chapter 06

Liliet, the Mansion’s senior lady’s maid and the Duchess’s trusted aide, was a woman old enough to be Adelia’s aunt.

Moreover, she was someone who had been there for Adelia through everything since the day she first arrived at the Mansion.

Yet still, Adelia could not grow accustomed to having someone else bathe her.

Because of this, she heard a lecture from Liliet about it almost every time she took a bath.

“How was the Laboratory?”
“Oh, that? It was wonderful! I mean, no, not wonderful. It was very… wonderful.”
“I’m glad to hear it. The master… I mean, your husband was quite worried about you.”

Adelia’s eyes went wide.

“He was worried about me?”
“Of course he was. What husband wouldn’t worry when his wife has to spend hours studying alongside other people?”

Liliet even let out a soft laugh, as if to say that was perfectly obvious.

But for Adelia, it was a fresh observation—strange, even.

‘No, just now too….’

She recalled what Loarston had said: that even a fake husband grows jealous when she mentions other men.

The way he called her ‘you,’ speaking with such careful, gentle courtesy.

The warmth and breath of him holding her hand, kissing her cheek, saying she had to grow used to his touch.

As she recalled each moment, her heart began to race and her face flushed crimson.

‘No! What am I thinking!’

He’s only doing this because of our contract. Why am I being so foolish?

Adelia found herself mentally clawing at her own head before finally coming back to herself. She spoke in a small voice.

“It’s strange that someone worries about me.”
“Madam, you’re using formal speech again.”
“Oh, right. I mean… yes, it’s strange.”

Liliet continued.

“Surely there have been many people concerned for you all this time? The teachers at the Academy, for instance…. Wouldn’t you say?”
“Well, of course. I know that much. But with him, it’s different. He’s… close to me. Very close.”

Watching Adelia struggle to express something that the world would simply call ‘husband’ or ‘family,’ Liliet felt a pang of sympathy.

Separated from her family so young, she had grown up like an orphan, and it seemed that lonely life had left its mark on this innocent, kindhearted girl.

“It’s strange and somehow odd that someone so close to me would worry about me.”
“There’s nothing strange about it at all. You are husband and wife, after all.”

Adelia, sitting with her knees drawn up and her head tilted forward, laughed softly.

“Yes, I suppose. Husband and wife.”

For now, at least.

The fact that she had to deceive even kind Liliet sometimes troubled Adelia deeply.

How betrayed would she feel when she eventually learned the truth?

Would she refuse to ever see me again?

‘No. When I’m no longer the Duchess, I won’t even live in this house. There would be no reason to meet.’

So there was only one thing she could do now.

‘Stop feeling sorry for myself! Do what I can to be good to Liliet!’

Adelia clenched her fists beneath the bathwater.

***

After her bath, her hair combed, dressed in her evening Dress, Adelia moved with the utmost care—as if she were an entirely different person from the one in the Laboratory.

Part of it was that she didn’t want to disturb the hairstyle Liliet had so carefully arranged, but her notion of what a Duchess should be was generally quiet, demure, and well-mannered….

“You don’t have to do that.”

Adelia, who had been keeping her eyes modestly lowered, knitted her brow and lifted her gaze.

“I beg your pardon?”
“You don’t need to be so stiff with formality. This isn’t a palace, and you can’t maintain that posture all the time at home. You can relax.”

At Loarston’s words, her tension eased considerably, but Adelia still carefully smoothed her full skirts as she took her seat.

‘You can relax’—but how much relaxing was actually acceptable?

“Being a Duchess isn’t easy, is it?”

Adelia sighed at Loarston’s amused question.

“I never knew it would be this difficult.”
“I imagine fourteen years at the Academy without a single grade below A+ wasn’t exactly effortless either.”
“No! I did get something other than A+ once. Just one time…. When was it again….”
“You mean when the mathematics professor graded one of your answers incorrectly?”

Adelia’s eyes widened in shock.

“How did you know that?”
“How would I not know? Word that ‘Adelia Whitten got a math problem wrong’ spread through the Academy in less than ten minutes.”
“You’re joking.”
“I’m serious.”

That couldn’t be right!

Adelia covered her flushed cheeks with her hands.

Loarston, watching her reaction, continued.

“But since your answer wasn’t actually wrong—it was the grading that was wrong—it was eventually changed back to an A+.”

How in the world did he know all these details?

Besides, the grade change was a secret known only to that teacher and Adelia herself. How could Loarston possibly have found out?

“How could you possibly….”
“Are you joking with me right now? You told my father about all of this, bit by bit.”

Adelia’s mouth formed an ‘oh,’ and she was freshly amazed.

The previous Duke, Loarston’s father, had been her anonymous benefactor all along.

At the time, she didn’t know who was helping her, so she had no way to repay the kindness.

That’s why she’d decided to write him letters from time to time.

“You used to call my father ‘Friend of Summer,’ didn’t you?”

Adelia’s face flushed crimson again—as if someone had found her diary.

She made a show of being indignant.

“Those letters were meant for the late Duke! How could you read them?”
“Well, he was so proud of them that he laid them right out. How could I not read them?”
“You still shouldn’t have!”

Loarston seemed about to ask ‘Why?’ but mercifully held his tongue.

“In any case, for various reasons, I know quite a lot about your school days. I even know that when you were in your third year of the Lower Division, you caught a snake with one hand.”

Even that?!

As Adelia’s face went pale, Loarston chuckled as if to say, ‘Why are you so surprised?’

“The entire student body called you ‘Adelia, who caught a snake at nine’ back then. You didn’t know?”
“I… I had no idea at all.”
“Well, now you do.”

Adelia’s vision began to spin, and she shut her eyes tight.

That something from over ten years ago would surface here of all places made her dizzy.

So this is why people must always live honorably.

You never know when your old embarrassments will pop back up.

“What’s wrong? Doesn’t the food suit your taste?”

Loarston, watching her listless gestures, asked with concern.

“Oh, no. Not at all.”
“If anything doesn’t suit you, tell me right away. I’ll have them bring something else.”

It sounded like a jest, but Adelia knew it wasn’t one.

Once, when venison—which she found difficult to eat—had been served at table, Loarston had seen it written all over her face and summoned the chef to prepare something else.

The replacement arrived in less than five minutes, so it must have been something prepared for her in advance.

“It’s just embarrassing that you knew about the snake incident, that’s all.”
“Why worry about that?”

Loarston chuckled and relaxed his expression, continuing his meal as he spoke gently.

“It’s an endearing memory. No need to be ashamed of it.”

At those words, Adelia’s cheeks flushed pink once more.

As the evening meal was drawing to a close,

Rudolf entered the dining room quietly and handed something to Loarston, then bowed respectfully toward Adelia.

Tilting her head in confusion, Adelia spoke.

“About that person, Rudolf—”
“What about him?”
“I feel like I’ve seen him before, but I suppose it’s just my imagination?”
“No, it’s not imagination. He’s actually your senior too. He was my classmate. The one who defeated the Upper Division’s chess champion in three minutes when we were first-years at Ensillia Academy.”