Mary was so shocked that she could not say a word.

The atmosphere sank heavily, filled with a silence so still that not even a single fly seemed likely to pass through.

Rafez’s eyes were completely different from what she had seen until now.

He was glaring at her coldly, as though the enemy he absolutely had to kill was standing right before him.

“What…? No!”

“Is this what your love is? If you cannot have someone, you would rather kill them? Thanks to you, even I nearly died.”

“Died? Who? What are you even talking about?”

“Who else? You ordered Juni to smear poison on the Grand Duchess’s teacup to kill her. It has already all been exposed, so are you still going to pretend you don’t know?”

She ordered Juni to smear poison on the teacup to kill Lacy?

The words Mary was hearing now were a shock in themselves.

Since the other day, she had thought it was strange that Juni, Molton, and the others were nowhere to be seen, but she had never imagined something had happened.

“All… all been exposed? What exactly…”

“You’ve been taking information from the Grand Ducal House through Juni all this time. Especially everything about the tea party the Grand Duchess held and other matters. Even what I eat every day.”

It was true.

“This time, you even took the oranges that the Grand Duchess personally picked from the Grand Duchy. And you held a tea party with them at the count’s estate, didn’t you? Thanks to that, the rumor that you and I have a special relationship gained strength.”

When he first heard this, he had been utterly dumbfounded.

He had already found it strange that the rumors seemed so convincing simply because Mary often came in and out of the Grand Ducal House.

As expected, rumors always had someone behind them.

“We also confirmed that, as compensation, you gave Juni expensive jewels and spices. Do you still have anything left to deny?”

“That’s because… Juni and I have always been close…”

“So because you were close, you coaxed a maid of the Grand Ducal House into gathering information. Is that supposed to be natural?”

Everything he said was true, so she could not deny it.

However—

“But saying I tried to kill Lacy, that is absolutely not true! Why would I do something like that? It makes no sense!”

“Then why were you receiving detailed reports on even my and Lacy’s eating habits?”

“That’s…”

She had simply wanted to know everything, without missing a single detail, as long as it had to do with Lacy and Rafez.

But even Mary knew that those words could not possibly serve as an explanation.

“If it was not your order, why would Juni smear poison on the teacup? There is no reason for her to do that.”

“That… I don’t know either. Why Juni would…”

Mary, thrown into confusion, lowered her head.

It was not simple confusion.

It was close to panic.

Rafez knew that too.

But he did not feel even the slightest bit of sympathy.

“You must have ordered it.”

“No, it wasn’t me. Why would I…? It wasn’t me. I said it wasn’t me!”

“Because of you, not only the Grand Duchess but even I nearly died.”

“I said it wasn’t me!”

Mary raised her head again and let out a scream-like cry.

Then, startled by herself, she stumbled backward awkwardly.

“That is, I mean, I really…”

Without hesitation, Rafez approached her. He pulled his right hand from his pocket and seized her by the throat.

“Ugh!”

“All the evidence points to you, yet you say it wasn’t you. Then what am I supposed to do?”

Mary hurriedly grabbed Rafez’s wrist, but Rafez did not seem to have any intention of letting go.

“Should I lock you up and interrogate you right now? Or should I put the count’s family on trial immediately?”

It was a chilling set of choices.

What made it even more frightening was that the Grand Ducal House was capable of both.

With all the evidence already in its hands, there was nothing the Grand Ducal House could not do against the count’s family.

Even if the opponent were the Imperial Family, the Grand Ducal House was powerful enough to enter an all-out conflict.

If the opponent had been a ducal family, it might even have led to a territorial war.

House Bererian was certainly not a small house, but against the Grand Ducal House, there was nothing it could do.

Even if Mary, their daughter, were imprisoned this very moment.

“Can you choose?”

Mary was still unable to breathe properly, trembling in fear.

As if he had said everything he needed to say, Rafez suddenly released his hand.

Only then did Mary collapse to the floor and gasp for breath.

“Cough, cough! Ack…”

As she hurriedly sucked in air, she even began coughing, and the tears that had gathered in her eyes started to fall.

“I don’t even want to see your face, so go back quietly. If you say even a single word about this to the count, know that your life as a noble ends that very day.”

It meant he would destroy the count’s family and erase them from the list of nobles.

“You think I can’t do it?”

Still crying, Mary shook her head violently.

She knew Rafez was someone who kept his word.

“Now that you understand, leave.”

As if the matter was finished, Rafez took a handkerchief from inside his coat, wiped his right hand, and went to his desk.

It was time to return to work.

Mary hastily wiped her face with her sleeve and left the room almost as if crawling.

Once outside, she ignored the greetings from Mollys and Glen and hurried away.

She nearly collided with passing servants several times as she barely managed to descend the stairs, but then she stepped on the hem of her dress and fell, tumbling down to the bottom of the staircase.

It was because she had been covering her ruined face with both hands and had not been able to hold up the long hem of her dress.

Even though it must have hurt, Mary did not make a sound.

She could not.

She had to get up quickly and leave this mansion, but tears were gathering in her eyes again.

Then, someone stopped in front of her.

The ornate shoes told her who it was.

A thin, delicate white hand held out a handkerchief to Mary.

“Are you all right?”

Mary did not want to accept it, but at those words asking whether she was all right, the tears she had been holding back seemed to spill down her face.

She snatched the handkerchief as if taking it by force, then got up again and ran away.

Lacy took Siz’s hand and straightened from where she had bent down.

Mary was running frantically out through the vast garden of the Grand Ducal House.

After coming and going from the Grand Ducal House every day, had she ever imagined being driven out like this?

And by her own feet, no less.

By Rafez.

It was probably the first moment she had ever wanted to flee from the Grand Ducal House—the place she had most wanted to enter, the place she had likely wanted to live.

Lacy had thought something might happen when she saw Rafez.

Without a word, she moved her feet.

* * *

“Why did you make such a big matter of it?”

Rafez lifted his eyes from the documents and looked at Lacy.

She was still expressionless.

Even though she seemed to have seen Mary leave in tears, she asked only about the facts, without a trace of emotion.

“What do you mean?”

Rafez pretended not to know and tried to focus again on the work he had been doing.

“I know. One of the suspects is the young lady’s spy, and that person is the most likely culprit.”

At Lacy’s words, however, Rafez had no choice but to raise his head again.

“How do I know? We heard it together, didn’t we? Everything the young lady said. You thought it was strange too.”

By the way, I’m surprised. You even know what I ate for breakfast.

The one who seems strange to me is you, Mary.

That was right.

Only then did the words he himself had spoken flash through his mind.

He had overheard Mary and Lacy’s conversation, and at the time, he had thought Mary looked flustered and suspicious.

But to infer this much from that conversation?

“When you came to me yesterday and asked how poison is used, I sensed that there was someone likely. Otherwise, why would you ask me such a thing? It’s not as though you could fully trust whatever answer I gave you anyway.”

There was nothing wrong in Lacy’s words.

“So, how does it feel? To be betrayed by someone you trusted.”

One corner of her lips slowly lifted.

It was an expression that said she found this situation amusing.

“…Do I have to say it for you to know?”

Since she had caught him anyway, Rafez frowned and asked.

At that, Lacy showed her teeth in a smile and nodded as though she understood everything.

“But what can you do? House Bererian is the Grand Ducal House’s most loyal vassal, after all.”

The count’s family—and Mary, of all people—had planted a spy in the Grand Ducal House and extracted information.

Of course he would feel betrayed, but even so, there were things that could not be helped.

Punishing them would not be simple.

And even if all the evidence pointed to Mary, he knew she was not the true culprit behind the poison, did she not?

“What is that supposed to mean? Are you saying I will cover this up and move on?”

“…You won’t?”

There would be nothing good about making this matter public.

If the honor of the count’s family, who served the Grand Ducal House more loyally than anyone, was damaged, the position of the pro-Grand-Duke faction would be shaken greatly.

That must have been why Mary had been able to come and go from the Grand Ducal House so confidently all this time as well.

Because the Grand Ducal House could not carelessly cast aside the count’s family either.

“Why should I? Who said that working for the Grand Ducal House grants them the right to plant spies in it, or to be forgiven even after causing trouble?”

“But casting aside the count’s family would not be good for the Grand Ducal House either.”

“You really have become the Grand Duchess, haven’t you? Sitting there and weighing the Grand Ducal House’s interests like that.”

At Rafez’s words, Lacy came back to her senses.

But everything she was thinking now was, in a way, something she had learned from Duke Lennon.

She had grown up watching Duke Lennon handle matters since she was young.

If it were House Lennon, they would have pretended not to know and covered up this incident.

That was how nobles dealt with things.

Profit mattered more than trust, and beyond that, honor mattered even more.

“My intentions are different. I absolutely cannot let this matter pass. Rather, I must make an example of them before everyone.”

“An example?”

“Yes.”

Not only would he refuse to cover it up, he meant to reveal it in front of everyone.

Rafez handed something to Lacy.

It was an invitation.

An invitation to a ball hosted by House Schotz.

“I told him to hold a ball at the Grand Ducal House, but I suppose he got tired of waiting and decided to host one himself.”

A ball invitation, after he had said he would reveal everything.

And from an Emperor-faction noble, no less.

Was he saying he would expose this incident there?

“You’ll come with me, won’t you? Grand Duchess.”