Shaula was terrified and followed me. I checked the time as my mood subsided.

It wasn’t even seven yet.

I threw myself back on the bed, then got up with resentment in my heart.

“Do you know how hard it is to go back to sleep once you wake up? Take responsibility!”

Shaula glanced at the door nervously.

“Can I take responsibility by disappearing from Your Grace’s sight?”

“No way? You’re trying to run away because Aedis is coming.”

Anyway, she was a really unreliable escort knight. I put on my shawl and stepped into the hallway to shake off my sleepiness.

“…… Shaula, I can see that you’re trying to widen the distance slowly.”

“Tsk.”

Shaula gave up her escape and walked next to me.

Through the window, the bell tower was seen wrapped in a soft ray of light. It seemed that the seal was released in a very quick and swift manner.

I wanted to go and figure out the situation myself, but I was still dazed and so put it off until later.

I was sure my husband would have figured it out.

As Shaula was maintaining our leisurely pace, someone suddenly called me from the side of the stairs.

“Your Grace!”

Knights rushed toward me and prostrated themselves. Each of them had a sad look.

“What are you doing here?”

Procyon, who had the worst expression, shed tears over a runny nose.

“Your Grace, please kill me.”

“What’s going on?”

“I can’t be a knight. I can’t even protect Your Grace…….”

Is that why they were all huddled up on the stairs? Shaula guards the bedroom, and the knights guard the hallway and stairs leading to the bedroom?

Even though I didn’t feel guarded at all.

“Sir Agena, please help Sir Procyon…….”

However, Agena also had a shameful face.

“Forgive me.”

“I was all right. It’s nothing now.”

The knights did not seem to believe me at all. Even Shaula clicked her tongue.

“Your Grace, saying something like that with a half-faced countenance is not convincing.”

I took all the beast’s blood without leaving a drop so I was quite refreshed…….

The butler and the chief handmaid, who were waiting in a nearby room, also appeared because the conversation was quite loud.

“Your Grace!”

“Why are you out so early?”

No, why is everyone looking at the scene like a critically ill patient rushed out of the hospital room at will?

Burdened, I turned to my bedroom.

However, their worries did not go away, so I had to go down to the dining room under the utmost security at breakfast time.

At the dining table, Aedis and Regen arrived one step ahead. I saw them both and smiled warmly.

“Lord!”

“…… hello.”

It wasn’t the usual greeting. There’s no such thing as a good morning.

I tilted my head and sat down next to Aedis.

Regen was silent throughout the meal. The amount of food that was spilled was more than what went into my mouth.

Regen’s dazzling eyes were fixed on me.

“Lord, do I have something on my face?”

“Oh, no… … .”

Then what is it? Were you uncomfortable?

Thinking about the conversation we had yesterday, I thought that might be the case. I got up.

“Aedis, I’ll just go up. Lord, please continue.”

Then Regen, who I thought would relax, got up after me.

“Your, Your Grace.”

“Yes?”

“Can you spare me a moment?”

Huh? Weren’t you uncomfortable?

“Are you asking for a date?”

“Da…… There is something I want to tell you. Father, too.”

I made eye contact with Aedis for a moment.

“I see.”

We dismissed all the attendants and employees, making the room quiet.

Aedis fell into silence while Regen was choosing his words.

He watched Regen with deep sunken eyes.

He had the same face as when he checked to see if the brainwashing on Monica had worked out.

I felt a tingling sensation in my skin, as if a light electric current was flowing in the air, but as soon as I frowned a little, that feeling disappeared.

Aedis sighed and pulled out a comb. It was my hair brush.

“…… Aedis, where did that come from?”

“I always carry it with me.”

Aedis answered calmly and brushed my hair. Then, in the same way, he pulled out a hair tie from some unknown place and tied it up.

Regen still didn’t open his mouth.

“Lord, aren’t you eating?”

I pushed all the desserts on the table toward Regen.

As if my tender voice had been a signal, Regen spewed his emotions like a wave of water.

“…… As expected.”

It didn’t seem to be a positive emotion.

“What?”

“As expected, Your Grace is not my mother.”

“…….”

“How can someone like Your Grace be my mother?”

“…….”

Before I could even guess what he meant, Regen ran out.

Aedis said to me, who had turned into ice.

“He wouldn’t have meant it that way.”

“What is…… that way?”

Suddenly, in a great emotional shock, my voice trembled.

“It wasn’t a temporary brainwashing like the one with Lady Elaine, so I couldn’t break the connection with him, but Regen seems to be resisting.”

“But I don’t think he was brainwashed with what he just said.”

“Eve, I think.”

I took a breath and spoke with a casual voice.

“Will you follow Regen? I’m fine.”

“…….”

“Aedis? Please. I’m worried about Regen.”

“I’ll be right back.”

Aedis said so, knowing that I didn’t want him to return quickly. Soon, I was left alone in the room.

“…….”

Regen must have a hard time resisting Kadan, but I guess I pushed him too hard.

But I couldn’t let Regen out of the castle, even if I was hated more than I am now.

That’s what I was prepared for when I decided to take Gilbert’s aura anyway. I had to strengthen my heart.

I also left the room after swiping my face.

I did not return to the bedroom.

I stood in front of the door in a place that even the employees would avoid.

I didn’t even knock, but the owner of the room swung the door open first.

“Your Grace? Why is your face like that?”

“Shaula…….”

Then the tears fell.

“Your Grace?!”

“Hide me.”

Now, I didn’t want to show it to Aedis either. I didn’t want him to blame Regen for seeing me hurt.

Shaula shut the door when I entered. And on the other hand, she was thinking hard as to how to respond to the request to ‘hide me’ and then locked the door.

“Is this okay?”

Shaking, Shaula grabbed the bookshelf with one hand and dragged it to cover the window.

When I saw the waste of stamina, I realized it was absurd.

“…… All you have to do is close the curtains, you idiot.”

Shaula glanced at the elegantly hanging curtains on either side of the window.

“I don’t know how to move them.”

“…….”

“I would probably tear them.”

Sometimes, she is very good at self-awareness…….

Shaula, who did her best, came to me. There was no substitute for a handkerchief in this room, so I wiped the tears off Shaula’s clothes. I was half-grumpy, but it was me, not Shaula, who felt offended.

“…… Shaula, you stink.”

“I actually forgot, but I have a lot of work to do today…….”

I cut off Shaula’s rambling at once.

“Let’s take a bath.”

“Your Grace, why don’t you just keep crying?”

However, the tears were long gone due to the unexpected olfactory assault.

“Looking at this situation, who would think of you as the former commander of the Grand Duchy and an escort knight for the Grand Duchess! Are you really going to keep going around like this?!”

“Oh, come on!”

“Didn’t you think of running away like before? I am really strong right now?”

I rolled up my sleeves and shoved Shaula into the bathtub.

Wow, how long has she not used the tub, dust was sitting on it.

Just like the bathtub, I dumped the never-used bathing salts and oil into the tub. As the hot water gurgled, Shaula murmured.

“I hate hot water.”

She was not a human but a big dog.

I asked Shaula as I took off her clothes and threw them away.

“Can you also turn into a beast? No, your original form is a beast, is this your disguise now?”

I’d rather understand if that was the case. I remembered Eleonora, who changed from a spider to a man.

“I can’t do such frivolous things.”

Did she just curse at my disciple?

I groaned inside, pouring hot water on Shaula’s head. How did I ever become like this…….

I had no time to be sad about Regen’s remarks. No, the olfactory terror was so great that the sad feelings disappeared in an instant. If there had been a washing machine here, I would have put her in and run the machine without any regrets.

“I will be the only aristocrat to attend the escort knight’s bath.”

In fact, it felt more like bathing a large dog that didn’t listen rather than attending her.

“So, Your Grace, why were you crying?”

I stared intently at Shaula. For some reason, Shaula was more comfortable than my childhood friends Charlie and Monica.

Was it because she felt like a dog?

“…… It must be difficult for Regen to accept me as his family,”

I said bitterly. In front of other people, I called Regen by his first name, but in front of him, I always called him Lord.

“I think it would be difficult for me to accept. I think I’ll be bathing every day.”

“This punk…….”

Instead of crying, Shaula giggled at my face full of anger. As she shifted her position in the bathtub, a large tattoo on her back was revealed.