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“I came to meet Young Duke Bolton. I have something to consult with him.”
“As the young lady of the Miller Duchy?”
“As an academy student meeting a professor.”
He seemed to be offended by the words meant to erase his political views.
He made a wry expression while brushing his straw-like disheveled hair.
“Looking at Young Lady’s recent movements, even those who don’t know will wonder if you are looking for the Professor as a student.”
“Then wonder. You’re free to wonder.”
It was a waste of time to speak to someone who was nitpicking for nothing.
“Well, I’m only here to meet the Professor, but I can see a lot of room for interpretation if you stop me from going to see the Professor.”
His shoulders flinched.
As I took that as an opportunity and moved forward I felt an intense stare sticking from behind.
There were quite a lot of people stealing glances at me, not only him.
It was better to not attract attention at this rate, but I had to walk across the drill hall to reach the room where Young Duke Bolton was in.
The knight of the Black Knight Order who was on guard in front of the door saw me and raised his brows.
Unlike the student before, the knight’s fierce eyes were different.
“I came to see Professor Bolton.”
Although he looked like he was unhappy with my presence, he, as a guard, had no cause to interfere in meeting the ‘professor’.
When the door was opened, I could see Samuel Bolton looking down at documents.
Him not raising his head even though he had definitely noticed my presence from outside clearly meant that he was ignoring me.
How could father and son show such a similar response?
It was a response that didn’t differ at all from that of Duke Bolton in my dream.
“I came because I have something to ask, sir.”
His head turned for the first time.
The sharp gaze slowly moved to me.
“Since I’ve been letting you off a few times, it’d be good if you stop yourself from showing in front of my eyes.”
“Did you perhaps already know me before the hunting competition?”
At first, I thought it was only because I was a member of the Miller family.
In the street and in the academy, he lifted his sword toward me without hesitation.
As if warning me.
Although at first, I thought it was a warning toward Jeremy, and the next was to all the useless people who were sucking up to him.
Perhaps, from the first time, his sword was always directed at me alone.
At the end of a long silence, he opened his mouth.
“Why do you think so?”
“No matter how hard I think about it, pulling out your sword even though the Crown Prince wasn’t there isn’t something you should do.”
The Imperial family’s sword.
The guardian’s sword.
In other words, it meant that he would not draw his sword for personal reasons unless it was for protecting the Imperial family and something that would shake the existence of the Empire.
Samuel Bolton, faithful to the principal, was merciless ‘toward me’.
Simply put, it meant he was aware of me.
The slightly curled end of his hair suddenly caught my gaze.
On humid days, the ends of my hair would curl inward as well.
He opened his mouth towards me, who was trying hard not to think about it.
The emotionless voice entered my ears.
“What does that have to do with you?”
“I want to ask if the reason you’ve already known about me is because you have met my mother a long time ago.”
He didn’t give any answer to the words I said calmly but then slowly raised his body.
The eyes of the man, who approached me, scanned me.
“Even if that is true, it has nothing to do with you.”
“Does it really have nothing to do with me?”
The man then slowly pulled the hang sword.
The metallic sound grazed my ears quite strongly.
“You are dull-witted.”
“. . .”
“You should have known that it is unwise to ask me for confirmation.”
My hands shook.
The best I could do was to straighten my back to pretend not to be shaken.
He looked past me to the drill hall beyond the window and continued,
“Have you never thought that you living without knowing anything is the way for your mother to keep her life?”
Mom described me as a ‘shackle’ in the dream.
If there was any reason for Duke Bolton to believe in her, she said that was because this child was alive and existed.
In other words, to the Duke, I was none other than a hostage to move her.
The sensation under my feet disappeared as though time had stopped.
I stared absentmindedly at the back of Samuel Bolton, who turned away from me, while feeling distant that I didn’t know where I was standing.
“Even if you find out anything, or confirm it, nothing will change.”
At such a young age that he couldn’t even come to my waist, he had recounted my mother’s ‘value of use.’
“Shut your mouth.”
“. . .”
“If the dog thinks and raises its head toward its master, it’s not a dog. If the dog that knows too much loses its use . . .”
For the first time, murderous intent lingered in his emotionless eyes.
Although his words turned faint, the gaze that was intense more than anything else reached me.
Don’t try to find out and stop right here.
His warning was clear.