After the meal.
On his way to his bedroom, he called Edmund, who happened to be passing by.
He asked him to come with him.
Because he had someone to secretly introduce to Edmund, and only Edmund.
"Follow me."
He opened the door and went in.
He immediately saw Enoch lying on the sofa like a dead body.
‘I said he could make himself comfortable in my bedroom when I wasn’t using it but...….’
"I didn't expect him to be so comfortable."
Tch.
‘Should I adjust our promise about him changing his hair and eye color whenever he leaves the bedroom?’
Even when he’s alone in the bedroom, does he prepare this meticulously?
"Are you back?"
Enoch slowly rose to his feet.
Then he walked up to Rosenta, rubbing his sleepy eyes.
Edmund, who was standing next to Rosenta looking astonished, was treated as though he were invisible.
“……You have to lock the door carefully."
He flicked his fingers.
Click clack. Rosenta saw the door latch moving and locking itself.
Of course, he didn't think much of it because it was Enoch's magic.
Unlike him, however, Edmund stood motionless, looking breathless.
"Why did you bring him here?"
As Rosenta was looking at Edmund, Enoch finally asked about him.
Even though they already knew one another, Rosenta introduced them again to establish their new relationship.
"Enoch, you know, this is my head butler, Edmund. Edmund, this is Enoch who will be helping me from behind the scenes."
“……Yes."
Enoch responded quietly with a look of discontent.
Edmund, on the other hand, looked wide-eyed and bewildered and carefully asked Rosenta,
"What? Do we really need help in secret? Somehow, newspapers are already publishing corrective reports…….”
"Corrective reports?"
Edmund nodded at his question, glancing at Enoch.
Then he offered Rosenta a few newspapers and a golden envelope.
"I thought you might not have read the newspapers since they were still in your office, so I brought them to your bedroom. Then, as luck would have it, a messenger from the royal palace brought an invitation…….”
There was nothing more that he needed to hear.
Rosenta headed straight to the sofa with the papers and invitation Edmund brought.
Enoch naturally followed him and sat next to him while Edmund quietly stayed behind.
“……They really did report a correction."
There was no newspaper from Nota.
However, other newspapers were filled with headline articles with titles like 'Misinformation from Nota’s Newspaper' and 'Rushed Article'.
All of them were accusing the Nota newspaper of publishing lies and information without confirmation.
While doing so, they all reported the same description, saying it was what the Tower Lord actually looked like:
Platinum-haired with blue eyes.
This description described someone who gave off a completely different feeling from Enoch.
As Rosenta was blankly staring at them, he heard a murmur.
"I guess Lysander solved it."
‘……Was it all solved by money?’
***
It was finally evening.
The evening’s schedule also required him to have dinner with Yura.
Fortunately, when Yura heard that an imperial invitation had arrived, she finished dinner quickly, saying, "I should prepare quickly."
Of course, Rosenta ate slowly.
After finishing the meal alone, he was walking down the hallway, when he saw the priests moving around busily.
They were really flustered.
"What should we do? Do banquets normally take place the day after an invitation is sent?"
"It's a banquet to celebrate His Majesty’s safe return and to honor the woman in purple who helped him."
"Ugh. We're the only ones who are going to suffer."
Well, it was natural that they were distracted by the tight schedule.
Rosenta didn’t have to prepare anything. He just needed to wear the dress that Vivian had brought him.
Instead, he had a lot of other worries.
“……How should I face him?"
He still wasn’t sure how he should behave around Theodore.
He didn’t have the courage to lie to his face, nor did he have the courage to tell him the truth.
If he lied to him, it would be an even greater betrayal for him.
‘To be honest...….’
It was terrible and painful just to imagine what face Theodore would look at him with.
The former resulted in Theodore’s suffering and the latter resulted in Rosenta’s pain.
"It seems ridiculous to discuss my pain at a time like this...….”
His facial muscles gradually became stiff.
His movements became slower as if his footsteps were weighted.
As he was forcing himself to move with his heavy body, he felt a force grabbing his wrist.
Now he felt like he could recognize who it was just by feeling.
He called his name.
"Enoch."
And as he looked back, he saw Enoch, as he expected, with a slight smile on his face.
He pulled him into a nearby room.
He fell into Enoch's arms, and Enoch whispered in his ear.
"Rosa, trust me and close your eyes."
***
While she made a lot of demands of the priests, Yura herself sat quietly on the sofa.
However, upon closer inspection, Yura's appearance was extremely unsettling.
Her skirt kept fluttering as if she were fidgeting her legs and she kept biting her fingernails.
It wasn't just that.
Suddenly, she got up from her seat and even paced around the room.
"What should I do? Ugh, where and how can I get it?"
She kept saying the same thing over and over again.
After a while, Yura stopped walking around as if she had made up her mind.
She opened the door with a clenched fist.
"Huh? Saint?"
"Is there anything else you need?"
Some of the priests guarding the room met Yura with a startled expression.
Then, Yura smiled calmly and said, showing no signs of her earlier nervousness,
"I think the garden in front of the main castle is pretty, so I'm going to take a walk for a while."
"Oh, then we...….”
"It's all right, but I'd like you to do something else while I’m gone. There seems to be rust in between the trinkets…….”
It was clear the process would take a long time.
Therefore, after deliberately ordering them to address this, Yura left the room alone.
"I'm sure it's over here...…. Ouch!"
Yura walked around the hallways based on what she remembered hearing from the priests.
Then, when she encountered workers of the ducal household, she pretended like she was heading the other way.
The place Yura arrived at using such tricks wasn’t the garden.
It was the largest, most ornate door.
It was right in front of the bedroom, one of the places where Rosenta spent the most time.
"Ugh, my hands are shaking."
With a trembling hand, Yura pulled out the key-shaped necklace that was hanging around her neck.
She put it in the lock of the door, and it fit perfectly.
The door opened in an instant, and Yura wasted no time slipping inside.
She had come to the bedroom to rummage through it.
"Even if it fits all the locks here, how can I go through all of them? Sigh."
In fact, Yura following them to Nota, and her staying at the Duke's Castle wasn’t a coincidence.
All of that was what Conitel had ordered. Of course, Conitel also said that it was ‘him’ who ordered it.
However, even though she knew it was an important mission, she couldn’t find the book no matter how much she searched the room.
Eventually, Yura began to vent her frustration that she had been holding back for so long.
"I can’t believe this! Ah, it's so annoying! I don't like the duke, and I don't like that woman, Rosa!"
It was then.
She suddenly heard a strange sound near a wall.
Rumble.
She was so surprised that she took a defensive stance without screaming. Then, she barely managed to look towards where the sound came from.
“……What?"
The bookshelf was moving.
Stairs even appeared in the place where the bookshelf was originally located.
The stairs to the basement which obviously hid precious and important things.