Chapter 33

“No matter how much the Madam says that you shouldn’t reveal your identity to the outside world, a carriage without the family crest would have sufficed, Milady. I’m sure the servants in charge of the carriages did this on purpose!”

“Even so, the person who gives them orders wouldn’t change. Just because I look like I’m on good terms with Amoide doesn’t mean they’ll bend over for me.”

Amoide and Camilla were above everyone as they’re the estate’s employers, but there was still a hierarchy amongst the maids, attendants, and all the other people who worked at the Duchy.

There were people who managed everyone and gave instructions to others even though they were fellow employees.

In this manor’s case, the one on the top was Greta, the maid closest to Camilla, and no one could rebel against Greta because her orders were as good as Camilla’s.

At the very least, Jean was hired externally and his domain was the independent kitchen, so he could move on his own without having to challenge Greta’s influence.

But, outside the kitchen, everything was according to Greta’s will. It was a mandate granted by Camilla herself.

In any noble family, the influence of the head maid as the chief of the servants was somewhat strong, but in the case of the Efret Duchy’s mansion, it was especially stronger.

Truthfully, Camilla’s authority should have been passed onto me, as her daughter-in-law, and this was the common practice in any aristocratic household.

However, as long as the Duchess—or should I say ex-Duchess, since the title should have been passed onto me now—was still alive, she would still be in the seat of power, recognized as the master of this family.

If this was a normal household, the previous Madam should have stepped down from the household’s internal management since Amoide was the Duke, and to give way to the new Master’s wife. Usually, the previous matriarch would cease all her social activities, return to the countryside, and live separately.

Regardless, that wasn’t the case for the Efret household.

Camilla was still the most powerful person in the Duchy because Amoide was ill, and I, his wife, was just a puppet being controlled by Camilla. Which meant I was at the bottom of the food chain.

No wonder Greta’s words held more weight than mine.

‘Still, though, Camilla said she’d leave the matter of Amoide’s health in my hands…’

Even if I was still under constant scrutiny.

“It’s better than it used to be, though to them, it’s still the same. It’s not like I gave birth to a successor.”

After all, the servants are bound to listen to Greta more, since she was Camilla’s henchman. My position in the Duchy was exactly like the carriage I was riding right now.

“This is actually better.”

I leaned my head against the rickety carriage’s window. Every time we passed by gravel on the ground with some stones sticking out, the carriage shook readily.

“What’s better, Milady?” Rona asked, leaning her head towards me.

‘The less I stand out, the better.’

A carriage that would shake so earnestly like this on a rough road. No one would ever think that the Duchess of Efret was in a carriage like this.

This was also why I didn’t reveal my destination.

Soon, the carriage left the heart of the capital, but it took me a long time to reach my destination.

“Hmm… nothing’s changed here.”

Unlike the central part of the Capital where shops were abundant, commercial streets in the outskirts were sparse.

“What brings you here?”

As if spooked, Rona wrapped her arms around herself.

“If you’ll be shopping, wouldn’t it be better to go to Ritorre Boulevard at the center of the Capital?”

“There are too many people there.”

Ritorre Boulevard was the busiest place in the capital. Everywhere you looked, there were shops clad with shiny signboards and opulent glass displays—Anyone and everyone who had money always shopped there.

“Of course, it’s crowded there! It’s famous for its boutiques and jewelry stores and dessert shops… All the best things in the Empire are in that street.”

Muttering so, Rona looked so disappointed now since she had been looking forward to shopping. “But… what are we doing here…”

I simply grinned at Rona.

“There’s someone I have to meet.”

* * * 

I stopped in front of a shabby pharmacy.

The wooden sign had a bowl of medicine etched on it with nothing else written but the word ‘Drugstore.’ The illustration and the handwriting were so horrible that I doubt anyone would willingly come here for business.

It was a place where you would wonder if there was a proper pharmacist working there.

Knock, knock.

Two staccato beats on the old wooden door followed more after no one welcomed us after a while.

“….”

There was no answer from inside. However, it wasn’t a store with transparent glass, so I couldn’t look inside.

“Nothing’s changed here,” I murmured, letting myself in the half-open door and looking in.

Inside was a sleeping middle-aged man, nodding under the sun, his belly large enough to hang over the armrest of the chair he rested on.

Clang, clang.

At the sound of the bell over the pharmacy’s door, the man was startled awake.

“Welcome…”

Bouncing off his chair, the man stopped panicking when he saw me there.

“How have you been?” I greeted him first.

“Oh, who is this?”

Walter, who blinked several times as he stared at me, adjusted his glasses that had slid down the bridge of his nose. It was clear that he couldn’t believe his eyes.

“Selena?”

Finally, Walter beamed. Even so, his blurry eyes shone with tears and so the light in his eyes was quivering.

“Long time no see. Has it been a year? Two or three years?”

“It hasn’t been three years yet.”

“Yes, yes. No matter how much liquor I drink, I can remember that much.”

Walter approached me with shaking hands.

“They say you moved somewhere. You might not have been able to pay off your debts anymore, so I thought you’d been sold off somewhere.”

“That’s one possibility.”

I smiled brightly.

“You said you were doing well in the job I introduced to you, when you were a caretaker. Though you didn’t even register at the work center anymore, and I heard you disappeared.”

When I couldn’t work at the pharmacy, Walter introduced me to a Countess for work since he felt sorry for me.

After the death of the old Countess, I’d been in charge of mending clothes at a store called Opium, but I would later accept Camilla’s offer to become Duchess.

As I entered the Efret household as the new Duchess, I cut off contact with everyone. Obviously, this was because of Camilla’s demands.

“There’s a reason for that.”

“But, really…”

Walter tilted his head and looked at me from head to toe. “You look much better than before.”

As he studied my appearance, his eyes widened as if he had realized something. Then, his mood darkened and his expression grew sad.

“Selena, what happened?”

“…Pardon?”

“Where… Are you a concubine? Huh? They paid off your debts, so they’re using you for your body?”

“No, it’s not that kind of thing.”

I waved my hands to refute him, laughing as I did. But, soon after, I stopped laughing.

It was because my situation wasn’t so different from what Walter assumed.

I received money just to give birth to a child.

I accepted such a deal. No matter what you think of it, it was such a crazy contract.

If I had the chance to turn back time and choose again… Would I make a different choice? I wasn’t too sure. It didn’t matter what method I used to settle my debts, whether I did it through the boutique or through Camilla. The end result was the same.

“Selena?”

Walter called out to me cautiously, as I had suddenly gone quiet. To make up for the silence, I laughed again and continued speaking.

“Actually, I was offered a job that pays well.”

“Oh? Where?”

“It’s a secret.”

This was part of her agreement with Camilla—to break all ties to the outside world once I became Duchess, and that no one at all would come to know about the contract, even Amoide.

I was allowed to see my younger siblings once a month due to our circumstances, nonetheless, even that was only a few hours at a time.

My younger siblings thought I was making a lot of money as a maid.

“It doesn’t seem like you’re being worked to the bone since your face isn’t gaunt, and the calluses on your hands have softened a lot, too. No new wounds either.”

Walter looked at my hand carefully and said that.

He was a quick-witted man.

He always appeared drunk, yet with his sharp eyes, he always observed the people who visited his pharmacy. This was why he remembered not only all the faces of his regulars but even the people who’d come by only once.

“Even if your face isn’t like that, you seem to have a lot of worries. You aren’t suffering physically, but even so…”

“….”

I shied away from his gaze that made me feel prickly.

“You can’t fool my eyes. Don’t underestimate me just because I’m a drunkard,” he chuckled.

“How did you know?”

It really was amazing.

“The expression on your face is usually what they look like, the people who visit my pharmacy. Like a clogged sewer.”

“Clogged…?”

“Yes. As if you got sick just sitting on a problem that you couldn’t solve.”

Walter motioned to his chest and made a groaning sound.

“I can’t cure a disease like that, even if it’s me. I don’t have the medicine that heals the frustration that you feel in your heart.”

Walter’s pharmacy was originally located at the heart of the city. However, he was deprived of that location because he fell under a lot of debt with the wrong person to have a debt with, and in the end, he was eventually pushed out to the outskirts.

Still, his skills as a pharmacist were absolutely outstanding, so there were still quite a few people who regularly patronized his shop.

Because the medicine he sold really worked.

Among them, a lot of women come here so he could treat their infertility, which couldn’t be solved through the usual pills prescribed by the usual doctors. The efficacy of his medicine spread through word of mouth, so a lot of people came here and provided Walter a modest income.

Walter’s wife hated that he had a fanatical fondness for horse racing. Still, she did acknowledge his abilities.

“Well, you’ve been hiding all this time, but you came here to look for me, right?”

Those sharp eyes, which only seemed to be lethargic, became clear at that moment. Walter always had a good hunch, so whenever someone approached him for medicine, he would quickly guess whatever they needed.

“Um, well…”

As if my lips were suddenly sewed shut, I hesitated. I already came this far, but I still wasn’t sure if I should ask Walter to do such a favor.