Kahar released his hold and walked on. The sunlight, as though mocking the situation, poured down even more brilliantly overhead.

Kahar was heading down a path toward the forest rather than the garden.

“Where are we going?”

“I’d like to get those eyes off me. Do I really have to be watched at my age?”

Where Kahar glanced, the maids and servants followed with their heads bowed.

“Oh…….”

Meliciel had not noticed them at all, not even when they were that close.

“From here, I’ll go with just the lady. Don’t come near until I call.”

“But, Your Highness…….”

The steward stepped forward and trailed off with a troubled expression.

“I want to spend some private time with the lady.”

Kahar left words that were somewhere between a joke and a threat, and they could not figure out what to do, but they did not follow into the forest.

Once they entered the forest and the eyes disappeared, Meliciel put some distance between herself and Kahar.

The place where he held her waist felt like it was heating up again, and she could not stay pressed against him.

Kahar thankfully said nothing, so the two began walking side by side. Meliciel held up her skirt slightly as she walked, and Kahar matched her pace.

Rude, or considerate. Or simply a womanizer.

When she lived as his ward’s shadow, she always walked behind him. So she did not have many memories of walking side by side like this.

It was a strange feeling.

The forest, shielded from the sun, was comparatively cool, but Meliciel could not lower her parasol for fear she was making a strange expression.

“There’s a man-made lake further in. Can you make it that far?”

“Yes.”

She still had some strength left, so Meliciel nodded.

It would be to her benefit to improve her relationship with him and build good memories. Regardless of whatever feelings she had for him.

Not far ahead, there really was a lake. It was not large, but the water pooled in a round shape looked refreshing.

The two stopped before it. Kahar stepped up onto a large rock by the water’s edge in one stride and reached a hand toward Meliciel.

“Come up.”

“No, I…….”

“What. Should I lay down a handkerchief for you?”

Kahar asked in a tone that treated her like a princess, and Meliciel’s lips twitched slightly.

“I can’t climb somewhere that high. My body is weak.”

“Always making a move the moment you get the chance.”

Kahar came down from the rock and lifted Meliciel in one motion, then climbed back up with her.

She startled and grabbed his shoulder. The parasol had long since tumbled down below.

“Don’t do things like that without warning.”

“Then you should behave well enough that I don’t have to.”

Kahar mimicked Meliciel’s tone of speech and lowered his head. Their gazes slowly, then deeply, became entangled.

For a brief moment, a light breeze rustled through the leaves and brushed past her ears.

Shhhh.

If she told this man everything honestly.

Would he call it madness? Or would he say it was interesting and tell her to go on, then cast her aside in a bad mood?

The Kahar of before was a little uncomfortable around Lani.

And yet, perhaps feeling some guilt toward Lani whom he used as a ward, he occasionally showed a gentle side.

If the woman he used as a tool to purify his poison now said she wanted to come in as Grand Duchess, he would find it horrifying.

She would never, under any circumstances, tell him the truth.

Not even if he treated her kindly.

Kahar’s face, seen up close, was like a master craftsman’s work of art, as it always was.

Even when she was Lani, she never painted anything more beautiful than him. He had, how to put it, a face that moved people’s hearts.

The wonder of his perfectly placed features went without saying, and Kahar’s particular presence often held her gaze captive for a long time.

“If you’re going to stare like that, I should at least get paid.”

“But the Grand Duke was looking at my face too.”

“My face costs more.”

He made an irrefutable joke and stepped back to sit on the rock. He leaned back and then sprawled out flat.

Lying with his legs crossed, eyes lazily closed, Kahar made no secret of his intention to rest.

Meliciel still could not take her eyes off him and studied his long, large body.

Taking in his remarkable proportions and the bones and muscles that made up his form was a terrible habit of an artist.

She saw Kahar’s muscular body during the companion ritual, but a desire to look more closely still lingered.

So even now, in a moment like this, she swept her gaze over his broad shoulders, firm thighs, and long legs, and imagined capturing that feeling on a blank page.

At some point her gaze stopped, and she bit her lip in embarrassment. Get a grip. This is not the time to be thinking about paintings.

Meliciel turned her head and smoothed her loose hair back behind her ear.

Just then, strong sunlight disrupted her vision. She closed her eyes to avoid the sudden flash of brightness.

“Oh…….”

By the time she felt her body tilting, she already lost her balance. A powerful wave of dizziness crashed over her and her body began to plunge downward.

She stretched her hands forward and tried to right herself, but it was already too late. Meliciel fell helplessly off the rock.

Splash. Cold water sprayed up from the lake, and Meliciel sank straight beneath the surface.

“……What kind of stunt is this now?”

Kahar got up with an air of annoyance and looked at the lake.

She stared at him, then suddenly started flailing, and then she slipped off the rock and fell into the lake.

He watched the foaming spray for a moment, then let out a short breath. The water only reached a person’s waist, but she did not surface.

He waved off a guard who was about to come running from somewhere. Kahar walked directly into the water.

***

Back at his quarters, Kahar sank into thought.

Was falling into the water also an act? Could a woman with that blank face be that calculating while asleep?

Kahar was a decent judge of people, but Meliciel had many ambiguous qualities.

She seemed brazen, and she seemed clueless.

“An idiot, then. Or both.”

The Grand Duke’s murmur dissolved slowly inside the bedroom.

He sat with his arms crossed, observing Meliciel in his own way as she received the doctor’s examination on the bed.

The one checking her condition was none other than Kahar’s personal physician, Huby.

Huby always accompanied him on long journeys, so he came along this time as well. Huby was at the quarters where Kahar’s party was staying, and came rushing over when summoned.

“Well. Is she pretending to sleep?”

“That is a rude thing to say about a lady.”

Huby pushed up his glasses and furrowed his brow.

It would have been better if she were pretending to sleep, as Kahar suspected. Meliciel’s current condition was so bad it was a mystery how she managed to go on a walk.

“Your Highness, come over here.”

“Say it from there.”

“She is about to become Grand Duchess. Would you have me lay bare her private condition with others listening?”

Huby asked with irritation, and Kahar finally rose from his seat as though he had no choice.

Only once Kahar came close did Huby lower the bed curtain to block the view.

The intent was to keep the waiting servants and aide Mihael at a distance from seeing.

“Here, do you see this?”

Huby parted Meliciel’s hair and exposed the back of her neck. Kahar’s blue eyes moved to the dark bruising on her nape.

“Is this your doing?”

“Have you lost your mind?”

“There were no marks earlier.”

Huby this time pulled back the sheet.

“It appears she used a spell to temporarily conceal the wounds.”

A short while ago, Huby’s assistant Ann changed her out of her wet clothes, so she was dressed in a loose-fitting chemise dress.

Huby rolled back the loose sleeve and showed Meliciel’s skin. Sure enough, there were blue bruises on both wrists.

“Those are handprints.”

“I’ll need to examine further, but there are likely more bruises elsewhere.”

“The lady was beaten.”

Kahar said it, but it was hard to believe, and he could not keep the scoff out of his voice.

“Yes. Judging by the external wounds, it is certainly the work of a person.”

Kahar examined Meliciel’s injuries with sharp eyes. The prospective Grand Duchess being in this condition could be grounds for contempt of Kahar.

“The young lady needs sufficient rest and treatment. It is a miracle she was walking around in this state.”

“Is she close to dying?”

Kahar’s question seemed to strike Huby as flippant, and Huby looked at him with genuine irritation.

“I won’t allow that.”

“Then I can rest easy.”

Kahar looked down at Meliciel with dry detachment, her lips parched and cracked from the fever.

A Grand Duchess barely clinging to life, unable to exert any strength. Perhaps this was exactly the condition Kahar wanted.

Someone virtually incapable of social life, let alone life outside the walls. It was better that way. Someone who, even after marriage, would stay as far out of Kahar’s sight as possible, with no points of contact.

He chose Meliciel as Grand Duchess precisely because he wanted her to exist like a ghost, present and yet not present.

“Let her sleep as much as she needs. The urgent treatment is done, so when she wakes, give her something soft to eat. I’ll come back around dawn.”

“No further problems, then.”

“No. I’ve done what I can. I’ll take my leave.”

Huby gave a short bow, drew back the curtain, and left the bedside. Kahar sat down in the chair by the bed.

Then he looked at Meliciel, breathing in shallow, thin breaths.

The more he looked, the more she resembled her. That much was certain to twist his mood, but she was wheezing like a sickly bird, and somehow that got on his nerves too.

Either way, he could not marry a walking corpse, so he had to help Meliciel recover. He was curious who drove her to this state, and he intended to see that through to the end as well.