/
Of course, I was taken aback by Amber’s unexpected remark, which I thought would be strange. I thought people would look at it strangely.
No, that was certain. After all, we were brothers and sisters in the family register. However, when Amber said that there was no problem, who was usually thorough in manners, my confused head became more confused.
I really couldn’t understand the standards here. Did she think that we’ve already fallen in love as brother and sister
?
It may not be something to say as he already kissed my lips.
“But, we are still siblings.”
At my feeble protest, Amber burst into laughter.
“Lady is still too much.”
“What?”
“In the Leonis Empire, close marriages are still possible. The Imperial Family had a close marriage, too.”
“What?”
“You do know that the Empress has silver hair, right?”
“Ah
”
Come to think of it, the Empress also had silver hair. Perhaps, it was because I had the thought that all the Imperial Family members had silver hair, I overlooked that important fact.
“
Really?”
Seeing Amber with eyes trembling with shock, I replied with a lost face.
“It’s strange. Surely, you have finished studying history, have you? The nobles put importance on close marriages in order to strengthen their bloodlines. Of course, close marriages were rampant about a hundred years ago, but in the imperial family, the Emperor and the Empress had the most recent close marriage. Now, it seems that there are quite a few love marriages as well as arranged marriages.”

Wow, I didn’t know that.
Why didn’t I know? I must have learned it in history class in the South, right? Did I fall asleep back then
?
Embarrassed, I drank the rest of the iced tea at once.
“So, Lady.”
Full of bewilderment, Amber called me in a secretish tone.
“Yes, why?”
The atmosphere got tense.
“I am always on the Lady’s side. So, do as you please.”
“
Thank you.”
Her words were so encouraging. It was something I had always wanted to hear before possessing this place. Even though there was a rush of emotion, I pressed it firmly and smiled bashfully.
I learned again that I could even shed tears of joy.
* * *
On a leisurely afternoon, Camila and Pedro were drinking tea together at the orangerie in the garden full of white roses. The two of them met after a long time while living together in the Duchy, and they drank tea without talking for a while.
Then, it was Camilla who spoke first.
“Now that you have handed over the dukedom, what are you going to do?”
As was customary, the two predecessors did not have to be in the Duchy. The predecessors who passed on their seats to their successors from old times returned to their estates, and those who had a good relationship as a married couple went on a trip together.
Pedro turned the teacup round and round for nothing, and then he answered slowly.
“You?”
“
I want to stay longer until the child is settled. He won’t be able to manage the internal affairs yet.”
“Yes, it’s hard to do the Duke’s work and internal affairs management at the same time.”
“
I’m sorry.”
Camilla knew what Pedro had done when he managed the internal affairs and his own duty when she was living in seclusion. Thinking about it now, she may have been expressing her apology in her own way.
“You don’t have to be sorry. I’m the one who has nothing to say to you.”
Camilla rolled her eyes at his calm words.
“Don’t you hate me?”
“
I don’t know.”
“Even if it was me who tore you apart with the Liam you love?”
“
Even if it wasn’t for you, it might have happened someday.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. It is an empire where close marriage is possible, but same-sex marriage is absolutely impossible. It seems that there are many people who enjoy that in secret now, though they are still desperately hiding it.”
Camila could not respond to Pedro’s words. He put down his teacup and stared blankly at the white roses that bloomed around him.
She also drank her tea without further ado, admiring the roses while thinking thought it was the first time she had had such leisurely tea with her husband. Feeling the quiet and moderately cool breeze, he suddenly spoke his words.
“I abandoned Liam first.”
As Pedro said, she listened quietly. Still looking at the white rose, he murmured calmly.
“I couldn’t afford to abandon the Dukedom, so I followed my father’s instructions.”
“So, that’s why you feel indebted to him.”
Pedro did not respond to her words and thought about the past for a moment. As he stared blankly into the air, he confessed at once.
“I killed him.”
At this sudden confession, Camilla put down the teacup she was holding.
“What? No, it was just a carriage accident
”
“No. He killed himself before that.”
“
What?”
Camilla was confused. She clearly knew that the Count had brought Rachel when Liam was killed in the carriage accident.
But. what did he mean by that?

He killed himself?
Camila stared at Pedro incomprehensibly. Still handsome at his age, he was gazing at her with a grim expression.
“Camilla
 You did not fulfill your duty as a Duchess, right?”
“
Yes, I’m really sorry about that.”
At his sudden rebuke, she couldn’t raise her head. She had forsaken the duties of a wife and a mother, pitying only her own past. Because of the wrongs she had committed then, she could not now be qualified to be a wife or a mother.
“So now, I have to tell you. Even now, I have a secret to tell you, who is in charge of the Duchy of Leon.”
She didn’t answer and waited for him to speak. Although Pedro’s face was still full of haggardness, only his eyes were vividly alive.
“In the Empire, there are people who are citizens of the Empire but are not citizens. In short, they should be called possessors.”
“
What is that?”
“It’s a strange thing that has been passed down since our ancestors. People who should have died are reborn, borrowing someone else’s body.”
“
.”
“Liam committed suicide the day I abandoned him, though Liam’s body didn’t die.”
Camilla couldn’t keep her mouth closed because the story he was only telling now was unbelievable.
“The person I loved died that day. And yet, as I watched the man of his flesh marry another woman, I felt unbearable jealousy
 When actually, I threw him away first.”
“Then, who is that person?”
Pedro gently wiped his face at Camilla’s question. He had a hard time just recalling the memories of that time. Even though he tried to find their identity, finding the possessor was not an easy task at all.
“There are certain rules for this bizarre thing. It was said to be the ancestor of one’s own family. The person who possessed Liam’s body was Count Erland’s first head.”
“Does Rachel know about this
?”
“No. I wish Ray wouldn’t know.”
“
How could such a thing happen?”
Camilla’s hands trembled. She couldn’t control it, so she grabbed her own hand instead. Seeing that, Pedro went closer and took her hand.
“On this matter, only me and the Emperors know. Oh, yes, the Empress also knows
 so shouldn’t you, too?”
“
Honey.”
Camila couldn’t stop the tears from welling up.
It wasn’t until twenty years after she was married that she seemed to be the true duchess. Pedro couldn’t hug the sobbing Camlila. He couldn’t do that much, so he just grabbed the small, delicate hand and patted it.
“There is one thing to keep in mind. There are characteristics of possessed people.”
“Yes, please tell me.”
Wiping her tears away, Camilla answered.
“I don’t know if you’ll be able to meet them, too, so if there is a noble who exhibits such a peculiarity, please tell me. I haven’t told Lucian about this yet.”
“Yes, I understand.”
He spoke to Camila, who replied with determined eyes. Words that are the only clues he had found so far.
“The possessors always say the opposite. We call cold things hot, and sometimes we do things the other way around. Maybe, it’s like they couldn’t break the habit of being a ghost?”
“What in the world is that
”
“For example, the possessor I met recently said something like this.”
Pedro got up. Before he got up, he didn’t forget to tap the back of her hand one more time.
It seemed to warm Camilla’s heart with just that alone. In the meantime, she had suffered a long heartache because of it, yet she wanted to forgive him for everything in that little act.
He picked up the teapot on the table and poured it into the cup she was drinking.
Camila wiped away the tears and burst into a small laugh as she watched him turn one of his hands behind his waist like a servant. She never thought he would have such a playful look. Wasn’t he the one who always had a cold expression on his face
?
Camilla gazed into the clear, yellow succulent tea he had filled.
It was her favorite darjeeling first flush.
“Do you like this tea?”
“Yes.”
Camilla’s cheeks flushed shyly at his words, knowing he knew her favorite tea.
“Then, you will know better than anyone. The unique aroma and taste of this tea.”
“Sure.”
“What if there are people who drink this tea and say that it has a good smoked flavor?”
“Smoked?”
Camilla was a little surprised. Was there anyone who expressed the sweet and fragrant grass-scented tea like that
.?
“Who is that?”
At her question, he put down the teapot and smiled deeply.
“Noah de Castilla said so.”
Pedro’s eyes, who hated the possessor, flashed fiercely.