I kept staring fixedly at that drawer.
It almost felt like it stared right back at me — silent, stubborn, holding secrets heavy enough to change everything.
The whole room was wrapped in quiet; only sound the soft, steady drip‑drip‑drip of rainwater running off the castle roofs and stone gutters outside, leftover from the heavy storm earlier.
And deep inside that simple wooden space… lay answers. Or perhaps fresh trouble. Most likely both.
I folded my arms tight across my chest. Unfolded them. Folded them again.
Was Draven actually serious? Had Duke Draven Lucien Everfrost — the man who mapped battlefields and planned political moves three steps ahead of everyone else — truly just left the most important file or record in his possession sitting casually here, inside our private chambers… and walked away as if it were nothing more dangerous than an old letter?
It left me staring at two very uncomfortable truths.
Either… he trusted me completely.
