CH 1.06

“Now that you mentioned it, have you heard about that?”

“Yeah, I heard it! You’re talking about Ojou-sama throwing a tea party, right?”

“Yes, yes! She never received invitations before, but since His Grace got married, she’s been getting invitations. That means everyone is curious, don’t you think so?”

“I heard that she was invited to the Princess’s tea party! I heard she was pretty roughed up when she came back.”

As the three of us were having a friendly meal together in the dining room used by the lower-ranking servants, I heard them talking.

But I already knew about that topic.

Marriage to my husband seemed to have relieved the anger of the Princess towards Elise, so Elise had been receiving invitations here and there.

Needless to say, the reason was to inquire about me.

To know for what reasons I was chosen, why was it me, those sorts of things.

But if Elise didn’t have much information and had never met me before, she probably became the target of ridicule.

She was closer to my husband than anyone else, and she’d been aiming to become my husband’s legal wife. She was ahead of Her Royal Highness, yet she lost that position to a person of doubtful origin from who knew where.

Moreover, it was me, a notorious figure in social circles.

After the tea party hosted by Her Royal Highness, which I could only assume ended with Elise being ridiculed to no end, she should have just lay low, but she’s been attending various soirées, as if in a hurry.

It seemed that she hadn’t given up on her desire to be my husband’s legal wife yet. So now, she’s going to host a tea party at the Duke’s residence.

Organizing a formal evening party was a man’s job, but a daytime tea party was a woman’s job.

Elise wanted to use this tea party to show her influence in the Lindbeld family.

From my point of view, all I could say was, Please give it your best shot.

It seemed that many of the guests invited to the party were high-ranking aristocrats, and to be honest, I thought she shouldn’t be a little more airheaded since she was just a freeloader.

Well, it was not my place to be embarrassed by doing something beyond my size, so I didn’t mind.

But I wondered if she would at least come to get permission from the owner of the house, but she never showed up.

I’ve been itching to take a look at the yet unseen Viscountess’s daughter, Elise.

When I first came here, I wasn’t interested at all because I was exhausted. However, now that I was feeling better, I was curious about a lot of things.

“Don’t be so absorbed in talking, let’s eat quickly. We’re getting a lot of extra work because of that tea party.”

Lil, who was eating without stopping, said in an annoyed tone.

They were going to have to thoroughly clean the place where Elise was staying.

What was more, they still had to build a garden.

If you’re wondering where they’d source out the money to fund that, I’m sure you could tell that Mrs. Miriam had misappropriated the Duke’s residence’s budget somewhere.

Of course, all the expenses related to Elise’s socializing were paid by the duchy.

Was that okay?

I was certain my husband knew, but he left it alone because he considered it more trouble than it was worth to get involved.

I wanted him to at least take care of his own house.

I mean, people should usually take care of their personal affairs before getting married.

It was outrageous to dump everything at your marriage partner, right?

“Today’s assignment is me and Lila cleaning the villa afterwards. As I recall, Lina is a peeler in the kitchen? So, Rhi, where are you assigned?”

“Um…I guess I’m the same as you two.”

I lied.

Of course, I didn’t tell the three about me either.

When I first met them, I was trying to come up with an excuse, but I was so miserable that they didn’t ask me anything and just pitied me.

“That’s right, let’s do our best together. But I envy Lina. I would have preferred that job, too, because it would be troublesome to run into that selfish, arrogant Ojou-sama.”

Lila exclaimed enviously.

Later, after we had finished our meal, we headed away with our cleaning supplies.

“Speaking of which, are you two okay with running into Miss Elise?”

They’ve been pushed to a tight spot because of their looks.

I was worried about what would happen if we ran into her.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry! Servants will bow deeply when a distinguished person passes by, so nobody can see our faces.”

I’ll remember that.

In hopes of catching a glimpse of Elise somewhere as I cleaned, I stepped away from Lil, Layla and the other servants of the cleaning crew.

Then I was forced to remember the words of a great man of the past.

“Curiosity can kill a cat.”

When I walked into a detached room, I saw the maids moving about and wondered what was going on. I never imagined that my husband, who had been absent from the mansion for a month, had planned to come and see Elise.

“His Grace is coming.”

“I heard it’s about a tea party. Is he coming to stop it, by any chance?”

The fact that everyone was gossiping about it meant it was an unplanned visit.

This could be seen even in the current hectic situation.

I didn’t care about his purpose.

All I knew was that the sooner I got out of the place, the better.

For some reason, my survival instinct whispered to me that I should not meet him.

“Oh no, I forgot something, I’ll go back for it!”

“If you don’t come back soon, you’ll miss His Grace.”

I felt sorry for Lil for winking at me, because I was fine with missing him.

I didn’t mind, because I didn’t want to meet him if possible.

But I shouldn’t have rushed off.

In fact, I felt that the probability of encountering my husband would have been much lower if I had stayed quietly cleaning the house away from him.

For the most part, we hadn’t even made an appointment in this castle-like mansion, so it would have been almost a miracle considering the chances of us meeting. And to meet someone I didn’t want to meet was just plain bad luck.

And it seemed that I was unlucky.

It was that kind of timing that made you want to curse.

There was a single corridor that led to the main residence, so I had to pass through it to get to the main residence.

However, the situation was, by all means, unexpected.

The person with the red hair and imposing physique was someone I could never mistake.

The person walking towards me was dressed as flawlessly as ever. I pretended to be a mere servant to disguise my presence, and immediately bowed at the end of the corridor.

I waited patiently, sincerely hoping that he would just walk away.

The clacking of his shoes became louder and louder ――.

Then the sound of footsteps stopped right in front of me.

Why are you stopping!

I felt his gaze on me and my hands began to sweat.

I could tell by the signs that he was slowly approaching. Then, I saw the tip of the man’s shoe in my field of vision.

I so wanted to believe that it was only because he must have found it unusual for a servant to be in such a place.

“Interesting attire you’ve got there.”

“…”

“Why are you being quiet? I’d love to hear how you’ve been spending the past month. I’m curious if you’ve been enjoying your life of depravity, Wife?”

With those words, I had no choice but to give up.