Chapter 16: Duke Edmund’s House (2)

With a gentle and soft voice, Chloe told me she was going to leave my side, and it felt like my heart was being torn to shreds.

“…With whom…?”

“His name is Roddy, and he works at the restaurant. He’s the same age as me…”

‘That’s not what I wanted to ask.’

“I’m of marriageable age too… Everyone around me keeps saying it’s dangerous if I don’t go soon…”

‘What’s so good that you’re smiling like that? Why are you smiling?’

“I mentioned it to Grand Duke as a joke before… and he actually found someone…”

‘You promised me you’d stay by my side. Why? Why?’

I couldn’t hear Chloe properly. I hated that smile, the one she wore while thinking of someone else.

Chloe is like sand or water. No matter how hard I try to hold her, she keeps slipping through my fingers. That means there’s only one sure way to hold onto Chloe.

To block her off completely, without any gaps, so she can’t even look elsewhere.

“Okay… I understand.”

“Yes?”

“Just go.”

Chloe looked down at Yudith, who had spoken to her in a cold voice for the first time in the eight years they had been together, and flinched slightly.

“Milady…? Are you angry…?”

“…I’m not angry, so just go quickly.”

Even though she said that, Yudith’s face was full of annoyance. After living together for eight years, she could quickly notice even the slightest change in expression.

Seeing that, Chloe was at a loss and thought.

‘This is bad… I hope Yudith doesn’t misunderstand… I’m just going to the blind date because I don’t want to be nagged…’

She hated marriage. In the first place, she was only 24 years old, so why should she get married? She hated the way people around her, like relatives she met during holidays, urged her to get married.

She thought that if she went on at least one blind date, those comments would decrease.

‘I didn’t think he would really find someone for me… Especially since it was Grand Duke who arranged it, how can I refuse…’

She felt sorry for Yudith, but this was a really good opportunity.

Having worked by Yudith’s side for eight years, she had no chance to meet people other than those in the Grand Ducal Family.

Commoners had free love, but it wasn’t uncommon to be introduced and go on blind dates like this.

She couldn’t stay by Yudith’s side forever, and this blind date could be a really good match, so she thought it was worth a try.

As Chloe hesitated behind Yudith, unsure of what to do, Yudith suddenly jumped up and ran out of the room. It was the first time she had seen her so angry, so Chloe was at a loss.

‘I should talk to her again later…’

Thinking that, she sighed softly and had to go to work. Even though she was a personal maid, she didn’t just attend to Yudith within the Grand Ducal Family.

---

Walking down the hallway, Yudith didn’t hide her annoyance and kicked the floor, making a thumping sound as she headed to Damian’s office.

‘What is Damian doing? Has he been blind for eight years? He knows how much I cherish Chloe, so why is he arranging a blind date?’

The annoyance boiling inside her grew uncontrollably. There was no way she could hand over Chloe, who had been by her side for eight years, to some guy she didn’t even know, even if the world collapsed.

The fact that Damian had arranged this made her even more annoyed.

-Bang!!!

Yudith opened the door to Damian’s office as if she was going to break it down. Seeing that, Damian sighed as if he knew this was coming and organized the documents that had been ruffled by the wind.

Yudith strode over and slammed her hand on Damian’s desk, scattering the documents on the desk.

“Are you crazy? Why are you doing things without telling me?”

Damian sighed at the scattered documents and looked at Yudith, opening his mouth.

“I just arranged it because she said she didn’t have anyone. The other person is decent and has a good reputation… and has been working in the Grand Ducal Family for a long time…”

-Bang!!

“I’m asking you why you’re doing things on your own!!”

The desk shook again as she slammed her hand down once more, and the documents and ink bottle rolled off the desk and onto the floor. Damian looked at Yudith, who was almost crying with anger, and sighed even more deeply.

“How long are you going to keep her locked up? She’s over the age of majority now and about to miss her chance to marry. She needs to live her own life.”

“Why do you care about that? I’m the one who cares about that. I’ll take care of it somehow. It’s absolutely none of your business.”

Damian rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache from the conversation that wasn’t going anywhere.

“So don’t worry about Chloe.”

Everyone in the Grand Ducal Family knew that Yudith cherished Chloe. She protected her so much that there were even rumors that not even a bug could get close to Chloe.

If this continued, it seemed like she would really be trapped and suffocated by Yudith, so he had tried to talk to her…

“You vicious girl… You’re the only one blocking the maid’s marriage path.”

“Chloe will live well by my side even if that path is blocked.”

Yudith smiled brightly at Damian’s tone, as if he was giving up.

‘What a truly vicious daughter, only Chloe, bitten by those venomous fangs, is pitiful.’

Damian let out a hollow laugh.

“…I’ll talk to Roddy.”

“Take care of it yourself.”

Damian watched Yudith turn around and leave after saying only what she wanted to say, and let out a deep sigh that seemed to make the ground sink.

He had a headache from the fact that it was difficult to handle a successor who had achieved more than him. Yudith had cultivated this barren land wonderfully.

Without Yudith, this territory would no longer function, and Yudith’s position had become greater than his own.

He thought that taking her in back then was a stroke of genius, as Yudith had grown up wonderfully… but as much as she had grown, her obsession with that maid had also grown.

He himself had been holding out without getting married, so he couldn’t urge her to marry either.

So he didn’t interfere with Yudith’s hobbies, but he couldn’t help but feel frustrated when he looked at her from the side.

‘I hope that filthy temper of hers doesn’t show during the upcoming audience with the Emperor…’

He clutched his forehead at the throbbing headache and began to organize the scattered documents.

---

After finishing cleaning the Grand Ducal Family, it was time for the maids to chat.

Perhaps because of the Grand Ducal Family’s surprisingly relaxed finances, there were more servants, so there were more breaks and more people.

Especially in this place where only women gathered and especially where I was the only unmarried woman, love stories popped up at every opportunity, so it was hard to handle.

This blind date story also happened because I was talking about it here and Grand Duke overheard it, so it was inevitable that I would feel even more uncomfortable.

“Is it true that you’re going on a blind date with Roddy?”

“How did that spread again? It’s true, we’re meeting tomorrow.”

“Finally, you’re getting married too. You’re pretty late at 24.”

“Is that so…”

“It is.”

Honestly, I didn’t understand, but there was nothing I could do. This world was one where people got married even if they were just over 20 years old, so it was useless to push my sense of reality.

“What kind of guy is Roddy?”

“He’s a good man. You won’t find a better man in our Grand Ducal Family. He’s handsome, he’s already the sous chef at that age, and he earns a lot of money…”

“Stop, stop, that’s enough.”

There was no end to these kinds of stories if they went on for too long. My fellow maid, Erina, looked at me from the side as if she loved these stories.

“Still, it’s a relief~ You were really about to miss your chance to marry if you passed this year~”

“Is that… so?”

“It would have been really hard to find someone in the Grand Ducal Family at 25. Who else can we meet? We live here all the time, so we can’t even meet men.”

Erina sighed as if the ground was sinking. Erina had already been married for three years, so she was a colleague who complained about her husband every day.

This sense of alienation that I alone felt among my friends who weren’t married.

It felt bigger than I thought.

I couldn’t relate to my colleagues at all. Husband stories, baby stories, in-law stories, etc… I could agree to some extent if it was a household story, but I couldn’t answer at all when other stories came up.

Because I couldn’t empathize at all.

-Knock knock.

“Excuse me… is there anyone here named Chloe…?”

“Huh? Roddy? Why are you here?”

“Ah… I have something to tell Chloe-nim… no, Chloe, about tomorrow…”

A man with brown hair and a plain appearance was looking for me outside the door. I wondered what was going on because he was sweating and his focus was shaking, but the colleagues next to me had bright smiles on their faces.

“Oh my, oh my, he couldn’t wait until tomorrow and came to find her.”

“Look at Roddy’s face turning red, Chloe must be quite something?”

“Stop it… I’ll be back.”

I got up from my seat and approached Roddy, and I heard whistles and cheers from behind. I really hate this atmosphere…

I went out into the hallway and Roddy told me to follow him, so I followed him. Honestly, I’m nervous too. Why is he calling me already? We’re going to see each other tomorrow, so why is he calling me now? Why is his face so red and his breathing so heavy?

‘Could it be… could it be… that he fell in love at first sight…?’

I felt the love cells that had been dead in my brain actively awakening. I had never been in love in my previous life, but I enjoyed reading romance novels and comics. This situation… isn’t it almost a confession…?!

Roddy, who had arrived at the corner of the hallway, was hesitating and didn’t know what to do in front of me. I could see his flushed cheeks and tearful eyes.

‘Could it be… is it real…?’

I also prepared myself. If I got confessed to and accepted on the first day we met, I would look like a cheap woman, so I took a deep breath with the intention of rejecting him.

‘He’s trying to confess on the first day we meet… This is unheard of…’

I finished preparing to play hard to get at first, and Roddy’s heavy mouth, which seemed like it would never open, finally opened.

“I’m sorry, but… I’d like you to cancel tomorrow’s blind date…”

“Cancel… what?”

“Yes?”

“Ah, no, what did you say just now?”

“Due to my personal circumstances, I really, really! can’t go on the blind date. I’m really sorry. Goodbye.”

Roddy bowed quickly and ran past me down the hallway very quickly, without listening to my story or looking back.

I was so dumbfounded that I couldn’t do anything, as if I had been hit in the back of the head.

“…What…? Did I just get dumped by someone I’m seeing for the first time…?”

As I looked at Roddy’s back getting further and further away, I became furious. What the hell is that guy doing? Why is such a person getting good reviews?

I, who had been stunned by something I had never experienced even in my previous life, trudged back to where my colleagues were.

I opened the warehouse door and saw my colleagues screaming.

“How was it?! How was it?!”

“What did you talk about?! Did you get confessed to from the beginning?! Chloe is amazing?!”

“….It’s ruined.”

“Huh…?”

“The blind date is canceled!! I got dumped as soon as we met!!”

At my outburst, my colleagues’ faces turned pale, and only sighs echoed in the warehouse.