Chapter 20

The butler, visibly upset, handed Rafaella over to Lia.  

Rafaella lowered her head, unable to even meet her mother’s eyes.  

“The Duchess Dowager was greatly angered to see the young lady on the fourth floor.”  

“What?” 

Lia looked at her daughter in surprise.  

‘I clearly told Rafaella not to go to the fourth floor. Why did she go there?’  

“And so, the Duchess Dowager scolded the young lady harshly.”  

“……”  

“Even though she is still young, failing to follow such basic rules is….”  

“…Please convey my apologies to the Duchess Dowager. I will make sure to talk to her properly.”  

Out of guilt, Lia couldn’t lift her head even in front of the butler.  

Back in their room, Lia immediately asked,  

“Rafaella, why on earth did you go to the fourth floor?”  

“……”  

Her sharp tone, filled with anger, caused the child to flinch slightly but not answer.  

“Are you not going to tell Mommy?”  

Looking at her daughter, who kept her lips tightly shut, Lia softened her tone.  

“……”  

Rafaella remained silent, letting her tears fall.  

Even though it was clearly her daughter’s fault, Lia felt her heart weaken at the sight of those tears.  

The way Rafaella cried soundlessly seemed so pitiful.  

“Raffy, if you don’t tell Mommy, I won’t know.”  

“…I can’t. I made a promise.” 

“What promise? With whom?”  

Rafaella kept mentioning a promise and refused to explain why she went to the fourth floor, leaving Lia feeling suffocated.  

The more she asked, the more tears welled up in her daughter’s eyes.  

‘…I’m worried she might exhaust herself if she keeps crying like this.’  

Rafaella had been crying for nearly an hour since they returned to the room.  

In the end, Lia had no choice but to give up in the face of her daughter’s stubbornness.  

“Alright, Raffy. I won’t ask anything today.”  

“…Really?”  

“Yes, really. But I hope you’ll tell Mommy someday.”  

After some hesitation, Rafaella nodded slightly.  

“And no matter what kind of promise it is, you must never go to the fourth floor again, Raffy. Do you understand?”  

“…Yes.”  

Hearing her daughter’s tear-soaked voice, Lia sighed and rang the bell to call for a maid.  

“Please inform the Duke that I need to cancel tonight’s dinner with Rafaella.”  

Although having dinner with her husband was important, Rafaella seemed far too exhausted to join them tonight.  

‘We can always have dinner together another time.’  

For now, it seemed best to have a simple meal in their room and put Rafaella to bed early.  

‘I’ll ask her about the reason again in a few days….

’  

After finishing the light dinner brought by the maid, Lia took Rafaella to the bathroom.  

As she undressed her daughter to bathe her, something caught her eye—fresh scrapes on the child’s knees.  

“Raffy, are you hurt?”  

“Hm?”  

Rafaella bent down to look at the wounds on her knees.  

“When did you get hurt? How did this happen…!”  

“…Hic, hic!”  

Instead of answering, Rafaella began to hiccup.  

“Hic, I was running, hic, and I fell….”  

Her refusal to meet Lia’s gaze while answering frustrated her mother.  

‘She sneaks off to the fourth floor to cause trouble, and now she won’t even explain how she got hurt.’  

Her daughter, who usually didn’t behave this way, was acting strangely today.  

“You should’ve told Mommy! What if it leaves a scar?”  

“It didn’t hurt, so I didn’t notice….”  

The injury was clearly not small enough to go unnoticed.  

Frowning at her daughter’s lie, Lia said,  

“Raffy, if you don’t tell Mommy, I won’t know when you’re hurt or in pain.”  

“…Okay.”  

“Then Mommy will be upset. Don’t you think?”  

“…Upset.”  

“Right?”  

She hugged Rafaella’s small body.  

Her daughter’s tiny hand cautiously touched her back.  

“I’m sorry, Mommy.”  

Her voice sounded inexplicably sorrowful.  

After carefully washing Rafaella, avoiding the wounds, Lia laid her exhausted daughter on the bed.  

Rafaella fell asleep almost immediately. Lia applied ointment to her knees.  

She felt awful, thinking about how Rafaella’s first proper meeting with her grandmother had gone terribly wrong.  

‘Today must’ve been the first time she actually met the Duchess Dowager….’  

The Duchess Dowager had only observed Rafaella from a distance and had never tried to meet her.  

‘I don’t know why.’  

Lia sighed softly as she looked at her daughter’s sleeping face.  

At that moment, there was a knock at the door.  

When she opened it, Johann was standing there, unexpectedly.  

“What brings you here?”  

“I heard from the butler that Rafaella went to the fourth floor and was harshly scolded by Mother.”  

“Oh, yes. I told her not to go there, but she’s still young….”  

“Even if she’s young, as a Lady of the Blumhart family, she should not break the rules so carelessly.”  

Though his words were correct, they sounded harsh.  

Lia had thought her husband had softened somewhat, but perhaps she had been mistaken.  

“She cried a lot, I heard.”  

“Yes, it was her fault, but still, being scolded must’ve upset her.”  

“…Is she asleep?”  

“Yes, she seemed very tired today, so I put her to bed early.”  

Having said what he came to say, Johann fell silent.  

In the awkward pause, Lia searched for something to say.  

“Oh, and thank you for the clothes yesterday. I’ll wear them well.”  

“I bought them for Rafaella, so there’s no need to thank me.”  

He cleared his throat awkwardly and left.  

The day felt even longer and more tiring than the festival day.  

* * *

“Have you heard?”  

The next morning, Paula, who had come to clean Rafaella’s room, whispered to Lia.  

“Heard what?”  

“About the healer who came from the Kingdom of Krunia a week ago.”  

“Yes, what about him?”  

“Well, he claimed he couldn’t treat Lady Penelope and then had the audacity to say she was cursed!”  

Paula squeezed the rag in her hands angrily.  

“What?”  

“That healer must be insane! How dare he say such nonsense…!”  

It was said that the healer had mentioned a curse to cover up his inability to cure Penelope, fearing it would tarnish his reputation.  

The moment he uttered those words, he faced the full wrath of the Duchess Dowager.  

He was immediately dragged away by the knights of the ducal residence, beaten, and thrown out.  

If he hadn’t been under the protection of the Kingdom of Krunia’s Crown Prince, he might have been executed on the spot.  

After all, he had insulted a great noble family of the Empire.  

The only reason he was let go was due to diplomatic concerns.  

Still, he would face significant difficulties returning to the Kingdom in his battered state.  

Paula mentioned that the Duchess Dowager had become increasingly irritable since then, and everyone was being cautious not to upset her.  

If no one could cure Penelope, the Duchess Dowager would only grow more anxious.  

‘Should I try examining Lady Penelope myself…?’  

After lunch, Lia entrusted Rafaella to Helen, who had a brief break.  

She needed to visit the mage to collect ingredients for her potions, as she had run out.  

‘I should hurry since Helen’s break is short.’  

In the past, she had left Rafaella in the room while running errands, thinking it would be fine.  

But after what happened a week ago, she realized she couldn’t do that anymore.  

As she returned to the main building after collecting ingredients from the eastern annex, she spotted the Duchess Dowager coming out of the garden.  

‘…It’s rare to meet her. Should I ask her now?’  

“Greetings to the Duchess Dowager.”  

Determined, Lia approached and greeted her.  

The Duchess Dowager, looking more gaunt and sharp than before, nodded in acknowledgment.  

“I have something to discuss with you.”  

“Does it have to be now?”  

The Duchess Dowager, who had been about to walk past, stopped.  

“…Yes.”  

“Then speak.”  

“I understand that you were very upset when Rafaella went to the fourth floor last time.”  

“……”  

“It was my fault for not educating her properly. I apologize.”  

Lia first apologized for what had happened a week ago.  

“It’s fine. It’s already in the past.”  

The Duchess Dowager, looking weary, waved her hand dismissively.  

“And?”  

“Is there more you wish to say?” 

“I once treated a child with symptoms similar to Lady Penelope’s.”  

Lia wasn’t sure if it was the right time to bring this up, but she feared delaying further might miss the chance to treat Penelope.  

“…How can I believe that?”  

“Pardon?”  

The Duchess Dowager, deeply mired in despair over her inability to cure her daughter’s illness, did not take Lia’s words kindly.  

She was already furious after the healer she had summoned with great difficulty turned out to be a fraud, spouting nonsense.  

“Didn’t you say you’ve lived in the countryside all your life?”  

The Duchess Dowager, pressing her hand to her forehead as if plagued by a headache, asked sharply.  

“Yes.”  

“How much knowledge could someone from such a rural place possibly have? Do you think you can cure an illness that even the Empire’s most renowned mages couldn’t?”  

Her voice, filled with indignation, lashed out at Lia.  

Whether her anger was directed at Lia or if she was venting her frustration about the healer on her, it was hard to tell.  

“When I heard about Lady Penelope’s symptoms, they seemed very similar to what I’ve seen before, and also….”  

“I didn’t realize the servants of the ducal residence had such loose tongues. For an outsider like you to claim to know my daughter’s symptoms in such detail!”  

The Duchess Dowager cut her off with a sharp voice, her words like daggers.  

“……”  

“And now, of all things! Do you think being Rafaella’s mother gives you the right to treat the Blumhart family with such disrespect?”  

Her voice, brimming with fury, struck Lia like a hammer.