The two maids hurried down the stairs and Kylance turned to Caroline, who still hadn’t raised her head. 

“Why would my aunt suddenly… No, I shouldn’t ask you that either.” 

Kylance walked past Caroline without another glance. 

“Don’t move a step from this spot. That’s an order.” 

The cold order hung in the air as Kylance, his face set like stone, walked quickly towards the music room. 

On the third floor of the estate, he reached the Duchess’s music room and flung open the door without knocking. 

It was a shockingly inappropriate and disrespectful act. 

The Duchess of Viasteus, startled, rose from where she had been playing the harp, but Kylance’s expression remained unchanged. 

“…Kylance, what on earth is the meaning of this rudeness?”

The Duchess of Biasthes exclaimed sharply, realising that the one who had burst through the door so rudely was none other than Kylance. But her anger was completely lost on him at that moment. 

His mind was consumed by a single thought. 

Ariel Blante. 

Kylance strode towards the Duchess without hesitation, his expression rigid as he demanded, 

“What did you say to Ariel?” 

“What…?” 

The Duchess frowned slightly, momentarily taken aback. The suddenness of the situation left her unable to process it immediately. 

Kylance repeated his question, his words slow and deliberate, each one laced with restrained anger. 

“I asked – what did you say to Ariel?” 

The anger in his voice was unmistakable, sharp and directed at her alone.

Kylance had never looked at her with such eyes before. 

Perhaps that was why Melish was momentarily stunned, her mind blank for a fleeting moment. But she quickly regained her composure. As the absurdity of the situation sank in, Melish let out a bitter laugh. 

“Ha, so you’re telling me that the reason you’re treating me with such insolence is none other than that Blante girl.” 

“Mind your words, Aunt.” 

Kylance growled low, like a predator about to attack. But his warning only deepened the Duchess’s scorn. 

“Mind my words? Have I said something wrong? Everything I have said is nothing but the truth. You’re the one who should watch your words. I may not be your real mother, but I gave everything to raise you. So you have no right to disrespect me.”

Her sharp gaze penetrated him, and for a brief moment Kylance faltered, a trace of restraint returning to his expression. 

Melish caught his breath and seized the moment to continue. 

“She looked on the verge of death when she left, but who would have thought she’d still go to you? If it were me, I wouldn’t have the nerve to face you out of sheer shame.”

Melish assumed that Ariel had gone to Kylance to tell him everything. Otherwise, Kylance wouldn’t have turned up unannounced and caused such a scene.

She thought, ‘even after I told her that her father had killed Kylance’s parents, she still went to see him?’

‘I underestimated her.’

Melish fumed at the thought of Ariel, but Kylance quickly corrected her assumption.

“Ariel did not come to see me. I came here to ask you something urgent and overheard the maids talking.”

Realising that her assumption was wrong, Melish’s eyebrows shot up. Still, if Ariel hadn’t gone to Kylance, it was a relief.

Still, it didn’t change the fact that Kylance had dared to defy her – an act that bordered on familial betrayal.

Melish frowned and opened her lips to speak.

“Well, I admit that my words about the Blante lady were harsh. But that doesn’t justify your rudeness. So, speak. What’s so important that you barged in here like this?”

Kylance let out a heated breath, resisting the dangerous impulse to silence the Viscountess Melish, who refused to stop her tirade against Ariel.

But he couldn’t allow himself to lose control.

She was right about one thing – he had come to ask her something of great importance.

‘Yes, I must regain my composure.’

Kylance slowly closed his eyes and opened them again, his gaze fixed on the Viscountess.

“I met Countess Forte today.”

“And?”

“She said something surprising – that long ago, during Father’s Academy days, the Marquis of Blante saved his life. Did you know that, Aunt?”

The viscountess’ frown froze. Her face stiffened as she pressed her lips together.

For a brief moment, her dark eyes clouded over, as if reaching into the depths of some long-forgotten memory. But it didn’t last long – she quickly regained her composure and replied nonchalantly.

“Yes, I knew. Something like this happened a long time ago.”

But Kylance couldn’t keep his composure when he heard her answer.

The confirmation of Countess Forte’s claim sent a storm through his mind, bringing back echoes of his father’s words from the past.

The sword his father had once described as having given him a new life. The same sword he had inherited and sworn to become an exceptional swordsman. And now to learn that the one who had given him that sword was in fact the Marquis of Blante.

The truth he had least wanted to believe had become undeniable.

And now he had raised a blade against the very benefactor who had saved his father and given him a new life. 

“The death of the Grand Duke and Duchess of Seyerd… it wasn’t me. I swear it wasn’t me!”

“Please listen to me, Your Grace!”

The Marquis of Blante’s last words echoed in his ears like a relentless phantom. 

‘What have I done?’ 

Kylance drew in a ragged breath, his chest tight and constricted as if the weight of realisation were crushing him. 

He closed his eyes before opening them again, his gaze meeting the viscountess’s. But there was no sympathy in her expression – it was cold, indifferent. 

No, it was contemptuous. 

It was the same look she had given him as a child, in those moments when he longed for his parents. Whenever he cried for them, her eyes would glitter with the same icy sharpness, silently chastising him. 

“How will you find those who killed your parents if you’re so weak?”

At those moments, he always felt intimidated, as if he were truly to blame. He quickly wiped away his tears and steeled himself, following her every command without hesitation.

He had sworn to find the person who killed his parents and take revenge with his own hands.

But he was no longer the frightened child who had once feared his strict aunt.

Now he was an adult who knew when something was wrong.

Even if he realised it far too late.

Kylance turned to the Duchess.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“Because there was no need. Would it have changed anything? Would revealing this incident have brought Alex back to life? Would it have changed the truth that the Marquis of Blante killed your parents?”

“Is that really the truth?”

Kylance’s deep voice carried the weight of suspicion, and for the first time the Duchess’s gaze faltered.

“What?” 

“My question is, did he really kill my parents? When you think about it, it was all too fast and too convenient. Evidence that had been missing for years suddenly appeared, as if it had been prepared in advance. All this evidence clearly pointed to the Marquis of Blante, almost as if it had been deliberately orchestrated.”

Kylance’s dark eyes deepened, his voice calmed. This wasn’t some rash, emotional speculation born of learning that the Marquis had saved his father. In truth, he had been far more emotional when he first encountered the evidence and the witness. 

At that moment, his mind had been consumed by a single thought: the murderer of his parents. A thirst for vengeance had blinded him to everything else. 

The gold coin bearing the Marquis’s seal, the witness’s testimony, and the well-known rift between the Marquis and the Emperor over the waterway project – all the evidence aligned perfectly to paint the Marquis as the culprit. 

Blinded by his desire for revenge, Kylance had closed his eyes and ears to any doubt. He hadn’t listened to a word the Marquis had said, and had driven him to his tragic end. 

But now the veiled truth was slowly coming to light – far too late. 

As all circumstances pointed to him, blinded by revenge, he closed his eyes and ears. He refused to listen to the words of the Marquis Blante. 

And that led to the Marquis’ death. 

But the hidden truth was revealed, albeit belatedly. 

Now Kylance could finally see what he had missed. But the Duchess did not seem to think so. 

“You must be completely mad! All the evidence was conclusive, and yet you dare to question that certainty? Make sense when you speak! Why should he suddenly claim that the Marquis Blante was the culprit, unless he had lost his mind? And where do you think he got those gold coins?” 

“There is more to investigate. But it’s true that both you and I were so blinded by revenge that we failed to see other possibilities.” 

The Duchess, apparently shocked, put her hand to her chest and said, 

“Blinded by revenge and misjudging things… I knew you still had feelings for Blante, but to be so obsessed with a woman that you ignored the truth that was clearly laid out before you…”

The Duchess let out a sharp breath and shouted, 

“If Alex could see you like this, how heartbroken would he be? To be so consumed by a woman that you would try to bury the truth – have you no shame before your parents, who died with their eyes unable to close in peace?” 

Kylance exhaled briefly, trying not to confront the Duchess. 

“Aunt, this isn’t about Ariel. The Marquis Blante saved my father’s life and made it possible for him to become famous as a swordsman. I don’t think you know this, but Marquis Blante even gave my father his sword…” 

Before Kylance could finish, the Duchess interrupted sharply.