Alyssa sighed.

“Is he still there?”

The maid shed a contemptuous gaze at Alyssa.

“I guess you’re curious about that now. The Duke will be back soon. Oh, why isn’t this working.”

The maid murmured annoyingly, rolled up the bedspread and disappeared through the open door. Alyssa laughed awkwardly.

She can’t believe it. It’s the first time she will see her husband’s face.

Alyssa was never allowed to enter the social world because she was an illegitimate child. She was born under the empress’s insistence that only with thorough and intensive etiquette education she will be able to hide the blood of the gypsy, and she has lived under strict control until now.

Alyssa’s transparent gaze examined the faces of the maids.

Like the castle, there seemed to be no one on Alyssa’s side here.

Sasha glared at the maids and hugged her shoulders.

“Milady didn’t know. I don’t know where the duke went, so how will you know.”

Alyssa bit her lips.

Is it right for them to go together? Is it a place to go with Avery’s blood running on her veins? Is she worthy to pay her respects to Kendrick, who died at a young age?

Alyssa raised herself awkwardly, with Sasha’s help.

Cold gazes caught behind them as they walked to the bathroom.

Alyssa and Sasha were also strangers here.

Alyssa was not even given time to eat comfortably.

In the dining room where the dark clouds fell, nothing was heard except for the rattling of dishes.

Alyssa continued to eat. With a gaze full of malice and hostility, she could hardly chew and swallow food.

The gaze of Ophelia, Cambridge’s only young girl staring at Alyssa, seemed to sting her face.

“Can I get the meal? Brother Seidrick is now…”

“Ophelia!”

“Why, mother? Did I say something I shouldn’t have? Why do we….”

“Ophelia, stop.”

Ophelia’s face turned red. She rolled her feet with a face that seemed to burst into tears at any moment. Then, Mrs. Juliana looked at her daughter with a stern gaze. Mrs. Juliana looked back at Alyssa with a smile on her face.

However, unlike a smile of light kindness, there was no smile in her eyes. Alyssa noticed that Mrs. Juliana’s smile was really nothing but a fake.

“Can I call you Alyssa now? We’re a family member.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“Ha, she said mother.”

Ophelia mutters and slaps the spoon on the table! She put it down loudly, then got up and left the dining room. As if she didn’t want to be in the same space with Alyssa anymore.

Mrs. Juliana couldn’t stop Ophelia and gave her an awkward smile.

“It’ll be okay. Ophelia especially followed Kendrick a lot. She said she was going to marry her brother…”

“I…”

“I know it’s not Alyssa’s fault.”

Contrary to the words spoken, Mrs. Juliana was smiling like a lifeless paper doll without a slight warmth.

“Thank you, mother. I’m fine. Really.”

The only thing Alyssa could say right now was this. It’s not Alyssa’s fault, but it’s certainly the fault of Avery’s royal family who lived with her as a family.

Avery’s royal family wouldn’t be destroyed by this mistake, but the Cambridge family was upset to its roots.

Kendrick ended the 30-year Alp War with a victory and raised Cambridge’s reputation high above the sky. The king, who was jealous of Kendrick, was rather delighted when he died.

Alyssa couldn’t ignore their anger right now because she saw the king laughing in front of her eyes.

‘I guess I am a sinner too.’

This marriage, which she thought was a new beginning, may be more hell than a thorny road.

Hell is like a prison where you have to live as a sinner for life.

***

Seidrick returned as a coldly frozen body in the morning near noon. He didn’t catch a cold because of his physical strength and immunity, but just in case, Leons recommended him a hot bath.

Leons was a butler who had worked in Cambridge even before Seidrick was born, so he was used to him.

Seidrick exhaled a long breath, leaning against the hand of the butler who gently massaged his neck. The cold air that had accumulated on his body seems to be flying away.