Chapter 32
“Huh?”
Lucy’s eyes widened, but Clara kept talking.
“Even if your position here is unclear, how can they leave someone hungry like this?”
“…”
“Everyone keeps talking behind your back, but at least they should let you eat… Ah! I’m sorry!”
Realizing she had said too much, Clara looked flustered.
Lucy quietly looked at her.
“They’re talking behind my back?”
“Well… everyone has been whispering that the Duke picked up a homeless girl from somewhere.”
“I see.”
“They keep saying someone who belongs in the shelter outside the castle is living in a better room than even the head butler.”
“It is a nice room.”
It was called the Duke’s storage room, but it was larger and nicer than most inns or hotels.
Lucy simply nodded at the obvious fact.
Clara continued complaining.
“No matter how obsessed everyone is with taking sides, I can’t believe they’d treat someone the Duke personally brought here like this.”
She glanced at Lucy, waiting for a reaction.
“Clara.”
“…Yes?”
“You should be more careful about the things you repeat.”
Clara froze in surprise.
Lucy looked at her calmly.
Her expression looked much more mature than usual.
“If you keep repeating unnecessary gossip, you’ll only get yourself into trouble.”
As she spoke, Lucy remembered the maids who had acted awkward around her.
They laughed and chatted among themselves, but became nervous whenever they saw her.
“They all seemed unsure how they should treat me.”
But would those same people really gossip about her like that?
“I don’t think Rosendal would hire servants like that.”
No matter who the target was, Edward hated servants who spread rumors behind people’s backs.
Rosendal, who understood Edward better than anyone, would never hire people like that.
“And she said she hated the faction fighting…”
Yet Clara had only been criticizing one side.
The servants loyal to Edward.
Simply speaking badly about them and repeating those stories to Lucy already meant she was taking someone’s side.
Most likely the Dowager Duchess’s faction.
Instead of pointing it out directly, Lucy simply stared at Clara.
Clara flinched.
She clearly hadn’t expected someone who looked as timid as Lucy to say something like that.
Lucy really was shy and cautious.
But she had also lived through countless hardships in two different lives.
“If she were truly suffering because of hazing, she wouldn’t only complain about one side.”
That was something Lucy knew from her own experience in the shelter.
“If it were me, I’d complain about both sides.”
No wonder.
The sandwiches were far too big and delicious to have been made for ordinary knights.
Meeting Clara here probably wasn’t a coincidence either.
“It looks like I’m the one caught in the middle of this faction fight.”
“What should I do?”
She didn’t want to get involved.
Just then…
“I-I’m sorry.”
“…”
“I’m still inexperienced…”
Clara looked frightened and close to tears.
The moment Lucy saw her face, she remembered the children who had cried beside her in the shelter and beneath the Temple.
“…She does look young.”
She also noticed Clara’s hands.
They were covered with wounds, as though she had been beaten many times.
Lucy stayed silent for a moment before nodding.
“Just don’t do it again.”
She spoke calmly.
Clara’s face immediately brightened.
She grabbed Lucy’s hands tightly.
“You’re so kind to teach someone like me, an outsider.”
“I’m not that kind…”
“You are to me.”
“I want to stay by your side forever… Ah!”
Clara suddenly remembered something.
“Come to think of it, you don’t have a personal maid yet, do you?”
“Huh?”
“If it’s alright with you, I’d like to serve you!”
Lucy blinked slowly.
Ignoring how sudden the offer was…
She had already realized Clara’s real goal.
“Besides, I’m only here on a contract myself. Why would I need a personal maid?”
Lucy was about to refuse.
Then Clara said,
“If you’re going to become the future Duchess of Tesseron, it’s strange that you don’t have one.”
“Cough! Cough!”
Lucy nearly choked on her sandwich.
She pounded her chest.
“The Duke and I are n-not…”
But before she could finish…
Memories she had tried to ignore suddenly flooded back.
The soft feeling of his lips and tongue.
The warm bathwater around them.
His rough-looking hand, which looked capable of crushing anything, gently stroking her thigh with surprising care.
She remembered the excitement hidden in his low voice when he muttered,
“…Damn it.”
“…Are we really not that kind of relationship?”
Honestly…
Even she thought what had happened between them had been incredibly intimate.
If she hadn’t fainted…
She accidentally let herself imagine what might have happened next.
Then Clara interrupted again.
“Everyone’s saying that since the two of you even bathed together, the Duke will probably take responsibility for you soon.”
“He is taking responsibility, but not in that way…”
Lucy tried to deny it, though she wasn’t as confident anymore.
Just then…
“We’re not that kind of relationship, are we, Duke of Tesseron?”
Before Lucy realized it, she had shouted the words herself.
At the same moment, another loud voice echoed through the hallway.
She looked up.
Then froze.
“…”
“…”
At the end of the corridor, someone who had been shouting looked directly at her.
His face was bright red with anger.
The red stole symbolizing the Temple fluttered behind him.
“…A priest?”
It was a Temple priest.
The priest’s eyes slowly widened.
“…You!”
***
A few minutes earlier…
“This is outrageous!”
Bang!
Tepe slammed his fist onto the table as he stood up.
“Calm down, Tepe.”
“How can I stay calm in a situation like this?!”
“Don’t give them an excuse.”
“…”
“We can’t let the Temple priest outside realize how angry we are.”
Rosendal’s words made Tepe glance toward the door.
The Temple’s envoy, who was also a priest, was standing outside in the hallway.
“Duke! Duke Tesseron!”
“…”
“Shouldn’t we discuss this immediately?!”
He was shouting aggressively.
Normally, even a Temple priest would be careful around Edward.
The only reason he was acting so confidently now was because he had powerful backing.
“Damn it.”
Tepe bit his lip in frustration.
Gorgo, standing nearby, also looked serious.
“What should we do, my lord?”
Rosendal, the calmest of the three, bowed toward Edward.
Edward gave a crooked smile.
“So…”
“I never expected them to bring something like this.”
A thin sheet of paper spun between his fingers.
It carried the imperial seal.
***
Just after Rosendal rushed over…
Edward had learned the full story after making sure Lucy wasn’t present.
“His Majesty the Emperor has sent an imperial decree from the capital.”
When Edward first heard it, he barely reacted.
“Is that all?”
He meant they were making too much fuss over something so ordinary.
Most people would be horrified to hear someone dismiss an imperial decree so casually.
But Edward was different.
“The old man must be getting impatient with age.”
The Emperor was always asking Edward for favors.
No matter how politely he spoke, his requests always meant one of three things.
“Do this.”
“Help me.”
“Fix this.”
Edward found it endlessly annoying.
“He acts like I owe him.”
The moment he thought that…
Lucy came to mind.
He remembered her standing proudly in front of him and saying,
“Did I owe you something?!”
His expression softened slightly as he glanced toward Lucy in the distance.
Then Rosendal spoke again.
“It wasn’t only the decree…”
“A special envoy came with it.”
“A special envoy?”
“An envoy sent by the Temple.”
Rosendal spoke in a heavy voice.
