CHAPTER 07……………………………………………….
Since it was early morning, most of the servants and the Duke family’s knights were likely still asleep.
It was also one of the few times within the mansion that no one was paying much attention to me.
“This doghole still exists, huh.”
I muttered briefly as I slipped out through the Duke family’s doghole, unchanged from three years ago.
Well, what else would a doghole be but a secret exit? It was made so no one would notice it. The fact that the Duke family hadn’t found it in three years was amusing.
Ever since searching for April, whenever staying in the mansion felt suffocating, I would sneak out through this doghole.
Sometimes I went to the temple, other times I borrowed a horse and rode far into the countryside.
And now, even though April wasn’t here, the mansion still felt stifling.
It annoyed me that they expected me to just “behave” without giving me any information about her.
I hung the artifact I had brought from my family around my neck and headed toward the place in the capital where I could rent a horse.
“Strange, isn’t it.”
The entire Duke family was strange, but Barak Hill Rize was the strangest of all.
He must have argued with the Duke, and I expected him, as he had in the past, to come to me afterwards and cause a scene.
“Unexpected, really.”
He had left the mansion that very day and hadn’t returned since.
Even at this late hour, a few shops in the city were still lit, and some market stalls caught my eye.
One headline in particular grabbed my attention:
—Princess Rize’s Unfortunate Carriage Accident.
It was a flashy first-page title under the newspaper’s logo.
As I stared at it, the stall owner lightly tapped the stack of rolled newspapers.
“Five cents. Pay and read.”
I handed over five cents, took a newspaper, and skimmed the article.
It stated plainly that a month ago, the princess had been in a carriage accident on her way to the villa. She was recuperating there, and her fiancé, Perfone, hadn’t visited even once.
“So she’s at the villa… for treatment, huh?”
Even though it wasn’t a funny story, I couldn’t help but laugh.
Yes, after three years, there must be a reason they had summoned me.
I had never thought they were calling me out of regret for the past.
All the time they had spent trying to persuade me over the course of a week had led to this.
It also showed that the Duke family hadn’t changed.
Everyone knew, including the people in the capital, that April had strong feelings for Crown Prince Perfone, so the Duke family must have been worried.
Asking me to act as a stand-in for a year meant she had been more hurt than anyone imagined.
Sexual healing could fix her quickly, but the rumors that would follow were unavoidable.
“Maybe His Highness the Crown Prince will demand a breakup.”
“What?”
The stall owner looked startled at my words.
“No, never mind. I read the paper fine, thanks.”
I roughly placed the newspaper back on the stall and strode toward the horse rental.
Rosian, the emperor’s consort, didn’t want the Duke family’s daughter to become Crown Princess.
Since Rosian couldn’t produce an heir, to maintain her power after the emperor’s death, she needed a daughter from a noble family she could influence to become Crown Princess.
And the Duke family was beyond her reach, even among the empire’s grand duke families.
So upon hearing that the princess was seriously injured, Rosian would surely seize the chance to demand a breakup.
What puzzled me, however, was that Perfone hadn’t even sent a single letter despite his fiancée being hurt—very unlike him.
When I arrived at the carriage rental, I handed the driver some coins.
“Take me to Darryl Village.”
The driver’s eyes widened at the gold coins, and he opened the carriage door wide.
“Step right in. I’ll make sure you arrive faster than any other driver.”
I boarded the carriage, leaving the grinning, cheerful driver behind.
“Ha……”
Hands thickened and scarred by years of experience reached for the medicine bottle ahead.
Sleep was one of humanity’s basic desires, yet every time I tried to rest, nightmares gnawed at me—Allen even bit the inside of my cheek.
I had lived here for two years, and my body, once ruined, had returned to normal over the same span.
I thought maybe if I took enough sleeping pills, I could rest without dreaming—but even that didn’t work.
The moment I closed my eyes, my mind always recalled three years ago.
I had escaped the temple by sheer luck, met Irina, and repaired the damage from the temple’s drug experiments, yet the trauma remained.
I knew sexual healing could fix my body, but two years ago I had learned it couldn’t heal the mind.
Now, resigned to never sleeping soundly, I reached for a stimulant from the medicine bottle.
Ding! The bell startled me, and I snapped to my senses, leaving the medicine room in a hurry.
“I’m here.”
Allen’s face, previously full of fatigue and irritation, lit up instantly at the sight of the visitor.
The one who had saved me through hellish times.
My only savior.
“Miss!”
Her light beige hair glimmered like sunset, falling long, and Irina’s sunset-colored eyes were fixed on me.
“Long time no see.”
Irina Devin—the one who had saved me when I had fled the temple two years ago.
My gaze flicked to the artifact hanging around my neck.
“I really missed you, Irina.”
‘Irina.’
Every time I heard my name spoken by her, in my mother’s form, I flinched automatically.
I quickly removed my robe as I watched Allen, who had dashed out of the medicine room with a smile.
I fiddled with the artifact around my neck.
It allowed me to take the form of my late mother.
The appearance was perfect, though the voice remained my own—a small flaw.
“Why didn’t you come here sooner? Did you stop liking me?”
Allen teased, and I frowned slightly.
Taller than me, Allen grinned like a big dog, and I shook my head.
He hadn’t looked like this the first time I met him.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
When it was just the two of us, I was allowed to call her “Irina,” but I never used the name in public.
It was the result of years of training from my father and Alicia.
Specifically, the night before entering the Duke family, my father, Daniel, had told me:
“Never say your mother’s or father’s name in front of others, Irina.”
“After you enter the Duke family, consider them your real parents.”
“I’ll give you the sexual energy I possess, but never use it for anyone else, and never show it to others.”
“Use it only for yourself.”
Even my weak father had shown rare strength that night.
Perhaps because it was the last night with him, or because the words hit me so hard as a fugitive, I remembered them clearly even now.
“By the way.”
I asked Allen, who was staring at me blankly:
“So, who wants to see me anyway?”
It was meant to change the subject, but Allen looked somewhat disappointed.
Though his face was haughty like a Persian cat, his expressions and gestures were more like a big dog.
He sipped roughly from the water on the table and caught my robe like a butler as I removed it.
Whenever he acted like this, it felt as if he were beneath me.
I never imagined that the chance encounter with Allen, whom I had picked up on my father’s death anniversary two years ago, would last this long.
Back then, he had snapped at anyone who approached, like a wild hyena; now, he acted like a large, loyal dog.
“Let me repay you. I’ll help with your work.”
My father had told me not to use my sexual energy for others, but I had no choice.
Two women alone trying to make a living was incredibly hard.
Discrimination against beastmen remained, so few places would hire Alicia, and I hadn’t earned money during my time as a recluse.
Even during the year I stayed confined after being expelled from the Duke family, debts from my father’s medicine costs piled up like a mountain.
Alicia had been the one keeping them at bay.
And the sexual energy my father said to use only for me had become a means to repay debts and sustain a living.
“We haven’t met in three months, and you start with the main topic right away?”
Allen pouted, lips like a fish, grumbling.
What else could I say? I had come for work.
Seeing my helpless expression, Allen looked disappointed.
“I thought at least you’d ask how I’ve been, what I’ve been up to, if I missed you, if I’m seeing anyone these days.”
“That’s something we can talk about later.”
What’s the point of that now?
Besides, pointless small talk leads to interest and affection.
We had lived together for almost three years, yet we still didn’t know much about each other.
“Who’s the guy who said he was looking for me by letter?”
