Doctor Resignation

“I see. He won’t speak even if we cut his fingers one by one, will he?”

The Duchess was drinking tea gracefully.

Joaquin sighed and nodded. He was not sure about Lise, but the Duchess was cold and cruel. She, who directly ordered Hans’ interrogation, pushed him to the limit without blinking an eye.

But it turned out that the man really doesn’t know anything. He just admitted that someone came to him and said that he would earn a lot of money if he only did as he was told.

Hans was a wandering beggar who had once participated in a dying theater group, so it was quite difficult to determine where he was from.

“Two spies who have worked as a maid inside the duchy committed suicide without giving us a chance to find out anything. And one of them has been working here for more than five years.”

The duchess’ eyes shone coldly.

She added, “Harming Lise would be like harming me and Erhan. I’m sure the forces that were trying to bring us down have been active for a very long time. The problem is that we don’t even know who they are.”

“But we cannot dismiss all of the servants. It’ll be more dangerous to hire new ones.”

“So you’d better always be careful. Also for Lise’s safety, please attach the best escort to her. She is going to Free City tomorrow. And… without Lise knowing, hang Hans and Esther’s bodies at the gate. So that everyone can clearly see what happens when they get caught doing something against the Duke.”

Joaquin bowed his head and left the Duchess’ room.

She sighed and squeezed her chin. Someone was aiming for the Dukedom of Casseus.

She was constantly wary, but she still couldn’t see the enemy who was so cautious. She almost lost Lise. Her cold expression disappeared from her face when she thought of Lise’s crying face.

‘…I can’t leave it just like this.’

In the wake of the incident, the Duchess made a grave decision.

‘We’ll discuss it immediately when Erhan gets here.’

Recalling Lise’s disappointed expression and gloominess while looking at the cherry basket, she buried her face with her both hands.

At that time, Erhan was rushing towards the duchy. Jubilation was radiating on his face, finally stepping on the empire’s land.

“M-Master Erhan. Can’t we just take a day off?”

“You’re resting right now.”

The knights, preoccupied with the seasickness of the long voyage, clung to Erhan, but their master was apathetic to their condition.

“We’ll get sick if it continues like this. Three days is enough to get to the duchy even if we stop over for a night.”

Zikel spoke cautiously, but Erhan seemed to have no intention of listening.

“So what? Then you all get some rest and follow me slowly. It’s a hassle for me if you’re all tagging along anyway.”

Erhan climbed on his black horse brought from Irvia.

Whether it resembled its owner, even though the horse continued to live on the boat, there was no sign of exhaustion on the animal.

Erhan grabbed the reins of the black horse and said as if just notifying them.

“I will set off to the Duchy first. You should guys come on your own.”

“Master Erhan!”

The knights shouted desperately, but Erhan ran down the street without looking back.

He has someone he yearns to see.

The person who taught him that they are the only ones in each other’s life. The only person who he thought about every day as he promised in their childhood.

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***

I was going to bed late that night, but someone knocked on the door.

‘Who is it? Diel?’

There was no maid assigned to me now.

I hurriedly put something over my pajamas, but an unexpected voice was heard.

“Lise, it’s me.”

“What?”

I ran back and opened the door. The Duchess was in front of my room, dressed comfortably.

“Madam, why…”

“I thought you wouldn’t be able to sleep today, so I came to stay with you.”

I dazed back to bed as the Duchess led me.

The same way I held the Duchess’ hand long ago, she sat at my bedside and took my hand. It was a very uncomfortable and strange feeling.

“I heard he… didn’t open his mouth after all.”

“Yes.” The Duchess answered and sighed. “It must have been difficult to hold on to it, but he really didn’t seem to know who’s behind it.”

“Was the torture severe?”

“Well, as usual.”

I didn’t dare ask what ‘usual’ level was.

When I stopped talking, the Duchess began to speak quietly. “I have many enemies. To be honest, I can’t even point out who’s behind it.”

“…why?”

“After the former Duke died, I suddenly became in a position to rule this estate. Erhan was still sick, and everyone was talking about whether the Casseus Duchy was on the way to its ruin.”

I thought I was close to the Duchess, but it was the first time I heard about this.

“So I thought I’d have to show my power from the beginning, so I toughened on everything.”

It means that she chose to be cruel so she could show everyone that she was strong.

“In the process, I spilled blood even if what they did was for only a small mistake… So there are quite a few families who hold some grudges against me.”

I remembered that no one was surprised when she ordered to behead the maid who stole the fruit from the greenhouse five years ago. Usually, once you’re caught stealing, you’re just supposed to be thrown out of the castle.

No matter how much he hid the poisoning case from outsiders, the fact that no one questioned her decision was evidence that the duchess had been punishing even minor mistakes severely.

“But I don’t know why it was even aimed at you. Perhaps everyone knows that I care for you.”

That was natural. No doctor’s assistant has lived so luxuriously. Whoever sees me can say that I was enormously favored by the Duchess.

Since she cares so much about me like this, wouldn’t it be okay if I start talking about who is behind it a little bit?

“Maybe they were after me because he wanted to put an outsider in the castle. For the past five years, we haven’t really received outsiders.” I carefully brought it up.

“It’s true that we’ve been on high alert since you noticed my poisoning.”

“Maybe they planned to send me out or kill me, and have another spy as the assistant.”

“…you’re right.”

“My new assistant, Aaron Krillso, I’m going to tell Diel to watch him carefully. Don’t worry. The problem is, like Esther, people who have been here since before…”

“Yes, people we’ve never suspected.”

“You really don’t have an idea who might be behind this?”

“There are countless people who have lost their families to me.”

The Duchess continued calmly, “Before you came, I mean, in the early days of me taking over the duchy, I never compromised for even a single mistake. So there were a lot of vassals who cursed me even before my eyes.”

“……

“Of course, it was Roman who always sided with me each time. Thanks to him, I overcame a lot of crises, and one day, a dagger suddenly flew in, but Roman blocked it for me. There is still the wound on his left arm.”

As expected, the Duchess never thought of Baron Ishid as the mastermind of the attacks. He seemed to have put a psychological debt on the Duchess.

Saving from a small crisis and drawing the big picture for the later years… No matter how much I think about it, his plans were meticulously created.

If I hadn’t known the future, it was a narrative that would be hard to doubt. So, in the end, they would have occupied this huge estate.

“Yes… that was family.”

I had no choice but to hide the identity of the mastermind behind my throbbing throat.

I haven’t found anything yet. There’s no evidence and my position in the Duke’s Castle was ultimately just an employee.

“I’ve always been cold to Roman who might think of me terribly. It’s just because I can see that he doesn’t have the ability to manage the estate, and I’m weirdly uncomfortable with him.”

I was greatly impressed by the Duchess’ instincts.

“I was so busy dominating the estate being a tyrant. So when I left Erhan unattended, he brought Frederick to be Erhan’s companion.”

It was an impossible situation to judge.

In fact, the Duchess’ style of managing the Casseus territory worked quite a bit, and despite the Duke’s death, the estate worked quite reasonably. In the beginning, many vassals who had raised taxes or acted complacent due to the death of the late Duke were all defeated by her hands.

Therefore, there were rumors among the commoners that she was cold and inhuman, but the evaluation that she was a good ruler always followed.

“Yes. But I’m not sure if Master Frederick was really good for Master Erhan…”

“Erhan followed Frederick more than he did to me.”

It was true that he followed him a lot until the end.

I swallowed a sigh inside.

“Thinking about that makes me realize how great it is to be a family, and how much you must have been hurt.”

“……”

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“Lise.”

The duchess lightly swept my hair.

“I really think of you as my daughter.”

“Madam, I’m a commoner. That’s a terrible thing to say.” I shook my head.

The empire had a clear boundary between aristocrats and commoners.

It wouldn’t be impossible if I lived here even before my 13-year-old self without returning to the past, but I can clearly recognize the huge difference in our status because the memories of my previous life remained the same.

Originally, I could only see the Duchess, Master Erhan, and Viscount Perelman from afar. Far from this kind of intimal conversation. I couldn’t even greet them.

“I mean it. So…”

Still, I felt at ease when someone held my hand next to me, so my eyes slowly closed.

“…I really want to be your family.”

Come to think of it, it was the first time someone stood beside me until I fell asleep. At first, I could see why the Duchess sent me a strawberry cake just because I held her hand.

It felt so warm.

I fell asleep.

Until then, I didn’t know what the Duchess really meant. Even though I know that the Duchess never speaks in vain.