If You Wish For A Married Couple’s Duties - Chapter 29
Episode 29. The Duke’s Weaknesses (1)
***
“But the Duke…”
“He hates me. Still, we can’t ignore the time that we spent together in the past.”
Daniel was still smiling.
He didn’t look like a liar by any means.
Dooha hesitated before eventually opening her mouth.
“Then do you know who the Duke’s mother was?”
“Absolutely. She was my aunt.”
Daniel looked out the window.
“Aunt was a very beautiful and kind person. Although she was of lowly origins.
Her name was ‘Eliza’.
She was a wanderer, and although she was labeled as a dancer, she was a great woman who rose to the position of hostess in the highest-ranking Ducal family in all of the Empire.
Because of this, my father hated her very much. He is arrogant about those who are lowly at birth.”
Certainly, Nate would still have been like that in the past after showing Dooha such a reaction in the present.
When Dooha accepted silently, he continued.
“So, when Leonhart, no, the current Duke inherited the title of ‘Duke’, my father strongly opposed it.”
A Duke cannot become a ‘true’ Duke if his blood was mixed with lowly blood instead of having pure noble blood.
That was Nate’s argument.
Nate was not the only one who opposed his succession.
All of the orthodox nobles and retainers who followed Nate opposed Leonhart.
“If the Duke wasn’t a genius in swordsmanship and if His Majesty didn’t appreciate his abilities, he wouldn’t have been able to become a Duke.”
“…I see.”
She expected it, but hearing it with her own ears like this made her heart feel even heavier.
“Why are you making such an uncomfortable face?”
“I think I unintentionally discovered a weakness.”
“Weakness?”
Daniel smirked at her words.
“For the current Duke, such a thing is not a weakness.”
After all, it was him who eventually overcame everything and ascended to the Duke’s position.
“There are other weaknesses.”
“What?”
“Do you want me to tell you? The real weakness of the Duke.”
Daniel smiled softly at Dooha, who looked at him with surprised eyes.
Really, like the prodigal son.
***
It’s a weakness.
What did he mean, the real weakness of the Duke? The same one who seems to not even bleed if he pricked with a needle?
‘Personally, I’m curious, but…’
Dooha frowned.
If you look at it, there’s one.
Dooha, who remembered the Duke who was drunk and hung onto her like a child, burst into laughter without realizing it.
“If it’s the Duke’s weakness, I already know it, so it’s okay.”
“…You know?”
She smiled lightly at Daniel’s questionable expression.
“And because I’m not a cowardly person who sneaks around looking for someone’s weaknesses from behind.”
Dooha looked up at him with her arms crossed.
“I wonder if the words that come out of the mouths of people who say they are friendly and try to show their weaknesses are really the truth.”
“…That may be true.”
Daniel raised her eyebrows straight up like an overturned blade.
Although he was being pointed out by Dooha, he somehow still seemed to be in a good mood.
“Madam always puts me to shame. I can’t win against you.”
“Then our conversation is over, so I’ll go first.”
“Madam.”
Daniel grabbed Dooha, who was about to leave, once again.
“If you want to know more about the Duke, go to the annex.”
“Annex?”
“That’s where the Duke’s most treasured thing is hidden.”
At his words, Dooha’s face showed that she was slightly curious.
“…What is that?”
“What else could be so precious that he wants to hide it from a woman?”
Daniel looked at her and smiled his most mischievous smile.
Even though he knew that Dooha’s eyes were shaking with unexplained agitation.
***
“As expected.”
Dooha did not look hard at the books but instead buried herself in the back of her chair.
From the moment Daniel brought up the annex, she felt a sense of déjà vu, and this was what’s happening right now.
“What’s wrong, Madam?”
As she sat with a serious face, the maid, who was organizing documents next to her, asked in a worried voice.
“Sylvia, about the annex.”
“What?”
Sylvia seemed noticeably nervous as soon as the word ‘annex’ came out of the Duchess’ mouth.
It was not that Dooha could not have noticed the subtle change.
“I was looking through the books and found something strange.”
“…Strange?”
“In other places, the budget is divided into detailed items, but here, only the budget for the annex is written on the total expenditure.”
Dooha opened the books she was looking at again and pointed her fingers here and there.
“I asked the attendants and they said that the annex is a place where no one lives. But what is the reason that such a small amount is being spent there every year…”
“The Duke is in direct control of the annex. I don’t think Madam has to worry about that.”
‘The Duke himself?’
Dooha’s eyes became sharper than before.
“Yes. Even when I was managing the housekeeping of the castle, the Duke took care of everything concerning the annex.”
“A place where no one lives?”
“I don’t know why, but anyways, the Duke will take care of it, so I don’t think you have to look at it. The Duke doesn’t like to mention the annex itself.”
When people lie or are embarrassed, their words become longer.
And Sylvia’s words were unusually long.
“Okay, you can leave now.”
“Yes, Madam.”
When the head maid left her seat, Layla, who was waiting outside her door, ran in as if waiting.
“Did you find anything?”
“Yes, Madam!”
She slid over to Dooha’s side and whispered in her ear.
“The annex is a place where the maids rarely come and go, so it was difficult to get any useful information, but I did find some strange things.”
“Strange thing?”
There were not one or two strange things that Layla said.
First, there were only 30 knights guarding the annex that was said to be a place no one lived. It was even more suspicious that they were all regular knights, not apprentice knights.
Second, the maids working in the annex were all mute. Of course, being unable to speak didn’t mean that they couldn’t communicate, but they didn’t even try to mix in with the attendants working elsewhere.
“Three, the Duke comes and goes there once a week. Not to mention, he always carries dresses or accessories that only women would wear, but when he comes out, he’s empty-handed.”
Dooha frowned at her words.
“What’s wrong, Madam?”
“Suspicious.”
“What?”
“The Duke.”
To be precise, the precious thing that the Duke hid in the annex.
“But no one definitely lives there. What should I say? It’s like a warehouse of valuables, isn’t it?”
“The Duke won’t spend one-fifth of his budget on just a warehouse. I wouldn’t have even had 30 knights as escorts in a place where monster attacks were frequent.”
Of course, there would be no reason for the Duke to come out with women’s clothes or accessories.
“Ummm.”
Layla scratched her cheek as if she had trouble with her words, and then slapped her hand as if jokingly on purpose.
“No way, there’s nothing special about it. I don’t think he’d hide a girl…”
“Ah…”
Layla covered her mouth as if belatedly surprised by her own words.
“Sorry, ma’am! I made a slip of tongue! That doesn’t make sense…”
“No, you have a point.”
Daniel clearly said that the Duke’s precious thing was hidden in the annex.
‘What else would be valuable to a man?’
If a man was spending time and money and trying to hide something precious, it was most likely a woman.
At least, that’s what Dooha thought.
‘I know him but I don’t really know him.’
Dooha thought about the Duke of Esbaden.
A person who doesn’t show anything when she looked into him because she thought they’ve gotten a little closer.
A person with a clear distinction between what is his own and what is not.
Yet, he is a man of many secrets.
‘Yes, you said I was from the Esbaden family, not me.”
There are also levels of trust between people.
The fact that the Duke doesn’t reveal everything about himself means that he still doesn’t trust her that much.
“Stir it, Madam. But if he was hiding a real woman, shouldn’t Madam come forward?”
“Should I?”
“You will need to sort things out. If you see the duke hiding her, maybe she’s his lover or mistress at best, but what if she taunts Madam?”
Dooha let out a small groan and clenched her chin.
In Bashal, it was not a flaw for a strong and wealthy man to have several women as concubines besides his wife.
Rather, the larger the number of women that he had, the stronger the power was.
However, the hierarchy between the women was clearly divided.
It was an unwritten rule in Bashal that the wife would be able to administer beatings under the pretext of managing the concubines of her husband.
‘But is there a need for that to happen here? Either way, the duke…’
From Dooha’s point of view, it wasn’t anything new.
But what was the reason behind a corner of her heart suddenly feeling heavy?
‘It’s strange.’
She rubbed the area around her chest as if frustrated.
Contrary to her seemingly somber look, Layla exclaimed in a very excited voice.
“You’re not hesitating, are you? What are you going to do if she gives birth to a successor?”
“Ah.”
Dooha let out a short sigh as if she hadn’t thought of it.
It was a fait accompli that if the Duke had a woman he loved, and if he saw an heir in her, Dooha would be in trouble.
She can’t give up the duchess’ title, so the child born would automatically be treated as an illegitimate child.
If such a situation occurred, Dooha was obligated to take responsibility for the life of the woman and the unborn child as a duchess.
If she was the real woman the Duke loved, she was locked up in the annex because of Dooha who had married him.
“Madam!”
“Calm down, Layla. Is it certain that the one in the annex is the Duke’s woman?”
“You still have to check it out.”
“…Yes, I guess so.”
Anyways, there were a few things that had become clear.
That the Duke had secrets hidden from her.
One of them was in the annex.
It was only Dooha’s choice to confirm the truth of the secret.
‘Should I ask him myself, first?’
A secret was a secret because the owner did not want to reveal it.
But the more someone didn’t want to reveal, the more others would want to uncover the secret.
She decided to ask the duke straight ahead about the annex.
With very little discomfort in mind.
***
