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Chapter 39
I felt glances sneaking at me.
They were walking down the street side by side, proudly sporting fake mustaches.
Schwen had tied her fluffy hair to one side and draped a robe over herself.
It was to make her look like a boy.
Of course, she had also changed into clothing like that of a commoner boy. Wearing a simple dress instead of a cumbersome gown made it easy to change outfits.
Schwen’s concept was a rural boy trailing obediently behind the young lord.
“Don’t call me ‘lady’ until we get inside.”
After firmly giving that instruction, Eselian’s eyes narrowed. But that was all—he didn’t resist her request.
“……Your Highness?”
“Uh…! Hmph. What time is it now?”
When they entered the inn where they were supposed to meet their benefactor, they were greeted by Zion.
“I shouldn’t act like I know him.”
She almost waved in greeting out of reflex. To avoid eye contact, Schwen lowered her gaze and followed closely behind Eselian in quick, small steps.
“Be quiet.”
Eselian silently commanded Zion with the shape of his mouth.
“…….”
Zion stared curiously at the Duke and Duchess, both sporting fake mustaches.
“Where is he?”
Only after Eselian asked did Zion avert her gaze from Schwen.
“He’s in the farthest corner room on the third floor. He’s been there continuously since the day he received the report.”
He had intended to just confirm and leave. He lightly nodded.
As they climbed the stairs, a sudden emptiness beside him caught his attention. The Duchess, who he had expected to follow, was standing there.
“Lady.”
Eselian realized too late that he had addressed her without thinking and quickly twisted his mouth into a wry smile. Somehow, he found himself playing along with a childhood game—it was amusing.
“……We should carry the lady’s luggage. What are you doing just standing there?”
“……?”
The Duchess blinked blankly and raised her finger, pointing at herself.
“Me?”
Eselian grabbed the railing, turned fully to face Schwen, and said,
“Someone has to carry the lady’s luggage.”
Zion blinked, surprised at his unusually kind behavior. If the Duchess had really been his servant, she would have been scolded the moment she hesitated.
“Come this way.”
“…….”
“Peter?”
Only when he gave her a name did the Duchess step closer.
Schwen, now behind Eselian on the stairs, lowered her voice enough for only him to hear.
“When did you give me a name? But… isn’t it a rather common one?”
“Nothing good comes from standing out. Hand.”
As if asking a dog for its paw, he extended his hand toward Schwen. Hesitant, she only lightly grasped the sleeve of his robe.
“A servant doesn’t hold hands with their master.”
“I know.”
“……Then why?”
“The stairs are steep.”
The stairs were high but hardly dangerous. Schwen shook her head as if to say it was fine, then suddenly narrowed her eyes.
“Why have you been speaking informally since a while ago……?”
She wasn’t displeased; she was simply curious why he, who had always used honorifics, suddenly spoke casually.
“No master uses honorifics with their servant.”
Eselian said this as he took Schwen’s hand and continued up the stairs.
Schwen understood.
Who in the world would use honorifics for their servant?
“But just now… there was no one else around us.”
She guessed that Eselian had probably gotten fully absorbed in role-playing.
Eselian knocked on the door.
Knock knock. The sound echoed through the wood. Soon, the door swung open abruptly, as if someone had been waiting for them, carelessly.
“Why now…? Uh, who…?”
Brown hair, like brewed coffee, swayed in front of her eyes. The straight strands looked so soft. Schwen couldn’t help but be drawn to the hair.
“Should I let my hair down too?”
Her hair moved gracefully, and though Schwen didn’t dislike her own wavy hair, she admired that mature aura.
“Who are you?”
Snapped out of her daze, Schwen hurriedly spoke. This was the line she had been thinking of the whole way to the inn. Reciting it wasn’t as hard as she thought.
“You say you received help? From whom?”
“Yes. I… well, I came to find the person who helped our… master…!”
The woman looked bewildered, understandably so. The servant had suddenly shown up saying they were looking for the person who had helped, yet she didn’t even seem to know who she was meeting.
“Master.”
“…….”
“Y-our Highness?”
Eselian didn’t react, leaving Schwen sweating.
“Why isn’t he saying anything…!”
Schwen couldn’t tell if this woman was truly Eselian’s benefactor.
“She’s out of the benefactor’s room, but what if she’s an acquaintance of theirs?”
She couldn’t step forward first. Eselian would recognize her benefactor if they met. But…
“…….”
She didn’t know if he recognized her.
“Who are you?”
The woman glanced at the silent Eselian before looking back at Schwen.
Schwen was at a loss for words.
“We should go inside to talk. It’s too exposed out here…”
“Do you think I’ll let you in without knowing who you are?”
“That’s true, but we aren’t bad people.”
Schwen waved her hands earnestly to show she really wasn’t lying, but it didn’t help.
“Who are you?”
The woman raised her guard even more. Schwen stammered, then blurted out her identity.
“I… I am the Duchess… the Duchess of Ranied.”
Naturally, the woman didn’t believe her.
“The Duchess shows up like that in front of me? Don’t make me laugh.”
“My appearance is a bit… like this, but there’s a reason.”
“Ha, first you say you’re the master’s helper or some benefactor, and now you’re the Duchess?”
Understandably, she didn’t believe it. Schwen knew her attire made her look just like a boy.
“……Ah!”
Rolling her eyes, Schwen suddenly grabbed Eselian’s arm. She gestured that she had something to say, so Eselian lowered his head to listen.
Instead of speaking, Schwen whipped off Eselian’s robe hood.
There was no one else on this floor, so it was safe to do so.
“See? He’s His Highness the Duke.”
Yet the woman remained unimpressed.
“How would I know what the Duke looks like?”
“Huh?”
“Ah, I see. You’re going around begging, huh? Taking some handsome guy and saying ‘just give me a coin’.”
“No, it’s not like that!”
“Then what?”
“As I said, this is Duke Ranied, and I am the Duchess…”
“The Duke has no knights protecting him? I don’t know why you’re lying, but you’ve come to the wrong person.”
She glanced around, frowning, swiping her hair back.
“I don’t have money to give, so leave.”
As the door slowly began to close, Eselian, who had been quietly watching, grabbed it with his hand.
“Imperial Year 887, April 10. Have you ever been to Lucenia?”
He gently lifted the woman’s chin.
“What?”
Annoyed, she glared at him.
Brown hair. Green eyes.
Eselian vaguely remembered the girl he had met long ago as if thinking, Would she look like this if she had grown up?
Though he had met countless women resembling her, he could not tell if it was the same person. Naturally—it had been seven years.
“Again, I ask: Imperial Year 887, April 10. Have you been to Lucenia? It was during the victory banquet of Yelore.”
He knew the question was likely meaningless—seven years ago, and to her, probably trivial.
“You must recite the activation words for the purification effect to trigger.”
Throughout the investigation, he realized he would need to start from the beginning again.
Activation words.
Before meeting the princess, he hadn’t known that purification had such restrictions.
“Um… are you alright?”
A fragment of past memory surfaced.
It was a day when his mania had been particularly severe. He had led the war against Yelore across the border to victory.
Returning alive from a battlefield where so many had died, he responded to the Emperor’s call.
“I am grateful to my Duke. Even at such a young age, I never imagined you would do so well.”
“It is nothing, Your Majesty.”
“I have prepared a small gift for the Duke.”
The two-year war had yielded only gemstone mines and territories. Eselian smirked internally at the Emperor.
“I am honored by your words, Your Majesty, but I do not need these things.”
“……I like your honesty. Indeed, what the Duke needs is my daughter, right?”
Eselian had long wanted to shake off the hallucinations and auditory illusions that tormented him. On the first day of mania, he felt his life was crumbling.
The mania that had manifested in him made him disgusted with his own desire to live.
“Wait a little longer. The princess isn’t even an adult yet. This contract only takes effect when she reaches maturity. Isn’t that right?”
The contract between Lucenia and Ranied could not be unilaterally broken—not for prestige or faith.
Breaking a magical contract brought severe repercussions.
The Emperor often used magic to seal agreements. That’s why peace treaties held.
“Wait a little longer.”
The Emperor said this, gripping the magic stone tightly.
“Ugh…!”
At the same time, Eselian’s mind felt as if it were being crushed.
Lucenia and Ranied shared the same ancestry and curse.
Lucenia became the Emperor not because they were superior.
“You are nothing but Lucenia’s dogs. Obey and follow.”
For as long as anyone could remember, Ranied had been bound to Lucenia.
Lucenia managed Ranied with registers. Ranied’s names were entered at birth, and their mana was harvested.
Lucenia infused Ranied’s mana into magic stones, which became their brains. The stones amplified their mania, keeping them under control.
He played with it only enough so Ranied wouldn’t go berserk and kill him.
The Emperor needed a ‘dog’ to protect Lucenia, and Ranied had no choice.
“Never go against the Emperor.”
Eselian—and all of Ranied—knew this fact.
“Um… are you okay…?”
On that day, Eselian keenly felt his powerless position.
“B-Blood… I think I shouldn’t move…”
It happened to be the worst day of his mania.
He had done something unintentional and been stabbed with a sword that shouldn’t have hit him.
The small girl who appeared before him as he grew cold was tiny. All he could see through blurred vision was brown hair catching the light and green eyes shining even in darkness.
“I’ll call the knights. Can you stay alone?”
And when the girl touched him, a strange sensation pulsed through his head.
It wasn’t imagination.
His vision, previously clouded by mania, cleared, and his mind felt pure.
He didn’t realize it then, but that was undoubtedly purification.
Whatever he had vaguely suspected became certain after the first night with the Duchess.
