The duke was standing by the window of the hall on the first floor of the mansion while waiting for Nelia and Leighton to arrive.
Ton quietly walked up to Duke Hart and spoke to him.
“I searched everywhere around the house, but I couldn’t find the glass bottle containing medicine.”
Duke Hart turned to Ton.
“Aren’t there any servants who see it?”
“Yes……”
Duke Hart just came to realize that the bottle of medicine had disappeared yesterday.
He remembered putting it in his pocket when it rained during that day, but he couldn’t remember anything after that because his condition was extremely severe.
However, one thing he managed to recall was that when he left the mansion, he felt as if his pocket was empty.
And then it disappeared from the mansion, it was weird considering that the servants couldn’t even find it.
Duke Hart recalled what had happened before leaving the mansion that day.
Soon after, one name came to his mind.
‘…….Nelia’s older brother.’
Leighton made a surprise visit to the mansion that day. Although it was brief, he got to talk with him in the parlor.
Then, did he drop the bottle? If so, the bottle should be found in the parlor, but there was no sight of it either.
Duke Hart, who was still recalling the situation that day, frowned for a while. Did he, perhaps, take it…….
However, Duke Hart shook his head shortly after that. He didn’t want to doubt Nelia’s family over uncertain things.
When Duke Hart unknowingly frowned because of his thoughts, Ton spoke up his attempt to comfort the duke.
“It’ll be fine. Even if common people pick up the medicine, it’ll be hard to figure out the details of the medicine.”
“Well…… it’s true.”
That’s what Ton said. Even if someone picked it up, it would never be easy to figure it out.
Unless they read the specification in the transaction report that was kept in his room.
“Your Grace, I received a reply from the magic tower today.”
“What did they say?”
“They would send a new wizard on the day of the total lunar eclipse. I think they can be trusted since they said the new one will be much more capable than the wizard from before.”
“I see.”
Ton hesitated before speaking up again.
“Would Your Grace turn on this upcoming lunar eclipse?”
Duke Hart didn’t answer him. His eyes remained elsewhere outside the window.
“Yes, there have been no exceptions.” “Yes, there’s no exception this time.”
“Nevertheless, with the existence of Nelia by Your Grace’s side to relieve the curse…….”
“Therefore, we have to be more prepared. After all, there’s Nelia by my side.”
Ton realized what he meant and bowed his head.
“…….All right. We will prepare thoroughly so that accidents from the previous year won’t happen again.”
“Yes, I’m leaning on you.”
Seeing Nelia open the door from the window, Ton hurriedly told the rest.
“The reply from the magic tower was put on the desk in Your Grace’s room. Please take a look at it and let me know if you need anything else.”
“Got it.”
At the end of their conversation, the front door opened, revealing Nelia and Leighton who walked in.
Leighton walked in as well.
Duke Hart greeted the guests with a friendly smile so that the coldness surrounding him earlier ago wouldn’t be recalled by anyone.
***
The Duke first greeted Leighton. When Nelia opened the door, she saw Duke Hart smiled as warm as the sun.
“Thank you for accepting my invitation. Mr. Leighton.”
“I’m grateful for it, but because you invited me all of a sudden, I had a hard time getting rid of my other schedules.”
Nellia squinted her eyes at Leighton.
‘What’s he talking about?’
He’s probably wandering around strange places under the excuse of gathering information about Sigrit.
She meant, even if he actually came here without having other schedules, she couldn’t understand the reason he said so.
“I see. I will make sure to treat you with infinite sincerity as I have because you’ve been willingly leaving out other schedules for this.”
Leighton couldn’t prevent the corners of his mouth from curling up out of satisfaction at the duke’s tender talk.
The duke took Nelia and Leighton to the dining room.
The dining room was decorated with fragrant flowers, which was the opposite of the usual. The fresh scent of flowers and their beautiful appearance seemed to stimulate appetite.
In addition to the beautiful-looking flowers, Nelia sat down on the table chair while feeling guilty that such things were sacrificed only because of Leighton.
Leighton, on the other hand, still had his eyes wide open to rare flowers and luxurious tables as well as decorations that he rarely ever saw.
Then, he almost tripped over the leg of the chair like a fool, which the duke quickly grabbed his arm to help him.
Nelia swept her face with a sigh that had already come out.
Leighton eventually sat down, and the servants served the appetizer.
The appetizer was a canape with caviar on it. Nelia had eaten this dish during her stay here.
At first, she was surprised to hear that you were eating a dish with caviar on it. It was very fascinating because she never had the gut to try such luxurious food back in Korea.
Leighton looked closely at the caviar.
“Wow…… What is this?”
Caviar was also a rare ingredient here. The capital of the Andrian Empire was located inland, therefore seafood was luxuries.
Nelia was proud for no particular reason.
‘I’ve got my fair share of having caviar while living here.”
The duke kindly explained to Leighton, who had a dumb look on his face.
“It’s a canape made with caviar. I’m not sure if it suits your taste.”
Leighton exclaimed in an excited manner, ‘Oh, so this is caviar……! I’ve heard it before!’ and he started to gobble up the appetizer in an instant.
Nelia and Duke Hart also ate their appetizers.
Leighton, who had eaten the appetizer earlier than them, looked around distractedly.
“The decorations here…… and all the ingredients for these luxurious foods…… You must be very rich, Your Grace.”
Nelia almost spat out the food she was eating due to coughing.
‘How can he say whatever appears in his mind like that?’
There seemed to be no such a thing called filter in Leighton’s brain.
Leighton looked at the duke with twinkling eyes, the duke answered after wiping his mouth with a napkin.
“I have just enough.”
“Oh, if you can eat this much food, it must be a lot that it’s overflowing. That means, you have a lot of expensive medicine……”
Leighton suddenly stopped midway as he spoke. Nelia, who was confused, asked.
“Expensive medicine……?”
Leighton’s mouth twitched. He seemed embarrassed, but spoke in a confident tone again shortly after.
“I mean, I told you about the vitalizers owned by His Grace last time. That’s what I meant. Rumor said that His Grace buys a lot of vitalizers.”
She didn’t expect him to talk about the rumored vitalizer in front of the duke…….
When Nelia stared at Leighton with a ridiculous look, he eventually bowed his head, seemingly guilty.
“I made a mistake talking about what people said behind Your Grace. I apologize, Your Grace.”
“It’s all right. If it’s the rumor regarding vitalizers, I already know it. It’s definitely a ridiculous rumor.”
Leighton pulled the chair he occupied closer to the table. He asked with twinkling eyes as if he was very interested in the topic.
“The medicine you bought wasn’t a vitalizer, was it?”
“Yes.”
Leighton didn’t stop talking while having the fork and knife in both hands, despite the main dish, which was calf steak, had been served.
“Then what’s the medicine you buy regularly from Griff?”
Nelia, who was listening to their conversation, frowned.
“Leighton.”
“I’m solely trying to get the true answer from His Grace in order to solve misunderstandings that people have about His Grace…….!”
Did he expect her to believe him?
When Nelia was about to say something, Duke Hart spoke up first.
“The medicine that people misunderstand as a vitalizer is headache pills. I suffer from a severe headache, therefore I’m buying a large amount by asking a good pharmacist for specifically prescribed medicine.”
Despite Leighton’s (quite) rude question, Duke Hart still managed to reply without having a frown on his face.
Leighton muttered to himself, ‘headache pills……’ and eventually nodded.
“……..I see.”
“Now that your curiosity has been fed up, shall we start eating? The food will cool down soon.”
As the meal began in earnest, Leighton became unexpectedly quiet.
He barely answered the duke’s question. His eyes were staring at one place during the dinner which indicated that he was thinking hard about something.
Nelia looked at the silent Leighton and she thought she was quite relieved by that.
Although she didn’t know what he was thinking, he’d rather closed his mouth than asking the duke such rude and useless questions.
However, Leighton began to speak again, as if taunting Nelia’s thoughts.
It was mainly questions that seemed to be concerned about the duke’s health and condition whether he was sick or not.
‘As expected, he’s weird……’
He asked the duke if he was sick earlier. She thought that he wanted him to be hurt somewhere.
Leighton seemed to be asking the duke about a lot of things under the excuse of being concerned, but he stopped asking when the duke only gave a plain answer and seemingly without hesitation.
Leighton chewed the food in disappointment, and soon rose from his seat.
Nelia’s gaze followed him.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to go to the bathroom for a while. Perhaps, it’s because I ate something I didn’t usually eat and it made my stomach suddenly hurt.”
Nelia frowned again at Leighton, who gave a useless explanation at the dinner table.
The duke said to Leighton, who had gotten up.
“There’s Ton outside, he will guide you to the bathroom.”
“Oh, thank you.”
Leighton left the parlor after being shown the brief sign.
Nelia stared at Leighton’s disappearing back and turned her head to look at Duke Hart.
“…….I’m sorry, Your Grace. Leighton is so rude, isn’t he?”
“It’s all right.”
Duke Hart smiled.
“Nelia’s brother is really worried about my health.”
“I know…….”
Fortunately, the duke didn’t show any signs of being displeased.
He just smiled and rested his chin on his hand, all the while looking at the seat that was occupied by Leighton.
***
Leighton, who came out of the drawing room, his body was attached flatly against the wall and looked around. Upon seeing the butler standing in the hall, Leighton walked on the other side of the hall.
It was actually an excuse to say that he suddenly had a stomach ache.
He tried to find out information about the medicine from the duke, but he only gave a simple answer.
He didn’t care if the answer was true, because according to his recently gathered information, Griff never sells common medicines such as headache pills.
The duke seemed to be hiding something.
Leighton stopped in a desolate corner and wondered where he should go.
“I want to go to the duke’s room once…….”
However, the mansion was so huge that it was impossible to know where the duke’s room could be.
However, he couldn’t stay here all the time, so he thought it would be better to just wander around.
First of all, the duke’s room couldn’t be on the first floor, so he went upstairs. When he arrived on the second floor, he saw a servant walking in the hallway.
Leighton hid quickly.
‘Eukh……!’
Layton was forced to climb the stairs again. There were many servants in the hallway on the second floor, so he couldn’t wander around as he pleased.
However, so did the third floor. There were even more servants on the third floor than on the second floor.
Leighton went to the highest floor in distress. Fortunately, there were no servants on the fourth floor.
Upon seeing the quiet circumstances on the fourth floor corridor, Leighton didn’t think there would be anything, but he thought about taking a look around since he had come all the way there.
Leighton proceeded to open all the doors of the rooms on the fourth floor.
When he finally opened the door to the room that was located in the corner, he found a room that felt a bit different from others.
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