“Did you steal my refreshments on your way here?”

Before she could comprehend his meaning, cool fingertips gently brushed her lips.

Showing the crumbs on his long fingers, he smirked.

“A maid secretly eating cookies meant for her master is clearly a crime of contempt against nobility.”

Flora, who had been standing dazed, belatedly touched her own lips.

Whether she was the only one who found such natural skinship strange, he quickly moved away and sat on the sofa in front of the table, gesturing to the opposite seat.

“Sit.”

“…Do you need…”

“Instead of eating behind my back, eat there in front of me.”

Hesitating, Flora took a seat on one side of the sofa as instructed and corrected his misunderstanding.

“I didn’t steal any. I ate before coming here.”

“Then you should have at least cleaned those lips before coming before your master.”

The Duke, sitting elegantly with his long eyes downcast, said.

“Coming with crumbs so obvious… Anyone would find it suspicious.”

His soft, deep voice was closer to light teasing than scolding.

“It’s fine. There’s more waiting for me when I go back.”

“That’s why you should eat more. Here in front of me.”

For whatever reason, the Duke kept urging her to eat the cookies.

Sometimes he would make her spar, and now he was giving her cookies meant for himself to eat in front of him.

Well, even before, he would occasionally eat meals with her, or call her to his office without business and give her his portion of refreshments to eat instead.

Back then, she thought it was just strange favoritism. But only after time passed did she realize. No one else had ever received such favor from the master.

Though she never attributed any special meaning to his particular favor towards her, now she keeps finding herself thinking of different meanings.

“Aren’t you going to eat, Your Grace?”

“Not really… It’s not to my taste.”

Finally, Flora didn’t hesitate and took a cookie with both hands, crunching it.

Having just been taken out while freshly baked golden brown, the cookies tasted even better warm. In truth, her mouth kept salivating remembering the taste of the cookies she had eaten earlier.

The Duke didn’t touch the cookies at all, just taking a sip of the steaming tea.

The plate of cookies was already showing its bottom, with just one left. Only then did Flora look up at him, looking like she had come to her senses.

“You ate alone without even offering me a taste, so why not finish that last one too?”

He had no desire to taste such cookies anyway.

If it were something else, then perhaps.

Flora tilted her head, contemplating. Now that she had eaten mindlessly, she finally looked like she was wondering if it was okay.

Her blue eyes blinked several times while staring intently at the cookie.

However, when the Duke nodded once more, she took the last cookie, taking it as permission.

Flora gently parted her lips and put the cookie in her small mouth, chewing slowly.

Claude watched her while crossing one long leg over the other.

Flora really ate well for such a small body, making one wonder where all that food disappeared to.

As her lips moved while dissolving the cookie, her occasionally visible red tongue looked tempting.

He suddenly laughed at the absurd thought that came to mind.

Crazy bastard.

He chuckled with a deep voice.

How was he any different from those pathetic men he used to mock? Those fools who lost their minds at the sight of any pretty woman.

It was too worthless that he felt the desire to press his lips against her soft-looking skin in this situation.

Though he tried not to attach any meaning to it, since that night, he somehow became conscious of her, and he deliberately averted his gaze to gaze outside the window.

Flora glanced at the Duke after finishing the last cookie.

His face, which had looked somewhat tired just yesterday, had a healthy complexion today. Perhaps that’s why he looked even more noble than usual.

‘By the way, Flora, do you have someone you like?’

Suddenly, Mary’s words from the morning echoed in her ears.

When she heard Mary’s question about whether she had someone she liked, Flora had unconsciously thought of the Duke. She was truly surprised herself, as she had never thought of him in that way.

Even though she was ignorant in these matters, she did have clear likes and dislikes.

But she remembered how when the Duke’s gentle touch reached her, her mind went blank and all her senses slowed down.

Was that what it meant to like someone?

Flora inadvertently thought of words that could never suit her while looking at the Duke’s eyes barely visible under his long eyelashes.

His eyes, which turned white in the light, were sometimes cool like snow but occasionally shone with mysterious colors that were incredibly beautiful.

At that moment, the Duke turned his head and their eyes met.

Her quiet heart began to pound.

Flora ended up lowering her eyes in confusion. The feeling of discovering unfamiliar emotions within herself for the first time was very strange and bewildering.

Then the Duke spoke.

“From now on, if you spot the messenger bird first, report directly to me without waiting for Heriot.”

“Ah… Gugu?”

“Gugu? I see you’ve even given it a name.”

The Duke, turning his head back, asked with an expression that found it peculiar. Her sense of naming, giving such a name to a falcon rather than a pigeon.

His tone suggested it was unnecessary, but Flora thought differently. Previously, when she had discovered the messenger bird before the Duke, she had managed the falcon in its cage for a while after delivering the note.

After spending several days feeding it, she had grown attached and given it a name on her own.

“It would be pitiful without a name.”

Claude, quietly watching Flora as she murmured, recalled what happened a few days ago. The nonsensical things the Emperor had spouted.

“Your name. Do you know who gave it to you?”

Flora carefully traced back her memories.

When was it? It must have been around the time when her skills became known and she started being sent to battlefields.

“The first to use it was… the vice-commander. After that, more and more people started calling me that.”

“Then what were you called before?”

“Hey, you there, hey kid, you…”

There were various calls, but none of them were proper names. No one was close enough to give a name to a young girl, and besides, it was a dangerous zone where people would typically disappear the next day.

“…Sometimes ‘slave’ too.”

At the mention of ‘slave’, a line briefly appeared between Claude’s smooth brows.

Flora herself seemed unbothered, responding matter-of-factly.

“There was this man who picked a fight about what to call me, and when I said I had no name, he said he’d call me slave then.”

Though slavery had disappeared from the empire a century ago, the term hadn’t been completely eradicated.

There were still many low-ranking mercenaries involved in illegal activities, and those who were kidnapped and sold at high prices to nobles were commonly called that.

The more he heard, the more Claude inwardly clicked his tongue, seeming to confirm the notorious reputation of the Western region.

He too had been angry at the imperial leadership’s decision to suddenly send Marquis Pahelo, who was then the Western Commander, to the North, and put some baron who had never held a sword in his place.

With the departure of Commander Pahelo, known for his loyal and upright character, the military discipline must have become quite a mess.

Well, since it was a place crawling with ignorant men who gathered only for money besides knights, it was easy to imagine the crude language that must have been exchanged.

It was surprising the West hadn’t collapsed. In any case, she didn’t seem to know that the Emperor had given her name, so he chose not to bring it up.

Instead, he brought up a different topic.

“In five days, there will be a celebration for the Emperor’s birth at the imperial palace.”

She was already well aware of this from what Mary had been saying for days. But what followed was unexpected.

“I’ll be taking you with me then.”

“Is it… possible for me to enter the imperial palace?”

She didn’t have the proper status to formally enter the imperial city. While she could serve as his guard at the mansion as a maid, the imperial palace was a place where only those with strict permission could enter and leave.

The Duke, lowering his teacup that he had been about to drink from, slightly raised his chin as if it wouldn’t be a problem.

“Who would dare challenge you when you’re by my side?”

He spoke casually while carefully observing Flora’s expression. He wondered if she might show excitement since she had met the Emperor before, but nothing showed on her face.

“I’ve already told Deverik, so there’s nothing else you need to prepare.”

“Yes.”

Flora, who had answered obediently, looked at him, seemingly asking if that was all. However, his lips had long remained nobly sealed.

“You may go. Tell Michael he did well.”

Flora’s eyes gradually lowered as she watched him pick up the documents that had been on the desk again.