Translator and Editor: Nabi and Yonnee

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Chapter 14

“I am glad to know that you are ashamed. I’ll give you some new clothes, so you better get changed.”

“Thanks for your concern, ma’am.”

It felt like I had to spend too much time here if I had to change my clothes like she offered. Thinking that, I opened my mouth again.

“I just came to meet you today and say hello. I came here to politely convey that I will not be attending the luncheon, so please understand.”

At that, the elegant expression of Madam Elbas was cracked.

When you decline an invitation, it is a very polite expression to go and say no. So now, even if it was Madam Elbas, she would not be able to be stubborn.

But then, the maid who was carrying a tray full of cups of drinks, crashed into me as she was passing behind.

“Ah!”

Splash!

As the tray rolled on the floor, shards of broken glass were scattered everywhere.

…And, brightly colored drinks dripped down my shirt.

“What should I do!”

“…”

The maid frowned, looking at my shirt and the shards of glass lying on the floor. Meanwhile, Madam Elbas grinned as if the maid had done well.

“Now that it’s like this, it seems that Miss Rowaine has no choice but to do so as I offered.”

She then called her maid chief and ordered, “Give Miss Rowaine a dress to wear.”

“Yes, madam.”

She turned her back faster than me, who was about to say it’s okay to go back to the duke like this. Because of that, I had no choice but to follow the maid chief since Madam Elbas started having a serious conversation with the chef.

“If you wait here, I’ll have another maid attend with the clothes.”

She escorted me to her guest room and then left. After waiting for a while, another maid came in with a pair of clothes.

“There are only suitable clothes like this. Is this all right, Miss Rowaine?”

I accepted the clothes she presented as I wondered if something major might be happening so if Madam Elbas had planned something.

“I’m fine with anything.”

It was a simple, plain dark blue dress. It even looked like a maid’s clothes at first glance.

‘Well, better than flashy. Right now, I’m not in a position to hide anything.’

Did Madam Elbas intentionally send a cheap dress up in the hopes that I wouldn’t wear it and cause trouble?

I was suspicious that something was up, though I meekly changed my clothes. People here may be ashamed to wear cheap clothes, but I’ve never lived in such an environment.

Just putting on a modest dress is not an insult to me.

The maid stared at me as if surprised by my obedient attitude, although she soon helped me change my clothes.

After I got dressed and went downstairs, the luncheon had already started, so I was taken to the luncheon venue at the maid’s request instead of leaving. The guests were sitting around the table.

“Finally, my daughter-in-law is here.”

When Madam Elbas looked at me and pretended to know me, everyone turned towards me in unison.​​However, their reaction was unusual.

“Oh, my.”

“The clothes…”

They glanced at me and someone alternately.

As I followed their gazes, I saw a line of maids serving food at the luncheon. They were dressed a little differently than the other maids in the mansion—they were wearing the exact same dress I was wearing.

Madam Elbas was laughing at me.

‘…This was the purpose from the beginning.’

With this level of preparation, the maid must have spilled drinks on my clothes earlier on purpose.

Madam Elbas spoke to me calmly, as if she knew nothing.

“Why are you standing like that, Miss Rowaine? Come on, sit down.”

There were no empty seats at the table.

The ladies giggled and laughed at me. Obviously, everyone here was on her side.​​“Oh, look at my mind. There’s no place for Miss Rowaine to sit.”

She uttered that as though she realized it too late. Madam Elbas pretended to think for a moment before pointing her hand somewhere.

“Well, why don’t you sit over there?”

A chair was placed in the place where the maids lined up. And, on the chair was an apron, as if it were a napkin. The ladies who saw the apron shook their shoulders like it was hard to hold back their laughter.

I bit my lip. It was because I was reminded of something similar that happened to me in the past.

“Let’s eat.”

Disgusting food, my father’s horrible words, and the apron that was thrown right in front of me.​​When I went out to the kitchen to calm my boiling heart, my dad and brother were sitting at the table waiting for me.

“When it’s time, food is supposed to be set up. What have you been doing?”

“I’m starving to death.”

The two of them, who did not even lift a finger while unpacking rice and taking side dishes out of the refrigerator, and placing them on my table, naturally started eating before I even sat down at the table.

The table was cramped.

I took a seat in the corner, avoiding the two people sitting wide at the narrow table.

That was my seat.

That’s what I was. A half-serving daughter who can’t be treated as ‘one.’

‘Something’ that sits cramped between two ‘people.’

…But even here, they were treating me the same way.

Their purpose even included an intention to ridicule as well as ignore my character. They wanted me to be a ‘fun spectacle for half a person,’ who couldn’t sit at the same table as them.

I clenched my fist tightly.

* * *

Dimitri rushed to his horse and arrived at the Elbas mansion.

‘If she dares her to do something to her.’

Anger rose.

He didn’t expect her to steal Rowaine like this when his guard was down.

‘She should have told me in advance.’

Rowaine should have told him first when Cayetana called.

‘I should have gone to that woman docilely and told her not to fall victim to her…’​​Dimitri gritted his teeth.

As a child, he remembered the then Duchess, Cayetana, harassing his biological mother.

“I’m sure I told you not to stand out!”

A voice that shouted sharply…

“You brute!”

And, the harsh beating that landed on his mother’s body.

Recalling that moment, Dimitri squeezed his eyes shut and opened them.

‘I won’t let it go any longer.’

He was just a powerless child back then, though now, it’s different.

‘I won’t let you touch her hair.’

It was a challenge for Cayetana to touch Rowaine. Of course, it must not have been that she had called her with pure intentions.

‘She’s trying to provoke me.’

Then, I will gladly respond to this fight.

At that, Dimitri entered the mansion with a force to break the door, pushed the servants who were trying to stop him, and opened the dining room door. However, the room was empty.

“Where is my wife?”

When he grabbed the butler of the Elbas mansion and asked him, the butler, who was almost grabbed by the neck, swallowed his dry saliva and pointed towards the garden.​​“Mis, Miss Rowaine is enjoying lunch with other guests in the backyard.”​​Hearing his words, he let go of the butler and spoke coldly.

“Who dares you say her name? It’s not Miss Rowaine, it’s Duchess. Is it not something you already know?”

Dimitri, who glared at the butler fiercely, quickly headed towards the garden. Worried about what Rowaine was going to do, he couldn’t stand it.

‘…I don’t know if she’s crying.’

After observing her for several days, she was surprisingly a delicate woman who cried well. She may have been crying alone because of Cayetana’s vicious behavior.

However, Dimitri, who went to the luncheon venue, paused at the scene unfolding in front of him.​​Something unthinkable was happening in front of him.

“What is this, Miss Rowaine?!”

Cayetana’s screaming, and—

“I like this seat.”

He could hear Rowaine’s calm laugh.

Dimitri paused for a moment, staring at Rowaine sitting on Cayetana’s lap.

‘What the hell is going on…?’

…Why is Rowaine sitting on Cayetana?

Without even paying her attention to the struggling Cayetana, Rowaine even ate this and that with Cayetana’s fork on the table.

“The appetizer is really good! Would you like to try it, Madam Elbas?”

Then, Rowaine turned her torso and placed it in her mouth. Although Cayetana slapped her hand and dropped the food.

“Right now…! Get up, now!”

Still, Rowaine just shrugged her shoulders.​​“It’s delicious, I don’t know why you don’t like it.”

Dimitri, who was standing blankly, for a moment without realizing it, burst out laughing.

At that, people’s eyes turned towards him. Rowaine also found him and swiftly waved her hand.​​“Duke!”​​As she abruptly raised her body Cayetana, who was struggling, lost her balance and rolled onto the floor.

“Ahh!”

Rowaine rolled her eyes as she looked down at Cayetana, who collapsed on the floor as she screamed.

Then, rather, she chastises Cayetana’s behavior.

“You have to be careful, Madam Elbas!”

The maids gathered quickly and lifted Cayetana to her feet. She burst out in her rage with her face blushing.

It was like a ridiculous play.

‘I’m going crazy.’

Dimitri struggled to hold back his laughter as he grabbed Rowaine’s hand.

“I apologize. You seem to be having a good time, but I’m going to need to take my wife away since I’m quite busy.”

“Dimitri! ”

He then took Rowaine out of the mansion, pretending to not hear Cayetana screaming behind him.

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