The Survival Strategy of the Contract Duchess - Chapter 102

Sasha looked at her with a relaxed face.

Watching her hide her tension and suppress the rising anger, Sasha’s slight nervousness upon hearing about her visit melted away.

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

Watching her reaction, she could immediately sense it. Elina was being overwhelmed by her aura. Spending time with Kyler and keeping Rose close seemed to have naturally imbued her with their aristocratic attitude.

And she seemed to be intimidated by that aspect of herself. The moment she calmly and composedly raised her chin as if bluffing, her eyes changed in an instant.

Oh, she seemed to have regained her composure after realizing she was flustered and nervous, repeatedly hurting her pride.

Well, let’s hear what nonsense she’s here to spout.

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

She wondered why she was trying to say it with such a relaxed face. She was saying strange things. Without a word about where she was going or why she had to go, she was saying it as if she was sure she would go with her.

“You have a confident face. If you’re going to take someone out, shouldn’t you at least tell them where and why you’re going?”

And only after saying those words in a coaxing tone did Sasha feel a bitter taste at the end of her closing lips.

There’s something going on.

That thought flashed through her mind. Elina was a foolish child. But unlike being foolish, she was cunning. She knew how to stubbornly insist on what she believed in, and she knew how to find ways to be superior.

She felt like she had been a little blind when it came to Kyler, whether it was because she was the sister the other person looked down on, or because she had fallen in love with Kyler at first sight.

Maybe Midiana had blown a little, no, a lot of wind into it.

But today, something felt a little different. She had looked so nervous until just now, but she had suddenly regained her confidence. There was a limit to how clumsy she could be.

“We’re going to the Uhalin Forest.”

Even the place she had to go was.

“I wouldn’t go out with you, but I wouldn’t go there even more.”

Sasha stared at Elina without a hint of a smile. Elina flinched slightly as her straight eyes pierced her, but she swallowed hard and raised the corners of her lips as if nothing had happened.

“No, you have to go with me. Because of what happened in that forest.”

Elina said confidently.

What on earth was the source of her confidence? What made her so confident about what happened in the forest?

And Sasha was quite perceptive. She couldn’t help but be trained. The soul had no choice but to quickly develop a sense of awareness in order to survive in the world alone, and the same was true of what remained in the body. If she wanted to come down from the attic every night, she would need a sense of awareness faster than anyone else.

What happened in the Uhalin Forest. Since Kyler or Dylan were always by her side at that time, she thought it was a miscalculation to think that no one would know about this.

The ‘thing’ Elina was talking about must be about Sasha encountering the monster.

“Hmm. Really? Why? Shouldn’t I be the one who doesn’t want to go?”

But Sasha didn’t stop her. If she spoke leisurely, she could respond in the same way. If she wanted to get something, she had to offer something to her as well.

She couldn’t go empty-handed. Going to that forest without Kyler was full of dangers.

Elina gritted her teeth without showing it and immediately released the tension. It was natural that she wouldn’t give in easily, but she never expected her to respond so calmly.

Elina, who had hesitated slightly, was wondering whether to take out her last card now or later. She was burning with a desire not to lose.

“Don’t waste time and get up. If you don’t go, you’ll definitely regret it?”

Elina’s inner thoughts, which she didn’t immediately reveal what she had hidden, were obvious. It wasn’t her who was getting anxious now. She was someone who could just be sent back right away. She could just kick her out, saying she didn’t have to listen.

Sasha, who was about to open her mouth to say that, briefly turned her gaze away from her and looked out the window.

What she wanted to say must be about the monster. And there must be something in it that she couldn’t refuse. Was it information about the monster, or was it about her identity?

She had heard that no one knew about what she had experienced in the forest where she had encountered the monster with Kyler a few days ago. And while talking about it, something swept through Sasha’s mind.

“I can just not leave the Duke’s residence. There are so many things I can do inside.”

The promise she made to prevent the monster from deviating from its original range of activity became the hint.

If she didn’t leave the mansion, the monster wouldn’t be out of control. If she left the house, and got close, they would definitely leave the controlled area, the mountain range, to find her.

Within a fairly high probability range.

And what she inferred from there was about how this Sasha’s body had lived in the Ivern Marquisate.

Perhaps the original soul had no idea why she had to live locked up. If there was such a thing, wouldn’t she have mentioned it at the time of contracting with Kyler?

Or even while throwing herself at him did she not trust Kyler in the end?

She was starting to feel a little sorry. Where had the original soul gone? She just hoped at least it didn’t go into her previous body.

“Did, hmm, did Marquis Ivern order you to do this?”

She didn’t even feel like he was her father, and she had never seen his face, so she hurriedly corrected herself from calling him father. She felt like she shouldn’t call him that for some reason.

And as if her words had hit the mark, she felt a wave of depression as she saw Elina’s surprised eyes.

She had always wondered how a father could leave his daughter in the attic for 20 years, but to try to drag his daughter into that forest even though he knew she had encountered a monster, and even by sending his beloved daughter as bait.

She was chilled to the bone at the thought that he was a truly terrifying man.

“Yes. I have something to ask my dad.”

Even Elina’s reaction, trying to test her while smiling, made her feel even more chilled.

“Do you even know what it means for me to go to that forest right now?”

She couldn’t help but ask, feeling dumbfounded.

She had expected her to be shaken by her story, but the direction was a little different, and Elina’s triumphant reaction wavered a little. But she just shrugged her shoulders and smiled more suspiciously.

“Aren’t you curious? If it’s not Dad, there probably won’t be anyone else to tell you that story?”

That didn’t come from her head. She could tell just by her attitude. So she probably didn’t even know the seriousness of it. She just thought that since she had encountered a monster there, she wouldn’t want to go, she would be afraid of encountering it.

If so, then the words conveyed through her mouth might not have come from Elina’s head either.

“Haa, so that’s what Marquis Ivern knows.”

She, who had been looking out the window, slightly turned her head and moved only her eyes to look at Elina across from her. She kept making her feel shaken by calling her dad as if she was calling someone else, especially someone with a lower title.

She felt so strongly that she was treating her not as her sister Sasha, but as a complete stranger.

“Yes. If you want to know the answer, you can come with me. Can you just bury it like this and live? You must be dying of curiosity.”

Whether she had regained her composure or was trying to pretend, Sasha, who was already focused on the words she was conveying, didn’t even notice her.

Now, she realized that it was a provocation towards her. Then, what would be the right thing to do here?

The right thing to do was, of course, to send the poor young lady, who was smiling confidently in front of her and acting as Marquis Ivern’s parrot, back home.

She didn’t know how much the Marquis loved this child, whether he didn’t have much affection to entrust this task to her, or whether there was some pressure that forced him to send his beloved daughter out, but she could see the position of this child being used right in front of her.

“How long are you going to keep bothering Duke Kyler, huh? Just because you don’t know how to do anything and you’re just stuck in the Duke’s residence, do you think you’re all a duchess?”

It was Elina who threw a stone at Sasha, who was hesitating. The stone brought to the surface the waves of Sasha’s heart that had been swirling only inside. A storm began to rage in the lake that had only been calm on the surface.

Those words came from Elina. Sasha sighed deeply at her, who was releasing the inferiority complex she had built up towards her.

“If you want to take me so badly, fine. I’ll follow you.”

Sasha got up from her seat right away. She gave her a chilling smile as she looked down at her with wide eyes, as if she hadn’t expected her to get up so quickly.

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