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Daniel’s nagging sounded in his ears a little while ago.
“Duke Monette asked me directly. I don’t have to tell you what he asked for.”
He must have asked about his relationship with Witch Hazel.
“Thanks to you, rumors of infidelity have become fait accompli. I told you to stay away from witches, but what if you approach her?”
He didn’t know either. He didn’t remember from the moment she laughed while dancing with another guy.
“Were you really seduced by the witch?”
It would be better if it was something like that, but he who has holy power knows best. The witch did not cast any spells or potions on him.
“Do not forget. You are the Grand Duke.”
He knew. The Grand Duke needed allies. There was no other family like the Duke of Monette who was not an opponent of the imperial faction, and was not inferior to the Grand Duke in terms of military power and wealth. And there was no alliance as strong as that. His head knew that, but the rocket the witch gave him had reached the place where his heart beats. He didn’t even go on expeditions anymore, but he always wore this locket around his neck. He only recently realized that and tried to take it off, but he couldn’t. Just as the first rocket saved his life, he made the foolish excuse that maybe the witch secretly cast a spell to protect him.
In front of his eyes, her face, which had turned bright red when he had caught her fall and put on her shoes, flickered. Didn’t Miss Hazel hate him?
A paranoid patient with delusions of grandeur. A bad guardian who made his younger siblings run away. A pitiful young father. A tight employer. It was all the definition of ‘Elliot Blaine’ that the woman gave.
Whenever she gave a definition that was far from cool, she thought he was cool. But Hazel ran away from him. Perhaps the pale face at that moment was the woman’s true feelings.
Luna must have heard it wrong. It would be a thoughtless statement. Elliot repeated his most rational words. However, his gaze was still on the silhouette in the dark garden, not the fireworks that embroidered the sky. It was foolish.
* * *
“It was so pretty. I liked the rabbit shape the best.”
Lying on her bed, Luna spread her arms and even circled them as she chimed in on tonight’s fireworks display.
“I’ll do it for Luna’s birthday too.”
“Good!”
She closed the storybook and put it on the bedside table, and her child asked curiously.
“Are you going?”
“Huh? When you sleep.”
Luna squinted her eyes and she swiped back on one side of the blanket.
“Hazel, sleep with me tonight.”
“Not because of the nanny rules.”
“That’s for my brother, anyway. I don’t have a lover or a wife because I’m so tight.”
Luna still didn’t know why the rules were so strict.
“I thought he would soon have a lover or wife?”
At her words, Luna tilted her head.
“Do you know the lady of the Duke of Monette?”
“No.”
Well, Luna, who rarely meets people outside of her, would not know.
“I guess he could marry that princess. It seems that it is still only a rumor. But from what I can see, she got along well with His Highness.”
“In my eyes, brother is a better match for Hazel.”
When Luna tried to tie her up with the Grand Duke again, she shook her head, squinting her eyes.
“But he seems to like Hazel?”
“…what?”
Her face heated up again.
“He only plays pranks on Hazel.”
“I guess it’s because he is comfortable around me.”
She might look like his sister because she goes with his younger siblings. The same was true for tying the shoelaces himself, just like he did for Luna and Luca.
“It won’t work out anymore.”
As she said, she looked down again at the shoelaces that had not come undone all night, took her eyes off her, and smiled.
“Anyway, I hope Luna and Luca get along well with Lady Bella.”
“I don’t like it. I want Hazel to marry my brother.”
“Luna…”
Was she too young to know that the Grand Duke would not marry a commoner, or a witch with a bad reputation?
“Then we become a real family.”
“I already think of you as family. Don’t you think so?”
“Of course I think of you as family!”
Even after that, Luna, who had been regretting saying things like ‘even so’ and ‘but’, fell asleep after a while. Hazel kissed the sleeping Luna on the forehead and headed for the door.
“Do you hate my brother?”
The question Luna asked before falling asleep lingered in her mind.
“If you don’t like him, I won’t say that again.”
She couldn’t answer in the end. She opened the door and walked out into the dark hallway, laughing bitterly. People were so deceitful. Because she was old enough, she became overly greedy. Just last year, all she wanted to do was make friends in an unfamiliar world and belong somewhere. After achieving that, she was so cunning that she expected more than that.
“Shall we try strawberry wine?”
It was the moment when she was going to go to the cabin and take out the wine that had been stored there.
“…Your Highness?”
“Miss Hazel.”
She ran into the Grand Duke who was hanging around in front of her door. This again raised expectations.
“What… Are you at work?”
The Grand Duke must have been looking for her, but when he saw her, he averted his eyes as if he had seen a ghost. In the midst of an awkward silence, he suddenly bit his lip and opened his mouth.
“I apologize for the rudeness I committed today.”
“Yes? What are you talking about?”
She didn’t remember the Grand Duke doing anything deserving an apology. However, the moment she asked, his face turned red enough to be recognizable even in a dark hallway.
“What happened at the ballroom.”
“Ah…”
He wasn’t sincere enough to apologize for that. Maybe it was a mistake made while drunk.
“You don’t have to apologize. Rather, you saved someone that could have been hurt, so I have to thank you.”
“Good luck then. Are there any injuries?”
“Not at all.”
“I thought you were very surprised a while ago…”
“I was a little surprised that he was so handsome.”
“…”
“You were so unrealistically handsome. Looking at His Highness, I feel like I’m not looking at a person, but a work of art.”
While the Grand Duke’s expression as he looked at her changed moment by moment, she made a promise.
‘Let’s take care of the Grand Duke. Let him look like an idol. If she has fallen in love with virtue, she will stop even if she falls in love with him.’
* * *
In the morning, the Grand Duke’s palace turned upside down.
“I’m sorry, but please cooperate with the search.”
As the soldiers searched the rooms of the party guests, those who were busy preparing to leave the Grand Duke’s residence were kicked out into the hallway and whispered.
“What happened?”
“They say the holy relics in the vault of the Grand Duke’s chapel have disappeared.”
“Oh my God, it must be an incredibly great relic.”
After completing the search, the captain of the Guard exuded a vicious aura and shouted to the Grand Duke standing in the hall.
“Your Highness, no matter how much I search, I can’t find it!”
“Get the list of guests who have already left!”
“Yes!”
As soon as he checked the list, Elliot led the guards and left the Grand Duke’s residence. Targets that did not go far appeared soon after tracking them.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince!”
Upon seeing the Grand Duke’s flag, the procession of the prince slowed down. Elliot urged her to speak, followed her up to the side of the prince’s carriage, and shouted.
“Give it to me right now.”
“What are you talking about?”
The prince frowned after pulling back the curtains on the window. As Elliot repeatedly demanded that it be released, the prince eventually stopped his carriage.
“Elliot, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Gerald, how long are you going to pretend?”
“How dare you be rude to the crown prince!”
When the prince’s wizard got off the carriage and approached, Daniel, who had holy power, stepped forward to block him. As the prince and the Grand Duke began a full-scale confrontation, tension was rising.
“What are you asking me to give you?”
“The holy relic.”
The moment Elliot chewed through his teeth and spat it out, the prince’s eyes widened.
“A relic?”
“It’s my mother’s keepsake. I beg you, please give it back.”
“No way… the relic?”
“Yes, the relic that your father coveted.”
“That’s true, but…”
The prince foolishly confessed with his own mouth that the royal family coveted Elliot’s ‘holy relic’.
“I didn’t take it.”
“Gerald, I invited you to my mansion as family, how could this be?”
“Not me! I didn’t even know where it was.”
“That, that…”
The mage, who had been contemplating for some reason, murmured.
“It’s a holy relic that has the power to conquer the world…”
At that moment, the face of the man with the holy power to conquer the world hardened. The prince and the wizard said that if the person who stole it threatened the throne, it would be a big deal and offered to find it together. But Elliot asked if they were going to get it first. He pretended to be oversensitive and then turned his back.
“Damn it… Our family is over now.”
He spit out this sound, but the end must have been an attack by the imperial family. It was obvious that the imperial family would not have believed it if there were no holy relics. That’s why, but pretending to have been stolen, he staged a self-made play in front of the crown prince.
“I didn’t think it would be easier than playing with my younger siblings.”
On the way back to the mansion, Elliot laughed so only Daniel could hear.
“Now we can lock the door to the Grand Duke’s palace and hide.”
“Send soldiers to various places and spread rumors that the Grand Duke has completely stopped eating and drinking.”
“I’ll do it according to your command. I already have a feeling that things will go well.”
“By the way…”
Elliot’s face was gone in an instant.
“It wasn’t a very unfounded belief.”
It was true that the Grand Duke had something with the holy power to conquer the world. The only thing wrong was that the thing containing that holy power was a person, not an object. After all, it was Elliot that the royal family wanted to get their hands on.