Episode 88

“Your Grace.”

At Chris’s words, I quietly shook my head. The shadow the Crown Prince had cast on me was swept away in his presence.

“The streets are dangerous.”

Chris guided me to the carriage.

As soon as I settled into the Grand Duke’s carriage, I took out what I had been carrying with me all along.

“This is…”

“It’s the deed acknowledging ownership of the Thule Mine.”

“…Didn’t you win it for personal use?”

“No. I intended to give it to you from the beginning.”

Chris stared at me.

“You used your personal funds.”

“It’s a cheap mine, after all.”

“……”

“There’s already a lot of unrest in the North. I wanted to give the impression that I’m giving something back to the Grand Duke.”

“You’ve already given me more than enough…”

“Something more visible.”

“My lady.”

“It’s a humble gift, I know… but will you accept it?”

Of course, very soon, a technician I’d sent would discover magic stones deep within the mine.

Just thinking about the magic stones that would be unearthed from there, and how much they would help Chris, made me feel proud—but I couldn’t reveal that just yet.

To Chris and the North, this really would seem like a paltry gift for now.

But Chris smiled softly.

“Even if it were something picked up off the street, I would’ve gratefully accepted it.”

I smiled with my eyes, looking at him—then flinched.

“It drove me insane. Every time you looked at the Grand Duke… those eyes of yours…”

I wondered if it was that obvious—how I looked at Chris.

There was no point denying my feelings anymore. I stared at Chris, who smiled just like me, and looked at me with the same eyes.

The one who always reached for my hand, who always held onto me—Chris, who sometimes seemed like he remembered a past life just as I did.

‘…Maybe you do too.’

My thoughts froze for a moment. My instinct to avoid that conclusion flared first. While I hesitated, Chris calmly spoke.

“If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve spent the Grand Duke’s personal fortune from the start.”

“There’s no need. I really wanted to give it to you as a gift.”

“…An engagement gift?”

At those words, Chris smiled faintly, and my heart dropped again. I forced myself to smile back.

“You could think of it that way.”

“I wanted to give you the sapphire mine in return.”

I flinched. I hadn’t expected a joke from him.

“Don’t tell me you actually won it? Please say no. That mine isn’t even that valuable…”

Chris took something out the next moment. It was too small to be the mine deed.

“A dagger?”

The finely crafted dagger looked valuable at a glance.

“Got it at the auction.”

“…It’s a fine item.”

“I may not have an eye for jewels, but I know weapons.”

As he said that, Chris suddenly looked at me.

“Once our engagement is announced… it might become dangerous.”

“……”

“The imperial family and the Duke’s house may support it, but you never know. If they try to eliminate me, they might come after you too.”

“Your Grace.”

“I wanted to make sure you could at least protect yourself.”

I fell silent, gently running my fingers over the dagger. Chris watched and smiled faintly.

“They took the sapphire mine, but at least they didn’t get this.”

“Well, the Duke values that mine, so…”

“It wasn’t just the sapphire mine. He’s been participating in every kind of auction.”

“…Even item auctions?”

“Of course. He’s been bidding across the board. I barely won this dagger from among them.”

Chris added an explanation.

“They say the blade was crafted using Ullico’s forging technique. It’s light, so I hope it won’t be uncomfortable to use…”

“Did you say Ullico?”

At my question, Chris nodded.

“Most of the items the Duke has been purchasing are from Ullico.”

“…Your Grace.”

I paused, then spoke.

“It seems like the Duke is using the auctions as a pretext to funnel money into Ullico.”

With that, I told Chris everything I’d learned about the Duke’s connection to Ullico. The air in the carriage grew heavy. Chris stroked his jaw, murmuring.

“If that’s the case… what you’re saying makes sense.”

“It’s strange that so many foreign merchant groups showed up just for the Harvest Festival.”

“But we’ll need visible evidence.”

“That might be…”

Just then—

Knock knock.

Someone tapped on the carriage door. We stopped talking at once. Tension surged—until a familiar voice called out.

“My lady.”

“Marie?”

Marie opened the carriage door, nodding with a grave expression.

* * *

Shortly before the auction began.

“What brings you to seduce me first this time?”

The fire in Duke Reinhardt had waned, and a lazy smile played across his face.

“And in my office, no less.”

At the Duke’s words, Lady Ellie laughed. When she deliberately smiled in that made-up, sultry way, the appearance that had once driven the Duke wild resurfaced clearly.

“You used to sneak into my bedroom like a thief, afraid someone would catch us. And now you’re pulling bold moves like this.”

“Did you think I’d stay in the shadows forever?”

Lady Ellie swayed her curvaceous figure as she sat on the Duke’s lap, making him let out a satisfied sigh.

“Still, marriage is off the table. You know that, right?”

“Are we using that excuse again? That taking a foreigner as your legal wife would make you a target for the other nobles?”

“What else can I say? It’s the truth. Haven’t we gotten along just fine with you as my mistress?”

“Bring those infuriating lips here.”

Lady Ellie kissed the Duke. Right after, the Duke murmured, eyes slightly glazed.

“Damn… my stamina must be slipping…”

“I told you to exercise more, didn’t I?”

“Mmm… Well, lately I’ve had a lot on my mind. Someone—no idea who—keeps sabotaging my businesses, and then there’s the Grand Duke issue…”

He’d only recently heard about the chaos that broke out in the underground prison. He’d been so angry that even Aria, for once, had received a scolding. But once his fury cooled, suspicion started to creep in.

‘If that brat Mindia’s still with the Grand Duke even after knowing what I’m up to…’

There was even a possibility that the Grand Duke himself was plotting something. And it wasn’t impossible that that foolish girl Mindia would fall for it. She was always such a stupid thing, craving affection.

The Duke’s eyes blinked slowly. Lady Ellie guided him toward the sofa in the corner of the office.

“If you’re going to sleep, go to your bedroom and rest properly.”

“No, I’ve got work to finish. I’ll just close my eyes for a bit. Wake me later.”

Even though it was his office, filled with sensitive documents, the Duke wasn’t overly concerned.

He had complete confidence in the woman named Ellie Samur.

No matter what, they’d lived together in intimacy for over twenty years. She had even played the role of a nanny to his children.

‘She was just a bonus at first, really…’

The Duke reflected on the passage of time.

‘A woman who didn’t even know she was a gift. I’ve certainly had my fun with her.’

Ellie Samur was a woman the young Duke Reinhardt had spotted from afar when visiting Ullico. Her family wasn’t well-regarded even in Ullico, making her an easy target.

At the time, however, she had been engaged in marriage talks with another man, so there was no way she’d have just come to the Duke on her own. That’s why Ullico fabricated a mission, sending her as a spy to the Duke.

And the Duke, already aware of this, used the knowledge to blackmail her into submission.

What Ellie didn’t know was that Ullico had long since betrayed her and made an alliance with the Duke.

‘I’ve enjoyed her long enough, I suppose.’

The real issue was Ullico. The alliance they had maintained since the current king of Ullico was a crown prince was always based purely on mutual benefit.

So the Duke had continued funding them, and they provided mercenaries and weapons in return—sometimes even staging border incursions to draw attention from the empire.

‘But lately, the money’s not coming like it used to.’

Worse still, he had received a troubling report recently: the northern magic stone mine they’d seized had been over-exploited, and the magic stones were starting to run dry.

‘It was such a lucrative income source…’

If it disappeared, nearly 30% of the Duke’s current revenue would vanish.

Though the Duke had other mineral mines, their yields were also declining. He had to win the sapphire mine this time.

“What are you thinking about?” Ellie asked sweetly, closing the Duke’s eyes with her fingers. He mumbled a half-reply before yawning.

“Something important, so don’t interrupt…”

“I thought you were going to sleep?”

At that, a wave of irresistible drowsiness swept over him. The Duke let out a huge yawn, then fell asleep—almost as if he had passed out.

“Duke?”

“……”

“Duke Reinhardt?”

“……”

“You bastard.”

Even her crude curse didn’t wake him. With his breathing steady, Lady Ellie slowly rose from her seat.

It had taken her some time to understand and accept the note sent through a maid by Mindia Reinhardt.

That the Duke had allied with Ullico… was the same as saying Ullico had betrayed her from the beginning. Unknowingly, she had bitten down so hard on her lip that a trickle of blood appeared.

Clink.

She tapped the bottom of the champagne glass the Duke had emptied. Bubbles fizzed at the base—traces of the sleeping drug. Lady Ellie wiped it clean with a handkerchief and threw it into the fireplace in the office.

Crackle.

The cloth burned away like her insides.

She had to see it with her own eyes.

As she approached the Duke’s massive desk, documents related to the Harvest Festival auctions came into view.

Slowly, she reached for them.