# 67
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"yes?"
Grace quickly picked out a few copies of the documents and handed them to the official.
“The gold the Marquis embezzled is likely in Steel Canyon. Organize these documents and report them to Your Excellency immediately. You must review them and send someone today to minimize the leakage.”
The official looked surprised and hurriedly picked up the documents.
"All right."
As he disappeared, the next person stood in front of her.
Please take a look at this.
Grace quickly scanned the handed-out documents and pointed to a certain spot with her finger.
I think it would be best to review this part together with the documents Lord Lotus is currently examining. Please take them with you and look into them together.
“Yes, I understand.”
Grace had conversations with a few more people after that.
Perhaps because she had been working without a moment's rest, her head felt hot. As she rinsed her mouth with a sip of lukewarm water, she sensed a presence nearby again. Feeling as though she were being swept along by inertia, she looked up to find a completely unexpected figure smiling at her.
“Andrew?”
The boy's face turned comical.
“My Princess!!”
At Andrew's booming voice, officials from all around craned their necks. A smile spread across Grace's face at his attitude, which exuded genuine delight.
"how have you been doing?"
“Yes!! How have you been, Princess?!!”
Count Isaac, who was standing behind Andrew, slapped his son's sturdy shoulder, shouting, "Did this rascal boil and eat a firecracker!" but Andrew seemed to feel not the slightest sensation of the blow. Count Isaac looked embarrassed over his son's shoulder.
“Of course, I’ve been doing well. You look like a completely different person now that I see you. It’s good to see you.”
“Yes!! Seeing that the Princess is doing well makes me, extremely, happy!!”
A smile spread across the boy's flushed face. She saw Count Isaac, who had been standing behind him, turn his back on his son as if to say, "I don't know anymore." Grace quickly composed her laughter and asked.
“What’s up?”
“Um, well—the Grand Madam is calling.”
“The Grand Madam?”
“Yes! He told me to take responsibility and bring him here. Please wait.”
As he did so, he turned to look at the officials standing behind him. The gaze that had appeared like that of a gentle lamb in front of Grace transformed into the eyes of a knight who had survived the Wall of Death.
He told me to make sure to bring him along, as it is not that there is no one in Richmond to review the documents.
At the pointed remark, the officials who were about to consult with Grace glanced nervously. Honestly, it was a matter they could have decided on their own, but they had been standing there because consulting with Grace, who was in charge of the vast amount of documents, would have made the process much faster.
Grace also asked them, as she thought that Eliza was waiting and she needed to rest for a while.
Is it an urgent document?
“Oh, no. We’ll take care of it, miss.”
As the officials withdrew, Grace put the quill she was holding into the locker and stood up. However, she heard Andrew muttering as he glared at the backs of the officials walking away.
"miss?"
It is because I was expelled from Taylor.
"……yes?"
Andrew looked at her with a surprised expression. Grace glanced at him and put on the coat Jesse had brought.
“My Lady?”
"So, Gyeongdo, don't call me Princess, call me Miss. That is the right way."
“…….”
“Let’s go. Please guide me to the Lord’s wife.”
Andrew couldn't bring himself to ask why either. Instead, he suddenly stood at attention with a determined look in his eyes.
"all right!!"
Grace smiled faintly and left the room for the first time today, and the sound of Andrew's clunky shoes followed her into the distance.
Just as silence fell with only the sound of burning firewood remaining, someone's dumbfounding muttering was heard.
"Someone please put a tail on the youngest son of the Count Isaac family."
“Ha… ha ha.”
The subsequent hollow laughter was, of course, Count Isaac's.
* * *
Winter had arrived in Richmond. The faint, lukewarm sunlight could not warm the chill in the air, and the trees were trembling with only their bare branches.
Marquise Rinko, who had come outside to cool down her surging emotions, inhaled the cold air.
Time dragged on frustratingly.
Currently, the heads and heirs of important vassal houses were inside the Duke of Richmond Castle. The Duke had effectively prevented them from leaving the castle under the pretext of an 'efficient handover.' Looking at the knights in black armor guarding the gates, I felt as though even the last glimmer of hope of being able to leave was vanishing.
Meanwhile, the Grand Madam tightened her grip on the servants within the castle and established a hierarchy. In just a few days, half of the ladies-in-waiting who served her lost their titles and were expelled. Some of the noble families who had acted like tongues in her mouth secretly begged the Duke for forgiveness and pledged their loyalty, while others were punished and fell into ruin.
"Did they keep us from leaving the castle so we could watch this kind of spectacle with our own eyes?"
Eliza Richmond and the Duke must have intended to trap them in a jar and drain their blood through terror as they killed them one by one.
In this maddening situation, the only hope was my son.
Mother, please bear with it just a little longer.
"I'm dying of anxiety, so what more am I supposed to endure? We need to get out of this damn castle first to plan for the future! If the Duke draws his sword inside, we're all doomed!"
There is a way out.
The son's plan was bold.
It was when Emily Rinco was reviewing her son's plan and vowing to avenge the humiliation without fail. Time, which had been flowing frustratingly slowly, stopped, and it seemed as though even the flow of the cold air had ceased. The Marquise, having stopped even in her tracks, clenched her fist tightly inside her fur coat.
Far away, the culprit behind all this was visible.
“Marquise, over there—.”
"Really. I saw it, too."
The woman whom he had killed thousands upon thousands of times in his imagination was walking elegantly, accompanied by a knight in black armor and a handmaiden. Although she must have clearly seen him, there was not the slightest change in Grace's expression.
It gives me the creeps.
"Besides, she is a vulgar woman who knows nothing of honor. I heard she was expelled from the tailor. Then she isn't a noble, is she?"
Flora, standing behind him, muttered in a voice laced with contempt. Andrew tensed his shoulders at the fierce gazes of the Marquise, Flora, and several other noblewomen.
“Shall I guide you another way?”
Don't worry about it, just ignore it.
Andrew wondered how she could not care about that, but Grace ignored them as naturally as breathing. Since there was no reason to go out of her way to offer a polite greeting to those glaring at her, she intended to simply pause for a moment and walk past, using that as a substitute for a greeting.
A vulgar thing that doesn't even know honor.
Andrew, who had been guarding Grace's side, stopped walking at the fierce and cruel words and raised his eyes as if to pounce at any moment.
“What did you just say?!”
“Sir Andrew Isaac. Show some respect. Such unruly and rough behavior is ultimately tarnishing the reputation of the knights.”
As Andrew was about to lose his temper again, Grace raised her hand to stop him.
Sir Isaac.
It was a time when a silent war was in full swing. There was no benefit in her causing a disturbance.
The boy, who had bared his teeth as if ready for a dogfight, stepped back with an angry sigh at Grace's restraint. Grace turned her gaze in the direction she had originally intended to go and spoke monotonously.
It does not appear that you called me, so I will be going now.
However, the Marquise was not the only one who held a grudge against Grace. Flora was hostile towards the Marquise behind her back.
“The title of a prestigious tailor is a thing of the past. To think I am in this wretched state, relying on a man’s house as an unmarried woman, and disowned by the family at that.”
That is something even commoners wouldn't do.
Aren't you ashamed in the eyes of your ancestors?
Grace, who had taken a step while ignoring it, paused at the last remark.
Aren't you ashamed in the eyes of your ancestors?
“Well, if my ancestors are watching, I don’t think they would be too ashamed of me.”
The Marquise let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded and clicked her tongue loudly.
"You have no shame, and you're even brazen."
“It is a good thing I am no longer a noble; if I were a noble myself, I would have been ashamed, even I!”
It was at that moment, when not only Jesse but even Andrew was breathing heavily with his fists clenched, due to the ladies' verbal abuse.
Grace.
A distinctive vocalization was carried on the cold wind. The faces of those who had been excited by cruel euphoria stiffened in unison, while Andrew's face brightened noticeably.
“Madam!”