The defenses surrounding House Menes were ironclad.

“Our master is not presently in residence, and we are therefore unable to receive visitors. We ask for your understanding.”

The man smiled warmly yet his refusal was so absolute that not even the tip of a needle could slip through.

Leonie tried everything: coy charm, threats, sulking, even outright tantrums.

None of it worked.

In the end, she had no choice but to turn back the way she came.

‘There will be another way to meet the Duke. If it comes to it, I’ll go find that person. Then he won’t be able to refuse.’

It was a heavy-handed plan, but for the sake of her own safety, Leonie decided she could ignore another person’s discomfort just a little.

Something like a quiet pang of conscience pricked her, but she hardened her heart and pretended she hadn’t felt it.

“My lady. My lady.”

The carriage, which had been rocking along, came to an abrupt stop. The small window to the driver’s seat slid open, and the coachman called her in a flustered voice. When Leonie looked up in question, he pointed toward the manor.

“I believe something has happened. They’ve lit everything.”

A townhouse in the capital would keep every lamp burning at night if only to be seen. But in the countryside, that was not the custom. If a family member had yet to return, they lit only the garden path and the entrance.

Yet the Bastian marquis’s manor looked as if it were hosting an all-night fête. Every corner of the garden blazed with light. The corridors on every floor were illuminated even the decorative lights along the exterior had been turned on.

Leonie had never seen the manor lit like this except on her birthday banquet, before she left for the capital.

“Did Father light them?”

It seemed unlikely, and yet she found herself wondering.

She had always thought the Marquis of Bastian was distant and cold. But looking back… he had tried to grant her everything she wanted.

Maybe he had simply never known how to be affectionate.

If so, then these lights were his signal.

I’m glad you’re home. I’ve wanted to see you for a long time.

‘Father…’

Her heart thudded.

In her previous life, she had never had a real family. But perhaps here she could.

Not only the son she would one day bear…

But the father who had given her life.

“Faster. Hurry.”

Leonie rapped on the carriage roof. At her command, the coachman urged the horses forward. The carriage jolted violently, but she didn’t care. She wanted to warp into the manor this instant.

“My lady, you’ve returned—”

Butler Daniel greeted her with a face full of words he clearly wanted to say.

Unfortunately, Leonie had no time for him.

She had to see her father.

Now.

“Where is Father?”

“The master is in the drawing room. But—”

“The drawing room? Why would he be there? At this hour he’s usually in his study.”

Because Leonie did not slow, Daniel had to speak while hurrying after her. His expression was tangled with confusion as if there were something he must explain but could not force past his lips.

In the end, he gave up.

He shut his mouth and chose to let her see the strange scene with her own eyes.

“Father!”

Leonie threw the door open.

And found five men inside.

They saw her at the same time.

All of them wore stiff expressions because of the man seated on the sofa, lounging like he owned the room.

A middle-aged man whose cream-colored hair had begun to show streaks of white. His face held the unmistakable look of someone who wanted to drive every guest out at once.

And he had, in fact, been doing exactly that so ever since the Marquis returned, the Crown Prince and the Duke had stopped circling each other like predators and had been struggling to pull out any topic that would justify staying longer.

“Father?”

The marquis raised his head. Beside him, the duke’s face relaxed noticeably as he greeted Leonie.

“Your Grace Taylas?”

But the one seated in the highest place was someone Leonie had never expected to see here at all.

Behind him stood two knights, grim-faced, like folding screens.

“Sir Evok? And Sir Gillan?”

“Oh? You know us?”

Gillan brightened only for Evok to jab him sharply in the side, a clear warning to keep quiet. Evok offered Leonie a desperate glance instead, silently begging her to look at the man sitting in front of them.

“…Your Highness Yulgen?”

“Quick to notice.”

Leonie was shaken.

In her mind, there was no reason for Yulgen to be here.

In the original story, the concubine appointment happened only after rumors spread that Leonie had slept with the Crown Prince and then had an affair with another man ruining her reputation beyond repair. Feeling ‘sorry’ for her, the Crown Prince would then reveal he had been with her that night to quiet the scandal.

But now?

There should be no rumor that she’d played with another man. No romance rumor either.

So why was he here?

‘Maybe he has business with Father.’

Leonie kept her thoughts light, offered a proper greeting, and turned toward the duke.

“Your Grace.”

“Leonie.”

At the same moment Leonie turned, the Crown Prince called her.

He rubbed his brow as if a headache plagued him, his brows drawn tightly together.

“Your Highness.”

Leonie turned back to face him.

Yulgen smoothed the lines from his face with effort, then plastered on a radiant smile.

“You must have something to say to me.”

Leonie was unmoved.

“Your Highness, with respect, I have nothing to say to you. Back then there that’s what we agreed on.”

The wording was vague, but the meaning was clear.

Let it all be as though it never happened.

Yulgen bared his teeth in a smile that wasn’t one.

“I still have things to say.”

“I don’t.”

Her refusal was sharp as a blade.

Leonie pivoted theatrically toward Duke Menes, eyes sparkling with expectation enough to make him uneasy.

“M-My lady?”

Leonie stared at him like a predator. A gaze so keen it felt as though if he answered wrong by even a fraction, she would slit his throat on the spot.

With the marquis and the Crown Prince behind her, Leonie moved only her lips, speaking without sound.

‘If you play along, what you fear won’t happen.’

It was a clear threat.

The duke’s face twisted in displeasure.

But he had no choice. He, too, was pressed by urgency.

“Father, let me introduce him.”

“…I have already exchanged greetings with the Duke of Menes.”

“He is the man I am formally courting.”

“Cough—!”

Crack.

A cough and the unmistakable sound of wood splintering from the sofa’s armrest.

Everyone’s eyes snapped toward it.

The wood had broken beneath the Crown Prince’s grip.

The cough had come from the duke.

“My lady?”

Leonie looped her arm through Taylas’s and murmured rapidly at his ear.

‘Just match the story. I’m not saying we really have to date.’

Taylas struggled to compose his expression. If Leonie truly knew his ‘secret,’ there was no reason for her to seek him as a lover he already had someone precious to him.

And yet she was asking him to pretend.

In a blink, he reached a conclusion.

He bowed, smooth and formal.

“I greet you properly. I am Taylas Ramon Menes. I have agreed to a formal courtship with your daughter.”

Before the Marquis could respond, the Crown Prince surged to his feet, pointing at both of them.

“I cannot accept that.”

“This is not a matter in which Your Highness may intervene.”

The duke replied with a small smile.

“It is a matter between lovers.”

The same words had been spoken before only now the roles had reversed.

Taylas felt a flash of triumph. A small revenge against the Crown Prince who had oddly treated him as a rival since the ball. It was a different kind of pleasure than any battlefield.

“Leonie!”

The Crown Prince bit out her name like he meant to devour her.

Leonie flinched.

Instantly, Taylas stepped forward and blocked Yulgen, placing Leonie behind his back.

“This is getting interesting. ”

Gillan blurted an observation anyone might think, but few would dare voice.

Evok slammed a fist into Gillan’s stomach with the desperation of a man trying to keep the world from collapsing.

Eyes flicked to Gillan then returned to the three at the center of the storm.

“…I’d prefer you not make me into a petty man.”

Yulgen said, striking first.

It was a threat: If you don’t retract that claim, I’ll bring up what happened between us.

Peeking from behind Taylas’s shoulder, Leonie answered steadily.

“My reputation and my father’s impression of me will worsen, but I don’t care. And the duke already knows.”

Even Yulgen couldn’t hide his surprise at that.

He looked at Taylas with something almost like respect at the man who either accepted that his lover had slept with another man, or had chosen to acknowledge it anyway.

“He knows, too?”

“Yes.”

It could still be a bluff.

But the Crown Prince didn’t back down.

Still, he chose not to mention that night. As Leonie said, it would lower not only her standing in the marquis’s eyes but his own.

“…I don’t know how it became this way, but a noble lady’s courtship is meant to proceed with her parents’ consent.”

Each word came out as though he were chewing it to pieces. Then, as if washing the anger from his face, he transformed into perfect composure and addressed the Marquis of Bastian.

“I would like you to grant permission for Lady Leonie and myself to enter a courtship one that presumes marriage.”

The duke stiffened.

He had assumed Leonie was merely using him as a shield to avoid being toyed with by the Crown Prince.

But Yulgen was speaking of marriage.

Then why had he needed to step in at all?

Taylas turned back, confused seeking some hint.

But Leonie only bit her lip and stared at the Crown Prince, giving him none.

“I…”

Taylas began, intending to keep playing along—

Bang!

A hand slammed down on the table.

Every head turned.

The Marquis of Bastian.

“You two will leave my house. Now.”

His voice trembled with restrained fury, but his diction was crisp. He spoke plainly to two men of higher standing than himself.

“My daughter will stay with me.”

His jaw tightened.

“I will not give her to anyone.”

With that, the situation only twisted further into chaos.