The Villainess Captured The Grand Duke - Chapter 43

Chapter 43

“…There are too many targets to pick on!”

Scheuer tousled her carefully arranged hair in frustration. She was someone with enough information to know that someone, from either side, had prepared a bouquet of flowers to congratulate her. The scope of targets was too massive to attribute it to a simple personal grudge.

“Still, I can manage to restrain them a bit.”

Scheuer chuckled proudly. If the opponent had weakened to the point of insignificance, they wouldn’t have dared to touch her. Of course, she didn’t appreciate actions taken to exploit her reputation, but originally, Scheuer might have scattered hints of receiving a bouquet all over the place. Perhaps just to confirm if Raygrain’s feelings were genuine.

Was it only to check if his feelings were sincere?

She was confident that she could handle that much.

In that case, could this be an excuse to spend a little more time together?

It was definitely not an excuse.

This was good for both him and her.

Scheuer thought so, unable to close her wide-open mouth. At that moment, with a resounding click, Raygrain, who seemed to have waited for a while, entered the hall from the banquet.

She turned her head to greet him warmly.

“Your Grace, you’re here!”

“Thanks to you, the banquet ended early.”

“Praise to you.”

As Scheuer grinned, Raygrain handed his formal uniform to the attendants and said,

“I’ll do it.”

That meant he would do it himself.

Although they were servants assigned to them, they were still people directly under the imperial family. Given the embarrassment they had caused to Silcaro on a large scale, it was appropriate for him to handle this himself.

The attendants quietly bowed their heads and left the room.

As the door closed, Scheuer, with her hair flipped behind her ear, shyly said, 

“Tonight, I will definitely put Your Grace to sleep.”

Raygrain unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt, furrowing his brows.

Then, with a questioning expression, he asked her, 

“…What did you put in the cake?”

Scheuer gasped, shaking her head.

“How could you do such a thing to the precious body of Your Grace!”

“I didn’t expect to be reassured on that point.”

He unbuttoned his shirt one by one.

Scheuer waited, openly admiring his appearance with her chin resting on her hands.

Then, with a small gesture, Raygrain said, 

“Turn your head.”

“Can’t I watch?”

“Do you think it’s possible?”

“It might not be. Still, if I ask a hundred times, you might admit it was a mistake once, right?”

Raygrain sighed and covered her face with the uniform top that had been hanging on the nearby chair.

Scheuer hugged his uniform to her chest.

“Your Grace’s scent!”

“…Didn’t I say I wouldn’t let you smell it.”

When her vision returned, Raygrain had already changed into comfortable clothes.

He tried to lift his uniform, but Scheuer, pulling tightly, was quicker than him. Raygrain, with a slight frown, exerted force on the hand holding the uniform. However, it was Scheuer who accompanied him.

“…Looks like something else came along with the clothes.”

Eventually, Raygrain lost his uniform to her. He sighed and said, 

“You can’t wear it while in the central area. When we return to the north, I’ll allow it.”

“Well… I understood because I didn’t want to put Your Grace in an awkward position.”

“Isn’t your behavior contradictory to that?”

With her arms in his uniform, Scheuer chuckled embarrassingly. Due to the difference in physique, she felt awkward as if she had obtained it. Even her hands couldn’t properly come out of the sleeves.

The warmth of Raygrain still faintly lingered in the clothes, emitting a comforting warmth.

Turning in place, Scheuer asked, 

“Was the banquet okay? I was worried that the atmosphere might have been quite off due to my arrival.”

“Well…”

Leaning against the bed, Raygrain observed Scheuer’s fashion show with a fist under his chin.

“Anyway, it seems like the atmosphere is better now.”

Lifting her arms in a pose, Scheuer asked, 

“I do look good in uniforms, don’t I? Someone might not even recognize these as Your Grace’s clothes.”

“Even so, it’s not allowed while you’re here.”

Wrinkling her nose, Scheuer crawled onto the bed on her knees. Raygrain sat neatly, silently watching her.

Taking a seat near him, Scheurr asked, 

“Are you going to the audience chamber again tomorrow?”

“That’s right.”

Continuing to chatter, Scheuer’s attention was on the pockets of his uniform. Raygrain sighed and commented, 

“There’s nothing in there.”

Disappointed, Scehuer withdrew, saying, 

“May I come along?”

“It’s too early for that.”

“I’ll be staying up all night, you know?”

Scheuer blinked her eyes. She had prepared for this time by drinking a lot of tea during the day. Despite being separate from the fatigue of the banquet, her eyes were still drowsy.

Raygrain glanced at her and asked, 

“Quite a straightforward method.”

But contrary to her clear eyes, her head was quite heavy. The late-night effects of sleeping late last night were only starting to hit.

Wiping her eyes, Scheuer said, 

“Central is fine, but it’s not great to have Your Grace unseen. We need a certain amount of time to absorb your essence, and it’s lacking.”

Raygrain firmly responded to Scheuer’s assertion, 

“Think of it as a campaign.”

“In the north, there might be something of Yours, but there’s nothing here.”

Blanga had spread his remains here and there, allowing her to endure his absence for a while. However, the palace was different.

In the already regrettable absence of his traces, for some reason, Raygrain seemed busier here than in the north, wandering around. Since he claimed to handle official duties during the day, the only times she could see him were early in the morning and before going to sleep.

Not wanting to let these precious moments slip away, Scheuer shook her head and said, “Are you trying to monopolize Your Grace in the central region?”

“Not really. Blenga cannot interfere in central politics.”

Slowly crawling next to him, Scheuer asked, 

“What is the Northern Pact? I heard you were talking to Silcaro about it earlier.”

Finding books about the pact between the central and northern regions was challenging in the Imperial Library. Solle seemed to recall something, but she wasn’t sure which book it was. Judging by his confusion about whether he had seen the book in the central library, it seemed that the details of the pact were recorded somewhere officially.

As Scheuer looked at him lying down, he got up and extinguished the light. She stubbornly declared, 

“I won’t sleep.”

“That’s what you say.”

When she glared at him, Raygrain casually recited the contents of the pact.

“It was an agreement made when the central region declared independence. It stated that the central region would not interfere in northern affairs.”

Blenga, like Nettriga, had always been one of the largest and strongest swordsmanship families in the central region. Whenever monsters increased in the north, the central region sent punitive expeditions, but by the time they arrived, many people had already died.

Therefore, it was decided to establish a stronghold in the north, and soon a punitive force, led by Blenga and proficient in swordsmanship, was organized. In the process, many talented individuals were discovered, and those who passed through Blegca began to occupy key positions in the central government.

Public sentiment also began to shift. Rather than existing families for the sake of the imperial family, people felt more secure under the banner of Blenga, which actively worked for their own safety.

The political elites in the central region gradually became wary of the expanding Blenga. The same sentiment extended to the emperor.

“Smile Love”