“I should be serving Lady Piert well… I’m sorry.”

“Janet, why are you apologizing when it’s not your fault?”

“Still, I’m sorry…”

Leah felt troubled.

‘The girl’s spirit has been crushed in the meantime.’

After placing Janet, a mountain village girl, as a maid in the Piert Ducal Family, she had been quietly looking after her.

‘I was carefully nurturing her as my personal maid, watching to make sure she wouldn’t suffer from workplace bullying or be looked down upon.’

But because of that cursed sleep magic, all her efforts had gone to waste. Leah sighed inwardly.

‘Well, Janet isn’t the only problem.’

Everyone who had been affected by the sleep magic at that time was suffering from aftereffects.

The employees including Janet, the knights who were guarding, even the magic user Karai and Swordmaster Ruyan would occasionally collapse and fall asleep like they had narcolepsy.

Young Duke Rikeil seemed worried too.

“Though we’re still keeping it hidden within our family, it’s only a matter of time before word gets out about them being affected by sleep magic.”

“If we don’t resolve this quickly, it’ll leak out soon.”

Leah glanced at Ruyan as she continued.

“Besides, it seems little brother has become a Swordmaster…”

“What?”

Both brothers widened their eyes. She waved her hand.

“Helix said so, so it must be true.”

“Helix, is this true?”

“It’s certain.”

Facing her two brothers who were gaping, Leah said.

“Little brother was already famous as the kingdom’s best swordsman. He’s like a symbol of our family’s military might. But if people find out that this Swordmaster keeps falling asleep at random…”

“…It would be quite a blow to the family.”

Rikeil spoke with concern. She nodded.

“Yes. Imagine if little brother suddenly falls asleep while throwing sword energy around wildly. It would be chaos.”

“…Aren’t you treating me too much like a monster?”

“Little brother, you’re not a monster anymore, you’re a natural disaster.”

At Leah’s words, Ruyan grumbled as if feeling wronged.

“It doesn’t have to be like that. If sleep magic is dangerous, I could just train in places where there are no people.”

“That’s not going to work.”

Helix cut in to explain.

If word got out about them being affected by sleep magic, there’s no telling what the Count Trow’s family might do to provoke them. If assassins suddenly attacked the ducal family members at dawn, Ruyan would try to protect the family regardless of sleep magic and might cause an accident.

“Imagine falling asleep the moment you release sword energy at an assassin. You wouldn’t know where that energy might go, or who the assassin might pull in front of it.”

Indeed, the example from someone who had seen all sorts of things in his long life was gruesome. Rikeil, Ruyan, and Leah’s faces turned pale.

“So we need to prevent such things from happening.”

Helix said seriously. Leah asked, trembling.

“Is there a way?”

“Dragon magic can only be undone with dragon power. But dragons are nearly extinct now. The only dragon power I can sense is from the one who cast the sleep magic…”

“So we have no choice but to ask the one who cast the sleep magic to undo it?”

At Leah’s words, Helix shook his head and said firmly.

“We can’t let him gain any more leverage over us. I’ll go to the north.”

She unconsciously grabbed the hem of his clothes in surprise.

“To the north?”

Helix nodded.

“Dragons breaking each other’s magic was a common occurrence. There should be records in Azura’s library, if we search there we might find a way.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“What are you saying, Leah.”

Young Duke Rikeil quickly stopped her.

“Leah, you can’t leave the capital right now. It’s the social season.”

“But.”

“Father was greatly shocked by Lady Jerinne’s incident recently. And he’s grateful to Helix and trusts him, so he’s working hard to find him a better title.”

“…”

“If you leave society now, it will negatively affect Helix’s upcoming debut too.”

Leah had no choice but to nod. Helix firmly held her hand that was still gripping his clothes.

Pong.

Feeling the gentle, fluffy mana flowing in, Leah looked up at Helix. Without looking back at her, he lightly patted her hand.

Po-pong.

That gesture and mana felt like a promise that he would return soon, so Leah linked her pinky finger with his.

‘It’s a promise.’

The two brothers watched them with salty expressions.

‘They’re completely lost in their own world. Can’t they see their brothers sitting right here?’

‘They say raising a sister is pointless…’

Since the number of times Helix had saved Leah’s life was more than they could count on their fingers, these doting brothers had to endure it.

***

While Helix was away, Leah attended social events alone. Her solo appearances were a topic of conversation in society for a while.

“Weren’t they an official couple? They rode horses together, went to get men’s clothes fitted, and he even came to pick her up from tea parties.”

“That’s all there was though. They weren’t formally introduced at any gathering.”

People in society were curious about what was going on, but as Helix continued to be absent, they forgot about it. Only Count Trow and his eldest son Lord Trow kept paying attention to Leah and Helix.

“Why did that northern fellow suddenly disappear? Yan, have you heard anything?”

“I don’t know either. I heard he just vanished one day like he evaporated. Peirlily keeps going around alone like before…”

“Should we spread rumors that Peirlily was miserably rejected by him?”

“What if he shows up again while you’re doing that?”

When Lord Trow cautioned him, the Count groaned in frustration. He needed to create new scandals about Leah but couldn’t because he didn’t know exactly what was going on with Helix.

‘To think we’re in this state because of one girl.’

Though he found it pathetic himself, he had no choice. For the sake of the Trow family, Leah needed to keep her mouth shut.

If they couldn’t silence her by killing her, the only option was to bury her socially so that no one would listen to what she said.

Moreover, the Empire kept pressuring them to find a way to quietly hand Leah over to them.

‘They said a high-ranking person in the Empire wants to get their hands on Leah Piert.’

The wellbeing of the Trow family and the Empire’s demands. There was only one way to satisfy both sides.

First crash Leah Piert’s value in Peiren’s society, then make it look like she was kidnapped for marriage or went missing. Then neither society nor the Piert Ducal Family would make an issue of Leah’s matter. Society was cruel to women whose honor had been tarnished by scandals.

‘The method is the problem.’

Count Trow pondered deeply.

‘How can I severely damage Leah Piert’s reputation?’

***

While Count Trow was searching for ways to tarnish Leah’s reputation and the Piert Ducal Family was keeping a close watch on the Trow family, an unexpected incident occurred in Peiren’s society.

Baron Durford had become fixated on a newly debuted sixteen-year-old lady and started pursuing her.

People all gossiped about it.

“It’s not the first time he’s gone after young girls, is it? Nothing new about this.”

“But you know Baron Durford’s taste? The target is…”

“What? The daughter of that big shot? Hasn’t he learned his lesson from the Peirlily incident?”

Baron Durford’s new obsession was sixteen-year-old Lady Yuria Seigan who had just debuted this autumn.

She was the only daughter of Duke Seigan, the ruler of the west, a lovely girl called the Rose of the West for her beautiful full red hair and rosy cheeks.

Baron Durford had been feeling depressed lately after failing in various schemes and assassination attempts against Peirlily, and hearing rumors that she now had a man. When he attended a party after a long absence and was awkwardly standing around, Lady Seigan happened to approach him to say hello, which became the source of trouble.

Lady Yuria Seigan was treated like a princess in her homeland in the west but was unfamiliar with capital society news.

The Duchess Seigan had passed away several years ago, and there were no other adult women in the family like aunts or grandmothers who could act as chaperones for the young lady.

So the young lady made the mistake of approaching Baron Durford to greet him, thinking ‘Since I’ve debuted, I should greet the royal family members.’

It was like a rabbit waving its front paws in front of a wolf’s mouth.

“Rose from the west! My fairy!”

Baron Durford began pursuing Lady Yuria Seigan with all his might and soul.

“My fairy!”

He would appear at every party she attended, calling out to her loudly.

“Fairy… how can you have such an enchanting figure?”

He would spout nonsense while swallowing his saliva as he stared at the sixteen-year-old lady’s cleavage.

“Fairy of roses… I prepared this for you! You’ll look like the goddess of roses wearing this!”

He would make a scene presenting her with revealing dresses that even dancers wouldn’t wear as gifts.

Lady Yuria Seigan would have seizures at the mere sight of Baron Durford’s hair and run away. Leah felt some sympathy watching the situation.

‘Sigh… she’s going to suffer for a while now that that madman has his sights on her.’

Society’s opinion was similar. They sympathized with Lady Yuria Seigan and clicked their tongues at Baron Durford.

“Poor Lady Seigan, to be targeted by such a man right after her debut…”

“Baron Durford consistently has no conscience. Whether it’s royal bastards, rich girls, or young ones… what makes him think he can target only young, noble, and extremely beautiful ladies?”

“He must think he’s still as young and handsome as before. Baron Durford did have quite the looks about ten years ago. But now…”

“Even if he is a baron, does he think he’s worthy of targeting young ladies?”

However, there were some who saw this situation differently.

Count Trow’s eyes gleamed as he heard the rumors circulating in society. His instincts, honed through many publicity battles, were responding.

‘…This is it!’