The Survival Strategy of the Contract Duchess - Chapter 75

“Pavon, Pavon!”

Pavon was in his workroom, just about to leave the building to look around the mansion, when he heard the urgent voice and turned around. Rose, who normally carried herself with calm dignity like a noblewoman within the mansion, was the one calling out to him so frantically.

Seeing her in such a rare state, Pavon stopped immediately and approached. She rushed over, her breath ragged, as if she had been running around the estate.

She clutched an envelope and an unfolded piece of paper in her hands.

“What’s the matter that you’re in such a hurry?”

Pavon stood calmly, watching as she struggled to catch her breath. Rose, still trying to steady herself, unconsciously shook the envelope in her hand before she spoke.

“The Duke… the Duke isn’t in the mansion right now. When did he leave? Did he say when he would return?”

Even before, he was never the kind of master to share his whereabouts freely, but lately, he had become even more elusive. He would leave or return at dawn, or vanish from the mansion in the middle of the day without saying a word.

As expected, Pavon shook his head.

“I don’t know either. When I looked, he was already gone.”

Even Pavon, whose room was nearest the entrance, hadn’t noticed. He had disappeared quickly and quietly.

“What should I do…”

Rose looked genuinely troubled as she continued to hold the envelope.

“What’s going on to make you so anxious?”

Pavon asked again, a trace of concern and impatience in his voice.

“Pavon? Rose? What’s wrong?”

Their mistress appeared behind them.

Pavon turned and bowed respectfully, but Rose gripped the letter even tighter, her tension flaring up again.

“Sasha…”

Rose turned slowly toward Sasha. She had already seen her earlier today, but now she stiffened and lowered her head in hesitation.

“What is it? Rose, your face is completely pale.”

Rose glanced at the letter in her hand. She had hoped to handle this without involving the mistress, but now she had run straight into her.

She hesitated, thinking and reconsidering as Sasha came down the stairs and approached her. Should she show it as it was? Or should she wait until the Duke returned and give it to him instead?

Sasha, who now stood right in front of her, looked unwell. Her tired eyes made it clear she hadn’t been sleeping properly. Seeing her like that only deepened Rose’s worry.

Her dark brown eyes drifted downward. At the same moment, Rose’s heart sank. Sasha had noticed the crumpled letter she hadn’t managed to hide.

“If you’re wondering about the Duke, he left early this morning. Since he took his sword with him, I assume he went with the knights.”

She knew something no one else seemed to know. She had clearly been awake when others were not.

“Sasha, this is a letter from the Imperial Palace.”

After much hesitation, Rose finally unfolded the crumpled paper and held it out.

Sasha looked at her in surprise. That expression alone told her how difficult it had been for Rose to decide whether to show her.

Sasha glanced down at the letter, then accepted it. She unfolded the page, its creases still visible, and began to read the contents.

“It’s just asking me to come. Why are they so desperate to get an answer today about whether I’m coming or not?”

The message was short and formal. The Empress herself had something she wished to say and requested Sasha to visit the Imperial Palace as soon as possible. She was to reply immediately upon receiving the letter.

An imperial messenger had delivered it and was currently waiting nearby to receive the response.

While Rose struggled to think of what to say next, Sasha had already started to move. By the time Rose realized where she was heading Kyler’s study, she was already following behind.

Sasha had never taken the lead in matters like this, especially anything involving the Empress.

Sending a letter with such urgency and pressing for a clear response, no matter how she tried to interpret it differently, it was hard not to think it meant trouble. That was why she hadn’t delivered it right away.

Sasha entered Kyler’s study without pause. She didn’t touch the Duke’s desk but went around to the opposite side, looking for paper and envelopes to write a reply.

“I think it was somewhere around here…”

Rose quickly realized what she was searching for and pointed to a drawer near the top.

“If you’re looking for something, it’s here.”

Rather than take it out for her, Sasha opened the drawer herself. Inside was exactly what she needed.

She took out a plain beige sheet of paper and a matching envelope, free from any decoration. Without hesitation, she grabbed a quill and inked the nib. The process felt familiar, she had often watched Kyler write here.

One of the truly fortunate things was that she could read and write the language here just as naturally as she could speak it.

Without hesitation, she wrote in the letter that she would respond to the summons soon and that she could visit as early as tomorrow.

There was no reason to postpone it. It would be better to get it over with quickly.

She set the reply aside to let the ink dry. In the meantime, she tidied up the pen and ink, restored the desk to its original order, and returned everything to the drawer except for one envelope.

“Sasha, do you really have to go…”

“Wasn’t that why you were so anxious? Because it’s something that needs to be done?”

Sasha looked at Rose as if it were nothing, but she could see Rose swallowing hard.

“I’m sorry. You have to go.”

That was why she had hesitated to deliver it. If the Duke had been home, she would have taken it straight to him, asked for his judgment, and followed whatever he decided. If it was something difficult or delicate, it would have been best to leave it in his hands and step back.

He was the only one who could refuse a summons from the Imperial Family.

But Rose was surprised by her composure. Judging by how calmly she moved, Sasha wasn’t acting out of recklessness or pride.

“Oh, it’s dry now. What can they really do to me if I go? They’ll probably try to pour tea and charm me into something again, like last time. It’s annoying, but if it looks like it could become harmful, I won’t make it worse.”

Maybe it was the exhaustion and pressure catching up with her, but there was a quiet force in her calmness that felt almost aggressive.

Noticing this, Rose gently took the letter from her hand, folded it with care, placed it in the envelope, and spoke softly.

“Sasha, the Duke seems a little down lately. Why don’t you go back to his room at night and sleep there? You don’t seem to be sleeping enough yourself.”

Last time, she had been so sensitive and unstable that Rose had stopped her from going into the Duke’s room out of concern. She had been afraid Sasha might get hurt if she was near him.

Rose remembered how, as a child, Sasha had reacted to unbearable noise throwing and breaking everything in her room. Even then, she had never harmed another person, only herself and her surroundings. And ever since she had accepted her sensitivity as an ability and vowed to use it for the empire, she had never shown that kind of pain or rage again.

Still, it was difficult to accept that part of her.

She regretted stopping her that night. By doing so, she may have made Sasha believe she shouldn’t go to him when he was like that, or that it would be dangerous to try.

“No, the Duke refused.”

She spoke in a trembling voice, even though she had shown no hesitation at all while writing the letter. Rose blinked, confused.

“What? Sasha, what are you talking about…”

Sasha handed her the sealed envelope. Rose, still stunned, didn’t even look at the envelope and kept staring at her.

“I waited all day for the Duke to return. I didn’t even know when he came in. I waited until late, and when I went to his room to get into bed and sleep beside him, like I usually do… he said no. He said it was okay and that I should go and rest comfortably since I must be tired.”

“Sasha…”

Her voice floated, distant, like someone half-asleep. Her eyes were slightly unfocused, and Rose felt the urge to call her name, afraid she might fade away if she didn’t.

Now she understood, Sasha had been hiding her condition all this time.

“…So, I can’t keep going. If I fall asleep… I’m afraid I’ll go to him in my sleep. I’m holding myself back.”

Sasha bit her lip hard. She felt she had to avoid doing anything that Kyler was trying to distance her from.

At night, she wanted to go to him and held herself back. She was afraid she might go without realizing it, so she stayed awake, forcing herself not to move.

She closed her eyes and swallowed hard. Her mouth was dry. She almost dozed off for a moment, but quickly caught herself and stood up again.

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