He felt a rush of regret as soon as he left.
Of course, the majority of that regret was aimed at Theodore.
"Why did I leave like that?"
It was Yura, not Theodore, who offended him.
However, in the end, he’d failed to offer Theodore a proper greeting.
That kept bothering him.
So, he ended up in limbo, hesitating about whether to get into the carriage.
Finally, the coachman asked him with a worried look,
"Duke? Is there anything wrong?"
He was indeed very uncomfortable with this situation.
‘Right. We parted badly a few days ago...’
‘I can't leave things like this today, as well.’
‘I might be able to hear from Theodore what I couldn’t ask Enoch, and if Enoch did something wrong, it would be right for me to apologize as well.’
He thought about it again and again.
That's how he managed to get himself out of the carriage and make the right choice.
But first, he apologized to the coachman who had been subjected to his whims.
"I'm sorry. I'm afraid I'm not done with my business."
"That's fine. This is my job. I'll be waiting."
"I’ll see you after attending to my business."
As he made his way back, he had other thoughts in his head.
‘Should I offer an apology to Theodore first? Or should I act like nothing is wrong in the beginning?’
As he thought about it, he quickly reached Theodore's castle.
When the maid saw he’d returned, she opened her eyes wide as if surprised.
"Duke?"
He asked with a smile.
"Did His Majesty go back to the office?"
"He went somewhere else for a moment to talk to the saint."
"I see."
It was a pity.
He came here after all that thinking, but he wasn’t even able to meet Theodore.
Besides, hadn’t it been a long time since they met?
Yet his reunion with Theodore ended on a cold note.
A feeling of regret poked its head out and stabbed him in the chest.
He hurried through his pockets.
"Is this enough?"
An elegant handkerchief, with white lace, appeared from his pocket.
A handkerchief given to him by Vivian when they were young.
He was still using them because he couldn't bear to throw them away.
He held out this handkerchief, that he cherished so much, to the maid.
He gave a simple command.
"Give this to His Majesty."
***
A quiet, vacant lot not far from Theodore's castle.
Theodore and Yura were having a conversation there. To be more accurate, it was more of a one-way conversation.
Because only Yura continuously spoke.
"Your Majesty, don’t misunderstand, I only spoke that way because I was worried about you."
"You only worry for those who can’t be trusted. I guess that’s how the saint sees me."
Yura's face turned pale at Theodore's murmur.
Then, as if she was changing approaches, she changed her target.
Her arrow was now aimed at Duke Rosenta Estella.
"It is clear that the duke has done something to Your Majesty; otherwise, there is no way you would suddenly change like this."
Yura shook her head with a tearful face.
However, Theodore did not budge at Yura's pitiful appearance. On the contrary, he looked at her as though she were absurd.
Yura's words were ridiculous.
Theodore recited the most absurd part of her claim as though he were talking to himself.
"The duke did something to me."
However, Yura seemed to have interpreted Theodore's behavior differently.
Suddenly she opened her eyes and came near him as though she would hug Theodore at any moment.
She bit her lower lip slightly and looked up at him with a pitying glance.
She said,
"I have been told that the duke holds the power to curse. Isn't Your Majesty's recent strange behavior due to a curse?"
Theodore did not get angry or refute Yura immediately.
That didn't mean he agreed with Yura.
He was just curious about Yura's thoughts.
He wanted to know why she kept saying he was "strange".
In fact, Theodore felt that he was not in good condition after his visit to the duke's castle.
He started by floating Yura’s idea as if he was responding.
"What do you mean I’ve become strange? I don’t understand."
He sounded sincere and inquisitive.
‘Poor His Majesty, as expected, he must have been brainwashed by the duke.’
Yura, immersed in her own delusion, clasped Theodore's hands.
She smiled as if she were a saint trying to save him.
Then she began to open her mouth.
Starting with the trip to the Holy Land, she wanted to tell him all the strange things she’d observed about him.
"Every time you look at the duke, your focus becomes increasingly blurred. And your eyes are always on the duke."
All of the things that Yura said were symptoms that Theodore had suffered not long ago.
The only difference is that the subject of that attention had shifted from Yura to Rosenta.
"Even when Lady Marigold is with you, you only look at the duke. Then, when the duke is paying attention to others, you put on a subtle frown, as if you were jealous."
"...as though I were jealous?"
Again, there was the word jealousy.
He was confused at how words he thought had nothing to do with him kept being used to describe him.
He’d heard this from Vivian, too.
And he’d already felt it himself. At the time, he explained it away as jealousy from not wanting to lose his friend.
"Yes, you stare bitterly, as if you were jealous, and that's why it's strange. Why would you look at another man like that? Not at me or Lady Marigold?"
Suddenly, Theodore felt like he had a nail hammered into his chest.
He pressed hard on his chest with his hands to suppress the aching pain.
He asked again.
"……What do you mean by 'like that'?"
"I mean you look like you're in love. That's how ridiculous you look."
Yura's words once again caused severe chest pain.
Theodore leaned down slightly, holding his chest. It was because he couldn't bear it without doing so.
He silenced Yura.
"I don't want to hear anymore."
"Your Majesty?"
Theodore coldly turned away.
In his head, he was pouring over Yura's words one by one.
At what point did he stop feeling nervous being around Yura and, instead, start being able to remain calm at her words?
Yeah. It was thanks to Rosenta.
That didn't mean Rosenta had cursed him.
Because...
"Because I've been excited around him for a long time."
The longer he met with Rosenta, the more Theodore's heart was shaken.
In fact, it had truly been a considerable amount of time.
He thought he was excited because he was so happy to play with him.
But that was a misunderstanding.
His heart only tremored for Rosenta.
"I really want him..."
Theodore, who had been walking well so far, stopped walking. ‘That time, too, when I saw him in his bedroom.
It was because his thoughts were a mess.
He grabbed the door handle and leaned his head against the engraving on the door like a pillow.
It was then.
Just in time, a maid who was passing by handed Theodore a white handkerchief.
"It's Rosenta's handkerchief."
When aristocratic women gave handkerchiefs, it was usually a way to promise to meet again.
Maybe Rosenta was trying to use this handkerchief to convey that meaning.
Let's see each other and speak properly next time.
***
All he’d received was a lot of hostility from Yura.
‘If I ask for help, she’ll never agree. It might be different if it's Theodore's request.’
But it seemed like Yura was aiming for that.
The Yura he’d faced was even more shocking than in Vivian’s story.
"As expected, you don’t know what’s inside people."
But he didn’t expect the heroine's outside and inside to be so different.
Was this the trap of the third-person narrative?
He realized once again that the world of letters and reality were distinctly different.
"I'll have to start over."
He thought about what solution he could come up with on his own without Yura's help.
‘Even if I don't have holy power...’
If it's a bug, why not use pesticides or remove the grass that attracts them?
This simple solution kept coming to mind.
Curses or magic would be ineffective.
‘My abilities are too visible and far-reaching to solve this.’
And using magic risked revealing Enoch's identity.
"Is there no other way?"
I was lost in his agonizing.
He rested his arm on the window of the carriage and tapped his head at a constant speed.
Then, a last resort, the information guild, came to mind.
He quickly shouted to the coachman.
"Turn the carriage! To the information guild."
"Yes, sir."
The coachman whipped the horses at the same time as he answered.
"Come on!"
He could hear the horses neighing loudly, and soon he could feel the carriage sharply turning.
That's how his destination was changed.
Towards the Intelligence Guild in the heart of Nota, not the Estella Duchy.
The information guild.
It was not a place in a dark back alley or disguised as a pub.
It was a place with its name, 'Information Guild', hanging on a sign prominently.
"Be careful and have a safe visit."
He stepped towards the Information Guild building, being seen off by the coachman.
As soon as he entered, he heard a bright greeting.
"Welcome! This is the Information Guild! You can buy or sell the information you want."
A man and a woman dressed in neat clothes stretched out their hands to him.
They seemed to be telling him to choose whatever he wanted.
"I’d like to buy information..."
"Duke?"
Standing near the entrance, he was surprised to see a person walking out from the inside.
"Aphra? What brings you here?"
"Of course, I am here on business... ...but what brings you to the information guild?"
"I need information..."
Rosenta tried to answer the question.
But Aphra suddenly clapped his hands and covered Rosenta’s mouth in a hurry.
"Ah, duke! You have to be careful even breathing here. Let's go somewhere else first and have a chat."
Aphra pointed to the man and woman next to him.
They were looking at them with their ears perked up. Then they smiled slyly when their eyes met.
The man came to him rubbing his hands like a fly.
"You were a duke. Didn't you come because you needed something? If you want, with our guild master..."
"No, I'll see you later."
He resolutely turned away.