Grand Duke Credel was the great hero who united the empire with only his sword. He wouldn’t need to be guarded by anyone else.

Knock, knock.

“Come in.”

Permission was easily given.

Perhaps because he didn’t know that the person on the other side of the door was Bunny.

Before he could even notice, Doah opened the door.

Because the door was tightly shut and because he did not wish to see her, Bunny couldn’t even take one step into this office before.

“What is it.”

The grand duke said so with his down-turned eyes focused entirely on the documents before him.

It seemed like he still thought that the person who came in was his aide.

But the mistake was fixed instantly.

“…Why are you here.”

How did he even notice when his eyes were still turned towards the documents while he said that.

The sound of her footsteps? No, maybe the pattern of her breathing? Just a general sense?

She couldn’t figure out just how he knew.

But even after he noticed that it was Bunny who opened the door and came in, it didn’t seem like he was about to kick her right out.

This was good.

Normally, he would have instantly sent her back to the spire and said, ‘Didn’t I tell you to live as though you were dead?’

“I heard that you allowed me to stay in the central palace from now on.”

Even as Doah said it aloud, she still doubted it.

She couldn’t believe it to be true.

She was very sure that she saw this man cursing at his adopted daughter for being a sorceress.

After seeing something like that, how could a person change and decide to let Bunny enter the central palace and make her the fake ducal princess?

Didn’t he already know what kind of wrongdoings she would make?

Was he trying to live up to the nickname, ‘Blue Moon,’ now?

It was a useless effort, but it’s beneficial anyway that he was doing something ‘good’.

“What about it.”

The grand duke replied without looking up from the signature he scrawled over the document.

“Thank you for your kindness. However, I refuse.”

And at the same time Doah said so, the pen snapped in half.

It wasn’t even made out of wood.

It had a finely crafted metal body.

It snapped right in half with only the grip of his fingers.

Doah doubted her own eyes when she saw this, but at the same moment,

At last, the grand duke raised his head to look at her.

Grand Duke Credel, the celebrated guardian of the north, the protector of the region’s eternal tranquility, the head of the family known as the ‘blue moon’.

Pietro Credel.

Wearing thin-rimmed round spectacles, his long hair was loosely braided on one side.

At first glance, he looked like a scholar who held only a pen his entire life.

Of course, if one would just look down from the delicate features of his face, which seemed to have been sculpted from ice, you would have to immediately withdraw that first impression.

Wide shoulders. Huge physique.

Rippling muscles that couldn’t be hidden by even many layers of clothing.

He was the hero—the illustrious general who, on horseback, led large armies to victory in every war.

“What did you just say?”

He leaned back against his seat.

Then, he removed the glasses that were perched on the bridge of his nose and placed them on his desk.

Previously hidden behind those glasses, his sharp eyes were now revealed.

‘The face of a hero, truly.’

Whether fortunate or unfortunate,

There was nothing unexpected here.

He was the careless man who brought Bunny into his household, so for a second there, Doah wondered if he was a narrow-minded person who was far too concerned with his image.

After seeing him personally like this with her own two eyes, it couldn’t be denied that his physiognomy truly matched the two words, ‘blue moon’.

To an excessive extent.

One look from his long-shaped, sharp eyes would overwhelm anyone at all. His nose was affluently high, and his shapely lips were like petals that were stained red.

Both his face and his bodily physique were perfectly balanced and symmetrical.

Even though he was someone who must have lived on the battlefield for most of his life, his skin was clear and flawless, like the moon god who was the protector of justice.

As though he was a precious being who had descended from the heavens, as though he would bless the land on which he stepped, he was a naturally gifted individual who looked like he would live a long life.

To see that he seemed to have a good nature or personality, it was unbelievable.

‘Well of course, he’s a hero to the people, but that doesn’t mean he’s everyone’s hero.’

As soon as she thought this,

‘Ah.’

As soon as their eyes met right then, Doah realized belatedly.

His sons got their eyes from him.

However, the grand duke’s blue eyes, far from having a luster to them, rather looked like a riverbed that had been dried up during a severe drought.

With no water left.

The eyes were the windows to the soul.

Considering his heroic past, those eyes must have once had a brilliant spark.

What was left now was nothing short of something like the scattered black ashes after everything had already been burned to the ground.

With this brief look into his soul through those windows, it served as a shock—how on earth he was still alive like this.

“I asked you a question.”

After being so distracted by his eyes, Doah was pulled out of her reverie only after Pietro asked for the second time.

“I would like to make a different suggestion.”

“Suggestion?”

“I understand that once Princess Ophelia’s curse has been passed over to me, I can’t stay here forever.”

Better than anyone else, Doah knew how to deal with such a person.

She just needed to do exactly the opposite of what Bunny had been doing thus far.

“Please send me back to the slums.”

She deliberately spoke succinctly and did not say anything unnecessary.

She didn’t even bring up anything that would make the air in the room cold.

“Isn’t it because of me that Princess Ophelia can’t come back to Credel’s territory?”

State your demands clearly. Stay in your lane and maintain that boundary between.

And be sure to mean what you say.

“So that the Princess can stay in the Blue Moon’s Castle permanently, I will make myself scarce. I will not appear before your eyes ever again.”

With a smile that looked as if it belonged to a painting, Doah concluded.

“Permanently.”