Chapter 75
As if she had not been informed of such details in advance, the physician looked at the Grand Duke with a flustered expression.
“Is there a problem?”
“Ah… th-that is… the examination won’t take long, so if you could just give me a very short moment of your time….”
“No. I would like the examination to be done there.”
In truth, this was my stubbornness. Even if we went to the temple, I knew the physician wouldn’t tell the truth. After all, he must be a physician bribed by the Grand Duchess.
But I wanted to make the Grand Duchess anxious.
“Why? Is that a problem?”
“N-no, it isn’t….”
“Then make the preparations. I will prepare as well, so wait a moment.”
With those words, the Grand Duke stepped outside. The physician, who wished for the examination to be done here, conveyed his intentions through Riren the moment the Grand Duke left—but there was no way it would get through.
Until the Grand Duke returned, I sat on the sofa and quietly waited, watching.
When thirty minutes passed, and then nearly an hour—
“It seems His Grace the Grand Duke has many things to wrap up.”
“I’m fine, Rex.”
Perhaps worried about me, Rex spoke on the Grand Duke’s behalf with an awkward expression. I had expected it would take a long time anyway. If we were to go out, the soldiers would need to prepare, and the carriage as well.
“Do we not need to inform the temple in advance?”
“No. They said you may come at any time, whether at dawn or at night. The High Priestess said so. So it is fine to go without notice.”
I nodded as I looked at her smiling face.
‘Thanks to the Grand Duke being late, the news must have spread throughout the Grand Duke’s estate by now.’
In the end, even after another thirty minutes passed, the Grand Duke did not return. Just as I began to worry that perhaps something had happened—
Suddenly, the door opened, and a visitor other than the Grand Duke stepped into the room.
As expected, my prediction was exactly right. The Grand Duchess, who had been busy manipulating people from behind the scenes without revealing herself, had finally shown herself.
She boldly came to our room and, without the slightest hesitation, opened the door and entered, looking down at me.
“Aisha.”
“Grand Duchess Mama. You’ve come?”
I, who had been sitting on the sofa waiting for the Grand Duke, stood up and smiled brightly.
I quickly stood up because I thought I might get scolded if I didn’t even rise here, but she didn’t seem to care about that at all.
She seemed too busy speaking as if she had come to criticize me.
“…I told you to come, yet you didn’t, and then you asked me to call a physician for you, so I kindly summoned one—and what is the meaning of this?”
With a face full of anger, she glared at me as if she could devour me whole.
“I explained to the maids why I didn’t go even though you called for me. Did they not pass the message along? Not even relaying something like that… how cruel.”
I looked at the Grand Duchess with a sullen expression. So innocently, as if I truly had not a single ill intention. That seemed to make her even angrier.
‘I’ve been waiting for this day for so long.’
I felt like laughing. In the novel, the Grand Duchess was always like calm water. When she clashed with the Grand Duke, her true personality would show, but otherwise she never easily revealed herself or spoke out about anything. That meant she had leisure—and that everything went according to her will.
But because of the variable called me, her true personality was being laid bare.
Her impatience and irritability at the thought that things might not go her way. When people grow impatient, they are bound to make mistakes—and I had worked tirelessly for this.
“Are you talking back to me?”
“Talking back? Not at all. I’m just stating what happened to me. Please believe me.”
“Ha… honestly…!”
“But Grand Duchess Mama, did you suddenly come because of the physician? If you were angry because I didn’t answer your call, you would have come then… but since you came now, it seems like it’s because of the physician!”
Her brows furrowed. The benevolent Grand Duchess’s face twisting was quite a sight.
“Is there perhaps a reason the physician must not be taken to the temple?”
“What?”
“I suggested we go together because I thought it wouldn’t matter where the examination took place, but seeing you rush over like this… I wondered if there was a reason it absolutely had to be done here.”
“There is no such thing.”
“Then why are you so angry? You’re always so kind.”
Her original personality kept slipping out as she silently glared at me.
“…Do I need to always be kind? And you agreed to listen well to my words, yet you don’t. Why should I?”
“That’s true. Why is that? Why are you thinking such a thing, Grand Duchess Mama? I never agreed to listen well… did you perhaps misunderstand what I said?”
“What? Clearly, last time…!”
Her lips trembled in disbelief, then she let out a hollow laugh as if she had just remembered what we had said before.
“I truly dislike you. This is why those of low birth should never be brought in…! Talking back at every turn.”
“I’m sorry. I was only speaking, but if it felt like talking back, I’ll be careful!”
At the clearly worsening atmosphere, Rex tried to speak. But I shook my head at him.
I simply waited for her to say the next thing.
And as I quietly looked at her, the Grand Duchess burst out in anger again, like someone with more than one reason to be furious because of me.
“Fine, perhaps it would be better if you simply did not answer at all. Do you understand?”
“Yes!”
“And. You changed the room as you pleased.”
“Yes!”
“Yes? I clearly told you not to talk back.”
“That was just an answer.”
She must truly have been cornered, to want to nitpick a child like this. So I smiled brightly.
“Was I… not allowed to?”
“Of course not!”
As things did not go her way, the Grand Duchess seemed quite flustered. That was why she even mentioned the dolls disappearing from the room.
If it were me, I wouldn’t be this angry. It’s not as though she could put the dolls back now anyway, and the fact that I removed them all meant I suspected something.
‘Well. My mind isn’t that of a child, so I can think like this. The Grand Duchess is a bit different.’
Someone for whom nothing had ever failed to go her way. So she despised situations like this. That’s why she kept speaking recklessly, not realizing how disadvantageous this was for her.
“Why not?”
“Because I arranged it. I specially prepared that place for Lari. Of course you shouldn’t touch it!”
“Ah, I see.”
I nodded as if I had gained a great realization.
“What kind of reaction is that?”
“It means the room was prepared by you, Grand Duchess Mama?”
“Yes.”
“So it was absolutely not to be touched.”
“Why do you keep asking like that?”
Only now seeming to sense something strange, her expression hardened.
“I wondered if Lari’s inability to wake up was because of those things. So I cleared them all away.”
I had no intention of hiding it, so I spoke plainly—and her complexion paled somewhat.
“Are you saying what was in that room was the problem?”
“Yes! But if you were the one who prepared that room, Grand Duchess Mama… then does that mean I should suspect you?”
It was then.
Someone quietly stepped inside. The Grand Duchess, who had been making a scene, did not notice, and her maids who were about to speak to her were restrained by the person who entered.
“You truly…!”
“It seems the Grand Duchess is quite obsessed with the room, enough for Aisha to find it strange.”
“Ah…!”
At the voice that came belatedly, she hurriedly turned her head.
“You….”
“The Grand Duchess, who normally does not concern herself with such trivial matters, making such a fuss because a child’s room was tidied. Truly suspicious.”
At the sudden voice, the Grand Duchess’s face turned deathly pale.
“Suspicious… I was merely speaking. Because what I had done was ruined.”
“The fact that you call it something you ‘had done’ makes it even more suspicious. If it were simply done out of love for the child, even if it were a little ruined, it wouldn’t be something to get this angry over, would it? Is there truly something?”
“There’s nothing!”
Afraid of arousing suspicion, she hurriedly denied it.
“If that’s the case, then that’s a relief. More importantly, Grand Duchess. Why are you here?”
After the Grand Duke’s appearance, the Grand Duchess, who had tried to compose herself, forced her expression stiff.
“Ah. I was just talking with the child. Is that not allowed?”
“It’s not that it isn’t allowed. But since you came looking so angry, does it not seem strange?”
“I’m not angry.”
“If you are not the sort of adult who vents their emotions on a young child, then that is fortunate.”
They seemed like a married couple without even a shred of loving emotion between them.
The Grand Duchess, seemingly having no intention of speaking about me any further, looked at the Grand Duke.
“Well, this works out nicely.”
“What do you mean?”
“I have something to say to you.”
“Something to say? Ah, but I must go out.”
But the Grand Duke neatly ignored those words.
“Are you avoiding me again? Why on earth have you been gradually avoiding me lately?”
“Avoiding you? I’m not sure.”
Watching the two, who seemed quite serious, I stood still as if I did not exist.
“Ha…? I sent word to you several times.”
“If you have something to say, you could come. We live in the same house—why send messages so often? Especially to someone already overwhelmed with work because of the things you’ve done.”
“The things I’ve done?”
“Yes. The matters I entrusted entirely to you. They were all a mess. I was too busy dealing with them to have time to meet you. And if you have something to say, you can come like this. I don’t know why you always insist that others come to you.”
