“I will hold my daughter. I cannot allow you to be burdened.”

I couldn’t help but stare blankly at his face as he spoke words so unlike him.

If he had acted this familiar from the start, wouldn’t he have already bonded with Angie even without me?

The Grand Duke, unfazed by my gaze, took a step closer and picked up Angie.

Thump. My heart pounded hard at the sight of the immaculately dressed, breathtakingly handsome man suddenly so close.

Was it because the blood had rushed to my face, depriving my brain of oxygen? Just as I thought I might swoon—

“…Haa.”

A small sigh-like babble echoed, and when I snapped back to my senses, Angie was already in his arms.

Having spent so much effort learning, he now held her in a remarkably stable posture. Though he was merely holding her, without any real emotional exchange…

“Huuu…”

Angie’s face crumpled as if she were on the verge of tears, clearly displeased with the situation.

“Don’t fuss. Wouldn’t that make your mother tired?”

The Grand Duke placed a deliberate emphasis on the word “mother.”

“…Excuse me, Your Grace.”

“I meant your mother-to-be.”

“Uuuh…”

What was this? Why did Angie look like she actually accepted his cold, emotionless words?

Two pairs of golden eyes, slightly different in hue, stared at me as if they shared an unspoken understanding.

Then—

“Kyah!”

As if suddenly content, Angie beamed.

‘B-Betrayal…!’

Was this what parents felt when their child, who had once cried and clung to them, suddenly played happily without them?

‘She’s not even my child. And we’ll be parting ways soon…’

Angie remained calm in his arms despite her earlier discomfort.

Calm… at just four months old.

Was it the superior bloodline of the Grand Duchy?

‘Right, I’ve already decided to let her go, so I should get used to this…’

Even though I had made the decision, just imagining Angie managing well without me made my heart ache.

‘I was the one who chose not to go to Norhart, so why am I acting like this?’

Determinedly avoiding looking in their direction, I took a sip of tea. Dame Gwendolyn’s herbal tea tasted especially bitter today.

“I have no intention of retracting my proposal from yesterday.”

The Grand Duke’s tone was as dry as ever, starkly different from his act of wooing me outside the mansion.

Even his posture—sitting elegantly with his legs crossed while holding Angie with one arm—was not that of a nervous suitor awaiting a response to his proposal.

Of course, this was an expression I had grown quite used to seeing on him.

“You won’t retract it?”

“If marriage is too much of a burden, why not start with an engagement and move into the Grand Duke’s estate first?”

“…Start with?”

“If we continue delaying like this, my daughter might forget her father’s embrace.”

His use of “my daughter” and “father” carried no emotion, spoken in his usual flat tone.

In his arms, Angie’s face also looked… oddly solemn.

“Your Grace, with all due respect.”

“Cedrion.”

“…With all due respect.”

Why was he so fixated on his name?

“Who are you proposing to?”

“To you, of course.”

“I thought I gave a clear answer yesterday.”

“That’s why I’m suggesting an engagement first.”

“A romantic engagement falls under the category of a romantic marriage.”

“So, what you’re saying is…”

“I have no feelings for you, and you don’t love me either, do you?”

It seemed he had never even considered that I might outright refuse him, as his expression turned glacial, like thin ice forming over deep waters.

At that moment, Angie, who had been sucking on her tiny hand, suddenly waved her chubby fingers and smacked the Grand Duke’s face. His features softened slightly.

“Baa!”

“Oh my, is she calling you ‘Papa’ now?”

I had never been so grateful for Angie’s unintelligible babbling. I was more than done with this circular conversation.

“Looks like you don’t need me anymore!”

“It’s only because you’re here that my daughter is opening up to me. I wouldn’t be able to do this alone.”

“Uuung!”

His words, on their own, might have sounded quite heartfelt, but his expression remained as stoic as ever.

And Angie… as if in agreement, bobbed her little round head in a small nod.

My baby nodded…!

I almost melted at her adorable gesture, but I quickly steeled myself.

“You mentioned two things when you decided to send my daughter to me—the child’s upbringing at the Grand Duke’s estate and your own future marriage.”

The solemn weight of his words made me swallow hard.

“But you said you have no one in mind.”

As he spoke, his golden eyes flickered toward Mathias, who stood by the doorway.

‘Wait, is he considering that baby-faced boy as a future partner for me?’

I internally recoiled.

Mathias, oblivious to the implications, simply beamed in admiration as the Grand Duke looked his way.

I hurriedly redirected the conversation and replied coolly.

“Well, I can always find someone now.”

“Then why not me?”

“…Why would it be you?”

“Is there a reason it shouldn’t be?”

His golden eyes gleamed dangerously. There were more reasons than I could count.

‘I don’t actually want to get married, I want to stay far away from the villain of the original story, and I certainly don’t have feelings for him.’

Most importantly, I was terminally ill. I wasn’t about to invite unnecessary pity by revealing it just yet, but that card remained in my back pocket.

I channeled Odelia’s usual demeanor and responded with a cool smile.

“There’s no reason it has to be you, either.”

“Yesterday, you clearly—”

The Grand Duke trailed off, his lips curving into a faint smile as if he had just realized something.

As he tilted his head slightly and looked up at me from an angle, his perfectly sculpted features held an almost amused expression.

Ah, no—why is he suddenly using his face like that?

“You were blushing while looking at me… Just like now.”

“What?”

Startled, I quickly pressed my hands against my cheeks. No, that can’t be right. My temperature is normal.

“I-It’s because I’m getting worked up! You keep making these absurd proposals…!”

“Is that so?”

“Awwuu…”

Angie let out an odd babble while swinging her tiny fists, as if she were pounding her own chest.

The Grand Duke, who had already returned to his usual indifferent expression, solemnly spoke.

“Lure’s honor. I will secure a pardon for your father.”

It was an entirely unexpected topic.

I had never thought about Lure’s honor or the fate of the Marquis of Lure.

‘Why would I? I’m going to die within a year—why would I ever need to see my father, who’s been sentenced to life in prison?’

Besides, as a reader, I had nothing but dislike for Odelia. I had never felt even an ounce of sympathy for her. So why should I care?

Yet the Grand Duke’s tone carried a weight of significance, and if I were indeed Odelia, I wouldn’t have been able to ignore such words.

Cautiously, I responded.

“I heard Your Grace submitted a petition to His Majesty regarding my father, but it was rejected.”

A shadow of solemnity flickered across the Grand Duke’s face.

“And the trial, which was unprecedentedly swift. It’s hard to see it as anything other than the will of the royal family at play, is it not?”

I knew nothing about the royal family’s intentions.

I simply assumed that this world was functioning as it was meant to because that is how it was described in the original story.

A world where the male lead eradicates the villainess who tormented the heroine, along with the forces backing her.

I had never questioned it before. I was a die-hard ‘Flora Mom’ in my past life—it would have been strange if I hadn’t accepted it.

“……Hmm.”

The Grand Duke looked at me with an expression of mild surprise.

Maybe because I wasn’t showing any interest in saving Lure.

Or maybe because Odelia, who had always been a vain and reckless troublemaker, was finally speaking like she had a brain.

After studying me silently for a while, the Grand Duke spoke slowly.

For some reason, his voice was softer than at any other moment today.

“Shouldn’t you return to Belvo to reclaim what was once yours?”

“What was once… mine?”

“Everything that belonged to Lure. The power you held in high society as the kingdom’s greatest beauty. The honor that came with it.”

As if carefully weighing the effect of his words on me, he deliberately emphasized each phrase, his golden eyes never leaving my face.

Hearing the list of things he enumerated, I laughed quietly.

‘Power and honor, huh?’

Odelia Lure’s power had come from her status as the Crown Princess candidate and the sole heir of a founding noble house.

But the villainess of this world had been stripped of that candidacy, and her family had been ruined for treason.

Even if I returned, things would never be the same. Besides, even if the real Odelia might have cared, ‘I’ had no interest in any of it.

Wanting to wrap up this conversation, I responded nonchalantly.

“Being the child of a traitor, it’s inevitable, isn’t it?”

“The child of a traitor, you say.”

“That was the official charge, after all. The crime of slandering His Highness Michael, the Crown Prince.”

“Slandering.”

Though the exact charges and trial details were never explicitly mentioned, the epilogue of the original novel described the Marquis of Lure’s punishment in just a few lines.

The Grand Duke seemed oddly fixated on my choice of words, repeating them as if they intrigued him.

His face, always like an emotionless marble sculpture, now bore an expression that was strangely…

‘Is he angry?’

A faint crease appeared between his brows, his golden eyes glowed more intensely than usual, and the subtle tightening of his lips—all of it.

Compared to how he had playfully glared at Mathias earlier, his current expression was terrifyingly cold.

‘Why, though?’

From what I knew of the original story and from Dame Gwendolyn’s assessment, there was no reason for Norhart and Lure to be closely tied.

Nor did there seem to be any prior connection between Odelia and the Grand Duke.

And yet, the Grand Duke had been expecting a different reaction from Odelia.

“……You truly know nothing.”

He stretched his shoulders back and leaned into the chair. Nestled in his arms, Angie had gone still, sensing the tense atmosphere in the room.

‘What exactly am I supposed to know?’

Time and time again, he spoke as if he had known this body for a long time.

But in truth, I knew nothing.

With a quiet sigh, the Grand Duke murmured,

“Well, we can discuss that another time.”

“I have nothing more to say on the matter.”

“No, you will.”

The Grand Duke’s lips curved into a slow, deliberate smile. Then, lifting his free hand—the one not holding Angie—he snapped his fingers with a crisp click.