Chapter 8

Astelle paused for a moment and opened the door by turning the handle as it is.

-Creak-

When the door opened, the maids who were talking in the room turned around in a hurry.

“La, Lady.”

The maids bent their knees with faces full of frustration and lowered their heads deeply.

Theor didn’t know what he had just heard but he seemed to feel something was wrong.

Astelle ordered the white ladies with a calm expression.

“When you’re done talking, will you prepare to wash the child?”

The maids exchanged their eyes with each other and disappeared hastily.

As they moved busily, the bathroom was prepared with hot water with warm steam in full bloom.

Astelle washed Theor in warm water and changed his clothes.

“Why?”

As Theor sensed her anxiety and looked at Astelle’s eyes, Astelle laughed casually and spoke to the child.

Theor tilted his head, he asked.

“Aunt Astelle, are you mad?”

“No.”

Astelle smiled at Theor, thinking that he was a very ambiguous age at 5 years old.

He wasn’t so naive enough to know anything, but he was too young to know all the bad things about the world.

Astelle tapped Theor’s little nose and turned his attention.

“After washing, I’ll take out Levin.”

“Yeah!”

Levin was Theor’s favorite teddy bear.

Astellemade it herself from the old brown velvet curtain.

It’s been too old and tatter, but Theor still liked Levin the most.

Theor was innocently delighted at the words of giving Levin.

The maids were also relieved by that appearance.

Astelle took Theor to the bedroom and took out a teddy bear from the pack.

She then returned from the bedroom to the connected parlor, leaving Theor in bed where he played with his doll.

She looked at the maids standing side by side, Astelle was calm, but she ordered firmly.

“Go to the butler, say exactly what you said and ask him to send a new maid.”

The maids who had listened with a stupid face started to stutter.

“La, Lady… well, we have that…”

The maids belatedly trembled because they were frightened.

It seemed like it was okay just before, so they thought she’d just let it go over it.

“I didn’t punish you right away because I couldn’t show that way in front of a little child.”

Astelle said calmly in a careless tone.

Of course, she couldn’t get angry at the maids or beat them in front of the child.

It was not good to explain the contents of the gossip one by one to a child who is only 5 years old.

Actually, it’s about the gossip of maids.

If she had heard it alone, she could just pretend she didn’t hear it.

But this time there was a reason that she could not go over.

“I don’t care what you’re talking about, but I can’t keep the maids gossiping me where the child can hear it.”

The maids fled and went outside.

Reports of these things could result in at least a reduction in salary and relegation, and severe punishment.

In the bedroom, Theor kept playing with a fluffy teddy bear.

“Theor, it’s time to put the medicine.”

Theor gently raised his face.

Astelle took out the potion she had in her inner pocket and put it in the Theor’s eyes.

“Well done, I’ll give you a prize.”

From the small box in the luggage bag, she pulled out a cookie full of sweet buttery scents.

The round cookie has a light butter color and a slightly orange color at the end.

Likewise, she made it before, but she brought it to give it to Theor.

Theor ran with a doll.

“Cookies!”

“It’s before dinner, so just eat two.”

“Yes.”

Theor picked up the cookie with his little hand and cut it little by little and ate it.

Astelle also picked up a cookie for Theor to eat.

She felt the sweet taste of the material with a bite.

The sweetness relieved the tension a little.

While doing that, suddenly she heard a knocking sound from outside.

Astelle quickly went to the drawing room.

“Come in.”

She wondered if new maids had already come.

But the person who came inside was a middle-aged servant.

“You are Lady Astelle, are you?”

“Yes. What’s going on…”

“Oh, bring it this way.”

At the hand of the attendant, other attendants brought large boxes in a row.

Large boxes were placed on the floor and the lids opened one by one.

Several dresses came out inside.

The first thing that came out was a gorgeous blue evening dress with a luxurious gloss.

These almonds-like decorated on the chest, were dazzling.

There was also an outing clothes made of ash green velvet.

It wasn’t just dark green, it was a pale ash green mixed with gray like a forest covered in autumn fog.

The most gorgeous thing was the sky blue silk dress.

It was light and soft silk, and it was a bright blue color reminiscent of a clear sky.

The bodice of the chest part was embroidered with a floral pattern with a purple thread, and the rich skirt was split in half in the middle, and there was a soft white tuck that flowed naturally like a wave on the inside.

All of them were luxurious enough to wear them out in the capital’s social world.

There was a jewel in the box that opened afterwards.

A necklace of small diamonds and a wavy sapphire earring.

Earrings lined with light pink rose crystals like petals and necklaces with cut emeralds and small diamonds.

There was also a headdress made of light green crystal.

It was full of brilliant jewels, but Astelle frowned instead of being moved.

‘I thought they were new maids.’

This was an unexpected situation again.

The attendant, who brought the dress and jewelry, smiled and bowed his head to Astelle.

“This is a gift from His Majesty the Emperor to Lady Astelle.”

Of course, there will be no one except the emperor to send something like this.

It wasn’t surprising at all.

“I don’t need it. Take it back.”

“……?”

Astelle repeated her refusal once again to the embarrassing attendant.

“Thank you, but please tell His Majesty that I can’t get anything like this.”

“His… His Majesty invited Lady Astelle to dinner, and it is His Majesty’s command to change into one of these clothes and attend the dinner.”

‘This is the invitation I hate to go.’

Astelle politely bent her knees and bowed her head.

“It’s an honor, but I can’t leave my seat because I need to take care of the child.”

She talked so far, then stood up again, looking straight at the servant, and ended her words.

“Please tell His Majesty like this. “

The servant was enchanted and stood blankly.

Surely he never thought he would be rejected in this way.

He stuttered and asked.

“Oh, to say that you take care of a child…”

“I have to watch the child eat because he is still young.”

“If you just leave it to the maids…”

“It hasn’t been a day since I’ve been here, and I just asked for the maids to change, and the new maids haven’t come yet. I don’t have time to explain the child’s diet or habits.”

Hearing the reasons that Astelle listed again and again, the servant lost his words.

In front of the adolescent who couldn’t speak properly because he was so embarrassed, Astelle refused firmly.

“Thank you for inviting me, but I can’t dare to attend His Majesty’s dinner table because the child is still young.”

* * *

“That’s good news.”

Kaizen looked at the documents in Velian’s voice and raised his head.

“The Duke of Reston is finally doing something suspicious. He can’t sit quietly and die.”

After the great nobles lost the political battle and most of them disappeared, Duke Reston has lived while being careful to breathe.

No matter how careful he was, he couldn’t find anything to catch.

The other Dukes somehow seized the opportunity and ruined it, but the Duke of Reston has not yet been eliminated.

Even though he was an enemy, the carefulness was admirable.

Well, it didn’t matter though.

The Duke lost his power anyway.

In the end, he seems to have changed his mind to reverse the situation by doing something like this slowly declining.

In the report Vellian received, several details of the Duke’s suspicious movement were detailed.

Kaizen replied without taking his eyes off the document.

“I have to buy some time.”

“Yes that’s right. The longer Your Majesty empties the capital, the harder he will dig his grave.”

Kaizen was thinking of getting rid of the last Duke that was left at this time, but he heard a knock outside.

The servant, who had been ordered by the emperor, returned and delivered the results to Vellian.

Vellian, who received the report from the beginning, returned to the office again with a complex and subtle expression.

“This is bad news.”

Kaizen was still reading the papers at his desk.

Vellian looked at his master with a slightly strange feeling.