The Survival Strategy of the Contract Duchess - Chapter 90

“While you were out, you should have bought a dress.”

Rose glanced subtly at the beautiful young lady sitting across from her in the carriage. The sunlight streaming through the carriage window didn’t seem to bother her as her hazel eyes sparkled while gazing outside.

At Rose’s words, she smiled gently, her eyes almost disappearing, and shook her head.

“I have plenty of dresses to wear now, why bother? I really don’t need to buy one.”

In Rose’s opinion, the dresses Sasha was wearing seemed a bit old and outdated, likely ones that the former Duchess had worn.

The only saving grace was that they weren’t too old-fashioned in design.

Seeing Rose still staring at her dress with a disappointed expression despite her answer, Sasha followed her gaze and looked down at herself. It’s still so luxurious and pretty. I wonder if Kyler thinks the same as Rose, she worried slightly.

“I really like this, though. Ah, if wearing the former Duchess’s clothes is a problem, tell me. I’ll only wear the newly bought dresses.”

As Sasha tilted her head and spoke, Rose vehemently denied it, even using her hands.

“That’s absolutely not the case. I was worried about that too, but the Duke said it was fine.”

Rose’s reaction only made Sasha more curious. She became a little curious about the story of when Sasha first came here, even though it wasn’t her own affair.

“At first, I don’t think he cared much about me, but aren’t the former Duchess’s clothes important? He just said it was okay to wear them?”

Come to think of it, her room was also neatly and beautifully arranged. At first, she just felt like it was well-maintained, but now that she thought about it, was this room perhaps the same one the former Duchess used?

The room my mother used. Sasha, who didn’t know what family love was, had a vague feeling that the words would evoke some kind of affection. It felt like something that couldn’t be readily given away.

Ah, is it because someone who can soothe his ears is coming, so he’s paying a lot of attention?

“At first, he didn’t show any agitation, so I don’t know. He was the same as usual. However, he instructed us to clean up the former mistress’s room as if she were using the former Duchess’s room. And to replace the old things with new ones. Anyway, so that the newly arriving person wouldn’t be uncomfortable.”

Rather, Sasha felt relieved by this answer. Because the Sasha at that time wasn’t her. If she had heard that he had already shown affection from then or had taken great care to welcome her, she would have been concerned in her own way.

Oh my, goodness. It’s like I’m jealous of myself.

Sasha’s face turned red at her own thoughts. Rose, who was watching from the front, felt somehow pleased with her reaction.

The carriage soon arrived at the Duke’s residence. And for some reason, Sasha immediately noticed that Kyler, who had left early in the morning, had returned.

Calming her fluttering heart, she got out of the carriage. If he had returned without any gains and was feeling down, then being unnecessarily cheerful might not be a good idea.

“Ah, Lady Sasha. It seems the Duke has arrived.”

Rose’s voice seemed slightly excited, as if she also knew he had returned. Then, she suppressed the bright smile that was about to form and looked at Sasha, who was hurriedly getting out of the carriage, with a pleased expression.

“Really, it’s a relief that Lady Sasha came.”

“Huh? What did you say, Rose?”

“It’s nothing. Please go inside quickly.”

Sasha, who had turned around once when Rose spoke to her, immediately turned back and entered the house as soon as she finished speaking.

A pleased smile lingered on Rose’s lips for a while.

When the Duke and Duchess suddenly passed away in an accident, this Duke’s residence was nothing but dark. Kyler, who wasn’t the type to shout or make a fuss in the mansion in the first place, became a person who hardly uttered a word or made a sound after inheriting the Dukedom.

So, this magnificent and enormous Ignote Duke’s residence went through a dark age. With only one person living there, the number of staff was minimized, and most of those who were there at the time left to find jobs in other noble families, leaving only young maids to manage the place.

Rose, who had remained here as a maid to protect the place, didn’t realize it, but she learned through Sasha that love has such great power.

When she first came to the mansion for the wedding, she seemed lifeless and almost dying, but she suddenly came to life as if she had made some kind of resolution.

She still remembered her sparkling hazel eyes that she had seen through the mirror.

“Still, I’m so glad that the atmosphere between the two of them is good again these days.”

Thinking about the two people who seemed like they would overcome any crisis well, Rose, who was going inside, discovered young maids huddled together at the end of the second-floor staircase, with only their bottoms visible as if they were peeking at something.

“You girls!”

*

“Um, I went to the downtown area with Rose today. I didn’t go to buy anything. I just wanted to look around once.”

Sasha met him in the hallway before going to her room. Kyler, who was holding the doorknob to enter his room, had waited after hearing the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs.

But when she greeted him with a happy heart, he just stared at her silently without saying anything. Slightly flustered by the lack of response to her warm greeting, Sasha stopped in her tracks and looked at him cautiously. Then, he casually raised one arm and reached out to her.

Sasha, who had been nervous, quickly took his hand. His large hand warmly enveloped her small hand.

“No one will stop you from going out and wandering around. Just don’t go out alone.”

His voice, which gently urged her, was filled with affection. Forgetting her momentary embarrassment, Sasha scurried closer to him.

“It would be nice to wander around alone. But Rose has her own things to do, so I feel a little sorry.”

With her hand in his, Kyler opened the door with his remaining hand, and Sasha followed him into his room. Unaware that young maids were peeking at their sweet appearance from the top of the stairs behind them.

“Aren’t our masters really pretty?”

Even after they closed the door and went inside, the maids, who were clinging to the wall, chattered in admiration.

“At first, the atmosphere was really scary, but they slept together every night.”

“That’s right, who said that at first? What? Our Duke is also a man?”

“No, well! Did only I think that? Huh?”

Amidst the bickering, Connie, who was at the bottom, smiled weakly while enduring the pressure from above.

“Lady Sasha seems like a really amazing person. How could she melt the heart of that ice block?”

At Connie’s words, the maids, who had been bickering in small voices, quietly closed their mouths and looked down. They all knew what the ‘Duke who was holed up in his room’ that she was talking about looked like, even without her saying it.

“That’s true. How could she do that? She wasn’t like that when she first came?”

Nina tilted her head and asked, and Sarah shook her head. She was the first person to greet Sasha, who had come to the Duke’s residence for the wedding with Rose. And she had personally guided her to her room and even helped her with her bath.

“At that time, Lady Sasha was very doll-like. Like one of those things that moves when someone pulls the strings.”

Speaking hesitantly, everyone looked at her as if they couldn’t believe it. Sarah carefully chose her words and opened her mouth again.

“There was no feeling of being alive. So I was very worried. Her feeling was similar to the Duke’s when he was holed up in his room.”

The successive metaphors made the other maids sympathize, and they all shrugged their shoulders. They all knew what she meant by ‘the Duke who was holed up in his room’ without her having to say it.

“That’s impossible. Don’t you remember what Lady Sasha was like on the wedding day? I heard she was caught by the Duke while running away? She seemed very energetic?”

It wasn’t a dangerous atmosphere of desperately running away to survive. It was more like a cute atmosphere, like a small dog running away from a large dog, which most of them remembered.

“You can ask Rose. She’ll probably answer the same as me?”

Sarah firmly answered the children who didn’t believe her once again.

“Is this the power of love?”

“Wow!”

The young girls waved their arms and squealed at the words that seemed like an unknown world to them. Of course, they didn’t forget to be quiet because it was where the Duke’s room was.

“You girls!”

“Mommy!”

But Rose wasn’t one to let them off just because they were being quiet.

“R, Rose! You’re here?”

“We were being quiet. Ah, we’ve finished all the cleaning too.”

The maids stood in a row on the stairs and began to mix excuses and reports under Rose’s fierce gaze from below, all with tense postures.

Of course, Rose looked at the maids who didn’t forget to speak in small voices even in the midst of that with a stern face.

“Okay, if you’ve gained strength from seeing the Duke’s harmonious appearance, you should go find something else to do, right?”

“Yes, yes!”

The maids, who had been stunned by the words that were quite different from her expression, hurriedly answered and scurried down the stairs.

Support