."

"Oh, no, no! Don't you know best how much I've devoted myself to this matter?"

"What is the circumstance of the leak of all the conversations we had in the Earl of Semond's mansion?"

"Only those close to Count Semond are still safe. Isn't that a strange thing? Tell me about it!"

The buzz gradually penetrated deep into his spine.

Count Semond was sweating more and more with impatience.

"Stop. Don't be too hard on him. This isn't a place for you to raise your voice"

It was Marquis Alpeir, the current owner of the mansion, who spoke at that time.

He smiled roundly at Count Semond.

"It's been a long time since we've tried to strengthen our friendship, but I don't like the fact that we're talking about depressing things. Yes, Earl Semond. How's your foster daughter doing lately?"

"Ah, this…"

If it is a foster daughter, it is the daughter of Duke Wensgrey, who he handed over to slave merchants through his aides last month.

Count Semond frowned for a moment.

"These days, for etiquette education, I asked my relatives for a moment and sent her to the education center…"

He actually knew Henriette wasn't dead.

He received the news later than his aides.

Henriette pretended to be dead and hid himself, which is why the time for news to be delivered to his aides was very late.

So Count Semond sold the child to slave traders one day. Later, with the intention of claiming that a child was kidnapped by hostile forces.

But there was news that the auction house belonging to the slave traders who he sold the child to was destroyed.

All the nobles who attended the event went missing without a sound, and the auction house, itself, burned down.

It was the day that the daughter of Duke Wensgrey, whom he sold out, stood at the auction house.

There were rumours in the public that the Duke of Wensgrey had destroyed the auction house.

"…"

An ominous mood envelops Count Semond's neck.

I thought it would be necessary to confirm. None of it was safe for him any more anyway.