Ian mentioned this until the very end as he walked away with light steps.

Only after Ian’s back figure, waving his hand leisurely, completely disappeared did Flora release her tension and rush urgently toward where Claude was.

When Flora hurriedly returned, Claude was sitting nonchalantly among the corpses of the assassins. Being as strong as he was, he looked unharmed as expected.

Flora approached him in one stride and asked with relief.

“Are you alright?”

“As you can see.”

Claude, who seemed to have been waiting for her return, rose from his seat and responded casually. Then, after calming and bringing the startled horses, he asked indifferently.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No.”

Flora handed him the sword.

“Who were those men?”

“I checked, but there was nothing on them.”

Though his suddenly stiff attitude seemed strange, Flora soon attributed it to the aftermath of the surprise attack and nodded heavily. Without asking further, she mounted her white horse as Claude got on his.

When Claude was about to grip the reins, he suddenly spoke.

“By the way, did you kill all the other men?”

“……Yes.”

Flora answered, lowering her gaze without realizing it.

Claude stared at her with an unreadable expression for a while before turning his head.

“Then let’s depart.”

Leaving behind the place that had transformed from a romantic location to a horrific one, Flora spurred her horse. Lifting her hair blown by the night wind, she gazed blankly at the back of the duke riding ahead.

She had inadvertently lied in response to Claude’s question earlier. She didn’t want to tell him that the assassin who had escaped that day was once her comrade.

To be honest, she couldn’t admit it. She didn’t want to burden him any further, and she feared he might view her differently.

She absolutely didn’t want to face his gaze if he were to look at her differently.

* * *

By the time they returned to the mansion, dawn was already breaking in the east.

Amidst the servants who had come out to greet the master’s return with bowed heads, Claude dismounted from his black horse with a thud and strode inside.

Heriot and Baren, who had been waiting in the hall, initially brightened but quickly asked when they noticed the blood splattered on Claude’s clothes.

“Your Grace, whose blood is that?”

“Did something happen?”

“It’s nothing, just follow me for now.”

Ignoring even the butler who said he would prepare bath water, Claude walked briskly up to the second-floor stairs without even thinking of changing his clothes.

Heriot, who was well aware of the duke’s outing, asked with his eyes what had happened, directing his gaze at Flora. Flora calmly began to speak.

“We were ambushed on our way back.”

Heriot, whose expression suddenly hardened, urgently followed the duke. Only then did Flora move her heavy legs, feeling the fatigue that had crept up on her.

The butler patted her shoulder and said.

“Good job. Go in and get some rest.”

“I’m fine.”

Though her body felt like it weighed a ton, Flora politely declined. She was only worried about Claude’s state of mind.

While she felt relieved that he was safe, she also carried the heavy burden of not having told him about Ian. Flora stared blankly in the direction Claude had gone.

She was unbearably curious about what he was thinking now and what conversation he was having with his subordinates, but it wasn’t her place to intrude.

Soon, her weary footsteps headed toward her own quarters.

* * *

Claude summoned Flora that very night.

Entering the office, Flora quietly sat down in a chair, seeing the duke and his adjutants gathered. In the subdued atmosphere, Claude asked.

“How did you survive the Krant operation?”

Since operations with major names among the minor battles were few, Flora immediately remembered that operation.

“Do you mean the mission where we raided an area suspected of containing enemy military supplies?”

Claude nodded as if to confirm.

Though she found it strange that the duke was asking about her time as a soldier, which he had shown no interest in before, Flora calmly explained the battle in detail.

“There were two orders from the superiors. One was to divide our forces to cut off the enemy’s supply route, and the other was to raid a military warehouse reported by informants. I was safe because I was carrying out the mission to cut off the supply route.”

“Was the assumption about military supplies there correct?”

“No. It was false information. It was their trap from the beginning.”

There was no need to hide such content. She didn’t know why he was suddenly asking about that day, but as he had been the southern commander, he would already know this much information.

Flora closed her mouth with a suddenly bitter taste. The 4th Division, which had participated in the warehouse raid operation that day, was completely annihilated.

When she heard the news, she was in the middle of destroying a bridge used by the enemy. By the time she rushed there following the superiors’ orders, there were only corpses everywhere and no trace of weapons to be found.

“……I see.”

After Claude responded, Baren, who had been listening quietly, continued the questioning.

“At that time, the one who divided the mission into two was the baron who was the overall commander, I heard.”

“Yes. That’s right. The commander at the time opposed sending all the troops because he couldn’t trust the credibility of the information.”

Looking at the three people’s serious faces, Flora could only wonder why they were asking about another incident rather than yesterday’s ambush.

“Um…… Master. Have you found out anything about yesterday’s attack?”

“That’s still being investigated.”

At the response that suggested he had nothing more to say, Flora closed her mouth.

Seeing Claude’s poor complexion, Flora’s lips trembled. She wondered if she should confess now that she had met Ian, but from across the room, Baren gestured for her to leave.

Flora looked at Claude, her eyes asking if he had anything more to say. However, he wasn’t looking at her, as if lost in thought.

“I’ll take my leave then.”

Finally, unable to bring up the matter, Flora rose, opened the door, and quietly bowed. Through the closing door gap, the duke’s face, not looking at her, seemed rather cold.

“The marquis has noticed, sir.”

As soon as Flora left, Baren couldn’t hold back and blurted out. Claude’s cold expression sank in an instant.

“That’s what I suspect too. Seeing that he knew I was going there, it must be the marquis. The men who came to the mansion last time were probably his work as well.”

“……Was Marquis Sternbrow such a despicable person?”

Heriot muttered as if he found it hard to believe. He seemed greatly shocked that the marquis, whom he had thought was just a corrupt official steeped in greed, had repeatedly sent assassins.

“If he’s sending people after us, he definitely knows we’re on his trail.”

There was a reason no traces were found despite a thorough investigation into his activities: the mistake was assuming the marquis had no reason to kill him.

Claude, who had been confident that the marquis would never discover he was investigating him, reversed his judgment. Once they had touched the Heide Guild, there was no way the marquis’s side wouldn’t have caught a suspicious scent.

“I told everyone to be so careful……”

“Even though we moved secretly, we mobilized too many people.”

As Heriot groaned in distress, Claude cut in as if past matters weren’t worth worrying about.

“……But he probably doesn’t know that the tip about the Krant operation was fabricated by our side.”

“He won’t know everything. He probably just thinks I somehow caught a whiff of something.”

Claude roughly opened a drawer, pulled out a cigar, and sat down heavily in his chair. After taking a deep drag of the cigar, he looked at his adjutants standing with grave faces.

“As soon as the next messenger bird arrives, have them find out about Flora.”

“You suddenly…… want us to investigate that woman?”

“I need to know about her circumstances in the western garrison.”

Since there were people currently carrying out secret orders in the western region, he needed to verify Flora’s words again.

“Yes…… Let’s do that.”

Without explaining further to Heriot, who seemed confused, Claude instructed Baren to thoroughly investigate the whereabouts of the Heide Guild master.

After Baren and Heriot left the office one by one, Claude closed his tired eyes. The memory of last night’s ambush came back to him.

He had cut down the enemies more quickly than usual. From the moment Flora deliberately lured away a considerable number of enemies and disappeared, he had acted somewhat hastily.

After subduing all the enemies that way, he immediately ran into the forest, frantically searching for her.

It overlapped with the moment he had searched for her in the rainy city. No, he was incredibly irritated from the moment she had to use her sword again.

After running for quite some time, he discovered Flora confronting a man from a distance.

Just as he was about to hurry forward with relief that she was safe, he saw the opponent reveal his face and talk with her.

Due to the distance, he couldn’t hear the content of the conversation, but at a glance, the two seemed to know each other. Moreover, the man didn’t show any hostile attitude toward Flora.

After watching them for a while, he silently returned to the original location and quietly waited for her to come back. Though unavoidable suspicion crept up, he deliberately erased each doubt one by one.

Flora would explain.

Knowing her blind trust in him, all he had to do was wait.

After an unknown amount of time had passed, she returned.

However, Flora didn’t say a single word of what he had so eagerly anticipated.

Rather.

‘Did you kill all the other men?’

‘……Yes.’

She looked straight into his eyes and lied.

Until then, she had claimed to care for him with clear eyes, but now she deceived him without the slightest change in expression.

At the maid’s betrayal—whom he had believed was solely his—he concluded he had been too complacent.

Claude’s pupils turned cold as he heavily lifted his eyelids.

Snap!

The body of the cigar in his hand snapped with a crack. Soon, his lips twisted, disregarding the ash that fell with a soft sound from the stick completely crushed by his fierce grip.

He was as cynical as he was clear in his judgment.

Even though he had consciously avoided wondering about Flora’s identity until now, the thought that he must investigate now began to sprout.