Chapter 16

. If It Means Becoming the Duchess

It was evening, and the sun was setting.

After dinner, Kallian was taking a walk near the garden when he saw a carriage entering the estate.

It was the family carriage.

As Kallian wondered who had used it when his mother was sick and confined to her bed, a servant explained first.

“The Duchess has returned. She went to the tea party in place of the Duchess Dowager.”

Essika.

The moment he recalled her name, unpleasant memories from their last encounter resurfaced.

The cold wind that seemed to blow from her indifferent attitude and gaze.

That wasn’t like Essika Klaus.

The gap between her usual behavior and her actions only made the sense of incongruity stronger.

The impression she had left on him could be expressed in two words.

“How dare she.”

He had deliberately tried not to give her any attention in order to correct her behavior.

He knew that the thing Essika found most painful was his indifference.

But she had acted as though Kallian did not even exist.

It felt strangely empty, as though the shadow that had always followed him had disappeared.

“……”

He could see Essika getting out of the carriage with the sunset behind her.

Unlike her usual appearance, when she dressed plainly after being scolded by his mother for being extravagant, she was wearing a pink dress that matched the sunset.

The hem of her dress swayed gently in the breeze, strangely catching his attention.

And contrasting with the warm-colored dress were her blue eyes.

“……”

After stepping down from the carriage, she gazed at the distant sky.

Had Essika always looked like this?

Kallian slightly furrowed the space between his eyebrows.

Her silver hair, reaching the middle of her back, fluttered in the wind. Her rounded forehead and sharp, elegant nose created a dreamlike profile.

Her skin was as delicate and smooth as a glazed wine cup.

For some reason, he suddenly wondered what was reflected in her eyes.

For the first time…

Kallian wondered what Essika was thinking.

And he also wondered why she was looking at the sky with such a wistful expression.

Could it have something to do with how arrogantly she had been behaving lately?

Could it also be related to the fact that she no longer followed him around?

There was no effect without a cause.

“……Madam!”

At that moment, he saw a maid running toward Essika.

What was that maid’s name again…?

There was no way he could remember.

The maid seemed to say something to Essika while standing in front of her.

“You know…”

After hearing those words, the corners of Essika’s lips rose faintly.

It was a strange expression, as though someone had gently lifted the corners of the mouth of a girl’s portrait with no emotion in it.

Essika looked at the maid with a smile.

Her eyes had definitely been cold before, but now they no longer seemed that way.

The beautiful sunset was reflected in her eyes.

Something so brilliant and wistful that it seemed as though it would disappear at any moment…

“……”

Kallian’s eyebrows furrowed deeply.

Then he slowly raised his hand and touched the area around his chest.

As though deliberately ignoring his curiosity about her, his feet did not move even a single step.

It was Kallian’s pride.

And it had always been his way.

But why was such an uneasy feeling pressing against his heart?

“Let’s go, Sella.”

Essika smiled at the maid.

Yes. Essika’s smile had always looked like that.

But…

When was the last time she smiled like that?

He remembered.

It must have been on their wedding day.

**

“Why has he been looking at me so unpleasantly lately?”

At Essika’s mutter, Sella was startled.

“……Madam?”

“It’s nothing. Just something.”

As Sella followed behind Essika, she thought to herself.

There was no doubt about it.

The Duchess had changed so much that it was almost as though she had become an entirely different person.

In the past, the way she followed Duke Klaus, who showed not even the slightest interest in her, had been so pitiful and miserable that every servant in the estate would shake their heads behind her back.

But the Essika of today seemed to have not the slightest interest in the Duke’s whereabouts.

“Um… Wouldn’t it be a good idea to see His Grace the Duke for a moment? Earlier, I heard that His Grace was looking for you. It wasn’t conveyed directly to me, but I heard it among the servants…”

At Sella’s words, Essika replied as though she found the idea bothersome.

“Sella, do you want me to receive His Grace the Duke’s affection?”

Sella nodded without hesitation.

Of course she did.

Duke Klaus was the master of the estate.

At the moment, the Duchess Dowager’s maids openly ignored the Duchess. But if the Duchess and the Duke became a loving married couple, there would be no one who could treat her that way.

Essika’s lips twisted.

“As for me, I can forgive someone who disappoints my expectations once.”

She remembered a subordinate from her time as a spirit who had committed evil against her because he had no choice but to obey the orders of those above him.

“Twice… Yes. If they were someone I liked quite a lot, I might forgive them even twice. Of course, I’ve never actually had to do that.”

“Madam…”

“But from the third time onward, it’s over.”

Sella blinked.

Essika looked at her with cold eyes.

Her gaze sent a chill down Sella’s spine.

“It means they can’t be fixed. And the Duke has disappointed my expectations ten or twenty times.”

Before recovering her memories as a spirit, Essika’s wish had never been anything grand.

She had simply wanted the man who had promised to spend his entire life with her to give her the proper attention and love she deserved.

“You understand what I mean by now, don’t you?”

Sella stared blankly at Essika before nodding.

His Grace the Duke will never be forgiven by Madam.

And neither will Yuri Anesis.

Then Sella thought of something else.

Yuri had already been caught once while trying to put poison in Essika’s food.

If she disappointed Madam a second time, the consequences could be terrible.

For the first time in a long while, Sella felt as though her discipline had been tightened from within.

**

“Do you regret getting married?”

Yuri had asked Kallian that when she followed him to the ring shop.

At those words, Kallian had flinched and turned toward Yuri with a lonely expression.

Yuri could feel what was in Kallian’s heart.

Then Kallian picked up an Alet ring, reached out, and took Yuri’s hand.

He gently slipped the ring onto her ring finger.

His feelings, which he could not express in words, had been conveyed through that gesture.

“Very much.”

Those words from that day still remained in Yuri’s mind.

The sunset-colored sky.

The tiny sprout of hope blooming inside her heart…

And the greed that eventually swallowed her whole.

“Essika, if only you leave, I will definitely become the Duchess.”

Yuri had never abandoned her hope.

She had never once thought of Essika as a friend.

Yuri was the daughter of House Anesis, a family that was technically minor nobility but poorer than most commoners. To her, Essika was simply the girl who made her painfully aware of how unfair life was.

That foolish and naive girl had been born into the wealthy Brigitte family and raised as a precious daughter.

Then she had married into House Klaus, one of the prestigious families of the capital, Torres, a family so great that even the Brigitte family, which dominated Friharts, was insignificant by comparison.

If I had been born as a Brigitte instead of an Anesis…

Yuri had thought about it countless times.

If she had been Essika, she was certain she would have satisfied Duke Klaus.

Stupid Essika. You’re finished… There’s no way you can turn things around…

Bang, bang, bang—

As she gritted her teeth, a knock came from outside.

When she opened the door, she saw the maid Emilia.

“What is it?”

Yuri asked with an unpleasant expression, crossing her arms.

She had just taken leave for several days, using the excuse that she had been unable to sleep because she had been caring for the Duchess Dowager.

In truth, whenever she received information about Kallian’s movements, she intended to follow him and arrange an encounter with him.

“The Duchess Dowager is calling for you.”

It was not an order she could refuse by claiming she was tired.

“……The Duchess Dowager?”

“Yes. It seems she has something to ask you regarding the stomach trouble she suffered last time…”

At Emilia’s words, Yuri flinched inwardly.

The reason the Duchess Dowager had suffered for several days was that medicine Yuri had stolen from the kitchen.

“Didn’t you say you already talked to the physician about that?”

“I did, but it seems she still has some suspicions. She has never been that seriously ill before…”

“Well, that is true, but…”

“Besides, the Duchess went to Madam Marshall’s party… Apparently, instead of being intimidated, she came back acting very powerful. The Duchess Dowager is in a very bad mood because of that.”

Yuri’s hand twitched.

When she had heard that Essika had gone to the party in place of the sick Duchess Dowager, she had secretly laughed.

Volan and Marshall—the spiteful women who were Essika’s natural enemies.

They were always tormenting her.

It was obvious what would happen there.

But Essika had acted powerful there?

Could she really have put those nasty women in their place?

“……Really?”

Yuri left the room with an expression of indifference.

Emilia followed behind her.

Yuri’s thoughts were complicated.

Then the reason Leona is calling me right now is…

“……”

Yuri’s tightly clenched fist trembled.

She’s going to demand that I take the blame.

She’ll want me to say that I gave her the stomach medicine because Essika ordered me to.

To Leona, Yuri was nothing more than a pawn on a chessboard.

Something to be used for her purposes and discarded once it was no longer needed.

Something worthless.

And these days, Yuri could not even offer her jewels.

So Leona would think even less of her.

It is true that I gave her the medicine…

But I will never do that.

Stairs appeared in front of Yuri.

The fact that Essika seemed to have driven her into this situation made her anger toward her rise even higher.

Yuri tightly shut her eyes as she tried to figure out a way out of this situation.

“Damn it……!”