Chapter 45.

The Cause of Her Anxiety

January 14, 2024

In the dizzying, almost dangerous silence, Essika finally opened her lips.

“Your Highness has no shame.”

A cold smile passed across Lesvan’s lips.

He took a step closer to her and, standing close enough that their skin could almost touch, spoke in a low voice.

“Are you saying that bringing another man’s wife here with the intention of having an affair with her is disgraceful?”

“……”

Faced with Lesvan’s even more blunt words, Essika suddenly found herself at a loss for words.

A man with jet-black hair and dangerous golden eyes, Essika could not for the life of her predict what Lesvan would do or think next.

Unaware that her wary gaze was only stimulating his interest, Essika continued looking directly into his eyes without looking away.

A raw smile once again flickered across Lesvan’s lips.

“I am indeed extremely interested in you.”

He reached out toward Essika.

Essika’s eyebrow twitched, but his hand did not touch her body.

Instead, it reached for the comfortable outer garment the servant had left behind earlier.

Lesvan picked it up and began putting it on.

Had he simply been changing clothes all along?

It was only a small movement as he put on the garment, but because of his enormous height and powerful physique, even that looked intimidating.

At any rate, Essika felt slightly relieved inside now that one dangerous hurdle regarding this inscrutable man’s actions had passed.

“I have quite a lot of patience.”

Then he added,

“If you had said that you loved Klaus, perhaps I would have run out of it.”

Essika’s eyes trembled slightly.

After a moment, she asked Lesvan,

“What kind of dream did you have about me?”

Having put on his outer garment, Lesvan lowered his head slightly and whispered close to Essika.

“……You were always facing away from me.”

In his dreams, she became twelve years old, then fifteen.

And at some point, she stopped growing taller, yet he could never see her face.

Because she was always looking somewhere else.

“You would turn around and realize who I was, and what you had done to me.”

Essika’s eyes trembled.

What was the truth behind the feelings he had for her?

He didn’t seem like someone who would tell her.

“And me……”

He stopped speaking, but where those words were leading was obvious.

Essika simply looked at Lesvan without answering.

Her heart was pounding, and countless thoughts were swirling through her mind.

Lesvan wore a faint smile and turned around.

Then, with an utterly composed stride, he sat down on a luxurious, plush sofa.

“……”

Lesvan’s declarations of war had never been mere arrogance.

Every war went exactly as he wanted.

Essika could feel her heart pounding.

“Your Highness, the Crown Prince……”

“Yan.”

When Lesvan called a name, the door opened and the servant who had left earlier appeared.

He spoke to the servant.

“Guide my guest to the Imperial Palace library. Since she’s a Klaus, the third section should be appropriate.”

Lesvan continued calmly when he saw Essika looking slightly bewildered.

“You should be able to find materials there that will help with your plans.”

“……”

Essika’s eyes suddenly trembled.

So was that why he had brought her to the Imperial Palace?

Judging from Lesvan’s infuriatingly calm expression, there was no way to tell.

The servant then bowed to Essika and led her away.

**

After setting her luggage down in front of the residence, Yuri spotted two maids who had just come outside to air out the rooms.

They were maids directly under the Grand Duchess, and the head maid was their superior.

“You. Take my luggage inside.”

One of the maids stopped walking.

She glanced at Yuri, then openly ignored her and walked away.

Yuri’s face immediately turned bright red.

“You! Can’t you hear me?”

But the maids merely snickered as though mocking Yuri and did not even turn around.

“Ha…… Even those girls are ignoring me?”

Yuri clenched her teeth in a low voice.

She understood that after being investigated at the government office for three months, she had probably fallen out of the Grand Duchess’s favor.

But the fact that mere commoner maids dared to pretend she didn’t exist made Yuri’s anger surge.

With no choice, Yuri picked up her heavy luggage and staggered into the residence.

She barely managed to climb the stairs and open the door to her room.

Inside was Lusa, one of the Grand Duchess’s personal maids.

Except……

The room could no longer even be called a bedroom.

All sorts of household supplies had been piled inside it.

Lusa, who had been taking out a cleaning cloth, flinched when she saw Yuri.

Among the Grand Duchess’s maids, Lusa was one of the more timid ones.

“……”

Slap!

Yuri struck her across the face so hard that Lusa’s head turned to the side.

When the startled Lusa opened her eyes wide, Yuri slapped her across the other cheek as well.

Then she asked with eyes burning with malice,

“Who turned my room into this?”

Overwhelmed by Yuri’s ferocity, Lusa’s confidence faltered. She answered with an aggrieved expression,

“The Grand Duchess ordered us to use it as a storage room. She said there was no need for a parasite who did nothing but consume food in the residence……”

“What?”

Yuri’s eyebrows shot upward.

How many jewels had I given her?

The jewels Yuri had given her so far had been worth around 50,000 rings.

How could she be discarded like this simply because she had been absent for four months?

“I’ll go see the Grand Duchess.”

Yuri threw down her luggage and turned around.

Lusa’s mocking voice followed her.

“You won’t like what you see.”

But Yuri’s eyes burned fiercely as she headed straight toward the Grand Duchess.

**

Riona looked unusually anxious.

“Today, I don’t have time to talk to someone like you.”

It seemed she was waiting for some other news, though Yuri had no idea what it was.

Nevertheless, Yuri refused to give up and knelt before Riona.

Just as Riona, apparently irritated by Yuri’s obstruction, approached her with a fierce expression as though she were about to slap her—

“If you divorce Essika, you’ll have to return her dowry.”

Riona stopped.

Then she answered sharply and coldly,

“Do you think I’m behaving this way because I don’t know that, you useless thing?”

“There are two ways to separate Duke Kallian and Essika without returning the dowry. The first is for Essika to die.”

Riona’s eyebrow twitched.

Yes.

Yuri could never know why Riona was anxious right now.

She would never know what news Riona was waiting for.

If Essika died, she would belong to Klaus forever.

There would be no need to return the dowry.

It was the best way to separate her precious and valuable son from that arrogant, vulgar Essika who didn’t know her place and dared to crawl upward.

“And the second is…… a divorce caused by Essika’s fault.”

Yuri raised her head, her red eyes gleaming.

Riona frowned.

There was such certainty in Yuri’s eyes that Riona felt it might be worth hearing her out rather than immediately having her thrown outside.

“If they divorce because of infidelity, you don’t have to return the dowry. Instead, you can even demand compensation from her family.”

The prospect of receiving compensation was certainly tempting.

But……

Riona twisted the corner of her lips in mockery.

“You’re suggesting that we provoke her into having an affair? Then there’s no reason to hear you out.”

What kind of man was Kallian Klaus, her son?

In the Empire, the only man whose appearance could rival her son was probably the Crown Prince, Lesvan Deon Lucene.

And Kallian’s wife was supposed to turn her eyes toward another man?

That would be impossible unless her eyes were on the soles of her feet.

Riona then called for the maids guarding the room.

“Come in and drag this mad girl out.”

But Yuri immediately grabbed Riona’s feet.

Then, as Riona tried to kick her away, Yuri spoke in a low voice.

“I saw Essika meeting another man!”

Riona’s foot stopped in midair.

The door opened and her maids entered.

After briefly looking into Yuri’s eyes, filled with certainty, Riona gestured for the maids to leave again.

Once the door closed, Yuri began to speak.

“Earlier, on the road from the government office toward the central district, I saw a man and woman riding the same horse. It was definitely Essika.”

“……What?”

Yuri vigorously nodded and continued.

“I clearly saw her wearing a plain gray dress and with silver hair. I even saw her face.”

The color gradually drained from Riona’s face.

If Essika had been seen in that area, then her plan had failed.

“C-could it have been my brother, Schubert Brigitte?”

If the plan had failed and they had been caught by Schubert, it would be disastrous.

If the Brigitte family became involved, the situation would become even more difficult.

Fortunately, however, Yuri shook her head at the second question.

“I grew up with Essika, so I know her brother. Her brother has silver hair, just like Essika. But that man had dark hair. The road was shaded, so I couldn’t be completely certain of the color……”

Yuri spoke with conviction.

“But he definitely wasn’t Duke Kallian.”

Riona’s thoughts became tangled.

Had someone helped Essika? An outsider?

Or had one of the men betrayed them?

“……Leave.”

“Grand Duchess……”

“I said get out before I throw you out of my residence forever!”

Startled by Riona’s sudden irritation, Yuri backed away with a resentful expression.

Riona looked especially anxious.