# 33
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“Ma’am, please drink some water. You may be dehydrated.”
"Get out of my face! I don't need anything!"
Rachel shouted to the head maid, who offered her a cup while burying her face in the pillow. The pillow was already wet with Rachel's tears.
She was hiding in her bed, and had not come out of it since she returned from the duke's palace late at night. From then until noon the next day, she was crying bitterly.
“Madam, the Marquis will return today. He will be very worried if he sees you like this.”
"Shut up! Don't even mention my father. He doesn't love me. If he loved me, he would have granted at least one of my wishes!"
Rachel screamed, her beautiful face distorted in anger.
But no one could sympathize with her words. It was a well-known fact among the palace staff and the nobility of the capital that the Marquis of Benford cherished his only daughter, Rachel, more than his own life.
“What do you say? The Marquis cares very much about you, Miss Rachel.”
"Don't be silly! If that were true, I would have already become the Duchess. Instead, the baron's wretched daughter took my place! Do you even know what you did to me yesterday…?"
Rachel gritted her teeth, remembering the humiliation she had suffered the day before.
Being humiliated in front of Dyffryn, of all people.
Her beautiful platinum blonde hair wasn't something to be plucked out like a mangy pony's fur. Even though hair loss was common these days, there was no way she could have such a disease!
Not only did she lose her precious silky hair, but she also felt humiliated. She wanted to go find Evelin immediately and slap her until her anger subsided.
But if you do, Differin…
When she thought of Dyffrin, Rachel's eyes filled with tears again. It gathered in her reddened eyes.
"Why is he on her side? He can't really be infatuated with this worthless girl, can he?"
This thought tormented Rachel more than anything else. She was afraid that Devrin really loved Evelyn and that they would never separate.
While Rachel was temporarily succumbing to her grief, the maid spoke quickly.
“...Ma’am, I couldn’t tell you yesterday because of the weather, but a message arrived via messenger. You should check it out...”
“Does it look like I have time to check messages now?”
“…It is a message delivered by a messenger. It may be important.”
said the head maid, taking the letter out of her apron pocket.
Rachel looked at the envelope with her swollen eyes. It was a plain envelope with the sender’s name “N.T.C.”
This was the first letter used to hide the identity of the sender, but Rachel knew who sent the message.
“Throw it in the trash… No, put it on the desk.”
She wanted to get rid of it, but given the sender's situation, she couldn't.
The person who sent that message was Prince Noston Coutts.
No doubt the letter will contain a request for a secret meeting.
"silly".
Noston loved her. No, to be honest, she wasn't sure if he really loved her. But at least, he had a positive opinion of her.
That's why he kept sending messages through messengers, avoiding the eyes of others.
But his actions only made Rachel angrier. The reason Noston could not ask her out publicly was that he did not consider her suitable as his formal partner.
Although Fenris' power was growing, as long as Dyffryn was constant, Noserton would likely become the next Emperor, and as the future Emperor of the Colclough Empire, he could not marry the Marquis's daughter. This was his implicit position. Maybe he will marry a princess from another kingdom.
However, he keeps sending messages through messengers like stalkers, which is disgusting. Maybe he wanted her to be his lover later.
Rachel gritted her teeth at Noston's actions.
If it had not been for Dyffryn, Noserton would have already lost his position to Fenris. He maintained his position only by his extreme good fortune in human relations.
Why do only foolish men love me?
Tears filled Rachel's reddened eyes again.
At that moment, the door opened.
“Marquis...I'm back.”
The head maid bowed her head and saluted Marquis Binford as he entered.
When Marquis Binford motioned for her to leave, the head maid bowed again and went out, closing the door behind her.
“Rachel, my dear daughter.”
Despite Marquis Benford's gentle voice, Rachel did not respond. He sat on the bed and slowly stroked Rachel's long hair.
“I heard from the butler downstairs. You went to the Duke’s Palace with the Duchess’s letter and were treated badly.”
Rachel raised her head sharply. Her eyes were filled with poison.
“Bad treatment? The baron’s daughter insulted me and pulled my hair, and you call that bad treatment?”
The Marquis sighed.
He knew his daughter's temperament well. Rachel must have been the one who provoked Evelyn first, in a very aggressive way. But it didn't matter who started it. What mattered now was that his daughter was crying like that.
He wanted revenge so that the culprit would be left in tatters, but the opponent was Duke Leonok's wife.
“Rachel, don’t provoke Evelin anymore.”
The venom in Rachel's eyes subsided a little. Her tear-filled eyes were filled with pain. Round tears fell one after another.
“How can you say that, Dad! She was the one who provoked me first!”
“I'm not saying to leave Evelin alone. I'm telling you that you shouldn't interfere.”
“And if I don’t intervene…?”
“The Duchess will take care of it.”
Marquis Benford's eyes darkened for a moment.
But Rachel, who had not noticed this nuance, admitted in a low voice.
“Actually… the Duchess gave me a chance once. But I failed, so you may be disappointed in me.”
It was about the dismissal of the chief maid Patricia at the royal party. Rachel was upset that she wasted the opportunity Amelia had given her.
This time was no different. Amelia sent a message specifically asking Rachel to deliver it to the Duke's Palace, but Evelyn didn't look at all hurt.
Thinking of Amelia, Rachel became sullen, and Marquis Benford spoke in a serious tone.
“You don't have to worry about it. The Duchess promised me.”
"a promise…?"
“Technically, it's a contract. I can't tell you all the details, but in the end, it will give you the position of daughter-in-law of the Leonok family.”
Rachel, looking at the confident Marquis Benford, began to stop crying.
The Marquis gently wiped away the remaining tear stains from Rachel's eyes with a handkerchief.
“So, my daughter, don’t worry about anything.”
* * *
Meanwhile, after Dyffryn received Dunswell and left for work, only Evelin and Dunswell remained in the palace hall.
Evelyn had instructed Merlin to show Dunswell's guards, servants, and valet to their chambers and intended to attend to Dunswell personally.
“Your Excellency, let me show you your room.”
"…Good."
Evelin walked towards the stairs to go up to the second floor.
Although she had not learned of Dunswell's arrival at the Duke's residence until the day before, she had quickly prepared the guest room.
She paid special attention to cleaning the VIP room where Dunswell would be staying. Since the palace was usually tidy, it didn't take much time to prepare.
“The palace has changed a lot.”
As they went up the stairs, Dunswell said, looking at the floor.
Dunswell recalled that the palace was very chaotic. Devrin was busy with affairs in the imperial palace, and Amelia was exhausted with managing the house, so it was not possible to help her.
Even when he offered to hire a butler, Dyffryn declined, he was sensitive about bringing in new people.
He also suggested reprimanding the maids for not doing their jobs properly, but Dyffrin shook his head.
Dunswell eventually stopped commenting, feeling it was inappropriate to interfere too much in his adult son's home.
“Yes, we have been gradually renovating the palace every month.”
“The palace is old. Haven’t you thought about changing it completely?”
“It doesn't look worn out yet.”
“Well… with such good maintenance, it seems like rebuilding won’t be necessary for a while.”
Dunswell scanned the meticulously renovated interior, trying to remember whether Dyffryn had recently asked for additional funds to repair the mansion.
Since the mansion and the main estate share funds, any expenses that go over budget will be noticeable.
However, no matter how hard he tried to remember, there were no such requests. Repairing to this extent must have cost a lot...
Of course, he didn't know how much money Devrin had in his private stash, but that was exactly what it was – private money.
If Devrin intends to use this money, it will not only be for repairs to the palace.
Dunswell couldn't contain his curiosity, so he asked.
“It must have cost a lot to repair. Did you have enough budget?”
“Yes, there were a lot of misappropriations in household expenses, so once it was fixed, we had a significant amount of budget left over each month, which we used for repairs.”
“Is this why you fired the head maid?”
"Yes, she was embezzling money. It was unfortunate."
“Did you discover this yourf?”
“Once I examined the books cloy, it wasn't difficult.”
“Huh.”
Dunswell concealed his astonishment.
To think such things would happen in the duke's palace.
It was completely new information for him.