After seeing the Duke and returning to his room, Hesion thought about Vieta.

Despite being an illegitimate child, she had been able to grow up as a lady of the ducal family thanks to the generosity of Winter, the mistress of the Lukbiche family.

Moreover, hadn’t Vieta’s mother abandoned her and run away with another man?

The more he thought about it, the less favorably Hesion could view Vieta, who had repaid the ducal family’s kindness with betrayal.

‘I need to find another way to prevent the Lukbiche family from being ruined by Vieta’s hands.’

That remained a significant challenge for Hesion.

Hesion thought about Vieta while eating, changing clothes, even during sword practice and swimming lessons.

Despite his head being completely filled with thoughts of her, he couldn’t come up with a way to remove her from the Lukbiche family. He eventually grabbed his head and let out a deep sigh.

As he groaned as if having a headache, Ray, who had entered the room, hurriedly checked his condition.

However, there was no fever, just the face of a sulky, irritated child.

Hesion brushed away his touch in annoyance and propped his chin again.

His short legs crossed under the table left Ray with a brief smile.

Ray wondered what could be troubling someone so young and addressed him.

“Seems you have quite a serious concern?”

At Ray’s question, Hesion looked up at him as if wondering how he knew.

“If your worry isn’t resolving, perhaps you could discuss it with me?”

“With you?”

Suspicion immediately crossed Hesion’s face.

Ray deliberately ignored his gaze, which suggested he wouldn’t be much help.

“Despite appearances, I’ve lived fifteen years longer than you, young duke. I’m sure I can be of assistance.”

Hesion carefully observed Ray, who spoke with his hand on his chest, then sighed again.

He couldn’t figure out how to confide his concerns to this innocent adult who didn’t know he had returned from the future.

Reading Hesion’s troubled expression, Ray wrongly assumed it was about romantic advice concerning Esta and spoke first.

“You don’t have to mention specific names if that makes you uncomfortable.”

Appreciating his consideration, Hesion thought for a moment before noticing a pile of fairy tale books in the corner.

He smiled triumphantly and addressed him.

“What I’m talking about is a fairy tale.”

Ray was the one surprised by this unexpected answer.

“A fairy tale?”

“Yes. There’s a story I find completely incomprehensible.”

Ray sat down humbly across from Hesion, indicating he would listen seriously.

“There’s a very cruel black panther. This panther helps a lion become king.”

Ray nodded at his serious expression.

“The lion, who became king with the panther’s help, eventually k*lls his cousin who was his political rival.”

“So the lion is the protagonist of this story?”

“No? Not at all! This is a story where the lion’s cousin is the protagonist.”

Fierce eyes turned toward Ray in protest.

“I-I see.”

“The cousin, who died unjustly at the lion’s hands, gets to go back to the past. Exactly before the panther and lion met.”

Ray glanced at the pile of fairy tale books as if wondering what kind of story this was.

“The cousin who returned to the past knows the future that’s coming. So he’s thinking of dealing with that panther. Because if the panther weren’t there, his family and he wouldn’t have been killed by the lion.”

“So? What part of this is troubling you?”

At Ray’s question, Hesion stared at him with a serious face.

“Dealing with the panther. How should he do it?”

Ray scratched his head and spoke.

The person before him was indeed the next duke, but still just a young boy.

He knew better than anyone that his answer could have an enormous impact on the boy.

Ray opened his mouth with the sole intention of giving educationally sound advice.

“Do you really need to deal with it?”

Hesion immediately made a displeased face.

He slammed both hands on the table and stared at Ray.

“Even though that panther will join hands with the lion and help k*ll me—ah, I mean, that cousin?”

Ray smiled at Hesion’s serious expression, as if this were his own personal matter.

“You said the cousin went back before the panther and lion met. If it were me, I’d befriend the panther before the lion who became king does.”

At the mention of becoming friends, Hesion wrapped his arms around himself as if getting goosebumps.

‘Me, becoming friends with Vieta? With that vicious woman?’

It was a method he had never once considered.

“How can you become friends with the panther that caused your death?”

Unable to comprehend Ray’s suggestion, Hesion narrowed his brows like someone who’d just heard a rabbit gave birth to a tiger.

Ray gazed at Hesion with a more solemn attitude.

“Well, if the panther becomes friends with the cousin, then the lion won’t become king and the cousin won’t die.”

Ray’s logic was clean and simple. Hesion knew his words were right, but he absolutely didn’t want to get entangled with Vieta.

“It still won’t work. The panther and the cousin were originally enemies. Think of another way, Ray.”

“It’s a principle to keep your enemies even closer.”

“Why on earth would you do that!”

“So you can guard against the lion, your other enemy.”

Seeing him speechless, Ray thought he had perfectly resolved the dilemma and stood up.

However, even after he rose, Hesion’s blank expression remained unchanged. Unable to bear the sight, Ray added one more comment.

“Besides, that panther doesn’t seem so bad. If it’s capable of helping the lion become king, it must be both loyal and intelligent.”

Confronted with Ray’s confident attitude, Hesion blurted out something he shouldn’t have.

“Even though the panther helped the lion by killing its own family?”

“The family must have been quite terrible. Not all families in the world are harmonious.”

Ray didn’t change his position.

If only harmonious families existed in the world, he himself, who had fled from unbearable violence, shouldn’t have existed either.

Without the Grand Duke’s sponsorship allowing him to graduate from a good academy, his life would certainly have been much harder.

Once again, Hesion lost the argument. He no longer denied Ray’s words.

That didn’t mean he accepted his proposition, though.

He simply couldn’t add anything more because he knew Ray’s circumstances well.

Sensing the increasingly awkward atmosphere, Ray tried to lighten the mood by smiling with his hands on his hips.

He hoped Hesion wouldn’t find him difficult to approach.

“What about driving a wedge between the lion and the panther instead? If you really hate becoming friends with the panther, you should at least interfere with their relationship.”

“Interfere? How?”

“That’s for you to think about, young duke. The important thing is that if you can’t separate them, the cousin might die at their hands again.”

Ray left the room after a brief farewell to Hesion, who had been making a horrified face. Left alone, Hesion pondered Ray’s words carefully.

“Right. Interfering would be better. Becoming friends with a woman like that makes no sense.”

Hesion wanted to confirm that his own view was correct, even without having to prove it to Ray.

That enemies should not be kept close.

“I just need to prove that my thinking wasn’t wrong.”

Hesion felt anxious just from sensing Vieta’s presence through the Duke.

Feeling impatient as well, he summoned the spy he had been watching for several days to his room.

※※※

“Suddenly quit? Th-this is impossible.”

The woman, with a flushed face and clenched fists, looked at Hesion as if she couldn’t accept it.

Her eyes full of indignation and her furrowed brows only made Hesion feel worse.

‘Alexa Heburn.’

She was the only spy Hesion knew of.

Alexa originally belonged to the Emperor’s side. More precisely, she was essentially a spy planted by the Marquis, being from Leytan’s maternal family.

Hesion realized too late that Leytan, the imperial family’s illegitimate child, had been able to become Emperor thanks to the Marquis’s commendable efforts.

‘I’ve been watching to see if she’d contact other spies, but seeing no notable interactions, does this mean Alexa is the only spy planted here?’

He finished his thoughts with lingering uneasiness.

Then he smiled at her, who was waiting for his answer.

“My decision is final, Alexa.”

Despite his firm stance, she didn’t back down.

“I’ve worked for the Rekton family more diligently than anyone. Without a single day’s rest.”