Elena firmly grasped her father’s hand before releasing it and hurriedly left the room. The tightly fastened buttons felt particularly stifling today. She took a deep breath while strongly gripping and releasing the buttons near her chest.

‘It must be because of me.’

The Crown Prince sending such a letter was largely due to her influence.

From the outside, Jellisto Trading Company would clearly appear to have a closer relationship with Rudfelix than with the Crown Prince.

In this state, the Crown Prince had given Jellisto Trading Company an opportunity to establish connections with the imperial family. It seemed he intended to block financial support that would be pushed to the Grand Duke and persuade Jellisto Trading Company to change direction toward the imperial family. If they refused this, he could use it as a pretext to pressure the company, so it wasn’t a losing proposition for Suharto. He had set a trap preventing Elena and the trading company from either advancing or retreating.

Elena’s brisk walking pace gradually slowed. With her hand on the railing, she moved forward at a snail’s pace.

‘The trap is so obvious.’

If asked whether he was such a simple person, the answer would be absolutely not. The memory of feeling he was so insidious and frightening that his true intentions were unfathomable remained vivid. Just considering the humiliation he suffered in the Grand Duchy, he would need to set at least a couple more traps to satisfy his anger.

Elena raised her head to look in the direction of the capital. The coldness of the railing entered her body through her fingers. In her cooled mind, she raised one question.

The dark seal of the Crown Prince stamped on the envelope.

She wondered if the Emperor was quietly observing this situation, which sprouted a tiny seed of doubt.

‘It would be best to talk with Alix.’

Rudfelix was the person who could judge this situation most objectively and coolly. Spotting him standing at the entrance, Elena smiled with delight.

“Your Highness……”

Elena, about to call Rudfelix, paused momentarily to look around him.

Wind was coming in through the unclosed entrance door. And in front of Rudfelix stood a knight wearing armor engraved with the imperial emblem. As Rudfelix unfolded and read a paper in front of him, a solemn atmosphere flowed, as if he were under surveillance.

Elena’s lips hardened. Unable to approach, she stood watching him when Rudfelix suddenly turned his head. Soon after, he extended his hand to Elena.

“Come here.”

At his affectionate voice, the knight’s eyebrows twitched. The Grand Duke he knew was noble and indifferent, seemingly inhuman. Having always thought him cold and rigid as iron, he was seeing this side of him for the first time.

“This is a Class 1 dispatch from the imperial palace.”

When he asked, “Do you want to see it?” Elena nodded slightly. Rudfelix then turned the paper in his hand so Elena could see it.

The knight frowned as he showed the Emperor’s letter to someone else. However, he didn’t intervene.

Elena read the contents in front of Rudfelix. It was a sentence ordering the Grand Duchy to be handed over as soon as Suharto succeeded to the throne.

Elena stepped back to reconsider the contents.

For Jellisto Trading Company, an opportunity to form ties with the imperial family.

For the House of Grand Duke Raion, a sentence to surrender the Grand Duchy.

The Crown Prince was pressuring Elena.

‘This isn’t a warning.’

The Crown Prince had already given Elena a chance to choose him, and Elena had rejected that offer. If this was about making Jellisto Trading Company abandon Elena and follow him.

‘He probably wants to kill both Rudfelix and me.’

She finally discovered the Crown Prince’s hidden blade.

Kill Elena and absorb Jellisto Trading Company.

She knew he wouldn’t leave her alone, but when it actually happened, her heart pounded heavily.

Goosebumps rose on her spine.

Elena lost strength in her legs and staggered.

She almost fell, but Rudfelix caught her.

“Are you alright?”

If she couldn’t get up, he was thinking of carrying her to her room himself.

“Call a doctor.”

“No.”

Elena shook her head while keeping it lowered. She hadn’t almost collapsed because her body was in pain.

Her heart was beating so hard she couldn’t control it.

Elena exhaled several times as if expelling her breath, waiting for her body to calm down.

“Elena……”

Rudfelix, growing increasingly anxious as time passed, was about to reach out his hands to hold her.

“I knew it all along.”

Elena raised her head.

Rudfelix, who had expected her to be gripped by fear, looked at her with surprised eyes.

“I just felt so excited that my legs went weak for a moment.”

Elena’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Rudfelix. A dangerous smile spread across her lips.

***

Elena brought out the notes she had been jotting down whenever something came to mind. They weren’t official documents to be submitted to her superior in a file, but her own personal materials that she had been keeping.

Since she was showing them to someone else for the first time today, she busily arranged the papers with a flushed face.

Rudfelix rested his elbow on the table with his temple propped against his hand. The sight of Elena carrying an armful of documents was a familiar scene.

“What is Aide Elena bringing?”

Quiet, seemingly sharing the same thought, muttered with his hand against his lips.

“There shouldn’t be any work matters I don’t know about. She said she had something to say before calling an emergency meeting, but where did all that come from?”

He was still talkative, but today it was exactly as Quiet described.

Elena’s body swayed as she placed the documents on the table. Rudfelix reached out to steady her, but Elena regained her balance on her own.

“Since I prepared this just in case, there’s still a lot missing.”

For Rudfelix, Elena took priority over the documents on the table. Still concerned about her earlier collapse, he kept looking at her face.

He had completely forgotten her words about smiling because she was too happy.

Quiet slowly scanned the massive pile of documents with books wedged in between from bottom to top.

“You’ve gathered all this and still say it’s not enough?”

Quiet looked with distaste at the height that could easily make five books if bound together.

“We’re dealing with none other than the imperial family. This isn’t enough. I couldn’t prepare more. There wasn’t enough time.”

Elena expressed regret as she flipped through the papers.

Despite the thick papers caught between her fingers not flipping up easily, she still considered it insufficient.

“What is all this anyway?”

“Well…… I wrote down ways to prepare for pressure from the imperial family. And also ways to strengthen the Grand Duke’s household.”

In other words, 101 ways to block attacks from a powerful opponent.

Quiet pointed at Elena’s documents in disbelief.

“Are you saying these are contingency plans you made knowing the Crown Prince would be hostile to the grand ducal family?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

Exactly that.

Elena happily stamped her feet in excitement.

While it might not seem like something to be happy about, she was pleased that they had guessed correctly.

“When did you start preparing this?”

Only then did Rudfelix pick up the papers one by one.

“When the Crown Prince came to the Grand Duchy……”

As Elena vaguely hinted at when she started taking notes, Quiet nodded. During the Crown Prince’s stay in the Grand Duchy, several incidents had occurred that strained their relationship.

“Probably then……”

Rudfelix also sent a look indicating he understood without hearing the rest. If it was from that time, she had read the situation quickly and acted accordingly.

Just as Rudfelix was about to seriously examine the papers……

“I thought it would be okay to bring these out now.”

Slip.

For a moment, his finger mishandled the paper and almost got cut.

“This wasn’t prepared recently.”

Rudfelix removed his hand from the paper and looked at Elena. Additionally, Quiet, who had been handling the papers with him and got cut, sucked his finger and turned his eyes.

“I made these when I became Your Highness’s aide. I didn’t know they would be used, but I made them just in case.”

Elena classified the papers as if it were no big deal.

From the time she had to become Grand Duke Rudfelix’s aide, there was a very small assumption that should never happen. Even if she quit being an aide after two years, would there be pressure on her family using her small connection with the Grand Duke as an excuse? She worried that imperial knights might ask her, “Are you close with the Grand Duke?” before swinging their swords.

‘Having taken on the risk of associating with a villain, how could I just sit still?’

Her father, knowing nothing, said they should repay the favor they received from the grand ducal family. So she, as his daughter, had to move more diligently.

Even when pink feelings were exchanged with Rudfelix, she consistently collected information, considering it something that would be good if it didn’t happen.

‘This is insurance.’

Elena looked down at the papers affectionately and stroked them preciously.

“I didn’t expect them to come out under such bright light.”

“For something you claim you didn’t expect, this is quite detailed.”

Rudfelix muttered as he flipped through the bundled documents.

“I’ve added some recent additions.”

Elena pulled out a book she had kept separate.

Feeling puzzled by the appearance of a book compared to the collected papers, Rudfelix opened the cover himself.