“Your Grace!”

Just then, a pale-faced secretary came running from afar. He must have been frantically searching for him, his entire body drenched in sweat. When Elroy frowned and raised his head, the secretary grabbed him without even fixing his disheveled clothes from running in a hurry.

“Y-Your Grace!”

“Do you have something to report?”

“Your Grace. You must go to the Tevant main house right now.”

“What on earth……”

“The old duchess……”

“Grandmother?”

Somehow, he felt the words that would follow wouldn’t be hopeful. The moment Elroy made eye contact with the secretary, he continued with trembling, pale lips.

“She has collapsed again from a seizure. They are desperately looking for you at the main house.”

* * *

“Ha! Well, well.”

The newspaper publisher was smacking his lips, accompanied by other employees. Despite bringing along everyone, including those in charge of operating the printing press, and loitering around the Art Hall, they couldn’t find any juicy stories.

“There should be interesting news items somewhere.”

“What kind do you mean, sir?”

“Are you asking because you don’t know? The Princess of Lambert is here right now.”

After all, gossip about Duke Tevant was the most guaranteed to be popular. Several employees who remembered the Duke barging into the newspaper office gave uneasy looks.

“But, sir… the Duke is already watching us.”

“And instead of filing charges, he built us a storage room. Don’t you understand what that means? Huh?”

The publisher didn’t care. Perhaps crossing this line might be acceptable. In fact, his mind knew they shouldn’t, but the taste of money brought by gossip was too sweet. However, today there was no harvest at all. They had even donated a large sum to enter the hall.

“What are you all doing? Spread out and find some news!”

While the publisher was clicking his tongue and moving around like a mouse, suppressing his presence, he passed by the servants’ lounge and overheard maids whispering something he couldn’t just ignore.

“They say the rumor about him having a mistress is false.”

The mistress they referred to must be the Duke’s mistress that had been the talk of the town lately. Someone whose identity remained unknown, and whom no one dared to investigate due to the Tevant family’s stern warning. Someone known only to be a commoner, with nothing else revealed.

The publisher’s ears perked up, as he had been burning with frustration at not being able to publish that article. He hoped to get some news about the mistress.

However, what he heard was unexpected.

“They say his secret meetings with the Princess were disguised as rumors about having a mistress.”

“What? Really?”

The maids were nodding with serious expressions.

“I heard my lady talking with others earlier. The rumor about having a mistress was actually created so he could meet the Princess of Lambert comfortably.”

“I heard that too. They say the Princess has actually been in Tevant for several weeks already.”

“My goodness. Could it be to meet the Duke……”

“Yes. So the so-called mistress was actually the Princess of Lambert.”

“Even if there really is a mistress… she must have been a stand-in to meet the Princess of Lambert?”

The publisher’s ears perked up with excitement. The story of an unmarried princess secretly coming and going to Tevant to have secret meetings with the Duke was quite an excellent piece of gossip.

And the idea that the mistress was actually the Princess of Lambert! Wasn’t this the kind of prince and princess story the public loved? It sounded like money coming in. The publisher quickly gathered his employees again.

“Hey, everyone. Let’s go back quickly and write an article to run the press.”

“What? But……”

“Hurry! Don’t you know these things are all about speed?”

“What should the article contain……”

“I’ll dictate it when we get there, let’s just go now!”

When they returned to the newspaper office, hurrying the gathered employees, she was there unexpectedly.

“What? Why are you here?”

“…Hello.”

“Did you come to work early?”

Annelie Heich. The country girl who had somehow planted herself in his newspaper office. Her illustration skills were decent, but acknowledging that would mean having to pay her more, so he had consistently belittled her skills.

“I heard you were invited to the party……”

Seeing the woman standing with a pale face, he remembered that she had passed the preliminary round of the competition and was invited to the Duke’s party. She had even made it onto the list of winners. For some reason, she hadn’t come forward to receive the award.

Now she was back to normal, but at the party, she had been dressed in expensive clothes from who knows where and looked quite presentable. She was working here under the pretext of earning a living, but perhaps Jerome, the illegitimate child of a noble family, had provided her with the clothes and conveniences.

‘They say he doesn’t get much support from his family since he was abandoned, but who knows.’

Perhaps he actually had quite a bit of money and was hiding it. After all, he was attending the Academy and even had his own studio.

When he first accidentally discovered Jerome’s identity, the reason he didn’t expose it in the gossip column was because his father was a nobleman from a distant foreign country that people here wouldn’t care about at all. Since interest was necessary for profit, there wasn’t much benefit in exposing the illegitimate child of a nobleman whom people here didn’t even know.

The publisher soon lost interest and was satisfied with using Jerome appropriately. What feelings Jerome harbored for this country girl and what he bought for her weren’t important matters to the publisher.

He only thought that cutting the wages of this worldly-ignorant country girl would become difficult now that she had won an award in this competition.

‘Damn. I hope I don’t have to raise her weekly wage.’

While swallowing his irritation, the publisher suddenly rolled his eyes and began questioning Annelie Heich.

“Hey. Didn’t you see anything there?”

“…Pardon?”

“Why are you so absent-minded? I’m asking if you saw anything worth money.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying……”

“For example, the Duke’s mistress.”

Perhaps she had seen the secret meeting between the Princess of Lambert and the Duke. Seeing the woman flinch again at those words, the publisher shook his head.

“Well. The Princess wouldn’t let her guard down so easily.”

“…Princess?”

Seeing her ask with genuine puzzlement, it was clear this girl knew absolutely nothing.

“Never mind. Don’t disturb us and just stand in the corner.”

The publisher left the woman who seemed to have something to ask and hurried the reporters in charge of articles.

“You guys come here and take notes!”

And he threw out elaborately fabricated words.

[Revealing the truth beyond an ordinary scandal!

Those in the know would have been aware. For the past few months, rumors have circulated in high society that our Duke of Tevant definitely has a mistress. Of course, for some readers, this might be completely shocking news they’re hearing for the first time.

Yes. Our newspaper is the first to reveal this fact, that the Duke has a mistress!

Initially, we chose to observe rather than publicize this fact. And after investigation, we obtained more important information at the landscape painting competition party. The fact that the story about the Duke having a mistress was actually a smokescreen!

It turns out the Duke has been having secret meetings with Her Highness the Princess of Lambert for several months. The rumor about the Duke having a mistress was probably either a distortion of rumors about meeting the Princess, or predominantly believed to be a smokescreen put forward to protect Her Highness the Princess……]

What followed was a riot of all sorts of speculation and sensational stories. That the Duke and Princess broke several beds while meeting, or that he bought three more townhouses. After inserting several stories that newspaper buyers would want to read, the text quickly thickened.

The country girl stood in the corner, staring at the content. The publisher urged her to draw illustrations immediately.

“If you’re going to be here anyway, draw them now! Quickly, even if it’s rough!”

“…Sir. I……”

“Don’t you want to get paid? Huh? Has your nose gotten so high that you won’t draw illustrations anymore?”

The woman, who had been silent for a while, slowly went into the workroom and soon brought back several sketches. Pictures of the Duke and Princess kissing in an elegant corridor, and their romantic secret meetings. The publisher frowned at the lines that trembled more than usual.

“What’s wrong with your drawing skills? They’re terrible!”

“……”

“Damn. How did someone like you win an award?”

But time was pressing. The publisher snatched the illustrations from the woman and pushed them into the newspaper. At least they were better than nothing, and they could fill the quota.

And he forgot about the country girl. Even the fact that she wasn’t seen after handing over the illustrations.

From dawn, all the gossip columns in Tevant were filled with scandals about the Duke and the Princess of Lambert. The news gained strength and spread everywhere.

Nelie had already left for a place where she couldn’t see those gossip columns.