The guards at the entrance opened the door for us and the main hall of the duke's manor was revealed.
To our surprise, we found that the duke was standing there.
With the way that he stood there, it was almost as if he had been waiting for us to arrive.
But in what world would this be normal where a duke would be waiting for a baron like this?
When I saw this, I couldn't help feeling more and more certain of my suspicions that the duke was being controlled by something and this was all a trap.
But for now, there was nowhere for us to run…
So I went forward to greet the duke.
As per customs, I was about to bow to the duke to greet him, but before I could go down, the duke suddenly grabbed my arm and stopped me.
He quickly said, "Sir Zwein, there's no need for you to do something like this. You can just act casual around me since we can be considered friends."
Could we be considered friends?
That was the first thing that I thought after hearing this.
After all, we had only met once before and we had only talked for a few minutes during that meeting, so how could we be considered friends?
But since it was the duke that said this, I didn't question him to his face.
Instead, I just humbly said, "Your grace, that is too much of an honour for me. How could someone as lowly as me be considered a friend of yours."
The duke waved his hand and said with a smile, "There's no need to consider your title or your position. I have to admit that I've long admired your work, so I hope that we can be friends."
I knitted my brows slightly at this, but I quickly relaxed them as I said, "The honour is all mine, your grace."
The duke just gave a simple nod before turning around to move to the stairs.
Once he had turned around, I couldn't help knitting my brows again.
But there was no time to act surprised since the duke suddenly made his next move.
With a clap of his hands, he said, "Come down and greet our guests."
After this, there were two sets of footsteps that came from the stairs.
When I looked up, I saw that there were two beautiful figures in dresses that were coming down these stairs. With how they came right after the duke had given a clap, it was as if they had been waiting for this signal the entire time to make this entrance.
The two figures were both beauties without a doubt, but one was clearly older than the other.
Based on her age, this should be the duchess.
However, even at her age, her beauty was not lost.
She was a middle aged beauty who looked like she was just as young as ever, but there were a few parts of her that were much more developed than a younger girl. She had her beautiful red hair and mature looks which made her even more enticing than a younger girl.
The one behind her was younger, but that didn't mean that her beauty wasn't there.
With her age, she should be the duke's daughter, but unlike her mother, she was more of a cool beauty.
With her blue hair and sharp eyes, she had a much cooler vibe than her mother did.
She was beautiful in her own right, but she did lose out to her mother since her figure wasn't as full as hers.
But when I saw her, I couldn't help narrowing my eyes slightly as I stared at the duke's daughter. That was because there was something that seemed familiar about this girl, almost as if I had met her somewhere before.
The duke didn't miss this and he secretly revealed a sly smile.
After they came down, they did the normal noble thing and gave curtsies to me before the duke introduced them.
"This is my lovely wife, the duchess Rebecca and that is our daughter, Veronica."
In response to this, I immediately gave a slight bow to both of them and said, "I am Baron Zwein, it is a pleasure to meet you."
At this, it was the daughter's turn to glare at me.
When she heard my name, she suddenly narrowed her eyes to look at me just like I had done before.
I had been peeking at her while I had been giving the bow and I saw the way that she looked at me.
It was as if she recognized me as well.
So did that mean that we had met somewhere before since I felt that she was familiar?
There was silence that followed after this until the duke suddenly broke it by asking, "Do you two know each other?"
Both of us were caught off guard by this.
The duke then asked, "You seem to be staring at each other, so could it be that you've met somewhere before?"
As he said this, there was something strange about the tone of his voice…almost as if he was looking forward to something…
Veronica was the one that responded first by shaking her head and saying, "We've never met before."
I nodded in response to this and said, "I was just lost in the beauty of this young miss and I've embarrassed myself by staring."
The duke to my surprise suddenly revealed a smile as he said, "You think that my daughter is beautiful? Well, luckily she's also single, so if you're interested…"
Before he could finish saying this, Veronica suddenly took a few steps forward to come to the duke's side. Then even though she was wearing a dress, she suddenly brought her knee up into the duke's stomach.
After kneeing her father in the stomach, she quickly took her position from before and said, "Father, it seems like you've said too much."
The duke was bent over with a bitter smile on his face and he was holding his stomach that had been kneed, but he quickly recovered and changed the topic by saying, "Shall we go and have a seat?"
I also had a bitter smile on my face after seeing this.
It seemed that the duke really suffered at the hands of his daughter.