Is he asking whether I have any interest in Duke Reshaniel? What kind of trashy question is that?
I answered him seriously. “I’d rather die than date that b*stard.”
“…Ah.”
“No, actually, I’d rather spend ten miserable years dating that ugly troll in the lab, realize it’s love, and then get married for real.”
“Are trolls ugly?”
“Well, yeah, pretty much…”
Does he seriously have no interest in anything except research…?
Just then, Duke Kalinos spoke up, sounding casual like it was nothing. “Then what about me?”
“Pardon?”
“You’re married to me, aren’t you? I was just curious.”
How many times do I have to remind him that this is a contract marriage? Lately, he’s been acting like he’s completely forgotten the word ‘divorce.’
“…Well, you’re much better than a troll. For starters, you’re extremely handsome.” God, I’m so flustered I’m slipping into that part-timer mode where you suck up to your boss. But I mean it…
When he nodded, looking satisfied, I weirdly felt like I was walking on clouds. Ugh, whatever. Seriously. Why does seeing him secretly pleased make me feel good too? My own feelings felt awkward and confusing.
That b*stard just got back. I need to stay sharp and keep my guard up, or I’ll end up like one of those regretful female leads again. Now’s not the time to get distracted by these fluffy topics!
I pressed my lips together, looked at him again, and changed the subject. “…So, um, you said you met that guy, right? What did he say?”
“He dared to ask about Giselle.”
Well, of course he’d be curious about how I’ve been. He needs to steal my mana, after all.
With a wary look, I gave Duke Kalinos a firm warning. “Please, don’t ever give him any information about me. I’m begging you.”
I planned to wait behind the scenes until Duke Reshaniel approached me to siphon my mana. I’d wait until he got desperate enough to need it.
At that, Duke Kalinos nodded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I won’t give him a single thing. Not even your precious name.”
“…He already knows my name, though.”
“Yes. Hearing your name come out of that wretched mouth made my blood boil.”
I concluded that even my employer had definitely been infected by the dotingly-obsessed-with-family plague going around the Kalinos family. Strangely, I felt like our divorce was slipping further and further away… No matter how many times I told myself not to let this happen, my heart kept getting softer and softer.
* * *
Two days passed. Then three, then four… All while I stayed tense, waiting for when that mosquito b*stard would finally approach me. That damn mosquito hasn’t contacted me at all. He didn’t show his face, didn’t send a word, nothing but silence. It was almost disheartening.
Annoyed as I was, I couldn’t just obsess over it. Even if my days of endless leisure were guaranteed, as Duchess Kalinos, I still had to host the occasional tea party for the lesser nobles. At first, the whole thing felt like a hassle, but then I realized it was actually pretty entertaining.
“Giselle is just ve~ry delighted to be able to chat with all the stars of high society!”
“Ah…”
To my left, I’d lined up all the noblewomen who used to torment me alongside Mariposa. To my right, I’d arranged the ladies who used to completely ignore me, together with Shabel. They were all trembling, terrified I might take revenge on them.
“How foolish. She looks as gloomy as a deep-sea fish again today.”
“So utterly vulgar…”
“All she does is chase after men. Honestly, I can’t even call her a real noble.”
“Your face looks as miserable as a trampled heel today, Madam Solanber.”
The madam who once insulted me by calling me an ‘elegant deep-sea fish’ widened her eyes in shock. She must be stunned that I wasn’t bothering with any roundabout insults.
“What? Is there a problem?”
But her family’s territory was right next to the Kalinos family’s territory.
“N-None at all.” Of course, she couldn’t say a word, even when I openly returned her anger.
So this is what power tastes like. Just like they once trampled me with their power. I let out a small laugh and popped open the champagne. “Oh my, why are you all looking at Giselle like that? Is there something on Giselle’s face?”
“N-No! Of course not!”
“No, Duchess.”
I clicked my tongue at the people nervously watching me. “But why is everyone so quiet? If someone walked in, they’d think Giselle was the dullest person here. Should Giselle be upset?”
At that, a few of the noblewomen and ladies forced awkward smiles, their pride clearly wounded as they replied to me. Look at those faces, clearly they’re up to something.
“Well… there’s this painting by an artist Her Majesty has been sponsoring. It’s become quite the talk lately.”
“We actually brought it as a gift for you, Duchess…”
Recently, Celestine Green dye had all but disappeared from the market, but I’d heard that the Marquis Berto’s family was still selling it mixed with other dyes. Isn’t this a painting by a street artist who used that mixed dye? In other words, they thought I wouldn’t notice and were trying to insult me in a roundabout, elegant way.
I had to admire their nerve. No matter how much I pretended to be an airhead, they really thought I’d just beam and thank them for a painting that screamed Marquis Berto. But you know what…
“Oh dear, Giselle really doesn’t like this painting at all.” I let out a derisive snort as I picked up the painting, which had a subtle greenish hue. Then— Rip. Rip. Riiip. I tore it to shreds, nice and loud.
“T-That’s a painting the empress herself purchased! How could you say something so outrageous!”
“Giselle knows, of course, that Her Majesty is famous for her kindness, even showing interest in street artists.”
“Ah…”
Shabel, standing beside me, spoke up with conviction. “But right now, this isn’t the kind of painting Her Majesty favors.”
The noblewomen blinked in shock at Shabel’s support, giving her ties to the empress.
With a bright smile, I poked at my cake and then turned to the lady who’d handed me the painting. “Still, Giselle will let it go. If you eat this cake in one bite.”
“Pardon?”
I beamed at her as I held a huge slice of cake right up to her mouth. “Come on, say ah~!”
“Ugh!”
Whether she looked like she was about to cry or not, I cheerfully popped a piece of shortcake into her mouth with a fork. It’s so sweet, she might get diabetes. I’d asked them to make it extra sugary.
Gesturing with my chin, I spoke to the maid. “Bring ten glasses of cold water. Don’t leave until you’ve finished them all, understood?” In high society, being served cold water was practically a death sentence.
Why bother picking a fight when you’re not even in my league?
As I watched their faces turn red and pale, like they’d just been handed a death sentence, I smiled sweetly and glanced down at the floor, now littered with shredded pieces of the painting. Come to think of it, since the empress keeps coming up… why did I forget about that?
Even though I’d completely thrown off the original timeline, there was an incident involving the empress around this time in the novel. Is that event still going to happen?
Luckily, there was a way to find out right away. I glanced sidelong at Lady Shabel, who was sitting right next to me. The club she belonged to, ‘Muto,’ was the very social club that produced the current empress. Even now, she is in frequent contact with the empress, so she must know her well.
Leaning in, I whispered softly, just loud enough for Shabel to hear. “…Is Her Majesty in good health?”
Shabel’s eyes widened in surprise at my blunt question. “I-I’m not sure. I haven’t seen her at all lately.”
Watching Shabel’s eyes tremble, I became certain of the situation. Ah, so the empress is bedridden right now. Hearing that, I immediately remembered what happened around this time. The ‘Gravely Ill Empress’ episode.
“No one knows what caused Her Majesty’s illness…”
“But didn’t Duke Reshaniel end up saving Her Majesty? No one knows the cause, but at least she survived, so that’s a relief.”
“How could he even save Her Majesty? To rescue a member of the imperial family, he’s nothing less than a great national hero, even surpassing Kalinos family!”
In the original story, that mosquito b*stard cures the empress, becoming a living saint and the benefactor of the imperial family. About ten percent of the reason Kalinos family came under suspicion as the ‘hidden villain’ stemmed from this very incident.
Public opinion was even stirred up, baselessly suspecting Kalinos family as the mastermind. All because the Kalinos family happened to be staying at their capital mansion instead of their northern territory when the incident occurred!
If that’s the case, then… From now on, it can’t be the Reshaniel family who saves the empress. It has to be me, or Kalinos family. But how on earth am I supposed to save the empress and bring down that damned mosquito?
At that time, I couldn’t even imagine it. Who would have thought that two adorable little kids would so easily solve a problem I expected to torment me for ages!
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