Chapter 5

The Wife Has Changed

 The next morning, Sella entered the room after knocking.

On the tray she carried were the freshest vegetables, bread, and a drink.

Unlike before, Sella bowed respectfully to Essika and spoke.

“I apologize, Madam. My abilities are meager, so this is all I could manage to bring.”

She knew that the Head Lady had ordered them to simply throw old bread at Essika for her meals.

So this was probably food Sella had discreetly stolen and barely managed to bring.

When Essika gave a slight nod, Sella placed the tray on the table.

Just as she was about to turn around, Essika tossed something toward her.

Startled, Sella caught it and opened her hand.

A small, sparkling pearl lay in her palm.

It was probably worth three months of wages for a maid like her.

“This is bait for the head chef.”

At those words, Sella’s eyes wavered.

If she gave this pearl to the head chef, he would gladly set aside good food for her.

“Bring me the paper on the table. It’s a sort of recipe. Tell him to prepare it exactly as written.”

Of course, it would also allow the chef to prepare dishes customized to the Duchess’s tastes.

Sella bowed respectfully.

“Yes, Madam.”

In the past, Sella would have secretly sold the pearl instead of giving it to the head chef.

But she now knew better than to do that.

The Duchess could see through everything happening inside the household, including Sella’s own circumstances. With such insight that she could determine whether food had been poisoned merely by looking at it, there was no way she would fail to notice Sella’s clumsy tricks.

‘How did I never realize that she was this kind of person?’

Since last night, it felt as though her eyes had been opened to an entirely new world.

The treatment a maid received depended on the status of the person she served. Yet despite being the maid of Essika, the Duchess of Klaus, Sella had been treated with contempt even among the other maids.

But the Duchess she saw now……

Perhaps she might eventually be able to stand against the Head Lady.

If that happened, then Sella’s position……

‘……No. Surely that can’t happen.’

When such foolish thoughts came to mind, Sella quickly erased them.

After Sella left the room, Essika twisted the corner of her lips.

There was a reason she had decided to keep Sella around.

As the Duchess, it was only natural that she needed eyes and ears within the household. But she had entrusted all such matters to Yuri, leaving her with no one else she could confidently rely on.

Sella was greedy, but once she was shown a clear difference in power, she knew her place and lowered her head.

She also had a surprisingly wide network of connections and was capable of finding out various things or handling a variety of tasks.

Therefore, Essika would be able to make good use of her while she remained in the ducal household.

‘Perhaps it’s fortunate that I had some pearls left.’

Once a month, whenever her older brothers sent jewelry from her family home, Essika received it through Yuri.

At the time, she had complained without even knowing that Yuri had already taken the finest pieces.

Then, whenever Yuri comforted her by saying, ‘I’ll sell the remaining jewelry and bring you something you need,’ Essika would even hand over what little remained.

Of course, what Yuri brought back had always been nothing more than old blankets, quilts, and woefully inadequate meals……

Yuri had claimed that she had given jewelry to the Head Lady’s maids as bribes, but their gazes had always remained cold.

Naturally, they had probably never received anything at all.

Fortunately, there was one thing Essika had managed to hide from Yuri—the pouch of pearls her father had given her the day before her wedding.

‘First of all…… the key is whether the head chef can prepare the elixir.’

Martial artists often consumed elixirs to accelerate the growth of their internal energy.

Yeongryeong had done the same, and since she knew the ingredients of elixirs that were relatively easy to make, it was not difficult to think of similar ingredients available in this era.

What she had asked the head chef to prepare was an elixir called the Il-Elixir, which looked like juice at first glance but contained a formula designed to increase internal energy.

If it could be prepared successfully and she drank it once a day, the rate at which her internal energy increased would accelerate.

**

In the afternoon, while steadily accumulating internal energy through meditation and circulation, Essika hurriedly put on a dress when Kallian suddenly summoned her.

The red dress she had worn from her family home was already quite old, but it accentuated her beautiful figure like a seductive rose.

“You really are beautiful…… Somehow, I think you’re becoming prettier every day.”

Sella had admired her while adjusting the lace.

There was a reason for it.

As Essika circulated her internal energy throughout her body, impurities accumulated in her skin were being expelled, inevitably making her complexion clearer.

“Did you summon me, Your Grace?”

Essika spoke from behind Kallian, who was sitting at the table prepared for tea and waiting for her.

Rather than drinking tea with someone she had no desire to spend time with, she would have preferred to practice her internal energy cultivation.

But in an unexpected situation, it was better not to stand out and simply act naturally.

‘They intend to fry me like a grasshopper on a hot griddle anyway, so there’s no need to hurry.’

“……”

Kallian slowly turned his head toward Essika.

Then he froze and stared at her for quite some time.

It was undoubtedly Essika Klaus.

And yet, from her eyes to her bearing, something about her felt subtly different.

Her silver hair swayed gently in the warm breeze. Her skin was flushed with healthy color, and beneath her thick eyelashes, her blue eyes gleamed like jewels beneath the sunlight.

“……Sit.”

At Kallian’s words, Essika sat across from him.

Then, without even picking up her teacup, she looked at Kallian.

In the heavy silence, Kallian felt a strange sense of incongruity as he looked at Essika.

“It’s really too much that you only drink tea with your friends. I always want to be by Kallian’s side.”

Her round eyes would become exaggeratedly wide whenever she was near him, accompanied by her whining, nasal voice.

Even the countless little mistakes she made that violated proper etiquette……

Tea time with Essika had always been exhausting, and listening to her chatter endlessly about things he had no interest in had been torture.

“……”

But the Essika sitting before him now did not even offer a greeting.

Instead, she created an awkward atmosphere and stared at him.

Her indifferent gaze seemed to ask, ‘What do you want?’

That couldn’t be right.

Thinking this, Kallian finally spoke.

“How is your health?”

“It has improved considerably, but I believe I will need more rest than before.”

Essika placed particular emphasis on the word ‘rest.’

She was subtly conveying that since she needed sufficient rest, she would prefer not to be summoned again.

Kallian accepted her words without attaching any particular meaning to them and moved his lips.

“The reason I asked you to have tea with me today is because I wanted to give you a warning.”

In truth, Kallian did not even want to exchange words with Essika.

However, after seeing Yuri shed tears last night as she complained about being tormented by Essika, he had been unable to feel at ease.

There was no guarantee that the vicious Essika would not slap Yuri again if she saw her.

“A warning?”

At Essika’s question, Kallian continued, suppressing the irritation slowly rising within him.

“I hope you will refrain from words and actions that tarnish the honor of House Klaus.”

‘Consort, please refrain from jealousy.’

“……”

Essika stared at Kallian with a chilly gaze, but Kallian was not looking into her eyes.

He spoke bluntly.

“Suspicion will only torment you.”

“My relationships with those women are purely political in nature.”

Kallian then emptied the cold tea remaining in his cup into his mouth.

“As the Duchess, you need only fulfill your responsibilities.”

Essika merely stared at Kallian with an expression that seemed no different from before.

As always, he had expected her to either beg for his love or insult Yuri.

But she did neither.

Instead……

“Pfft.”

The corner of Essika’s lips rose, and a snort of laughter escaped her.

Then she chuckled several more times, as though she had heard something truly amusing.

Kallian’s eyebrow twitched as he watched her.

“You aren’t listening to what I’m saying.”

Kallian frowned, thinking that he had wasted his time.

This laughter was merely another attempt to draw his attention.

Soon, she would change her attitude and demand that he confess the true nature of his relationship with Yuri.

Her face would turn red, and her eyes would fill with tears.

What a woman she was, especially compared to his friend.

Yet Essika still did not hide her amusement.

“……”

She laughed for long enough that even Kallian began to feel something was strange.

Only after she had laughed to her heart’s content and some time had passed did Essika speak again.

“Your Grace really is a remarkably consistent man.”

In Essika’s judgment, Kallian possessed a stubbornness that would rather break than bend.

Because of the pride born from that temperament, he despised Essika even more for having bought her position as his wife with money.

Yuri had worn Kallian’s Alet ring to provoke Essika, but that had undoubtedly been a calculated move.

She knew exactly how Kallian would view Essika if Essika rushed at her to confirm the truth.

After all, a man’s feelings only burned more fiercely when faced with an obstacle.

“As Your Grace said, I’ll concern myself only with my duties as the Duchess.”

At Essika’s next words, Kallian’s eyebrow twitched.

“If you have nothing else to say, may I leave now?”

“……!”

An entirely unexpected answer—and question—had come from her.

Nothing else to say?

Kallian suddenly felt strangely frustrated as he looked at her.

In Essika’s cool eyes was a relaxed light he had never seen before.

“With our relationship as it is now, I can’t help but think that even having this kind of conversation is a waste of both our time.”

Essika’s lips moved coldly.

Kallian felt even more frustrated.

Today, Essika felt unfamiliar, as though she were not Essika at all, as though she were harboring some other intention within her.

Essika looked at Kallian, who was staring intently at her, and raised her teacup with a dignified smile.

Then she leisurely took a sip.

Kallian could not understand this attitude.

“……Still, I suppose it’s nice that I got to enjoy the fragrance of the tea.”

Clink.

The sound of Essika placing her teacup down rang out.

“I’ll be leaving now. I still need to rest because of the injuries I suffered.”

Essika Klaus had never once stood up before him first.

She had always begged for his love, chased after him in an undignified manner, and even remained in the same place long after he had left.

But as Essika rose to her feet, there was none of the unpleasant clinging desperation he remembered in her eyes.

The eyes that had once gazed at the jewels she desperately wanted had become indifferent, as though she were looking at an ordinary, worthless stone.

Her thick eyelashes, sparkling beneath the sunlight, concealed those cold blue eyes.