# 17
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Who would have dared to use the room of the successive Dukes of Richmond without the permission of the Duke himf?
Walter put his hand into his pocket and walked towards the window, looking out. He could clearly see the Marquis' party just crossing the garden. The gazes of the Marquis's wife, as she walked alongside her husband, did not stop directing towards the chandelier room. Even from a distance, the anger on her features was palpable.
Grace approached Walter, and stood beside him, contemplating the distant scene.
Unlike the group of marquises who confidently crossed the palace garden, none of the heads of the Persian families who had lived through Walter's years of hardship appeared. None of them was allowed to enter the palace. It was all the maneuvers of the Marquis, who assumed the regency during the Duke's absence. The only person who was allowed in was Joseph Rexton, Walter's assistant.
The expressions of the man and woman standing next to the large window were strikingly similar. Walter glanced at Grace's face reflected in the glass, and then said as if talking to himf:
“How long have you been training for this act?”
“It was not a trained act.”
“……?”
When Walter stared at her, Grace shrugged her shoulders lightly.
“Just at that moment... I truly believe I'm in love.”
«……»
“Your Highness...no. Someone might hear us. I will always call you: Sir. And you, too, put yourf to sleep. "I think you're in love at that moment."
“Is this easy?”
“It's not difficult. Then you were brilliant anyway.”
Perhaps the other party's impeccable performance made it seem so. Walter smiled briefly, and Grace smiled in return and changed the subject.
“The Grand Duchess does not appear.”
Walter's smile stopped. His black eyes sank into a cold depth in an instant.
“It will be in the annex.”
Grace's face changed just as quickly, until Walter thought she looked like a warrior picking her sword. This impression was not far from the truth.
Grace adjusted her skirt with a subtle movement, then asked in a calm tone:
“Where is the annex located?”
Grace Tyler's target after Walter, and the reason she came to Richmond even as his lover, was none other than Eliza Richmond.
● ● ●
Thirteen years ago, when the Duke and Duchess of Richmond died together, the title passed, by law of inheritance, to Walter Richmond, who was only ten years old.
At the time, no one doubted that Grand Duchess Eliza would stand by her young grandson to protect Richmond.
But the Grand Duchess, whom everyone trusted, lost her mind. Perhaps the shock of losing both her son and his wife was too much to bear. She was afraid that something bad would happen to her young grandson, so she went into the bedroom with him and isolated herf. She did not allow anyone to see Walter except her maid, Mrs. Isaac, and tightened the security around the room so that no ants or flies would approach her.
The absence of the young duke threw the House of Richmond into chaos. The loyal followers whom the late Duke cherished tried to fill the void, but the herds of hyenas craving tender meat would not pass up such an opportunity.
The Marquis Lenco, the highest-ranking member of the family after the Duke, had gathered around him his followers and even the support of the Empress.
The Empress made a tempting offer: for the House of Richmond to guard the “Wall of Death” for a full ten years.
The Wall of Death was a long wall in the far west, behind which monsters teemed. A very dangerous place, to the point that it was difficult to survive there for one year, so they sent prisoners instead of soldiers. As for ten years...it was a death sentence.
The Marquis, invoking the Empress's offer, arranged to send the late Duke's followers and even the young Duke himf, under the pretext that they must have a leader to the Wall of Death. No matter how hard the Grand Duchess tried to protect him, she could not disobey the Empress's order.
In the end, he succeeded.
Three years later, the Duke returned, completely changed. It is true that he was still young, but the Marquis, who had bid him farewell on the embankment of the moat, was waving to him and secretly wishing:
Never come back.
Then he completely isolated the Grand Duchess, expelled all remaining followers of the late Duke, and filled the palace with his men.
He waited every day for news of the Duke's death, and from time to time he even sent hired killers. But unlike Amane, he did not die.
The young Duke returned, a large man, at the head of five hundred knights. The Marquis, who had hoped that he had lost all his aristocratic dignity, was disappointed, but he exuded nobility and prestige that was enough for a glance.
And on top of that… there was a woman.
A woman wearing a cream-colored dress, simple in appearance, stands next to the Duke who terrifies everyone, with all naturalness. That scene strangely irritated the Marquis.
The Marquis shook the image of the man and woman side by side from his mind, and entered the meeting hall himf.
Under the banner of the Blue Eagle, the Duke's seat stood. Despite his control over everything in the palace, the Marquis did not succeed in seizing that seat. His seat was to the right of the Duke's seat. He sat on it resentfully, and wiped his face roughly. The eyes were on him.
After he had made up his mind, he pointed to one of the nobles and ordered him:
“Start by finding out who this woman is. From her appearance, she appears to be noble, but if she was moving around in the arms of a man without an entourage or servants, then she must be from a fallen family until she approached the common people. They searched all the families near the wall of death. The Duke has not left that place for ten years.”
“I command you.”
Then the Marquis's wife became angry:
“Near the wall of death?!” Is anyone who lives there considered noble at all?! The reason for not announcing her name must be the emptiness of her lineage! And the chandelier room is given to a woman like this?!”
That's my room!
One of the nobles took the opportunity to please them and said:
“Bringing a woman like that into Richmond Palace is fundamentally unacceptable.”
Those who did not dare to open their mouths at the Duke's cold gaze, began to speak one by one. Among them was the Count of Lewin, Flora's father.
“I don't know what His Highness is thinking, but no one can be brought into his side like this. I think we should file a formal protest. To do this without the slightest consultation with us!
The Marquis, who remained silent, looked at the faces one by one. There was silence. Then he said in a decisive voice:
“We are the ones who saved Richmond when it was shaky.”
"correct."
“The Duke seems to have forgotten that. We must remind him that Richmond does not belong to him alone.”
naturally. Who are you then?
The Marquis kept repeating this conviction within himf.
＊ ＊ ＊
Walter Richmond.
Flora repeated the name to her secretly over and over again.
She had never seen a man like him in her life. Black hair, sharp eyes, a trim jaw, and a solid build that commands admiration. Despite the simplicity of his military uniform and abaya, the golden medals stacked on his chest confirmed that he was the owner of this place.
The nobles, led by the Marquis and his wife, were waiting for him, but he passed them silently and entered. When the owner of the house enters his house, he does not need to speak. Those standing on the bridge dispersed in chaos to make way for him, and Flora was among them.
"Who is this?"
I heard a voice amid the commotion. Flora's eyes moved from Walter to the woman standing next to him.
A rare blonde woman, her hair held up with quiet elegance. Flora's gaze stopped when the Duke's hand was holding hers tightly between them.
And that was not all. He stopped every few steps to look at her, and each time she responded with obvious seduction.
Flora saw it all. Pretending to be innocent, elegant, and ignorant! The Duke was under her spell. His stony face softened whenever he looked at her.
Anger flared in Flora's chest, and she bit her lip hard.
“Miss!”
The two maids who guided the duke and the woman to the room approached her.
“Did you two know anything?”
They leaned near the sofa and whispered:
“She seems to be a noble in name only, from a completely fallen family. "It's almost common."
“Even the Marquis ordered an investigation into the families near the Wall of Death.”
At that moment, Flora felt warmth spread through her frozen chest. She scoffed and shook her head.
“Noble in name only? "How ironic."
The two maids raced to please her with words.
“The girl who came with her as a maid… seemed to have a scent.”
“There is no doubt that the chandelier room was at her request.”
Flora listened to these words as if they were music, and took on an expression of feigned sadness.
“Poor thing... and the Duke too is poor, to be charmed by such a woman.”
“Miss... you are truly an angel.”
“The Marquis and my father will not stand idly by. How could a woman like that become the Duchess of Richmond?
"naturally."
Flora smiled lightly and offered each of them a gold piece.
“Watch the situation. If there is anything new, come back to me.”