YSGD 25

Chapter 25

Was it because Betty’s metaphor had been too powerful?

My plan to greet the maid in a friendly way failed miserably.

I could only stare blankly at the woman who came storming in, fuming.

As always, she was dressed in dazzling finery, and her complexion was turning red and blue with anger.

She truly resembled a peacock—beautiful to the point of absurdity.

She’s pretty today too. But why is she so angry?

That was the moment I was trying to guess the reason.

The maid marched up to me and, in an instant, stood right in front of me, shouting.

“You think I wouldn’t know you’ve been cheating behind his back?! I’m the one who belongs beside the Grand Duke! You vulgar wench!”

Suddenly, a rough hand flew toward me.

“Huh?! Me?!”

What the—she was angry because of me?!

I hadn’t done anything!

But in that instant, the Grand Duke’s words from earlier flashed through my mind.

“Don’t underestimate the security of the Grand Duke’s castle. I’ve already received reports that he was seen with you.”

“Someone even informed me… that he is your secret lover…”

Don’t tell me… the spy was my maid?

She’d never even been to the cabin!

But right now, worrying about that was a luxury.

The maid reached for me as if to teach me a lesson, and the classic K-drama cliché—hair-pulling—was about to be unleashed.

“Stop.”

In an instant, instead of the furious woman’s face, a solid, broad back filled my vision.

It was the Grand Duke.

I couldn’t see his expression clearly behind the warm, towering human wall he’d placed in front of me, but I heard the maid’s trembling, tearful voice perfectly.

“Why do you always take her side, Xenos?!”

“Is there a problem with me taking my wife’s side?”

“Hah! ‘My wife,’ you say?”

“Yes.”

“……”

Hiding behind him, I was barely holding back the urge to throw up.

Ugh… ‘my wife’…

Is this guy more conscious of how others see him than he looks?

He was like this at the festival too.

He’s really trying hard to look like we’re a loving couple!

And yet…

Despite my sarcastic thoughts, my face and ears kept growing hot.

“Don’t act so insolently, just because you’re a maid.”

My heart suddenly started pounding.

Why would he say something like that and make people misunderstand?

No wonder Peacock Maid was furious!

I quietly shifted the blame onto the Grand Duke and watched the situation unfold.

Whether I cared or not, their argument only grew louder.

“Our Hugo family has served the House of Celeste for generations! We are a loyal family that has remained faithful for centuries! So how can you protect that Blanche girl—no, that cursed bastard child—to this extent?!”

“That judgment is mine to make, Katarina Hugo. And you can’t exactly claim you entered as the Grand Duchess’s maid with purely noble intentions.”

“T-That’s…!”

It was a clash of titans.

A battle between dragon and tiger.

Both of them were so fierce, it was as if they’d forgotten I was even standing there.

I slowly began backing away… then quickly slipped through the crack of an open door and hurried out.

A few maids stared at me wide-eyed, but thankfully, that was all.

There was no one who could stop this situation.

And that certainly wasn’t going to be me!

Whatever. I don’t know, and I don’t care—this is my chance to run!

I didn’t want to get involved with any of them!

In times like this, the classic strategy was best:

Run away.

* * *

“This is so unfair!”

Sob, sob!

With tears streaming like chicken droppings, Katarina finally turned her back and ran out of the library in defeat.

But the man who had technically won—Xenos—felt not even the slightest joy.

Of course.

It had only been a pointless war of words, with nothing gained.

“Haa…”

Xenos let out a deep sigh, looking even more exhausted than before.

Then he turned toward the small woman who should have been trembling behind him with wide rabbit-like eyes.

“Rene Blanche, are you alri—”

?

She was gone.

Rene, who had been shaking just moments ago, had disappeared.

Xenos’s gaze darted around in confusion, and one of the maids, equally flustered, confessed.

“Y-Your Grace… the Grand Duchess already left quite a while ago…”

“A while ago?”

“Yes… she slipped away when Your Grace’s argument with Lady Katarina began…”

“…Haa. Good heavens.”

So she just ran away from the fight that started because of her?

What kind of woman is she?

He’d thought she was unusual, amusing even.

But experiencing Rene up close went beyond the limits of common sense.

Xenos could only sigh repeatedly in disbelief.

Because of Katarina’s sudden appearance, he hadn’t even been able to bring up the real reason he came here.

A dragon, really?

He lowered his gaze to his sword sheath.

There, engraved in fine relief, was the crest of House Celeste.

The Celeste family emblem, passed down through generations, depicted a massive fortress wall and a dragon.

The reason for that was…

So that strange book she was reading wasn’t meaningless after all.

Xenos picked up the book he had taken from Rene:

The Pact of Celeste and the Dragon.

To place Albert Rembrandt on the imperial throne, the first Grand Duke, Lucas Celeste, had formed a secret pact with a dragon.

With that overwhelming power, the founder of House Celeste supported the first Rembrandt Emperor completely, and ultimately triumphed in the long struggle for supremacy.

The details of the pact were passed down only to the family head.

But over time, the glory tied to the pact faded, and Xenos never learned its contents.

It was fair to say the original pact had long since been broken.

Tired of madness and having abandoned everything, Xenos once thought it was better that the pact’s glory had ended…

But…

What if dragons truly exist?

Then the recent reports of monsters appearing could no longer be dismissed.

Magic, dragons, monsters—concepts thought long extinct—suddenly resurfacing…

Would that be a blessing for Celeste?

Or a disaster?

At the same time, a red-eyed woman surfaced in his mind.

The bastard child with red eyes said to bring ruin upon the family.

And a dragon appearing before her.

Could there be some secret in the pact passed down through my house… something even I don’t know?

The thought brought another sigh.

“Damn it.”

There was only one elder in the family he could ask.

A few months ago, when his marriage to Blanche had been finalized…

“What? A granddaughter-in-law from Blanche? I’d rather have dirt in my eyes than witness such a thing!”

She had exploded in fury and vanished without a trace…

His grandmother.

“Haa…”

Rather than feeling reassured, Xenos had the uneasy sense that things were only going to grow worse.

But what choice did he have?

Rushing to his office, pressing down on his throbbing headache, he gripped his pen.

To write a letter.

* * *

Not long after…

Far from the northern region of Celeste, in the southern coastal area of Pielle—

Caw—caw—

An afternoon filled only with seagull cries and crashing waves seemed peaceful, like another world entirely.

“Mm-hmm-hmm~”

On a hilltop villa overlooking the breathtaking sea,

In a garden carved entirely from luxurious marble, an elderly woman hummed softly while enjoying a leisurely tea time.

Her name was Diana Celeste.

“This new tea is quite delightful.”

Unlike Xenos’s chaotic thoughts, she was enjoying a truly peaceful moment.

The only elder of House Celeste.

“Lady Diana.”

At that moment, a neatly dressed butler approached slowly.

In his hands was a silver tray holding a letter and a paper knife.

Diana’s eyes narrowed slightly as she sipped her tea.

“A letter has arrived.”

“Just toss it somewhere. Old ones can be burned, for all I care.”

Without even glancing at it, Diana continued speaking.

Her voice was gentle, but her words were cold.

Only her wrinkled hand, stirring sugar into her tea, moved busily.

“But… Lady Diana.”

“It’s probably Kale again. Or that whining Katarina. Am I right?”

“There are letters from Lady Katarina… and Sir Kale, yes, but…”

“Of course! I’m officially recuperating, am I not? Tell everyone not to contact me. It disrupts my mental health.”

She stirred her teaspoon irritably, full of complaints.

But the butler’s next words made her freeze completely.

“Th-This time… His Grace Xenos has personally reached out.”