“Felton, aren’t you coming?”

“…I’ll go.”

The Duke of Arpi feared nothing.

To him, emotions were essential tools for achieving necessary plans, and…

“Father.”

“Siana, what’s wrong? It’s late at night…”

“I heard loud noises.”

They were useful masks.

“Oh my, I was too loud. I had work that needed to be finished by today, so I couldn’t help it. Let’s go upstairs. Should Daddy put you to bed?”

“No, it’s fine. I came out partly because I was bored anyway.”

“Then will you have some tea before you go?”

“Sure.”

The father and daughter exchanged everyday conversation like an ordinary family and entered their living space.

As though nothing had happened in the basement.

Not invading each other’s private lives was their unspoken rule.

* * *

“Your Grace.”

“Ah, is that you?”

The Duke of Radelica rubbed his fatigue-filled eyes and leaned back in his chair.

His fine black hair gleamed in the sunlight, but his features beneath were stiffly hardened, unable to hide his devastated feelings.

“Are you even sleeping?”

“I am sleeping.”

“You should sleep deeply, not just doze.”

“I’m trying.”

Even Elisa, known for her patience, clicked her tongue at the sight of him holed up in his office for days.

‘He’s my husband, but he’s ruthless, truly ruthless.’

She’d watched and expected he’d come out after some time passed, but since he showed no intention of leaving, Leopold, unable to stand it any longer, had come to find him directly.

‘The duchess must have sent him.’

Instead of catching up with Elisa, who’d only recently returned, here was her husband obsessing over the family’s security.

A bitter smile emerged from his apologetic feelings.

“More importantly, what’s the matter? I thought all reportable matters were finished.”

“Ah, well…”

It was rare for Leopold to hesitate.

Don’t tell me.

“The maid Meli… has committed s*icide.”

“What?”

The words from his mouth were more shocking than expected.

“Wasn’t that maid in missing status?”

“She was, but… Yesterday the civilian security force reported that a body was found floating in the sewers. Based on the shape and location of the wounds, they determined it was s*icide.”

“Even if it was s*icide, it might not be that maid. How can you be certain?”

“Evolaine… personally confirmed the face.”

Evolaine? Why on earth?

“Why did she, no, how…”

How did a child who should be focusing on recovery right now meet with the civilian security force?

“No, never mind. It’ll be faster to ask directly. Where is Evolaine?”

“…She’s at the training grounds.”

“Why there again?”

“She says she’s fully recovered…”

Leopold subtly avoided the duke’s sharpened gaze.

His face said, ‘Then you should have actively stopped her, so why did you let the child go to the training grounds?’

But he had his own unfair circumstances.

“And you call yourself a commander…! Ha, no. Let’s go talk there first.”

“Yes…”

The duke put on the jacket draped over his chair and quickly headed to the training grounds.

When he emerged from his office, the servants’ eyes widened and their jaws dropped.

Then they stopped cleaning the hallway and quickly cleared a path for him.

“Hm?”

He briefly wondered at their behavior, but the duke soon dismissed it like it wasn’t important.

Only Leopold following behind felt gloomy about the impending disaster.

Meanwhile, Evolaine, the culprit behind all this, was peacefully training at the training grounds.

‘Still, I did pretty well.’

The Kelic she’d drawn out on the villa’s second floor felt quite different from the sensation she’d felt before.

During her two past lives, Kelic had run wild the moment she drew it out.

She couldn’t control it at all, to the point where it acted as an obstacle hindering her at necessary moments.

But that day, for the first time, she felt Kelic perfectly grasped in her hand.

The feeling of it extending straight to the right when she swung right, following to the left when she moved left.

The memory of making it move in the direction she wanted gave her a thrilling sense of achievement.

“So I need to practice.”

Lying down for a whole month to recover was a waste of time.

The physician treated her like an ordinary person and repeatedly emphasized caution, but who was she?

‘I’m already fully recovered.’

Descendants of Kelic were born physically superior, so they recovered quickly too.

‘But why did the young master say Kelic ran wild?’

Cardel had said Kelic wouldn’t settle down that night.

Because of that aftermath, even after Evolaine woke, her hair and eye color hadn’t returned.

But after about an hour, the colors returned to normal, and the laceration healed cleanly without a single scar a few days later.

So she hadn’t particularly questioned it, but…

‘The uneasy feeling was separate.’

She felt like she’d missed something in between.

A feeling like she’d forgotten something important.

Evolaine gripped the purple sword the duke had personally crafted for her and focused on her thoughts.

Not even knowing the very person who’d gifted her the sword was approaching.

“Evolaine.”

A familiar voice pierced her ears.

Evolaine came to her senses after her name was called once more.

“Du-Duke?”

“Why are you at the training grounds?”

That was something Evolaine wanted to ask too.

Why had the duke come here?

Evolaine glanced at the duke, then immediately sheathed her sword and assumed a respectful posture.

Since she’d done something wrong, feeling guilty was natural.

The duke had even prepared a separate space for her to rest, but she’d kicked that aside and wandered outside.

She had nothing to say even with two mouths.

“…I’m sorry.”

At the apology that came without any excuses, the duke closed his mouth again.

He’d come to scold her, but since she admitted her fault, all his energy drained away.

“Do you know what you did wrong?”

“You told me to rest, but I wandered outside…”

Evolaine muttered in a shrinking voice.

In her own way, she was mumbling so it wouldn’t be heard well, but unfortunately, both the duke and Leopold had good hearing, befitting people who handled swords.

“Wrong. Your mistake was treating the weight of your wounds lightly.”

“Yes…?”

“Why do you view your own wounds as shallow when you risked your life to save the duke’s aide?”

The duke knelt on one knee and met Evolaine’s eye level.

Large, white hands swept across Evolaine’s damp eyes.

“Ah…”

Because of that, moisture dripped down.

Like how stopping a burst dam requires much labor.

Evolaine couldn’t control the tears that suddenly burst forth.

“It’s just… I mean…”

This was the first time someone genuinely worried about her.

Evolaine had entered this place saying she’d prove her usefulness to the duke, but she’d considered it merely a conditional contractual relationship.

So whenever the ducal household members treated her well, Evolaine felt strange emotions.

She was here because she was useful, and if she became useless, she’d have to leave.

Yet everyone helped her and greeted her warmly when they met.

“I’m sorry…”

She’d actually been scared.

Scared Heron might die. Scared she might fail to rescue him.

And scared she might die too.

It was an operation where even Marchi had been deployed.

A place that gathered elite knights separately selected through advanced training even among the Lacrel Knights.

Since the other side had also brought out elite knights to match Marchi, it wouldn’t have been strange at all if Evolaine had died.

“I’m sorry…”

The duke carefully embraced Evolaine, who kept apologizing and couldn’t stop crying.

The hand patting her back was large.

If she’d been born into an ordinary family, would she have had a father like this?

Would she have had a family who stayed by her side instead of letting her cry alone?

For the first time, Evolaine thought about what it would have been like to have a family.

‘Family…’

If she had, she probably wouldn’t have regressed twice.

There wouldn’t have been past lives where she’d been miserably killed after having abilities she never wanted stolen from her.

“If you cry more, your head will hurt later.”

The fingers wiping her eyes were large. Were all beings called fathers such big people?

“…Thank you.”

Evolaine moved her lips in a choked voice.

She seemed about to add more words, but that was all.

“I had something to ask you, but today doesn’t seem like the right day.”

With those final words, the duke returned to the estate with Leopold.

Evolaine touched her slightly swollen eyes.