“I’m coming to save you…”

The Grand Duke, with an eerily calm smile, read the message left on the flower petal in a low voice.

His elegant eyes, lowered while reading the words, rose back to meet mine.

“Someone’s coming to save you?”

“…I know nothing about this!”

Who sent something like this?

Why make an already suspicious person even more suspicious!

“Really, I don’t!”

I lightly struck the table to emphasize my innocence.

Since we were on a terrace where others might see or hear us, I could only whisper with all my might.

“Indeed. Who would dare?”

The Grand Duke leaned deeply into his chair, lightly twirling the rose with his finger.

“Coming here without my permission.”

“You don’t suspect me, do you?”

“I don’t care. Take it.”

When he carelessly placed the rose on the table, I quickly picked it up and threw away that ominous flower.

“Eww! Gross! I don’t want it either!”

His eyes momentarily widened then returned to normal as I threw the rose off the table, demonstrating my innocence.

“I’m truly innocent.”

“Did anyone say otherwise?”

“You’re suspicious of me right now!”

“When did I ever?”

“Right now! This very moment!”

When I pointed at him with my spoon, the Grand Duke faintly raised one eyebrow.

His expression seemed displeased, yet his eyes somehow looked oddly pleased, making it difficult to discern his exact emotions.

“Put that down.”

He took my hand holding the spoon and lowered it to the table.

Then he silently picked up the rose I had dropped on the ground and placed it back on the table.

“…Anyway!”

“Your ice cream is melting.”

“Ah! Then quickly… No, wait! That’s not what’s important here!”

When I flared up and glared at him again, the Grand Duke took my hand once more and made me scoop up some ice cream.

“Who did you say gave you this?”

He asked while still holding my hand, bringing it forward.

“…It was a child. A cute little girl.”

Hmm, I felt despair seeing his indifferent reaction, when suddenly a cold sensation touched my lips, making my hair stand on end.

“Eat.”

The Grand Duke tapped my lips with the spoon filled with cold ice cream.

After hesitating briefly, I opened my mouth, and he let me taste the ice cream while still keeping our hands clasped together.

As I swallowed the ice cream with our hands joined and eyes locked, I felt the sweet, soft melting sensation on the tip of my tongue.

“Describe what she looked like.”

Eventually, he rested his chin on his hand and made me scoop up more ice cream, still holding my hand.

“That child seemed innocent enough…?”

“That’s why I’m asking you to describe what she looked like.”

He held the ice cream in front of my lips again with an inscrutable, expressionless face.

I could see the branch managers and their wives looking our way with delighted expressions.

People passing by the terrace were also stealing glances at us with faces full of curiosity.

Is he doing this because others are watching?

“What was she wearing? Her hair?”

My mind, momentarily distracted, refocused on the Grand Duke at the sound of his voice.

Looking down at the ice cream he was offering, I reluctantly opened my mouth, and the ice cream on the smooth silver spoon pushed in.

His persistent gaze only softened after confirming I had swallowed the ice cream, as if telling me to speak now.

“…She looked under ten years old. Small in stature. She wore a gray dress, and her hair was, um, braided into two plaits.”

“Lennox.”

When the Grand Duke quietly called the name, men in navy uniforms appeared from somewhere and surrounded the terrace railings.

They were the Grand Duke’s guards I had seen at the castle.

Until just now, not a single one had been visible—where on earth had they all been hiding?

“Find the girl. Gray dress, braided hair, looks under ten years old.”

“I’ll contact the Mertid security force and begin the search immediately, Your Highness.”

The head guard answered in a respectful tone, then promptly bowed and turned away.

“There’s a security force…?”

“They exist in every district of St. Berte.”

“…Are you referring to those people wearing wine-colored uniforms?”

When I pointed to some people who had caught my eye, the Grand Duke leaned back in his chair and nodded.

Now that I noticed their presence, quite a few people in those uniforms were walking around Mertid Square.

“That’s the Mertid Square security force. St. Berte has so many people moving about that security forces are stationed in each district to maintain order.”

Madame Jeanette, who had been watching us closely wondering what was happening after the guards appeared, explained discreetly.

She seemed to want to ask what was going on but didn’t dare approach me while I was with the Grand Duke.

“Ahem, ahem!”

When Madame Mariette cleared her throat and signaled for her to stop staring at us, Madame Jeanette finally turned away reluctantly.

“What happened?”

Odin, rubbing his sleepy eyes with his front paws, stirred and rose on my lap.

The Grand Duke, who had been watching me, immediately frowned as soon as his eyes met the now-awake Odin.

“Oh, you’re awake, Odin?”

Speaking in a deliberately sweet tone, I subtly informed him that the Grand Duke was sitting across from us.

Odin narrowed his long eyes and then opened them again, as if understanding why I was acting this way.

“Yes, I get it. You’re warning me to be careful because we’re being watched?”

When I nodded, Odin stretched fully, yawned, and then shook his body.

“So we couldn’t find out what that powder was. What a shame. Oh, is that ice cream?”

Odin placed his front paws on the table, dangling there as he looked at the silver bowl with sparkling eyes.

As the wind ruffled his golden, soft fur, his tail swayed gently.

“Ice cream… Give me some too.”

“Is it okay for a baby lion to eat this?”

“Who are you talking to?”

As I asked Odin with puzzlement, the Grand Duke looked at me, wondering who I was speaking to.

I quickly raised my head and met the Grand Duke’s eyes.

Since I was the only one who could understand Odin’s words, all the Grand Duke could hear were Odin’s “kyak! myak! kkaakeuk! kyaak! miaaak!”

As he raised his eyebrows, prompting me to answer, I quickly moved my lips.

“Um… to Your Highness. Would it be okay to give some to Odin?”

“Ice cream to a baby animal…?”

“…I think he wants some.”

When I quietly took the Grand Duke’s spoon—which he hadn’t touched, claiming he disliked sweet things—his expression grew even more incredulous.

“Don’t touch that. It’s mine.”

“But you weren’t going to eat it.”

“I’d rather throw it on the ground than give it to an animal.”

“I’ll just give him a tiny bit. Please?”

With those adorable blue eyes blinking so cutely while begging for ice cream, how could anyone refuse this baby lion’s request?

Being a baby lion only about the size of a forearm meant that anything Odin did looked adorable.

When I offered him a spoonful of ice cream, Odin began eating with an expression as if he’d gained the whole world.

The eyes of the baby lion eating ice cream even curved like cute crescent moons.

He was truly, incredibly cute.

“…Am I really watching someone feed ice cream to an animal?”

“He’s still a baby. And he’s so cute. And I like him.”

“You give whatever to those you like?”

“Isn’t that what people normally do when they like something?”

“……”

“Don’t you do that, Your Highness?”

At my words, his lips tightened firmly.

After observing from a distance the sight of me feeding ice cream to a baby lion, he eventually turned his head away.

“……”

His face appeared to be looking at a distant landscape, but he also seemed annoyed by us.

His face, slightly furrowed as if the sunlight was too bright, somehow looked decadent and bored.

In the original story, there was a part where people who saw the male protagonist Clint’s appearance admired how handsome he was, befitting a member of the Hedegen family. But someone remarked that he still couldn’t compare to the deceased Grand Duke. I had thought this was just regret over losing a respected figure…

Suddenly, his cool eyes stared at me.

“Have some coffee…!”

Embarrassed for staring too intently at his face, I smiled brightly and pushed the coffee cup toward him.

The Grand Duke quietly glanced at the cup.

When I smiled once more to indicate he should drink it, he began sipping the coffee with an expressionless face.

“But don’t you think the other ladies’ roses might have similar messages?”

I asked while placing Odin on the table and putting the ice cream bowl in front of him.

“Should I go check?”

“No need.”

Just as I was about to stand up by pressing on the table, he grabbed my hand.

“Yours is the only suspicious one. Sit down.”

I quietly nodded and sat back down, wondering when he had checked all the others.

“Yes.”

His hand covering the back of mine was so large that my hand completely disappeared beneath it.

“You must hear often that you have very large hands.”

Odin, who had been eagerly eating ice cream, raised his head from the bowl to look at me.

He seemed to immediately notice the Grand Duke’s hand gripping my arm and looked up at him.

The Grand Duke flinched at Odin’s direct stare and removed his hand from mine.

Odin circled around the ice cream bowl, approached the rose, and touched the petals with his front paw, then sniffed it with his nose.

“Looking at this message alone, I appear to be a villain who keeps you locked up and torments you mercilessly.”

The Grand Duke spoke as he retrieved the rose from Odin.

“Yes. Well, that’s not entirely without basis…”

“What does that mean?”

“No, I mean, if you think about it…”

In the original story, the relationship between the deceased Grand Duke and the wife who killed him wasn’t particularly good. They were described as merely being on distant terms, but no one knew what the reality was like.

Suddenly, I lowered my body close to the table and whispered to him secretly.

“…Have you ever imprisoned me before?”

Looking down at me with contemplative eyes, he eventually slowly bent his head.

A strange smile seemed to form in his eyes, reminiscent of a winter dawn.

“Do you want to know?”