Chapter 11
The oil lamp in the bedroom toppled over in the wind, feeding the flames even more. Acrid smoke quickly filled the room.
The temperature rose, and the surroundings rapidly became unbearably hot.
“Cough!”
Her eyes stung, and coughing burst out involuntarily before it became difficult to breathe. Of course, it wasn’t particularly frightening. She had once been trained by a teacher hired by the Pope.
Back then, she had been tied up with ropes and forced to escape from a burning abandoned building.
‘Still, it’s hard to endure with the body of a five-year-old.’
Maybe because her body was so young, holding her breath for long periods was difficult. Her vision blurred from all the smoke she had inhaled.
‘My body can’t endure as much as I planned.’
Well, it didn’t matter anyway. Today’s plan had never been to safely walk out of here on her own two feet.
Just as Leponia’s consciousness began to fade—
Chaos suddenly erupted outside the bedroom.
‘He came.’
Duke Craytan, who apparently hadn’t gone to sleep yet, must have noticed. As an Aura Master, he had sensed it immediately, just as she expected.
‘At least this part is going according to plan.’
The commotion outside the bedroom escalated into complete pandemonium. Then, with a loud crash, someone kicked the bedroom door apart.
She wanted to open her eyes and see who would recklessly charge through the flames, but her eyelids refused to move.
A hand pushed through the fire and gathered the limp Leponia into its arms.
That large hand was trembling fiercely with heat. After several more crashing sounds, cool air finally brushed against her skin.
It seemed they had escaped the flames safely.
The large arms held Leponia tightly. Startled by the unfamiliar embrace, she instinctively inhaled deeply after holding her breath for so long.
“Cough, cough!”
A rough cough burst out as though she had swallowed soot. She knew it would be safer to wash her hands, face, and mouth with water before breathing deeply, but the body holding her trembled so much that she made a mistake.
“Your Grace!”
“My Lady!”
Panicked cries rang out from every direction.
“Bring a doctor and water! Immediately!”
A fierce command thundered above her head. The sound of countless footsteps running around pounded in her ears.
‘…The Duke?’
Leponia forced all her strength into her eyelids and slowly opened them. Even though she knew she shouldn’t before washing her face properly.
She wanted to see the face of the person whose trembling arms held her so tightly.
“My child.”
Duke Craytan’s face entered Leponia’s narrow field of vision. Perhaps because he had rushed into the flames to save her, soot marks stained his face.
The hands embracing her, the trembling body holding her—it had all been Duke Craytan.
The moment their eyes met, Duke Craytan urgently called out to her.
‘He could’ve just extinguished the fire.’
Leponia frowned slightly. She had expected him to act in order to prevent rumors from spreading that the adopted child had burned to death in the Craytan estate, tarnishing the family’s honor.
But there was one thing she hadn’t anticipated.
‘Why did you come in personally…?’
Instead of extinguishing the flames, Duke Craytan himself had rushed straight into them.
Duke Craytan’s body was an asset of the Empire. If he were injured or endangered, the Craytan family would crumble, and with it, the Empire’s peace and stability.
There was no way that man didn’t understand the significance of that.
“…Don’t worry. Close your eyes, Ponia.”
Duke Craytan covered Leponia’s anxious eyes with a clean handkerchief handed to him by the butler.
All her questions and unease disappeared beneath the soft cloth.
“Leave the rest to this father.”
Leave it to her father? What a ridiculous thing to say.
‘I don’t have a father. There’s no one I can trust enough to leave things to.’
If she had ever had someone to trust, someone she could call father, she never would have needed to do something like this in the first place.
Someone had deliberately thrown perfume into the fireplace of the adopted child’s bedroom, causing the fire.
But it would become an incident with no identifiable culprit.
Of course, suspicion would naturally fall upon the retainers who disliked Leponia, but there would be no evidence proving they had done it.
She could have fabricated evidence to frame the retainers, but Leponia chose not to.
The retainers were loyal to the Craytan family. There was no need to make enemies of them or force the Duke to cast them out.
Just enough suspicion. That was safest for protecting herself.
Until the retainers left, Duke Craytan would devote himself entirely to securing Leponia’s safety, while the retainers—falsely suspected—would become more cautious about hiring assassins.
‘…This is enough.’
Everything had gone according to plan.
Leponia smiled faintly as she closed her eyes.
Then her consciousness slipped away.
Leponia slowly opened her eyes.
The first thing she noticed was the unfamiliar canopy above her bed. The ceiling and chandelier were also different. Since her bedroom had burned down completely, she must have been moved elsewhere.
“My Lady!”
The moment she opened her eyes, someone hurried to her side. It was Becky and Birdie.
“Ah.”
She tried to call their names, but pain stabbed through her throat, making her frown instinctively.
“My Lady, you don’t have to speak. Thankfully, it’s nothing serious, but the doctor said your throat was damaged from inhaling the hot smoke. You’ll need to be careful for a while.”
Apparently, she had inhaled more smoke than expected. Becky hurriedly brought her some water.
After drinking the cool water, the nausea and pounding headache eased slightly.
Leponia slowly pushed herself upright and looked around.
Whose bedroom is this?
“My Laaady… are you alright?”
Birdie called to her anxiously as Leponia scanned the room. She stopped trying to identify the owner and nodded instead before quietly asking,
“Are you two hurt?”
Her voice was pitifully hoarse. She had so little strength that even her pronunciation was slurred.
“We’re fine. More importantly, Your Ladyship—”
Of course they weren’t hurt. She had deliberately set the fire when they were away because she had no intention of letting innocent people get injured.
If someone else got hurt, things would only become more complicated.
But Leponia pretended not to know anything and smiled weakly, as though genuinely relieved.
“That’s good.”
At least now the maids wouldn’t spread rumors that it had all been staged.
Suddenly, Birdie dropped to both knees and burst into tears.
“My Lady, my Laaady… at a time like this, you should be angry and say you’re hurt instead of worrying about us, sob…”
Why, why are they acting like this?
Leponia blinked in confusion at Birdie’s sudden breakdown.
Even Becky was crying. Her eyes were red and swollen, as if she had been weeping long before Leponia woke up.
‘I’m the one who got hurt, so why are they crying?’
Leponia had never learned how to comfort crying people, so she was completely flustered.
“His Grace entrusted us with taking care of you, but sob… we failed to protect you. We deserve punishment.”
Punishment? The atmosphere was escalating far beyond what she expected, and Leponia hurriedly waved her hands.
“It wasn’t you two. Why are you like this? It’s okay. Don’t cry.”
“Y-you… sob… you believe us?”
What kind of question was that?
“You don’t suspect us of setting the fire? A broken perfume bottle was found near your fireplace. It’s a fragrance commonly used in the estate. Someone probably threw it into the fireplace.”
“H-huh.”
Leponia pretended to be shocked.
“If it were me, I’d suspect myself first since I serve closest to you… b-but it really wasn’t us.”
“His Grace is investigating, but they concluded we’re innocent. So please… please believe us, My Lady.”
Leponia pressed a hand to her forehead with an exasperated expression.
Of course she didn’t suspect them.
Because…
‘The one who started the fire was me, what are you talking about?’
Leponia already knew exactly who the culprit was!
“I never suspected you.”
Please don’t make this any bigger than it already is. Leponia spoke firmly.
Birdie covered her mouth with both hands, tears pouring down her cheeks as though she couldn’t believe it.
“So don’t worry—cough, cough!”
Perhaps because she had spoken too much, a dry cough burst from her throat. Her tiny body shook helplessly with every cough.
Startled, Birdie hurriedly supported her and rubbed her back while Becky brought more water.
Once the coughing finally subsided, Leponia let out a deep breath. Her chest felt rough and scratchy.
“I’m fine. I’m not hurt badly, and I didn’t die.”
Her voice was faint, like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to go out at any moment.
“How… how can you ask if we’re okay before saying you’re in pain—”
“My Lady, since you trusted us, we’ll stay by your side forever. Forever.”
The two spoke with solemn determination.
‘Forever? They say that so easily without even knowing how long forever might be.’
Leponia rubbed her throat and nodded absentmindedly. Then she asked the question that had been bothering her.
“But what do you mean the Duke is investigating?”
There was no culprit. Naturally, there was no evidence either. She thought he would simply discipline the retainers lightly since the family honor had nearly been damaged and then end the matter. But an investigation?
“His Grace is personally interrogating everyone in the estate right now.”
“Huh?”
Leponia’s eyes shook.
“On the night your room caught fire, all the guests had disappeared from the banquet.”
She knew. They had gathered together to scheme that night.
“And because none of them will say where they were or what they were doing… His Grace has confined all of them to individual rooms.”
Leponia’s eyes widened in shock.
“There’s no need to go that far—”
“His Grace said he has no intention of letting this pass.”
“……”
“He said he would absolutely find the culprit and throw them into the flames—ah, ahem. He said he would definitely make an example of whoever did this, so don’t worry, My Lady.”
“……”
“When His Grace says he’ll do something, he always accomplishes it. This time too, he’ll definitely catch the culprit.”
At Birdie’s confident declaration, the eyes of the actual arsonist trembled slightly.
At the entrance of the Craytan estate—
“Hmm.”
A man tilted his head slightly while staring at the closed gates.
“Why is nobody here?”
The man stepped back, then lightly kicked off the estate wall several times before leaping over it effortlessly.
It was something no ordinary person could ever accomplish.
Neither vaulting over such a high wall nor daring to trespass into the Craytan estate so casually.
Having entered the estate far too easily, the man dusted off his palms and grinned as he walked further inside.
“What a mess. And what’s with this smoky smell? …You there.”
The man, walking with his hands clasped behind his back, stopped a passing maid.
The maid froze when she saw his face and hurriedly bowed deeply.
“Y-young Master Pellens!”
“My father doesn’t even come greet his son after he returns home for the first time in ages?”
The infamous troublemaking second son—
Pellens Craytan had returned.
