*** *** *** *** ***
The Duke’s residence indeed looked gloomy enough to be called a demon’s castle. Usually, noble families tend their gardens more meticulously than their buildings.
It’s common to see gardeners trimming trees daily without rest.
But at the Rodriguez mansion, only bare trees stood twisted eerily. No wonder people called it a demon’s castle.
—Ding dong!
Normally, there would be guards at the entrance, but here there wasn’t a trace of human presence.
The castle door was covered in white cobwebs, making it even more eerie.
When no one answered the doorbell, Karen rang it again.
—Ding dong!
Still no answer. Karen tried pushing the cobweb-covered door with her foot.
—Creeeeeak
To her surprise, the cobweb-covered door swung inward with a spine-chilling sound.
‘Does the Duke actually live here?’
At this point, it looked more like an abandoned house. With a dubious expression, Karen held her horse’s reins and walked through the open door.
At least she didn’t believe in ghosts or supernatural phenomena. She had the intellect to analyze everything rationally.
The interior was even more eerie than the exterior. Yet there were clear signs of habitation—the walkways were free of dust.
But only the walkways were clean, the high ceilings and furniture covered in white sheets were quite unsettling.
“Hello?”
She wondered if this really was the Duke’s residence. Karen frowned and carefully entered deeper into the mansion.
Nothing could be heard except the sound of her footsteps.
That’s when it happened.
“Who dares enter this mansion without the master’s permission!”
A voice like scraping metal echoed chaotically beside Karen.
It was clearly intentionally made hoarse and echoing to disguise its true nature. Karen fearlessly walked toward the source of the sound.
“Be cursed!”
With a terrible sound, a swarm of bats flew toward Karen.
While normal people would cower and flee from approaching bats, Karen was not normal.
The seemingly real bats passed right through Karen’s unflinching body. She smirked.
“This is just a trick using magic stones. Clever use of light diffraction. But did you think you could fool my eyes?”
“Y-You!”
The voice’s owner was flustered. The trembling resonated clearly to Karen.
Snorting, Karen walked toward where the bats had come from.
There stood a boy about a finger-length shorter than Karen, wrapped in a black cloak.
He had deliberately placed candles to cast long shadows, making himself appear larger than he actually was.
—Grab.
Without hesitation, Karen reached out and seized the boy’s collar. Silver hair that gleamed like metal peeked out from under the black hood.
Karen brought her face close to his. Though in darkness, she was certain she was meeting the boy’s eyes.
“I came to meet the Grand Duke, the master of Wellington, little one. Won’t you show me the way?”
The boy trembled but tried to maintain composure as he replied.
“I-I am the Duke.”
Karen snorted at this response.
“Do you think I’d come here without knowing the age of Grand Duke Rodriguez?”
Velderuk I, Ludwig’s younger brother, would be fifty-six this year.
Even with a transcending’s characteristic youthful appearance, there was no way he could look like such a child.
However, the next answer made Karen feel like she’d been hit with a hammer.
“F-Father passed away long ago. I am now the master of Wellington.”
‘Grand Duke Rodriguez is dead…?’
When a country’s Duke dies, there should properly be a state funeral.
But Karen had never participated in any such grand event for Grand Duke Ludwig’s funeral. That’s why she hadn’t considered he might be dead.
Karen slowly blinked her blue eyes. The boy’s face, barely visible beyond the hood, looked thin and weary at a glance. Karen spoke slowly.
“Then you’re Erich?”
“H-How do you know my name…?”
The boy’s response confirmed Karen’s suspicion.
As soon as she confirmed he was Duke Erich Fromm de Rodriguez, Karen cleanly released her grip on his collar. Then she bowed her head respectfully.
“I apologize, Your Grace. My name is Karen Prime von Montreal. Though unworthy, I am called Countess Montreal through Her Majesty’s gracious favor.”
“Countess Montreal.”
Erich mumbled the name of the woman bowing before him in a clumsy tone.
To a boy confined in the Duke’s residence, without proper education or even basic common sense, someone showing him respect was utterly foreign.
That’s when it happened. A rough broom struck the back of Karen’s head.
“You wretched woman! Stop bothering our young master!”
“Stop it, Marsha!”
‘What is this about?’
Even when she’d been treated poorly at home, Karen had never been hit.
In truth, her parents hadn’t cared enough about Karen to bother hitting her, and she had early on realized that confrontations with Karla would only end badly for her.
Since then, Von Neumann, who had taken on the role of Erich’s guardian, was an eccentric teacher, but thanks to his pupil being a once-in-a-century genius, there were rarely any reasons for him to get angry.
But being hit with a broom?
Watching the straw scatter like rain, Karen wore a dumbfounded expression.
The person wielding the broom was an elderly woman with a wrinkled face, close to being a grandmother. Her plump figure, round hat, and crumpled apron made her look like she had stepped out of a fairy tale illustration.
As the huffing grandmother was restrained, Erich spoke in a hurried tone.
“I apologize on behalf of my nanny for her rudeness, Countess Montreal. Marsha only acted out of concern for me.”
His voice was slow, and his pronunciation was not perfect, but his phrasing and etiquette were impeccable. Karen thought coldly.
‘He doesn’t seem to be unintelligent.’
And then she thought again.
‘Ah, that really stings. I should propose a new law to recognize straw brooms as weapons.’
Karen’s introductory physics textbook, authored by her and already recognized as a ‘lethal weapon’ due to numerous student complaints, set a precedent. If a thick book could be considered a weapon, then surely a broom scattering straw should also qualify. Yes, recognized.
As she absentmindedly brushed the straw tangled in her hair with clumsy fingers, she noticed something.
While Erich was struggling to restrain Marsha, hugging her plump figure to stop her, his hood had fallen off.
‘Wow, he’s beautiful.’
Karen forgot about her irritation and stared blankly at Erich’s face.
A pale complexion as if he had never seen sunlight, a slender jawline, a high nose, and straight silver hair that fell over his face.
His beauty was enough to be mistaken for a woman’s, but what captivated Karen the most were Erich’s eyes.
‘They look like a snowy field.’
A desolate yet tranquil snowy plain came to mind when looking at his grayish-blue eyes.
That dreamy hue held Karen’s gaze as if nailed in place.
Though she was a genius, Karen was only twenty-one years old. She had no understanding of what it meant to have her gaze stolen away so helplessly after a few fleeting moments of connection.
The people you are meant to meet, you will meet. The people you are meant to part with, you will part from.
The words Queen Soneti had once recited so casually now became reality.
Among countless officials, among countless people, Queen Soneti had chosen Karen. And Karen, after passing by countless others, had come all the way to this far Western edge to meet him.
Ordinary people have a name for this.
They call it destiny.
*** *** *** *** ***
After the commotion settled, Karen was led to a small annex where Erich and his nanny, Marsha, resided together.
The annex was so cramped that it felt full with just the two of them living there, but at least it wasn’t as gloomy as the so-called demon’s castle.
“At least this place feels like somewhere people live. That’s a relief.”
Sitting at a candlelit table and sipping warm tea, Karen felt her mood naturally soften.
Erich, however, stared at Karen with an expressionless face as she sipped her tea. Instead, it was Marsha who pouted and asked bluntly.
“What brings you here? You’ve come to take Wellington, haven’t you?”
“Marsha.”
Erich calmly called her name. Despite his delicate appearance, his voice had a roughness to it, like scraping metal. Karen blinked.
‘It must be his voice breaking.’
But for a boy supposedly going through puberty, Erich’s frame was far too small. Karen’s blue eyes swept over the two of them.
‘A boy of noble lineage, living in a spooky castle without servants or attendants, pretending to be a demon.’
“A person who has had so little that they cling desperately to anything they manage to grasp.”
The Queen’s flat, emotionless voice seemed to echo in Karen’s ears. Karen slowly opened her mouth to speak.
“I’ve already introduced myself, but I am Countess Montreal. Do you understand what that means?”
“What, are you expecting me to treat you like some noble Countess?”
Despite Erich’s warning, Marsha continued to grumble, her tone prickly.
But Karen could see that her rudeness wasn’t just insolence—it was her way of protecting Erich, like a hedgehog raising its quills.
Karen spoke in a thoroughly businesslike tone.
“You must be a country bumpkin to not know the significance of Montreal. I am Queen Soneti’s mind, so to speak. And my purpose here is to meet Duke Rodriguez and become his tutor. I didn’t expect Duke Rodriguez to already be the master of Wellington, though.”
Karen’s gaze naturally shifted to Erich as she finished speaking.
Her face was reflected in Erich’s grayish-blue eyes, framed by his silver lashes. He asked in a puzzled tone.
“A tutor?”
“Queen Soneti wishes for you to receive the best education.”
“The Queen… but why…?”
“Well, how could a mere mortal fathom the will of the divine?”
Why would a cousin who had shown no interest in him his entire life suddenly take an interest now? There was a significant reason, but Karen deliberately feigned ignorance and stepped back.
She hadn’t fully grasped the character of Duke Erich yet. Instead, she pointed out another matter.
“Were you pretending to be a demon to protect Wellington? Even hiding the Duke’s death?”
“That’s…”
Erich hesitated before nodding slightly.
Though her main field was science, Karen was also the person in this country who had memorized the most laws.
She knew the inheritance law that stated one could not inherit a title before the age of eighteen. The reason for Erich’s act of pretending to be a demon became clear.
“It’s certainly a clever strategy. You’re already fourteen, so in just four more years, you could have legally inherited the title. If Grand Duke Ludwig’s death had been revealed earlier, there would have been much noise, especially since your mother’s identity is ambiguous.”
At such a young age, he had lost his guardian and was on the verge of losing his only title and estate.
To fend off those who coveted what was his, he had sent away all the servants and pretended to be a demon. It was a bold move. Karen thought at least the Duke wasn’t a fool.
It was bold, but it wasn’t a brilliant strategy. Karen’s lips curled into a cold, cynical smile.
“But in the end, it’s a self-destructive method. How do you plan to restore the tarnished reputation of Duke Rodriguez and yourself once you become the Duke? Reputation is easy to lose but hard to regain. The rumors of you being a demon could even cost you the title you worked so hard to protect.”
“You don’t know how much our young master has suffered!”
Marsha immediately shouted, looking for her broom again. Karen’s shoulders flinched, fearing another broom attack. But the actions of the two women were halted by Erich’s calm words.
“Then what method do you suggest?”
Despite his shabby clothes, the small, worn-out room, and having only one attendant, the Duke’s grayish-blue eyes shone brightly.
‘For some reason, when I meet his gaze, I can’t look away. It feels like I’m being drawn in.’
Karen stared blankly at his dreamy eyes.
They were like a snowy field shimmering in silver, with pastel tones of blue and gray scattered like soft feathers.
As she gazed into those eyes, Karen slowly opened her mouth to speak.
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