I didn’t need to raise my head to know who it was. After all, such a rude yet grand entrance could only be Duke Baniche.

“Elodie went to a friend’s house.”

I started to speak about Elodie first out of joy as I raised my head, but I was startled.

‘……?’

I rubbed my eyes in disbelief, but the scene before me remained the same. The person who entered was indeed Duke Baniche. That is, if ‘that’ could be called Duke Baniche.

Disheveled hair that seemed unkempt. Bloodshot eyes flashing with madness. A menacing aura as if he might kill someone at any moment. Above all, the blood dripping from his cloak. I thought I could see a dagger soaked in blood at his waist.

I drew in a breath. I had seen Duke Baniche’s crazed appearance several times before, but never like this. The Duke Baniche now looked as if the villainous duke from the novel had jumped right out of the pages.

He took one step, then another, towards me. My heart pounded. It’s dangerous. My entire body was sounding alarms, telling me to run away, that this man was not to be associated with.

But I didn’t flee. Instead, I grabbed Ian’s arm as he tried to block Duke Baniche to protect me, and shook my head.

“It’s alright.”

“It’s dangerous.”

Ian’s voice was bewildered. Of course, it would be. Any sensible person would think Duke Baniche had come to harm me.

‘……It’s different.’

Unfortunately or fortunately, I had already nearly died at Duke Baniche’s hands once before. That’s why I knew. Right now, this man wasn’t trying to kill me. A man intent on killing wouldn’t look at me with such yearning eyes.

Of course, that wasn’t the only reason I stopped Ian. In any case, Ian was no match for Duke Baniche. If Duke Baniche wanted to, he could easily tear us apart right here.

In other words, resistance would be futile.

“Your Grace.”

I called out to Duke Baniche in the gentlest voice I could muster.

“What brings you here?”

Silence fell. I anxiously waited for the Duke’s response. I could feel Ian, unable to bear the tense atmosphere, reaching for his sword hilt.

I couldn’t blame Ian. Even I wasn’t entirely certain that the Duke wouldn’t harm me. My judgment could be wrong. The Duke might have gone completely mad and come to kill me.

The strange emotion I had sensed in the Duke’s gaze earlier might have been a delusion of my terrified brain. Finally, a word fell from the Duke’s lips.

“……Elodie.”

It was a voice barely suppressing bubbling emotions.

“Elodie…… please.”

About two hand spans away from me, the Duke bowed his head deeply. The smell of blood wafted over. Even the bravest person would freeze in such a situation. Especially someone as ordinary as me. Thud. The Duke fell to his knees on the floor. I stepped back in surprise.

“Your Grace, what are you……”

That’s when it happened. The Duke raised his head. His deeply sunken, dark red eyes gleamed ominously.

‘……Dangerous.’

My palms became damp with cold sweat. I opened my mouth to say something, but unable to find any words, I had to close it again. As I hesitated, the Duke spoke once more.

“Please. You’re the only one I can ask this of. Elodie…… please take care of Elodie until the end. Because now, I can no longer be by her side……”

His heated voice rambled on incoherently.

“……So, so…… I beg you. I will never appear before you or Elodie again. I’ll give you anything you want. I’ll even give up my life, so…… please protect my daughter until the end.”

Even as my mind froze with fear, unable to properly grasp the situation, one piece of information stuck in my head.

‘He can’t meet Elodie?’

Duke Baniche loved his daughter dearly. Yet he says he will never appear before Elodie again.

‘……No way.’

The sudden realization made my breath catch. All of this pointed to only one fact. The madness of Duke Baniche worsens every time he uses black magic in the novel. The frenzy that was said to appear when that madness reached its peak. The Duke Baniche before me matched exactly the image of the rampaging Duke Baniche from the novel.

‘It’s the side effect of black magic.’

I looked down at the Duke, still kneeling, with terror-stricken eyes. All the puzzle pieces fit together.

Of course, Duke Baniche wouldn’t try to go near his daughter now that his madness had worsened. One wrong move and he might harm her. In the novel, Duke Baniche also intends to commit suicide after saving his daughter. But the problem was…

‘Why on earth?’

A fitting question followed the chilling conclusion. In the novel, Duke Baniche researched and used black magic to revive Elodie, who had already died. In contrast, the real Elodie was alive and healthy, and her relationship with the Duke had been improving. This meant there was no reason to use black magic.

“…Y-Your Grace.”

I swallowed hard. While the appearance might be similar, there was a crucial difference between Duke Baniche driven mad by black magic in the novel, and the one before my eyes. The Duke Baniche in the novel took countless lives for Elodie’s sake. But the Duke Baniche kneeling before me now, pleading…

‘He said he would give up his own life.’

I took a deep breath. Perhaps there was still hope. No, there had to be. Elodie needed Duke Baniche. The father who had cherished her since she was a baby and searched the entire continent for four years couldn’t fall apart like this.

I knelt in front of Duke Baniche, just as he was.

“Your Grace.”

I called out to Duke Baniche slowly.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

Duke Baniche’s flashing gaze fixed directly on my face.

“…No. Just… just protect Elodie.”

I nodded. I felt I needed to reassure this man who thought only of his daughter even in raging madness.

“I promise. I will protect Elodie. Although I can’t stake my life on it like Your Grace… I will do my best to protect and raise her.”

“……”

I added a few words in the lightest tone possible. Although, the content was far from light.

“And even if you don’t meet Elodie, please send letters. That’s my condition. Elodie needs to know that Your Grace still loves and cherishes her.”

Was it my imagination? The dark and eerie aura emanating from the Duke seemed to soften just a little.

“…Thank you.”

“No need for thanks.”

I said firmly.

“So, are you going to stay here? If not, please stand up now. Your knees will hurt.”

The café floor was hardwood. It certainly wouldn’t be good to kneel for too long.

“…No, I should go.”

The Duke’s eyes began to spark again.

“There are things I need to take care of. But it was too… unbearable. It was so hard… that I came to find you.”

I blinked. What did his struggle have to do with me? Fortunately, the Duke didn’t seem inclined to elaborate further and stood up immediately.

‘Right, he was fine after acting like this before too. Although it’s never been this severe…’

Come to think of it, even the day he came to kill me seemed to be a day when he was suffering from the side effects of black magic. It was ridiculous that I only realized such an obvious fact now.

Anyway, he recovered from his frenzy that time too, so he should recover after enough time passes this time as well. He had to. It would be terribly sad if Duke Baniche lost his sanity forever like this.

Duke Baniche walked steadily towards the door without even a word of farewell. Neither Ian nor I stopped him. Although we couldn’t take our eyes off his retreating figure…

“Miss Bertin.”

Suddenly, he stopped and called my name. I blinked. Was he going to make a final request to take care of Elodie?

“…May I ask for a handshake, one last time.”

I heard Ian sharply draw in his breath.