“To me?”

She tilted her head with wide eyes. Carl’s lips, looking down at her, relaxed loosely.

“When would be a good time for you? I’ll adjust to your schedule.”

“Well, I’m fine with anytime. Where should we meet?”

“I was thinking of inviting you to my ducal residence.”

“Oh, great! Should I come tomorrow?”

Her eyes sparkled as she had never properly toured the Celsior ducal residence.

Carl, who somehow hesitated at the bright question, slowly nodded his head.

“……Yes.”

His expression as he slowly brushed the back of his neck somehow felt shy.

To others’ eyes, it would just look expressionless, but having kept him as a bondservant for several months, she could accurately discern it.

But why is he being shy?

She suddenly realized the answer to that question in the carriage on the way home.

‘Wait, he suddenly said he has something to tell me?’

Isn’t this a completely typical opening?

In case she was mistaken, she hesitantly opened her mouth toward Dain and Deborah, who were in the same carriage.

“Um, you know…… can I ask you something? By the way, it’s about my friend’s story.”

“Sister, you don’t have friends.”

“Deb, shh. Speak comfortably, Shailyn.”

Dain, who soothed Deborah like a good brother after she suddenly hit her sore spot, looked at her with interested eyes.

“What would it mean when a man calls out a woman saying he has something to tell her? By the way, it has nothing to do with the earlier situation, and I’m asking because a friend’s concern suddenly came to mind.”

At her elaborate explanation, Dain lightly nodded his chin and grinned.

“What else could it be, that friend is also thinking of that thing.”

“That thing being……”

“Confession.”

At the word that matched her expectation, not only her but Deborah’s eyes widened too.

Deborah dangerously shot up in the moving carriage.

“Right now, are you saying Duke Celsior confessed to you?!”

“Wh-what are you talking about? It’s not me! It’s my friend’s story!”

She desperately denied it like someone whose feet hurt from guilt.

Then Dain covered his mouth and chuckled while playing along.

“Right, Deb. Even though we haven’t really seen Shailyn closely associating with other young ladies, there might be friends we don’t know about.”

“……”

This guy is really worse. He knows everything and is teasing me right now!

With a red-hot face making a sulky expression, Dain, who finally stopped laughing, spoke seriously.

“Shailyn, you know you don’t have to accept every confession, right?”

“Of course.”

“Then you also know that if you’re going to accept someone’s confession, you need to sort out confessions you’ve received from others, right?”

As soon as she heard those words, she flinched as the confessions she received from the three original blond male leads came to mind.

If she accepts Carl’s confession according to the mission and sees the hidden ending, she does need to sort things out with the other male leads.

“……I know.”

When she answered more heavily than before, Dain reached out and ruffled her hair.

“Also know that we’re always on your side in any situation.”

For some reason, those words made her feel touched. She had always made choices alone and had to bear them alone.

“Thank you—”

Now she also has Dain as a brother and Deborah as a sister, and at the thought that she’s no longer alone, her lips moved on their own.

“Brother.”

“……!”

At the first time she uttered that address, Dain’s eyes widened as if they would pop out.

Smack!

He hit his own cheek hard. Surprised by the sudden action, she opened her mouth, and Dain asked in a dazed voice.

“I’m not dreaming right now, am I? I didn’t mishear, did I?”

“……Ahem!”

She avoided his gaze with an embarrassed cough. Then Dain smiled brightly and spoke to Deborah in an excited voice.

“Deb, you heard it too, right? Shailyn called me brother!”

“Don’t know.”

“Ah, you heard it too. Please say it’s right, Deb.”

“I don’t want to?”

Deborah responded mischievously with a playful smile.

While doing so, she lightly poked her side with her elbow, so she smiled awkwardly.

Dain, who had been begging her to call him brother just once more until they arrived at the ducal residence, ran to boast about it to Lord Diart and His Grace as soon as he got off the carriage.

“Father! Grandfather! Shailyn called me brother!”

“Dain, stop it now. I’m really going to die of embarrassment……”

She covered her red-hot cheeks with her palms. Lord Diart, who heard Dain’s excited words, hurriedly approached her.

“Shailyn called Dain brother? Is there no change in how you address me?”

“Me too.”

His Grace quietly joined in, standing behind Lord Diart.

“Ah, haha…… Well, that……”

Grandfather and uncle still didn’t come naturally to her mouth, so she couldn’t say anything and just let out an awkward laugh.

And beside her, Deborah muttered quietly.

“Phew, I’m lucky to be the younger sister.”

They entered the mansion chattering noisily.

It was very embarrassing and troublesome, but she absolutely didn’t hate this harmony.

Rather, she liked it so much it was scary.

***

The next day, she visited the Celsior ducal residence as promised.

‘If Carl really confesses to me, and I accept that confession and nothing happens, then he’s not the male lead, right?’

Along with her own reasoning.

“Greetings, Miss Shailyn. I am Jerome, the butler of the Celsior ducal family.”

A butler she hadn’t seen when she came to interrogate Howard greeted her.

Jerome was a kind and good-natured person like Paul.

She could feel his experience in his disciplined bow.

“I worked when the former ducal couple were alive, was driven out, then returned at His Grace’s call.”

No wonder he seemed like a professional butler.

He was experienced.

“His Grace instructed me to serve you with utmost care, saying you are a special honored guest. Please come this way.”

“Ah, okay.”

She followed Jerome’s gentle guidance.

Following him up the stairs, she asked curiously.

“Where are we going? Weren’t we going to the drawing room?”

“Originally, His Grace instructed me to escort you to the greenhouse, but the preparations aren’t quite finished yet. Please wait in His Grace’s room first.”

“……Is it okay for me to enter His Grace’s room?”

When she asked back in bewilderment at the unexpected destination, Jerome smiled gently.

“Yes, he said you would be fine. Please don’t worry.”

No, is it really okay to enter another man’s room like this?

While making a flustered expression, when Jerome actually opened the door for her, she didn’t refuse and quickly entered.

Honestly, she was a bit curious about what Carl’s room would be like.

‘So this is Carl’s room……’

As she thought, it was large and neat, and surprisingly didn’t feel gloomy.

It appropriately combined deep navy, red, and gold tones to create a luxurious and sophisticated atmosphere.

While curiously looking around the room, she stopped in front of a frame hanging on one wall.

‘Is this…… a family portrait?’

In the picture, a man with black hair and red eyes like Carl, and a woman with light brown hair and green eyes were smiling brightly with a boy between them.

At first glance, they were Carl’s parents and the young Carl.

‘His smiling lips resembled his mother.’

His overall features were a spitting image of his father, but his smiling appearance reminded her of his mother.

She hadn’t expected to see Carl’s parents like this, so her feelings became complex.

She couldn’t take her eyes off the family portrait for a long time, when suddenly the inscription written at the bottom caught her attention.

My Henry, my Cathy, our Carl.

Before she could be surprised by the fact that Carl’s nickname had always been Carl……

‘Cathy……?’

She hesitated at the somehow familiar name.

The former duchess’s name was Catherine Celsior.

The nickname for that name is usually…… Cathy.

The same as the name she discovered in the letter among her mother’s belongings and remained a mystery.

Suddenly, puzzles scattered here and there in her head began to fit together carefully.

‘Where is the heretic registry now?’

‘Nobody knows! My brother had just gotten his hands on it when Kyllen was born, so he hid it for safety and seems to have lost it.’

The truth Howard confessed after drinking the truth serum.

「It’s nothing else, but I’d like you to secretly keep what I’m sending.

Sorry for the dangerous request.」

The contents of the letter tucked between the pages of a mysterious notebook of unknown identity.

When those two intersected…… a proposition she had never thought of before was formed.

What if the former duchess had entrusted the registry to her mother?

But unexpectedly, her mother passed away right after giving birth to her, so she couldn’t get the registry back?

‘Then could that notebook in mother’s belongings box possibly be……?’

With suspicion close to certainty, she couldn’t stay still like this.

She had to check right away!

With an urgent heart, she flung open the door, and Carl appeared with his hand raised as if he was about to knock.