Huby and Ann smiled awkwardly too.

“This might be a bit forward, but can I ask you something?”

“Of course, my lady.”

Huby cleared his throat and answered. Meliciel quickly asked what she had been wanting to ask.

“You two are dating, right?”

“No?”

Ann yelped, and Huby’s brows crashed together at the sight of her.

“My lady, this is an injustice!”

Ann thumped her own chest, appealing to Meliciel about how could anyone say such a thing.

“We really are not!”

Huby simply narrowed his eyes and clenched his fist.

“Sorry. I must have been mistaken.”

“Of course you were. Master Huby is! He is……”

Ann hesitated over her next words, then squeezed her eyes shut and said it.

“Way too old!”

Clatter.

Huby dropped the stethoscope he was holding. His face flushed a deep, vivid red.

“I apologize. I will return tomorrow.”

He must have been mortified. Huby bowed twice in a row and bolted out of the room, leaving only silence behind.

“……Did I make a mistake?”

Meliciel shook her head with a faint smile. An unfamiliar flush sat on Ann’s face, and Meliciel quietly filed that away as a question.

So Master Huby is the only one with feelings?

“Master Huby is a whole thirty-seven years old, you know.”

A whole ten years older, absolutely not someone she could see romantically, Ann insisted, shaking her head.

She looked flustered herself.

No. Ann likes him too.

Meliciel nodded along with a smile on her face.

The commotion passed like that. Once Ann slipped out as well and the examination was fully over, head maid Belita approached carefully.

“My lady.”

“Yes.”

“When will the others arrive? Your household, I mean.”

Household. She means my people.

Meliciel didn’t answer right away, so Belita added an explanation.

“We’re preparing to attend to you, so they may arrive whenever it is convenient. Quarters within the main castle will be arranged for them as well.”

“No one is coming.”

“Pardon?”

Belita asked back with a startled expression.

“No one is coming. I came here alone.”

A look of surprise crossed her seasoned face, streaked here and there with white hair, then vanished quickly.

“Understood.”

Belita didn’t ask for details. She simply said she understood, then tidied up the space.

Meliciel lowered her head, realizing she truly came here with nothing at all.

“I asked something unnecessary.”

Meliciel put on a deliberate smile. She smiled awkwardly, then exhaled deeply.

“I think I’ll go for a short walk.”

Tears threatened to come at the worst moment, so Meliciel chose to get some air.

With the head maid’s help, she changed into the simplest and lightest outfit available. She fastened a thin but well-insulated coat and stepped out of the room.

The scale of the castle was truly immense, and it took quite a while just to get out the front entrance.

From the third floor where her bedroom was down to the first, the staircases were numerous and the corridors extremely long, making it nearly a twenty-minute journey at her pace.

Only Barix followed behind Meliciel as her escort. He explained that within the Grand Ducal Castle, he alone would generally attend to her.

Belita came along at first, but once Chayden appeared, she handed things over to him and disappeared.

Chayden spoke in a quiet tone, explaining the history of the Grand Ducal Castle, the legacy of the Diozarts, and the unique heritage of this place.

Meliciel listened with genuine interest.

“Once you’ve recovered your strength to some degree, take your time and look around the rest as well.”

“How long would it take to see everything?”

Meliciel asked, looking out over the courtyard. The space of paved stone was overwhelming in scale alone.

“At least a month, I would think. The Grand Ducal Castle holds many rare and remarkable things.”

“That…… sounds like it would be wonderful.”

Meliciel let her true feelings slip out. Setting aside her purpose here, life in the Grand Duchy was undeniably something to look forward to with joy.

This place was filled with traces and relics of history, art and artworks of every kind, and an immeasurable wealth of books and luxury items preserved since antiquity.

The exhibition hall, said to be coveted even by the emperor, was somewhere Meliciel very much wanted to visit.

“It will be far more beautiful and captivating than you imagine, my lady.”

“You were born and raised here, weren’t you, Chayden?”

“Yes. My lady, rather than that manner of speech……”

Meliciel looked at him with a smile, the sunlight at her back, and Chayden closed his mouth.

He was a man who could say anything without hesitation at any time, but faced with a young duchess tilting her head with an innocent expression, the stern correction felt like an overreaction.

Royalty typically spoke with a tone of authority. Kahar was royalty too, but he was such a strong-willed person that he was an exception.

“I did something wrong, didn’t I?”

Meliciel’s eyes wavered immediately, and Chayden quickly cleared his throat.

“Not at all. If you are comfortable, that is enough. You need not worry about anyone’s opinion here.”

Meliciel was no fool and would not go against Kahar.

No matter how casually Kahar arranged this marriage, he wouldn’t have brought just anyone.

He would have chosen someone he could communicate with, or someone compliant enough not to irritate him.

That was the Grand Duke Kahar that Chayden knew.

In any case, within this place, the only person Meliciel would find difficult was Kahar.

“Thank you for showing me around. And I’d like to ride a horse.”

“You mean equestrian riding, my lady?”

“Yes. I’m dressed warmly enough. Can we do it right now?”

“Would that not be dangerous?”

In truth, Meliciel was a skilled rider. In this body she only had the experience of riding along with Kahar, but in the past she rode countless times to carry out her role as his shadow.

When she first learned to ride, she was practically thrown onto the horse and learned in a sink-or-swim fashion.

So she rode better than most knights. She even heard it said that her small frame and sensitivity made her effective at handling horses.

Her body recovered enough that a slow, leisurely ride should be manageable.

“I’ll be fine. I’m quite experienced with riding.”

“Shall I accompany you?”

Meliciel shook her head.

“I thought I’d take a slow look around and get some air.”

Chayden swallowed a hesitant sound. He couldn’t refuse those pleading eyes, but leaving her on her own felt as unsettling as setting a child loose near a river.

She spent her whole life bedridden, they said, and yet she knows how to ride.

Chayden thought that perhaps the future Grand Duchess was a little different from what he expected, and gave the order to bring a horse.

It was a sudden request, but a brown mare appeared quickly, as though she were already prepared.

Meliciel broke into a bright smile right away and greeted the horse.

“Hello. I’ll be in your care today.”

“Allow me to assist you.”

Chayden willingly bent down to help Meliciel mount.

She dressed simply enough that she could manage without a proper riding outfit, but once she was up on the horse, she adjusted her position several times, seemingly struggling with the full hem of her skirt.

Chayden quietly pressed his brow together where no one could see.

“Are you uncomfortable?”

“No. I think I’ll be fine. Shall we go?”

Meliciel stroked the horse’s mane and leaned forward to whisper to it, and Chayden took a step back.

In truth, every servant in the Grand Ducal Castle was on edge. They had almost no experience attending to such a young woman.

Sheldon was fairly isolated, and the time spent serving the previous Grand Duchess was not long. Kahar’s mother was something of an eccentric, unlike typical noblewomen.

The previous Grand Duchess rarely left her chambers, and it was more accurate to say that even Chayden barely saw her.

There was also Lady Viviana, who visited occasionally over the past few years, but she was never attended to with particular care.

So Meliciel was the first female mistress they would serve in their lives. Having heard in advance that she was frail, everyone was more than a little anxious.

Many were already intimidated, imagining how delicate, sensitive, and aristocratic she might be.

“It’s all right, Barix.”

When Barix moved to take the horse’s reins for her, Meliciel stopped him. She meant that there was no need to lead the horse.

“Then I will follow behind you.”

“Will you?”

Meliciel didn’t wait for an answer and set off first. Barix scrambled to find another horse.

At that time, Meliciel vanished in a cloud of dust.

She said she was going to take a slow look around.

“……Quite the handful, it seems.”

Chayden muttered and turned away.

Then again, surely the injuries on her body weren’t from riding.

Belita quietly reported to him that many bruises and scars were found on her body.

A servant should not carelessly disclose information about their master, but sharing matters of significance was the role of the head steward, the head maid, and the head butler Chayden.

“M, my lady!”

Barix, who managed to secure a horse belatedly, launched his large frame nimbly onto it.

He set off at speed to catch up with the Grand Duchess-to-be.

Chayden lowered his eyes.

Could that uncertain young lady truly surpass her?

No.

Chayden recalled the sight of Kahar, broken after losing Lani, and walked on with the certainty that she never could.

Lani Deloën was someone no one could replace.