Chapter 2
It wasn’t until he was completely out of sight that Odette came to her senses.
Her eyes blinked rapidly in disbelief.
“What the hell, what the hell……?
Her eyes drifted to the food I had carefully prepared.
Odette sighed deeply, completely ruling out the idea that he didn’t love me anymore.
Honestly, if it weren’t for the memories of her previous life, she might have had a fight or a confrontation.
But her heart was still filled with guilt for Phyllis.
Odette clenched her fists tightly.
In her beautiful golden eyes, anger, with a hint of sadness, glowed silently.
It was a look she would never see in her heroine.
In the novel, Odette was just like the sun, bright and sunny and innocent and pure.
‘The me now, I’d say, is half and half.
Yes, to be honest, I’m probably not the perfect Othello.
In my previous life, I was more of a cavalier and bossy person.
But as my past life memories returned, my two different personalities blended together like watercolor paints.
The only good thing was that my reversed personality made me a little better at being a duke’s mistress.
“Phew.”
His smile flickered before her eyes, the one he’d smiled at her on their wedding day when it all came flooding back.
But she quickly steadied her fluttering heart.
“Okay. Let’s not interfere further. I’m the heroine, he’s the hero, it’s already a finished novel, I don’t need more conflict.
Odette was about to leave the room when I realized that, despite my promise, my lips were still twitching.
“Huh?”
A lock of red hair snapped into her field of vision.
Odette furrowed her brow slightly and turned to Phyllis’s desk.
“Red…… hair?”
Red hair was one of the most common hair colors in this Garibel Empire.
But how could such long red hair fall on his desk?
As if by accident.
She picked it up with two fingers.
The red hair was slightly curly, and its length alone suggested that it belonged to a woman.
There were countless women with red hair, even among the users who worked in the manor.
So it wasn’t strange.
But what was this uneasy feeling?
The world around me seemed to be spinning.
“I’ve been getting a lot of dizziness lately.
Odelt pressed hard against my temple, gripping the ears of the desk.
Her body swayed slightly, but she regained her footing.
She glared at the lock of hair she’d picked up, then jerked away.
“The Duchess. It’s Emily.”
A moment later, the voice of Emily, Odelt’s most trusted maid, was heard.
Soon she opened the door and slowly stepped into the room.
Her curly red hair was bouncing in abundance.
Odelt, who had been staring at the red hair, clenched his teeth and shook his head.
Emily was a maid who had served him since he was a count.
What the hell was I thinking?
For a mere strand of hair.
“……Ah, Emily.”
“Tea is ready, my lady, and the carriages will be coming in soon.”
“Is it that time already?”
“Yes. You should dress up.”
Emily, five years younger than me, smiled lovingly.
I was still in my prime, but the lushness of my twenties had long since faded.
“Emily.”
“Yes?”
“You’re here, on the desk, and your hair is falling out.”
“Hmm, did it, because I cleaned this place at dawn.”
“Why ……Emily?”
Her eyes narrowed sideways as she felt her heart pounding unpleasantly.
“What? Oh, the maid in charge of the house is running a bit of a fever today, so I took her place, sorry, ma’am……!”
Emily, startled by the sight of the hair, bowed softly toward Odette.
As she bent, the macramé necklace Odelt had made for her as a child clinked at the base of her neck.
Seeing it, she snapped back to reality.
“What am I suspecting?
Even if Phyllis was having an affair with someone else, it couldn’t be Emily, because she would never betray me.
Odelt quickly walked over to Emily and pulled her upright.
“……It’s okay, Emily. I only asked because I was afraid I might offend him, as you know.”
“Really, if the Duke had seen this hair, he would have been in for a big scolding…….”
“I’m glad I saw it first.”
Odette chuckled softly.
But even as he spoke, a strange sense of disparity crawled up his spine.
“A man with a defect, and I never saw such striking red hair……?
Her eyes fluttered in the wind as she paced.
The trauma of war changed him in many ways, one of which was his dysentery.
As a former slave, he was determined to survive in any way he could, even if it meant rolling around in the filth.
Drinking and eating rotten water and moldy food was a daily occurrence.
The aftermath left him with a severe case of dysfunction when he returned to the capital.
Not only did everything have to be at a perfect angle, but he couldn’t go to bed without removing a speck of dust from an obscure corner.
He wouldn’t even shake hands with other people.
If he had to shake hands with the emperor, he would wash his hands until they were red.
“I see. A man who can’t shake another man’s hand.
I was the only one he didn’t shy away from touching.
It was odd that he hadn’t brushed his hair away when it was up, but then again, it was probably just a terrible delusion.
Odelt returned to his room, lost in thought.
There was no time to dawdle if he was to be ready for tea time.
❖ ❖ ❖ ❖
She rubbed her rapidly tiring eyes and casually accepted the attentions of the users.
She bathed, applied makeup, put on a fine dress, put her hair up, and bejeweled herself.
After hours of preening and people falling in and out of love with me, I was ready to greet my guests.
To say I was flirting would be an understatement.
I don’t doubt his sincerity, but I can’t help but feel sorry for him.
Odelt stared back at me in the mirror with a dark look.
For a man of this world, he was still very beautiful.
Dark auburn hair that flowed effortlessly, golden eyes that could pierce the sun.
Elegant and gorgeous, she was the very definition of a heroine.
‘But why does it keep nagging at me…….’
The ice-cold gaze of Phyllis’ eyes continued to haunt my mind.
His thin, reddish hair was like a snake sitting in my mind.
I thought about it so much, my headache threatened to creep back in.
Emily knocked on the door again.
The ladies had arrived.
“Ma’am. You have guests.”
“Yes, ma’am. Let’s go.”
Odelt forced a smile and went outside to greet the guests.
A row of pretentiously expensive-looking carriages lined up in front of the entrance.
She smiled as if she were wearing a mask, making eye contact with each of the ladies as they stepped out of the carriages.
Odelt led them to a tea table set up in the garden, something he’d done countless times in the five years he’d been here.
“Please take a seat,” he said, “we have some good cocoa today, and I’ve prepared it especially for you.”
“As expected, the Duchess is full of flair.”
“I will drink it well, my lady.”
Soon the women’s high-pitched laughter followed.
On the surface, they might appear to be flirting, as Phyllis had said.
But these were all high-ranking nobles of the estate, deeply involved in the duke’s business, and as duchess, she had to take special care of them.
They chatted for a while longer.
Countess Hans turned to Odelt, fanning herself as if remembering something.
“Oh, by the way, Duchess, did you hear that?”
“About what?”
“They say a strange salon has opened in the city center.”
“A strange salon?
I had never heard of it before.
She tilted her head, puzzled.
“When you say strange salon, do you mean……?”
“Well, it’s a place where high nobles and low nobles have secret meetings…….”
At the word ‘clandestine’, all the ladies’ eyes and ears turned to Countess Hans.
“An affair salon.”
As her words ended, Odette’s heart dropped with a thud.
