“But when Elodie first appeared, she was a newborn baby and the only thing she had that resembled me was her eyes.”

I blinked. The Duke used the expression ‘appeared’ rather than ‘was born.’ Did Elodie’s mother show up with a newborn baby right after giving birth?

‘Perhaps, if I ask now, he might answer.’

I calmly opened my mouth.

“Your Grace, what kind of person was Elodie’s mother?”

The Duke looked out the window. I swallowed dryly. For the Duke to be so immersed in regret, she must have been a woman who caused considerable pain to his heart. Or perhaps he was the one who caused pain and now regretted it.

What a foolish thought that was. Until then, I hadn’t noticed the weight of the truth at all. Not until Duke Baniche made his thunderbolt declaration a moment later.

“That woman was not human.”

I blinked. It was difficult to grasp the meaning for a moment. Did he mean she was such a terrible woman that he didn’t want to call her human?

Or perhaps…

“She was a spirit.”

I doubted my ears for a moment. A spirit? Certainly, spirits appeared in novels. But the spirits of this world were not kind and gentle beings. They were excessively pure and therefore cruel, resembling nature in temperament. They were extremely capricious, sometimes helping humans and sometimes harming them—beings that were better kept at a distance.

Naturally, the Duke could not and should not have welcomed Elodie’s mother as a Duchess. But to have been intimate with such a being in the first place…

‘…That’s not my concern.’

What mattered to me was what kind of being Elodie’s mother was. Duke Baniche explained in a calm voice.

“I had no intention of telling you. But I thought Miss Bertin should know. Elodie might use her power again in the future.”

“Then, Elodie too…”

“No.”

Duke Baniche cut me off sharply.

“Elodie is human. She can only use a bit of that spirit’s power, but she is actually human, like me and Miss Bertin. If that weren’t the case, I wouldn’t have been able to raise her.”

I nodded. Even in my now-faded memories of novels, spirits certainly lived lives separate from humans. If Elodie were a spirit, she would have instinctively left the human world to be with other spirits.

“Elodie’s mother must have been a wind spirit.”

I tried to speak in the most casual tone possible. It seemed best to turn the conversation toward fact-checking. There were five attributes of spirits: water, fire, earth, wind, and light.

Just from the recent outburst, I could easily guess which one Elodie’s mother belonged to. Come to think of it, Elodie had mentioned several times that she received help from a being called “windy.”

‘I should have paid more attention then…’

But I have much to say in my defense. How could I have guessed that spirit blood was mixed in when I knew nothing about Elodie’s birth!

“I don’t know exactly what kind of spirit she was.”

Duke Baniche answered in a dry voice. I blinked. No matter what, the fact that Elodie was born meant that Duke Baniche had been intimate with a spirit. Yet he didn’t know what kind of spirit she was?

“…You’re thinking something unpleasant.”

“I’m sorry.”

I quickly apologized.

“But you must have been… quite close to Elodie’s mother.”

I chose my words carefully. The chances of a romance between a human and a spirit ending happily were very slim. The love story of Duke Baniche and the spirit was likely close to tragic as well. Surely they must have loved each other deeply enough to have a child. But Duke Baniche didn’t give me the answer I expected.

“…Elodie is my daughter.”

It was as if he was repeating it to himself.

“That fact alone is enough.”

***

As soon as we arrived at the mansion, Duke Baniche was immediately caught by Count Jacob and disappeared somewhere.

‘I need to rest quickly.’

It was when I was dragging my tired body up the stairs.

“Miss Bertin…!”

Felicita appeared with reddened eyes and grabbed my hand tightly, sobbing.

“I’m sorry. Sonya and I were so busy escaping… I’ll gladly accept punishment, please forgive us.”

“Punishment?”

I asked back, dumbfounded. Sonya and Felicita had done nothing wrong. At least as far as I knew.

“There were only three knights, but the bandits were too ma-many.”

Clear tears pooled in Felicita’s round eyes.

“So Sonya and I escaped on horseback. But on the way, the horse’s leg broke… so…”

“You arrived late.”

I finished the sentence that Felicita couldn’t complete. Felicita bowed her head deeply.

“I-it’s all my fault.”

“No.”

I shook my head.

“It was a good decision. If you had stayed there, you would only have been captured.”

“…Still.”

“The horse’s broken leg was also unavoidable. Anyway, neither I nor Elodie was seriously injured, so let’s end this matter here.”

To be honest, I wasn’t completely free of resentment. Of course, not because they escaped. If they had ridden the horse well and arrived quickly, Duke Baniche would have received the report much earlier, and Elodie would have been rescued before the Marquis revealed his true colors. But it wasn’t as if Felicita or Sonya deliberately broke the horse’s leg, so what could I say?

‘It can’t be helped.’

Rather, my job was to ensure that those who had become acquainted with Elodie wouldn’t be punished or leave. Felicita seemed to understand my feelings.

“I’ll take care of the young lady.”

“Thank you.”

I handed the limp Elodie over to Felicita. We silently climbed the stairs, and no one could easily speak. I was the one who broke the silence.

“Um, Felicita. Are the knights safe?”

“….”

Felicita stopped abruptly and hesitated to answer for a moment. My heart sank.

‘Of course, they must all be seriously injured.’

They were skilled enough for the Duke to trust and assign them. They wouldn’t easily give up or surrender just because they were outnumbered.

“…They died.”

I gasped. That couldn’t be. No matter what, even a Marquis wouldn’t commit such a vile act as killing three knights!

“So at first, everyone thought they were bandits.”

I gritted my teeth. It wasn’t hard to understand why they were killed.

‘They took their lives to perfectly disguise it as bandits.’

In the end, they failed. Duke Baniche, who had rushed over, encountered the Marquis, who revealed his true intentions almost like a confession. It was no wonder the Duke wanted to kill him. We had already arrived at the bedroom. As soon as Felicita laid Elodie on the bed, I made a decision.

‘I should call a doctor.’

Although there were no visible external injuries, it didn’t seem normal that she had been sound asleep during the carriage ride and until now. Fortunately, the doctor, said to be the best in the area, came quickly. He carefully observed Elodie, who didn’t wake up even once during his examination with a stethoscope, and then gave his diagnosis in a firm voice.

“The young lady is safe.”

“Is, is that really true?”

I asked worriedly.

“But she’s not waking up at all…”

“She has used a lot of energy. She will probably sleep for another day or so. I’ll prescribe medicine for you to give her twice a day.”

Strangely, the doctor didn’t stop at examining Elodie.

“Rather, it’s Miss Bertin who is in serious condition.”

I hurriedly shook my head.

“I’m fine. Just a few scratches.”

“Your skin has been torn off.”

The doctor calmly replied.

“I’ll give you an ointment, apply it morning and evening. And of course, apply it tonight as well.”

I thanked him and received the ointment.

‘It wouldn’t be bad to apply it since it would be a problem if it gets infected.’

The doctor, having finished his business, hurried back, and Felicita also showed clear signs of fatigue, so I sent her back to the maid’s quarters so she could rest. But I regretted it less than an hour later.

‘…I should have asked her to help me apply it.’

I tried to reach behind my back to apply the ointment to the scratches below my nape.