Instead, as if he had felt a chilling realization about what he had done, his face turned deathly pale.

“By the gods.”

A single horrified utterance escaped from between his lips. The Duke took a step backward and completely withdrew his sword.

“Miss Bertin, what are you doing here? I’m certain I had your room and Elodie’s placed as far apart as possible.”

“……”

My tongue still refused to move as if frozen, but my mind, which had been gripped by fear, began to work again. There was something suspicious about Duke Baniche’s words.

‘As far apart as possible?’

The Duke didn’t seem like a father who wanted to distance himself from his daughter, so I found it strange that he had deliberately placed us far apart. But now was certainly not the time to ask about that reason, so I cleared my throat and calmly opened my mouth.

“I’m sorry. The moon was so beautiful that I went for a walk and lost my way.”

Duke Baniche’s face darkened. It seemed I had said something wrong. I hurriedly tried to salvage the situation. Or rather, I attempted to.

“I’m sorry. It seems this isn’t a place I should be. So… I’ll return quickly. I apologize for causing you concern, Your Grace.”

“…Miss Bertin.”

Just as I was truly about to turn away, the Duke approached me with a stride, and his calloused fingertips brushed my cheek. If I hadn’t greatly shrunk back, the bizarre situation of the ruler of the most noble family in the Empire grasping my cheek would have occurred.

In my defense, it was an involuntary reflex. Duke Baniche had tried to kill me twice. How could I calmly endure his touch?

“Are you alright?”

“…I’m fine.”

It was a delayed response, but a response nonetheless.

“I felt a bit suffocated, but it’s clearing up now, so I’m fine. Really. So I’ll just go back right away. Elodie might be waiting…”

Duke Baniche gazed steadily at me as I rambled. His red eyes, so similar to Elodie’s, no longer held murderous intent, but his gaze was still enough to make me shrink back.

“…No, it’s nothing.”

I swallowed. Not just because the man who had twice tried to kill me was standing close, but because there was an indescribable power in his gaze as he looked down at me without moving, not to mention the intimidating presence of his bare upper body.

Fortunately, the Duke seemed to recognize that he appeared quite threatening and apologized as he stepped back.

“I apologize.”

“…For what?”

Are you crazy, Aria Bertin? You’ll cause an accident!

My reason urgently applied the brakes, but my mouth, already unbridled, knew no stopping.

“For trying to kill me twice? Or for not letting me leave even after I apologized? Or for using black magic that threatens everyone in this mansion, including Elodie…?”

Only then did I realize I had said far too much. The fact that Duke Baniche could use black magic was not a secret among the high nobility, but it was something passed down in hushed tones.

Naturally, it was something Aria Bertin shouldn’t have known.

“So you knew.”

My entire body stiffened at his frosty voice. If the killing intent I had felt from the Duke until now had been strange due to the side effects of black magic, what I felt now was the killing intent of a great nobleman capable of summary execution.

“How did you find out?”

His eyes, which I barely managed to look up at with courage, had grown cold.

“Answer me. Who told you? This should be information that commoners neither know nor should know.”

I drew in a breath.

‘I can do this.’

I had been pathetically easy to catch knowing about black magic, but I hadn’t failed to prepare for this case.

In case I needed to evacuate Elodie quickly to avoid the Duke’s rampage, I had prepared an excuse. I never thought I would have to use it because of such a foolish mistake… I looked straight up at Duke Baniche.

“My mother was a witch.”

“……”

The Duke’s gaze didn’t change at all. I worried that he might have seen through my lie from the beginning, but there was no turning back now. I began my explanation in a clear voice.

“She used black magic, too. She wasn’t powerful… but enough to recognize the signs and side effects.”

“Usually, witches teach magic to their daughters. You don’t seem capable of black magic.”

“She passed away the year I turned ten. But even if she had lived, she wouldn’t have taught me. My mother detested black magic. She never used it unless absolutely necessary.”

Everything I was saying would be verified by the Duke’s informants.

‘It’s fine. That’s no problem.’

Fortunately, the Bertin couple, befitting their role as extras, were simply country folk who lived ordinary lives before dying.

Mrs. Bertin died of illness, leaving behind a young daughter, and Mr. Bertin died in a carriage accident ten years later—causes of death that couldn’t be more ordinary. But Duke Baniche would know. The more ordinary something appears, the more likely it is to conceal a great power no one expected.

“You must have handled black magic since childhood, Your Grace. Since the Duchess doesn’t appear to have touched black magic, you must have learned it on your own.”

“……”

“But you must have met a good teacher along the way. Someone who helped you become this powerful. But not a black mage, so they couldn’t teach you the proper boundaries.”

One fortunate thing was that these facts weren’t particularly confidential. So he wouldn’t kill me simply for knowing the truth.

‘I’ll die… if I appear to be someone who might harm Elodie.’

Duke Baniche opened his mouth.

“Your mother must have been fortunate. Seeing that she could live while barely using her power.”

I blinked. What was Duke Baniche saying?

Of course, an ordinary country woman wouldn’t frequently use black magic.

“To you, who had such a mother, this may sound like an excuse, but I cannot do that.”

Duke Baniche’s gaze drifted somewhere into empty space.

“If I don’t use it at all, it becomes the starting point for a rampage, so I have to… use it periodically. That’s why I often use it when I think everyone is asleep…”

My mouth opened involuntarily. It was the moment when this whole situation finally made sense. It wasn’t that Duke Baniche had used black magic needlessly; I had been an uninvited visitor in the dead of night.

“…I apologize.”

I sincerely apologized.

“Not knowing that… I made a hasty judgment.”

“It’s alright.”

There was a strange resonance in the Duke’s voice.

“But there is one thing I would like you to understand. Black magic isn’t all bad. It’s just different in nature from other types of magic.”

“I know.”

I forced a smile.

“My mother said something similar once. That black magic itself isn’t bad. What’s bad are the moments when one must use such magic…”

“She was a wise woman.”

“Yes.”

I closed my eyes.

“When I was young, I used to play with a black rabbit. It was the only friend who approached me when I was being ostracized. It disappeared at some point, and I only learned it was my mother’s black magic when I grew up. My father told me.”

I felt moisture on my cheeks. These weren’t fabricated tears. Before I became Aria Bertin. In what now feels like the distant past, my only friend was a soft rabbit plushie that my real parents had bought me.

‘…I got too immersed.’

As I wiped my eyes and opened them. I gasped. An adorable black rabbit reaching up to my shin was looking up at me, tilting its head.

“…Y-Your Grace.”

A trembling voice flowed from my lips.

“This is…”

“I’m not sure if I made it properly.”

The Duke spoke in what seemed like an embarrassed voice.

“But I hope it provides some comfort.”

“Th-thank you.”

My legs gave out and I sat down without realizing it, and the rabbit jumped into my arms.

‘It’s soft.’

The fur was fluffy, but it didn’t feel like a living rabbit. There was none of the warmth that should be felt from a living creature. But precisely because of that, it overlapped with the rabbit plushie that had stayed by my side when I was young, and I couldn’t stop my tears.