/
Dillian readily accepted my request.
“Now, miss Ria is also the owner of Sinaize, so you don’t have to ask my permission, you can do as you please.”
I facepalmed at his attitude, saying that we are on an equal footing and he even gave me the key to the safe.
“What if I rob the safe and run away?”
“I know you won’t.”
“Of course!”
“And I can’t help it if you run away. It’s my decision to hand over the key. Maybe every night, I will shed tears of pessimism because of being betrayed.”
Dillian pressed the corners of his eyes, pretending to wipe the tears away.
Wow, you’re going to cry a lot. And will come after me and try to cut my throat.
It isn’t just me, Nathan and Dillian’s lieutenants, Neison, looked at his face with a chewed expression.
“I feel very tired when I’m with him. Ria, let’s rob the safe and get out of here.”
“So that means the ruler of power has changed. Madam. From today onwards, I will dedicate my loyalty to you.”
I shook my head at the sight of the two spitting out different words.
“I don’t need it.”
I hurriedly threw the key that was cutely wrapped in a red ribbon, at him.
Neison’s loyalty also declined.
“Seems everyone has gathered.”
I looked down at Neison’s words and swallowed my saliva.
‘… Isn’t that too many?’
I expected that there would not be one or two employees, but I was suddenly worried about the unexpected scale.
‘Will I be able to sleep today?’
A rough road was expected, but I couldn’t give up.
I rolled up my sleeves and took the employees’ hands one by one.
Time passed like that, and the night was thickly dark.
“Are you really saying that all these people were attacked by that monster, madam?”
I nodded at Neison’s words, who was bewildered by the sight he was seeing.
A total of five people fell asleep in the hall as if they passed out.
They varied in gender, age, and occupation.
Servant, maid, driver, knight, and chef.
Neison, who had always liked the chef’s cooking, grabbed his neck without realizing it.
“Your Grace, aren’t you poisoned?”
“Don’t worry. It’s simply the sharing of sight and hearing. Only information was stolen, no poison….”
I waved my hands saying not to worry, but shut my mouth at the hypothesis that came to mind.
They might have found out what Dillian’s favorite food is and then secretly swapped it out, aren’t they?
“Madam, why have you stopped talking?”
“… I thought it might be.”
“Huh! Then, didn’t I eat it too?”
Neison trembled, wondering what to do if poison had accumulated in his body.
But surprisingly, no one paid any attention to him.
I finally reached out to Neison.
“Come here, lieutenant.”
“Me, me too?”
“Of course.”
Except for Dillian and me, everyone could not escape from the list of suspects.
I grabbed Neison’s crooked hand as if snatching it. Then Neison closed his eyes.
I wonder where I have seen this familiar scene, it looked exactly like the figure of a child who went to the dentist to treat cavities.
‘You’re already grown-ups, why’re you so scared?’
When I forcefully grabbed his shaky, trembling hand, his shoulder popped out.
“Don’t worry, count to three and it’s over.”
I comfort Neison with deceitful words the dentists used to on a daily basis, but he secretly retreated back as if he had been hurt many times.
‘But still, I got his hand.’
I released my divine power and examined his body.
As expected, his body was clean.
“It’s normal.”
As soon as I let go of my hand, Dillian grabbed my shoulder and pulled me away from Neison.
“Why….”
There was no end to the question.
What’s with that face? It’s so burdensome.
“I can see why people were surprised when they held madam’s hand….”
Didn’t you want to run away? I laughed when I saw the hand that was touching me pulled up to his chest and hugged it tightly.
“It’s so warm. It’s like being in a mother’s arms at birth, argh!”
“Shut up.”
Dillian slapped Neison in the back of the head, asking where he was spitting out such a blasphemous, creepy sound.
And started wiping my hand that hold Neison’s hand with a handkerchief.
Still not satisfied, he grabbed my hand.
“Why?”
“Disinfection.”
“Your Grace, treating people like germs is a bad thing.”
“I am worried that you may have a bad disease.”
Ignoring Neison completely, Dillian woven his fingers into mine.
Dillian, with his hands entwined like a noose, approached with a languid smile.
“Am I really don’t have to do it?”
“… Are you serious?”
Dillian, who was born with a curse, can’t be beaten by the shards of Darkness.
Even when I saw him turning the Darkness that was rushing at me into a skewer at once, he was brazen.
“Phew, how could I not find a cute side to him?”
“Talking Owl-nim. Please cancel what you just said.”
As expected from the loyal lieutenant…!
“If His Grace gets a cute side, it will be the day of the end of the empire.”
Loyal, huh? He’s just a scaredy-cat.
As the two of them clapped and agreed, Dillian’s eyes didn’t seem to fall from me.
Of course, I could see the gap that he showed a will to fight the two of them later, but now the priority was me.
“Miss Ria. I may have swallowed the shards too.”
“… Okay.”
But even though Dillian said so, both Dillian and I were sure he didn’t swallow it.
So I instilled the divine power in a different way than I did to others.
Dillian, who immediately recognized that something was different, widened his eyes.
“What was that just now?”
“It’s a blessing. I don’t give it to anyone.”
The effect was various, but it was mainly effective in recovering from fatigue, improving stamina, and calming wild emotions.
Right, this was a gift for Neison, whose throat is about to be blown away.
Unaware of that fact, Dillian looked at me with a very moved face.
My conscience pricked me, leaving Dillian behind and examining the shard from the bodies of those who had fallen.
‘Those were all different sizes, but those were all over 15 days.’
It was a week ago I set foot in Sinaize.
“I think it was aimed at sir Dillian, not me.”
“I see.”
He couldn’t have known and predicted that I would come with Dillian a month in advance.
He was targeting Dillian from the beginning. It is to keep an eye on him.
That meant the person the Darkness had contracted was the one who was at odds with Dillian.
It was clear they made Dillian to be tied in Wilhelm and took advantage of it to steal information about the Duchy.
“Do you have any idea who it is?”
“There’s no way I don’t know.”
Lexter, that bastard.
Dillian’s eyes, who recognized the culprit at once, were burned.
***
A red stream of water ran down his pure white face.
The man who stole the red liquid dripping from his eyes with his carefree hand murmured.
“I finally got caught.”
The man burst into laughter and headed to the bathroom.
Swoosh- When the flowing stream of water washed away the blood that had stained his face, the red water was sucked into the sink.
From the quiet bathroom where only the sound of water could be heard, a ferocious laughter erupted out of nowhere.
The shards he had planted in the Duke of Sinaize disappeared in just one day.
When he thought of the woman’s face approaching, the raptured purple eyes lit up hazy.
Her soft, swaying platinum hair, her blue eyes that seemed to make him fall for her, and the warm scent still seemed to linger on the tip of his nose.
“As expected, she’s amazing.”
The man looked at his face reflected in the mirror and then closed his eyes.
Then, the shadow fluttered under his feet.
The body that was holding the sink collapsed, and the vision was turned upside down.
Then, in an instant, the place changed.
“Lexter.”
Lexter, who had just fallen asleep, woke up with a sigh.
“… Do you have no concept of time? Why don’t you be polite?”
Lexter saw a thing walking out of the dark and wiped his face.
No matter how many times he warned him not to show up suddenly, he always did it like this.
‘No, it’s funny to say to be polite to a curse in the first place.’
He asked the ‘Darkness’ while pressing tightly under his tired eyes.
“Why did you come in the morning?”
“The shards planted in the Sinaize Duchy have been destroyed.”
“What?”
Also, Lexter’s eyes, who had been ignoring it, opened his eyes.
“One during the day, and all five have just been removed.”
“I definitely heard that you have said with your mouth they would never find out, aren’t you?”
“That was before Ria intervened.”
“Ria?”
Lexter, who had frowned at the unfamiliar name, raised his eyebrows saying he remembered it.
“That woman on Dillian’s side? Did she get rid of it?”
“Yeah.”
Come to think of it, they said that she had special powers.
If it was enough to remove even the shards of Darkness, she was no ordinary person.
Lexter rubbed his chin.
“I thought that Dillian was crazy because he was engaged to a woman who is a commoner and has nothing much to see. So, she’s useful, uck!”
Suddenly, the Darkness rushed in and grabbed Lexter’s neck.
“Watch your mouth. Commoner? A woman with nothing to see? It’s not a name that can be spoken by a trivial thing like you.”
The Darkness tightened Lexter’s neck. Lexter’s face swelled red at the strong power. And soon it started turning blue.
Oh, I can’t do this. In the end, the Darkness loosened his strength.
“Cough. Cough, ough.”
“I almost killed him.”
That’s a problem. Remembering how hard he got this opportunity.
The Darkness murmured as he looked at Lexter’s red eyes contorted with pain.
“After all, I liked your eyes….”
Feeling sorry for it, the Darkness clicked his lips.
Lexter swallowed his saliva at the sharp fingertips that approached him with a force to dig into his eyes.
“Coward, don’t worry. Because the eye that I want is another one.”
The Darkness biting his hands slowly, hummed joyfully.
Lexter looked at him with tired eyes.
“The plan has gone awry, what’s so good about it?”
“Ria went up to the capital on her own feet, and of course it’s good. What do you think, Lexter? Should I go see her in person?”
“It’s useless. Do you know how much Dillian is shielding her? They are guarding her 24 hours a day with stricter security than the Imperial Palace.”
“So what, it’s over if we kill them all.”
“Do you have the power to do that? Don’t make any fuss.”
Invading the Duke of Sinaize, which even the imperial family can’t touch? You have to say something that makes sense.
It’s never going to happen. It was a dangerous act for Lexter as well.
If everything he has done so far is revealed, he might be kicked out of the House of Blent, as well as the Duke of Sinaize.
It was dangerous enough just to be caught trying to dig up the duke’s information.
“If your identity is revealed while installing it for no reason, it’s a big deal, so take care of yourself.”
The Darkness is strong. But he hasn’t found all his strength yet.
Knowing this, the Darkness sometimes acted recklessly.
‘What the hell is that woman that can make Dillian and this guy get out of their mind?’
Lexter, who had reached the limit of his patience, waved his hand in annoyance.
“If you really want to meet that woman, go to the founding festival.”
In the next two weeks, one of the biggest events of the Rohaim Empire, the founding festival, will be held.
Everyone will relax in the splendid festival that lasts for as long as a week.
“She will come out of that fortress at least once.”