The maid with the covered face that Genoa had just mentioned was close enough to the princess that one would naturally come to know about her when investigating the princess. At most important events where formal etiquette was required, rather than leisurely parties, the maid with the covered face was usually by the princess’s side.

‘I heard she couldn’t become a lady-in-waiting because of her slave origin.’

It wasn’t easy for a noble princess to care for a maid of slave origin. Well, looking at the princess in front of him, rolling just her eyeballs, it seemed she might easily give affection even to a worthless slave, not knowing it was a useless thing to do.

“I don’t think I saw that maid. Did I kill her…?”

Genoa spoke in a casual voice, recalling the time when he led the army to the royal palace. The princess was clearly abandoned alone. Without a single attendant by her side.

There were occasional knights and royal servants who hadn’t managed to escape, but they were all killed as soon as they were seen. Among them, there was no maid with a covered face. Given how much the princess cherished her, she should have been by her master’s side.

“Ah, that maid……”

Mel’s voice became a bit rougher.

“She ran away.”

This was also true. Just as her master had imposed her identity on Mel, the princess had also fled under Mel’s identity.

It seemed that her voice trembled a bit because she wasn’t used to referring to her former master as a maid. She wondered if the Duke had noticed this. Mel glanced at Genoa when he showed no particular reaction even after she finished speaking.

“……”

Mel could feel that Genoa’s gaze on her wavered slightly. His eyes seemed to have taken on a slightly lighter color, and the sharp atmosphere seemed to have softened a bit. It might have been just her imagination, but she knew the old Genoa a little, so she could faintly sense the change.

“You must have felt bad.”

She had the illusion that a very small comfort was hidden in the words delivered calmly.

‘I also ran away from him when I was young. Perhaps he feels some sense of kinship.’

Mel bit her lip slightly and avoided Genoa’s gaze. She didn’t want to receive this kind of sympathy from him. It belonged to the princess, not Mel, and the real princess didn’t deserve this kind of gentleness from Genoa.

Unaware of Mel’s inner thoughts, Genoa added a few more words to her.

“So, did you manage to make it edible? Watching over someone’s shoulder and actually doing it are very different.”

“Of course. I tasted it several times while making it.”

Genoa glanced at the stew that Mel proudly held up and said,

“This ingredient is only used in the Empire. How did you know to put this in?”

A drop of cold sweat ran down Mel’s back at the casual question. She had just put in vegetables that looked familiar, but she didn’t know that there were separate ingredients that were only handled in the Empire.

‘Why do you even know about this!’

Mel answered again, mixing in half-truths.

“That child was from the Empire…, she liked this.”

“From the Empire?”

A slave from the Empire.

Genoa asked, taking a step closer to the princess. Mel sensed the suspicion rising in Genoa’s subtle voice. She tried her best not to show her bewildered emotions.

“That maid, can you tell me what she looked like?”

“…She was just ordinary.”

Unlike her previous answers that mixed half-truths and lies, this answer was a complete lie. The face of the escaped princess wasn’t ordinary.

Fearing that the sound of her heartbeat might be heard outside, Mel firmly closed her lips.

“……”

As Genoa’s gaze seemed to become a bit more persistent, Mel finally raised the stew in her hands to block his view.

“By the way, seeing your interest, does the stew look quite appetizing? If you want, I’m willing to share it with you, Duke.”

It was an empty offer. Just to divert Genoa’s gaze from her face.

“Let’s do that.”

“Pardon?”

She hadn’t thought at all that Genoa would accept her offer, so she questioned back.

“Let’s do as you suggested.”

“…Really?”

She was hungry. Very much so. But she hadn’t expected Genoa, who she thought wouldn’t go along with such an empty offer, to nod so readily. Mel just blinked, feeling betrayed.

“Or is it fake?”

Ignoring Mel, Genoa took the lead and opened the door. Then he turned back and nodded towards Mel, who was still standing there blankly.

“Come in.”

“Yes……”

Even as she entered her own room, Mel moved her feet feeling somehow like a guest visiting the room. Her legs felt heavy for some reason.

“But are you really going to eat something I made?”

“You were the one who offered it first, Your Highness. Are you regretting it?”

A faint hint of laughter could be heard in Genoa’s voice. He was deliberately doing this despite noticing that she was regretting it. Mel decided to define Genoa’s personality as having gotten worse. Although she had changed from the past as well, she thought Genoa had changed much more, and for the worse.

“Quite a nice room you’ve been given. It seems Bane has put some thought into it.”

Genoa sat on the sofa in the room and crossed his legs. Seeing him look around the room carefully, it seemed this room had been prepared by Bane, not him.

Genoa wiggled his fingers at Mel, who was still hesitating, and said,

“Put it down here.”

“…Yes.”

Mel finally put the stew down on the table in front of the sofa, as if resigned.

Since she hadn’t expected Genoa to eat with her, she had only brought one spoon. She naturally placed the spoon towards Genoa. But Genoa didn’t pick up the spoon.

“You’ve even given up your turn, aren’t you going to eat?”

Genoa stared at her face for a moment, then placed the spoon that was on his side into her hand. Surprised by his cool touch, Mel froze, tightly gripping the spoon.

“Your Highness first.”

“Surely you’re not suspecting there might be poison now?”

Genoa just smiled silently. Mel felt quite wronged and unknowingly started to chatter in front of him.

“I originally brought this to eat myself, I didn’t know you would be standing in front of the door, let alone that we would end up eating this together like this, how could I have put poison in it……”

Although her voice was getting smaller, Genoa finally laughed softly at her firmly saying everything she had to say in front of the Duke. Looking at the princess whose face was dripping with innocence and indignation, he smelled a familiar and nostalgic scent. It was probably because of the princess’s face that strongly resembled Mel.

But the fact that this face was no longer entirely unpleasant was because he now knew that the princess and that child were definitely different people.

“I understand, so eat.”

“You really have to believe me.”

“I will.”

He watched the princess picking up the spoon with his arms crossed. She seemed to regret the stew that had to be shared, but also cared that he wasn’t eating. Genoa, who had no intention of taking away the princess’s first meal, silently watched her face, wondering if he should really take a bite or two.

‘Indeed, she does have a character befitting her reputation.’

He quietly assessed the princess, resting his chin on his hand.

The people of the Ivanstein ducal family found it difficult to deal with the princess who had become an ambiguous figure. They couldn’t treat her as an honored guest, nor could they treat her as an enemy prisoner. This was the result.

“A stew made by the princess herself.”

“…Is it surprising?”

“It makes me want to visit Reibritton once.”

“You’ve already been there.”

“I was too busy destroying it then.”

“I suppose so.”

The princess responded casually while eating the stew. To Genoa, this appearance seemed fresh.

Was it since that day when he made a deal with the princess? The princess seemed to have no affection left for Reibritton. As if she was dealing with strangers.

Has she gone a bit mad because the king abandoned her, or is it a love-hate relationship that she wants to destroy with her own hands someday, like I do with Ivanstein?

‘With a father who locks his daughter in the castle when the Empire’s army invades. If the princess were in her right mind, that would be strange.’

Just before conquering the royal palace, he had already anticipated that the King of Reibritton would flee. However, what he hadn’t expected was that the king had locked the princess in the castle to buy some time for his escape.

‘I didn’t know there was another person exactly like my father.’

He hadn’t expected to feel such a strange sense of kinship with the princess. Genoa only now realized that he still had such emotions left in him.