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Chapter 48
The next morning.
The Duchess, who had taken the best bedroom in the villa, woke up feeling oddly uneasy.
She had had a bad dream.
However, she could not remember exactly what kind of nightmare had tormented her.
“Mm.”
“You don’t look well, my lady.”
Lilypen and the maids tried to placate her.
The Duchess, who had been frowning, soon noticed one thing and snapped in a sharp voice.
“Where is that child Cassia? If I let her rest for a night, she should come at once—how dare she laze about like this…!”
Just then, as if on cue, the door opened and a young girl entered.
“I’m sorry I’m late, my lady.”
For some reason, Cassia had appeared alone today, without her nurse.
It was the exact timing to make the Duchess, who had just been angry about not seeing her face, feel awkward.
Since she had raised her voice so much, Cassia must have heard everything right outside the door.
But Cassia showed not the slightest sign of it.
“…Why are you late? Don’t tell me you were dawdling about with someone and got delayed?”
Lilypen subtly wiped the smile from her face.
After all, she herself had been the one who reported yesterday that Cassia had been fooling around with the gardener.
‘That’s it. You’re in the Duchess’s bad graces now.’
But Cassia smiled brightly and brushed off the baseless accusation as if it were nothing.
“My foot hasn’t fully healed yet. I tried to come as quickly as I could, but I ended up being late. I’m sorry.”
She was still limping as she walked.
‘No, it looks even worse than before?’
The Duchess, still displeased, asked,
“I let you rest, so why is your foot still like that? Did you go sneaking out at night or something?”
Under her beaming smile, Cassia broke into a cold sweat.
‘She talks as if she saw it herself.’
But there was no way the Duchess could actually know about Cassia’s adventure(?) from last night and be asking because of it.
If she did, she would never let it slide.
Cassia bowed apologetically.
“I’m sorry. On the way back to my room last night, I tripped and fell again.”
“So clumsy…”
In the middle of her words, the Duchess realized something was off.
“Hmm? But didn’t I tell Lady Lilypen to support you yesterday? Don’t tell me you fell together?”
Before Lady Lilypen could hurriedly cut in, Cassia answered at once.
“No. Don’t worry. I was the only one who fell. Fortunately, Lady Lilypen managed to avoid it safely.”
“…!”
With an innocent, clueless face, Cassia succeeded in striking Lady Lilypen squarely in the back of the head.
In other words, what she had just said was—
‘Yes. Lady Lilypen, who said she’d support me yesterday, pulled her own body out of the way, so I was the only one who got hurt.’
—exactly that.
The Duchess’s brow furrowed.
“Lilypen! Is this true?”
“N-no, that is. I merely…!”
“That’s enough. The longer the excuses, the more pathetic they sound.”
The Duchess cast a cold gaze at her head maid.
She knew Lilypen’s character well, having been served by her for a long time.
‘It’s obvious without even looking. She either saved only herself, or perhaps, out of spite, pushed her or tripped her.’
Her thoughts, unexpectedly, pierced the truth with sharp accuracy.
Even so, the Duchess had no intention of scolding her head maid in front of Cassia.
‘It’s also unreasonable to place deep trust in a child who plays around with a mere gardener. But then again, I can’t trust Lilypen too much either.’
At that moment, a question occurred to her.
‘Hmm? Judging by the situation, Lilypen seems to dislike Cassia—could it be that the matter with the gardener was also maliciously fabricated?’
She decided to verify this right away.
“Come to think of it, how many gardeners do we have at the villa? The garden’s landscaping is rather poor.”
Cassia answered without hesitation.
“There’s only one at the moment. After we drove out those involved in embezzlement last time, we haven’t been able to fully staff the positions yet.”
“With only one, no wonder the garden looks like that.”
As the Duchess clicked her tongue, Cassia repeatedly bowed in apology.
Watching Cassia’s demeanor, the Duchess gave an order.
“Call the gardener in. I have something to say.”
“The gardener?”
“Yes. Is there anything he shouldn’t be seen doing?”
“Of course not. I’ll have him brought right away.”
Cassia replied with a bright smile.
At least to the Duchess’s eyes, she did not seem shaken in the slightest.
‘What is this? If he were her lover, she should be nervous or try to stop me.’
The Duchess felt puzzled.
Then, upon seeing the summoned young gardener, she raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“I am Marco, the gardener, my lady.”
The young man’s appearance, shadowed with a hint of melancholy, was so delicate that it was hard to believe he belonged to the laboring class.
A glint of interest appeared in the Duchess’s eyes.
‘A gardener this handsome? He’s far better-looking than my footman.’
Without realizing it, the Duchess lifted her fan to cover her cheeks, which were about to flush.
“I heard you had something to ask of me.”
After admiring the anxious, tense young man like a sculpture for a moment, the Duchess soon fixed him with a greedy gaze.
“As a gardener, your skills are rather lacking.”
“I-I’m sorry! Please forgive me!”
She liked how meekly he prostrated himself.
Staring straight at Cassia, the Duchess said,
“I intend to dismiss him.”
It was to see how Cassia would react.
Yet contrary to the expectations of both the Duchess and Lady Lilypen, Cassia answered far too calmly.
“We should follow my lady’s will. You’re dismissed.”
“T-that can’t be…!”
The gardener wore a pitiful expression and bowed his face deeply to the floor.
Cassia proceeded with the dismissal as if it were nothing at all.
“You’re being let go because you’re bad at your job, so I can’t give you a letter of recommendation or severance pay.”
“That’s too harsh!”
She was so businesslike, even cold, that it surprised the Duchess and Lady Lilypen instead.
‘Why is she suddenly cutting Willes? Well, whatever! Whether he’s fired or not doesn’t matter! We’ve found the seal!’
‘I’m free now—a free gardener, no, a mage!’
That’s right. Neither Cassia nor Willes had any lingering attachment to this villa anymore.
Because Edmund had found the seal!
All that was needed now was to buy a little time.
‘For the escape!’
And preparations for that had already begun the night before.
In those preparations, Willes being dismissed from his gardener position was not a problem at all.
The ones who were surprised by the unexpected reaction were Lady Lilypen and the Duchess.
The two exchanged a conversation with their eyes alone.
‘What? You said Cassia was secretly involved with the gardener? It doesn’t seem like it at all?’
‘No, that can’t be. It really was like that!’
Whether the two were flustered or not, Cassia tried to drive the gardener out with a refreshingly resolute attitude.
“Make sure he packs all his belongings and send him out at once!”
“Yes, young mistress!”
The servants, still remembering the time when Cassia ruled the villa as a tyrant, obeyed the order without resistance.
Just as Willes was being dragged away—
The Duchess, who had dismissed him with her own hands, suddenly spoke entirely different words.
“Hm. Still, isn’t it too harsh to throw him out immediately?”
“Pardon? But just now, my lady, you clearly—”
“It’s true his skills as a gardener are lacking. But his looks are quite presentable, so he might be useful.”
“What?”
Cassia tilted her head in confusion.
Lady Lilypen’s complexion turned pale. She knew her mistress’s habits all too well.
“I happened to leave my footman at the main estate, so it wouldn’t hurt to teach him the work for a while. What do you think?”
The Duchess still did not let go of her suspicions.
‘If there truly had been an affair with him, she wouldn’t be able to keep up this calm even now!’
And Cassia answered promptly.
“Understood. Please let him serve you well.”
There was not the slightest hint of reluctance.
Seeing that, the Duchess let out a sigh.
‘So Lilypen must have heard a false rumor. Or perhaps… she bore a grudge against Cassia and lied.’
This time, the Duchess’s hostility and killing intent were directed not at Cassia, but at Lady Lilypen.
‘How dare you try to toy with me?’
Under her mistress’s sharp glare, Lady Lilypen tried to protest her innocence.
“M-my lady! I—!”
But her words were cut off midway.
Because the Duchess shouted sharply,
“Hold your tongue!”
“M-my lady…!”
She could not allow rumors about Cassia and the gardener to be spoken aloud in front of everyone.
‘In any case, she’s a child Patrick has his eye on. And she seems fairly perceptive and of decent character, too.’
She revised her evaluation of Cassia upward once more.
Though the person in question did not care in the slightest.
Cassia was busy avoiding Willes’s resentful gaze as he looked up at her.
‘Young mistress! How could you abandon me to that woman!’
‘They say the Duchess likes to keep good-looking men on display by her side. Sacrifice yourself and buy us some time.’
‘That’s cruel! Traitor!’
No one around them could possibly know that they were exchanging such a conversation through glances and gestures alone.
And so, while Cassia briefly sold Willes off to the Duchess, and Lady Lilypen was harshly scolded and driven away—
Another day passed.
In other words, the time the Duchess had declared she would imprison Edmund and starve him had run out.
After leisurely drinking the tea brewed by Marco (Willes),
the Duchess rose from her seat and said,
“Now then, shall we go see Edmund?”
A meaningful exchange of glances passed between Marco (Willes) and Cassia.
