“It’s not about trying to clear up the story, not the reason you told me before, but the real reason.”

“You didn’t even mean to accept the invitation. Lady Alice Limorand disappeared as soon as she handed over the invitation, and Lord Claymore sent a reply of refusal. And you didn’t come.”

“Is that my fault?”

“I feel guilty for inviting you. You don’t even have to pretend to be sick if I don’t invite you, do you? That’s what I came here thinking, but I’m embarrassed that you really didn’t look well .”

As he said so, Nocton frowned his forehead and moved his fingertips.

Maybe he really thinks it’s an excuse.

I guess it sounds naive to say that on the day we were invited to a tea party of someone we want to avaid, we couldn’t go out because we’re not well.

But now it didn’t matter what he thought.

Nocton Edgar’s suspicion is inescapable.

If he hadn’t suspected me, he wouldn’t have come to the Marquis and hypnotize Sadie.

However, I was facing Nocton, it was difficult for me to endurse this conversation while my heart was pounding,

Like a lie that had existed for most of our time in his study, I was afraid just to be in the same room with him.

It was the limit.

I jumped out of my seat and turned my head away from Nocton.

“Do as you please, whether you think I’m a freak or not, and I’m not feeling well yet, so I’d like you to go back.”

“Braman.”

Without a reply in my words, he called the name of the knight that came with him.

The big knight took out the box he had put down on the floor, put it on the table, and took out the contents.

I looked alternately at the knight and the box with a blank look on my face, my request for him to return was ignored.

A large bottle of light blue liquid and a small glass.

What is that?

Without a leak, Nocton went to the bottle and opened the lid. He filled the small glass with the blue liquid.

Nocton tilted the glass and gulped it.

I couldn’t understand the sudden situation, so I made a straight face.

“You’re not here drinking, are you?”

“It’s holy water.”

“What?”

“You’ve just seen it, you know it’s not poisoned. “

Why don’t we have another drink? The feeling of reality was wiped out even more by that calm voice.

I can’t understand the situation that he opened the box and took out the holy water from nowhere and confirmed that there was no poison there.

My confused mind was reflected in my speech.

“No, what are you … that big thing is holy water? Why would you want me to—”

I stammered foolishly in my own thoughts.

Nocton, unable to ignore my words, put on his mouth a beaming smile and opened the lid.

One step, two steps, three steps.

Only when the sound of footsteps neared and the shadow of the tall man hung over me did I look up at Nocton’s face.

“You’re such a nuisance.”

Nocton reached out.

Right in front of my face hardened by embarrassment.

It was touching, and not.

At an obscure distance, my disheveled hair wound around his finger and passed behind my ear.

The fluff has bristled up.

His shadowy face from the backlight looked darker than usual, and his light purple eyes were softer than usual.

“I wish I could do as I wish.”

Nocton Edgar’s voice was shattered.

The fear melted and the flames blazed out of my head.

For a moment, I forgot my fear and clenched my teeth.

Fear-stricken, the past Roa Valrose, who believed that Nocton Edgar was not evil, probably her friend, popped out of me.

With all the affection left behind, with nothing but hatred, injustice and anger.

“You’re saying that now?”

What do you mean you want it to work out as you wish.

Whether the original story was true or not, even though I recall what had actually happened, I could not say such a thing.

It shouldn’t have come out.

It was unknown whether was brainwashed or not, but I headed to the Duke’s residence like his toy.

I was tested, ridiculed even though I thought he was my friend, and he widened our distance everytime I tried to get a little closer.

Even if not every moment, I have lived under Nocton.

No matter how many times I’ve been rejected and hurt, I visited him and stayed with him, and I didn’t know if it was because of the brainwashing or not.

Everything was done according to Nocton’s will, to his wish.

“If anyone hears you, they will think you lived by me. I don’t think you have any memories of the old days with that smart head of yours. Or did you erase it because it was nothing?”

I’ve been doing whatever you wish for a long time.

To the point where I can’t even say I’m your friend, to the point where I’m ashamed to call you that.

What I couldn’t say out of my mouth continued only in my head.

Even when my anger was boiling over, I didn’t want to say it myself.

Nocton Edgar looked down at me with a pleased smile for the first time today.

Heaven forbid that I should be happy because my stomach is turned upside down and I’m upset because it was such a Nocton’s smile.

“As you say. You were the one who matched it.”

“Is that my fault?’

“How could it be your fault, my dear Valrose, it was wrong from the start. Everything.”

He whispered in a cracked voice and lifted his bowed waist.

Then, he turned away.

From earlier on, Nocton Edgar has been selfish.

He just said what he wanted to say and didn’t even listen to me.

It used to be that way, but it has been more and more these days, and today he even ignored my anger.

Having cut off the conversation, Norton calmly walked as if he had not brought up such a topic from the beginning.

The sound of his feet rang as if half eaten on the carpet.

I glared hard at his back.

Whether or not Nocton knew it, Nocton took over the robe that was hanging over the knight’s arm.

It seemed that he was about to return, but because of that, his intention was further unknown.

I opened my mouth to vent my broken anger.

But a little earlier than that.

“I don’t know if I can reach Alice Limorand, but I wasn’t thinking about getting engaged from the start. It’s also good for her to come to the capital. However, If she wants to stay in Ernhardt, I don’t mind her staying there for the rest of her life.”

Nocton’s words splashed cold water to me again.

Does he know Alice is in Ernhardt?

The fact that Alice was under surveillance was a clear fact that I had heard it myself from his own mouth.

Unfortunately, after warning me about Nocton, Alice headed to Ernhardt, so I couldn’t tell her the truth.

However, I couldn’t imagine that Alice, who had spoken about Nocton so frightened, had neglected her vigilance as she headed for Ernhardt.

Since Duke Limorand was a thorough person, he must have prepared the journey to Ernhardt much more secretive than usual so that bad news about his daughter wouldn’t come out.

Although they have informed me of Alice’s whereabouts, it is because I know her since childhood.

Maybe there is someone planted by Nocton in Limorand.

If it’s not….

No, come to think of it, there was someone by my side who knew Alice’s whereabouts.

‘I think Lady Alice Limorand is not feeling well. She’s been taking a rest in Ernhardt for a while.’

‘The lady’s destination is a secret, so she told me to tell you privately. I think that’s what Lady Alice ordered before she left.’

No way.

I stared blankly at Nocton, who was ready to go back.

“Then, Valrose.”

“How did you know Alice was there?”

My vacant mouth threw a question without realizing it.

However, it was obvious that he would not answer with these words.

I pressed the reason that I should not let out the fact that I knew, and I asked again.

“You, Sadie, you brainwashed my maid?”

Silence weighed down the air heavier than ever.

In a quiet space where the sound of the movement could be heard clearly, the sigh of the young man also reverberated louder than ever.

A sigh, vomited in the air, coldly clings to my flesh.

I want to miss the reason, who came back belatedly, but I couldn’t turn back the time.

Nocton’s head, which was headed for the door, returned to me.

His face was not a bit bright.

“It’s different from brainwashing. It’s a long-term concept, so it would be better to say hypnosis.”

“That means….”

“You know that, right? That day, the day you were terrified. You didn’t shiver for no reason, Valrose.”

That’s as straightforward as I say.

My head was blank as if I had been beaten.

I wasn’t as angry as I was a while ago, nor was I as scared as I was before.

I don’t know what Nocton is thinking, and I don’t know what to say.

Is it because I heard an unexpected answer or did I not want to recognize the situation?

The moments when I was worried, suspicious, and afraid of him, but still tried to believe in Nocton collapsed in vain.

The moment I knew what kind of novel < He and Alice > was, it might not be a big deal, because a decade had collapsed.

Now I can’t even understand why I was talking to Nocton.

I don’t even know what he’s trying to do with me.

If Nocton was convinced that I knew his secret, why didn’t he do anything to me?

I don’t know. I don’t know anything.

My head was blank and I didn’t even have the energy to think.

“But it was only then. You wouldn’t believe what I said, but I’ll say it again anyway.”

He grimaced his eyes and covered his face with his hands.

The neck moved as if it were holding something back.

The image reminded me of the item that Nocton had brought, and I turned to the table.

On it was still a bottle with a tight lid.

A glass bottle of blue holy water. A huge gift that would have been considered a favor if someone else had brought it.

Something that confuses me.

“I never spied on you. And in the future….”

At that time, the sound knocking on the drawing room’s door interrupted Nocton’s words.

The door opened.

“My lady, I apologize for coming in during the talk. Another guest is looking for you.”

It was Carissa, in charge of the butler’s job on behalf of Duvel, who is probating like me.

The unexpected guest, and Carissa’s troubled look at Nocton.

Somehow I had an ominous premonition.

“Who is it?”

“Sir Claymore is here, my lady.”

As if a bomb exploded in my head that seemed to have been beaten, my mind became painfully clear.

Are you kidding?

Hence, in this situation?

I was hoping that Carissa would do a crazy laugh, saying it was a joke, even though it couldn’t be, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen.

The protagonist and the villain of < He and Alice >.

The man who put the surveillance and the one who’s under surveillance.

The two men who will confront Alice.

No matter how I defined the relationship between the two, it wasn’t a good feeling.

This was partly because I got to know the contents of the original story properly, but I also thought the whole real situation was the same.

From the moment I got engaged to Aaron and informed Nocton, he didn’t show any good feelings for Aaron Claymore.