Chapter 33

“Miss, please have some water. You might get dehydrated.”

“Get lost! I don’t need anything!”

Rachel shouted at the head maid who offered her a glass while burying her face in the pillow. The pillow was already soaked with Rachel’s tears.

She had been holed up in her bed, not coming out since she returned from the Duke’s mansion late at night. From then until the next day at noon, she had been crying her heart out.

“Miss, the Marquis will be returning today. He will be very worried if he sees you like this.”

“Shut up! Don’t even mention Father. He doesn’t love me. If he did, he would have granted at least one of my wishes!”

Rachel screamed with her pretty face contorted in anger.

But no one could empathize with her words. It was a well-known fact among the mansion’s employees and the capital’s nobles that Marquis Pinford cherished his only daughter Rachel more than his own life.

“What are you saying? The Marquis cares so much for you, Miss Rachel.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! If that were true, I would have already become the Duchess Apparent. Instead, that wretched baron’s daughter has taken my place! Do you even know what she did to me yesterday…?”

Rachel gritted her teeth, recalling the humiliation she suffered the previous day.

To be humiliated in front of Dyffrin, of all people.

Her beautiful platinum blonde hair was not something that could be pulled out like the fur of a mangy colt. Even though hair loss was a trend these days, there was no way she could have such a disease!

Not only had she lost her precious, silky hair, but she was also humiliated. She wanted to go find Evelyn immediately and slap her until her anger was soothed.

But if she did that, Dyffrin…

Thinking of Dyffrin, tears welled up in Rachel’s eyes again. It pooled in her reddened eyes.

‘Why is he taking her side? He can’t really be infatuated with that insignificant girl, can he?’

This thought tormented Rachel the most. She feared that Dyffrin might truly love Evelyn and that they would never part.

While Rachel was momentarily subdued by her sadness, the head maid quickly spoke up.

“…Miss, I couldn’t tell you yesterday because of the atmosphere, but a letter arrived through a messenger. You should check it…”

“Do I look like I have time to check letters now?”

“…It’s a letter delivered by a messenger. It might be important.”

The head maid said as she took the letter out of her apron pocket.

Rachel, with her swollen eyes, glanced at the letter envelope. It was an ordinary envelope with the sender marked as ‘N.T.C’.

It was an initial used to conceal the sender’s identity, but Rachel knew who had sent the letter.

“Throw it in the trash… No, put it on the console.”

She wanted to throw it away, but considering the sender’s status, she couldn’t.

The person who sent that letter was Prince Nosellerton Coates.

The letter would undoubtedly contain a request for a secret rendezvous.

‘Ridiculous.’

Nosellerton liked her. No, to be honest, she wasn’t sure if he truly liked her. But at the very least, he had a favorable opinion of her.

That’s why he kept sending letters through messengers, avoiding others’ eyes.

But his actions only infuriated Rachel more. The reason Nosellerton couldn’t openly ask her out was that he didn’t consider her suitable as his official partner.

Even though Fenris’s power was growing, as long as Dyffrin was standing firm, Nosellerton was likely to become the next emperor, and as the future emperor of the Colclough Empire, he couldn’t marry the daughter of a marquis. This was his implicit stance. He would probably marry a princess from another kingdom.

Yet, he kept sending letters through messengers like a stalker, which was disgusting. He probably wanted her to be his mistress later.

Rachel gritted her teeth at Nosellerton’s actions.

If it weren’t for Dyffrin, Nosellerton would have already lost his position to Fenris. He was only maintaining his position thanks to his excessive good fortune in human relationships.

‘Why do only foolish men like me?’

Tears welled up in Rachel’s reddened eyes again.

At that moment, the door swung open.

“Marquis… you’ve returned.”

The head maid bowed her head and greeted Marquis Pinford as he entered.

When Marquis Pinford motioned for her to leave, the head maid bowed again and exited, closing the door behind her.

“Rachel, my dear daughter.”

Despite Marquis Pinford’s gentle voice, Rachel did not respond. He sat on the bed and slowly stroked Rachel’s long hair.

“I heard from the butler downstairs. You went to the Duke’s mansion with the Duchess’s letter and received poor treatment.”

Rachel lifted her head sharply. Her eyes were filled with venom.

“Poor treatment? That baron’s daughter insulted me and pulled out my hair, and you call that poor treatment?”

The Marquis sighed.

He knew his daughter’s temperament well. Rachel must have provoked Evelyn first, and quite aggressively at that. But it didn’t matter who started it. What mattered now was that his daughter was crying like this.

He wanted to retaliate so that the culprit would be left in rags, but the opponent was the wife of Duke Apparent Liwonoc.

“Rachel, don’t provoke Evelyn anymore.”

The venom in Rachel’s eyes subsided a bit. Her tear-filled eyes brimmed with hurt. Round tears fell one after another.

“How can you say that, Father! She was the one who provoked me first!”

“I’m not saying to leave Evelyn alone. I’m saying you shouldn’t get involved.”

“And if I don’t get involved…?”

“The Duchess will take care of it.”

Marquis Pinford’s eyes darkened for a moment.

But Rachel, not noticing this nuance, confessed in a small voice.

“Actually… the Duchess gave me a chance once. But I failed, so she might be disappointed in me.”

It was about mentioning the dismissed head maid Patricia at the royal ball. Rachel was upset that she had wasted the chance Amelia had given her.

This time was no different. Amelia had sent a letter specifically instructing Rachel to deliver it to the Duke’s mansion, but Evelyn didn’t seem hurt by it at all.

Thinking of Amelia, Rachel became sullen, and Marquis Pinford spoke in a serious tone.

“You don’t need to worry about that. The Duchess made a promise to me.”

“A promise…?”

“Technically, it’s a contract. I can’t tell you all the details, but eventually, she will give you the position of the daughter-in-law of the Liwonoc family.”

Rachel, looking at the confident Marquis Pinford, began to stop crying.

The Marquis gently wiped the remaining tear stains from Rachel’s eyes with a handkerchief.

“So, my daughter, don’t worry about a thing.”

* * *

Meanwhile, after Dyffrin greeted Dunswell and left for work, only Evelyn and Dunswell remained in the mansion’s hall.

Evelyn had instructed Merrilyn to show Dunswell’s guards, attendants, and servant to their quarters and intended to personally attend to Dunswell.

“Your Grace, let me show you to your room.”

“…Alright.”

Evelyn walked toward the stairs to go up to the second floor.

Although she had only learned of Dunswell’s arrival at the Duke’s residence the day before, she quickly prepared a guest room.

She paid special attention to cleaning the VIP room where Dunswell would stay. Since the mansion was usually kept tidy, it didn’t take much time to prepare.

“The mansion has changed a lot.”

As they climbed the stairs, Dunswell remarked, looking at the floor.

Dunswell remembered the mansion being quite messy. Dyffrin was busy with affairs at the imperial palace, and Amelia was overwhelmed with managing the household, so it couldn’t be helped.

Even when he offered to hire a head butler, Dyffrin, sensitive about bringing in new people, refused. He also suggested scolding the maids for not doing their jobs properly, but Dyffrin shook his head.

Dunswell eventually stopped commenting, feeling it wasn’t appropriate to meddle too much in his grown son’s household.

“Yes, we’ve been gradually renovating the mansion every month.”

“The mansion is old. Haven’t you thought about a complete renovation?”

“It doesn’t seem that worn out yet.”

“Well… with such good maintenance, it seems reconstruction won’t be necessary for a while.”

Dunswell scanned the neatly renovated interior, trying to recall if Dyffrin had recently requested additional funds for the mansion’s repairs.

Since the mansion and the main estate shared funds, any expenses beyond the budget would be noticeable.

However, no matter how hard he tried to remember, there had been no such requests. Repairing to this extent must have cost quite a bit… 

Of course, he didn’t know how much money Dyffrin had in his private stash, but that was exactly what it was—private funds.

If Dyffrin had intended to use that money, it wouldn’t have been for mere mansion repairs.

Unable to contain his curiosity, Dunswell asked.

“Repairing must have cost quite a lot. Did you have enough budget?”

“Yes, there were many leaks in the household expenses, so once those were fixed, we had quite a bit of budget left each month, which we used for the repairs.”

“Was that why you dismissed the head maid?”

“She was embezzling money. It was unfortunate.”

“Did you discover this yourself?”

“Once I closely examined the ledgers, it wasn’t difficult.”

‘Huh.’

Dunswell concealed his surprise.

To think such things were happening in the Duke’s residence. It was entirely new information to him.