The Survival Strategy of the Contract Duchess - Chapter 101

Elina bit her lip.

Inside the carriage passing through the lush Uhalin Forest, Elina sat alone, tense.

It was her second time visiting the Ignote Estate, but she hadn’t been this nervous last time.

She had sat with the Marchioness, speculating about how Sasha had seduced the Duke, whether she was being neglected in a corner for not being loved, and whether they had been called to take her back, all while enjoying the ride.

Of course, the atmosphere in the carriage wasn’t pleasant on the way back, as both the Marchioness and Elina were furious.

Uhalin Forest was a forest passed through on the way to the capital, and it was so beautiful that it was famous for young nobles to go on dates, but Elina couldn’t even look out the window now.

If a monster suddenly rushed towards the carriage from afar, she felt like she would die of a heart attack before being attacked.

“The Empress said that Duke Ignote will be coming to the Imperial Palace tomorrow. If we leave in the morning, we should arrive when he’s away from the estate.”

The ‘task’ that Elina had begged Ivern to give her was very nerve-wracking. She could vaguely guess its intention, which meant that even she could be in danger.

The time when the Duke was away at the Imperial Palace. Elina was heading out, tense, to carry out a mission that didn’t even give her the small reward of seeing him.

“Excuse me, but who should I say is here?”

However, the gatekeeper of the estate was already causing trouble. She had clearly visited once before, and even if he was just a knight, shouldn’t he recognize her face?

Elina opened the carriage window, peeked her head out, frowned, and then opened the door and stepped out. She hadn’t imagined being treated so coldly from the outside, assuming that she could just show the knight and the carriage, and then peek her head out to be let in immediately.

The one standing guard at the gate, looking at her with a firm posture, was a man with strong-looking brown hair and tanned skin.

He looked down at Elina with fierce eyes that seemed like they could cut her down.

“Please state your identity.”

“Don’t you know me.? Haa? I am Elina Ivern from the Ivern Marquisate. My sister is here.”

She hurriedly contained the voice that she was about to shout out in anger. There was no point in getting upset here. Since the atmosphere wasn’t good when she left last time, he might have been told not to let her in.

“Ah, I apologize, Lady Ivern. I will inform the Duchess quickly. Please wait in the carriage for a moment.”

Elina frowned as she saw him treating her politely after hearing her name.

Was he new? Was that why he didn’t recognize her from last time? She was slightly offended that he didn’t know Elina Ivern’s face, but she quickly got back into the carriage as she watched him hurry inside.

She was here now on behalf of the Ivern Marquis. To be exact, it would be right to say that she had come with a mission.

She had volunteered to do anything, but it might have been much better to steal something from her room.

“Bring him to Uhalin Forest. I wouldn’t go even if Duke Kyler asked me to.”

How was she supposed to bring him to that forest?

Ivern had told Elina what to say to him, but would it really work? She doubted it.

At that moment, she heard the voices of men outside. It seemed like the knight who had gone inside had come out. She was nervous, not knowing what kind of conversation was taking place, but the door soon opened.

Judging from the short exchange, it didn’t seem like anything important had been said.

Elina bit her lip again, tensing up at every little thing. She didn’t like the fact that she was already losing face before even entering the mansion.

As she got out of the carriage in front of the mansion, a young maid came out and bowed deeply. She followed the very young-looking child who greeted her and opened the door, and then suddenly raised her head.

She wasn’t surprised by the spacious hall. She had already seen it when she came before, and she had been to the Imperial Palace, so it was only natural for a Duke’s estate. But when she raised her eyes a little further, she saw someone coming down from the second floor.

“……”

Elina barely managed to stop her mouth from opening. She had discovered Sasha standing on the stairs, looking down at her.

There was a strange sense of intimidation in her appearance, with her abundant blonde hair flowing down.

It was an elegance that she had never felt even from her mother, the Marchioness.

She had stopped herself from opening her mouth, but Elina, who had been staring at her in a daze, felt like her mind was burning up so much that she briefly forgot what she had been given to do.

“What’s going on? You went back last time as if you would never come again.”

“Wasn’t it you who kicked me out?”

Elina, feeling that all the tension and daze she had been in until just now was a disgrace, shouted out in anger.

Not knowing that raising her voice only revealed her pride instead of making her look bigger, she glared up at Sasha with eyes blazing.

“You look great? Is it fun playing mistress when the Duke isn’t here?”

Sasha, who had been slowly descending the stairs after meeting Elina’s eyes, stopped with one or two steps remaining. The sound of her footsteps echoed softly, and as Elina’s shouts disappeared, Elina swallowed hard at Sasha’s footsteps coming down.

Before coming all the way down the stairs, Sasha turned her head slightly to the side. At her small movement, a woman who had been standing in an elegant posture as if she were a noble lady began to move towards her.

The head maid of the Ignote Estate, whom she had seen when she came before. If she didn’t know, she would have thought she was a noble lady. The head maid was moving at her single glance. Elina, overwhelmed by her aura, looked at Sasha and let out a sound of suppressed anger.

Sasha, who had finished coming down the stairs, moved her foot slightly to the right instead of approaching Elina, and glanced at her.

“Come this way.”

It was a completely different voice from the pretentious Midiena. She realized for the first time while looking at Sasha that elegance didn’t come from a made-up voice, but from attitude.

“You’re not a welcome visitor, but I can’t help but offer a cup of tea to a guest who has come to Ignot’s mansion.”

Sasha led her to the drawing room with unhurried steps. Sasha took the seat of honor, and Elina took a seat diagonally across from her, lifting her chin slightly.

While the head maid and another maid were setting the tea on the table, Elina continued to calm herself.

She hadn’t come here to compare anything, and she hadn’t come to suppress Sasha. She had a mission, and if she carried it out properly, she wouldn’t have to feel ashamed of being pushed back.

Elina was about to take a sip of tea, but she put the teacup back down as it was because of her gaze, sitting in the seat of honor on the sofa and staring intently.

She cleared her throat and lifted her chin again. It was like a struggle to maintain at least a minimum of self-esteem.

Elina’s pupils trembled slightly because Sasha didn’t open her mouth for a long time, only staring at her intently. If she remembered why she had come, what she had come for, and the previous argument, it was right for her to push her away and kick her out.

But she didn’t rush. Just before her mind went blank at the gaze that looked at her for a long time with calm eyes, Sasha opened her mouth as if she had noticed her condition.

“So, when can I hear the reason why you came to see me?”

She wasn’t the Sasha she knew, even when they had met before. She was a girl whose face was pale and white from living in the attic, and whose hair was always disheveled and without any shine.

She knew that she would sneak out at night, but she didn’t bother to stop her. When the servants came to tell her, she pretended to be calm, saying, ‘Oh, just leave her alone. How frustrating must it be?’

That was her pretense. She boasted that she was such a generous person.

She was just a device to make her stand out, with no value beyond that, and her parents were just busy hiding her. But the woman in front of her now was completely different from the Sasha in her memory.

Wasn’t that the reason why she was nervous? She already thought of this person as a strange stranger. Sasha Ignot, the mistress of the great Ignote family. The woman in front of her seemed like a high-ranking noble lady with the same name, whom she didn’t know at all.

Get a grip, Elina. The woman in front of you is your sister. A woman who grew up alone in the attic, whom Mom and Dad had to hide, whom they couldn’t show to anyone.

Elina’s chin went up a little higher than before. She looked at her with a look that seemed to look down on her and opened her mouth.

“Of course, I didn’t come to have tea with you leisurely, let’s go out together.”

Sasha’s eyebrows twitched slightly at her confident voice. A smile appeared on Elina’s face, who was focusing all her attention on making sure her chin didn’t tremble as she watched her reaction.

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