Chapter 175

“Your Highness!”

Archbishop Gilliam interjected hurriedly in surprise, but Duke Carlyle merely shrugged his shoulders.

“No?”

“Just as the Duke says.”

The Pope sighed deeply.

“Genovia was a talented child and sometimes claimed to hear a voice… But who would have thought a child born and raised in Lucerne would hear the voice of an evil spirit?”

Hildegard, who had been talking calmly, furrowed her brows.

“By the time we realized the truth, Genovia’s reputation had soared too high for us to do anything.”

Yet, Duke Carlyle’s expression remained calm.

“So, you left her to die in the fire?”

“…”

“To kill with fire is most painful, and it would yield a good quality Soulstone, would it not?”

“Th-that’s…!”

It was documented in the research records of Marquis Guinness, who conducted dreadful experiments by capturing children with high affinity for spirits.

Be it magical power or divine power, the operating principles are astonishingly similar.

The invisible energy is ultimately a wave of emotion, and subjects emitted the most energy when they felt intense emotions like pain or sorrow.

So Marquis Guinness abused the children to obtain good quality Soulstones, and the priests overlooked the fire.

To Juliet, it seemed like poor Genovia died accidentally, but that wasn’t the case.

“…Did you come here to verify the known facts?”

“Well, I got curious.”

Lennox frowned.

“Aren’t you curious about what would happen if it’s revealed that the amazing ability shown by the child of prophecy is not divine power but the power of an evil spirit?”

“Duke! You are threatening the temple now!”

The Archbishop was infuriated, but Pope Hildegard asked calmly.

“What do you want, Duke?”

“Now the conversation is getting somewhere.”

Lennox Carlyle grinned.

“My conditions are two-fold. First, take hands off Juliet. And the second is-“

* * *

A moment later, Duke Carlyle and his close aide Hadin exited the main hall leisurely.

“…How did you know?”

“What?”

As they moved further away from the palace, Hadin quietly asked the Duke.

“About the weirdness of that Soulstone.”

“Ah.”

Instead of answering directly, Lennox habitually loosened his bowtie.

“Because Juliet sent me the Soulstone.”

It was when Lennox temporarily lost his sight.

To save him, Juliet stole the treasure from the great temple and sent it to him.

Juliet might not have realized as it was her first time touching a Soulstone, but Lennox knew something was off.

The energy filling the pendant wasn’t pure divine power.

It astonishingly resembled the waves of magical power emanating from Juliet.

“But I only became certain recently.”

Lennox rubbed his eyes as if tired.

Specifically, it was after seeing Pope Hildegard acting benevolent and taking good care of Juliet.

“Those hypocrites never look after a lamb without a reason.”

To Juliet, they acted as if they were returning favors, like because ‘Juliet was endangered due to Sebastian,’ or ‘because Juliet saved Pope Hildegard’s life.’ But Lennox suspected why the Pope was trying to win Juliet’s favor.

In reality, they were targeting Juliet.

“Perhaps they became certain when Juliet summoned butterflies using a Soulstone in Lucerne.”

Though extremely rare, people with similar magical waves existed.

Upon seeing Juliet summon a tremendous entity using Genovia’s Soulstone, Hildegard must have been thrilled. She might have thought she could exploit Juliet Monad like they did with Genovia, but that hope ended today.

“By the way, I thought this Soulstone was with Miss Juliet.”

“Right. The real one is with Juliet.”

Lennox replied nonchalantly without smiling.

“This one’s a fake.”

“…Excuse me?”

“It’s a replica, but identical. Juliet knows a skilled craftsman.”

It was a trick Juliet used to trap Marquis Guinness.

* * *

Duke Carlyle returned home the next morning.

“Your Highness!”

Having just returned to his office, Lennox was briefly startled by the warm welcome.

The head secretary of the Dukedom, Elliot, had been dozing off in the office and stood up to greet his return.

“Have you just returned?”

There was a good reason for Elliot’s welcome.

The loyal head secretary had waited all day in the empty office for Duke Carlyle’s return.

“Miss Juliet went out to buy a boutonniere earlier.”

“Boutonniere?”

“Yes, a men’s accessory.”

Recalling, there was a custom of gifting such in the Yudo Purification.

But Lennox showed no particular interest.

“But she returned empty-handed. Aren’t you curious about whose hands it ended up in?”

Beyond the partition, Duke Carlyle, who was changing his clothes, glanced at his fussing secretary and opened his mouth.

“Elliot.”

“Yes?”

“Stop fretting and bring me some tea.”

“…Yes.”

Elliot pulled the bell cord to summon a servant.

And while pretending to wait for the tea, he stole glances at the Duke.

‘It doesn’t seem like the two are fighting or on bad terms.’

Somehow both Duke Carlyle and Juliet seemed to be engrossed in something.

Since returning from a short outing, Juliet had been shut in the annex, and Lennox was rarely home.

‘Something’s happening, but I don’t know what it is.’

What fueled Elliot’s curiosity was that even the knights of the Duke’s house seemed to be busy, their faces hard to come by.

Knights like Milan or Hadin seemed to know something, but they had no business in the mansion.

Somehow, Elliot, being an administrator, felt like he was being excluded.

“Oh, by the way, I heard that the venue for the banquet has changed.”

“I know.”

Duke Carlyle answered dryly.

The banquet commemorating the Purification Festival was highly eventful.

Normally it would be held lightly at the imperial palace, but for some reason, the venue was changed a day before the event.

The new venue was a seaside palace two hours away from the capital.

“Will it be alright?”

“What?”

“The Yuno Purification Festival has always been held at the imperial palace because court magicians monitor the imperial palace. But suddenly changing the venue to a seaside palace, in case there is a magic circle installed or something…”

Knock, knock.

Hearing the knocking, Elliot habitually opened the door.

A moment later, Elliot regretted opening the door thoughtlessly.

“I brought the tea as you asked.”

The maid who appeared at the door with a tea tray was familiar.

It was Ronda, the maid Elliot mistook for Juliet in the hallway earlier that day.

Elliot blocked the shy maid’s path and tried to take the tea tray.

“Just give it to me and you can go.”

“…But the head maid instructed to give it directly, you know?”

Ronda bypassed Elliot and placed the teacups on the table herself.

Clank.

An indifferent gaze came over the partition.

“Well, then…”

Ronda retreated nervously, but Elliot couldn’t shake off the awkward feeling.

‘Something is off..’

While Elliot was contemplating whether to talk about the incident earlier that day, Duke Carlyle finished changing and approached the tea table.

But instead of drinking tea, the Duke suddenly said while intently looking into the teacup.

“I haven’t seen her face before.”

“Pardon?”

It took a moment for Elliot to understand, but then he realized the Duke was talking about the maid who just left.

“Oh… she is a new maid who joined recently on recommendation.”

In answering, Elliot got flustered for a moment, and ended up providing more information than the Duke asked for.

“Her name is Ronda. The head maid injured her back so she’s temporarily serving tea instead.”

Having served the Duke Carlyle for nearly ten years, Elliot knew what kind of person Lennox was.

His master barely remembered the faces of the servants, let alone knew their existence unless they had been serving for a considerable amount of time.

The Duke, being seriously indifferent to others, was bringing up the unfamiliar face of the maid first?

Something was definitely off.

* * *

‘Finally…’

Exiting the Duke’s office quickly, Ronda couldn’t hide her excitement.

This is the third time!

Ronda had succeeded in feeding Duke Carlyle tea laced with a potion for the third time in three days. Lennox Carlyle wasn’t someone who stayed at the mansion often, so it wasn’t easy.

But Ronda wasn’t satisfied with just this achievement.

Moreover, today, even if just for a moment, the Duke’s gaze was directed at her.

‘We definitely made eye contact.’

It was clear that the potion was taking effect.

‘Now next…’

Ronda didn’t forget her mission.

Her role wasn’t only to make Duke Carlyle fall in love at first sight by feeding him the potion but also to drive a wedge between the two people in the mansion.

What Ronda pulled out of her pocket was a small perfume bottle.

Was it called White Sandalwood?

The one who provided this was Ronda’s brother, Ansel Hauser, who was also the Second Prince’s aide.

Ansel told his sister that this was an outrageously expensive perfume as he handed it over.

“Cough, cough.”

However, after testing it by spraying a little, Ronda coughed.

“A refined taste? Even knowing it, it’s incomprehensible.”

It smelled like wet wood, or incense burnt in a temple.

Even though it was said to be expensive, Ronda didn’t understand why this fragrance was so pricey.