TINT 83

Chapter : 83

“Spencer is my greatest ally, isn’t he? A tool? How could you even think such a thing?”
Florence barely managed to compose her expression, forcing the corners of her trembling lips upward.

“I’m glad to hear that,” the Duke said kindly, in the tone of a grandfather lecturing his young granddaughter. “Between equals, the one who errs must take responsibility. Only then can trust remain between us and the next task proceed smoothly. Do you understand what I mean?”

Florence, who had just barely calmed down, began to breathe roughly again.
Inside the crystal orb, her small fist trembled.

Joel Spencer, who was secretly watching the Duke’s office through the magical device, tapped the edge of his desk with a finger.
He already suspected that the 1st Princess wasn’t entirely unrelated to the recent magical explosion in the Imperial Palace.

Right before the Grand Duke’s wedding, Joel had run into Florence, who had come secretly to the Spencer estate.
Even then, she had given off the air of someone about to do something reckless.
And then came the magical explosion at the palace during the wedding ceremony.
Even Joel, slow-witted as he was, could connect the two incidents.

He had asked his grandfather several times what exactly had happened, but the Duke merely looked at him with a face full of disappointment — as if Joel were a foolish child.
Joel couldn’t stand being dismissed like that.

He was the next heir to House Spencer.
He had every right to know what was going on in his own family.

So when he learned that the 1st Princess was coming to visit, Joel secretly hid a magical device in the Duke’s office — one that transmitted real-time visual images.
The device, made of a transmitter and receiver pair, had been invented by his mother, Yvonne.

After her death, no one could fully decipher the magic circuits inscribed on the devices, so they were never commercialized.
For that reason, only three pairs of Yvonne’s original devices existed in the world.

The pair Joel possessed had been quietly taken from Yvonne’s old workshop — something even the Duke didn’t know about.

The first time Joel planted the device in his grandfather’s office, it had been half out of impulse and half out of curiosity.
That the 1st Princess had caused the magical explosion — that much had been within his expectations.

But everything that followed, all those strange words, were beyond him.

“Heart of Dawn? What’s that supposed to be?”

Apparently, it was the artifact she had used to trigger the explosion — but Joel had never even heard of it before.

“The Heir of Shadow? And who in the world is Hecate?”

He had always believed his mother’s death was just an unfortunate accident on a rainy day.

“Hecate — even after learning that it was the name of the one who killed my daughter… the 1st Princess’s blood relative — you still ask that?”

But if that was true, then his mother’s death hadn’t been an accident at all.
Who was this Hecate? Why had his grandfather concealed even the truth about her death?

‘Well, I can’t guess anything if I don’t know the facts.’

Using his brain, something he rarely did, made his head throb.

Just then, as Joel groaned and rubbed his temples, a shadow flickered across the crystal orb.
Startled, he quickly hid the device and threw open his window.

“Who’s there?”

A leaf fell, drifting from a large tree whose branches reached near the window.

Was I imagining things?

Joel frowned, staring suspiciously at the leaf that had landed on the back of his hand.
Should he call someone to search the area?
But if it turned out to be nothing, he’d only be scolded for making a fuss in the middle of something important.

“Hey, who’s there? Is someone there?”

As if sensing his hesitation, an irritatingly familiar female voice rang out.
He wanted to slam the window shut and ignore her, but he had to check first.

“Lillian?”

Joel called out her name to confirm her position.

“Joel? Joel, is that you?”

From a fair distance away from his window, a head of pink hair popped up.

He quickly judged the distance from his room to the branch where Lillian was hanging.
No ordinary person could have moved that far, that fast.
He must’ve mistaken the shadow of the leaves for a person — a sign of how on edge he was.

‘Only guilty people see ghosts.’

Joel sighed in relief, stepping back slightly.
His head already ached; the last thing he wanted was to deal with Lillian Rose.

“Joel, it’s really you, right?”

“……”

“The Duke said if you did anything wrong, I was to report it right away. Ignoring a lady in distress would count as ‘wrong,’ don’t you think?”

The final three syllables — “don’t you think?” — rose sharply in pitch, grating on his nerves.
He clenched his jaw, because he knew she’d absolutely run straight to his grandfather and tattle.

“Ah, Miss Lillian. What are you doing up there?”

“Joel, pick up my handkerchief, please.”

Feigning ignorance as if he’d just noticed her, Joel asked, and Lillian pointed toward the tip of a tree branch.

“What?”

“I told you! My handkerchief fell up there. It’s my favorite one!”

Only then did he spot the light lavender handkerchief caught in the branch.
So she’d climbed up there like a monkey — for that?

Joel let out a disbelieving laugh.

“I’ll send someone to fetch it. Please, just return to your room.”

“Ah, wait, wait! Joel, are you just going to leave me here? Can’t you at least give me your hand?”

Every fiber of Joel’s being screamed to just walk away.
But before he could, Lillian suddenly raised her voice, singing in a ridiculous tune:

“The Duke said— if Joel ignores me one more time— he’ll never let him off easyyy—”

She was completely insane.

Grinding his teeth, Joel leaned out the window and stretched out his arm.
His hand almost reached hers — almost.

“Come on, can’t you try harder? You’re so stiff!”

The corners of her lips curled mockingly.

“You should try reaching properly yourself, Miss Lillian.”

Each time their hands nearly touched, she somehow drifted just out of reach again.
The edge of the window sill dug painfully into his stomach.

By the time he finally managed to pull her toward him, Joel was drenched in sweat.

“Why climb a tree you clearly can’t even handle?” he panted.

Though he was exhausted, Lillian didn’t have a single drop of sweat on her — her face was perfectly fresh.

She stepped lightly onto the floor, pressed her finger to her lips, and tilted her head.

“I didn’t climb up from below,” she said innocently. “I came down from above.”

Her casual remark made Joel’s blood boil.

“Whether above or below — that’s not the point right now, is it?!”

“Are you getting angry at me?”

Lillian blinked, then cleared her throat and began to sing again in that maddening tone:

“The Duke said— he’d break your legs if you upset me agaaain— but since you’ve got twooo— losing one’s fine, riiight—?”

He barely restrained the urge to scream, What’s fine about that?!

She was completely unhinged now — blurting out nonsense in random melodies and off-key notes.
And yet, the infuriating part was that he couldn’t ignore her ridiculous song.

“I’m not angry,” he said stiffly. “You must be tired. Please, return to your room and rest.”

“No! My precious handkerchief is still up there. Call someone to fetch it for me.”

“It’s just a handkerchief…”

Joel muttered irritably, and her eyes flashed sharply.

“I told you, it’s my favorite one!”

Her stubbornness was exhausting. Joel finally snapped, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“For someone who treasures her belongings so dearly, how did you lose your Yellow Diamond?”

“Ugh, that again? I already told you! I got caught up in that magic explosion, and when I came to, it was gone!”

Lillian groaned, covering her ears.

She had thrown a tantrum for days, refusing to attend the Imperial ball without that Yellow Diamond — a gem worth a fortune — only to lose it the very night she wore it.

“Do you even know how much that thing cost? Aren’t you even the slightest bit sorry for losing it?”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake! You gave it to me. So it’s mine. What does it matter if I lose it or eat it? A gift’s a gift. Stop being such a petty, stingy man!”

The audacity of her words made Joel’s vision go white for a moment.

“Petty? Me? The heir of House Spencer — petty?”

“Whether you’re the heir or the head of the family, if you’re petty, you’re petty. Hmph!”

She snorted, turning her head sharply and crossing her arms, clearly announcing that she was done.

Joel’s temples throbbed painfully.
If he wanted to survive this ordeal, he had to get that damned handkerchief and send her away — fast.

As soon as he looked away, Lillian began casually scanning the room, as though searching for something.
Her gaze stopped at one particular spot — right where Joel had hidden the crystal orb.

She smiled softly, her lips moving soundlessly.

“Found it.”

Then, humming to the same nonsensical tune she’d used to tease him, Lillian began to hum lightly.

It had been another productive day.