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I finally managed to persuade Rachel not to punish Melinda, and leave her as my personal maid. The poor guy has already had a good time because of me. Therefore, from that moment on, I was no longer going to involve her in such adventures.

In general, the situation was quickly removed, and everything seemed to be fine.

After waking up, I felt absolutely healthy, and therefore I wasn\'t going to stay in bed for a long time. Despite the fact that Rachel and Duke Cassius tried to convince me to lie down for a few more days, I couldn\'t stand such boredom. Including because I was really all right.

When I got out of bed and Melinda made me look more or less decent, the first thing I was going to do was look in the mirror. I thought that after sleeping so long, my face looked just awful.

I looked skeptically at my flaws, but to my surprise, none of what happened had any effect on Leriana\'s beauty. The skin remained the same: fresh and toned. That\'s what it means to be born with good genes, or simply put, the first beauty of the empire. In a previous life, I certainly didn\'t have such a thing.

While I was breathing a sigh of relief, I inadvertently noticed something strange on my body. A red mark that hadn\'t been there before was on the back of my neck.

Sitting on the bed with a mirror in my hands, I was stunned.

Rachel was sitting next to her in an armchair and reading the scientific literature on management theory that the duke had given her to study. She was deeply focused on it until I suddenly distracted her.

— Rachel, what is it? I asked excitedly, pointing to the strange mark.

Rachel looked at me calmly.

— What are you talking about?

To be honest, deep down, I was still paranoid. As soon as I saw some kind of neoplasm on my body, the first thought that arose in my head was about a terrible disease. This habit has remained with me since my last life, when I just died due to a late-discovered disease. Therefore, it didn\'t take me long to start panicking.

— This thing! I exclaimed, «She wasn\'t there before!»

The girl seemed to finally understand what I was talking about. She focused on the mark, and her expression wavered a little. However, I did not attach any importance to this.

Rachel searched for words for a while, then said:

— In my opinion, everything is obvious here.

— And…? — I asked, — So I\'m definitely sick of something?!

— And here it is, — she sighed, — It\'s not a stain, but a bite.

— Bite? — I was even more surprised, — From where?

Rachel was silent for a while, and the same strange expression remained on her face.

— What did you think? Finally, she said hoarsely, «You\'ve been lying unconscious in the woods for hours. During this time… Some animal must have bitten you.»

— A beast?!

— Well… some wild squirrel or chipmunk.

I was taken aback.

So I was bitten by a wild chipmunk? That\'s definitely news! I didn\'t even know how to react.

There were no unpleasant sensations from this mark, and yet, it stood out noticeably on pale skin. It seems that at first I will have to wear high-necked clothes to hide it.

I let out a sigh of relief. After all, a normal bite sounded much better than a deadly disease. It can be said that I even got off lightly, and some larger predator didn\'t find me.

Preoccupied with my own thoughts, I didn\'t pay attention to Rachel\'s ambiguous behavior. She continued to stare at me intently.

While we were sitting in silence, Melinda suddenly knocked on our door. The maid was still afraid in Rachel\'s presence, but she spoke more confidently now.

— L-lady, young lady…! The Duke asked me to tell you that he has prepared a tea party for you. And I wanted to know if you would come down…

The girl looked down excitedly when Rachel glowered at her. She was clearly against the fact that our idyll was so abruptly interrupted.

But I, on the contrary, was very inspired.

— Of course! We\'re coming!

I happily grabbed Rachel\'s hand, not going to miss such a tempting offer. The girl only sighed with displeasure.

Duke Cassius, in his busy schedule, was able to pay attention to us, so how could I ignore it? Moreover, Rachel herself spent very little time with her father.

We went down to the dining room, where everything was already prepared. The whole table was filled with delicious cakes, cakes, and cookies. It seemed that this tea party was arranged not for the three of us, but for the whole banquet.

However, should I complain?

The Duke was already waiting for us, and I politely greeted him with a curtsy. It is worth saying that over the past time, I have already managed to get used to the local etiquette.

Rachel didn\'t say anything, and just sat down at the table in silence. But this was not surprising.

When we started to have tea and desserts, the usual awkward atmosphere arose in the room. Duke Cassius and Rachel were similar in that they always opened their mouths only on business, so there was always silence during our meals together.

It took some time before the man finally said something.

— How do you like the food?

«Oh, it\'s delicious,» I said enthusiastically, «thank you for arranging this for us, sir.»

«Nothing,» he replied, «I thought you might want to distract yourself after everything that happened.»

— Oh, that\'s right…

— From now on, I will put more guards on the estate, — the duke said, — It\'s lucky that this time everything went well, and you weren\'t hurt.

— Yes, it\'s even amazing, — I agreed, — It looks like I\'m really very lucky.

Rachel tactfully remained silent while the Duke cleared his throat. It gave the impression that these two knew about something that I didn\'t. I frowned, and was going to ask a question about it, but…

Bam-m!

Suddenly, someone began to knock insistently on the main door of the estate. It was extremely impolite, especially in the house of such a person, and even the servants looked at each other excitedly.

One of the maids was heading in that direction to find out the identity of the guest. But Duke Cassius got up from the table himself. He couldn\'t imagine who had the audacity to try to break in so directly. But he was definitely going to punish him.

In a split second, crossing the corridor, the man opened the door, ready to shout at the fearless suicide.

But he did not expect that this particular person would turn out to be a random guest.

«Duke Cassius, may I ask what my daughter is doing here?»