23. Presence

When Mrs. Wellers finished saying everything she had to say and left, it was a little past noon. I thanked Lara who had stayed by my side in place of Annie.

“If it weren’t for you, I would have been in real trouble, Lara.”

Her efforts were significant in preventing Mrs. Wellers’ chatter from becoming too lengthy. Thanks to Lara constantly replenishing sweets, we were able to cool Mrs. Wellers’ passion for conversation.

“Fortunately, I had some free time today.”

Just then, there was a movement from the adjacent room.

Annie seemed to have awakened from her sleep. She moved quickly toward us without seeming to hurry.

She appeared at the doorway and greeted us quietly.

Her dazed expression was exactly the same as Lara’s when I found her on the stairs earlier.

“Annie, were you surprised? They say everyone fell asleep because the kitchen recently changed wells incorrectly.”

I explained the situation on Lara’s behalf.

A momentary expression of confusion passed over Annie’s face. I decided to stop asking her about Marie.

Instead, there was one thing I couldn’t compromise on.

“Could both of you leave your posts for today?”

“Pardon?”

“But we can’t all leave your side, Miss.”

Fortunately, I had a good excuse.

I pointed to the book Mrs. Wellers had strongly recommended and left behind. It was a very thick etiquette manual.

It supposedly covered aristocratic speech and conduct in great detail.

“I’d like to read that book alone and quietly.”

I deliberately made an exaggerated expression of having a headache.

“Mrs. Wellers told me to thoroughly familiarize myself with that book by our next meeting. If I make another mistake in speech or action, I might face severe consequences.”

I looked at them with a pitiful face.

“Please help me just this once, both of you. Today I need to focus entirely on reading to barely survive Mrs. Wellers’ pressure.”

In truth, Mrs. Wellers’ reputation within the ducal family was so formidable that I didn’t need to express it this way.

I heard she had once been in charge of educating the ducal maids. Though she had recently retired due to age, in her younger days, she was said to have been incomparably stricter than now.

“Ah……”

I could already see extremely daunted expressions on Annie and Lara’s faces.

The moment I brought up Mrs. Wellers as a topic, the persuasion seemed to have ended.

Even though she wasn’t in her full prime anymore, they had already experienced her touch.

“Understood.”

Finally, both of them showed me the white flag.

“Perhaps it would be good for both of you to spend time at home today.”

I casually added a comment.

Annie flinched slightly but tried not to reveal her inner thoughts anymore.

“Oh!”

Just then, Lara exclaimed as if remembering something.

“Miss, since the kitchen is in chaos today, you’ll probably need to have your meal at the annex palace down the corner.”

“Pardon……?”

Right. There was a big issue in the kitchen today.

Due to using the problematic well water, the prepared ingredients and food would have become unusable.

“Earlier, when I requested refreshments for you and Mrs. Wellers from the people at the annex palace, they gladly helped. Our chef and cooks have gone for investigation since earlier. I thought they would return soon, but they’re delayed.”

So that’s where she had brought the refreshments from.

It seemed like I had made her work very hard.

“Lara, that must have been tough.”

I looked at her with an extremely apologetic face. Lara waved her hands and smiled.

“It’s my job. Don’t worry about it.”

“Thank you so much today, Lara.”

I took her hands and shook them up and down. Lara offered me her hands with a surprised smile.

“Miss, if the chef doesn’t return, you’ll have to go to the annex palace. Won’t you be uncomfortable without us?”

Annie, who had been quietly watching us, asked.

“Not at all!”

I quickly answered, feeling pressured to send Annie home promptly.

“Since it’s not too far from here, I don’t think it will be inconvenient!”

I suddenly became curious.

“By the way, who stays at the annex palace?”

The Duke was at the main castle, the center of the ducal residence, and the young master lived separately in the outer castle to the west. I knew there were many small castles within the ducal residence, but I had no idea what each one contained.

Moreover, as far as I knew, the direct family of the ducal household consisted only of those two people.

I had heard that the former Duchess had passed away early after giving birth to the young master, the only heir.

Yet, did each castle have an owner?

“That annex palace is for guests. It’s usually used when entertaining people from the imperial palace or foreign countries. But chefs and attendants are always stationed there in rotation. Because appointments can be made very urgently.”

“Ah……”

“I also belong to the annex palace.”

Lara said with a smile.

“So on my way out now, I’ll let them know in advance that you might be coming to the annex palace.”

“Thank you, Lara.”

I looked at the silhouette of the annex palace vaguely visible outside the window.

For an empty castle without an owner, it was appropriately splendid and magnificent. Though not large in scale, it looked beautiful.

I was finally able to dismiss the two of them only after repeatedly assuring them that I would absolutely not skip meals.

❀❀❀

I finished reading as Mrs. Wellers had instructed and completed all the letters to be sent to my family, dropping them all into the mailbox.

I decided to directly propose the opportunity I had found at the music shop in the central marketplace to Elaine. Though I had made several revisions, this was the best among them.

The more I tried to add polite words, the more it became convoluted.

When I finished my tasks, the sky outside was dyed with red sunset. The edge of the sky had already darkened to a deep blue darkness.

I felt a bit hungry.

Unfortunately, today the place where extra dry finger food was usually stacked in the room was completely empty.

Seeing that no one had come up from the kitchen until sunset, it seemed I had no choice but to go to the annex palace.

Usually around this time, a young errand boy would come up to ask Annie or Lara about my dining intentions. So it seemed no one had returned to the kitchen yet.

I found and put on the outer garment that Annie had kindly prepared for me.

Though the sun was setting, there was a moderately warm breeze blowing outside. It was just the right temperature.

I felt a bit excited about walking a path I had never taken before.

The way wasn’t too far.

The destination was visible right away, and the path leading there was very simple.

Along that path, where the undergrowth had been neatly trimmed, large and lush trees swayed in the wind, making a “swoosh” sound.

Under the vivid red sunset that was disappearing, there was something on the path covered in darkness.

The black silhouette standing on the path, which was completely in shadow, was indistinguishable from surrounding objects at first glance.

It seemed to have the form of a person, but it was standing in place without moving, too much so for a person.

Perhaps it was my imagination, but that black shadow seemed to be facing this direction.

In the black darkness, only the shadow was uniquely blurry. Like a mirage. But somehow, it wasn’t frightening.

Could it be someone from the ducal family?

But for such a thing, there was no greeting or movement from that direction. It was as if it knew I was here and was exploring.

Though there was no reason for such behavior.

I closed my eyes and opened them wide to see that silhouette more clearly.

But when I looked at that place again, the shadow was gone.

What was that just now? Did I see wrong?

Just in case, I moved a bit further forward to check the place, but the surroundings were all just shrubs shadowed and darkened by the post-sunset darkness.

Naturally, in that brief moment when I closed and opened my eyes, no sound was heard. There was no presence or sound that should have been heard if it were a person.

Indeed, there was no one there, and my tired eyes seemed to have made a serious mistake.

It was because I had been engrossed in reading and letter writing for a long time without rest.

I should stop doing such accumulated tasks all at once from now on. But what I did today wasn’t in vain.

This was because I felt I had perfectly mastered that book to the point where I looked forward to meeting Mrs. Wellers again. Though theory and practice might differ a bit, I was a little more confident than before.

My steps lightened with a somewhat satisfied feeling.

The surroundings darkened instantly, but the destination, the annex palace, like other places in this ducal residence, was being brightly lit one by one, as if someone inside had lit them.