ITMWG 111

Chapter 111…

With that face?

“Are you really okay…?”

Marie followed Nadia, but she kept glancing out of the carriage in the direction of Duke Viosques’s residence with worry.

Nadia tilted her head in confusion at Marie’s anxiousness.

“I left a note, so it’ll be okay. I said I wanted to gather my thoughts, so I’ll stay in a quiet place for a while and will later come back.”

“It’s better than leaving without saying anything, but I don’t think the lord will understand the situation with just that…”

“Altair is a cool-headed person. When he realises my absence, he’ll find the most necessary thing to do.”

“Of course, the lord is like that, but…”

Marie didn’t seem to understand her decision at all.

“Why don’t you just tell the lord everything right now and ask for help?”

“If we just want to catch my uncle’s spy who’s hiding in the duke’s residence, that’s better. But if Leon finds out that I shared the situation with Altair, I will never be able to gain his trust.”

There was nothing she could do because his fundamental trust in humanity was at rock bottom.

But if things went that way, it would be very difficult.

“Is that doctor’s trust that important?”

“It is.”

But she could not explain the reason behind it right away.

This was from the future she saw in a novel, and she couldn’t provide any evidence right now.

A few years later, a disease that would take many people’s lives spread throughout the empire, and Leon’s power was absolutely necessary.

The disease was just a simple cold, but for the common people, buying cold medicine was too expensive, so many people died from such a simple disease, and Leon was the one who created the popular medicine to solve that tragedy.

No matter how wealthy Aylesford became, it was impossible to distribute expensive medicine to all the people of the territory, so it was very important to create a popular medicine.

In the novel, this medicine began to be distributed in the areas where the influence of the Third Prince, who had taken Leon in.

Thus, if it went according to the original flow of the novel, the blessing of the medicine would only reach Aylesford after many people had died.

However, if Leon stayed in Aylesford and continued his research like now, the medicine would be completed sooner than planned, and Altair’s beloved people of Aylesford would receive the benefits first.

And Aylesford is precious to me, too.

As Nadia thought of the faces of those who welcomed her at the festival and treated her like family, her heart warmed even in the midst of the anxiety.

She knew why Altair cherished Aylesford, and she wanted to continue to protect that preciousness.

“If that’s what you want, then so be it, but… How are you going to handle the lord’s anger later? When you leave, he’ll be very surprised and worried, so he’ll be angry as much as anxious.”

“Why Altair?”

“Pardon…?”

“Altair knows that as his wife, I won’t do anything reckless. So he won’t be too worried. I wrote a note saying that I’ll be back.”

“What-, what are you talking about? Of course he’d be worried. Try putting yourself in his shoes. If the Lord had a health problem and he, heartbroken by it, disappeared, saying he would come back after a rest, wouldn’t you be worried too?”

“Marie, of course I’d worry about Altair. I…I… ”

The laughter subsided as Nadia thought about what to say next.

“I love Altair, but Altair doesn’t. The example was wrong to begin with, Marie.”

That’s right. She loved Altair, but Altair didn’t love her.

She knew that, but when she said it out loud again, she was once again struck by the reality.

“What are you talking about…”

Marie was dumbfounded, but Nadia shook her head with a smile.

“You don’t have to comfort me, Marie. I already knew that. It’s not like you have to love each other to be a couple, so it’s not a serious problem.”

“I-, I’m-, I’m not trying to comfort you, but the lord really loves you. If you watch him closely, you’ll know right away.”

“That’s right. Altair loves me. He loves Aylesford, and he loves the knights. He cherishes and respects me. It seems a little different from the love I have for Altair.”

“What do you mean it’s different?!”

Marie was unusually on edge as she protested.

“Hmm. That’s because he needs a successor. And it’s an eastern custom for a married couple to share a bedroom.”

“And what about the trust and warmth in his eyes as he looks at you?”

“Trust and warmth can’t be love.”

Marie’s argument was defended one by one like an iron wall. In the end, she ran out of things to say and kept her mouth shut.

But judging by the way her eyes were shaking violently as she looked at Nadia, she still seemed to not be convinced by her argument.

“Why are you doing this, Marie, when you’re such a capable maid? We’re just another very common couple among nobles. There’s no reason to seek love. This is enough for me.”

“But from my view, you two-….”

Nadia smiled and shook her head again as Marie seemed to be trying to comfort her.

She placed her hand on the belly where life was growing.

She was worried that she wouldn’t be able to fulfill her role as a wife, but fortunately, those worries had disappeared.

With this, she would be able to continue to stay in Aylesford as his wife.

Nadia looked at Marie and asked for her consent, but she still had a complicated look in her eyes.

Something is wrong. Something is seriously wrong!

As soon as they safely arrived at the Vine estate and settled into the quiet annex where no one came and went, Marie began to wander around in thought.

Nadia loved Altair.

Altair loved Nadia too!

She couldn’t understand why the person involved didn’t know this obvious fact.

They’re a couple that drips honey just from the look of it.

Of course, Altair wasn’t the type to express love in words.

Nadia wasn’t the type to whisper her love either.

Is it because of the lack of communication?

A couple that was always together but never actually told each other that they love each other.

Nadia’s words weren’t all that wrong.

How many noble couples could love each other so passionately?

If they respected and cared for each other, produced legitimate successors, and managed the family well, they could already be called an ideal couple.

Adding passionate love to that was so idealistic and fairytale-like that only a girl with many dreams could expect.

Nadia was a young lady from an aristocratic capital family and had a bleak childhood due to various personal circumstances, so she must have abandoned such girlish expectations long ago.

She also had no confidence in herself, so it seemed that she had completely erased the very idea that ‘my husband could love me’ from her mind.

That can’t be!

They were a couple that loved each other like in a fairy tale, but Nadia was living with the thought that ‘I’m just a good wife to him’ without knowing it…

That’s so sad.

Marie watched the tragedy that Nadia experienced as she grew up more closely than anyone else.

The image of the girl who barely relied on her parents because she was too tender-hearted to open up easily, but had no one but them. She then unfortunately lost them early on and was persecuted by her uncle. All of it was still vivid in her mind.

Nadia said she was happy enough now because she could do her role properly, but Marie knew that was not true happiness.

She always thought of others and hid her feelings by saying that she was okay.

Even though Marie noticed Nadia’s feelings, she could not do anything to help her. She was just a mere maid who had no power to change the situation.

But now it was different.

Marie was now ‘Madame’s closest maid’?

I have to make the two of them understand each other’s feelings.

Marie, determined, grabbed the hem of her skirt tightly and stomped off.

Cain had the Marquis under his control so there wouldn’t be any major problems, but if something were to happen, he told her to come to him through the secret passage he showed her.

At that time, as a servant who had once worked for the Marquis, Marie was a bit perplexed at the thought, how could he, who wasn’t even a Marquis’s knight, know the secret passage in this mansion? However, right now, the only person she could go to and ask for help was Cain.

“Huh? Miss Maid?”

Cain, who was casually training with his sword, got up in surprise, as he didn’t think that Marie would barge in using the secret passage on the first day they arrived at the mansion.

“Are we already in trouble? Marquis, that bastard, I just took a quick look at him, but he’s more meticulous than I thought.”

Marie sighed deeply as she looked at Cain, who seemed ready to cut the Marquis’s head off at any moment.

“The problem is not with the Marquis, but with the Madame and the Lord.”

“The Madame and the Lord??”

“Yes. You don’t know that the two of them are in love with each other right now.”

“Haha.”

Cain waved his hand and burst out laughing at Marie’s serious words.

“You too, maid. That kind of joke is so obvious it’s not even funny. Anyone can tell that the two of them are deeply in love with each other…”

“Right?!”

Marie smiled at Cain’s words and came closer.

“You see it too, right, sir? Why doesn’t the Madame and the Lord know that fact that everyone else knows? How can they be so narrow-minded when it comes to their own business…”

Cain opened his mouth with a bewildered expression.

“You’re not joking? They really don’t know each other’s feelings?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying.”

“No, how could that be?”

“Right??! Even if our Madame doesn’t know because it’s her first time, how can the Lord let his wife misunderstand like that…”

“Huh, what are you talking about? This is his first time too? He looks like he’s a womanizer, but he’s just really a savage!”

“No, with that face and that body, how can he be…”

The two looked at each other with eyes full of disbelief, confirmed their kinship, and let out a deep sigh at the same time.

“I guess I understand the reason.”

Marie was the first to speak.

“I think two people who are new to romance will need help from those around them to confirm their love. Let’s step forward.”

“Hmm…”

Cain smiled awkwardly at the questioning eyes and scratched his cheek.

“I remember we once stepped forward with that kind of thought and failed miserably… haha.”

“Isn’t that what you call a moron?”

“Huh? No way! I’m very skilled!”

“Haahh, a moron.”

Marie looked at Cain’s protest and firmly concluded, then shook her head as if she had a headache.

There really wasn’t a single one of them that was useful.