IDIBC Chapter 13

Duchess of Rochester

At first, I was quite flustered, but later I adopted a “whatever will be, will be” attitude. Even at Count Fennel’s estate, I often got lost. I thought it was just because I was young, but that wasn’t all there was to it.

It was a fact I learned later, but I was seriously directionally challenged. I got so confused that I could barely find my way back out through the door I’d entered.

I kicked a stone in my path and muttered once more.

“Yeah, I’ll find my way eventually.”

The room assigned to me was next to Ricardo’s.

There were only two rooms used as bedrooms on the second floor, so while we weren’t exactly adjacent, it was still hard to shake the feeling of being monitored.

For the past three days, he had left the mansion early in the morning and returned late at night. It was frustrating not knowing how long I’d have to wait, but I was also afraid to ask.

When Ricardo and I arrived at the ducal estate, many people came out to greet us, but I didn’t see the Duke and Duchess.

“Is his relationship with his parents not good?”

Then again, it would be strange if it were good. I know that an oracle is an inviolable divine command that cannot be defied, but understanding it intellectually doesn’t make resentment disappear.

Ah, but if he has no memory, perhaps the resentment is meaningless too.

The sun was still hanging directly overhead, and the shadows swirled briefly at my feet. Looking around, I spotted a pretty bench and plopped down on it. The vast garden of the ducal estate spread out before my eyes.

The sun was dazzlingly bright in my eyes, so I squinted. I thought I’d try to find my way again once the shadows grew a bit longer.

“There are cyclamens here too. They really do look like clothes a fairy has taken off.”

I was relaxing and looking at the sky when something rustled in the flowerbed. Soon, like a flower blooming from a bud, a woman rose to her feet. Is this what a cyclamen would look like if it were reincarnated as a human?

Wearing white gloves and holding a trowel, the woman stared at me intently.

I jumped to my feet. Even the maids at the ducal house were all of higher status than me.

“Ah, hello.”

“Who?”

If flowers had voices, they would surely sound like this. Her brilliant golden hair and reddish eyes were so beautiful they could steal one’s soul.

“Ah, I’m…”

What on earth should I introduce myself as? While I was pondering, the woman examined me for a moment, then nodded.

“Ah, Lady Fennel.”

Though I had retained my noble status, my title had been confiscated and I lived like a maid, so the honorific “Lady” felt uncomfortable. But since she’d called me that, I lifted my skirt and curtsied as a noble lady would.

Though to this noblewoman, my gesture was probably clumsy.

At my greeting, she tilted her head slightly and smiled with her eyes. When she smiled, it became even harder to guess her age.

“But what brings you all the way here? This isn’t the annex garden.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know this was a place I shouldn’t enter. The truth is… I got lost.”

Embarrassment washed over me and I laughed awkwardly.

“It’s not a place you shouldn’t enter. It’s just that no one does.”

Isn’t that the same thing?

It would be rude to ask when the noblewoman hadn’t revealed her identity first. Not knowing who she was, I bowed my head slightly to appear as courteous as possible.

I heard a gentle laugh, and when I raised my head, I saw the woman sitting back down in the flowerbed.

“If you help me with what I’m doing, I’ll help you find your way.”

“Pardon?”

“…”

“Ah, yes.”

As I approached, the woman handed me a spare pair of gloves and a trowel. Seeing that there was even a gardening stool, it seemed she’d been tending the flowers for quite some time.

“We’re going to divide and replant the ones that are too crowded together.”

“That shouldn’t be too difficult.”

I actually thought this was fortunate and rolled up my sleeves. Time passed more slowly when I had nothing to do.

“Do you tend to all these flowers by yourself?”

“Of course not. Just whenever I have time. No, whenever I have too much time. It’s my hobby.”

“Ah…”

As she said, this wasn’t a flowerbed that such a refined woman could handle alone.

Though she was a stranger, I immediately took a liking to this noblewoman. People who love plants and animals are never evil—it’s a universal truth.

“If you’ll allow it, I’d like to come out and tend the flowers from time to time too. Though I don’t know how long I’ll be staying here.”

At my words, the woman smiled softly. My gaze naturally lingered on her lovely appearance.

“You’re really… beautiful.”

At the words I uttered as if enchanted, the woman looked at me with clear eyes. Her red eyes seemed to see right through one’s heart.

“Ah, the flowers, I meant the flowers.”

Just as I was thinking with a chuckle that her smile reminded me of someone, a shadow fell long over the two of us.

“What are you doing here?”

At the low voice, I looked up to see Ricardo looking down at me with a menacing gaze. The core of his eyes was still ashen, but his breathing was slightly disturbed. He pressed his lips together tightly and tilted his chin slightly to one side.

“Duchess.”

Still keeping his gaze on me, he addressed the woman beside me. Duchess… So the woman who had been digging alongside me was…

“Eek.”

I jumped to my feet. Who was the Duchess of Rochester? Wasn’t she the woman said to be harder to get an audience with than even the Empress of the Dermeier Empire? And such a noblewoman had been sitting on a gardening stool tending the flowerbed.

“Your Grace, I was very rude. Please forgive me.”

When her son appeared, she wore a completely different expression from before. The Duchess rose slowly from her seat without a hair out of place. As she removed the dirt-stained gloves from her fingers one by one and lifted her chin slightly, the woman who had been smiling like a gentle breeze moments ago was nowhere to be seen.

“You’re here, Ricardo.”

“Duchess, are you making my guest work right now?”

Wasn’t this place supposed to be temperate year-round? The chill between the two of them was enough to make me shudder.

“She said she was lost, so I just put her to work a bit in exchange for showing her the way.”

“I don’t recall giving permission for you to approach my guest.”

Ah, this brat. In the old days, he wouldn’t let me come close because I was a slave. Now it’s even the Duchess.

“Hahaha, I got lost. Ridiculous, right? Getting lost inside a house.”

“Speak correctly, child. I didn’t approach her; your lost guest approached me.”

“That’s right! I approached the Duchess first. I even said I wanted to help with the work in the future.”

“Then you should have just avoided her.”

Excuse me, I’m right here. I’m even tall—can’t you see me?

“I’ve never avoided anyone since I was born.”

“That…!”

Worried that Ricardo might say something rude again, my hand moved reflexively. When I lightly grabbed his sleeve, he flinched and started to speak, then closed his mouth again. I let out a sigh of relief.

“Young Duke, please show me around the ducal estate. So I won’t get lost again.”

Ricardo looked down at me. The sunlight from above cast deep shadows on his face. Even as I felt intimidated, he was breathtakingly handsome, and my gaze involuntarily shifted away.

“If you have time, that is. Hahaha.”

How foolish. I know I’m being foolish, but this is the heart of the ultimate weakling who can’t stop myself.

When I tightened my grip on Ricardo’s hand and pulled slightly, he bowed briefly to the Duchess and turned around. As I caught my breath and removed my gloves, after taking three or four steps, he suddenly turned around.

Why? What now?

“Aren’t you following?”

“Ah, yes.”

I quickly curtsied to the Duchess and hurried after Ricardo. I glanced back, but I couldn’t read any particular expression on the Duchess’s face.

Was this first meeting with the Duchess really okay?

Even as I diligently followed him, I couldn’t help but reflect on being like a shrimp whose back bursts in a fight between whales.

“Don’t go out without permission.”

“Yes, yes, are you my master or something?”

Even while reflecting on the shrimp’s predicament, my unruly mouth automatically talked back.

He stopped abruptly. At that moment, wind blew from afar, tousling his black hair. Ricardo’s scent carried on the wind naturally drew my attention.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

“What?”

“Your words were like that. Don’t go out without permission. That’s what I say to the chickens at home. I wonder how my chickens are doing.”

“Chickens…”

He exhaled softly, then closed his mouth and his jaw set hard. Thinking “oops,” I looked around and saw that the group following him was frozen like ice.

Are they tense because of me?

As I was about to retort, the oldest-looking man widened his eyes and shook his head slightly. Ah, so they are tense because of me.

Only after seeing people trembling before Ricardo did it really hit me that the person I was dealing with was the most powerful man in this empire.

“I wasn’t treating you like… a chicken. Just, when you go somewhere, tell me where you’re going.”