Chapter 32

To him, these humans seemed to be just bugs. A greedy, ignorant flying bug.

A beautiful dirty object which he’d like to burn.

The young man’s lips twisted with disgust.

At that moment, the body of Braman Duff, who was crawling on the floor, sprang up. The folding knife, which was hidden in the sleeve, straightened and immediately poked straight into Nocton’s neck.

However, it was a knife he noticed even when he was sleeping, so it was absurd to get caught when he was completely awake.

When Nocton’s eyes shone brightly, a dark fog formed.

The fog went into Brahman Duff’s mouth as he ran toward Nocton and squeezed him inside.

Braman missed the knife and fell to the floor. The man’s body was distorted by a fit of seizures.

‘Never kill anything. Understand? It’s a promise!

‘

“That’s a good thing. I drank holy water that day. I almost killed him.”

“Ahhhh! Please spare my life, please! Please! I’m sorry, Your Grace, Duke Edgar!”

“Yes, I shouldn’t kill people, Valrose.”

Braman Duff’s pleas were not heard, and Nocton recalled an imaginary face.

He bent his mouth to laugh, but he did not laugh.

“But, as long as I don’t kill.”

Morality beyond that was already an area that Nocton abandoned, so he had no choice but to rationalize it.

***

The weather has turned cold quickly.

The leaves stained with autumn colors crumbled with the chill, and when it was hot, the sky that had poured out rain stalks became quite dry. The sole became even thicker, and the outer garment was covered with rich fur.

I was quite fond of this season’s attire.

If they were buried in a bundle of rich, fluffy fur, I might find even the lousy aristocrats cute.

Nevertheless, today is not all that sweet.

“My lady, why don’t you change your necklace, too? The necklace looks modest compared to the De Les.”

“I can’t do it because it’s matched up with Aaron.”

I shrugged my shoulders at the white crystal necklace decorated around my chest.

This kind of necklace certainly goes well with a clear and clean image. Like Alice or Aaron.

Sadly, however, today’s Alice will not come with the white crystal around her neck.

Well, there’s no need to overturn the crazy rumors of a love triangle.

I’m just going to dress appropriately.

She was so afraid of Nocton that she wouldn’t leave the crystal behind to go to a place where she might meet him.

“It’s a pity because more colorful looks suit my lady better. Oh, I’m sorry for the careless words.”

“No, I thought so, too.”

It was a necklace with a purpose, but I couldn’t tell her, so the necklace became a couple items with Aaron. Though it seemed unworthy in Sadie’s eyes.

It would have been a little unpleasant if other maids were interfering in my outfits, but Sadie has my heart because of the years she had accumulated in my side.

“I’ll refer to your opinion when I get married, Sadie. “

Of course, the match for the marriage won’t be Aaron. As of today, the probability will be 0%.

Nevertheless, Sadie smiled gladly as if she was comforted by the remark.

“Thank you, lady. I’ll be up when Sir Claymore comes.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Sadie left the dressing room and I looked in the mirror again.

I’ve been a little thin since I’ve been involved in a lot of other things, the power of makeup didn’t make me show much.

Rather, I think it’s gotten prettier.

Today, I wore a green satin dress with my shoulders exposed. As the frills and lace patterns were colorful, the upper part of the chest looked a little empty.

Usually, when this happens, I put a necklace to distract the eyes, but the necklace of white crystal looked rather plain.

I even thought of wearing clothes that matched the necklace, but I can’t because it doesn’t suit me.

It doesn’t matter if the necklace is simple or fancy.

It’s my face that’s really gorgeous.

I thought I’d laugh if someone else heard it, but I was serious.

Anyway, what matters was not how beautiful I looked at the ballroom. Some time has passed since the bizarre meeting, in which two of the three vomited blood, and it has become a peaceful winter.

At that time, I knew a lot of things so suddenly, it seemed like something would happen right away.

The day after Alice returned from Ernhardt, I greeted Alice with a thank you letter from Aaron.

And I heard a lot of stories from her. The story of Nocton and the black magic itself that Alice saw in her foresight.

This time I listened steadily without interrupting her.

Nocton Edgar is a black wizard. For him, holy water is like poison, and the divine power that gives blessing to others is like a blade.

It sounded like a monster story, but an innate wizard said that it was because of the different mana traits from others.

It was said that the white crystal necklace would protect the body to some extent from Nocton’s brainwashing, hypnosis, and any possible curse magic.

Even Alice didn’t know exactly how far his power was, but at least he wouldn’t be using the power to break the crystal with the eye to see.

‘So please don’t provoke him. If you’re not confident, you can avoid him.’

‘I thought that was only applicable on the balcony.’

‘Yeah, I guess I said that in a way. I’ll be clear this time. Absolutely, no matter what happens, do not provoke that person, it’s a lifetime request.’

Umh ….until I knew the true identity of Nocton, I had said a lot worse than that, so I didn’t really understand it. But Alice looked so desperate that I had to promise to avoid Nocton.

Although he may not be someone who can be avoided.

Back to the point.

The types of black magic were as diverse as any other magic, perhaps more than that, and I didn’t know how far Nocton’s powers could reach. He did not seem to be able to use only black magic, and his physical abilities were also excellent.

This was a story that I knew.

I saw the table collapsed. Unfortunately, Aaron was blamed for the table and had to pay for it. Although I reimbursed him with my own money.

The ballroom’s railing wasn’t magic either.

Unfortunately, though, despite the fact that Nocton Edgar was so active, there was not much action to be done on my side. The days of punishing people just because they were learning black magic under the Imperial Law has passed. It is said to have been abolished due to the movement of scholars who advocated magical freedom.

In order to borrow the power of the empire, we had to look at other laws, and even among them, to touch something in position like

Duke Edgar

, the sin had to be a genocide or treason.

When I think about the reason why Nocton approached Alice in the original, it was close to treason, but the existence of the original story was meaningless because I was the only one who knew and could not prove it.

It was also unreasonable to punish him with genocide.

It sounds crazy, but Alice said that Nocton never killed anyone.

‘I can’t be sure, but I think so. The disagreeable employees, his brothers, and the former Duke couple are all alive. All of the immediate blood relatives were sent to the Duchy.’

‘So they can be on his palm without having to kill them? Or can he use them somehow?’

‘Oh, I’ve heard that in my dream. He said that can’t kill anyone and cursed.’

‘I think I’m right. I doubt if he really didn’t. You said you and Aaron were killed in your dreams.

‘

‘

That’s … I don’t know.

‘

When she said so, Alice’s face was blank, perhaps because she was agonizing over it.

I didn’t tell her, but I think it’s a mistake that he doesn’t kill people either.

However, if Nocton’s murder is so rare or absent that he can’t be caught even in a foresight, it would be unreasonable for him to be caught by genocide anyway.

After such talk, we gathered our opinions.

It was the worst conclusion that Nocton could not be dragged down in an official way until he had committed a crime, nor could he be killed in an impotent way.

Well, Alice glowed her eyes to see if there’s another one.

I was not going to speak again, but when I asked, she answered.

‘Then we can set a trap.’

It seemed so absurd that I ignored it.

I also thought about why Nocton Edgar did such a thing.

If he were obsessed with Alice, I would accept it as his way to try brainwash Duke Limorand and get his hands on the Emperor, but unlike the original, it’s me that Nocton was obsessed with.

Did Nocton become obsessed with me because of the test he gave me?

Would he be angry at the momentary backlash against my resistance?

To be honest, neither side touches.

It was a poor conjecture, entirely unfounded.

The most inextricable of all was the one-sided love theory raised by Alice. Even now I still can laugh when I think of the story.

I’ve heard a lot about Alice’s precognitive dreams, about why he does it, how far his abilities are and what’s different from the original, but I’m not sure of either.

And now, instead of being frustrated, I’ve become exhausted.

Alice will keep dreaming, so maybe one day she’ll know.

However, if we waited until the moment when Nocton committed the crime, we thought we would be the victims of the crime, so we prepared some additional countermeasures.

Of course, the best way to do this is not to meet Nocton.

Maybe that’s possible.

Nocton said he had no intention of getting engaged to Alice from the start and indeed, the engagement between Limorand and Edgar was broken.

Aaron, who learned the truth, looked at me as if I had betrayed him when he couldn’t even tell the truth about Alice.

He’s such a naive person.

And Nocton Edgar, the other party, remained silent throughout.

He invited me to a tea party, visited me the day after I woke up, and gave me the holy water. The holy water that he consumed himself to prove there’s no poison.

After that , he tried to kill Aaron, vomited blood, and….

After hearing what was going to happen at the tea party from Alice, I got even more goosebumps, but Nocton was strangely quiet.

I wonder if the aftereffects of the holy water last a long time, or if he is trying to find another excuse.

It is said that no news is good news, but in this case, the caln before the storm seemed rather fitting.

It would be nice if the time passed like this without anything happening.

Unfortunately, there was quite a big event today.

It was none other than the third birthday party of a direct descendant of the imperial family.

Thanks to the current Emperor’s age at 78, the child turning three today was the Emperor’s great-granddaughter.

It was a bit of a delicate position as the emperor occupied the throne until his old age, but if his dysnaty continues, he was the child who would be the ruler of the Empire after the third generation.

That’s why, I had to attend the party.

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T/N: I saw someone asked about this. I explained it before in the Gold Spoon chapter, but I guess I need to put it here, too.

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You probably remember that sometimes I used “Duke Limorand’s daughter”, “Marquis Bornaine’s daughter”, “Limorand’s young lady” and sometimes I used “Lady Alice” or “Lady Roa” instead. Well, the original usually something like “Duke Limorand/Limorand’s 영애”. 영애 means “beautiful (esteemed) daughter”, it used to refer to the daughter of someone of high position. You can think of it as a title.

Why I don’t just use “Lady Limorand” or “Lady Valrose”? Well, that title would refer to the current Duchess of Limorand and Marchioness Valrose. And I don’t want to use “Miss Limorand”, “Miss Bornaine”, “Miss Valrose” because Alice, Sheryl, and Roa are the daughters of Duke and Marquesses. They’re not a mere

miss

. Calling them a Lady and a Miss would make a huge difference in their status. In some other novels, if the Duke is the only one in the Empire or still linked with the royal family, they would refer to the Duke’s daughter with “[Family’s name] Gongju” that means her title is a Princess.

Basic courtesy makes people call them “Lady [First Name]”. That’s the reason why I translated 영애 as “Lady X” or “[family’s name] daughter/lady”, depending on the mood of the situation.

In case you’re wondering about this, after they became friends, Nocton and Roa always call each other with their name, without honorific titles (because they’re close, you should notice that Alice and Aaron always refer to Nocton with his Duke title—Your Grace/His Grace/Lord Edgar). While Roa calls him “Nocton”, Nocton never use her first name and always call her “Valrose”. Calling each other by first name is a sign of closeness, yet Nocton always calls her by her family name (but without honorific such as 영애, only Valrose.)

I hope it makes sense. I’m not the best at explaining something….