Chapter 011: He Has His Reasons Too
‘Since I’ve gone this far, things should improve at least a little.’
The face of Alexis as he left the Countess’s room was grimly distorted. In truth, he didn’t have any particular feelings for Roanne yet. He neither liked nor hated her.
However, the East Annex was a place where Aunt Eureia had to live confined like a ghost. He didn’t want the woman living vibrantly there to fall into any more hardship.
Eureia was enough as a ghost of the East Annex. To him, Eureia of the East Annex was like a terrible trauma. To think someone could live so cheerfully in such a place—as far as he was concerned, Roanne was simply amazing.
‘I should also restrain myself from coming and going from that place while drunk.’
Now, the East Annex was strictly a place where someone resided. He had never imagined that someone would stay in the East Annex after Aunt Eureia. Even if it was an arranged marriage, to think his wife was staying there. Alexis was dumbfounded.
“Young Master.”
He was about to leave the mansion when he suddenly ran into the butler. Alexis glared with sharp eyes at the butler who bowed to him.
“Butler.”
Alexis spoke.
“Yes, Young Master.”
The butler bowed his head even deeper. Unlike the eldest son Francis, who had a calm and gentle disposition, Alexis had a violent personality that was completely unpredictable. Even if his standing in the Count’s house was narrow, his position was incomparable to a mere servant. There was nothing good about getting on his bad side.
“Think carefully about how I’ll act if I hear that you don’t respect my wife from now on.”
At those words, the butler felt a chill and trembled. A wicked smile crept up the corners of Alexis’s mouth as he took a step closer to him.
“Treat her with the utmost respect. Do you understand?”
“Yes, yes! Young Master… how could I do otherwise……”
The frozen butler stammered and quickly replied while trembling. Then, Alexis, who patted him on the shoulder once or twice, raised a corner of his mouth crookedly.
“Do it well.”
Leaving behind the butler who had frozen like ice, Alexis left the mansion again.
The evening sunset had completely faded into night, and the alcohol had entirely worn off. Alexis’s gaze naturally turned toward the East Annex. Whatever the case, he didn’t want to see the person in that East Annex living miserably anymore.
* * *
After that, very small changes occurred in Roanne’s life. First, the most tangible things were the butler’s attitude and the living expenses.
“From now on, please tell me without hesitation whenever you need anything.”
What’s with this polite attitude? Roanne’s eyebrow arched. This guy, what’s he suddenly up to?
From the moment the Count’s house neglected her, the butler hadn’t been friendly to her either. But suddenly, as if he were a changed person, he was being respectful to her. No, it was to the point of being groveling.
When Roanne stared at him without a word to grasp his hidden intentions, the butler cleared his throat and fidgeted restlessly. If Roanne were to convey any bad stories about him to Alexis… and if that reckless Alexis were to find him offensive…….
‘No!’
The butler felt a cold sweat break out instantly. He knew better than anyone how unrestrained Alexis could become when he didn’t care about the consequences.
“Why are you looking at me like that? Since you are Lord Alexis’s wife, it’s only natural that I serve you faithfully.”
Look at that? The corners of Roanne’s mouth quirked. Now he’s even saying ‘faithfully’?
‘There’s definitely something going on here.’
Seeing the groveling smile on the corners of the butler’s mouth as he looked at her desperately, Roanne finally shrugged her shoulders.
‘Whatever is going on, so what. It’s a good thing if more money comes in.’
In any case, the situation wasn’t turning out unfavorably for her. She tucked away the living expenses, which had become much more generous than before.
She also demanded various food ingredients and supplies from the butler. The butler just nodded and supplied everything Roanne requested. Of course, Roanne also made her demands to the butler within a reasonable limit.
Thus, Roanne and Leah’s life became a bit more prosperous than before. They could cook with ingredients that were much fresher and of better quality than the meat and vegetables they had supplied and bought themselves in the city.
Furthermore, they obtained fairly high-quality fabrics and left them to a tailor to have several more sets of clothes made that were more comfortable and brighter than before.
Leah was moved by Roanne, who shared all those things equally with her without the slightest discrimination. When she asked why she shared these things with a maid like her, Roanne replied.
“We’re comrades-in-arms, aren’t we?”
Comrades-in-arms? Is this a battlefield? Leah didn’t fully understand Roanne’s answer, but in any case, she could clearly tell that she respected her.
In that way, Leah not only served Roanne as her mistress but also came to harbor deep friendship and affection for her.
Meanwhile, Alexis’s notoriety remained the same. Roanne could have enjoyed more privileges by going out into the city and using her status as his wife, but she never did. Roanne and Leah hid their status as mistress and maid and bought various items and stopped by tea houses like sisters.
While going around like that, they could naturally come across Alexis’s notoriety, and mostly the rumors were that the second son of the House of Count Glister was a total mess.
Rumors like how he had a scuffle with the famous Nathan brothers in the market yesterday, or how he was having a scandal with Tatiana, who was rumored to be the most beautiful of the high-class courtesans—they were all messy and debauched rumors.
“Ugh.”
Roanne, who returned to the annex of the Count’s house from the tea house, let out a deep sigh.
“He really was a bigger scoundrel than I thought.”
“It… probably isn’t all true……”
Leah, left with nothing to say, protested in a shrinking voice. However, Leah’s voice had no strength at all.
“Take a side that’s worth taking.”
When Roanne clicked her tongue, Leah puffed out her cheeks as if it were unfair.
“No. It’s not all like that……”
Roanne’s questioning eyes turned toward Leah. Leah poked the blueberry cheesecake in front of her with her fork and muttered in a voice that had lost some confidence.
“Actually, I encountered Lord Alexis a few times while I was staying and working in the main building.”
Leah also recalled Alexis’s notoriety from when she worked in the main building and had feared him. Those who didn’t know him well feared and avoided him. Especially since even his own biological mother, the Countess, shuddered at the mention of her second son, one wondered just how much of a rascal he must be to receive such treatment even from his mother.
However, the head maid’s words were a bit different. When Alexis happened to be staying back at the mansion, since he didn’t have a dedicated maid, the head maid assigned one, but when everyone was reluctant, the head maid sighed. And then she gathered the main maids and gave a brief explanation, saying they must never repeat this anywhere.
-Lord Alexis is not the kind of person you think he is. Although he is wandering right now, he is by no means a bad person.
One of the maids who heard that raised her hand.
-Then why does the Countess hate her son, Lord Alexis, so much? Just how bad is it that even his mother, the Countess, shudders at him?
The head maid, who had served the House of Count Glister her whole life, gave no answer to that. With a heavy sigh, she disciplined the maids very strictly.
So the maids didn’t believe the head maid’s words. Leah had been the same at that time. However…….
“Lord Alexis, whom I saw in the East Annex this time, seemed like a different person somehow.”
Leah said.
“How should I put it, a bit different from how he looked in the main building……”
In the main building, Alexis was an overbearing man whom one couldn’t approach at all. With his appearance where an aura that was more than cold—even murderous—lingered, no maids dared to serve him closely.
Even Alexis seemed like a person who rejected all approaches from others. Since he had such a beautiful face with eyes filled with a murderous intent, there was almost no one among the servants in the main building who didn’t fear him.
“Tsk.”
But Roanne’s reaction was entirely indifferent.
“What a waste of looks, really. Why live like that with that face?”
“Look here, Lady Roanne. Are you even listening to me?”
Leah spoke to Roanne with a bewildered face. Roanne picked her ear with a half-closed eye.
“Yeah, I heard it all.”
“No, so what I mean is… Lord Alexis might have some kind of story too……”
“What story?”
“Well, for example, being heartbroken by a woman he loved……”
Even at Leah’s words, Roanne’s indifferent eyes remained the same.
