A Painting of the Villainess as a Young Lady

limited number of things he could do during that time span.

Standing by them as they interacted in this way, Zylo was quite tired of watching the father and daughter like this.

Herron, the duke’s aide, gave Zylo a comrade’s smile.
The only one who was already used to the sight of the father and daughter was Mary, and she followed and attended to Violet without fail.

“But when will you send me a painting…”

“…Do you truly wish to have one?”

“I’m not one to say empty words.”

“…We do not have enough manpower here to send someone out separately.”

“I’ll send another new escort knight tomorrow.”

“…Please do not send more than one.
I dislike it when things get complicated.”

“…Alright.”

As he listened to their conversation, Zylo recalled one from long ago.

Mikhail once vented his anger to him, saying that the duke’s favorite child was Violet.

After the duchess passed away, it’s true that the duke did not take particular care of the household’s internal affairs, but there weren’t any talks about him giving the ducal lady special treatment either.
So, Zylo brushed this off lightly, thinking that it must just be something that only the siblings thought.

But he found out later.
As a matter of fact, the duke favored the ducal lady.
Indeed, despite the ducal lady doing such terrible things, the duke did not give her any punishment.
This proved his favoritism.

Still though, with the duke’s demeanor towards her bordering more on apathy, it’s difficult to say whether that kind of affection was affection, let alone favoritism.

Zylo observed the father and daughter in front of him again.
Being a witness to the duke’s unusual taste in art and the ducal lady’s resolute attitude… Zylo unknowingly took another step back.

Beside him, Herron smiled faintly.
There’s a chance that he’s only calculating how much leftover work there was and how many overtime hours he’d have to face later, but nevertheless, his smile was mixed with a hint of lamentation.

* * *

The new escort knight that the duke sent was a quiet man.

He might be under the notion that the same thing might happen again if he were to send a knight from a commoner background, so the new knight that the duke sent was a member of a vassal household, just like Zylo.

The new escort knight, Ozen, was taciturn—in as much that he could not be read.
Well, Violet didn’t bother to wonder what’s going on in his head anyway, so she soon moved on.

Even the people of the annex did not reject the new knight who was not making any racket.

But no matter what kind of change went on around her, Violet continued drawing or painting whenever she felt like it.
In fact, there’s nothing else that she had to do besides this.

“My body’s a little stiff.”

“Isn’t it because all Milady does is lie down or draw every single day? You also have to move your body sometimes!”

“……”

Violet was, for the most part, serene.
However, there were still times when her excessively peaceful life would be struck with anxiety.

This ducal residence was not a peaceful place at its core.
Just as the emperor ruled over his empire, the duke, too, ruled over his enormous duchy.
As such, the duchy contained such politics and its own government as well.

And it’s for this reason that the duchy was overwrought with political intrigue, while incidents and conflicts were never-ending.

¹ Uncle – translated from ‘ahjussi’, and I wanted to translate it as ‘mister’ instead, but it’s a term of address that I’d like to reserve for later in case it’s needed.
Basically, Mary called him ‘uncle’ because he seemed too old to be called ‘brother’, to which Zylo feebly protested against.