Chapter: 1020

However, Fritz whom she met in person was a polite and kind handsome man.

‘He looks like Astelle. Although they seem to have very different personalities.’

Back then, she just had a crush on handsome men, which was her taste.

The reason the two got close was when she told Astelle that she was being watched.

From that day on, Fritz often visited her and even invited her to his mansion.

During the months Gretel stayed in the capital, she became increasingly intimate with him.

Even in the mountains, Fritz tried to help Gretel by respectfully being polite to her.

“The Duke ordered it.”

Along with the words, new bedding and furniture came in, and delicious food kept coming.

“These are all rewards for those who work hard in the mountains,” Fritz said so, but it was too much for simple welfare benefits.

One day she heard that the official who had been rigid with her had left.

When she asked where he went, the answer came back that the Duke had transferred him to the farm’s caretaker.

“He’s on the farm?”

He was a clerk in the estate under the mountains, but being a farm’s caretaker was a pretty severe demotion.

“He must have been rude to the Duke.”

When she asked why, the servant only said so and ran away.

After that incident, the officials and servants around Gretel treated her much more carefully than they did before.

The lord of the region even treated her very well as if he was taking care of a princess.

“…….”

Gretel wasn’t a fool either.

She sensed that Fritz was being overly nice to her.

Still, when they stayed in the castle in the mountains, there were a lot of people watching, so there was still some distance.

It was when they went down to the bottom of the mountain range that the distance collapsed.

The southern mountains are rugged terrain that runs from east to west and north to south.

There is a large lake at the end of the ridge of the mountain range to the west.