Lady’s words, Ellie Miller didn’t take them too seriously.
Honestly, if that Marchioness Marina could single-handedly make her get divorced early and leave with the territory, she’d be grateful more than anything.
At dinner, the Duke randomly said, “I have nothing to do with Marchioness Marina.”
Ellie Miller paused her hand cutting the butterfly lamb chop, looking puzzled at the Duke at the other end of the banquet table, “Huh?”
The Duke of Coldcrest took a sip of red wine, his expression unclear, “Nothing.”
Ellie Miller buried her head and continued to eat earnestly.
Today’s main dish from the North Kitchen was Glen Dwarf stew, paired with creamy bread from the Elven Forest—it was simply superb.
In terms of stew, The Dwarves are professionals.
“The roses in the Rear Garden have bloomed, the scenery is nice,” the Duke abruptly said.
Ellie Miller, full from eating, was leaning back in the high-backed chair thinking about how to digest when she heard the Duke’s words and immediately sat up, “Oh dear, then I’ll take a walk in the Rear Garden~”
However, what she imagined as a walk was a solitary stroll under the moon.
But the reality was…
A tall and handsome man walked beside her.
Under the moonlight, their shadows partially overlapped, as if holding hands.
“If living in the South Wing is inconvenient, you can move to the North District,” the Duke said casually, looking at the sea of roses.
Ellie Miller was originally admiring the roses under the night sky, but this sudden remark almost scared her into exploding.
“No, no, no, I’m living very well in the South Wing!”
Artor Coldcrest: “…”
“Oh dear!
It’s so late, I’ll go to bed first, goodnight~”
Then she lifted her skirt and ran away in a flash.
For the next two days, they played hide and seek in the massive castle.
As breakfast time approached, Ellie Miller would dive into the [Alchemy House].
When the Duke went to the Order of Knights in the morning, she’d sneak out to the North Kitchen for food.
By lunchtime, she’d dive back into the [Alchemy House], perfectly avoiding lunch with the Duke.
In the afternoon, when the Duke met with civil servants to handle public affairs, she’d slip into the kitchen again…
Such ‘hide and seek’ continued for two days.
On the third day, Artor Coldcrest cornered her at the room door.
The tall and handsome man, in full body armor, stood at the door blocking Ellie Miller thoroughly like a ‘little cat’.
He spoke casually, “I’m going to war,” without mentioning the ‘hide and seek’ of the past two days.
“Ah, going to war again, where to?” She recalled hearing that the knights of the Duchy wanted to launch another war before the autumn harvest.
Upon hearing this, the man smirked, looking a bit creepy, “Earl Maxwell’s Fief.”
Ellie Miller: “…” To start a war while demanding ransom, is this really okay?
The two stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, and ultimately, Artor Coldcrest turned away without a word.
Ellie Miller ran to the window, watching as the Duke in full armor mounted his steed.
A group of knights held flags high around him.
In this moment, Ellie Miller felt their worlds were entirely different.
One filled with iron and fire, the other longing for pastoral idyll.
So, their connection should remain limited to transactions, without any further entanglement.
Before putting on his helmet, Artor Coldcrest looked back, meeting Ellie Miller’s eyes.
Ellie Miller instinctively waved to him.
The Duke smiled.
Though brief, his smile was breathtakingly handsome.
Ellie Miller clutched her slightly accelerated heart, stepping back several times.
It wasn’t until the sound of horses’ hooves roared that she returned to the window.
“Wise men don’t fall in love…
especially with such a man.”
The castle’s master had left.
Ellie Miller resumed her previous life.
Every day she harvested the Rear Garden, made alchemy potions, then studied new alchemy potions, handing failed ‘new products’ to the Minotaur.
Thus went three days.
On this day, a bored Ellie Miller finally couldn’t resist, readying herself to tackle the roses in the Rear Garden.
She really had no bad intentions, simply wanting to clip some to adorn her bedroom and perhaps collect some for a rose petal bath.
‘Clip’, ‘Clip’…
Ellie Miller wielding small scissors, experienced the joy of a hairdresser in the Duke’s Rear Garden.
However, the flower sea she ‘visited’ looked like the top of a middle-aged man’s head, fraught with ‘crisis’.
“Madam!
Madam!
Something’s wrong!” Joanna lifted her skirt and came running.
Ellie Miller’s hand trembled, accidentally cutting the Duke’s favorite ‘Rose King’.
Faced with the ‘tragically deceased’ Rose King, Ellie Miller remained silent, contemplating the feasibility of salvaging it with glue.
Joanna, out of breath from running, “Something’s wrong, my…
Oh!
My God!
Isn’t this the Duke’s favorite…”
Ellie Miller shifted the topic with a serious face, “What were you saying was wrong?”
Joanna remembered the urgent matter, “That Master of the Mage Tower, he fainted!”
Ellie Miller calculated the time; the old man had been sitting by the Wall of Ice and Fire for about a week, right?
Ellie Miller, surprised, said, “Oh, he’s got endurance.” She’d never accept anyone saying mages are frail, she’d be the first to disagree.
Joanna: “…”
Ellie Miller discreetly inserted the ‘Rose King’ into her flower basket, “I mean, let’s quickly check on the old man!
May God of The Radiance bless him, hope he doesn’t get into trouble.”
Joanna uncertainly said, “Would God of The Radiance be willing to bless a mage?”
Ellie Miller quickly followed, “May The God of Magic bless him.”
Jupis, Lord of the Red Tower was carried into a villa in the castle’s western forest.
Coming from the Rear Garden, Ellie Miller just happened to see Jupis lying like a corpse on the bed.
Knight Edward worriedly stood by his bedside.
Admittedly, in just five days, Knight Edward single-handedly cultivated a solid friendship foundation with this future ‘colleague’.
Ellie Miller was startled by the old man’s condition, quietly calling Edward Martin to inquire about the situation.
Edward replied, “At the end of the first day, Jupis took a big hit.
He wouldn’t leave the Wall of Ice and Fire, not eating or drinking.”
“He kept repeating ‘This is impossible’, ‘Why hasn’t it melted yet’, ‘I must be dreaming’.”
Ellie Miller nodded, analyzing internally that this was a refusal to accept reality.
“On the second day, I was very worried about his mental state and tried to counsel him.”
“In turn, he got very angry with me.
But I understand him.
Back then, without your potion, even if I survived by luck, I guess I’d end up like that annoying person.” Edward understandingly said.
“On the third day, he actively asked me for water but still wouldn’t close his eyes to rest.”
“On the fourth day, he began to inquire about you.”
“On the fifth day, I think Jupis started hallucinating.
He kept jumping up suddenly, saying the ice was about to melt.”
“On the sixth day, he began to cry,” Edward tried to describe as vividly as possible, “the kind that wails, a big cry.”
Ellie Miller nodded, understanding that the collapse of faith could make anyone cry like that.
“Just now when the ice melted, he fainted.”
Ellie Miller exclaimed, “Ah, didn’t he close his eyes for seven days straight?”
Edward shook his head, “He was afraid we’d sneak in Ice Potion into the Ice Wall once he fell asleep.”
Ellie Miller sighed, “That’s really something.
I’ve heard of exhausting a hawk but never exhausting oneself.”
Ellie Miller walked into the room and carefully placed the ‘Rose King’ hidden in her basket into Jupis’ folded hands.
Joanna witnessing this: “…”
Ellie Miller softly asked, “Do you think if we blame this on my ‘First Disciple’, the Duke would believe it?”
Joanna: “…”
At Ellie Miller’s words, Jupis ‘startled into a sitting position’.
This scared her quite a bit.
Jupis stared at Ellie Miller for a long time, then slapped the bed, like a warrior cutting his losses, said, “I, Jupis, mean what I say.
From today, you are my alchemy teacher!”
“No more of Jupis, Lord of the Red Tower!
Only alchemy apprentice Jupis!”
Ellie Miller immediately received a prompt from the [Alchemy House]:
[You successfully promoted alchemy, earning 100 points of career prestige.]
[You have won a follower from The God of Magic, earning 200 points of career prestige.]
Ellie Miller: “…”
After shouting aloud, Jupis’ head tilted, and he fainted again.