Chapter 29…………………………………………
“Dale has already left. He’ll be here soon!”
At Obrian’s words, Rektarion immediately carried Eloah and hurried toward the bedroom. Then he realized just how light she still was.
His grip on her tightened instinctively.
To think she was put in danger again…
He had believed that completely dismantling the Roister family would stop Countess Enrilke’s schemes, but the woman’s grudge ran deeper than he had anticipated.
He had underestimated just how dark and obsessive humans could be, even though he knew it better than anyone.
This is my mistake.
At this rate, what would differentiate her from Yuberis or Nosdian?
Rektarion tasted the bitterness of the consequences of his complacent judgment.
“Master, you can lay her down here.”
Eloah’s attendant quickly pulled back the bedcovers, and Rektarion carefully laid her on the bed.
That’s when he noticed the fine line of a wound on her neck—clearly a sword’s threat.
“……”
Rektarion’s brows knitted tightly.
“Master?”
“……No, it’s nothing. Eldon?”
“He’s here!”
It had taken some time for Eldon to arrive because everyone from the guards at the main gate to the household staff who had tried to stop her had been incapacitated somehow.
“I’ll start the examination immediately, Your Grace.”
Eldon began checking Eloah’s condition the moment he arrived. The brief moment felt like a thousand years. Everyone held their breath, anxiously awaiting his findings.
After a short while, Eldon removed his stethoscope and reported her status.
“Fortunately, she just fainted. There are no serious issues. She likely collapsed from shock due to the magical storm. The wound on her neck is superficial, and with ointment, it shouldn’t leave a scar.”
“Ha… I see.”
Rektarion leaned back in his chair, relieved.
“Haha, Your Grace, you seem quite startled.”
The hand he raised to smooth his hair froze.
“…Of course I was startled. When someone lying down suddenly collapses, it’s natural.”
“Haha, indeed. It’s natural to worry. Such a lovely lady—how fortunate you are, Your Grace.”
Rektarion did not respond to Eldon’s light jest. Everyone was puzzled, but then a question was asked.
“And the others? Were they hurt?”
Obrian, suddenly called upon, hesitated briefly but nodded.
“Yes. According to the reports I just received, everyone only fainted—no one was injured.”
“Fortunate indeed.”
“Truly.”
Countess Enrilke had been notorious for treating Roister servants harshly. For such a person to have caused chaos yet leave no injuries was nothing short of lucky.
But Rektarion’s words carried a different meaning.
“Count Enrilke is fortunate. Had anyone bled, I would have returned it in kind.”
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth—a decidedly aristocratic response.
The threat had been directed at him.
As a Nosdian noble, simply existing drew the malice of others.
Other nobles’ threats, contempt, or mockery never touched him—they could inflict no real harm.
Until now.
Rektarion bared his teeth in a threatening grin.
“To dare touch Nosdian… I suppose I’ve been far too merciful recently.”
Until now, he had never drawn a sword on nobles outside of hunting. To him, they were nothing more than annoying flies drawn to something sweet.
And yet, if someone made Nosdian their prey, they should know they themselves would become prey.
He commanded a close aide who had returned from the palace with him.
“Jace.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
“Inform the count immediately. He is to hand over Countess Enrilke to me. Also, for trespassing and damaging the estate, for recruiting knights and attacking powerless staff, and…”
Looking at Eloah’s sleeping face, Rektarion smiled with a shadow of menace.
“…for threatening my wife, they will pay dearly.”
Obrian, realizing what this meant, asked in shock.
“Y-You don’t mean, Master…?”
“Yes. His Majesty approved it.”
“Whoa!”
His Majesty the Emperor had approved Eloah becoming the Duchess of Nosdian. With this, she was officially the lady of this house.
The attendants in the room quietly gasped in admiration. Sina and Obrian clasped their hands, delighted.
“I will notify others immediately, for the sake of Lady’s honor.”
“Yes.”
Soon, Jace left to deliver the notice, Obrian and Dale began managing the estate and cleaning up, and Sina went to fetch water. It was as if everyone had forgotten the chaos that had just occurred; their faces were bright again.
Rektarion gestured to Eldon.
“I’ll stay here. Go check on the others.”
“Call me if Lady wakes, Your Grace.”
“Understood.”
With Eldon gone, Rektarion waved to those remaining.
“Berrick, you too.”
Instead of leaving, Berrick quietly handed him something.
“Your Grace, this.”
It was a small glass vial, familiar from recent days—tiny, hollow inside, about the size of a finger.
Rektarion looked puzzled, and Berrick explained.
“This isn’t something you gave, Your Grace. The old lady… I mean, the Countess had it.”
“The Countess?”
“She seems to have even funded research. There’s a lot of information we can extract.”
Rektarion smiled. He immediately understood the connection between the Countess, Hans, and the magical potion.
“Hmm. I thought it only concerned Yuberis. Looks like this is bigger than expected. I wonder how much the Countess knows.”
A fortuitous prey had wandered into his trap—he would use every bit of it.
“Extract everything.”
“Your Grace. I’ve recently developed a useful mental magic spell. May I test it?”
Rektarion looked at Berrick quietly.
“Oh! Of course. It won’t hurt at all. In fact, it might feel good. And perhaps it will help them live without troubling thoughts for the rest of their lives.”
It could potentially break the mind. But seeing Eloah’s neck bandaged, Rektarion nodded.
“Granted. But no physical harm.”
“Of course. I won’t touch a single hair on the old lady.”
“Do as you wish.”
“Yes! Thank you!”
Berrick left the room humming cheerfully.
Finally alone, Rektarion stared at Eloah, asleep as if dead. Though Eldon said she was fine, her shallow breaths made her seem lifeless.
“Eloah.”
He gently returned her thin, pale hand under the covers.
“I’ll go face Daisen soon… What will you think when you hear this news?”
Though the suspicion that she was Yuberis’s collaborator had been cleared, too many things about her remained mysterious.
He wanted to ask her:
How did she enter that mansion that day?
How did she escape?
And why, after being terrified by the secret she had kept all her life, did she accept the contract marriage?
Originally, he would have simply given her a separate wing to stay in during the contract, barely seeing her.
Now I can’t even send her away.
Having entangled her with himself, to send her out would mean exposing her to the attacks of the nobles. She wouldn’t last a day without proper protection.
Rektarion despised any act of abusing the powerless above all else.
I can’t just throw someone who escaped that hell to the wolves.
The one-year contract marriage served not only as the recognized period of marriage but also as a time to determine what to do with Eloah, who knew his secret.
At first, he merely watched her with suspicion. But the more he looked, the more he couldn’t look away. Every time he briefly looked away, she would get hurt—making it worse.
“Phew. Maybe it’s safer to keep you locked somewhere only I know about.”
He said this and laughed to himself.
Even then, with her strange abilities, she would likely escape.
He couldn’t control her, and she was unpredictable.
Yet, despite that, he couldn’t bring himself to leave her alone. He almost wished the contract period were forever.
And he didn’t feel much resistance to that thought.
Finally, I think I’m going mad.
After all, no one in Nosdian history had ever been truly sane.
Rektarion smirked and placed the cravat he had worn from the palace on the bedside table—well, he tried to.
What’s this…?
On the table lay a familiar pouch—one Eloah had clutched after a long bath, like a predator guarding its newly caught prey.
He chuckled and picked it up. It was as heavy as it looked, jingling as if filled with coins.
“This belongs in a safe.”
It should go in the room’s safe, in the drawer. He tried to place it there, but the string snapped.
“Damn.”
Gold coins spilled onto the rug, and Rektarion hurriedly began picking them up. Halfway through, he noticed something.
This is…
Just as he picked it up,
“Hmm.”
Eloah woke up.
