“Then it’s strange that there wasn’t a single guard patrolling the corridors.”

The Duke paused briefly before answering Flora’s observation.

“That’s… because I dismiss everyone when I use it.”

“You see? Didn’t I say dismissing the guards was going too far? We can’t guarantee your safety.”

Heriot clutched his chest, saying he knew this day would come. His stubborn lord had ordered that no servants were to come near the master bedroom on such nights.

Even when he’s strongly advised against it due to the danger, his lord wouldn’t listen. The reason was that even the slightest noise made his head pound.

Moreover, he maintained the attitude that there was no problem since he was the strongest in this mansion anyway, and didn’t even pretend to listen.

Even now, the Duke spoke without sensing the gravity of the situation.

“I’m alive, so it’s fine.”

“What’s fine about it? You nearly went ‘ack’ and straight to the afterlife.”

Though Heriot exaggeratedly drew his finger across his throat, the Duke remained unmoved. As if he was oblivious to his aide’s burning concern.

The fact that the Duke regularly used sleeping incense to fall asleep was strictly confidential. Even Flora, who had lived here for over half a year, was hearing this for the first time.

However, Flora tilted her head at those words. Something felt unnatural.

“Even so, the concentration of the sleeping incense was quite strong. It wasn’t an amount suitable for just getting a good night’s sleep.”

Even if he had inhaled it himself, he had been unusually out of his senses last night.

“If it was used for sleep, you wouldn’t have been that disoriented. Judging by how the antidote had no effect…”

“You’re suggesting someone might have used a different drug.”

Claude picked up where Flora left off and let out a small sigh.

In truth, Heriot had a point. Generally, the amount he used was strictly minimal, and its effects weren’t particularly strong.

The reason he didn’t increase the dosage was due to his physician’s warning that Rahel powder was highly addictive and could lead to madness if inhaled above a certain amount.

For this reason, even though he would wake up frequently, he always received precisely measured doses after thorough checks.

“Either way, it doesn’t make sense for someone to sleep like the dead from just the sleeping incense.”

The Duke concluded self-deprecatingly. Besides the sleeping incense he normally used, there was a high possibility the intruders had used some new powder.

This led to the question of how they knew about it and used it.

Flora quietly spoke up.

“Perhaps someone tampered with your medicine, Master.”

“That’s impossible. Only three people in this mansion know about his use of medicine. Above all, the butler would never do such a thing.”

Heriot confidently declared it was nonsense, saying Deverik, who had inherited the position of butler for generations in this family, wasn’t that kind of person.

“That’s no longer true.”

Flora shook her head with determined eyes.

“I heard what they were saying. They were careless because they were certain about their information.”

“That…”

“They chose to break in on the day Master took his medicine. It means they knew about it beforehand.”

Heriot muttered with a shocked and confused expression.

“If not me… then the butler, no, that can’t be…”

But Flora noticed something odd in his words.

“If the butler knew, did the previous head maid know as well?”

The color drained from Heriot’s face.

“…Lady Melady…”

The head maid who had been driven from this mansion half a year ago.

A strange silence fell.

Information leaking implied the existence of an accomplice who knew the mansion’s circumstances well, besides the person who leaked the information.

So Flora carefully spoke up.

“There might be a spy in this mansion.”

The Duke and his aide exchanged subtle glances at this.

After remaining silent for a while as if organizing his thoughts, the Duke looked directly at Flora and began speaking.

“What guarantee do we have that it’s not you? You’re the only one who saw these assassins. There’s no trace of anything except the corpses.”

“…Are you suspecting me?”

“If you can’t provide evidence that it wasn’t you, you can’t avoid suspicion either.”

It was reasonable suspicion. Even if she had coincidentally assessed the situation first and entered the room to deal with the assassins, she was still the maid who had committed the audacious act of crawling into his bed afterward.

Heriot too now nodded in agreement with the Duke’s words.

Killing every single one without leaving anyone alive was actually excessive.

She could have left at least one alive. Then they could have gotten at least some small lead.

Therefore, the Duke’s eyes remained cold, finding it difficult to accept the maid’s testimony as fact.

“You’ve erased even the chance to investigate who’s behind this with your own hands, so now we can’t know the truth. In this situation, I see no reason to exclude you from suspicion.”

“I didn’t feel the need to keep them alive. If I hadn’t killed them, I might have died myself.”

“That’s just one possibility.”

“I couldn’t take risks in a situation where it was difficult to gauge their abilities.”

“Or did you just want to do it?”

For a moment, Flora’s eyes wavered ever so slightly.

Claude saw the clear attachment to life in her eyes. Come to think of it, she had always shown a tendency to try to resolve things somehow when feeling threatened.

Perhaps, as she said, she chose killing as the surest response in an urgent situation. However, if that were really the case, rather than risking danger to save his endangered life, she should have turned a blind eye from the start.

He was filled with complicated feelings.

It seemed his judgment was wrong in thinking she had become somewhat normal, seeing her picking oranges with her colleagues.

When he first brought her here, he had his own plans. While that was certainly the case, he had overlooked everything, focused only on the thought of making Flora into an ordinary woman to show to the Emperor.

The woman hadn’t changed, nor was there any possibility she would change in the future.

He let out a low sigh at the sudden feeling of emptiness. Moreover, his head throbbed at this absurd situation where he now owed her his life.

“We’ll see. Whether the knights really failed to notice the fact that assassins had broken in, or… if someone deliberately planned this.”

Claude hadn’t completely removed his suspicions about her yet. Even if things happened as Flora said, it wasn’t enough to justify her spending the night with him afterward.

Someone targeting his life was something he had experienced countless times, so there was no need to cower. All that remained was to pay them back in kind.

Erasing the unnecessary thoughts filling his mind, he carelessly withdrew his gaze from her.

“Find out which household Lady Melady entered after leaving here.”

“Yes, Your Grace. A day should be enough to track her movements.”

Heriot bowed his head and left, confident it wouldn’t take long if it was within the capital.

The remaining Flora looked at the Duke with eyes wondering what would become of her.

Being left alone with him, she wondered if he would bring up last night’s events again. After all, he must now know it wasn’t her fault since he had been under the influence of drugs.

But the Duke didn’t say anything more and stood up. Then, glancing at Flora who was still seated, he asked.

“Do you have anything else to say to me?”

“Well, no, but…”

“If you’re done talking, why don’t you leave?”

He sat down in his chair after circling around the desk and gestured toward the door. Flora lost her resolve at his cold tone.

It was a clear dismissal.

* * *

After quietly closing the door behind her, Flora placed her hand on her lower abdomen where she felt a tingling sensation. She had been like this all morning.

Her legs wouldn’t cooperate as if they belonged to someone else. Finally, Flora moved slowly while keeping one hand on the wall.

Why?

She had expected the Duke, who had become a different man overnight, would call for her again. But he had only asked about the circumstances, without bringing up a single question about what really needed to be discussed.

In other words, perhaps he was deliberately implying that last night was nothing more than a one-night mistake.

With somewhat bitter feelings, Flora tried to bite her lip but quickly released it due to the stinging sensation. When she touched her swollen lips, the moist sensation of his gentle caresses came back to life.

A man whose mood differed so drastically between morning and night.