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Chapter 7
Life at the duchy continued peacefully.
Calvin the butler, along with Anna and Lize—who directly attended to her—kept a meticulous eye out to ensure she experienced no discomfort.
Meanwhile, she hit it off well with Leti, the duke’s aide, making her work smooth and comfortable.
Aster, whom she had worried might resent her presence, also listened attentively to her words and complied—as if the cold-voiced man speaking of classified secrets had never existed.
Guided by Leti, she also took a tour of the ducal castle. She had assumed inspecting such an excessively grand mansion would be a daunting task for a single day, but because so many spaces were unused, it proved far easier than expected.
“From here on out, it is a restricted zone.”
Leti would often turn on his heel as he spoke those words.
She wanted to ask why, but she couldn’t bring herself to open her mouth looking at his completely rigid face. Though Leti had a gentle impression and smiled easily, that hardened expression laid bare the sharp intensity of a man who had survived a grueling battlefield.
Following him as they walked away, Lauren looked back at the darkened hallway.
In a mansion of this magnitude, the grand dining hall, the ballroom, the portrait gallery of successive dukes handed down through generations, and the gallery displaying collected artwork—none of these were located within the active areas. Undoubtedly, they lay beyond that place, in the pitch-black restricted zone. But why? Lauren couldn’t understand it at all.
There was another incomprehensible thing as well: the mansion had far too few servants. Lauren was tasked not only with assisting the duke but also with handling the duties of the duchess, who managed the household. If her partner in assisting the duke was Leti, her partner for the duchess’s affairs was the butler, Calvin. Taking over and reviewing the duchess’s duties that Calvin had been handling until now, Lauren couldn’t help but frown.
The restricted zone Leti had shown her made up more than half of the ducal estate. Yet, no matter how large the restricted area was, the estate remained a grand mansion. Properly managing a castle of this size would require at least twice the current number of servants. Naturally, Lauren pointed this out. But Calvin merely offered a bitter, tight-lipped smile with a furrowed brow, uttering not a single word in response—even though he knew better than anyone that a shortage of hands would only place a heavier burden on those currently working.
In the end, Lauren ended up asking Aster if they might hire more staff. Though Aster had told her to do everything according to her own wishes, he shook his head at that request and stated he could not allow it. Once again, she couldn’t ask for the reason. She feared encountering that cold reaction again—the one he had shown when she asked about the documents and he deemed them “classified.” And so, Lauren kept her mouth shut. The side profile of his face, which she stole a quick glance at, was tightly set in a frown.
Lauren could not bring up the subject any further. Well, she was far too busy with an overwhelming amount of work to dwell on such matters anyway. The task of reviewing the contents of the mountain of document boxes was long and tedious.
Though Leti was clumsy at polishing reports to make them presentable, the content he drafted was detailed. A little guidance on the side regarding the tricks of the trade would improve his work in no time.
When she shared this with him, Leti showed great enthusiasm. Speaking of his desire to do his utmost as an aide despite his military background, his blue eyes sparkled. Aster raised one corner of his mouth into a faint chuckle and nodded his approval. Starting the next day, Lauren began instructing Leti on how to format documents for easier reading. He proved to be quite a diligent student, bringing Lauren a sense of newfound enjoyment in teaching him.
As she sat across the desk explaining various things to Leti, she would occasionally feel a gaze upon her.
Looking up, her eyes would meet Aster’s, who sat on the sofa with his legs propped up, reading something. His expressionless face was cold, but soon after, Aster would raise one corner of his mouth into a faint smile. If anyone else had pulled such a face, she would have felt angered thinking they were mocking her; strangely, however,
Aster’s crooked smile gave off no such impression.
She didn’t know the reason why—perhaps it was because his bright, childhood smile with crinkled eyes overlapped with his current face. Every time she saw that look on him, Lauren had to actively try to shake off the sudden influx of bittersweet memories.
It was right around the time she was growing accustomed to such daily routines that the garments tailored last time arrived from Jasmine Aloria’s dress shop. She had certainly only ordered clothes, yet her room was now overflowing with boxes filled with hats, shoes, and accessories. The sheer quantity was overwhelming just to look at.
Watching Anna and Lize, who looked even more excited than she was, Lauren sat at the table and sipped her tea. The hands of the two maids were busy opening boxes, inspecting the clothes, and organizing them in the dressing room. Every time a box was opened, exclamations of delight and clear laughter echoed around the room.
“Are you not pleased, My Lady? You haven’t even tried on your new clothes…”
Anna asked softly as she observed Lauren quietly sipping her tea, seemingly puzzled by her calm smile. Lauren set her teacup down.
“I am not particularly fond of clothes. Still, seeing you two smiling makes me feel happy just watching.”
Dropping formal language with the two over the past few days was also a significant change. Though she came from a noble house, Lauren was merely from a low-ranking baronial family little different from commoners. Perhaps because of that, speaking casually to others hadn’t felt natural to her, but Anna and Lize had gasped in protest, saying, ‘It makes no sense for the mistress to speak formally to the servants!’ Though it was half-forced by the two of them, she had become much more comfortable before she knew it.
‘At first, I struggled quite a bit trying to force the habit, mixing up formal and informal speech.’ Lauren let out a quiet laugh as she recalled that time.
“I prefer cookies or cakes like these over clothes. Is that a bit strange of me?”
Popping a small cookie into her mouth, Lauren narrowed her eyes and smiled. They say sweet flavors are easily addictive, and that couldn’t be truer. Surely, this must be the taste of happiness—it felt almost intoxicating.
Back at the barony, she couldn’t eat treats like these very often. Since it was a rural estate, wheat and milk were easy to obtain, but sugar and chocolate were excessively expensive, so it couldn’t be helped. Her father’s salary from his work at the Imperial Palace was quite high, but most of it was spent on the livelihood of the estate’s people. While almost no one defaulted on their taxes, the estate’s tax rate had never been high to begin with. Even then, it was consumed for the welfare of the locals—for that was her father’s core conviction.
Her daily life hadn’t changed drastically between her time at the baron’s manor and now. Reading and organizing documents was essentially the same task, even if the content differed slightly. Instead of receiving her father’s approval, she now received the duke’s signature. At most, the biggest changes she could point to were having more people to attend to her and being able to eat as many sweets as she wanted.
” The head chef mentioned he was so delighted because My Lady eats everything so appreciatively,” Lize said, looking at Lauren with an involuntary smile after finishing her comparison of the Aloria dress shop’s stamped delivery invoice with the types and quantities of accessories.
“He’s even excitedly baking treats he hasn’t made in over ten years!”
Anne’s voice, laced with laughter, carried over from inside the dressing room. However, in the very next instant, the laughter came to an abrupt halt.
‘Ah, come to think of it.’
Lauren internally clicked her tongue. They had said Aster inherited the duchy a little over ten years ago. And he, too, like Lauren, had lost both his parents at once in a sudden accident. It was just that Lauren hadn’t realized it until now; Aster carried the same pain she did—and he had been much younger than her when it happened.
Every single servant she had verified while managing the ducal household was someone who had worked there since ten years ago. Those ten years during which the head chef hadn’t baked sweets must have been a painful era for them as well.
“Because Aster dislikes sweet things?”
That was likely why Lize and Anne had suddenly fallen silent. Lauren deliberately redirected the conversation in a nonchalant tone. Lize, who had lowered her head to avoid her gaze, looked up. Her brown eyes were trembling. Lauren offered her a small, bittersweet smile.
“…Yes, that’s right.”
After a long pause, Lize finally spoke, a smile matching Lauren’s resting on her lips.
“The dress shop sent everything without missing a single item. I will organize these inside the dressing room.”
Lize rose from her seat, picking up the accessory box. As they organized them one by one, the boxes that had once filled the room had vanished before long. Watching the hem of the servant’s uniform skirt disappear into the dressing room, Lauren let out a soft sigh and sank into the armchair.
Through the open door, she could hear Lize scolding Anne for bringing up unnecessary things. It wasn’t Anne’s fault. Feeling a sudden wave of fatigue, Lauren rubbed her eyes gently.
At the edge of her vision, which distorted and then settled back into focus, a bright red box sitting all by itself in the corner of the table caught her eye.
‘Did Lize leave it behind?’
However, unlike the items Lize had been verifying with her just a moment ago, this red box did not bear the crest of the Aloria dress shop. Had a personal item accidentally gotten mixed in? But if so, shouldn’t it be returned to the Aloria shop rather than left like this? Accessories were crafted using expensive gems. She didn’t know the exact details, but whoever lost this owner was likely quite anxious right now.
Perhaps the owner’s family crest was stamped inside the box. She could use that as a clue to find its rightful owner. Lauren reached out and pulled the box toward herself. The red velvet wrapping the box reflected a smooth sheen. Feeling somewhat guilty, as though she were meddling with someone else’s property, she took a deep breath. I don’t covet this. I just want to return it to its owner, Lauren muttered inwardly.
Unlocking the clasp and opening the lid, Lauren froze at the sight of what lay inside. Her lavender-colored eyes slowly scanned the contents.
A delicate ruby bracelet adorned with a teardrop-shaped deep garnet. A pair of earrings crafted by weaving pearls and pale amethyst together. A necklace engraved with her name, decorated with a gemstone gifted by her dearly beloved grandmother. Jewels she had received from her parents on her birthdays or memorable occasions… Inside the red box lay items more familiar to her than anything else in the world.
Lauren covered her trembling mouth with her hands. How on earth had he found these? The things she had been forced to sell just to survive were once again sparkling right before her eyes.
This box had been mixed in among the goods delivered by the Aloria dress shop. No matter how prominent a dress shop owner Jasmine Aloria was, she would have no reason to track down such personal items and hand them over on her own authority. Thus, this must have been done under Aster’s instructions.
The end of the long breath she exhaled quavered. Carefully closing the lid of the red box, Lauren slowly leaned forward and rested her forehead against it. The soft velvet tickled her brow. Her treasures, which she thought were lost forever, had returned to her. Feeling tears welling up, Lauren squeezed her eyes shut.
It seemed she ought to go and thank Aster.
