Chapter 33
The treasure that only I knew about now. After realizing that, I lost interest in touring the mansion, so I turned back to go to the reception room. At that moment, a scene outside the window caught my eye.
‘That is…….’
I saw two people standing together like a beautiful painting, but I thought there was no reason to secretly watch them, so I tried to walk away. But my eyes kept turning toward the window without me realizing it.
It was a quiet backyard where a lost rabbit would sometimes sit for a moment. In front of the garden bench, a place that servants rarely passed by, two people were standing.
Even from far away, I could tell their expressions were serious. Especially Yelena’s face looked like the world was collapsing as she saw Ricardo standing with his back toward her.
For a moment, her thoughts stopped as she tried to interpret what Ricardo’s words meant.
“W-what do you mean? What did I do?”
Ricardo’s words just now were short, but they could be interpreted in many ways. As if trying to make his meaning clear again, he turned to look at Yelena.
“Don’t ever do something like that again. If you don’t want you or your father to get hurt. I will let it go this time, but if you try to frame Stella and drag her into something like this again, I won’t ignore it next time.”
His voice was low and emotionless, but that made the pressure on the other person stronger.
Ricardo was not usually a warm or friendly person, but Yelena was very confused because she had never seen him so cold toward her.
“Why are you… deciding that I’m the criminal? I was the one who got hurt. Did that woman go and slander me in front of the duke?”
Tears suddenly poured from Yelena’s eyes. They were tears of injustice, but with a slightly different meaning. It was not because she was falsely accused, but because of the sorrow of betrayal by the person she had believed belonged to her.
“Have you already forgotten that I was the only one by your side when you were suffering? Is this the price? Calling me a bad person and humiliating me like this… ha….”
Biting her lower lip to hold back her tears, she looked up at him. Ricardo looked down at her and spoke dryly.
“I am giving you advice because I think the young lady is walking down a dangerous path. And—”
He took something from inside his sleeve and placed it in Yelena’s hand. Seeing the new, shining gold coin from the Patch Bank, her blurred eyes couldn’t hide her shock.
“This is!”
“It’s the gold coin that man used before he died. He stayed at an inn for several days while running away.”
Yelena instinctively clenched the gold coin in her hand as if trying to hide the evidence.
“Gold coin issued by Patch Bank. Do you need more explanation?”
“….”
Her lips stiffened.
Recent events came to her mind.
Before meeting the man she had hired at the square, she visited the bank that Guineiro family had long traded with. The bank manager personally came out, asked about her father the marquis, and gave her a large number of gold coins.
The gold coin Ricardo took out shone cruelly, like it was accusing her of her dirty deed.
She knew that any more excuses would only make her look pathetic. If he was that thorough, he must have other evidence to silence her as well.
As Ricardo turned away silently, showing that he had nothing more to say, Yelena abandoned her pride and hugged his back.
“I-I’m sorry. I was stupid… I knew that woman was someone sent by the empress…! And I know how much you hate the empress…! So I hated that woman too… I did something foolish.”
Trying to appeal using his hatred toward the empress only backfired.
Ricardo removed Yelena’s arms from around his waist indifferently and looked back at her.
“I never asked you to take revenge for me. I never begged you to pity me.”
Leaving those words behind, he left the place alone.
Yelena, who was left behind, felt as if everything she had was denied and abandoned. The belief that she had been the only one beside him until now was just her own comfort, meaningless to him.
After hearing that cruel truth from his own mouth, she lost the meaning and motivation of life.
Why did his attitude suddenly change? Was she just an annoying existence he no longer needed? Was this what falling into despair felt like?
Yelena’s emptiness and betrayal mixed together, forming a sharp knife.
And that knife was pointed not at Ricardo, but at someone else.
The woman who had taken away her most precious thing. The cause of all this situation.
Yelena kept looking at Ricardo’s back as he walked away. She blinked, forcing back the burning tears that almost fell.
As the sun began to set, the inside of the carriage returning to the mansion was dyed warm orange.
The scene I saw outside the corridor window earlier kept coming back in my mind. I couldn’t know the whole story from just that one scene, but somehow my mood sank to the bottom.
The private time of the two people in the hidden backyard. Yelena running from behind and hugging Ricardo so desperately.
I don’t know what happened after that. I hurriedly left because I felt ridiculous secretly watching them.
Maybe it was a pitying lover’s scene that couldn’t be realized because of me, so I tried to erase it from my mind, but I don’t know why I kept thinking about it.
‘What did they talk about? Did she ask him to wait a little longer until I disappear? Or did she go to check whether his injured place was okay?’
My imagination alone made me feel sulky. I knew I was an obstacle between the two of them. It felt like that fact was being confirmed in front of me.
With a frustrated sigh, I suddenly looked at my hand. I stared at my white hand and clenched it tightly.
The warmth and touch from when Ricardo held it earlier still seemed to remain, making the tips of my fingers feel strangely numb.
‘Tsk. I wondered why that cold-blooded man suddenly became kind. So he did it on purpose just for someone to see.’
When I remembered Yelena looking sadly at Ricardo helping me get off the carriage, I finally understood Ricardo’s behavior.
So he suddenly changed because he was using me even that moment.
His gentle behavior that made my heart flutter for a moment felt ridiculous and empty.
“Arrived.”
While I was lost in thought, the carriage had already arrived at the mansion.
I gathered my heavy feelings and got off the carriage, but something unexpected happened.
Ricardo was once again waiting for me with his hand extended.
Honestly, I was more surprised than when I got off at the marquis’s house earlier. Yelena wasn’t here now, so why?
“It’s fine. Thank you.”
I hid my confused feelings and got off the carriage alone instead of taking his hand.
While walking toward the mansion entrance, I turned my head and saw Ricardo standing in front of the carriage and walking toward his horse.
Afraid of making eye contact with him, I turned my head away and walked inside faster. I really didn’t understand why he kept confusing me.
Nothing special happened, but I felt emotionally drained, so I fell onto the sofa as soon as I returned to my room.
While massaging my swollen feet from wearing shoes that matched the dress, something caught my eye. It was a notebook with a shiny red leather cover.
‘Come to think of it, I kept looking for this and left it here.’
I had put it under the sofa table when Yan gave it to me recently and couldn’t remember where I put it.
I stopped massaging my legs, sat up properly, and opened the ledger.
Because of what I saw and heard at the marquis’s house earlier, every single part of the ledger caught my curiosity more than ever.
“Let’s take a look.”
I slowly scanned the ledger and quickly flipped to other pages, wondering if there was something special.
Noble ladies, and even family heads, usually get headaches just looking at accounting books and leave them to managers, so I expected complex numbers and formulas.
But the ledger I saw was at a level where you could understand income and expenses just by knowing letters and numbers.
It was so simple that it was almost disappointing.
Income came from the territory designated for the duke’s household, the monthly amount allocated by the steward Gerry to manage the duchy, and special bonuses from the imperial family on national commemorative days.
Looking at the income and expenses, fortunately, there was no need to save money due to lack of funds, and the amount available for the duchess to spend was quite comfortable.
Seeing a newly added item, it seemed to be allocated after the marriage ceremony for the dignity maintenance of the duchess.
Just by looking at the numbers, I could tell.
Gerry had distributed enough money to protect the duchess’s dignity and had taken care of me.
But that was one thing, and what I wanted to know were the matters that the duchess would normally not pay much attention to.
