Episode 6
“What! That can’t be true. How dare you tarnish the reputation of our fairy-like madam!”
Jacob drew his sword in anger. It was a real sword.
“Let’s have a duel! Thompson, you insulted her grace and I can’t forgive you!”
“Yes! I can’t forgive you for speaking carelessly of her grace!”
Jacob and Balt started to go on a rampage.
Thompson was startled by their unexpected ‘fight us if you mess with her grace’ reaction and didn’t know what to do.
At that moment…
“What’s the fuss about?”
“Ah, the Captain!”
The knights who had been lying around the training grounds without doing the training they were told to do lined up in front of their captain in an instant.
They were as fast as light. Ballondor, the captain of the knights, secretly sighed.
“Jacob, Thompson. Tell me. What’s going on?”
“Oh, that’s it. It’s because of him…, Thompson! Because Thompson insulted the madam.”
“Jacob, you!”
Thompson, who was the poor target of Jacob’s and his friends’ shield, jumped.
“Oh, oh! That wasn’t my intention. Actually, it was…”
Thompson explained to the Ballondor in detail how the two got into an argument. He even told the story of Jacob, Balt and Cain getting tea from Madame and bragging about it to the Knights.
The more he listened, the deeper the wrinkles between Ballondor’s eyebrows became. As soon as Thompson finished talking, he said sternly.
“The knights went to the duchess, talked to her as if they were friends, and even ate things she made herself? I can’t believe they would do such a disrespectful thing to the duchess.”
Ballondor pointed to Jacob, Bald, Cain and Thompson.
“You four will be on probation for the next week. Thompson, you are guilty of causing a disturbance.”
“Yes, Captain!”
Jacob looked ready to cling to the captain’s trousers at any moment, but Ballondor would not allow that. Ballondor left quickly after saying those words.
The place Ballondor visited was the Duke’s office. He knocked on the office door and said.
“Your grace, it’s the Ballondor.”
“Please come in.”
At Alphonse’s voice, Ballondor took off his hat and entered the office.
It was a huge office, incomparably larger than a typical office, but it was filled with an enormous number of bookshelves and books. It could be called a study rather than an office.
Opposite the door, in front of a very large window, was a desk. And Alphonse was sitting there.
“Sit down.”
Ballondor sat down opposite Alphonse, who took his cigar from his lips and took out his pocket knife.
“What’s going on?”
“I have come to ask for your forgiveness, for the knights under my command have been very rude to the Duchess.”
Alphonse did not like lengthy pleasantries. Ballondor, who served him for a long time, also knew this well.
“Rude?”
“Yes. They said that they happened to meet the Duchess in the Duke’s residence, sat across from her, and even had tea with her.”
“Ah…”
Alphonse cut a bite-size piece from his cigar with his pocket knife. Just last night, he remembered that he had ordered his butler Kiel to get some tea for his wife. She must have drunk it already.
“For forgiveness, go to her yourself and ask for it.”
“Yes?”
“I don’t care about my wife’s personal affairs. Don’t you know about that yet?”
Ballondor quickly recovered his momentary embarrassment. He also knew that Alphonse was indifferent to his wife. He just forgot because he had never had anything to do with her.
Alphonse put his cigar back in his mouth and said.
“And from now on, don’t report anything trivial about my wife to me.”
“Yes, I understand. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
Ballondor bowed his head and apologized to Alphonse, who was twenty years younger than him.
Ballondor bowed politely and walked out of Alphonse’s office.
About halfway across, something suddenly occurred to him and he turned his head.
“My lord, the subordinates who received tea from her grace all said something in unison.”
“What?”
Alphonse asked without even looking at him.
“They said it was very delicious. They also said it was a very special drink, different from any other drinks.”
“…”
By Alphonse’s standards, it was clearly a personal and useless thing. There was no way Ballondor wouldn’t have known about it.
Alphonse furrowed his brow slightly and looked back at where the Ballondor had been.
The Captain had already disappeared somewhere.
***
She couldn’t just keep stacking up hundreds of tea leaves. Chloe decided to use a spare room near her bedroom to store her tea leaves.
The task of classifying and organizing tea leaves by their characteristics, origin, and name was a time-consuming and labor-intensive task. It would have been better to ask for help from others, but none of the servants were willing to help Chloe.
Eventually, Chloe decided to clean up all the tea leaves herself.
‘At least it’ll be easier to remember where everything is.’
Chloe decided to think positively.
After cleaning up 1/3 of the leaves, half a day had passed. She was tired and sat down to rest for a while when an unexpected person showed up.
“Are you sorting the tea leaves?”
Butler Kiel approached with a bright smile.
“Oh, butler.”
“Please madam, you are the mistress of Battenberg. You can call me Kiel.”
“Oh, yes, Kiel.”
“By the way, why are you doing this alone? I’ll help you too.”
Indeed, with Kiel’s help, the work did not just go twice as fast, but several times faster. Kiel was an expert at organizing.
While they were cleaning up together, Kiel kept talking to Chloe in a friendly manner. Their conversation was mostly initiated by Kiel,
“Aren’t you having a hard time?”
“Since when have you liked tea?”
“Tea, I encountered it by chance when I was younger…”
It consisted of asking questions like this and Chloe answering them. Chloe had to sweat a lot to think back on her past memories and come up with answers that didn’t contradict Chloe’s past actions.
“Thank you so much for your help.”
“I was just doing what I had to do as a butler.”
Finally, everything was sorted out. The tea cans were filling every corner of the cupboards and display cases in the room. Chloe looked around the room with a sense of satisfaction then looked back at Kiel.
“Excuse me, Kiel. I know it’s a bit little to offer you as a payment, but I’d like to offer you some tea.”
“Really? I’d be happy, it’s an honor.”
The two happily shared a few cups of tea and went to the reception room, where they encountered an unexpected person.
“Ah…”
Unlike butler Kiel, Chloe was not entirely happy. Her husband, Alphonse Battenberg, was not an easy person to deal with.
“Duke.”
“Wife.”
Alphonse, who was sitting in the living room reading a newspaper while smoking a cigar, and Chloe, who was holding a caddy of tea, nodded a little awkwardly towards each other.
Of course, it wasn’t that they hadn’t encountered each other like this in the past 13 months of marriage. But there was never any friendly, private conversation or even a greeting between them. Usually, Alphonse would just leave without saying anything.
And surely, this time it would be the same, Chloe thought.
So it was bound to be unexpected.
“Are you going to drink tea?”
Alphonse was the first to ask a personal question.
Chloe answered with a start.
“Huh? Oh, yes.”
“Then.”
Alphonse was looking at herself.
“Could you treat me to that tea too?”
In those eyes that were always so emotionless, there was just a hint of interest.
***
When Ballondor talked about something very personal and useless, Alphonse wasn’t interested.
He was basically not interested in food. It didn’t matter to him that there was someone right next to him who could make some very mysterious, unique, and delicious drink. So he quickly forgot about it and went back to work .
Only after he had roughly finished up his work for the day was he able to reflect again on what Ballondor had said.
Apart from his humane interests, Alphonse trusted Captain Ballondor. For someone as demanding as Alphonse to be employed as a captain, rather than any other position, could not have been done without a thorough professional trust.
He had been watching him for a long time, so Alphonse knew roughly that Ballondor was not the kind of person who would bring up personal stories to irritate him.
Besides, he was curious.
‘Has she ever asked for anything in the last 13 months?’
Alphonse still remembered the look in Chloe’s eyes when she first spoke to him.
For the past thirteen months, they have treated each other like strangers, except when it comes to performing marital duties and courtesy.
Sometimes, when Chloe looked at him for some really unavoidable reason, her eyes wouldn’t be that clear.
Alphonse knew. She was afraid of him. She couldn’t meet his eyes easily, and if their eyes met accidentally, she flinched and trembled. She treated his gaze and words like the fangs of a wild beast with its mouth wide open.
But he didn’t care. Yeah, it was easier that way. At least we wouldn’t bother each other.
‘But, recently…’
Suddenly she changed.
Chloe didn’t avert her gaze anymore. Whenever they exchanged polite greetings, she didn’t trail off or tremble in fear. She looked straight at him with her straight, clear eyes and spoke to him indifferently, with a precise tone of voice.
And a few days ago, didn’t she speak to me first and even ask me for something?
It was a really sudden change, almost as if his wife had turned into a different person.
