Chapter 3 Meeting With Her
When Chloe asks the royal family about the circumstances of the arranged marriage, she gets a simple, straightforward answer: they didn’t know.
She now realizes that Callis’s courtship was a blatant lie.
She asked the royal family to understand their predicament, and when she asked him about his lover, he again said he didn’t know. There was no defense Chloe could make to the royal family, who had no intentions.
The royal family would let the accusations die down over time, but not Chloe. She had already become an ugly duckling to everyone in the Duchy.
There was no help she could get from the royal family, despite her frustrating and miserable situation. Even if she tried to change public opinion with a knight, she would not be able to sway Callis or anyone else.
The situation wouldn’t have gotten this bad if the royal family had revealed their contract with Callis, but it was taboo to talk about contracts.
Violating it would have meant paying a hefty penalty to the other side, so the royal family chose to remain silent.
If only they’d told Nurze Kloman, she could have been spared the guilt.
Unaware of this, she obediently followed her husband, even when he spoke harshly to her, and only when he needed her.
Soon, the mansion’s occupants began to disrespect her. Chloe initially protested their rude treatment, but was overruled by Callis.
From then on, she had to keep quiet about any misbehavior within the mansion.
If ignorance was a sin, then so was sin, and Chloe was eventually excluded from her own home.
Fortunately, her standing in social circles remained unchanged, for the royal family’s childishness was to be expected in a world of weak-minded nobility.
Of course, even that worked to Callis’s benefit.
The Duke had been a pariah nobleman all his life, and had never been able to establish himself in social circles.
After becoming a hero, he would occasionally make appearances in society, but the title of hero was a mystery to the commoners, not the nobility.
After their marriage, Callis coldly used her to further his position in society.
Even after ‘the thing’ happened.
It was a thorough exploitation, but Chloe liked it. Knowing that she was helping Callis made her feel less guilty.
Still, she wondered if reaching out to him like this might melt his hatred of himself someday.
Foolish love. Chloe couldn’t let go of that one emotion, so she chose stupidity.
***
“… Hhh!”
It felt like a stone had been dropped on her chest. Stunned, Chloe jumped to her feet.
Tears were welling up in her puffy eyes, and the dampness on her back suggested that she had been sweating profusely all night.
A shiver ran down her back, and her fingers twitched like the aftermath of a nightmare.
‘… It was awful.’
The past Chloe most wanted to erase.
The Duke confessed in front of everyone that her life had been horrible.
She could hear them all gasping at her. She could see the Duke pointing a finger and scowling.
‘I need to stop thinking about it.’
‘Don’t dwell on the past,’ she soothed, trying to calm down.
With the little calm she could muster, she called for the servants to help her with her morning preparations.
Ring, ring, ring.
She rang the bell, but no one answered.
The bell was supposed to ring throughout the Duke’s mansion. There would be no chance that all of its users would ‘accidentally’ hear it.
Nevertheless, Chloe’s precarious position had been completely destroyed.
Like a sandcastle blown away by the wind.
Unable to afford to be disappointed, Chloe quietly crawled back under the covers.
She was about to close her eyes again.
Without knocking, a figure stepped through the open door.
The maid, looking around, carefully closed the door behind her. Turning to face Chloe, she smiled awkwardly, as if she were trying to be cool, and then spoke.
“… My lady. We’re afraid we can’t help you from now on.”
Unable to help?
The maid says it as if they’re not helping Chloe voluntarily.
“The Duke has ordered us to stop attending to you and start attending to Lady Helena… Even if you ask for help, he has commanded us to ignore you.”
“…”
“Well, I’ll help you with that, since everyone has moved on to Lady Helena’s side now… I’m going to go to the kitchen and ask her to prepare lunch…”
Her words fade into nothingness as the maid raises her voice.
The shocking news hit Chloe like a ton of bricks.
The silence of the merchants earlier had been a sign of loyalty, not bullying. It was Callis and his consort, surprisingly enough, who had paid for such childishness.
“… Truly.”
Chloe realized once again.
What her husband thinks of her.
If he left his wife for another woman, shouldn’t he feel at least a little guilty?
“You would kill me without a sound.”
Suddenly, Chloe was no longer the person Callis needed to be.
Guilt and love. This is what he had to offer in return.
Chloe was able to complete her preparations thanks to Jane, the maid who told her the truth.
Jane, who had helped with the grooming, scurried away just as the noise outside died down.
Left alone, Chloe sat at her dressing table and killed time. There was nothing else to do, despite her laborious makeover.
The plan was to throw a big banquet for Callis tonight. The higher-ups had returned from their business trips abroad, and she was going to invite them to the banquet to socialize.
It all came to naught.
As she sat in silence, she heard a knock on the door beyond Chloe’s visit. She marveled at the malice that could be conveyed by a mere knock on the door.
The door opened with an invitation to enter.
The visitor was a maid with neatly tied black hair, a maid who visibly disliked Chloe.
Maid Shane’s smile faded when she spotted Chloe. She was puzzled to see Chloe so perfectly prepared.
“Ahem, ahem. There will be a tea party soon, so you can come down with me now. Lady Helena would like to have a conversation with you.”
If ever there was a time to completely ignore her pleas for help, it was now to accept Helena’s invitation.
She knows Shane, the duke’s handmaiden, and she knows Callis, who has been a noblewoman all his life, if only by title.
It is taboo for a person of lesser rank to unilaterally invite a person of greater rank, except when the two are acquainted.
Moreover, Helena was a guest, not even a resident of the mansion. How could a guest invite a Duchess?
And yet no one said anything.
“I shall go.”
She’s sure she’ll be laughed at.
In truth, Chloe wanted to talk to Helena; there were some things she wanted to hear from her.
“But first, I need to make one adjustment.”
“…?”
“I’d like to speak with Lady Helena alone, and I’d prefer that you not join the conversation.”
The conversation with Helena would change Chloe’s options significantly.
It mattered whether she was a man of words or a beast similar to Callis.
“I see.”
Fortunately, Shane had relayed Chloe’s opinion.
She soon returned to Chloe’s room. With the good news that she had gotten Helena alone, just as she wanted.
***
“Princess, it is an honor to have you here.”
What a beast.
Chloe’s first words of greeting sealed the deal.
She had never hated Helena, even if this situation was unpleasant.
She didn’t necessarily want to please her, but she didn’t want to be disliked either.
But after hearing her cheerful greeting, her mind was tilted to one side.
They were kindred spirits. She was no different.
Calling her by her old title, even though she had a formal title, meant that she didn’t recognize that Chloe was a Duchess.
Even someone who had never been exposed to aristocratic society would know that.
It could only be described as deliberate.
“Pleased to meet you.”
Chloe’s last ounce of patience drained away at the other woman’s malicious title, along with any trace of guilt left in her from long ago.
‘Yes. What did I think I was doing considering her? It was a stupid idea.’
Now, really, there was nothing left in Chloe but her protective instincts.
“Miss Helena.”
Chloe also uses the same principle in addressing her.
If she was called a Princess solely by virtue of her birth, Helena had no such noble and cumbersome title.
She stared at her with a bright red face and then summoned her maids.
No one spoke while tea was being prepared. Helena nervously chewed on the refreshments in front of her, only relaxing her expression once the tea was brewed.
When the teacups were filled, Chloe was the first to sip, and Helena, who watched out of the corner of her eye, soon mimicked her gesture.
The second cup was filled.
“I asked to see you because I wanted to introduce myself to the Princess!”
The other woman’s mouth opened first, and the conversation resumed.
The perfect opportunity to insult Chloe.
This time, it would not be through ignorance.
“I see. Nice to meet you.”
Chloe didn’t pay much attention to her.
Having lived in the world of the underdog, she knew better than anyone how to deal with such men.
Helena quickly grew impatient with her lack of attention.
“You wanted to see me alone,” she says.
“Well, we’re going to live together now, and I thought it would be good for us to get to know each other!”
An innocent, adorable smile and pink eyes that look like they’ve been plucked from a flower.
It’s just like the appearance she read about in the article ‘Cinderella with bad luck’. Her face looks so innocent.
And with that innocent face, she’s trying her best to criticize Chloe.
“Oh no. We can’t be friends.”
There’s no need for further conversation, now that she has realized that this is an animal.
“… What?”
“Because you can’t even talk to me as you are.”
Chloe’s face, once so colorless, was a wreckage of coldness.
