Chapter 33

Yawn. Blinking open eyes still hazy with sleep, I slowly pushed myself up.

In the darkness, I could make out a small pink shape. Melody was curled up asleep beside me.

I must have slept deeply, because my body felt refreshed.

…So I really did faint and stay that way.

I carefully got up from the bed.

A glance out the window showed the moon hanging in the sky.

Roughly close to midnight.

Several hours must have passed since I’d taken the antidote and collapsed.

I moved my arms and legs this way and that, checking my condition.

Hm, just as I thought.

I’d half-expected some problem, but there was nothing wrong with my body at all. Which meant the antidote had worked properly.

Thank goodness.

I let out a breath of relief, though in a way, it also felt like exactly what should have happened.

If there’d been any real risk, I never would have done such a thing to begin with.

I’d been confident. Confident that nothing would go wrong.

Partly because I knew the information from the original, but also because I’d already tested the antidote’s effect beforehand.

I don’t want to die yet.

Jayden’s treatment had only just begun, and Melody had a long way to go before she grew up. I couldn’t die until I’d finished everything I needed to do.

But setting me aside… I think I really worried Cain a lot.

My mind had been too hazy to remember it clearly, but I recalled Cain’s face, seen through blurred vision.

He’d looked deeply angry at me for doing something so reckless.

I should apologize to him later…

It was true that I’d frightened him.

I was stretching out my stiff back when something I’d forgotten came to mind.

Come to think of it…

I remembered I’d promised to take a walk with Cain tonight.

Oh no. I’ve ruined it. We were supposed to meet at eleven. I was already more than a little late.

I flailed for a moment, then quickly steadied myself.

Let’s stay calm for now.

Common sense said the plan had surely been called off. I’d caused a massive scene right in front of his eyes, after all.

It seemed wiser to lie back down and sleep until my body had fully recovered.

But…

Contrary to that thought, my feet headed not toward the bed but toward the wardrobe, and my hand went straight for a coat.

I’ve already had plenty of a nap, and I’m not sleepy anyway… Maybe I’ll just step out for a moment.

My head knew there was no chance of it, but I couldn’t help worrying, just in case Cain happened to be out there.

Snap. The moment I took hold of the coat, something felt off near my chest.

Ah, my necklace has shifted.

Had I tossed and turned in my sleep? The necklace under my clothes wasn’t sitting quite where it usually did.

I’d worn it for as long as I could remember, so by now it felt almost like part of my own body.

A necklace I’d had even before becoming the adopted daughter of the Devereux marquisate.

In a letter the late marquis had left behind, it said the necklace was a keepsake from my birth mother, and to treasure it.

I carefully straightened the necklace back into place before putting on my coat.

There’s obviously no one in the garden, of course.

Even thinking that, my steps toward outside were just a little hurried.

A few hours earlier, in the Duke’s study.

Cain, unable to focus on his official duties today, kept looking outside.

Whoosh. All that came from the garden was the sound of leaves rustling in the wind.

…Quiet.

As if the afternoon’s uproar had never happened, the garden was perfectly peaceful, but that silence didn’t last long before it broke.

Knock, knock. Along with a knock that carried a trace of hesitation, an unexpected visitor arrived.

“…Your Grace.”

None other than Jayden.

Three years now since he’d become the boy’s guardian.

A boy who’d always avoided even meeting his eyes had, for some reason, come to the study of his own accord.

The boy’s fists were clenched so tightly they’d gone white; he lifted his head and met Cain’s eyes.

“…Celia Dorn. That woman dared to try to kill Viola.”

Cain quietly watched Jayden.

Remarkable.

This was a boy who’d always been too busy fleeing in fear the moment he laid eyes on him. When had he learned to make an expression like this?

Deep in Jayden’s eyes, fear still lingered, but alongside it was a fierce determination, a will to protect someone.

He wants Celia Dorn severely punished.

Cain answered quietly.

“It will be as you wish.”

“…Thank you.”

Only then did the tension in the boy’s face ease, if only a little.

With that, the conversation ended and Jayden withdrew at once, though in truth, there’d been no need for him to come here so solemnly.

Because Cain had already handed down his judgment before Jayden had ever knocked on the door.

By now, Celia Dorn was likely being loaded onto a carriage like so much baggage, on her way back to her family home, the Dorn countship.

Setting down his pen, Cain recalled what had happened after he’d left Viola’s room.

Celia Dorn, both arms held fast by knights, had been dragged bodily into the study.

Sprawled on the floor with her hair in disarray, she’d babbled with terrified eyes.

“I-I’ve been wronged! It was for Your Grace’s sake…! I only tried to catch a fraud, that’s a-all! And Young Master Jayden…”

She’d apparently caused a scene in Jayden’s bedroom, too. Pinned beneath the icy weight of his Dragonblood presence, she’d looked as though her mind had gone blank.

Cain had looked down at her with eyes gone cold and still.

Seeming to regain a little of her composure, she’d hurriedly spoken again.

“To, to begin with, that woman ate the poisonous herb of her own free will, didn’t she? Even if I did pressure her, it isn’t as though I forced her mouth open…!”

At an excuse that laid every bit of blame elsewhere, Cain’s brows had drawn together.

“Enough.”

“Your Grace…! I truly am not at fau—”

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out that you used Count Dorn’s connections to dig into the background of my guest?”

“…!”

Celia’s mouth had snapped shut.

“Conrad surely warned you. To be careful of your conduct.”

Publicly, Celia was Jayden’s lady’s maid, but in truth she was closer to a hanger-on.

She’d only been given the title of maid because of the friendship between his father, the late Duke, and Count Dorn.

It wasn’t as though there hadn’t been attempts to assign Jayden a proper maid of his own. But every time, Conrad had reported the same thing:

“The young master doesn’t seem to want it, Your Grace. If I may be so bold… perhaps it would be best to trust him and wait?”

Accepting that the child didn’t want it, Cain had let Celia keep her position. Instead, he’d quietly assigned other servants to cover her duties.

And so Celia Dorn had remained at Asheln as a lady’s maid in name only.

Asheln wasn’t a house that would crumble over a single parasite attached to it.

But there were lines that should never have been crossed.

There was nothing left worth discussing.

Cain had given the order with eyes cold enough to freeze.

“Take her away.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

And so the matter had been settled, and with it, Cain had severed every dealing with House Dorn that had continued through his father’s old friendship.

It had been practically their main source of income, so the blow to the countship would be enormous. In effect, the house would likely collapse entirely, but that wasn’t his concern.

It was, in effect, the severe punishment Jayden had wanted.

After Jayden left, silence had settled over the study once more.

Come to think of it…

The clock on the wall caught his eye.

Late night. The hour he’d promised to meet Viola was drawing steadily closer.

He knew the promise had already been called off.

He picked up his coat.

Standing still under the moonlight, Cain finally shook off his thoughts.

I’m unusually preoccupied tonight.

The reason Cain usually took walks at night was to clear his tangled mind.

Walking through the quiet garden always seemed to ease, at least somewhat, the nerves that had been strung tight all day.

So although he was generally a man without strong preferences, of all things, he’d come to prefer this stillness the night offered.