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Arriving in front of Lily’s room, Theodore found that he couldn’t meet her.
It wasn’t because she refused to meet him—unexpectedly, it was because she wasn’t in her room.
“The Madam just went out. I believe she’s on a short trip outside…”
“She couldn’t have gone alone. Who accompanied her?”
“That’s…”
At Theodore’s question, the lady-in-waiting named Jenna couldn’t come up with an answer and only stuttered.
Theodore stared at her and raised one eyebrow, then he asked again.
“Did no one accompany her? The Duchess of Valentino?”
“……”
Jenna couldn’t say anything to that. In fact, this had already happened so often. Lily Everett would go out frequently, and the one who’d come with her would usually be Charlotte. Except for Charlotte, no one else tried to accompany her.
It was ridiculous, to say the least, for a duchess to go out without an escort, but in the Valentino Castle, this was taken in stride. No one thought of Lily as the duchess.
Furthermore, both Missus Seymour and Theodore, the elder and the master of the household respectively, were indifferent to Lily. So naturally, the servants followed suit and ignored her as well. There was no evidence left, and the understated, subtle harassment they did was a bonus.
“Amazing.”
“I-I apologize.”
“What are you apologizing for?”
“……”
Jenna bowed her head down. Anyone with common sense could see that even if she had ten mouths, there was no excuse she could give. However, everyone thus far had rested easy because none of the Valentino household’s family members had reprimanded them until now.
“This must have happened often.”
“I will punish you accordingly later. Keep that in mind.”
“Yes, I understand…”
Theodore’s gaze went from Jenna to Charlotte, who then flinched slightly. She looked down at the floor, though with a straight posture.
…He had a nagging feeling for a while now, but she seemed to know something. She was the only lady-in-waiting close to Lily, so it was only obvious. With a low voice, Theodore asked.
“Do you know where the Duchess went?”
“…I apologize, but I have no idea.”
“You often went out with her. But you don’t know?”
“I went with the Madam to the suburbs for a stroll along the river before, but I really don’t know where she went today, Your Grace.”
“……”
Theodore smiled wordlessly—it was a sharp, glass-like smile. Charlotte flinched reflexively, and it was clear to Theodore that she was hiding something. Even so, he decided not to interrogate her further.
With Charlotte pretending not to know, it seemed to only be surrounding anything related to Lily.
The duchess, who had continued to receive the hatred of the duchy’s vassals, seemed to be hiding a secret of her own.
Whatever it was, he’d be able to uncover it later.
Theodore stepped closer to the door, reaching out to open it without any hesitation. Shocked by this, Charlotte’s shoulders trembled.
A noblewoman’s quarters was a place that even her husband should not be entering rashly when she wasn’t there. It was as custom dictates.
However, like a ruffian, Theodore invaded the woman’s quarters and began to search the room recklessly. Charlotte, who was taken aback, didn’t know what to do. But she had no way of stopping him.
Theodore took out Lily’s things one by one and inspected them. Notebooks, sketchbooks, diaries, small keys, jewelry boxes, hand mirrors…
When one jewelry box was opened, the very few accessories within glistened beneath the indoor light. There were only a few things inside—a simple pair of pearl earrings, a silver ring with a sapphire the size of a fingernail, a bracelet with a small diamond as the pendant of a thin cord…
It was a crude, insufficient collection for a duchess. Among the accessories, what caught Theodore’s eye was a necklace adorned with a light green peridot pendant. The large peridot’s hue was the same color as Lily’s eyes.
Staring at the necklace in his hand, Theodore felt a strange sense of dissonance with it. Strangely, one side of his chest seemed to be tightening.
“……”
He stared at the peridot necklace for a long time, but he soon placed it back into the jewelry box and set it down. Then, he started searching through Lily’s other things.
He didn’t think that he should read through the diary closely, so he just flipped through it. He didn’t know what the small key would unlock, and the notebook contained random words and numbers.
Lastly, he opened the sketchbook. And as he did, Theodore was unknowingly struck by it. The charcoal sketches were so good that they could be considered as an expert’s work.
Did she really draw all of these? When he raised his head in surprise, the restless Charlotte soon sighed and answered his silent question.
“…They were all drawn by the Madam.”
“They’re marvelous.”
“……”
It didn’t seem like he was waiting for an answer, and so Charlotte remained silent. She glanced nervously at the duke, who seemed to have become a completely different person right after he lost his memories.
No, truthfully, the duke seemed to remain the same for the most part. He forgot only his memories about Lily Everett, and his attitude towards others remained the same.
He was sometimes sharp-tongued, but he was generally kind to his people. His kindness had only one exception, and that was Lily Everett.
It’s always been like that. He was cold and indifferent only to her. As though he was obsessively doing it on purpose. Whenever he would cross paths with her, he would have the coldest expression while he would spew harsh remarks at her.
How much pain the Madam must have gone through, even though she would never show this at all. Charlotte thought that Duke Valentino was far too much. He was so hateful that she sometimes couldn’t stand him. He didn’t even know how much the Madam…
‘……!’
Right then, the duke approached the bedside table. Charlotte was wracked with nervousness as she bit her lower lip. Cold sweat broke out on the palms of her hands.
The duke opened the bottom drawer of the bedside table. As he looked inside, he paused suddenly, then soon reached into the drawer. He took out a small medicine bottle.
It was suspicious exactly because there was no label. Inside, there were small, white pills.
As he was slowly rolling the medicine bottle on his hand, something unusual caught his eye. Subsequently, Charlotte’s eyes quivered with fright. Shaking the bottle in one hand, the duke asked.
“This.”
“……”
“What kind of medicine is this?”
As she clenched her hands tightly, Charlotte couldn’t meet the duke’s eyes. …If she didn’t answer here, the truth would come to light once the duke would show the medicine bottle to a pharmacist anyway. That’s why… There was no other way. She had no choice but to answer honestly.
Swallowing back a sigh that was threatening to come out, Charlotte opened her lips.
“It’s for…”
* * *
“Here, please take some potatoes, too. You took so few…”
“Goodness, this is more than enough, Miss. Thank you, as always.”
“You’re such a good young lady. You always come out to the village and share some food with us…”
“Back in the winter, you gave us blankets. If you hadn’t, my entire family would have frozen to death.”
People treated me kindly while I was taking up the appearance of a common maid. They could never know that I’m Lily Everett.
My conscience prickled at the knowledge that I’m deceiving these people, but there was no other way. Without this separate appearance, it would have been impossible for me to distribute food and some daily necessities peacefully like this.
No matter where you go in the Valentino territory, numerous people would swear at the Everetts. Everyone hated them so they would feel offended to get any help from me, a lady of the Everett household.
So, there was no choice but to borrow a maid’s appearance. Actually, this face was owned by a maid who had long since left the Valentino Castle in the past and went to a faraway land, so I wouldn’t be caught borrowing her appearance.
“Life has gotten a little bit better these days. Those terrible fissures don’t appear every other day anymore, not like before…”
“You said it. Back then, we had to worry every single day about what to do if a fissure opens and demonic monsters would attack us. It’s a relief now. This is all thanks to Milord.”
“Of course. Milord’s elemental power is getting stronger by the day. Do you think those fissures and monsters don’t even stand a chance?”
While eating the cheese and potatoes that I had distributed, they were all in high spirits as they talked with joy. Certainly, the Valentino territory’s condition was much better than it had been before, and the dukedom’s citizens were gradually getting their lives back together.
It was also true that Theodore’s elemental power had become stronger. To be exact, it could be said that his already powerful strength had only stabilized because ‘Seraphim’, the elemental spirit of the late Camillus, had started to recognize Theodore as the new master.
In any case, the fissures—which were also called ‘wounds of the earth’—could only be overcome with the help of elemental spirits. That’s why it’s such good news that Theodore’s elemental power had grown stronger.
Perhaps because it’s become more possible to handle the fissures by themselves, Valentino no longer needed the aid of Everett, and there was an ongoing effort to regroup internally and regain the household’s former strength.
‘…This is a really good thing.’
It might really be only any moment now until I could get divorced. Theodore’s illogical partial memory loss was the only problem now. Anyway, whether he remembered or not, the situation between me and him remained unchanged.
“Huh? Miss, are you leaving now?”
“Yes, there’s something I need to do this evening. I’ll bring you all some fruits next time.”
“Oh no no, what do you mean by fruits? Those are such precious things. We can just forage for some in the mountains and eat them.”
“Still though. There might be some left over in the warehouse. I’ll look closely.”
“Thank you, then, dear.”
After saying goodbye, I hurriedly went back with an empty basket in hand. But somehow, the entrance of the village was unusually noisy.
Frowning in suspicion, I approached the entrance. There, a young man who looked to be in his twenties was kicking up a fuss with the villagers.
I froze in place. Somehow, that back seemed familiar.
“You’re all nothing but insects, you Veronis scoundrels. Don’t you know who I am?!”
‘This voice…’
My heart dropped abruptly. The young man, who was expressing his anger as though he was a rabid dog, turned around at that moment. Those indigo eyes glared back at the spectators gathered around him as though he was a wild animal.
An unpleasant feeling coldly swept through my body as only one name came to mind.
‘…Hessen.’