The dining hall went dead silent in an instant.
“She’s the one you’re marrying, isn’t she? Isn’t she!”
“Sorry?”
The Grand Duke, huffing and shouting; the male lead, staring at him with a hardened expression; and me, eyes trembling.
What did he just say?
Even the male lead, who usually stayed composed even irritated, looked genuinely thrown.
“Wait, why would you think that. We’re mentor and junior. Nothing more.”
“Ha! Cedric already told me everything, you rascal!”
The Grand Duke jabbed a finger at the male lead.
“A man of the North shared a meal of meat with a woman. If that isn’t courtship, what is it?”
“That’s called a company dinner.”
“Enough noise out of you!”
The Grand Duke barked, then turned his attention to me.
I was still, for a moment, frozen in the face of a disaster I never saw coming.
“Miss Rowell. What house do you hail from, if I might ask?”
“…Ah! I’m a commoner!”
I deliberately shouted that louder than my usual volume.
If he found out my background didn’t measure up, surely he’d take it all back?
But the Grand Duke only smiled even more warmly.
Which made it even more terrifying.
The way a guinea pig doesn’t relax just because the lion smiling at it looks friendly!
“Ha ha! So you crushed those puffed-up bloodline snobs on merit alone and made it into the palace?”
“Sorry?”
“That’s the spirit befitting the North. I’m thoroughly impressed.”
He’d clearly seen the state I’d been in, blackout drunk, and still had this much good to say about me — genuinely touching.
Even if he’s badly, badly mistaken about everything else.
The male lead, past the point of patience, finally cut in.
He looked mortified enough to die, the back of his neck flushed bright red.
“Father, how many times do I have to say it isn’t like that. Rowell is simply my junior.”
“Hah…?”
“We were out late together because of yesterday’s company dinner. Department work’s turned dangerous lately, so I couldn’t send her home alone.”
“…What?”
“There is nothing between the two of us.”
The Grand Duke’s face turned grim.
“You and that damned Crowe brat really have lost your minds.”
“…”
“The department’s gotten dangerous, you say? And you’re dragging a young lady this age into it?”
The look the Grand Duke gave the male lead was somewhere between contempt and outright horror.
“Two grown men, and not an ounce of shame between you! If it’s come to this, then it’s time you both quit!”
At that, the male lead’s own gaze turned every bit as fierce as his father’s.
A genuine crackling sound sparked through the air. The unmistakable sign of two people’s mana colliding!
“So many people died on our own land. And you say ‘quit’ so easily.”
“You think it’s easy for me to say that? Revenge feels proud for a few years, and then what!”
The Grand Duke shoved back from his seat, standing.
“There’s no solution to be found here regardless! Men far less capable than you inherit their titles and live their lives just fine. Wake up and—”
“I have no complaints whatsoever about the life I’m living.”
“You—!”
“So please, give up on the subject of my marriage.”
At that cold, unfeeling answer, the Grand Duke shoved back from his chair and rose.
But turning to me, still shifting my eyes nervously, he forced the corners of his mouth upward.
“Embarrassing, showing you a sight like this so early in the morning. Miss Rowell…”
“Not at all, please don’t think that!”
“Please, finish your meal in peace before you head to work.”
Not long after, the male lead, expression unreadable, finished his tea and stood as well.
“If you’re done eating, shall we head out too, Rowell?”
“Ah, yes sir. But — are you going to be all right?”
I asked, worried, but true to being someone’s son, the male lead answered coldly.
“There’s nothing I could say that he’d actually hear, in this state. Let’s go.”
“Okay…”
Thoroughly deflated, I followed him outside, where a carriage had already been arranged for us.
But right before boarding—
He’s watching us from up there.
I glanced up to see the Grand Duke’s silhouette, faint, framed in a window.
Something told me he’d stay right there until our carriage disappeared from view entirely.
For a very long time.
The ride to the palace wasn’t especially long.
But a short distance didn’t make it any more comfortable, trapped in a carriage with my mentor.
“…”
“…”
If anything, the silence was awkward enough that I would’ve preferred walking.
And I’m the criminal here who caused a drunken scene, no less.
But embarrassment wasn’t the only reason I couldn’t bring myself to speak first.
The Grand Duke dies sooner than I expected.
And soon, timeline-wise.
This was also the incident that revealed the male lead’s “cursed form” to the world.
Wasn’t there a palace party held sometime between the kidnapping case and the smuggling incident?
A banquet celebrating the new officials’ formal assignments.
But that night, a fire broke out from an unknown cause.
The male lead’s father dies helping others escape.
…Wait.
Hold on. Now that I think about it, Beyond the Golden Gate was actually pretty brutal, wasn’t it?
Wasn’t the whole point of a romance-fantasy male lead’s father to become a doting father-in-law who’d give the heroine the entire world?
And instead he just dies partway through?
The romance moved at a disgustingly slow pace, but they did that?
Anyway, back to the point.
That incident leaves the male lead deeply shaken, plunged into despair.
If he can bicker and fight with his dad like that, they must actually be close.
No wonder he’d end up devastated…
The real problem was—
【Julianna couldn’t believe the horror unfolding in front of her.
“S— senior?”
A celebration that should have been triumphant had turned into a scene of carnage. It was staggering.
Bad enough that her fellow new hires and their families lay collapsed around her.
Why is senior—?!
The reliable man in his elegant uniform was nowhere to be seen.
What stood before her instead was a black beast, howling up at the night sky.
“Aaah…”
Big as a carriage, Julianna sank to the ground in sheer terror.
That was another face of Carlyle Rupesk.
But at that exact moment, Julianna spun around and her eyes went wide.
No!】
Why “no”? Because the male lead, of all places, turned into a “wolf monster” right in the middle of the palace!
With plenty of people around to see it, no less!
That’s what dragged the whole case out for so long, in the back half of the story.
People whispered that even the Young Grand Duke of Rupesk himself must have fallen victim to black magic.
Which kept tripping the Black Spoon Division up, again and again.
Which meant, for the sake of dissolving the department and getting myself out of here fast, the male lead needed to keep operating freely.
I could just resolve the incident with barely enough time to spare, right?
Don’t make me laugh.
I wanted this handled perfectly, systematically, and faster than expected.
But first — let’s smack my own head against the wall.
“Um, senior.”
“Hm?”
“I’m really, truly sorry about yesterday.”
“…Ah? Ahem, it’s fine.”
The male lead, staring out the window looking every bit as awkward as I felt, cleared his throat.
“Let’s just… cut back on the drinking going forward, Rowell.”
“Yes sir…”
“Maybe alcohol just doesn’t agree with you.”
“That’s not really—… yes sir.”
“And I’m sorry too, for the way I acted at breakfast.”
“Ah, no, not at all. You gave me a guest room and everything — I should be thanking you. I didn’t even get the chance to properly thank His Grace.”
“…”
The male lead crossed his arms and fell silent.
Eventually, to break this awkward second round of quiet, I murmured something quietly.
“…He seemed like he worries about you a lot.”
“He only makes such a fuss because I can’t discuss department secrets with him.”
“…”
“We’ve got a lead now, so it’ll be over eventually.”
Oh, senior…
Acting this cool and detached about your own father is going to come back to bite you hard, someday.
Haah, what do I even do here. I really shouldn’t stick my nose into someone else’s family business.
Pressuring him with a “you’re family, so just make up already!” would honestly be intrusive.
Everyone processes their feelings at their own pace.
But given how urgent this actually is, I don’t have much choice.
I’ll just offer him a slightly different angle to think about, that’s all.
“So what’s your plan, once it’s all over?”
“Hm?”
