Chapter 9
Karl’s hand stopped while signing the papers.
Dex, who had been ready to hand him the next document the moment he finished, also stopped.
Karl turned his head slightly to the left.
He was deep in thought.
Dex was about to mention that the paperwork was piling up, but he kept his mouth shut.
Karl’s mind was full of thoughts about Klone.
He was not the type to let his mind wander when work was right in front of him.
Now Karl even put his pen down. With a blank expression, he stared at the closed door. Then his gaze drifted slightly to the left.
Dex wondered what exactly he was looking at.
But like the capable aide he was, he did not ask.
His master was not talkative, but when things weighed on him too much, he would eventually speak to Dex on his own.
“She’s strange.”
Just as expected, Karl finally spoke.
“What do you mean, my lord?”
“Klone.”
“The lady… of the house?”
Karl gave a rough nod.
He did not know how to describe what he was feeling, but it was definitely strange.
He had not clashed with Klone that often, but today she was different.
No, the first time he noticed the change was when he met her in the Pink Stone Mine.
Her way of speaking, her expressions, and even her last request were completely unlike the old Klone.
‘She asked me to hand over a knight order?’
The boldness of her demand made him let out a small laugh.
It was strange enough that Klone was asking him for something at all, but asking not for jewels or dresses, but for a knight order?
And on top of that, Klone had brought up divorce first.
‘Does she not remember our contract at all?’
Marriage between nobles began with a contract and ended only with death.
Karl and Klone’s marriage was no different.
‘Except for the secret contract.’
Karl had written two contracts for his marriage to Klone.
One was with Klone’s father, Count Iclonia.
The other was with Klone herself.
I have no intention of living forever in some rural backwater. When the time comes, divorce me immediately.
He had never expected the count’s daughter, who had grown up living a glamorous life in the imperial capital, to adapt well to a duchy that had no entertainment at all.
‘Still, I never expected her to ask for a divorce contract right away.’
Karl was the kind of man who believed that once you married someone, you stayed with them for life.
But he accepted Klone’s demand.
At the time, it was because of the state of the duchy.
One disaster after another had caused the people of the duchy to die in great numbers. They needed food to survive the long winter.
Borrowing money was one option, but that would only become debt for the duchy’s people, so he had left it as a last resort.
Then Count Iclonia proposed marriage.
And he named a huge dowry.
From Karl’s point of view, it was a marriage that had to happen somehow.
People around him had tried to stop him, but he ignored them.
He had long known about Klone’s bad reputation, but he had thought too lightly of it.
How vicious could a pampered count’s daughter really be?
But a few months later, Karl changed his mind.
Klone was not in her right mind.
Even so, Karl never brought up divorce first.
He tried, at least a little, to understand Klone’s position—how lonely she must feel after leaving her comfortable home.
That effort ended the moment he saw the note she left when she ran away.
That was when Karl decided firmly that divorce was the answer.
Still, considering everything she had gone through while imprisoned, he meant to let the shock pass first.
If, after that, she still wanted a divorce, he intended to let her go without hesitation.
The reason he said today was not the right time for divorce was because she still did not seem normal.
A woman who spoke like some ancient sage could not exactly be called normal.
And yet, now Klone was saying divorce was absolutely out of the question and demanding a knight order.
“Has something happened to my lady?”
At Dex’s question, Karl said nothing.
Because he did not know the answer clearly.
All he knew was that, instinctively, he felt that something had happened to her.
Karl picked up his pen again and thought that he needed to find out whether today’s behavior was only a temporary whim.
“For the time being, give me detailed reports on Klone.”
“On my lady? But you told me not to do that.”
Dex tilted his head.
After Klone came to the ducal house, all kinds of trouble had followed.
So Dex had secretly assigned people to watch her.
It had been the groundwork for stopping her behavior, after he persuaded his master—who always said only, Give her a little more time whenever it came to Klone.
But Dex’s effort had not lasted long.
Klone found out someone was watching her and confronted Karl about it, and Karl immediately ordered the surveillance stopped.
‘It wasn’t even surveillance. It was collecting evidence for the victims.’
Thinking back on it, Dex felt wronged.
“I’m not telling you to report the wrong things she does. I’m telling you to watch whether anything about her has changed from before. Use skilled men, and make sure she doesn’t notice.”
Dex did not understand Karl’s order, but he nodded anyway.
Karl tapped the desk with his finger.
Klone was strange.
Saying she wanted to work as the duchess was strange enough, but saying she wanted to do something no noblewoman would even imagine was stranger still.
“And wanting the Blue Lion Knights of all things… no one could ask for that without being mad.”
Had she hurt her head during her time in prison?
Karl’s feelings grew more and more complicated.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
Since the duchy was still receiving support from the count’s family, Karl could not simply ignore Klone’s request.
But he also did not want to hand over a knight order to her so easily.
As Karl picked up his pen again, he frowned without realizing it.
Two days passed after I asked Karl for the knight order.
That day, he said he would think about it, but I did not expect a positive answer.
‘He looks down on me.’
Karl was polite to me, and on the surface, he seemed willing to go along with anything.
But underneath, what he felt toward me was not affection.
‘It wasn’t that he avoided me because he feared me. It was more like he avoided me because I was filthy.’
Suddenly, my situation had become that of literal filth.
I do not care that much how others see me, but Karl seeing me like that was unacceptable.
It would have a very bad effect on my rights as duchess.
Historically, a wife who was neglected by her husband was never treated well by others.
It was not important for me to become a wife loved by her husband.
But I did need to become a wife trusted by him.
‘That way, I can move freely through the duchy.’
But how did people build trust again?
To be honest, I was much more used to forcing people into submission with strength than building trust.
I’m stronger than you, so just kneel.
But that would not work on Karl.
In this world, Karl himself counted as one of the strong, and my own strength had not fully returned yet.
…Training the servants is urgent.
While I was thinking, I remembered the task he gave me.
‘Oh, that’s it!’
If I did the work he assigned well, maybe I could earn at least a little trust.
Training the staff—how hard could that be?
I rang the bell.
“My lady, did you call?”
“Yes. I need to see the servants. Gather all of them in the back courtyard.”
It had been a while since I had the chance to warm up properly.
Karl spent the whole afternoon buried in work.
A lord who owned a poor territory had to wear down his own body if he wanted to keep his people fed.
He had to cut even one more assistant if it saved operating costs.
There was never enough time, and there was always too much work.
Because of that, Karl hated being interrupted during working hours.
The servants knew that, so they avoided coming to the office when he was working unless it was absolutely necessary.
Then came a knock.
Karl frowned and flicked a finger.
Dex opened the door, and the butler stepped in.
The butler did not look well at all.
His face was pale, and sweat was pouring down him.
“My lord, you must come out at once.”
The butler’s voice trembled thinly, almost like a goat bleating.
“What is it?”
“It is rather hard to explain in words…”
Wilson, the elderly butler whose white hair suited him perfectly, was not a man easily shaken.
He was calm and steady, like a quiet lake.
He seemed like the sort of man who could sit in the middle of a storm and still take his time enjoying tea.
But right now, he was badly shaken.
‘Something serious must have happened.’
What serious thing could happen in the duchy?
Had a monster gate opened?
Monster gates did not open during their resting period.
‘Except for that one time.’
That was an event that should not normally happen, so set that aside.
Then what else could it be?
Karl frowned.
“Has Klone disappeared again?”
“No! It’s not that. It’s just that… the duchess…”
Karl shot to his feet.
It was a relief that Klone had not left the house, but judging from Wilson’s reaction, she had caused some major trouble.
“Where do I need to go?”
Karl fastened the buttons of the vest he had loosened and crossed the room.
After only a few steps, he reached the door and asked Wilson.
Wilson stammered out his answer.
“What?”
It was somewhere Karl had never even imagined Klone would be.
So he could not help asking again.
