The head butler took that bottle and placed it on a table far away.

This way, dozens of bottles passed through the Duke of Elmano’s nose and were divided onto two tables. Most were on the distant table, and only a couple of very lightly scented oils remained nearby.

“What’s this?”

Having smelled so many fragrances, Kais felt his nose going numb.

He rubbed the tip of his nose and pointed with his chin at the last round jar.

“Alistro flower petals. They have a good, long-lasting fragrance, so when floated in bathwater, they make a subtle floral scent even when you sweat, and the next day your body still smells pleasantly fragrant like you just applied perfume. That’s why noble ladies often use them when bathing.”

While listening to Marie’s explanation, Kais opened the jar lid.

The moment he opened it, an intense fragrance wafted out. The scent was so strong he didn’t even need to bring his nose close. The flying fragrance stabbed deep into his nose, causing Kais to retch and cover his nose.

“Ugh!”

The nausea that rose was so severe, like everything in his stomach was being pulled up to his throat.

Kais swung his arm and threw the jar far away. Fortunately, it fell on the carpet and didn’t break, but the purple flower petals inside scattered all over the floor.

“Willis! Take that outside the castle immediately!”

Kais shouted while retching severely, his waist bent.

Seeing the Duke of Elmano suffering like he had swallowed poison the moment the jar lid was opened, Marie jumped up from her seat in shock.

Only after servants came running at the head butler’s direction to collect the jar and flower petals, all windows and doors were thrown wide open, and he drank tea to calm his nausea, could Kais finally stop retching.

The strange fragrance that had emanated from Gladys who hung in front of the Duke’s room, the fragrance that had lingered in his nose when he lost consciousness and collapsed—it was this fragrance.

This fragrance was why he felt nauseated every time he entered the Duchess’s room, why he couldn’t freely kiss Lariella.

To think the problem wasn’t the perfume but the flower petals in the bathwater.

No wonder changing perfumes so many times hadn’t improved the situation.

Kais glared at Lariella’s lady’s maid with fierce eyes.

When that menacing gaze turned toward her, Marie prostrated herself on the floor in terror.

“I-I’m sorry! P-please forgive me!”

Recalling how she had started by putting a handful of alistro flower petals in the Duchess’s bathwater, then gradually increased the amount until she eventually poured in entire jars, Marie felt cold sweat trickling all over her body.

“Was it all your doing? Making Lariella wear those things that barely qualified as nightgowns every day, pouring strong perfume on her, putting those foul-smelling flower petals in her bathwater?”

Marie trembled all over and begged for forgiveness at the Duke of Elmano’s coldly piercing voice.

“I-I’m sorry!”

“Did Lariella want to do this?”

Marie shook her head vigorously at the Duke of Elmano’s question.

“N-no! Absolutely not! The Duchess wanted to prepare modestly, but I…… it was all because of my greed! The Duchess did nothing wrong!”

Tears welled up in Marie’s eyes. She felt it was all her fault that the Duchess had returned to the Polar territory without consummating the marriage, after suffering emotionally the entire time.

“Truly…… I truly had no other intention. If I had known you hated it so much, I would never have done it. I only did it for the Duchess’s sake…… I really didn’t know it would turn out like this. Please believe me.”

Worklan came to the rescue of Marie, who was dropping tears.

“How could the lady’s maid have deliberately done this when even Your Grace didn’t know? She won’t do it again, so let’s stop here. Don’t you feel sorry for her when she’s crying like that?”

Worklan was weak to women, and even weaker to women’s tears.

Kais gave a disapproving sidelong glance at Worklan, who was speaking so primly. He was currently checking how loyal Lariella’s lady’s maid was. If she had made even one excuse about Lariella or said anything negative about her mistress, he would have dragged her out and thrown her outside the castle.

Based on her current answers, and how she had been deeply saddened when Lariella left, unable to let go of her hand until the end, it seemed the lady’s maid who had served Lariella most closely genuinely liked and followed her, which gave him some peace of mind.

Kais spoke to Marie in a more softened voice.

“Since you didn’t know until now, I’ll generously overlook it. From now on, use only the items placed here for the Duchess. Prepare modest nightgowns too. If you make one more mistake, you’ll not only be expelled from Elmano Castle but also unable to work anywhere in the Bayaroman Empire. Understood?”

Marie, firmly memorizing the perfume bottles placed on the table close to the Duke of Elmano, nodded eagerly.

“Thank you, Duke! I will absolutely make sure this never happens again.”

Then Marie realized she was missing the most important fact.

“But the Duchess has already returned to the Polar territory……”

“I will bring her back.”

Kais stated firmly.

“For that, I have many questions to ask you.”

“Yes! Anything! If it means the Duchess can return, I’ll tell you everything!”

Marie was overjoyed at Kais’s words that he would bring Lariella back.

To such a Marie, Kais asked what he needed to confirm first.

“Good. Then tell me first, who in this castle treated the Duchess improperly?”

Suddenly Marie, who had been answering well until now, firmly closed her mouth and stared at Kais.

Kais’s brow furrowed at Marie, who wasn’t answering but just staring blankly at him.

“Why aren’t you answering?”

“I did…… answer.”

Worklan, who realized that Marie’s answer to Kais’s question about “who in this castle treated the Duchess improperly” was “the Duke of Elmano,” burst out laughing.

“You truly are a completely honest lady’s maid.”

Kais, who frowned deeply at Worklan’s giggling voice, gritted his molars and spoke again.

“I mean among the servants.”

Marie nodded with an “Ah” and this time gave a proper answer.

“Then of course it’s the head maid and Mrs. Deshiri. They didn’t just treat the Duchess improperly—they were truly vicious.”

Marie confessed everything that had happened to Kais.

First, she relayed exactly how Mrs. Deshiri had repeatedly insulted the Duchess, found fault with everything the Duchess did, and insulted the Duchess’s family at every opportunity.

And she told how the head maid openly looked down on the Duchess for being from the countryside, repeatedly ignored the Duchess’s requests to see the account books and storerooms, deliberately had a cleaning maid break a flower vase on the day of the Duchess’s first tea party, and regularly gossiped about her with the maids, knowing full well the Duchess could hear.

Throughout the telling, Kais couldn’t contain his anger and painfully gripped the chair armrest.

After sending Marie back a while later, he summoned other servants one after another.

The summoned servants, faced with Kais’s intimidating expression and questioning, didn’t dare lie and spilled everything they knew.

It soon came to light that the head maid had been embezzling property from Elmano Castle, where the mistress position had been vacant for a long time. It was further revealed that she had deliberately acted more disrespectfully because she feared being discovered by the Duchess, who was more interested in checking account books and balancing figures than in balls or new dresses. It was also the head maid who had encouraged Mrs. Deshiri to harass the Duchess by elevating her as an important elder of the Elmano family.

After learning all the facts, Kais had the head maid dragged to the center of the widest plaza in Elmano Castle and flogged. He made everyone in the castle watch.

The head maid’s first crime was laying hands on the Duke of Elmano’s property, and her even greater crime was slandering the Duchess of Elmano and tarnishing her honor.

The head maid, flogged and with her property confiscated, was driven out of the castle and forbidden from ever setting foot inside again.

The maids who followed the head maid, the maids who had been caught gossiping about the Duchess in the garden and had their tongues tied and were imprisoned underground, the loose-lipped maids who spread rumors about what happened in the Duchess’s room—all met the same fate as the head maid and were driven out of the castle.

Mrs. Deshiri, though from a fallen house, was still nobility and thus barely avoided flogging. However, with Kais’s warning that if she ever mentioned the Elmano family again, he would split her mouth and tear out her tongue, the old woman, who had nothing to boast of except being a distant relative of the Elmano family, found herself in a position where it would be difficult to find work anywhere.

The rumor that dozens of Elmano Castle servants had been dragged to the plaza, flogged, and driven out of the castle quickly spread throughout society.

Learning that the reason was because they had loosely run their mouths about the Duchess and offended the Duke of Elmano’s sensibilities, the nobles who had been lightly teasing quietly shut their mouths.

* * *

Now he knew why Lariella had wanted to invalidate this marriage.

He could now gauge how lonely she must have been in this vast Elmano Castle, how desperate she must have felt every night behind his turned back.

Now he also knew that Lariella liked lamb the most, enjoyed walks and reading, and was particularly interested in mathematics.

Having made it clear to everyone that she was the true mistress of Elmano Castle, the elders of the Elmano family, relatives, and all the castle servants would now sincerely cherish and honor Lariella.

And he was now prepared in his heart to value her more than anyone else, to make Lariella smile like before and be happy by his side.

Having prepared answers to all the questions Baron Polar had poured out at him, Kais began riding toward the Polar territory.

It was exactly the tenth day since Lariella had left Elmano Castle.