A strong shock went down his body as though he’d been hit at the back of his head.
Was that really the case?
What if all the reactions Selena had shown him were from pain, not pleasure?
And what if his memories were just blocking something else.
He wanted to ask. Was it really like that? If so…
“What would I even do.”
He smiled in vain. Even if he found the answer, what would he do?
Everything was a useless concern.
In front of him, whenever she recounted her mistakes and said sorry, he couldn’t help but laugh.
[ My hand… got better, but I kept pretending that it was still injured. ]
Of course, he was appalled by this.
[ I lied about you not having enough strength at night. ]
And he was a little miffed about this.
It was amazing to see her chew on her lips and talk well.
[ Also… I lied about my confession. ]
And when this memory came to mind, he lay back down on the bed.
When he thought about this, it felt like something unbearable was crawling up inside of him. He didn’t even know what this was.
“Ha.”
A short sigh came out of his open lips.
Saying that it was her fault.
Saying that she was sorry.
Hearing her admit that it was a mistake—he’d rather cover his ears.
Why was it like this?
What was bothering him so much?
He reached out and swept a hand over the place where Selena had been lying.
There were wrinkles over the place where she was.
Then, he touched a cold, metal thing.
Sparkle.
He picked up something shiny from the creases of the sheets he was touching.
It was an earring with small jewels atop a silver crescent moon.
It was Selena’s.
* * *
“No matter how hard I look, I can’t find it.”
Rona tilted her head to the side as she opened the jewelry box in front of the vanity table.
“Huh? What is it?”
“The other pair.”
Rona showed me a crescent moon earring.
“Ah…”
When I saw the earring in Rona’s hand, I sharply recalled the memories of that night again, and my heart throbbed.
When I came back to my room from Amoide’s, I only had one earring on me.
I couldn’t possibly go back to his room and find the other pair.
“I’m not sure. I must have lost it while taking a walk.”
“Really? But what a waste.”
“It can’t be helped.”
“Did you ask someone else to look for it, Madam?”
“Where could it possibly be in that huge garden? I’ll just make the employees tired for no reason.”
I shook my head. In fact, I already knew where it was, so I didn’t bother to look for it. But I couldn’t possibly say this.
“It was an earring that matched the Madam’s name well. You were saving it for a special occasion.”
“Yes, it was a birthday gift.”
It was a gift from my father for my fifteenth birthday, before the Viche Viscounty had fallen to ruin.
[ Selena, look at this. Pretty, right? I bought these because they match your name. ]
The earrings were embedded with small jewels that made them seem like stars on a silver crescent moon, and I loved them a lot.
“It’s a precious jewel…”
Rona seemed to be more disappointed than I was.
It’s understandable why she would think that way. After all, my jewelry box had only very simple ornaments.
Except for the crescent moon earrings, all that’s left were a pearl necklace, a necklace made of gold thread, and earrings with small rubies.
I never felt that I needed more, really.
Everything wasn’t mine.
Those were just jewelry that Camilla gave me so that I wouldn’t look too shabby, and to match colors.
“I still have this.”
I raised my left hand and nodded.
The large diamond ring on my fourth finger twinkled as though to show off its existence.
It was an accessory that boasted of a more overwhelming presence than the person wearing it.
[ Take it. You’re married, so you have to wear a ring on your finger. ]
When I first came to the manor, Camilla held out a box that contained this ring.
When I opened it, there was a large diamond ring.
[ I think this is too much for me. ]
[ Of course it is. But you have the womb that will give birth to the family’s heir. Since we welcomed you without a wedding, you at least need a proper gift to claim legitimacy in this marriage. ]
After coming to the Efret Duchy, I wore this ring everywhere as though it was a talisman.
It wasn’t because this ring was pretty—it wasn’t even valuable to me, just expensive.
But I at least had to wear this ring so that I could hold onto my position.
Duchess of Efret.
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The Duke’s wife.
Those words, which were still so unfamiliar to me, made me feel so discouraged throughout the year.
Those titles were like a dress that was too expensive and too luxurious for me to wear.
I wanted to take it off quickly and find the right clothes for me to wear.
Above all, I wanted to avoid an imminent death. I didn’t want to be found guilty for poisoning my husband.
I wanted to escape this mansion where everyone disregarded me.
That was my only goal.
What would he think of me now that we’ve spent a night together?
Now that I’ve finally achieved one goal, I had nothing to say even if he saw me as a ridiculous woman waiting only for the day she gets pregnant.
I even brought liquor with me.
‘The only rational conclusion here was that I was very determined.’
Since that night, I haven’t even made eye contact with Amoide, let alone had a proper conversation with him.
The moment I saw his golden hair from afar, I’d double back.
And I was busy running away as far as I could.
He didn’t really follow after me either. From a distance, he just watched as I moved away at a fast pace.
As a result, some people noticed this strange development.
As I disappeared whenever he appeared, it became increasingly seldom for people to see me and Amoide together.
It was like a strange hide-and-seek game in the mansion.
I avoided him to death, and he seemed to be chasing me, but he would stop. Rinse and repeat.
A few days passed like that.
Fortunately however, quite a few things occupied my time, so it was good that it’s hectic around me.
The internal affairs of the Duchy was on quite a large scale, so there were many things I had to decide on.
Since I now held the authority that’s been temporarily passed to me from Greta, there were many things I had to look over for the internal affairs.
“Are you working again today, Madam?”
“Yes.”
I nodded and tapped the ledger with a quill.
“But with Milord…”
“Rona.”
I quickly cut off Rona’s words.
“Can you bring me some snacks? And ‘that’ too.”
“Yes, I will.”
Rona quickly left. In the meantime, I tilted my head to the side, checking the ledger one more time.
“…It’s weird.”
It’s weird no matter how I look at it. Greta’s ledgers were perfect, but there’s something off.
With the help of Coulton, I didn’t face any difficulties in decrypting the cipher-like ledgers.
After doing so, there were some things I finally understood.
“…They’re very properly omitted.”
The Duchy’s property that Greta had siphoned off was quite considerable.
It didn’t look like a big deal at first glance, but if you add up all the money she pocketed little by little, the sum was large.
Of course, if you also looked at the entirety of the Duchy’s assets, this wasn’t such a large amount, so the missing money wasn’t obvious.
Above all, Greta was the only one with access to these ledgers, so she had no fear of getting caught.
“…Let’s do some more research.”
I needed to find the reason why the case of the snakes wasn’t raised, and the reason there were snakes in the garden in the first place.
Above all, I needed to track the criminal’s carelessness.
I need to know what intention they have in raising such snakes in the Duke’s estate.
The prime suspect was Greta, but the opportunity to look for snakes in her room wouldn’t be easy.
‘But it’s different now.’
Now, everything in the mansion can be inspected by me as freely as possible.
“I brought what you asked for, Madam.”
Rona returned, but she was holding something other than snacks.
“Are those keys to the doors inside the mansion?”
“Yes.”
What Rona was holding was a ring of keys.
The ring was so packed with so many keys that there was only a little space left.
“There’s that many?”
Just trying to guess the number of keys by the weight of the ring made me tired already.
“This is only for the maids’ quarters.”
Rona grabbed a bunch of them and shook the keys in front of me.
“These are really heavy.”
And what’s hopeless about this was that there were no labels on the keys.
In other words, it was impossible to know which key opened which door.
“You’ll have to try them out to know.”
“All of them?”
“Yes. Otherwise, you won’t be able to open the doors. It’s really difficult.”
Thinking about how I’d need to try out so many keys just to open one door, my mind grew blank for a moment.
“But this’ll still be easier than opening up someone’s heart.”
The doors would open eventually. But a person’s heart…
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“Huh? What are you talking about, Madam?”
“No. It’s nothing.”
——
don’t worry tho, our group is still going to continue translating this, so it’s not going to be dropped ?
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