Chapter 8

The guards’ loud, spirited greeting echoed through the room.

Asad returned to his usual chair and sat down. Unfortunately, he was dressed entirely in black, making him look even more like the Grim Reaper. Shuri stood firmly beside him.

“Well, do you feel like telling me now how you knew about the heavy rain in advance?”

Mia moved her lips hesitantly before speaking as though she had made up her mind.

“I’ll tell you if you have everyone else leave.”

One of Asad’s eyebrows rose with interest. At his slight nod, the guards went outside.

Mia looked at Shuri, who was still standing stubbornly beside Asad. Shuri pointed at himself with a finger.

“…Me? You want me to leave too?”

Asad turned his head toward Shuri. His silent gaze clearly told him to leave.

“But, Your Grace! Who knows what this woman might do?”

“Surely I can handle one woman tied up with rope.”

“She’s not just any woman. She’s a vicious woman who climbed down a stone tower in the pouring rain while completely naked!”

“Shuri.”

Asad called his name reproachfully, and Shuri headed toward the door with a sulky expression. Even as he left, he didn’t forget to threaten Mia.

“If you hurt His Grace again, I’ll make you regret ever being born. Remember that.”

Once Shuri left, only the two of them remained in the room.

It felt strange to be sitting face-to-face with the man she had admired while reading the novel.

Mia shook her head.

Before she became captivated by him again, she had to make her move.

The weapon Mia had brought this time was honesty.

“The reason I knew about the heavy rain in advance is because this place is inside a novel called The Moon That Reflects Your Face.”

Asad said nothing.

Did that work…? Is it true that everyone recognizes the truth when they hear it?

Just as Mia was beginning to feel a little excited, he calmly opened his mouth.

“So you really are an idiot.”

Mia closed her eyes and pressed her lips tightly together as she fought back her anger.

She hated herself for having hoped, even for a moment.

You stupid Grand Duke who can’t recognize people at all! I’m telling you it’s true! And I’m not an idiot! I didn’t come first in my class, but I was at least average! If you were a high school senior in South Korea, do you think you’d even make it into a university in Seoul? No way! You look exactly like the type who’d spend all day obsessed with PC bangs and then cry when you got your report card, you jerk!

All sorts of words piled up in her mind, but she couldn’t say any of them aloud.

Her life was too precious.

“I’m not an idiot. It is undoubtedly true that this place is inside a novel and that I came here from another world. As proof…”

His composed face remained fixed on Mia.

“I’ll tell you who the person is that you love so deeply it hurts, yet hate enough to wish dead.”

That much I definitely read about in the original novel.

“I’ll kill her.”

The moment those words left Asad’s mouth, Mia realized that something had gone terribly wrong.

An unprecedentedly passionate fury burned in his eyes.

“Your mother.”

Who would have thought that a single word from Mia would make the cold Grand Duke’s attitude change so suddenly?

Asad rose from his seat, approached Mia, and immediately grabbed her slender neck.

“Ghk!”

His mother’s death had clearly remained a deep trauma for him.

Even so, Mia couldn’t stop here.

The only information that could prove right then and there that she was a transmigrator was something from Asad’s past.

“What do you know to dare speak of her so carelessly?”

Even as she was being strangled, Mia stared at him.

Her pale green eyes moved back and forth as they searched his face.

“During the rebellion caused by the former Grand Duke Uliel, your mother killed your father and then stabbed her own neck with a dagger.”

Asad’s previously emotionless black eyes shook violently.

“To make her young son not the child of a rebel…but the hero who punished the rebel.”

Mia could feel the strength in Asad’s hand increasing.

She struggled to force out her final words.

“Ghk… Your Grace… truly… loved you…”

Asad released her neck and stood upright.

Mia coughed violently as she hurriedly gulped in air.

Asad turned his back to her.

Now Mia couldn’t see his face.

Was it just her imagination?

Mia felt as though Asad’s shoulders were trembling.

The back of this man, who was so much taller than her, suddenly looked unbearably forlorn, like that of a boy who desperately needed someone to comfort him.

After a long while, Asad, who had been silently staring at the ceiling, turned around.

His face had returned to that same expressionless look befitting the mastermind behind everything.

“You… Whose spy are you? Did that rat-like Junpei Masabiel give you this information?”

“I’m not a spy for any family. Even if Your Grace denies it, it doesn’t matter. I told you the truth.”

“Prove it.”

He leaned his face close to hers and demanded an answer.

This time, Mia didn’t back down.

She stared directly into his eyes.

“I told you about the past, and you still don’t believe me.”

“Then don’t talk about the past. Tell me about the future. If you really came from somewhere else, you should be able to predict it.”

Mia bit her lip.

When she clenched her teeth, the spot where he had grabbed her neck a moment ago throbbed painfully.

If he had squeezed even a little harder, she would have suffocated or had her neck broken and died.

“You’d better think carefully. Now that you’ve heard what we were discussing, whether you live or die depends on your answer.”

His threat made the area around Mia’s neck suddenly feel numb.

She desperately racked her brain, trying to remember the novel’s plot.

In the original story, Mia became Asad’s secretary, which allowed Valentina to meet the Crown Prince.

Later, Valentina caught the Crown Prince’s attention at an unusually early debutante ball.

That was when the Crown Prince’s mistress began to regard Valentina as a rival.

Wait. The Crown Prince’s mistress?

“Is the Crown Prince’s mistress currently Kisha Astrid?”

He nodded suspiciously.

A glimmer of hope spread across Mia’s face.

“This year’s debutante ball will be held two months earlier than usual! And Kisha Astrid will be the one organizing it.”

Asad shook his head.

“That makes no sense. Holding a debutante ball is an exclusive right and duty of the Imperial Family. They would never entrust its organization to a mere mistress. And you’re saying it will be held two months early…?”

“Because of the rain.”

Mia cut him off and quickly added,

“The damage from the rain will be severe, so public sentiment will be terrible. They’ll want to divert everyone’s attention with a lavish banquet and encourage the nobles to spend money in order to stabilize the atmosphere.”

“That makes sense, but there’s no way they would entrust the debutante ball to a mistress. The late Empress would faint if she heard such a thing.”

“You’ll see soon enough.”

Their intense gazes collided in the air.

After a moment, Asad spoke while glaring at Mia.

“Fine. I’ll wait one month. Shuri! Are you outside?”

Shuri opened the door and entered with a deeply displeased expression.

Apparently, he was still unhappy about being kicked out earlier.

“Lock this woman up and keep a close watch on her. And you, Mia Lisicha, should pray that your head is still attached to your neck a month from now.”

Mia didn’t back down.

“If my words are proven true, then the way Your Grace treats me will have to change.”

Shuri stared at Mia as though thinking, Is this woman insane?

But Mia’s pale green eyes remained unwavering despite his gaze.

“Because I know how to make sure everyone can be happy in the future without shedding blood. You don’t want your people to die or get hurt, do you?”

Asad glared at her before speaking.

“…Take her away.”

The guards grabbed Mia by both arms and led her away.

Asad kept his gaze fixed on her retreating back as he gave Shuri an order.

“Shuri, investigate Mia Lisicha. Find out whether she has behaved strangely recently or whether there have been any changes from her usual behavior. Dig up anything you can find and bring it all to me.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

The “rat-like” Junpei Masabiel had a gaunt appearance at first glance.

He looked almost as though a stiff quill pen had somehow turned into a person.

He was currently strolling through the central courtyard of the Masabiel estate.

It was a small garden decorated entirely with exotic plants and trees.

The courtyard was surrounded on all four sides by red-painted wooden walls, with lattice-patterned windows scattered between them.

In the center was a small pond whose depth was impossible to discern.

Junpei wasn’t alone here.

There was someone else with him.

A voice, deliberately kept as low as possible, spoke to Junpei.

“The Grand Duke Uliel shows no sign of leaving the capital.”

“I didn’t think he was the sort of man who would be frightened by something as simple as a threatening letter, but apparently I was right. We’ll have to find another way to drive the Grand Duke Uliel out of the capital.”

“Yes. Just as you instructed, the woman named Mia Lisicha has been accused of being the one who sent the threatening letter and has been imprisoned in the tower.”

“Really? She was caught faster than I expected. It was a good thing we used that woman’s handwriting.”

After receiving the report, Junpei opened a silk pouch in one hand and flicked the corn kernels inside into the pond.

Every time he did so, rainbow-colored fish leaped to the surface, swallowed the kernels, and disappeared again.

“There is another interesting piece of news.”

The guest standing respectfully before Junpei took a step forward.

Light filtered through the gaps between the windows covered with red paper, but Junpei’s guest remained shrouded in shadow, making their face impossible to see.

“The Grand Duke Uliel received a second threatening letter.”

At those words, Junpei nervously clenched the mouth of the silk pouch in his hand.

“What? A second threatening letter that I didn’t send?”

“Yes. The handwriting is also exactly the same.”

“Then who wrote that threatening letter? The handwriting expert I hired is under surveillance, so he couldn’t have pulled off something like this.”

The guest remained silent for a long while.

Junpei narrowed his eyes as though he had realized something.

“It seems you have someone in mind.”