Since the death of Duke Stuart, Helena had been working tirelessly for several days. Today, under the persuasion of the worried old butler who was concerned about her sudden death, she intended to take a short rest.

Her slender fingers pinched the handle of the teacup, but she hesitated to take any further action.

"Young lady?" The old butler asked puzzledly, "Don't you want to drink tea?"

"No, it's just..."

Helena, with her stunning and aloof face, showed a hesitant expression: "As soon as I have a moment of leisure, I always feel that something has been wrong these past few days."

The old butler fell into an eerie silence for a moment.

Helena looked at the butler: "Do you know anything?"

The old butler coughed: "Please forgive my presumption... I think it's probably because the young master recently... uh, has been obediently recovering at home..."

Helena's expression turned cold, and she sneered: "I knew something was off. It turns out that Landon hasn't been causing trouble these past few days!"

In the past, Helena had to deal with the troubles caused by Landon constantly.

But Landon had been beaten half to death and sent back home two days ago. Even with magical treatment, he still had to take a few days of rest in bed. Helena wasn't used to not having any extra trouble to deal with.

"Has the girl Landon harassed not come forward yet?"

"Yes."

"...That's rare."

In order to save the reputation of the Stuart family, Helena always made fair compensation to the victims.

After compensating a few times, the whole imperial capital knew that girls harassed by the young master of the Stuart family could seek justice from Helena.

The young master of the Stuart family was not reliable, but the Stuart family was still good.

Landon, on the other hand, had a terrible attitude and often claimed that he never did those things.

However, Helena had her own intelligence sources. She would still compensate when necessary, only thinking that Landon was beyond redemption.

Thinking of the unpleasant matters, Helena frowned: "Since they don't want to come for compensation, it's probably because they don't want to have anything to do with Landon anymore. Let's forget about it and don't investigate any further."

"Yes."

Right at that moment, someone came in to report that a visitor had arrived.

"It is young master Landon's attendant, Sir Cain."

Helena immediately said, "Let him in."

The visitor was Cain Grant, a younger son of a baron family, four years older than Landon.

It was a common rule among nobility that the eldest son inherited the family, and the remaining children would either serve the eldest son, be sent for marriage, sent to the church, or become attendants to heirs of other families, hoping to become knights in the future.

Cain was sent by the Grant family to the Stuart family when Landon was a child, becoming Landon's attendant, and was naturally familiar with Helena.

Helena had a good impression of Cain.

In her opinion, Landon was a wastrel, while Cain was more mature and sensible, just limited by his status. He couldn't persuade Landon to behave, and it seemed unfair to have him endure Landon's antics.

Soon, a brown-haired, brown-eyed young man came in.

He was of average height and had a decent appearance. His only flaw was the abundance of freckles. Seeing Helena, he bowed and said, "Miss Helena."

Helena greeted him and casually asked about his recent situation. Meanwhile, Cain covertly and greedily stole glances at the dark blue-haired princess.

Considering the Duke's death, Helena, as an adopted daughter, needed to perform better than the biological son in order not to be criticized by visiting relatives.

As a result, Helena had been wearing mourning dresses for the past few days. The black lace made her skin even paler, and the mourning veil on her head partially concealed her beautiful face, giving her a fragile beauty different from her usual cold demeanor.

Cain was momentarily captivated, and Helena caught his gaze, showing a questioning expression.

Cain panicked for a second and quickly found an excuse: "I'm sorry, it's just that Miss Helena seems to have lost a lot of weight recently. Have you been very busy?""Fortunately," Helena said wearily, pressing her temple, "I just met too many people recently."

Although Helena didn't directly state what was bothering her, Cain, who had been Landon's attendant for quite some time, was relatively familiar with the Stuart family's situation.

Most likely, it was because family members who came to prepare for the funeral were dissatisfied with Landon not coming forward, and instead letting Helena take charge. They probably ridiculed Helena in a way that she couldn't refute.

However, given that Landon was now bedridden, there wasn't much that could be done.

With that in mind, Cain insincerely said, "It would be nice if young master Landon knew better."

Hearing Landon's name, Helena became irritated, "Don't mention him, as soon as you left he went out and caused trouble again, this time he nearly got himself killed."

"Yes, I heard," Cain responded immediately, "It's my fault, I should have thought of the Duke's passing and that the young master's emotions would be unstable. I should not have taken leave to visit my mother at that time..."

"It's not your fault, it's just human nature," Helena comforted him. "And even if you were here, he wouldn't have listened to you... sigh, he's beyond saving! Even so, he will be the next Duke. I just hope that, like before, you can promptly inform me of anything he does. I asked you to come over to keep an eye on him."

"Yes."

Cain lowered his head, hiding his expression of delight.

Haha, how much of a failure was Landon's life, when even his sister would rather trust an outsider like him than have faith in Landon?

Why was Landon, a Duke's son, so infamous in the capital that not even his foster sister trusted him?

It was all thanks to Cain's hard work over the years!

Cain had always been envious of Landon.

Just because Landon was born a Duke's heir, and Cain had to be sent by his family to serve as Landon's attendant?

Landon was nowhere near as good as him in anything other than his good looks! However, just because of his privileged upbringing, Landon's life would be much smoother than his own!

Cain carefully hid his malicious intentions, and endeavored to please the Stuart family.

He sowed discord in front of Landon and added fuel to the fire in front of Helena. After many years of operation, he successfully alienated the once-kind siblings.

Just a few insincere words of consolation, like "Young Master Landon has always been like this," would make Helena recall past events and deepen her resentment towards Landon.

After a few more exchanges, Helena hesitated, then decided to visit Landon with Cain, despite how unnerving Landon's recent quietness had been.

She had no expectations for this younger brother, but due to their positions, she still needed to feign some care.

Sigh...why couldn't Landon just be a little more obedient?

Having the chance to step on Landon and show himself off in front of his crush, Cain was more than happy to take it.

Along the way to Landon's room, Cain even fantasized that with Landon's temper, an argument would inevitably ensue after just a few words with Helena.

He'd then stoke the flames while pretending to reconcile them, surely making Helena even more disappointed in Landon.

However, upon walking into Landon's room, Cain was momentarily stunned.

A handsome blonde youth, dressed in a loose white shirt, was leaning against the head of the bed, reading a book in his hand.

The young man's curly, slightly long hair was neatly tied back with a ribbon by a skilled maid, delicately resting on his left shoulder - a hairstyle that was quite popular among noble men these years.

The youth's sky-blue eyes lifted from the book and met theirs, his eyebrows raising slightly.

"What are you staring at?"

The moment this impolite tone returned, the two immediately felt a sense of familiarity.

That startled them!

Just moments ago, that angelic, tranquil elegance was surely not the style of the young master!

Truth be told, Landon Stuart's appearance was considered top tier in the capital. However, his demeanor always had an air of arrogance that made people feel uneasy involuntarily. Coupled with his bad reputation, this was more than enough to overshadow his good looks.However, now, Landon's restless aura had disappeared, and he seemed much calmer than before, which matched his delicate appearance.

Landon looked at them: "It's strange, you two actually came to see me together?"

Helena frowned reflexively, but after all, Landon was the rightful heir of the Stuart family, who just lost his biological father. As an elder sister, she needed to be tolerant of her immature brother.

So Helena explained indifferently, "I just came to tell him something."

Kane also chimed in, "That's right. Miss Helena, despite being busy, thought of you being alone, master, and specially asked me to accompany you. It's really touching!"

Before he even finished speaking, Kane had already started planning how to persuade Landon later.

After all, under Kane's instigation, as long as he said something good about Helena, Landon would think that Helena wanted to buy over his attendant, and would get angry about it.

Now with Helena right in front of them, Landon's temper was likely to be directed at her, allowing him to show off in front of the young lady...

Landon, who had spent two days sorting out his memories, subtly looked at Kane.

With his recovered memory, he could no longer be successfully provoked by Kane's low-level schemes, and he could see through Kane's hidden malice at a glance.

He wanted to expose Kane's true face right away, but he had no evidence, and a drastic change in his behavior would easily lead to suspicions of being under the influence of dark magic or being controlled by demons in this world.

...Doing nothing was too unwilling, so he decided to test the waters first.

After a brief pondering, Landon immediately acted angry, which was in line with his previous behavior, and said to Kane, "I know! Are you going to say that the Stuart family only listens to her and not me now? That I should please her properly, otherwise my title as Duke will be an empty shell?!"

Kane's face changed instantly.

What's going on?!

Didn't Landon hate it when someone suggested that he should please Helena?! Why did he mention it himself?!

And in front of Helena, how could Landon's pride allow him to do so?! Wouldn't it be equivalent to admitting that Helena's control over the Stuart family was above his own?!

The implication of this kind of provocation was too obvious, and Helena couldn't possibly fail to hear it. His years of plotting were about to be ruined...

Suppressing his fear, Kane cautiously looked at Helena.

Landon also looked at the stunned Helena together.

In the past, he didn't know Kane had a problem, and he had never explained his innocence from the perspective of making Helena doubt Kane...

...Would she believe him this time?