Duke, please let go of my ankle!

I hope the storks are good enough to bite…….’

In my mind, the children gave birth to a few years earlier were so adorable that I wanted to bite them, all because they resembled Dodo. The Dodol family is a family I can only imagine.

＊ ＊ ＊ ＊

There was an uproar at Count Kevelson’s.

‘The Chancellor has asked me to move to the fourth floor, starting next week.’

‘Is the whole Ministry of Justice moving?’

‘No. He said just me.’

‘……!’

‘Apparently, there are no offices on the fourth floor, which is very odd.’

Audrey’s heart sank.

Duke Fritz had summoned her father to the fourth floor, and there were no offices there. Where could he be going, then?

Suddenly Hans’s words flashed through her mind.

‘You won’t be going to the fourth floor anyway, but don’t go there by mistake. That’s where all the bedrooms, offices, and studies are. Even the torture chamber.

‘Don’t make a fool of yourself and get yourself in trouble.

‘……!’

Audrey went white.

‘Obviously, the Duke of Frit had realized it was her who had sent the letter! Why else would he take her father to the fourth floor, where the torture chambers were? Wasn’t…… Is Arnold’s reception planned?

‘It was pre-arranged!

Audrey sank to her knees in disbelief.

Because of her, the Count of Kevelson had become entangled with a dangerous man. She could see the terrible future that lay ahead. The execution of the Kevelsons, lying side by side, decapitated.

‘No!

No. That must be stopped.

＊ ＊ ＊ ＊

After a sleepless night, Audrey made her way to the ducal chamber at daybreak.

‘Your Excellency, you have a visitor!’

‘I’m busy. Send him away.’

‘Well, my lord Kevelson-’

‘……!’

─Gulp.

Derek jumped to his feet. Ink leaked from the overturned inkwell in a gurgling stream. He stood dumbfounded, unable to move, even as his important papers were covered in black smudges.

‘My dodo? Why? Does he know about the…… kidnapping?

With all the stabbing, the bad thoughts naturally came first. I found it ironic that the top of his neck was so bad, but the bottom of his neck was so restless.

‘Your Excellency,’ he said, ‘the young lady is expecting you.’

‘Oh, no. What a cute, no, I mean, what an explanation…….’

‘…….’

Lucas stared at the distant mountains as if he hadn’t heard anything. Sometimes he wondered what his master was thinking. But he didn’t want to know this way.

Meanwhile, Derek pulled out all his books and began to cram.

‘A woman’s favorite way to talk to a man is to ask him to repeat himself,’ he thought, ‘and I can do that too.

Then he checked me over before bringing the dodo into the room.

‘Should I stand by the window? No, I don’t want to look intimidating. Should I sit at the desk? Yes. It will give off an air of intellectual charm.

Finally, he pulled out a copy of A Critique of the Arbitrary Interpretation of the Protectionist Trade Laws of the Aslita Empire from the Perspective of the Beneficiaries.

‘Hear.’

‘Go, His Excellency the Duke.’

‘……!’

Ah, his dodo was dressed even cuter today.

‘Aww.

Derek clutched his chest surreptitiously. The way she stared at him with her horse eyes broke his heart today.

‘Shi, I beg your pardon, but my father called me four stories, black, four stories…….’

Ouch.

After a moment of stunned silence, he regained his composure. Now is the time to ask back.

‘Why did you call him?’

‘……!’

But as expected, Audrey looks like she’s lost the world.

The tone of her voice is so forceful like she’s asking, ‘What the hell do you care?

Audrey barely holds back the tears. With trembling hands, she gripped the hem of her dress and boldly stated her reason for being there.

‘Take me instead of my father……, black, take me!’

‘Audrey?’

‘Hmph!’

But her voice was shaking like a baby goat.

Derek, on the other hand, who had been unintentionally punched hard in the heart, was in a near panic.

‘So, you’re asking me to send Dodo to the fourth floor, the same floor as me?

‘……!’

The moment he’d been waiting for had come. The dodo herself had declared that she would return to him!

Ah, Duke Fritz was now free to die.

＊ ＊ ＊ ＊

‘Tea.’

Andre, the Duke’s tailor, was returning from a holiday of about twenty days. The Duke of Frit had granted him a long holiday as a reward for completing his spring collection.

‘It flew by, didn’t it?’

Andre fiddled with the flower necklace around my neck, enjoying the afterglow of the southern kingdom.

But just as we were about to step out of the harbor, a woman came charging at us.

‘Good evening,’ she said, ‘I’m Nicole Beaugisir from the Tracy Daily. You’ve been missing for the past twenty days, causing concern among my people, and I was wondering if you had anything to do with the Duke of Frit?’

‘What?’

Andre scratched his head in bewilderment.

The people of the Empire were worried about him but were very supportive……. Why on earth would they worry about him, a mere tailor?

‘Look over here!’

‘And here!’

‘What?’

The late arrivals in the group were clicking shutter after shutter. At the baptism of flashes from all directions, André shielded his eyes with his arm, grimacing with arrogance.

‘Am I right in assuming that his disappearance is related to the Duke of Frit?’

‘That’s because…… His Excellency has taken a twenty-day holiday abroad-’

‘Are you saying that the Duke of Frit has been sent out of the country?’

‘Yes, well. That’s right so that he could eat well and play well in the southern kingdom-’

‘How does it feel to be banished to the far-off southern kingdom?’

‘What do you mean, kicked out? Just a holiday visit-’

‘Did you find it hard to adjust?’

‘Well, the food was a bit off, but-’

‘One last thing, please!’

‘Uh. Go, thank you?’

Their business done, the reporters quickly packed up and disappeared.

Andre was left alone, slumped down, his face drained of color.

‘Eh.’

Is this what celebrity life is like? It was so sudden, he couldn’t remember what he’d said.

‘By the way, I hope the photo turned out well.

I should have washed my face beforehand, but he’s a ducal tailor with a reputation for dignity.

‘I’ll have to be more careful next time.

André hastily climbed into the carriage, self-conscious of his surroundings.

It was time to leave the dreamy holiday behind and return to reality.

＊ ＊ ＊ ＊