NOCEH~07

CHAPTER~07

Mikhail read the heavy atmosphere and curled the corner of his lips into an amused smile.

The Frezen he knew was a cold and terrifying man who had never revealed his emotions, even with a blade pressed against his throat.

That was precisely why seeing the expressionless man’s brows visibly furrow was enough to pique his curiosity.

Mikhail grinned.

“What is it?

Was your heart racing because of that unexpected reunion?

If you want, I can bring her right to you.

Though, of course, I can’t guarantee my life afterward.”

At that very instant, a sharp blade was pressed against Mikhail’s neck.

It was so fast that he couldn’t even tell when Frezen had drawn his sword.

“Mind your words, Your Highness.”

“Hahaha!

You’re probably the only person in the Empire who tells me to shut up.”

“I’m honored.”

Mikhail raised both hands in surrender and casually stepped back.

Several strands of golden hair fluttered to the ground.

“I’m joking, just joking!

But put the sword away.

Even if you’re my favorite person, you’ll still be charged with attempting to assassinate a member of the imperial family.”

If he joked twice more, it wouldn’t just be his hair that would be cut off next time.

His head might actually roll.

The thought sent a chill down Mikhail’s spine.

No matter how close they were, Frezen was absolutely capable of doing it.

Mikhail stared regretfully at the strands of hair on the floor.

“Ah, what a waste.

Every single strand is precious these days.

I’m already losing enough because of that troublesome younger brother of mine.”

“If you wish, I can shave it all off.

I’ll cut every last one of those useless hairs.”

“Don’t you think ‘shave it all off’ sounds a little suggestive?

Especially in the middle of the night.

With just the two of us.”

“……”

Frezen’s eyes turned murderous at the endless teasing.

“If you continue this nonsense, I’ll shove this sword straight into your mouth.”

Feeling the killing intent radiating from him, Mikhail forced out an awkward laugh.

As expected, Frezen was hopelessly serious.

Only after Mikhail admitted defeat and stepped back did Frezen finally lower his sword.

The silence that followed was unexpectedly broken by Frezen himself.

“…Strictly speaking, I wasn’t the one who abandoned her.

She was the one who rejected me.”

“Haha.

Sure, sure.

But who would believe that?

Turning your back on the Duke of Decart is practically unthinkable.”

“……”

“If what you’re saying is true, then Count Leella is no ordinary woman.”

Frezen remained silent instead of arguing.

He merely stared at the night sky, weighed down by an inexplicable frustration.

‘No!

That’s not it!

That child isn’t what you’re thinking at all.

She’s simply my niece, whom I’m looking after for a while!’

Ever since meeting her again, Frezen’s thoughts had remained hopelessly tangled.

It felt as though a thick fog had settled inside his mind.

“Did you find what I asked you to investigate, Your Highness?”

“You’re really the only person in the Empire who treats me like an errand boy.”

“You’re too kind.”

Mikhail reached into his inner pocket and handed over a bundle of papers.

Exchanging documents beneath the moonlight in the dead of night made the scene look unusually secretive.

“Honestly.

Should you really treat your only friend this harshly?”

“You found it rather quickly.”

The documents contained information about Evlyen Leella.

It was the favor Frezen had personally requested from Mikhail the moment he arrived at the Imperial Palace.

“When something catches my interest, I don’t mind spending as much time on it as necessary.”

“…Does that mean you’re interested in my ex-wife?”

Frezen’s gaze sharpened immediately.

He had clearly misunderstood.

Feeling the sudden surge of killing intent, Mikhail hurriedly corrected himself.

“Just so we’re clear, I have no interest in another man’s woman, even if they’re divorced.

Besides, she’s not my type.”

“Why not?”

Frezen asked with complete sincerity, looking genuinely unable to understand.

“So that’s the real problem.”

Mikhail burst into laughter instead of answering.

Some things about Frezen never changed.

He could be absurdly devoted when it came to his wife.

Though why a man like that had ended up divorced remained a mystery.

Well, they must have had their reasons.

Pushing the thought aside, Mikhail continued.

“To add one more thing, there isn’t much information about the Leella family.

They’ve always been extremely secretive.”

“……”

“And thanks to a certain family cutting off everyone connected to House Leella, the little information that existed has practically disappeared.”

Frezen’s expression darkened further.

Mikhail drove the point home.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t know what your family did to House Leella.”

“…I know.

At least roughly.”

“‘Roughly’ isn’t enough.

They were unbelievably vicious.

If I were in her position, I’d have been sick of it too.”

Faced with the continued criticism, Frezen couldn’t even lift his head.

Guilt weighed heavily on his shoulders.

The truth was, he had never known what his family had been doing to her all those years.

He had spent years away on military campaigns.

Even after the divorce, the endless wars had left both his body and mind utterly exhausted.

Even so, he remained silent.

Anything he said now would only sound like an excuse.

“Anyway, just know that obtaining all this information wasn’t easy.”

“Are you asking for praise?”

“Think of it as complaining instead.

In return, you’ll have to grant me one favor without question.”

“…Very well.”

Trying to lighten the mood, Mikhail jokingly handed over the enclosed documents.

Frezen quietly looked down at them before lifting his head at Mikhail’s next question.

“So…

Do you truly believe that child is yours?”

“I’m not sure.”

“A man’s instincts shouldn’t be dismissed any more than a woman’s intuition.

Still, think carefully.

Don’t let your emotions make the decision.”

After leaving those unusually serious words behind, Mikhail returned to the banquet hall.

Left alone at last, Frezen released a long, weary sigh.

‘That’s unfortunate.

I wasn’t your enemy.

I was your wife.’

He never should have spoken to the woman he had met again after five years as though she were an enemy.

The expression she had worn looked genuinely hurt.

It continued to bother him.

And Mela’s cheerful voice calling him “Daddy?” still echoed endlessly in his ears.

She had fair skin and chubby little cheeks.

She was adorable enough to make anyone want to pinch them.

She looked no older than four or five.

Wait…

If she was that age…

Just then, as he sank into thought, an unforgettable memory suddenly surfaced.

“So it really was that day.”

Muttering under his breath, Frezen covered his mouth.

A faint blush spread across his cheeks.

Bathed in the moonlight, he slowly recalled that night.

Five years ago.

The unforgettable first night that had become legendary in House Decart—the first time in the family’s history that a bed had actually been broken.

* * *

“Aaah!”

No wonder my sleep had felt restless.

I had another nightmare.

I bolted upright, gasping for breath.

It was the last dream I ever wanted to relive.

“Of all things, why did I have to dream about that day?”

More specifically, it was about the time I had been married to Frezen.

The endless days of appeasing those fussy senior ministers and enduring their piercing stares replayed with terrifying clarity.

I desperately shook my head to drive the dream away.

If I was even dreaming about things I normally never remembered, then unexpectedly meeting Frezen again must have affected me far more than I realized.

I stretched my stiff body.

A moment later…

Tap.

Tap.

Something knocked on the window.

I turned toward it and saw a black messenger bird pecking at the glass with its beak.

My face immediately brightened as I hurried over.

“It finally arrived.”

The instant I removed the letter from its beak, the bird disappeared with a soft pop.

I unfolded the letter.

[Auction registration complete.

One prospective buyer.]

“Just as I thought.

No one recognizes the true value of that ore yet.”

Instead of selling the Argenta ore directly to a merchant, I had registered it at the auction house.

The Lopenter Marquis wouldn’t discover its true value until much later.

With Kanna’s help, he had eventually sold it to a merchant from the Western Continent for an astronomical price.

That single transaction had earned him not only prestige but immense wealth.

It had been the definition of a successful investment.

But I only possessed a single piece of Argenta ore.

Mela’s bag had contained several, but only one of them was actually useful.

That was why I registered it at the auction house.

Not because I intended to sell it immediately.

I wanted to lure the merchant from the Western Continent here first.

My true goal was to purchase the mine where Argenta ore was produced.

Still…

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t stop wondering who had deliberately given that ore to Mela.

“…Who could it be?”

If my guess was right, and they also knew the future…

They might become an invaluable ally.

Just then, while I was lost in thought, loud footsteps echoed through the corridor.

“C-Countess!”

The door burst open without so much as a knock, and a maid rushed inside.

She was breathing so heavily that she had clearly run all the way here.

“What happened?”

I placed the letter on the desk and walked over.

After finally catching her breath, the maid thrust a newspaper toward me.

“Th-This…

*Huff*…

I think you need to see this article immediately, My Lady!”

An article?

Puzzled, I accepted the newspaper.

But the moment my eyes landed on the headline splashed across the front page—

“What?”

I froze in complete shock.