Chapter 6

As if he could read Pesha’s disbelief, the butler apologized.

“I’m sorry. Since the territory is rather small and poor, it’s difficult to find enough workers for the construction…”

At that moment, Owen’s eyebrow twitched.

Pesha had not known Owen for very long, but she could tell what part of the butler’s words had bothered him.

‘Blaming the poverty of the territory in front of its lord is practically the same as humiliating him.’

It was clearly disrespectful, but Owen did not make an issue of it.

“I see.”

Perhaps he did not want the embarrassing matter to be discussed any further in front of his new bride. If anything, he seemed eager to put the subject to rest.

“Take care of it yourself.”

“Yes. I’ll urge them to finish it as quickly as possible. But, until then, I’m afraid it may be difficult for the two of you to share a bedroom. Would that be all right?”

“Wait…”

Pesha was about to interrupt because she did not feel comfortable simply letting things go like this.

But Owen spoke first.

“Yes. It can’t be helped if it’s only until the room is finished.”

Pesha’s eyes widened at his answer.

Seeing this, Owen asked with his usual impassive expression,

“Or does my wife want us to share another room instead?”

“Th-that’s not it!”

If she agreed to that, wouldn’t it sound as though she was the one who desperately wanted to sleep with him?

Even after hearing Pesha’s firm refusal, Owen calmly ordered the butler,

“Good. Albert, proceed as planned.”

“Yes, my lord.”

After saying that, Owen simply walked straight into the mansion.

‘Is he kidding me?’

Pesha stared at his back as he disappeared inside, completely dumbfounded.

‘It’s ridiculous enough that newlyweds can’t share a room because of some problem with the mansion. But he wants us to wait for a construction project that has already been going on for a whole year?’

Of course, it wasn’t as though she wanted to share a bed with that frightening man.

But what about appearances?

That man had clearly been embarrassed when the butler mentioned how poor the territory was, yet he did not seem to realize that sleeping in separate rooms would become gossip among the servants and, eventually, throughout high society.

‘When on earth is this construction supposed to be finished?’

There were so many things she wanted to ask.

But if she asked, she had a feeling he would say something like he had just done:

‘Are you asking because you want to sleep with me?’

‘No! I don’t! But this is still ridiculous!’

While Pesha stood there blankly, a maid approached her.

“My lady, may I show you to your room now?”

“Oh, yes… But what’s your name?”

“My name is Philia. Please feel free to call me that.”

The maid’s attitude was more polite than Pesha had expected.

Still confused about how everything worked around here, Pesha followed Philia.

As soon as they entered the castle, the first thing Pesha saw was the great hall. Its architectural style looked old-fashioned, as though it had been built about a hundred years ago.

‘I suppose that’s understandable. Swap is in the far eastern frontier, so I can’t expect it to have the same conditions as the capital.’

But as they passed through the great hall and went farther into the mansion, more and more question marks appeared in Pesha’s mind.

‘Is this really a count’s castle? No, wait… Do the servants even maintain this place?’

The wooden parts of the mansion had rotted so badly that some of the structures looked as though they might collapse at any moment. Cold wind blew through the gaps between the stones in the walls, making Pesha hunch her shoulders even though the weather itself was not particularly cold.

Looking at the shocking state of the mansion, Pesha could not help but blame the emperor.

‘I know the castle was supposed to be in bad condition in the original story, but this is way too much!’

The maids from the Rydell ducal household following behind Pesha did not say anything, but it was obvious that they were also quite shocked.

Meanwhile, Philia, who was walking at the front to guide them, began giving Pesha a brief explanation about herself and the castle.

After quietly listening for a while, Pesha asked,

“Philia.”

“Yes, my lady?”

“Were you assigned to be my personal maid?”

Philia stared blankly at Pesha for a moment before shaking her head.

“No. I’m the head maid.”

“The head maid?”

This young girl was the head maid?

Noticing Pesha’s surprise, Philia smiled as though she was used to hearing that reaction.

“Ah, you must be surprised. I was chosen as head maid because I have the most experience in this mansion. I originally worked for a marquis family in the south for five years.”

“Five years?”

“Yes.”

Even Mini, the least experienced maid standing behind Pesha, had already been working as a maid for four years.

And here, someone with only five years of experience as a maid was the head maid?

“……I see.”

Pesha had a terrible feeling that there was a lot of work to be done here.

After walking for a while, they reached the countess’s room.

The bedroom was not far from there.

Philia showed Pesha the room she would mainly be using and then opened the bedroom door as well.

‘At least this place is a little better…’

It was old, but it had been cleaned beforehand, so it was neat and tidy.

Just as Pesha’s expression began to brighten, Philia spoke.

“We currently don’t have enough staff to assign you a personal maid. We’ll hire someone and assign one to you later.”

“Oh, all right.”

“But you already have three existing maids, so I don’t think you’ll have any major trouble managing your daily life.”

“Hmm… Okay.”

‘Just how understaffed are they if they don’t even have a maid to assign to the lord’s wife?’

At this point, Pesha was hardly surprised anymore.

“Then I’ll leave you to rest. Please have a comfortable evening.”

Philia bowed deeply before closing the door and leaving.

For a moment, the room was silent.

Then the maids began whispering among themselves.

“My lady, I think there’s something strange about this place.”

“Did you hear? Someone with only five years of experience is the head maid.”

“And I noticed something on the way here. There were still spiderwebs all over the stair landing!”

Pesha calmed the maids down as they each complained about the things that had shocked them.

“There are definitely some surprising things here, but people live here too. Let’s not go overboard.”

“But…”

“Girls, there are ears everywhere here. If you whisper too much, what you say might get twisted and spread around. And don’t forget that this is the castle His Majesty granted to Count Namoi.”

“Yes… my lady.”

The maids quickly realized that their behavior could damage Pesha’s reputation as their mistress and immediately became more careful.

Pesha smiled at them and patted their shoulders.

“Anyway, you’ve all worked hard today. It’s late, so let’s rest. Just help me get ready for bed, and then you should go rest too.”

“We will, my lady.”

After the maids helped her prepare for bed, Pesha lay down and began thinking about what she should do from now on.

‘First of all, I need to connect Owen and Io somehow. If I hesitate and actually become an obstacle between them, my life could end up in danger just like it did in the original story.’

Perhaps Io would understand the situation of this territory, feel sorry for them, and decide to help.

Pesha only needed to take advantage of that opportunity to create chances for the two of them to spend time together.

She believed that even without much effort, once the two protagonists met, they would eventually fall in love just as they had in the original story.

“Then I’ll find the right opportunity and carefully bring up the subject of divorce.”

After all, this had been an unwanted marriage for him too. Once the territory’s situation and his political position improved, she thought divorce might not be completely impossible if she persuaded him properly.

“Yes. For now, I’ll just sleep.”

Pesha pulled the blanket over herself and spent her first night as a newlywed alone.

She had always slept alone, so it should not have felt particularly strange.

Yet perhaps because she was in an unfamiliar bed, the large bed somehow felt strangely empty.