The duke didn't mind the silence as his eyes were still on me.
With the way that he was looking at me, it was almost as if he was expecting something from me, but I really didn't know what to say.
In the end, I didn't have to say anything as Veronica herself suddenly charged into the room.
She ran right past everyone and went right up to the duke sitting behind the desk. She grabbed a bunch of paper from the desk and rolled it up into a tube before smacking the duke right on the head with it.
There was even more silence that followed after that smack as even the duke didn't believe that his daughter would do this to him.
All of the knights were so afraid of what was happening that they had taken a step back and pretended like they didn't exist.
Finally, Veronica took a deep breath and let it out before saying, "Sir Zwein, please don't mind what my father was saying. It is nothing more than some murmurs in his sleep."
With the way that she looked at me and the smile on her face, I couldn't help feeling a chill run down my back.
I gave a cough to calm myself down before saying, "Young miss, I didn't hear anything just now."
Veronica gave a nod with the same smile before saying, "I wish you safe travels."
I cupped my hands and gave a slight bow both to her and the duke before leaving with Shaka.
As I left, I had to control the speed at which I walked out.
Even though I wanted to leave as soon as possible, if I ran out of the room…it would be rude to the duke. So I had to control myself to move at a moderate pace instead of speeding out of the room.
Once he had left the room, there was a chill that suddenly appeared in this room.
This chill forced the knights to take another step back, but they didn't dare leave the room without permission.
A long time passed before Veronica finally said, "You can leave now."
As soon as the knights heard this, they didn't hesitate at all to evacuate the room. Though before they did leave the room, they did make sure to give a slight bow to the duke and Veronica.
While they were doing this, they could see a look coming from the duke.
This was a look of pleading, asking them for help. He wanted them to find some kind of excuse to take him with them, but…they just gave him an apologetic look before fleeing.
They didn't want to get involved in the young miss' matter since they knew just how terrifying she could be.
So even though they had sworn to protect both the duke and the people of this city, they abandoned their first promise now in the face of the young miss. That was just how terrifying this young girl was.
Once it was only the duke and his daughter left in the room, the duke tried to appease her with a smile, but all he received was a cold glare.
So the duke had no choice but to meekly sit there in his seat, waiting for Veronica to speak.
After a long silence, Veronica finally said, "Why did you do that?"
The duke was flustered when he heard this since he could hear the blaming tone in her voice. He waved his hands around a bit as he scrambled to explain before finally settling down by saying, "I just wanted to do something for your future. I was worried about you."
Veronica looked at him with narrowed eyes that made the duke turn his gaze slightly to the side, but then she said with a sigh, "There's no need for you to do that. I know what I'm doing."
The duke looked at her with a surprised look before saying, "But I haven't seen you making any moves and you're not getting any younger. Your mother and I…"
Before he could say anything else, his mouth closed and he swallowed his words when he saw the way Veronica glared at him.
She glared him down until he was meekly sitting in the chair again before saying, "Who says that I'm even interested in him?"
The duke revealed a sly smile and said, "I've seen the way that you've looked at him and I know that you've been waiting for him to wake up for three days now. You can't fool your papa."
Veronica once again glared at him which caused the duke to look away before saying with a shy voice, "Even if I am interested in him, he already has a wife."
The duke gave a shrug and said, "Does that matter?"
Indeed, for them it didn't matter.
Unlike the other noble families that cared only about the status of the ones that they married, their family only cared about love. If they loved someone, then they should get married regardless of the situation.
Veronica gave another sigh before saying, "I have my own plans."
The duke raised one brow as he looked at her without saying anything.
Seeing the way that he looked at her, Veronica said, "Didn't he say that he came here looking for your support? Even if that was a cover, it is a real concern for a small noble like him living in a rural area."
The duke revealed a confused look when he heard this, but he didn't say anything as he waited for her to explain.
Veronica slowly revealed a smile that could only be described as the smile of a devil as she laid out her plan, "Since that's the case, we'll just show our support for him. What better way to show our support than if the daughter of the duke were to visit his territory?"
"Eh?" The duke couldn't help letting this exclamation out when he heard her plan.
But the thing that he was most surprised by was the look on her face.
That was because this was a look that he was very familiar with…he had seen it many times when he was younger…
That was because this was the face that her mother had shown before when chasing at him.
It could be said that she was sly and ruthless as well, using all kinds of different tricks to trap him. But there were cute sides to her that had made him fall in love with her in the end.
Still, that didn't mean that he wasn't scared of her…
It seemed that his daughter had inherited more than just her beauty from her mother, it seemed that she had also inherited her cunning. He had hoped that this wouldn't be the case since he didn't want more men to suffer in this world, but now it was too late.
Veronica was still muttering to himself while he was lamenting. She said things like, "I'll bump into him…I'll trap him in a closet…I'll…"
The duke couldn't help feeling more and more scared the more he heard.
But he had to draw a line at least, "Don't get pregnant before getting married."
That was the bottom line that he had to draw since it was a matter of reputation at that point. He didn't want his daughter's reputation to be ruined because she took things too far.
Veronica looked at him with a smile and said, "Papa, don't worry, I know my limits."
The duke couldn't help lamenting what Zwein would have to deal with in the future. He could only silently apologize to him in his heart.
He wanted to leave?
That was fine.
She would just chase him down.