16. Because It’s Pretty. For You. To Give.  

One servant, wiping the window frame spotless, glanced around restlessly. She checked that there was nobody around who could reprimand or punish her for gossiping, then nudged her colleague beside her. When her colleague asked, “Why?” with wide eyes, she whispered as if she had been waiting for this moment.

“Lady Leroni, they say her personality is really nasty.”

“Her looks are scientific, you know? Those fox-like eyes, she really looks it.”

“You felt it too, huh? I happened to get friendly with an employee from the tailor shop, and apparently, they’ve visited Leroni Barony a few times.”

Her coworker listened with interest. Gossip was always entertaining.

“Every time, if she didn’t like the tailoring even a little, she threw every kind of tantrum. And that’s not all. Looking down on servants is a given, and if she was in a bad mood, she even grabbed her own older sisters by the hair and caused a huge scene.”  

“By the hair? No matter how terrible her temper is. How could she…… to her older sister? That’s outright insubordination.”  

“Let’s be careful too, from now on. If we mess up, our hair won’t survive.”  

The coworker nodded, but her eyes soon filled with pity. In the deep sigh she breathed into the air, that pity was thickly mixed in.  

“How did our Young Duke end up marrying a woman like that?”  

“That fox-like thing bewitched our innocent Young Duke.”  

“He isn’t exactly innoc— anyway, personally, I think Lady Grant is much better.”  

“She looks a bit naive, but she’s kind. Cheerful, too. But I think our Young Duke is too good to be put beside any woman. The person we’ve watched for a long time—he may be blunt, but he’s truly diligent, and his nature is gentle.”

At that, the coworker made a dreamy face and clasped her hands tightly together.  

“Ah, I wish I could hold his hand even just once in a dream.”  

“Me too. What would it feel like? I think even just looking at him makes my heart flutter so much it won’t survive.”  

“Even if my heart shattered, I want to be held by Young Duke Crawford just once. Then I’d have no other wish.”  

“I envy that woman who can be embraced by our Young Duke anytime, but she’s so annoying.”

“Annoying?”

At the sudden voice from behind them, both servants froze in place. They had been so absorbed in their chatter that they had not even sensed someone approaching. It was enough to make them resent themselves. They did not even have the courage to turn around. Anyone could tell this voice belonged to Asilly. If they were lucky, they would be dismissed; if not, they might face something worse.  

“Is Young Duke Crawford that amazing? Amazing enough that the woman with him is annoying?”  

Judging that delaying any longer would only irritate her more, the two servants turned around at the same time and flattened themselves to the floor.  

“S-sorry, Miss Asilly……! We lost our minds and spoke carelessly.”  

“No, no, not that—what you said before that. ‘Even if my heart shattered, I want to be held by Young Duke Crawford just once’—was that sincere?”  

Asilly, with fierce eyes as if she might slap them at any moment, asked in a slow, almost reciting tone. The two servants shifted their eyes repeatedly, not knowing how to answer. Since they expected a beating no matter what they said, their bodies pressed flat to the floor trembled with fear.  

“If you don’t have a heart, you die. So I’m asking whether he’s so amazing you’d be fine dying. That’s what I mean.”  

What was the intention behind that question? It was not easy to grasp.  

“Why aren’t you answering?”  

Asilly lowered herself, prompting them for an answer. Thinking it would truly turn into something big if they stalled any longer, one servant quickly parted her lips.  

“Young Duke Crawford is a man so splendid he could captivate every lady, but I have never truly dared to desire him.”  

“Every lady?”  

D-did I misspeak again? 

With Asilly seizing on her wording, the servant felt her mouth go bone-dry. For her, Asilly looked like she might threaten her into listing those ladies’ names one by one. The trembling servant felt like she might cry.  

“What I mean is, since Young Duke Crawford is so manly and splendid…….”  

Asilly rose with a grunt. 

Was she about to punish us?  

“Then why are you two lying flat on the floor? It’s not like you said something untrue. Get up. The floor is cold.”  

What in the world was she plotting? 

The two servants exchanged looks and hesitated. Then Asilly ordered them to get up again, and they rose timidly.  

“So, to sum it up, what you two are saying is…… I have atrocious manners and I’m annoying, and unlike me, Young Duke Crawford is amazing—a man every lady would like. That’s it, right?”  

Asilly stroked her chin and organized the situation, and the two servants could not hide their shock. Since what they had said was their own talk, and there was not even a little that had been exaggerated or wrong, it was not a situation where they could make excuses. When she told them to get up because the floor was cold, they thought it was more or less over—but she seemed like a woman with a viciously long tail. The two servants wriggled their fingers, chewing over the misfortune about to crash down on them.  

That was when it happened.  

“But…….”  

She took in a long breath—“Tsk”—and then smiled brightly. It was a chilling smile.  

“Lady Grant is kind and cheerful. Anyway, she’s good, right?”

Why was she asking such unpredictable questions? It made their blood run dry to the point that it would have been better if she had simply punished them openly for running their mouths. They could not openly praise Lady Grant—the one Asilly was said to be enemies with—right in front of Asilly.  

As they hesitated, unsure what to say, she gave that spine-chilling smile again.  

“It’s hard to answer, isn’t it? Anyway, got it. I’ll take in everything you meant very well. Now, keep up the good work.”  

They had heard she would grab hair and shake people around, but she turned away cleanly, surprisingly without lingering. They said she had gotten hurt while roaming around the square; watching Asilly’s back as she walked off—stopping here and there mid-way, making a “Tsk” sound, then walking again with difficulty—the two servants wore bewildered expressions.  

“Is it…… over, just like that?”  

“……No. She might bring this up again later, whenever she feels like it. Let’s be careful.”  

“Yeah. I think we should.”  

Even as they resumed their housework, the servants kept glancing in the direction Asilly had disappeared. With an extremely uneasy feeling held tight in their arms.  

***

Asilly……. As expected, she was someone who collected grudges wherever she went. That temper of hers was not going anywhere. Even if their souls returned to their rightful places in the future, there would likely be quite a lot of headaches left behind.  

Back in the bedroom, Judy could not even sit because of her aching backside; she only leaned her waist against the window frame and stood there thinking.  

‘She looks a bit naive, but she’s kind. Cheerful, too.’  

“Naive…….”  

It was a line she could not deny at all. Why had she been so naive, trusting people like that……? But it was not her fault for believing, was it? It was the fault of the people who deceived her……. From now on, she needed to keep her head on straight. There must not be any more times she embraced the wrong people and got hurt.  

As Judy made that vow, her thoughts flowed to the next part.

‘But I think our Young Duke is too good to be put beside any woman. The person we’ve watched for a long time—he may be blunt, but he’s truly diligent, and his nature is gentle.’  

That diligent, gentle nature she had failed to see because of his ‘bluntness.’ And the physical build and looks so excellent he was too good to be set beside any woman.  

‘Because it’s the body of the woman I like.’  

Ugh. Was she seriously noticing Theo Crawford’s good points more clearly now, just because she had been confessed to? Realizing that her evaluation of him was being pulled subjectively by a single confession, Judy shook her head. That would be far too transparent.  

‘What would it feel like? I think even just looking at him makes my heart flutter so much it won’t survive.’  

‘Even if my heart shattered, I want to be held by Young Duke Crawford just once. Then I’d have no other wish.’  

“No. No matter what, isn’t that a bit much?”  

Those servants probably had not gotten to see much of Theo’s childhood, back when he ran around with snot dripping. But thinking about it from another angle, childhood Theo was kind of cute. Bangs damp with sweat from running, two cheeks turned red, his drippy nose, and the pretty tulip he had held out to her. A clear smile that did not seem to know worry even a little.  

‘I picked it up on the way. Because it’s pretty. For you. To give.’  

She was grinning to herself as she recalled that suddenly resurfacing childhood memory, when there came a knock.  

“Miss, the meal for you and the Young Duke is ready.”