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Chapter 57
I woke up with a splitting headache.
Pressing my temples with my hands as I tried to sit up, I couldn’t help but be startled.
The memories of last night flooded in like a tidal wave.
Ah…
Glancing sideways, I saw Hian sprawled on the bed and His leaning against a chair, asleep.
So last night, I had gone out to the terrace drunk.
The twins came looking for me, and I had muttered to myself…
The first day I drank alcohol.
The day I had unleashed emotions I couldn’t handle. Because I remembered that, and also how Kischel and Ilia had struggled listening to me,
I had promised myself I would never drink again.
“I’m such a fool.”
If those two weren’t there in front of me, I probably would’ve slammed my head against the wall. No, in my heart, I already had.
Just then, they both blinked and lifted their eyelids slightly.
Their wandering green eyes rolled toward me and then poured out words in a rush.
“Awake?”
“Feeling okay inside?”
“Does your head hurt?”
“Ah, should I have prepared some warm tea?”
“Do you want to eat something first?”
“I’ll have it ready right away.”
Huh, huh?
I sat awkwardly on the bed, rolling my eyes.
As the memories of yesterday came back vividly, I tried to predict how they would react.
Would they look at me with cold eyes, or silently turn away and leave?
But their actual response was nothing like what I had expected.
“I’m… okay.”
I tried to speak, but my dry throat made me cough. Hian sent a maid to bring me tea.
Usually, their words and actions were light-hearted, but their kindness now felt different from anything I had seen before.
“What is this?”
And then I understood.
“How are you feeling inside?”
“Mmm, I’m okay.”
The weak, vulnerable side of me that I had shown them yesterday… the side I never wanted anyone to see…
Had stirred something in Hian and His hearts.
I grabbed my head from the headache, deepening the crease between my brows.
Something began to flutter deep inside my chest.
Could it be…?
“Do you… remember what happened yesterday?”
They responded immediately.
“I won’t tell anyone.”
“We won’t ask what happened either.”
“Everyone has their own circumstances, right?”
“So you don’t need to worry about anything.”
The weakness I never wanted anyone to see, the vulnerable side of me…
Had given them a clue on how to handle me.
My stomach churned with a strange emotion.
“You heard everything, didn’t you? I’m sorry for showing you such an ugly side of me.”
“I don’t think that way.”
“I didn’t want to show that side of me.”
As I covered my face with my hands and curled up, I felt their touch wrapping around me.
Even though I wasn’t the perfect Duke Mertiel everyone imagined, would they willingly hold my hand?
No… could they act for me?
I lifted my hands from my face with a mournful expression.
The widely believed truth: the perfect Duke Mertiel, raised in the love of the ducal family like a greenhouse flower, flawless in every way, does not exist here right now.
There is only a young woman just turned twenty, fragile, as if she could crumble at any moment.
If this fragile version of me could stir even a little feeling in them…
“I promise. We’ll stay by your side no matter what happens.”
“I said let’s hold hands. I didn’t say it lightly, that we’re in this together.”
“If you want… we’ll gladly stay by your side.”
If the compassion or protective instincts in their eyes could be used for me, I would willingly use my weaknesses… without hesitation.
“JPino’s two guardians will protect you.”
I had etched that feeling into them.
I engraved it deeply, more deeply than ever.
✦ ✦ ✦
My twentieth birthday party ended more lavishly and extravagantly than any noble’s.
A few nobles were still lingering, but since we were monitoring them, it wasn’t a concern.
What I needed to focus on now…
Was the work piled up in front of me.
“More citizens from other territories are moving into the duchy.”
I pressed my temples with a pen.
The shadows under my eyes seemed to stretch down to my chin from the busy schedule.
“Is it because of distributing grain on my birthday? To accommodate them, we need enough land… hmm, have the contaminated lands been fully purified?”
“Almost done. Shall I go check for you?”
Kischel stood and brushed off his seat.
“Can you get it done quickly?”
“Half a day should be enough. I’ll go quickly.”
Before I knew it, night had fallen while we worked.
As my body sagged from fatigue, a sudden loud beep! startled me upright.
A masked man was entering through the window, and our eyes met.
“Ah. An intruder?”
The sword in his hand gleamed dangerously.
He raised it toward me.
Pressing my brows, I let out a long sigh.
The masked man, who hadn’t flinched even when the intruder alarm sounded, was startled by my nonchalant reaction.
“The other guards won’t come. This isn’t the first time, and they’d assume I’m with Kischel, so they’re probably just preparing to clean up.”
I rose to face the man, knowing he wouldn’t understand my words anyway.
“If you’re going to attack, do it quickly.”
The man looked bewildered. Perhaps he didn’t expect such a reaction from a noblewoman facing a suspected assassin.
“I’m tired right now.”
Sighing, I walked toward the assassin.
It was far too easy to subdue him without needing to disarm him.
“Who sent you this time? Are you upset that I’m the duke?”
✦ ✦ ✦
After locking the assassin in the underground prison, I returned to my room.
Currently, no one not invited could enter the ducal residence.
“Who could have done this? Probably one of the servants someone brought along.”
The only outsiders staying at the residence were a few nobles and their servants who hadn’t left.
The man from before wasn’t someone I knew, so he must’ve been a noble’s servant.
“Servants’ faces are hard to remember, so finding out whose servant they are will be difficult.”
Unable to sleep, I sat at my desk, scribbling with a pen under a small light and the moonlight.
I slowly exhaled the deep breaths pressing from my chest.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Come in.”
The servant I had sent returned cautiously with something folded in his hands.
“Duke, here’s the list you asked me to check.”
“Thank you. You may leave now.”
I wondered whose names would be on it.
The door closed with a thud, and I carefully unfolded the paper.
For reference, even servants from other families are recorded in advance when they enter the ducal residence.
The only thing I had instructed my servant to check:
Which of the remaining nobles’ servants had unclear alibis.
“Servants wouldn’t act on their own, so the important thing is which noble they belong to.”
The paper listed the nobles’ names:
Hena Giselle
Cardin Nevil
Will Diab
Leon Casim
All names I knew.
Ah, just to be safe, I also asked for one more detail.
“Anyone acting differently than usual.”
When I fully unfolded the paper, there was only one name listed:
Kischel Vessen
Apparently, he had lingered below the office instead of returning directly to me after going on duty.
The servant had added a note:
-Of course, I’m not suspecting Lord Kischel, but I wrote down every name as instructed.
The servant was confident it wasn’t Kischel.
“Ah, I’m tired.”
In the deep darkness, the world felt utterly quiet.
“Hena Giselle, Cardin Nevil, Will Diab, Leon Casim, and…”
Kischel.
Kischel, huh.
“Hmm…”
I slightly frowned, tilting my head almost habitually like I had with Eshed, and smiled subtly.
“What should I do about this?”
Even if it wasn’t about the assassin incident…
There was one thing concerning him.
