Chapter 041
At that moment, Lorencia was with Janice.
“Janice, are you really going to keep working like this? You said we could get a reaction from the Duke! But Duke Cassius doesn’t even care about me! I just got hurt for nothing! If this continues, I have no choice but to tell my father everything.”
Lorencia spoke in frustration. Janice flinched.
Even though she owed a debt to Lord Redfield, there was no reason for her to live under his control like this.
“You wouldn’t want me to report to my father, right? I care about you, Janice, so I don’t want it to come to that.”
But that was only if Janice obeyed.
Her expression turned cold, and she clenched her fists.
Unfortunately, Redfield held Janice’s biggest weakness.
“Don’t forget what you did in the past,” Lorencia whispered. “You had killed your parents and ran away to the North, didn’t you?”
Janice gritted her teeth. She couldn’t deny it—it was the truth, and it was her greatest weakness.
She had killed her parents in self-defense. They weren’t good people. If anything, they were horrible.
They had enjoyed beating their own daughter. Killing them had been the only way for Janice to survive.
But to the law, none of that mattered. What mattered was the result—she had killed her own parents.
She knew she would be executed if caught, so she ran away.
It was Lord Redfield who had helped her escape and covered up the crime. The authorities had instead blamed a serial killer active at the time.
“Damn it.”
That past was now a chain around her ankles, and she had locked it there herself.
Seeing Janice’s expression, Lorencia smirked like a devil.
“Of course,” she said sweetly, taking Janice’s hand. “I don’t want to push you like this. You know how much I care about you, right?”
She gently stroked Janice’s cheek.
Janice stared at her blankly.
“Don’t make a mistake like that again, Janice,” Lorencia said firmly.
“I don’t think it was a mistake,” Janice replied.
“Huh?”
“Now we know what kind of woman the Duke likes.”
Lorencia blinked.
She hadn’t thought about it that way before.
“If someone’s in the way, we just remove them,” Janice continued. “We can copy Charlotte’s clothes, her way of speaking, her behavior. In fact, this is a good thing.”
Lorencia’s eyes narrowed.
“We now know the best way to comfort the Duke after he loses Charlotte.”
Hearing that, Lorencia’s smile grew wider.
“You’re right. But how much longer do I have to look after those annoying kids?”
“Until you become the Duchess.”
“Why?”
“The Duke cares about those kids. Especially his little brother.”
“Ugh.”
“Don’t worry, Lorencia. As soon as you have a child, we’ll get rid of them too.”
At that, Lorencia laughed.
“You’re the only one I can trust, Janice. Thank you.”
Janice smiled faintly.
Until she could free herself from her past, she had no choice but to be Lorencia’s obedient dog.
The First Lesson
I watched Lorencia carefully. What she said to Theo, how she acted, and what she taught.
“Let’s see how much you memorized,” Lorencia said.
“Yes!”
“I already know all these letters!”
“What? Spaghetti! You promised to learn letters with me!”
“It’s Stephanie, not Spaghetti!”
Of course, those two troublemakers were distracting me again.
I was curious to see how Lorencia handled them. She slammed her hand on the desk.
“If you keep messing around, the lesson will take longer. That means no tree climbing today.”
She glanced at me as she spoke. Her eyes held a hint of arrogance, but it wasn’t enough to bother me.
“Ugh! That’s unfair! You tyrant!”
“Ty—what? What does that mean?”
“Then today’s lesson will be about what a tyrant is. Stephanie, can you explain?”
“A tyrant is a cruel ruler who does whatever they want. Like that person over there.”
“Good explanation. But I’m not a tyrant.”
Lorencia was handling them quite well.
In the original story, it was mentioned that she liked children.
Was that true?
I checked Theo’s reaction.
As usual, he looked up at Lorencia with bright, attentive eyes.
He seemed focused on the lesson.
I felt both a little jealous and a little relieved.
At least, for now, things seemed fine.
Meanwhile, Lorencia…
Lorencia was barely holding back her disgust.
‘I hate kids.’
They were selfish, rude, and ignorant.
To her, Theo was the shame of the Istheria family.
She thought he would be better off dead.
But she was good at hiding her true feelings.
“What word do you want to learn next?” she asked.
“Tree! And sky, squirrel, lizard, dragon… oh, and sister-in-law?”
Lorencia barely swallowed her laughter.
To her, it was pathetic that Theo didn’t even know simple words like that.
She forced herself to hide her cold gaze.
She reminded herself—there was someone watching today.
Charlotte had insisted on observing three lessons.
Lorencia had no choice but to accept.
‘Just wait. I’ll pay you back for all the humiliation you’ve made me suffer.’
She clenched her teeth and continued the lesson.
In her mind, she imagined tearing Charlotte to pieces.
Theo, Stephanie, and even Cassius had to relocate for a week.
It was much harder than I expected.
I had underestimated how difficult it would be.
And of course, the nanny wouldn’t help with something so personal.
I was trying to figure out what to pack when Luna stormed into the room, her face full of frustration.
“Luna, you came at the right time—”
“This is outrageous, Duchess!”
Luna burst into the room, her face filled with anger I had never seen her like this before. I flinched and took a step back.
“Why? What happened?”
“Half of your monthly budget has been cut!”
Luna’s eyes were practically on fire.
“When I asked why, they just said it was because too much money was spent on the banquet! But at the same time, they’re paying that useless tutor twice the normal rate! Duchess, this is not something we can ignore!”
“Hmm. How much is the normal rate?”
“A little under 2 million gold. Can you believe that?”
“…That still seems like a lot.”
Luna shook her head furiously.
“The amount of money isn’t the issue here, Duchess! The problem is that the nanny dares to challenge your authority! That’s completely unacceptable!”
She was so worked up that you’d think her money had been stolen.
Of course, she wasn’t entirely wrong. The nanny had definitely crossed the line.
But the truth was that, the nanny was going to stay in this mansion as Lorencia’s ally. I was the one who would be leaving.
Besides, my budget wasn’t that important to me. It’s not like I could take the money with me when I left.
Still, Luna clearly had no idea about my situation, and to her, this was infuriating.
“If you allow it, I’ll go and put that woman in her place.”
“How?”
“I’ll find a way, no matter what!”
“It’s fine, Luna. Don’t get so angry.”
“…Duchess.”
“Cassius must have a reason for keeping the nanny in that position. We just have to wait until the right time.”
And once Lorencia became Duchess, the nanny would naturally step down anyway.
“Thanks for being angry on my behalf, Luna.”
