I pulled out the notebook where I’d organized everything I remembered from the original story and looked it over.
“What exactly do I need to handle going forward.”
Focusing just on what’s coming this year…
Obviously, I need to stop the black magic artifact smuggling. I have to figure out which hospital it’s happening in.
But that wasn’t going to break immediately, so I could take my time gathering information on it.
What’s actually urgent right now is the palace banquet.
Every year, once the new officials’ department assignments were finalized, the palace held a celebration.
And it invited every single new hire’s family, too!
This is… a corporate Family Day.
The romance-fantasy version of “look how great a company our family member works for,” dressed up as a family event?
“The problem is, that’s exactly where the fire breaks out…”
The original story followed the heroine’s point of view, strictly.
Which meant anything the heroine herself didn’t know about wasn’t something the mandrake’s power could dig up either.
Which was exactly why I had absolutely no idea what actually caused the fire.
The one thing I did know, though…
Didn’t they say the Grand Duke died trying to save the officials’ families?
And that it happened early in the banquet, before the guests had even entered the main hall yet.
So where would those families have been, before entering?
Filing in all at once with the officials and other nobles would just cause a bottleneck.
So wouldn’t they be waiting somewhere, like a waiting room?
“…Okay.”
First, let’s take a look at a map of the palace.
There should be a separate waiting room set up for attendees, somewhere near the main hall.
I couldn’t postpone the party itself, but I could at least save the Grand Duke, couldn’t I?
That would keep the male lead’s combat strength intact, which should speed up catching the Seres Order too.
…And it wouldn’t be a bad way to repay him for that tomato soup hangover cure, either.
Even the male lead knew, deep down, that he wasn’t pushing his father away because he found him bothersome.
“He’s someone living purely for his family’s revenge, after all.”
I said that out loud, then looked up at the ceiling.
Family. Family, huh.
Wouldn’t it be nice, having a real thread to follow?
“So then why, me.”
Why hadn’t I felt happy, when Priest Lumiere said I was likely descended from the Saintess?
Shouldn’t a person feel at least a little glad, once the outline of who their family might be starts coming into focus?
But the very first thought that had crossed my mind, hearing that, had been just one thing.
I want to run.
And more than anything — that this time, I couldn’t afford to get caught.
“Why…?”
It was a thought I couldn’t even make sense of myself, but I was too exhausted to dwell on it, and passed out cold instead.
…If I’d known the Grand Duke would request a visit the very next day, I probably wouldn’t have slept nearly that well.
My mentor could accompany me all the way to the end of my shift, but he had no jurisdiction over my time after work.
Especially not when there happened to be a visitor at hand…
Which was how, the following evening, I ended up receiving the Grand Duke completely alone, in the dormitory’s guest reception room!
The Grand Duke himself looked oddly sheepish.
“You must be tired — showing up like this out of nowhere is shameless of me. My apologies.”
“Ah, not at all.”
If anything, I was the one mortified beyond words.
Why is he here…!
All he’d seen of me was a hungover mess, floundering! Why!
“My son made such a fuss about it, I couldn’t very well visit during the day.”
“Ah, I see. But why me, and not Carlyle, if I may ask?”
“Ahem, actually, I came to apologize for what happened yesterday morning.”
“…Sorry?”
“I got carried away with myself and acted quite inappropriately.”
“Ah.”
I realized, finally, what he meant.
[She’s the one you’re marrying, isn’t she? Isn’t she!]
I’d been flustered in the moment, but the whole business with my birth secret had completely driven it out of my head since.
The Grand Duke shook his head, looking thoroughly ashamed of himself.
“Thinking it over after I sent you both off, it occurred to me that was quite rude toward an unmarried young lady. So I came to see you in person.”
The Grand Duke bowed his head to me.
I found myself dazed at the sight.
He’s a Grand Duke — the highest-ranking house after the Imperial family itself, isn’t it?
Even in an era where commoners could become officials, he didn’t need to go this far…
Well, that was setting aside the fact that he had no idea my own bloodline traced back to the Saintess herself.
“I’m sorry, Miss Rowell. Even if it didn’t offend you, please accept my apology regardless.”
“Ah, not at all. Thank you so much for saying that.”
I accepted his apology, still fairly dazed.
But at the same time, the Artifact Crafting Team’s attitude toward me resurfaced in my mind.
[No ‘just enough to not look dead’ makeup on your face — figured you must have overslept.]
[I can’t stand this gutter stench.]
Back then, I’d just dug at my ear and walked away.
Not that it hurt or anything.
Living as “Leila Rowell,” that kind of thing had been routine.
And how many times had things like that happened at the company, in my past life?
Which is why I’m fine. Obviously.
But now, hearing this, I honestly wasn’t sure anymore.
Had I really been fine?
Ah… guess I wasn’t, actually.
Hearing the Grand Duke’s apology, I finally realized I’d been carrying a wound I’d never actually let myself feel.
And once I received that apology, I genuinely felt—
good.
At the same time, I felt a little bad for the Grand Duke, too.
I’d been thinking of him purely in terms of “he can’t die, or my fast resignation falls apart.”
I quietly reflected on that, ashamed of myself.
Meanwhile, the Grand Duke, apology delivered, launched into a rambling vent.
“Haah. My son actually paying attention to someone other than his work got me far too worked up, I suppose.”
“It sounds like it had been a while since you last saw him.”
“I’ve barely seen him at all since he left, five years ago.”
The Grand Duke shook his head, looking like the mere thought of it raised his blood pressure.
“Hah! I have no idea what he thinks he’s doing with his life. He’s done more than enough by now. The man’s impossibly stubborn — infuriating!”
“Um, senior spends his days saving a lot of people’s lives. My own little brother is alive today because of him.”
“…”
“And it’s not just him — twelve other children made it safely back to their families too.”
“Ahem.”
“He was probably helping people long before I ever joined.”
The Grand Duke crossed his arms and looked up at the sky.
Then he pressed at the bridge of his nose, between his eyes, and said nothing at all for a long while.
His eyes have gone red.
As if trying not to let it show, the Grand Duke boomed out, hearty.
“Ahem! But more than that boy — Miss Rowell here is truly admirable! A hundred times, a thousand times over!”
“Sorry? Me?”
The one who’d shown him nothing but a completely wasted drunk mess?
But he wasn’t just saying it — the Grand Duke laughed, genuinely warm.
“Still so young, and you started your working life in a department that dangerous. And with real spirit, too.”
“Ah…”
“Truly commendable. I’m sure your own parents must be terribly proud of you as well!”
The Grand Duke smiled, broad and open, exactly the way my own late father used to.
For a moment, the memory of my juniors cackling about skipping my funeral flickered up in my mind.
But I forced a smile and answered anyway.
“…Yes, thank you.”
“This counts as fate too, in its own way — call on me anytime you need help. And don’t push yourself too hard at work.”
After that, the Grand Duke said he wouldn’t take up any more of my evening, and left.
Watching him go, I made myself a fresh promise.
Right… let’s really commit to this.
I’d already meant to give this banquet my full effort, but now — no gaps, no mistakes, none at all.
On the way back from his visit,
Cedric, who’d been waiting outside the dormitory, studied his master’s expression as he returned from meeting Leila Rowell.
He seems oddly pleased about something.
Had meeting Leila Rowell in the Young Grand Duke Carlyle’s place actually helped, somehow?
The Grand Duke even kept letting out wistful little sighs, roughly once every ten minutes.
“Haah. What a genuinely delightful young lady, truly…”
“Is that so, sir? Though she is a commoner, being an official…”
“Tch! What does that matter, as long as Carlyle himself is fond of her?”
The Grand Duke clicked his tongue, as if he’d just heard the most foolish thing imaginable.
House Rupesk had always been notoriously stubborn about who they chose as a partner, generation after generation.
A family where “I will genuinely die without this person” was never an exaggeration.
Better to just marry them off and let them live happily — that’s the real filial duty here!
As for the difference in status, well, with enough money and enough sense, there wasn’t much that couldn’t be worked around.
And from the very start, the Grand Duke had already taken a liking to Leila Rowell as a match for his son.
“Ha ha. And the moment I heard Miss Rowell’s name, I felt it — this was fate!”
