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Chapter 11
“I order a pay cut for all servants, and I will set things right.”
Agnes immediately changed her tune.
The servants of the Reynolds Duchy were people with immense pride and fierce loyalty toward serving the Duchy.
This was more than enough to make them understand the gravity of the situation.
“Those who fail to properly carry out their master’s commands are of no use.”
Cedric shook his head at Agnes’s troubled expression.
A single minor action could become the seed of chaos. The Imperial Family was always on the prowl for an opportunity to strike down the Duchy.
Cedric had no intention of letting this issue slide.
“Howard. Conduct a thorough investigation into what happened to the Princess.”
“Understood.”
Howard gestured for Agnes to stay quiet.
He couldn’t afford to let her get dragged down as well by stray sparks flying her way.
Cedric was not a master difficult to serve.
However, he was not lenient either. He was not a master who tolerated mistakes for long.
No. Since he hadn’t even been aware of the mistakes, it was practically equivalent to missing the opportunity to set things right.
“I will clear out everyone involved.”
Reading the room, Agnes also realized that this matter had slipped out of her control. In situations like this, bowing her head unconditionally was the only answer.
“Just because the Princess became the mistress of the Duchy does not mean the fact that she is of imperial blood disappears.”
Cedric’s calm voice echoed through the office.
Though he had told her to live quietly in the Duchy, that didn’t mean she was meant to be ignored.
“Furthermore, just because she lives quietly within the family does not mean the Duchess’s authority vanishes.”
Those of imperial blood held authority simply by virtue of their existence.
Although the Princess had been mocked for failing to receive divine power, she still retained the elegance and nobility unique to the Imperial Family.
“There will be no letters of recommendation for those dismissed this time. That is the price for taking commands lightly.”
“Yes.”
Agnes realized her own miscalculation.
She had assumed it was merely a contract, but the Duke was paying much closer attention to the Princess’s treatment than she expected.
Thinking she only needed to maintain basic courtesy was her grave misjudgment.
“I will newly recruit those responsible for the Princess’s overall daily life.”
Having concluded the conversation and returned to her private office, Agnes immediately summoned the maids and began interrogating them about what had transpired in the interim.
The maids hadn’t even bothered to convey the fact that the knight assigned as an escort was delayed in returning due to another mission.
In the end, over a hundred servants were dismissed from the Reynolds Duchy within a few days.
A vast majority of them included kitchen staff and personal maids.
That incident heightened anxiety among the remaining servants.
The realization that the Duke had not completely cut off his interest in the Duchess caused the servants to start treading lightly once more.
“Mocking royalty—this isn’t something that can be resolved with a simple dismissal.”
Cedric clicked his tongue at the report Howard brought him. For over a month, not only meals but basic attendance had been withheld.
Fearing that the sparks might fly toward them as well, the remaining servants honestly confessed what the dismissed staff had done.
Cedric re-verified the Princess’s diet, which had consisted of nothing more than thin soup at every meal, and clicked his tongue again.
“Howard, is the Reynolds Duchy poor?”
At their master’s heavy question, Agnes and Howard bowed their heads.
Though they had warned the servants to keep things reasonable, they had never imagined accidents would reach this scale.
“No, Your Grace.”
“For the mistress to starve in a place where even the servants eat their fill.”
At the Duke’s icy voice, the two could not lift their heads.
“You two will also have your wages cut for half a year.”
“Thank you for your merciful judgment.”
Howard bowed deeply at the waist. Agnes, too, clenched her fists tight.
She had thought a simple warning would suffice, only to find out they had committed actions far beyond their station.
Her own miscalculation stung bitterly.
She couldn’t even guess why the Princess hadn’t reported this fact directly to the Duke right away.
“I will go to Her Highness, confess my sins, and beg for her forgiveness.”
“See to it.”
With this, the two of them would treat the Princess with proper vigilance.
Cedric figured he had resolved everything within his power to fix.
* * *
“I’m truly receiving absolute loathing.”
Walking in the garden, Ivanna let out a soft sigh.
Such sharp hostility and ostracism were things she hadn’t experienced in a long time.
Somehow finding out about it, the Duke had dismissed a massive number of servants after learning of her plight.
Though the dismissed servants felt hard done by, dismissal was far better than being put to death for the crime of insulting royalty.
So she had thought the issue would end right there, but among the remaining staff, fear of the Duchess mixed with resentment over losing their fellow workers took root.
They blamed a useless, nominal duchess for causing innocent people to suffer.
Is cursing me out openly like in the Imperial Castle actually better?
Right now, no one even looked at her. Yet she could clearly read the malice directed at her.
Complete avoidance.
It was what she had desired, but not in this fashion.
“Should I really just tell them I’m leaving the mansion?”
In reality, she was practically living outside already.
Though her meals had returned to normal as before, an indescribable perfunctoriness clung to them.
It wasn’t just her; Sola and Anthony felt similarly.
Ever since then, Ivanna had been spending her days living at the trading guild on the pretext of going out.
If she moved out entirely, rumors might start flying, so she occasionally dropped by the mansion like this to stroll through the garden or hole up in the library.
Visiting the Reynolds Duchy after a few days, it felt suffocatingly stifling and cold.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Eek!”
Lost in thought, Ivanna’s body swayed in surprise at the sudden question.
“Be careful.”
A firm hand caught her swaying body. Ivanna quickly pulled herself together at the warm, heat-radiating touch supporting her.
“Are you alright?”
“Y-Yes.”
Ivanna nodded with a bewildered expression at Cedric appearing right before her eyes.
Why is this man here?
It was her first time running into the Duke while taking a walk.
“What was that about leaving the mansion?”
Waiting for Ivanna to calm down, Cedric asked in an interrogating tone.
“No!”
At his question, Ivanna shook her head rapidly.
If she said she was going out to live elsewhere, she had no idea what a man obsessed with contracts might do.
“I just meant the city center is so entertaining that I wanted to go out often!”
The words I want to live outside rose all the way to the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t force them out.
After all, a duchess living quietly according to contract wouldn’t say she wanted to live outside.
“The person marked down as your escort is still away on another mission, so please bear with it just a little longer. They will return soon.”
Seeing the Princess’s nervous reaction to reading his face, Cedric softened his attitude slightly.
He was certain the Princess had no intention of breaking the contract.
After all, even when her treatment was wretched, she hadn’t said a single word of complaint to him.
He already knew through the shadows’ reports that she frequently slipped out.
She might think she had no escort, but the Duke’s shadows were guarding her.
According to the shadows’ reports, she visited the exact same trading guild every single time—which happened to be one of the guilds linked to the smuggling report he received previously.
Almost every day, and on some days, she didn’t even return to the mansion at all.
Cedric couldn’t bring himself to say a single harsh word about the Princess’s truancy. Even to someone who valued principles above all else, he still possessed a shred of conscience.
“Did you simply develop an interest?”
“Yes. It’s my first time outside the Imperial Castle, after all.”
Reading Cedric’s expression with a jittery look, Ivanna felt a wave of relief.
As expected, there was no way this man could know she had been living outside this whole time.
Bound by contract, the Duke—who had become her one and only family—was also indifferent to her.
Ivanna no longer had any desire to continue living such a life.
Accepting the marriage with the Duke had been the first stepping stone to creating change. Her first leap toward escaping the Imperial Family and reality.
Anticipating that the Duke wouldn’t care, just like now, she had been building a path to run away.
Since she couldn’t return to the Imperial Family, she couldn’t cut ties entirely, but she wanted them to live as if the other didn’t exist, exactly as the transaction dictated.
Therefore, she could do nothing that would give the Duke a handle on her. She had to stay quietly hidden so he wouldn’t pay attention to her affairs, just like now.
“Is there any place you particularly fancy?”
Her breath hitched momentarily at the abrupt question.
Could it be… he’s already planted people and is probing me?
Pricked by a sudden wave of suspicion, her heart tightened.
Now that she thought about it, he was the one who had designated her escort yet kept delaying the official appointment because of his mission.
Considering the contract, that reaction was rather strange.
There was no way a man who constantly harped on about contracts wouldn’t consider the safety of royalty.
To think she had taken that so casually until now!
Licking her dry lips, Ivanna broke out in a cold sweat over her belatedly realized blunder.
