Rickizen, who was well aware of the rumors from the South, also recalled the Duke’s charismatic presence at the meeting. He was a man who stirred one’s competitive spirit to want to face him in battle.

However, he had stopped now not because of the Duke. The face of the elaborately dressed woman beside him seemed strangely familiar somehow.

‘I don’t remember meeting any noble women from Lezentra……’

He wracked his memories for a while but couldn’t recall anyone, as this was his first visit to not just the capital but the Empire itself, even before the war.

Just then, the delegates spoke again with complicated expressions.

“Sigh…… Seeing how grandly they held this birthday celebration, we should have demanded more compensation.”

“Indeed. We thought the impact would be severe when they handed over the eastern maritime trade rights…… Tch, what makes them so proud when they lost the war? Our princess should gratefully accept it.”

Rickizen, who had been forced to join the delegation by the king’s orders, turned his head with eyes tired of the old men’s grumbling.

“Sir Rickizen, aren’t you coming?”

“……Coming.”

One of the delegates called out. Rickizen responded halfheartedly and started moving his halted feet again, thinking there’s no way he would know a noble woman from Lezentra.

* * *

“Don’t let anyone in.”

Claude said as he quickly passed by the employees who had come to greet him.

As soon as he removed his heavy formal uniform, he sank his body into the hot water that filled the bathroom. Water droplets trickled down from his wet shoulders resting on the bathtub rim.

Though his body that had been unknowingly tense became languid, his eyelids that had missed sleep for days still throbbed.

What a sight.

It was his review of an absurd farce. His eyes darkened as he reflected on himself from several hours ago.

When the two people he thought were surely in the reception room were absent, his adjutant laid out various speculations.

‘Your Grace, could Flora have already gotten into trouble and been taken away?’

He ordered his subordinates to find their whereabouts.

However, the moment he received reports that neither the Emperor nor Flora were anywhere in the building, he immediately left the hall.

‘I’ll be back soon, prepare to leave.’

After dismissing the subordinates who were trying to follow him, he rather impulsively headed to the Emperor’s palace.

There was something that bothered him.

While the Emperor likes to show himself off, he also has a childish tendency to carefully hide things he likes.

Though he admires the strong, he also shows great interest in women, so Claude could vaguely guess what unsavory thoughts he might have.

He quickly climbed the stairs to the floor the Emperor uses personally.

‘But is there really a need to search like this?’

Claude suddenly stopped walking at the thought that struck him.

Was there any need for him to take action personally over the disappearance of just one maid, especially Flora who had left under the Emperor’s orders?

He raised his gaze. The Emperor’s private reception room was right in front. Seeing the guards with long spears beside the firmly closed door, he coldly organized his thoughts.

What would you do if you went in?

Would you dare burst open the door where the Emperor resides? And try to take her back saying she’s your maid?

A sneer rose at his own actions that nearly led to insubordination. She was a woman he had agreed to send whenever the Emperor’s orders came.

In fact, coming this far was already quite unlike him. No matter how foolish the Emperor was, he couldn’t cross the line with his lord whom he serves.

It wasn’t out of fervent loyalty. He couldn’t ruin with his own hands the reason he had been careful with his life until now to prevent his knights from dying in vain, all because of a mere maid.

At the coldly drawn conclusion, he clenched his fist and turned around.

After leaving the building, instead of returning to the banquet hall, he remained there. The hall held no appeal as his chest had suddenly grown tight.

Rather, a feeling that he shouldn’t leave this place held his feet in place. The man’s hot breath burst through his teeth as he suppressed the urge to turn back several times.

He roughly loosened his neatly tied cravat as he leaned his back against a wide wooden pillar in the rear garden.

His labored breathing didn’t ease, and his head started throbbing instead. The Emperor’s unsettling gaze as he looked at Flora kept flickering like an afterimage.

He glared at the building his eyes kept being drawn to while leaning against the tree for a while. The urge to rush in right away prodded him like it would burst out of his throat.

Though he didn’t know what this mad impulse was, it was a sensation he had never felt even on desperate battlefields.

As time passed with his mouth growing parched, his fist clenched with anxiety grew tighter. His fingernails nearly drew blood as they dug into his palm.

Only after such terribly long minutes did he see Flora coming out alone.

His blocked breath finally eased then.

‘Were you waiting for me?’

The soft voice hummed in his ears. He slowly pushed open his closed eyelids.

Just then, he heard the bathroom door click open outside. Only then did he realize he had been sitting in the cooled water for quite a while.

He put strength into the hand resting on the bathtub rim as he coldly erased the continuing reverie. As he raised his wet body, water cascaded onto the floor, thoroughly soaking the man’s powerful physique.

Beyond this door, his maid waited to guard his night.

* * *

The master bedroom was quiet when she entered, wondering if she was late.

Though she thought she had taken considerable time removing her dress and makeup, the Duke had stayed in the bathroom quite long.

Flora finished arranging the sheets neatly and completed preparing the bedding as well. Just as she was untying the rope holding the curtains, the bathroom door opened and the Duke walked out with just a white towel roughly wrapped around his waist.

“You’re here?”

Water droplets rolled down Claude’s firm chest muscles as he spoke casually. Flora quickly lowered her eyes to the floor when she saw the man’s upper body radiating heat.

“Yes. I’ve prepared the medicine here.”

Flora hurriedly gathered the medicine placed on the bedside table and handed it to her master.

Claude swallowed the medicine nonchalantly and glanced at Flora’s face as she avoided his gaze since earlier.

“Why can’t you look at me? Did you do something wrong?”

“……No. I didn’t.”

Flora raised her eyes briefly but lowered them again after seeing his sharply defined abs. The man’s wet skin accentuated his abdominal muscles, making them stand out even more.

Seeing water dripping from his hair ends onto the man’s broad shoulders, Flora handed him a dry towel.

Claude smirked as he read that Flora was conscious of him.

“Dry it yourself.”

“……I should do this too?”

“It’s originally your job. You didn’t even attend to my bath, so you should at least do this.”

Though attending to the Duke’s bath was indeed a maid’s duty, she hadn’t thought of that until now.

With no choice, Flora began wiping off the remaining water on his upper body with the towel in her hand. Even as she wiped slowly, she could feel his firm body through the towel.

While she thoroughly dried him making sure no moisture remained, the Duke just stared intently at her. Perhaps because of his downward gaze, her head felt oddly prickly.

Though she wondered if he had something to say, he didn’t speak further.

Afterwards, the Duke roughly put on a robe and got onto the bed. Flora turned off the lights and sat down in her usual spot.

The room was quiet with any conversation cut off.

Silently looking at the empty ceiling, Claude wondered what conversation had passed between her and the Emperor that she would hide it even from him.

The continuing reminiscence led to Flora’s figure as she danced holding his hand familiarly in the banquet hall. An amnesiac soldier who could read and knew how to dance.

He broke the silence first.

“Is there no sign of your memories returning?”

At the sudden question, Flora took a moment to choose her words before speaking.

“I tried taking the medicine prescribed by the military doctor who diagnosed my amnesia, but it wasn’t very effective.”

“I see.”

Claude’s eyes lowered slightly.

“Where did you learn swordsmanship?”

“At first, I learned by watching the knights from afar, and later I asked the strongest-looking comrade to teach me.”

“Your skills couldn’t have improved that much just from learning, especially from someone who had never held a sword before.”

“……They said I had talent.”

Flora repeated to the Duke what Ian had once told her.

“Natural talent……, something like that.”