Chapter 4. Blossoming II
Thud.
A heavy sound hit the Duke’s desk.
Flora raised her eyes to look at the Duke upon discovering the familiar object. He gestured toward the item with an expressionless face.
“Take it.”
It was the dagger that had been taken from her shortly after she arrived here. The dagger that Flora always carried seemed well-maintained despite everything, as it shone brighter than before.
Flora held the blade he handed over to her chest as if it were something incredibly precious. Her white knuckles trembled slightly as she gripped it tightly.
It was an excessive reaction for merely receiving back a knife handle. Though even to his eyes, the blade with its delicately engraved rose vine pattern along the blade was quite high quality, but it was still just a blade.
Finding it unremarkable, he got to the main point.
“From now on, you’ll be in charge of my nights.”
“Your… nights, Your Grace?”
Flora looked puzzled, not immediately understanding. The woman who had just minutes ago given a renowned knight trouble now had an innocent look with clear eyes.
“You’ll guard me while I sleep by my bedside. That’s why I’m returning this to you.”
When told she would now attend to him at night, Flora blinked and asked again.
“…All night?”
“Sleep beside me if you get drowsy. If you have enough sense to wake up when an assassin intrudes like last time, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
Having witnessed with his own eyes that her skills were not merely proficient but extraordinary, Claude had rather thought this way.
It was certain that someone had planted a spy here. Since he couldn’t stay awake all night indefinitely, he decided to keep the most trustworthy person by his side.
Flora also fit this role, having previously guarded him while he slept under the influence of drugs.
“If anyone suspicious approaches, subdue them immediately without waiting for my orders.”
Flora’s expression, which had been bright upon receiving back her dagger, changed ambiguously.
“This isn’t right.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m a maid.”
“It’s not much different. Consider it as attending to my nights.”
Though she clearly seemed reluctant, the Duke had roughly anticipated this kind of response from his maid.
Her cobalt-colored calm eyes, which seemed somewhat familiar from his childhood, were gently veiled then revealed by her long eyelids.
“This is an order.”
The voice of the man in the position of power was arrogant.
“You need only obey.”
As if her answer didn’t matter at all.
As soon as Flora bowed respectfully and left, Heriot entered as though he had been waiting.
After glancing at the blade in Flora’s hand, he rushed to Claude’s side and asked.
“Why did you return that to her? What if she causes trouble again?”
“You said she’s matured. And there are things I need to verify.”
A few days ago at this hour, Claude had his condition checked by Enoch, the family physician.
Upon hearing that he had slept for over 8 hours without waking once, Enoch completed his examination and provided a precise answer.
‘There are no traces of any other drugs being administered.’
The result was the opposite of his assumption. He had firmly believed she must have done something while he slept, but Enoch explained there were no traces of any other drugs.
‘However, it appears Your Grace inhaled about three times the usual amount of sleeping incense.’
What were the chances that the drug he secretly used and the one the perpetrators used were the same?
Flora’s hypothesis that information had leaked through someone belonging to this mansion, and that they had shown the thoroughness to increase the dosage during infiltration, was convincing.
‘Then are you saying I slept like the dead because I took too much?’
‘That’s… rather strange.’
Enoch paused as if truly perplexed.
‘While it’s commonly thought that increasing the concentration of sleeping incense will make one sleep like the dead, Rahel flower is completely different.’
There were various herbs and incenses that induced sleep, readily available in the market. However, Enoch had specifically recommended Rahel flower for separate reasons.
First, the sleep-inducing properties of Rahel flower were virtually unknown. Second, it was a dangerous medicinal ingredient not generally recommended in academic circles.
Third, despite this, it had shown some effectiveness for the Duke.
‘I mentioned this before. Rahel is highly addictive, and even a slight increase in dosage can cause hallucinations leading to manic episodes…’
‘Then… you’re saying I could have risen in an unconscious state.’
‘Though you may have appeared to fall into a deep sleep temporarily, I guarantee Your Grace would have been in no state to sleep quietly.’
Enoch added his personal opinion that with this level of intoxication, he must have woken up in some form.
‘In such a case, is it possible that I wouldn’t remember waking up?’
‘It’s not entirely impossible.’
He recalled discovering Flora in his arms only after regaining consciousness. Perhaps she hadn’t thrown herself into his arms, but he might have forcibly touched her.
But that too seemed somewhat far-fetched. It made no sense that a woman with such skills couldn’t escape or resist him in his drugged state.
‘Have you ever had a proper night’s sleep since taking that medicine? It’s not a drug that helps by increasing the dose.’
As Enoch’s explanation continued, Claude felt his thoughts becoming more complicated.
‘This is difficult to understand. Even if I had woken up intoxicated that day, my physical condition was the best it had been in recent times.’
That day, his body felt more than just refreshed — his condition had been exceptionally good.
Having finally gotten the basic sleep that humans need, even his persistent headache disappeared and his mind was clear. Although someone had interfered,
He believed it was because of the medicine, but if that wasn’t it, then what was it?
‘As you know, this medicine only helped alleviate Your Grace’s symptoms compared to other drugs. If you were able to get such deep sleep, which was difficult despite trying various methods for a year, there must be another cause.’
At the physician’s words, Claude inevitably thought of Flora.
In his hazy memories, all that remained was the fact that he had held her.
‘Perhaps this is an opportunity to find another method. I’ll prepare to gradually reduce the medicine.’
Though he would prepare the liquid medicine for now, Enoch advised looking for ways to quit the medicine altogether before withdrawing.
“Your Grace, I really can’t understand. Why assign that task to Flora when there are perfectly capable knights…”
Claude lowered his cool gaze as he emerged from his memories at Heriot’s question.
“You expect me to sleep with dozens of people watching? That would surely help with sleep.”
“Well, that’s true, but… still, Flora is…”
“She took down four skilled fighters alone.”
Having already had information leaked once, he had no intention of involving many people in this matter. Moreover, as long as suspicions about Flora remained, he needed to keep her close and watch her for a while.
“By that logic, Baren would be perfectly capable too, wouldn’t he? If we send a messenger bird now to summon him…”
“With all those soldiers under him, if I called him up here, would the other nobles stay quiet?”
Baren, the knight commander of the Heinst Knights, was still stationed in the southern territory on Claude’s orders.
While the knights from each noble house recruited to the southern territory returned after the war ended, most of the separately volunteered soldiers chose to remain. Claude had absorbed them into his private army.
While the ducal house had sufficient wealth to support them all, another reason was the Emperor’s suspicious behavior in hastily summoning only the commanders to the capital.
Historically, purges followed the end of wars. Though such things didn’t happen this time since they had lost the war, it didn’t hurt to be careful.
The country’s atmosphere was still unstable from the war’s aftermath.
While the capital’s nobility maintained smiling faces in public, they privately checked the Heinst family’s considerable private army.
“The moment Baren leaves his post, the nobles who’ve been watching us will speak up, and immediately there’ll be orders to absorb our forces into the imperial army.”
Heriot let out a groan at the situation they could neither advance nor retreat from. Knowing this, Claude had chosen Flora as the next best option.
“Even if it means disbanding the private army, I have no intention of handing my knights over to those fools.”
Once something was within his territory, he had no intention of surrendering it to anyone.
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