It was a pleasant afternoon with a cloudless blue sky and a gentle breeze.

The lakeside park, famous as a walking spot for the capital’s nobility, was crowded with people.

The couple strolling leisurely arm in arm looked around slowly, wondering if they might meet acquaintances.

“Hello, Mrs. Ellias.”

“The weather is lovely today.”

Janice and Royce exchanged dignified greetings with passing nobles.

But nobles who previously only exchanged eye contact were different today.

They stopped walking and engaged in brief conversations with the couple before moving on.

“The duchess looked so beautiful on her wedding day. Is she well?”

“We’re planning a poetry reading at our home. Could you casually ask the duchess if she might attend? We’ll send an invitation, but it would be better if her sister mentioned it first.”

A noblewoman who had previously been cold to her smiled with crescent-moon eyes and laughed softly.

Janice’s expression gradually soured.

She realized the nobles weren’t stopping for the couple’s sake.

Now she didn’t even offer a slight nod to passing nobles.

“Duchess! Duchess! Since when did the world start revolving around the duchess to cause such a fuss?”

She grumbled with an indignant face.

“They’re interested because they’re newlyweds. It won’t last long.”

Despite Royce’s cynical words, Janice continued to fume.

“Why isn’t anyone curious about the duke leaving home right after the wedding? Am I the only one who finds that strange? Honey.”

Royce merely cleared his throat awkwardly at Janice’s words.

“No, think about it. It’s their honeymoon period when they should be all over each other, and no matter how busy he is as the busiest man in the Kingdom, still! I really think that marriage is strange!”

Janice shook her head, seemingly wanting to deny Ellin’s marriage altogether.

“I felt something was off from the hasty wedding. Does it make sense for the duke to take someone like Ellin as his wife? What could have possibly happened between them?”

When Janice spoke with a suspicious voice, Royce tried to calm her while keeping an eye on their surroundings.

“Let’s not concern ourselves with another couple’s affairs.”

Janice’s eyes widened in disbelief at Royce’s words.

She suddenly began to mock her husband’s changed attitude.

“You’ve been the one most concerned about Ellin all this time! Do you think I don’t know? Why are you suddenly acting like she’s a stranger?”

When the spark flew toward him, Royce stopped walking, clearly annoyed.

His desire to walk with his constantly complaining, unrefined wife completely vanished.

“Let’s go back.”

He turned coldly, but then noticed the marchioness and her daughter spotting them and approaching from the other direction.

Seeing them actively charging forward with purpose, Janice and Royce had no choice but to manage their expressions.

“Hello, my lady. Miss.”

Janice smiled toward them, while Royce simply lifted his hat slightly in greeting.

“My goodness. I truly saw the duchess in a new light.”

“Pardon?”

Again. Again with the duchess!

Just as Janice’s face contorted, the marchioness spoke with sparkling eyes,

“Oh my. You didn’t know yet? That the old duchess collapsed during tea time recently.”

“……Who collapsed?”

When the couple looked at each other with shocked faces, the marchioness smiled brightly and reassured them.

“Fortunately, she has recovered now. If the duchess hadn’t responded so calmly then, goodness knows what might have happened.”

“What do you mean?”

The marchioness poured out praise for the new duchess while vividly describing the situation.

“I was skeptical at first too. But clearly the duke didn’t just marry anyone. Right?”

The lady sought agreement from her daughter beside her, and the young lady nodded.

“I’ve never seen even Silvia so shocked and frozen before. In such a situation, anyone would have been flustered.”

“That’s right. This incident must have thoroughly won the old duchess’s heart.”

“I’m already looking forward to the tea gathering the duchess will hold.”

“Who wouldn’t be? See you next time, both of you.”

After relating the incident, the mother and daughter gracefully departed from the couple.

Hearing these heartwarming stories about Ellin from everywhere made Janice feel like her throat was full of gritty sand.

“Let’s go home now.”

Janice turned abruptly and walked away first, with Royce hurriedly following behind.

Their pleasant stroll had turned completely sour.

* * *

That same hour, when the physician left the old duchess’s room, Ellin approached him.

“How is she doing?”

“Much better. With more rest, she’ll be fine. She’s sleeping now, so please let her rest.”

After the physician put on his hat and left the corridor, Ellin went in to see Melissa.

She slept deeply, almost like the dead.

They said she had unknowingly suffered tremendous stress due to her son’s sudden marriage.

Ellin felt somewhat guilty, thinking that Melissa’s collapse might have been her fault.

Sighing softly, Ellin noticed light from between the curtains shining on the old duchess’s face and rose from her seat.

She approached the window to quietly close the curtains when she saw something outside.

Servants surrounded someone lying on the ground—it seemed that the drunkard from before was causing problems again.

‘Him again. This isn’t something to just leave alone anymore.’

The commotion seemed louder than usual, and when she listened carefully, the noise reached even into the room.

After watching the situation outside a bit longer while holding the curtains with both hands, she closed them.

Ellin quickly walked out of the building and headed toward where she had seen the commotion.

“My lady.”

“Madam.”

The gathered servants stepped back when they saw her arrive.

“What happened?”

“That man was drunk again and harassed a maid who was picking flowers. The gardener saw and tried to stop him, but got punched, and they ended up fighting.”

That was the scene Ellin had witnessed through the window. Two men rolling on the ground, raising dust.

The two men, covered in dirt and breathing heavily, still looked ready to throw punches at each other.

A shocked maid stood nearby with picked flowers scattered around her.

They were the same flowers that had been beautifully decorating her room lately. Looking closer, she recognized the maid who had injured her hand recently.

“My lady.”

Jeffrey, who had received news of the situation a bit later, came running from the main building.

“Please go back inside. I’ll handle this immediately.”

Before he finished speaking, the two men began grappling again, breathing heavily.

“My lady!”

People looked at her in surprise when Ellin suddenly approached them.

When servants nearby moved to restrain the troublemaker, he picked up a bottle from the ground and threatened them.

“S-stay back!”

He seemed more flustered by the duchess’s presence than by the servants trying to catch him.

While other ladies would touch their foreheads and leave at the mere sight of his face, this young mistress approached without blinking an eye, which startled him.

“Hey!”

Trying to hide his agitation, he struck a wooden pillar with the bottle.

Crash!

When the bottle shattered, leaving only a sharp neck, he seemed more startled than Ellin and flinched.

“Jeffrey. Bring the officers right now. You can tell them this is an attempted assault on the duchess. Or you can even say attempted murder.”

The people around them were shocked, their mouths falling open.

Most shocked was the man holding the broken bottle neck pointed toward the duchess.

He froze like ice in that position.

“M-my lady.”

“What are you waiting for? Didn’t you hear me? You’d better hurry. If my body gets even a scratch, he won’t escape execution for assaulting the duchess.”

People’s already open mouths dropped even further, almost dislocating their jaws.

“Even if he’s arrested now, he’d probably rot in prison for about ten years before paying for his crimes with confiscation of property.”

The troublemaker snorted at her words and shouted,

“The new mistress clearly doesn’t know, but my father saved the late duke……”

“Ah.”

Before he could finish, Ellin sighed wearily.

“If only the late duke could have seen this scene of his daughter-in-law being threatened. He would have confiscated the inheritance he gave and driven you out penniless. Our Duke is actually too soft-hearted for his own good.”

Ellin looked at Jeffrey with eyes that asked why he wasn’t leaving quickly.

“I shall obey your command.”

When Jeffrey nodded and turned sharply, the bottle dropped from the troublemaker’s hand.

The bottle rolled to Ellin’s feet.

When she stared at him without blinking, the man began trembling like someone sobering up.

“M-my lady!”

Seeing the butler walking away without hesitation, he looked at her with extremely weakened eyes.

He had sensed intuitively that the situation had gone terribly wrong.

The man sank weakly to his knees on the ground.

“Jeffrey.”

Ellin called Jeffrey back.

That evening.

Maids gathered in the kitchen backyard whispered while looking at the darkened cottage.

“With the troublemaker gone, the entire mansion feels peaceful.”

“The young mistress has more backbone than she appears. How did she handle something right away that even the old duchess couldn’t?”

“It’s not that she couldn’t handle it, but she didn’t want the bother. We were the ones suffering, since that man never caused trouble when the mistress and master were around.”

“Still, the young mistress is amazing. When she called for officers earlier, I was so impressed I couldn’t speak.”

Other maids nearby nodded vigorously in agreement.

“You have to be tough with guys like that. Did you see how shocked he was? He prostrated himself before the mistress, afraid he’d really be thrown out penniless if things went wrong.”

“She wasn’t really going to call officers—she just scared him to make him leave quietly without causing a scene. Our mistress is truly wise.”

They rejoiced at the sight of the backyard, peaceful for the first time in ages after the troublemaker’s departure.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey met Ellin in the corridor and reported that the man had left the mansion.

“He left with minimal luggage before nightfall. He said he would diligently farm the land given by the late duke from now on.”

Ellin nodded slightly in acknowledgment.

“He apologized for causing trouble and begged us not to tell His Grace about this incident.”

Ellin nodded again.

“Then let’s do that. Report to His Grace only that he left of his own accord, so he won’t have to worry about it.”

“Yes.”

When Ellin left, Jeffrey bowed respectfully to her and straightened his back.

Watching the duchess’s retreating figure, he took a deep breath.

He had initially worried she might be too soft-hearted, but now his heart swelled with pride that the Linderto family had found a properly strong duchess.