The ruler of the South, the House of Duke Dorothea.
One of the four great ducal houses, it produced the current Empress, giving it immense power.
However, the House of Duke Dorothea had little to do with politics for generations. The South was a land of art and learning, home to the Nissitta Academy of Arts, which produced many artists and scholars.
Naturally, the members of the House of Duke Dorothea were deeply influenced by this culture, resulting in a certain fragility.
‘Though there are exceptions.’
Take Madame Olga, for instance.
She was quite different from other Southerners—strong-willed enough to dominate Petrov.
Anyway, the current Duke Dorothea is a loyal scribe to the Emperor, and the former Duke was a court musician.
In short, it was a family perfectly suited to be in-laws to royalty.
But now it was clear that this was all nonsense.
‘This is strange…’
Lydia Dorothea standing before her was proof enough.
“I’ve never encountered something like this before…”
Lydia tilted her head. Each time she did, her wavy red hair swayed like rose petals.
She was stunningly beautiful. It was easy to see why Dennis had been so captivated, losing his sense of reason. She was a peerless beauty, a woman whose allure could bring nations to ruin.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had a fiancé? If I had known… I would have kept my distance!”
Denis recited the lines he had practiced so hard the day before. He looked pitiful, like a victim of emotional manipulation.
But Lydia only tilted her head with a blank expression.
There was something peculiar about her aura—dreamlike, as if she were walking in a trance.
“I didn’t expect you to file a lawsuit. Was this part of the game…?”
Her words made no sense. As Denis stared into her vacant eyes, he began to wonder if she was in her right mind.
“Lydia, answer me properly! Did you deceive me?”
“Yes.”
“…?”
“Yeah. It’s not a bad ending, huh?”
Lydia muttered, “Strange, strange…” The strange one was Lydia herself.
At any rate, they now had a confession from her own lips: “I deceived you.” That was enough.
When Natasha signaled to Denis, he discreetly stopped the recording.
“The person next to you is a lawyer, correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Hmm… Would you like to stay for dinner? Denis, you too.”
It was an unexpected invitation. What was she thinking?
Natasha hesitated for a moment but eventually nodded. She needed more information about Lydia anyway.
“Come in. Butler, prepare dinner for three.”
“Yes, my lady.”
And so, Natasha set foot in the House of Duke Dorothea.
***
She worried the food might be poisoned, but the meal was excellent. The meat was perfectly cooked, and the lamb shoulder rack melted in her mouth.
The fine dinner continued in silence, except for the occasional clink of cutlery.
Natasha passed the time by examining the intricately carved decorations on the walls.
‘This is nothing like Madame Olga’s taste.’
Then again, being from a branch family, she wouldn’t have spent her childhood here.
It was Lydia who finally broke the icy silence.
“Miss Natasha.”
Natasha wondered if she had ever introduced herself to Lydia.
“Who are you, really?”
“Excuse me?”
“I’ve done a lot of investigating because this playthrough is different from the previous ones, and the biggest difference seems to be you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about…”
“A common orphan raised alongside the princes in the House of Duke Petrov… I don’t recall that setting.”
What kind of rude nonsense was this?
But Natasha couldn’t act rashly, not with Lydia’s vague gaze and the knife she held in her hand.
Moreover, this was enemy territory. Even if Lydia had lost her mind, the knights of Dorothea would surely follow her orders.
In the end, Natasha chose to suppress her rising anger.
“I don’t understand what you’re trying to say. It’s true I was a common orphan raised in the House of Duke Petrov, but I ended my ties with them on bad terms.”
“Yet you’re personally involved in Denis’s affairs?”
She wasn’t completely insane after all.
For someone supposedly out of her mind, Lydia made a strangely logical point.
“That’s not what I’m curious about. I’m asking what your true identity is. Are you some kind of bug?”
“A bug?” Natasha had only been able to grasp half of what Lydia had been saying since the conversation began.
When she glanced at Dennis, he didn’t look surprised, as if this was all too familiar.
“I thought it was strange when I heard Claude was divorced. That’s your doing, isn’t it?”
“If you mean Duke Richard, yes, he’s my client.”
“Strange. You don’t seem to know anything.”
Lydia tilted her head again and again.
“I really don’t understand what you’re saying.”
At Natasha’s reply, Lydia smiled, as if waiting for that moment. It was a smile so radiant that it felt like watching a flower bloom in an instant.
No one could resist falling for Lydia’s charms.
“Well, you’ll forget everything once the next playthrough starts anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”
What on earth was she talking about?
“This is a game world.”
“…Pardon?”
Her beautiful smile stood in stark contrast to the absurdity of her words.
“I’ve played this game over a hundred times.”
Was this a joke?
Considering her bright smile, it might indeed be a terribly unfunny joke. But her eyes were too serious.
“It’s a joke.”
“…”
“Guess it wasn’t funny. I thought it was.”
Ha ha, ha ha ha.
Lydia laughed alone at the silent dinner table.
For some reason, Natasha felt a sudden chill.
***
– Come visit again sometime. I enjoyed our conversation.
I couldn’t even remember what I had said in response to Lydia, who was smiling brightly and waving. I must have fled the Duchy of Dorothea out of a visceral sense of rejection.
Natasha barely caught her breath inside the returning carriage.
“She’s a bit unique, isn’t she?”
Unique? Natasha wanted to ask Dennis where on earth he had left his eyes.
If that could be considered merely “unique,” then the Saint Mungo’s Psychiatric Hospital would only serve as a social correction facility for eccentric people.
“Why did you even meet with that lady? She doesn’t seem normal no matter how you look at her. Is that your type?”
“She was acting particularly strange today, but she’s not usually that bad.”
“So, you’re saying she’s still strange.”
“Well, that’s true.”
Dennis shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.
“Actually, we met by coincidence at first… or maybe it wasn’t a coincidence? Anyway, I didn’t know she was a noble at the time. She didn’t even properly introduce herself back then.”
“So, you didn’t start meeting her after you returned?”
“I met her when I was at the Magic Tower. I only found out she was a noble after I came back.”
It must be quite a persistent connection. Natasha didn’t know much about the Magic Tower, but she had heard it was a closed-off place. Yet somehow, he had the opportunity to meet an outsider.
“From the first time we met, she knew my name.”
“…Now that you mention it…”
It had been the same just now. Natasha had never introduced herself.
“Not just that… She knew every little detail. The café I frequent, the food I like, even my habits when I lie. Things like that.”
A slight smile faded from Dennis’s face as he spoke.
“It was like she’d known me for a long time. She even knew the tiniest things.”
“Did she investigate you or something?”
“It wasn’t at a level that could be uncovered through investigation. She knew things only someone who had been observing me closely could know. Even to the point of…”
“To the point of what?”
“…No, it’s nothing. I don’t want to say it since I’m not sure.”
“Tell me right now.”
Despite Natasha’s insistence, Dennis only smiled lightly and didn’t give a proper answer.
Denis was someone who, once he made up his mind, no one could change it. Natasha soon gave up on getting an answer.
‘…She acts as if she can see my future.’
Denis swallowed his thoughts.
-Today, I had lunch with Professor Alfred, and the jam he brought…
-That professor is still around?
-…?
-…It’s nothing.
Not long after, it was revealed that Professor Alfred had published his student’s experimental results under his own name without permission. He was permanently expelled from the Magic Tower.
Watching Alfred’s retreating figure, Denis felt a chill run down his spine.
It was no coincidence that Lydia’s yellow, vacant eyes had suddenly flashed through his mind.
Similar incidents had happened a few more times after that.
-It’s fine. You’ll do well. Aren’t you the genius magician who even won an award at the Winter Conference?
-…The Winter Conference is in a week.
-Oh… I meant you’re the magician most likely to win an award~.
And indeed, Dennis won the silver prize at the Winter Conference as the youngest recipient ever. It was a result that defied everyone’s predictions.
Everyone’s, except Lydia’s.
Lydia always seemed mentally unstable, but if you paid attention to her sporadic outbursts, they always came true eventually.
Perhaps that’s why all of this felt like a “game” to Lydia.
What meaning is there in solving problems when you already know the answers?
Maybe that’s why. Lydia always seemed to be staring at something far beyond what Dennis could comprehend.
‘Is that what you’d call love?’
It wasn’t that his heart pounded or that Lydia was unbearably lovely.
He felt pity for her. She seemed so lonely, knowing things others didn’t, seeing things they couldn’t.
Even when they talked, her mind was always somewhere else.
She didn’t seem to live in reality, floating like a ghost. Denis found himself drawn to Lydia because she reminded him of himself.
‘I really didn’t know she was the Crown Prince’s fiancée.’
If her partner had been some count’s son and not the Crown Prince, maybe he could have stolen her away.
Would Lydia be truly happy as the Crown Princess? Could the Crown Prince understand her better than Denis did?
As the carriage rocked, Denis mulled over these thoughts with Natasha beside him.
Things like lawsuits over adultery didn’t concern him much. Magicians were rarely moved by such mundane aspects of society.
It was a convenient excuse to meet Natasha more often, someone he found hard to meet frequently due to family matters.
‘Hmm… No matter how I think about it, I’m the perfect match for her.’
Lydia was not the type to adapt to society like a normal person.
If she became the Crown Princess and got entangled in royal affairs, there would be endless conflict. Instead, it would be better if…
Denis’s thoughts were interrupted by Natasha calling him.
“Denis!”
“Huh?”
“What were you thinking about that you didn’t even hear me call you?”
“Uh… Just.”
Denis smiled innocently.
“Bad thoughts.”
• ❁ • ❁ • ❁ •By Esraa• ❁ • ❁ • ❁ •
