“Marquis.. Arrendt”

“Lady Celine.”

I laughed awkwardly. “Not a lady, I’m not a noblewoman.”

“A non-noble lady having a dress made by the Marian’s boutique?” Arrendt asked in a tone of interest.

I hardened my face slightly. “How did you know?”

“I just saw you coming out from there. I apologized if I offended you.”

“No. I went into the boutique only because of someone I knew.”

Arrendt smiled politely. “Then, I would call you Miss Celine. Could I join you here?”

“….”

To be honest, I wanted to tell him to go away. However, because I said I was not a noblewoman just now, it was impossible to ask a man whose title was marquis to go away.

“Well.. okay.”

Arrendt then sat down as if he was pleased with my frustration. What a strange guy.

When the noble maidens passed by my table, they were blushing while glancing at him. Ugh, he stood out just by sitting down.

“Do you have any business for me?”

“Yeah, just a little.”

Arrendt smiled then continued.

“Miss Celine, are you working as an official magician in the capital?”

“No.”

“Aha. Then I’d like to give you an offer.”

As expected, Arrendt must have been interested in my magical talent. In fact, it was not surprising because it was the same as the flow of the original plot.

“Are you a scout?”

“It’s similar. I’m very interested in Miss Celine because I’m also sponsoring a lot of magicians.”

Arrendt, who said so, smiled so brightly that at that moment, I even had the illusion that the surroundings had brightened up.

“Thank you for you offers, but i have no intention of working as a magician.”

“If there is a specific condition you want, I’ll fulfill your condition—”

“That is not going to happen.”

Suddenly, a low voice interrupted the conversation.

I raised my head with my eyes wide open. How could he be here?

There stood Abel with a cold smile.

***

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Arrednt raised one eyebrow as if in surprise. “Abel.. you’re must be Duke of Heilon. I didn;t know you were coming to the capital.”

Abel rubbed the back of his neck with a relaxed face. “Is it that marquis Arrendt Clovis?”

Arrendt smiled, and Abel had his cheeky smile on his lips. The two men looked at each other for a moment. It was literally an invisible fight. I hope these guys did not do this with me in the middle….

“Duke, what is going on here?”

As I recall, there was still time until Abel and SIgren arrived at the capital. There was no way he had already caught the dragon.

“I want to show you the dragon. You haven’t seen it, have you?”

Why did he say it like ‘hey I bought chicken, so let’s eat together’? Also, how was he going to show me something that big? Was he kidding me?

“Already? No.. how did you catch it?”

“It’s Sigren.. Sigren caught it.. I literally thought he was going to die because he wa in such a hurry.”

Abel then peeked toward Arrendt again. “But i don’t know what’s going on with Marquis.”

“Miss Celine and I was talking about something very important.”

Abel looked at me for a moment with an expression of the invisible question ‘Celine?’.

I glanced at him, asking him to match my words.

Abel nodded his head silently at me.

“Is it? But that important matter must be postponed until later.”

“Unfortunately, that would be difficult.” Arrendt responded gently

Abel looked at him with an annoyed look.

“I still have something to say to Miss Celine.” Arrendt didn’t care. In other words, he meant ‘so you should get out of here.’

“I thin we should stop that important conversation now.”

“I was talking to Miss Celine, not the Duke.” This time must be ‘what right do you have to meddle this.’

Abel wiggled his eyebrows as if he grasped Arrendt’s hidden meaning.

I looked at these two men in front of me. It would be nice if they did not fight with me in the middle of it.

“Excuse me, but may I ask what relationship between Miss Celine and the duke is?”

Well, it was the former boss and subordinate relationship. However, if I were to answer like that, Abel would be pushed back. Also, I did not think it was necessary to intervene in their conversation. Moreover, Arrendt must have responded in a very bad manner like ‘oh, right. If you don’t mind, would you please go away?’ And if that were to happen, Abel’s pride would be hurt. It was not worth doing.

I glanced at Abel, wondering what would he reply.

“This fellow—”

Abel looked at me and grinned.

“She’s my daughter.”

What?

“Then stop meddling and go away, Marquis Clovis.”

I almost jumped out hearing Abel’s reply,

However, I think Arrendt noticed my reaction was a bit strange.

“Does Duke have a daughter?”

“She’s my adopted daughter. It just happened now.”

“But it looks like Miss Celine has never heard of this before.”

“She just found out too.”

What kind of nonsense is that?

Regardless of my reaction, Abel gave a discharge order to Arrendt with an arrogant smirk and looked down on Arrendt as if he was breathing. “So I hope you could go quickly for good, and do not bother the cozy time between father and daughter, Marquis Clovis.”

Because I had been standing in the middle of these two men, the eyes of people were flocking to this side. I bowed my head, trying to minimize my existence.

Arrendt seemed to have decided that it was no use for him to argue any longer. He then quietly got up from his seat. His gaze rested on me and Abel for a moment before leaving.

“Duke Heilon, why are you back to the capital?”

Abel, who I thought would Ignore the question, unexpectedly smiled violently and replied, “I’m here to end the winter.”