“……Honey.”

“Duchess? What’s wrong?”

“Was that really the Second Imperial Consort just now?”

Asking if the Second Imperial Consort was really the Second Imperial Consort—what kind of question was that?

She certainly felt unfamiliar somehow, but there was no way she wasn’t the Second Imperial Consort.

She had the same sky-blue hair and white eyes he remembered.

As far as he knew, no one else in the empire had the same appearance as her.

“Yes, that’s right. Why do you…”

“No, it’s nothing. I must have… been mistaken for a moment.”

Elisa seemed deep in thought about something.

She also seemed to have felt the strangeness, but appeared to be thinking something different from him.

‘She’ll bring it up once she’s certain.’

Elisa tended to investigate carefully before speaking once she reached a conclusion.

He knew her tendencies well, so waiting was naturally the right thing to do.

‘Even I’m not sure what’s strange…’

As his thoughts lengthened, the duke decided to set aside this question for now.

The urgent matters were Heron and Evolaine.

* * *

Meanwhile, Leopold and Evolaine arrived at the location where Heron’s signal had stopped.

The closer they got to Heron, the more the red-dyed gem deepened into a blood-red color.

Evolaine realized for the first time that red could become even more intense.

The place where Heron was presumably trapped was none other than the Duke of Arpi’s villa.

Though the Duchy of Arpi hadn’t shown any particular movements recently, they’d been monitoring them because of the maid they’d missed last time.

They couldn’t fully determine what route she’d used to enter, but they’d learned through belongings she’d dropped that the Duchy of Arpi was behind it.

The maid had failed in her attempt to lure Evolaine away, so their target was clearly Evolaine.

But why they wanted to take Evolaine remained unclear.

To make matters worse, that maid was currently missing. They couldn’t determine what she was doing or even where she was.

So they’d sent part of Marchi and Heron to obtain internal information…

“…Who would’ve thought it was a smokescreen.”

“What do you mean?”

“They captured Lord Heron and showed up at the banquet like nothing happened. So if we make any rash moves here, we’ll be in trouble.”

By appearing at the banquet, they acted boldly while setting up a situation where attention would focus on them if the other side made any conspicuous moves.

Anticipating that Leopold and Evolaine would now be providing support with Marchi.

Those snake-like bastards. Leopold ground his teeth in boiling anger.

“But can’t we just safely extract Lord Heron? Then their capture would be for nothing.”

Leopold sighed at Evolaine’s words. How wonderful it would be if they could safely rescue Heron just like that.

“…The fact that even elite knights went means it’s extremely dangerous. In the worst case, Lord Heron might have to silence himself.”

“…You mean he’d have to die?”

“……”

Leopold nodded instead of answering.

To think he’d have to risk his life just to bring back classified information.

If he had to die from an unwanted turn of events, it would be so unfair and frustrating.

‘I must protect Lord Heron.’

She couldn’t let him die like this.

Though they’d only met recently, he was someone who’d come to the orphanage where she’d been with the duke.

Someone who stood confidently beside the duke, who radiated intense presence just by existing.

Leaving the orphanage, Evolaine had thought she wanted to become someone who took on meaningful work beside such admirable people.

So she had to save Heron.

“Take this.”

Leopold, who’d tied up the horses, handed Evolaine a purple potion.

“What kind of potion is this?”

“A potion that erases your appearance for one hour.”

Leopold repeatedly emphasized there were no spares since he’d brought it for emergencies, then quickly began explaining the operation.

“Listen carefully. Once you enter the villa, not only the Duchy of Arpi’s knights but also elite knights like Marchi will be concealing themselves.”

Leopold devised an operation with separate movement paths.

Using Kelic would help their forces, but extracting Heron would be slower.

The priority was extracting Heron, whose life was in critical danger.

In other words, someone had to go straight to him.

“Marchi arrived before us and is moving quietly. They all have a small ‘M’ mark on their wrists. You need to find that to distinguish them.”

“Aren’t you coming with me, Commander?”

“I’ll handle the duchy’s knights. Marchi will handle Arpi’s elite personnel. While we draw their attention, you extract Lord Heron.”

It was a reckless operation.

How could he face the Duchy of Arpi’s knights alone without knowing how many there were?

Moreover, how could she get close to Heron while breaking through such tight surveillance?

Reading Evolaine’s thoughts, Leopold pulled out clothes from a small bag attached to the horse and tossed them.

“Wear this.”

Evolaine caught them reflexively and unfolded the clothes to check.

These clothes looked familiar somehow.

“Isn’t this… what maids wear when working?”

It resembled the maid uniforms she’d often seen at the estate. Even eyeballing the size, it looked like it would fit her perfectly.

“The Duchy of Arpi also employs young maids, so it’ll draw less suspicion.”

In summary, she was to disguise herself as a maid, enter, and bring out Heron.

Seeing that Leopold had prepared maid clothes in advance, Evolaine sighed.

‘He would’ve brought me even if the duke had stopped him.’

The operation required her participation to be complete.

Evolaine put the maid outfit over her uniform and wore the robe over that.

Since she wore it over her uniform, the maid outfit was a bit tighter than expected, making her movements unnatural.

To move naturally, covering it with the robe was better.

“Take this sword.”

“A sword?”

“The duke specially commissioned it. You’ll find it convenient for handling Kelic, so take it.”

Evolaine received the new sword that had unexpectedly appeared.

When she drew the sword from its sheath, a sharply honed blade was revealed.

The blade of the long, sleek sword bore a vivid purple color.

Purple was the color of Kelic. In other words, this was a sword made solely for Evolaine, who wielded Kelic.

Evolaine instinctively swung the sword.

It was an action that came out without her knowing.

Swoosh—

The sword glowed along with the sound of cutting through air.

The sword was absorbing and emitting the energy of Kelic flowing from Evolaine.

“The sword found its master well.”

“…Yes.”

“You’re no fun.”

Leopold quickly lost interest in Evolaine, who showed no particular change in expression.

But inside Evolaine, many emotions were colliding.

Surprise that the duke had made a sword for her.

A strangely familiar sensation, like a sword she’d held for a long time.

‘Is this related to my regression?’

Had she held this sword before at some point?

She remembered most of her past lives, but there were definitely gaps among them.

Then it might be connected to that.

“Are you done changing?”

“Yes, I’m done.”

“Then let’s begin. We can’t let them take our noble Lord Heron.”

Evolaine also charged her morale at Leopold’s spirited start to the operation.

Finally, it was real combat.

* * *

Knights were taking turns standing guard in front of the door to the middle room on the second floor of the Duke of Arpi’s annex.

“Hey, wake up. It’s time to change shifts.”

“…Yawn, you’re here.”

After finishing grueling training and standing guard on top of that, even well-trained knights would be exhausted from unrelieved fatigue.

Without knowing why they were monitoring this room, the knights simply dozed off in front of the door before switching with the next person.

“By the way, who’s supposed to be inside?”

“I don’t know, d*mn it. When I asked, they got angry and told me never to ask again. They got angry right off the bat, so what could I say.”

“True… With the commander’s personality, that makes sense.”

While the two were having trivial conversation, Evolaine had climbed the second-floor stairs and was watching for an opening.

The surveillance in front of the door was more lax than expected.