The young aide left the room to carry out the royal command. Soon after, his eldest son, who had been summoned, appeared crossing the threshold.

Leopold’s face revealed no emotion whatsoever. As if he was prepared to accept any fate with composure.

He was the eldest son whom the King had so desperately hoped would leave his immature days behind and be reborn as a dignified heir to the throne.

But it seemed that too would remain just a faded hope.

“Is it true that you tried to give drugged alcohol to Duke Klaus’s lady?”

“I won’t lie.”

“I’ll give you a chance to explain yourself.”

“Is an explanation necessary? It was because I couldn’t shake off an old hatred.”

“It’s been over fifteen years.”

“I hated him so much that I couldn’t forget even after fifteen years. I won’t deny that. I regretted not being able to kill him with my own hands.”

He added.

“You think it’s because my capacity is not sufficient, don’t you?”

A reproachful gaze turned toward Leopold. He would not overlook this incident. A bitter smile soon appeared on Leopold’s lips, who knew his father’s temperament better than anyone.

He did not regret what he had done.

So he was prepared to properly endure the consequences.

The servants of the Duke’s mansion welcomed their master and his lady who had returned earlier than scheduled. Those experienced in serving their employer neither asked nor wondered what the Duke had been through.

The servants brought out dinner for them who had just returned. Jürgen sat across from Diez. It was their first dinner together in quite some time, as they had been eating separately for a while.

Diez tasted each carefully prepared dish without saying a word. Jürgen likewise didn’t initiate any conversation.

After a while, in the banquet hall where only the sound of silver utensils clinking had been heard, a noise suddenly arose.

Diez’s startled gaze turned toward Jürgen. He had just dropped his knife despite eating without any problems until a moment ago. That wasn’t all. Diez stared at his right hand, which trembled intermittently, and asked.

“……Are you hurt?”

“It’s nothing.”

He answered in a stiff voice and lowered his hand beneath the table. Though they had only just begun their meal, Jürgen rose from his seat with decisive movements.

“Please finish your meal. I’ll retire first.”

Diez didn’t try to stop him. Her gaze, which had been looking down at the food on her plate, followed the Duke’s retreating figure.

He had hidden his right hand in his pants pocket.

She thought things would get better after returning to the Duke’s mansion, but it seemed she had been mistaken. Of course, nothing here tried to torment her. She was now treated well enough to be called a proper lady of the Klaus family, and Jürgen no longer said anything that would hurt her feelings.

Daily life here was peaceful, but that was all.

Diez had nothing left to protect. This also meant she no longer had a reason to barely survive each day.

She went to Jürgen’s office. It had been a very long time since she had visited him for reasons other than being summoned.

Jürgen seemed surprised, as if he hadn’t expected Diez to come looking for him. Uncharacteristically flustered, he soon rose and asked.

“Do you need something?”

After briefly meeting his gaze, Diez soon opened her mouth.

“I came because I’m curious why you’re leaving me alone.”

A troubled expression briefly crossed his face.

“You said you would desire me.”

“……I have no such intention. Not anymore.”

“Have you grown tired of me?”

“That’s not it.”

For a moment, he raised his voice, but only briefly. With his momentum quickly broken, Jürgen spoke in a much softer voice.

“I’m sorry for raising my voice.”

“I was going to ask you to let me go if you didn’t want to keep me here…… but thinking about it, I have nowhere else to go.”

When she had received the promise to be freed from the Duke’s mansion, Diez’s mind had been filled only with thoughts of finding her parents. Of course, that was now just a fragment of the past.

“I want to leave the mansion. But it’s also true that the mere thought of stepping outside feels overwhelming. As you said, I’ve lived as a woman who has never done anything without the help of servants.”

“Are you unhappy with life here? Or is it that I……”

Unable to finish his sentence, he lowered his gaze and mumbled.

“Whatever you want, I’ll give it all to you. Just tell me. I’ll help as much as I can.”

Since the day Diez had tried to hang herself, Jürgen’s attitude was no longer the same as before. The man who had practically been Diez’s master now acted like a guilty person whenever he stood before her.

It resembled her past self, who had been careful even to make proper eye contact with him.

Diez didn’t press the issue. It was surprising that her expectation that he would soon return to his arrogant Duke persona had been wrong, but……

“Before that, may I ask one thing?”

“……Go ahead.”

“When I tried to die then, why did you cry?”

At that, Jürgen revealed his most bewildered expression ever. Thanks to that, she finally knew.

So that wasn’t my imagination.

It was indeed Jürgen who had held Diez and shed tears. But it was still hard to understand. She had tried to forget it, but couldn’t. It was a moment so deeply etched in her mind that it was impossible to forget.

At first, she thought she was seeing an illusion. But now, Jürgen was directly proving to her that she hadn’t seen things.

“I didn’t think you would be someone to mourn my death. So I was convinced I must have seen wrong…… but that really happened, didn’t it?”

With a gloomy, sunken face, his lips moved but he couldn’t immediately find words.

“May I ask why you did that?”

Jürgen hesitated for a while. She could detect a faint fear in the Duke’s expression. In fact, it didn’t make sense.

That Jürgen would fear answering her question.

Soon, he carefully offered an answer.

“I was afraid of losing you.”

Unfamiliar words flowed through his voice. Diez doubted her ears. Wasn’t this the kind of thing one would say to a lover?

“I was afraid. Afraid that I would never see you again. It was clearly the most miserable way to die. I didn’t want that kind of ending for you. Just imagining you dying, I……”

“I never meant anything to you, Duke.”

At that, Jürgen’s blue gaze turned toward her. Emotions difficult to describe in words were all bundled together, staring at Diez.

“That’s how it should have been. I shouldn’t have harbored such feelings for you. It was that way from the beginning. But, in the end, because I ruined everything……”

He closed his eyes for a moment, as if trying to suppress his emotions.

“If I could, I wanted to cherish you. I wanted to enrich your life, even if I had to pour everything I had into it. If I did that, perhaps you might accept me. That’s what I thought. But I couldn’t do that.”

His face, confessing truths he had never spoken before, was stained with desperate emotions.

“My father beat you mercilessly, trampled on you, and tormented you. I thought that I, who had inherited even the most hideous parts of such a man, shouldn’t dare to look at you. I was a man who shouldn’t love you. Though I clearly loved you, the detestable desires that remained within me also raised their heads. So I tried to send you away from my side instead. I was afraid of what I might do if I kept you by my side.”

“……You loved me?”

“I loved you. And I regret it.”

The corners of his eyes were tinged red. Diez could tell. The image of Duke Klaus she had known all this time was just a mask to hide his true feelings.

“If I had known that the feelings I secretly harbored would plunge you into such a terrible hell, I would never have loved you. You caught my father’s eye all because of me. Because I dared to have such feelings for you……”

Lowering his eyes as if trying to compose himself, he continued with a somewhat calmer voice.

“That’s why I wanted you to leave. I thought it would be better if you came to hate me instead. I believed everything would be fine if you just banished me from your life…… but now I don’t know what the right path is.”

She finally understood why Jürgen’s attitude had changed. As all the questions clouding her mind were answered, strangely, her heart felt at ease.

So that’s why he sometimes showed kindness even while acting as if he despised me.

The moments she thought were illusions were actually small fragments of his true feelings that he failed to hide. From the beginning, Diez hadn’t misunderstood anything.

When he couldn’t continue speaking, Diez thought for a moment before asking.

“Duke. You said I could ask for anything I wanted, right?”

“……Tell me. Whatever it is.”

“Before hearing what you said, I thought I had nowhere left to go, but now I think I know where I want to go.”

Jürgen gazed at her as if ready to grant whatever she asked.

Then Diez opened her mouth.