A few days later.
“…Your Grace.”
“Yes, yes!”
Alyssa, who had been quietly cutting her meat, dropped the knife getting startled at Kieran’s call.
Seeing her tense, as if she had made a grave mistake, Kieran let out a small sigh.
“Are you still troubled?”
“Th-that’s…”
Flustered, Alyssa stammered and bit her lip. After a brief pause, she spoke again.
“…I’m truly sorry for showing such an unsightly sight.”
His intention was to tell her not to apologize, but once again, an apology came. Kieran stifled a sigh, unsure of how many times she had already apologized.
After the head maid’s execution, Kieran suggested to Alyssa that they share a bedroom.
“As a married couple, it’s only natural that we should share a room.”
It was a conversation he should have brought up much earlier. It would not be good for rumors to spread that the Duchess and her husband were sleeping in separate rooms, implying they had a poor relationship.
Up until now, Alyssa had been so distant, and he himself had found her somewhat uncomfortable, so he hadn’t dared bring it up.
However, their relationship had improved to some extent, and more importantly, it bothered him to hear that Alyssa had no set bedroom and was wandering around, sleeping here and there.
Of course, Alyssa had been startled and protested, questioning how he could dare suggest such a thing, but Kieran dismissed her concerns with a single statement.
“We’ll use separate beds, so don’t worry.”
Though Alyssa still looked uneasy, that night, she quietly entered the shared bedroom.
Kieran, careful not to make her uncomfortable by showing unnecessary interest, lay down silently. Watching him, Alyssa slowly began to relax as well.
A week had passed since they started sharing the bedroom, and there hadn’t been any major issues.
Except for one small incident on the first night.
“Ugh… hhmm…”
At dawn, Kieran woke to the sound of a painful groan. Alyssa, lying in the bed next to him, was drenched in cold sweat, groaning in distress.
Worried that she might be unwell, he gently shook her awake. Thankfully, after blinking slowly a few times, she soon fell back into a peaceful sleep.
Kieran was relieved that she wasn’t sick and thought little of it, but Alyssa couldn’t let it go as easily.
“Maybe it would be better if I stayed in a different room. I’m not helping, and I’m just being a burden…”
“If I were really uncomfortable, I would have said something first. You haven’t been a burden at all.”
There was no need for her to apologize in the first place, and even if there had been, apologizing for an entire week was more than enough.
When Kieran spoke firmly, Alyssa’s expression finally eased a little.
After Alyssa earnestly requested that he let her know if he ever felt uncomfortable, their conversation came to an end. Kieran then brought up a new topic.
“How is the new maid working out for you?”
There had been many tasks that couldn’t be properly handled before due to conflicts with the servants, but with the obstacles now removed, the castle was undergoing constant changes.
One of those changes was the hiring of a large number of new servants.
“Her name is Mirika, correct? I believe she’s the younger sister of Deputy Commander Kanut, is that right?”
“Oh, yes. That’s right.”
When restructuring the staff, Kieran had carefully selected a maid to attend to Alyssa.
To prevent another incident like what happened with the previous servants, Kieran had carefully chosen someone trustworthy to be by Alyssa’s side, and that person was Mirika.
Thanks to Kieran changing the criteria for hiring staff, Mirika, despite being the younger sister of Vice Commander Kanut, had a completely different personality from him.
Honest and diligent, Mirika was incredibly quiet. She showed so little expression that it felt like looking at a statue.
While she was far from a typical lady’s maid, Kieran believed that her reserved nature made her perfect for attending to Alyssa.
“She’s smart and kind. She’s so efficient that she finishes tasks before I even have a chance to ask.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
Kieran had been worried that Mirika might only act respectfully in his presence but mistreat Alyssa. However, it seemed that wasn’t the case.
‘Akhim is the complete opposite,’ Kieran thought with a wry smile, recalling his newly appointed valet. Akhim, who had just turned twenty, was cheerful and good-natured but far too talkative.
Alyssa’s expression seemed somewhat gloomy, though Kieran didn’t notice it.
Knock, knock, knock!
“Sir! Are you in there?”
Footsteps quickly approached, followed by a cheerful voice right outside the dining room door.
“…Yes, I’m here.”
“Did you sleep well? Good morning! I’ve come to escort you!”
As soon as Kieran responded, the door swung open, and a young man with curly, blonde -colored hair bounced into the dining room.
“Oh, Your Grace is here too! Greetings!”
Akhim, who had just bowed to Kieran, noticed Alyssa and greeted her just as energetically. Alyssa, stiff and uncomfortable, merely nodded in response. Kieran, observing this, felt a sense of camaraderie.
Akhim was kind and warm-hearted. Though he could be a bit clumsy, he performed his duties flawlessly.
Kieran didn’t mind him—in fact, he rather liked him. But Akhim’s constant chatter reminded Kieran of how much he appreciated silence.
‘Looks like it’ll be another noisy day,’ Kieran thought.
Akhim spent every moment, except while working, chattering away. While Kieran often wanted to ask him to be quiet, the problem was that whenever he saw Akhim’s sparkling golden eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.
“Well then, Your Grace, I’ll take my leave for now,” Kieran said, standing up. Since Akhim had arrived, it was time for him to attend to his duties in the study. However, as he rose, he noticed Alyssa looking unusually uneasy.
“Yes, take care,” she answered quickly, but her expression remained troubled. Wondering why, Kieran thought of a possible reason and decided to ask.
“Would you like to come with me?”
At those words, Alyssa’s face immediately brightened. She was hard to read at times, but when she was happy, it was incredibly obvious.
Kieran couldn’t help but chuckle softly as he approached her. “I actually have some documents to show you. Perfect timing.”
With Alyssa joining them, the atmosphere in Kieran’s office remained peaceful. Though Akhim had become even chattier than usual, excited by the duchess’s presence, the moment work began, he quickly quieted down as if nothing had happened.
Kieran enjoyed the peace as he finished up the documents he had set aside for Alyssa’s review, before settling back into his own tasks.
Everything had gone smoothly so far, but Kieran now found himself in a somewhat awkward situation.
As he stood up to organize the books piled on his desk, he immediately heard the sound of quick movement from the sofa.
“Should I place these in that bookshelf?”
In the blink of an eye, Alyssa was by his side, swiftly taking the books from him and efficiently placing them on the shelf.
Kieran, awkwardly looking down at his now empty hands, moved to sit back down and placed his hand on the chair.
The moment the sound of the chair scraping the floor was heard, Alyssa dashed over once more.
Thud.
Before the chair could even make another sound, she lifted it and neatly positioned it for him, then returned to her spot.
“Your Grace… what are you doing?”
A confused voice broke the silence from the other side of the room. Akhim, holding his pen in mid-air, asked in bewilderment.
“I just pulled the chair out for my husband,” Alyssa replied matter-of-factly.
“I mean, yes, I saw that, but…” Akhim trailed off, still puzzled.
Akhim glanced at Kieran, as if silently pleading for him to do something. Kieran let out a small sigh. Alyssa’s behavior had been ongoing since they entered the office. At first, he brushed it off, but now it was starting to get on his nerves.
“Are you helping because your husband looks tired? If that’s the case, let me handle it,” Akhim offered.
“No, you should focus on your own tasks,” Alyssa replied.
This wasn’t the first time Alyssa had taken it upon herself to help. She had once picked up a broken plate that Kieran had accidentally dropped. But the situation was different now—there were people around to do these tasks.
“Your Grace, you really don’t need to worry about such things,” Kieran said, trying to reassure her.
Alyssa flinched slightly. She hesitated for a moment before speaking again, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Would it be… too much to ask for you to let me?”
Alyssa never refused an order. For her to openly express an opposing opinion to Kieran’s words was completely unexpected.
“I don’t have anything to do,” she continued, sounding genuinely distressed. “Young Lord deals with all the internal documents, and Mirika is so efficient that there’s nothing left for me to clean or organize…”
She sounded earnest, but Kieran was still puzzled. He could understand the part about the internal affairs, but as for the rest, those tasks were never meant to be hers in the first place. He couldn’t understand why Alyssa felt as though she had failed to do something that wasn’t even her responsibility.
“Nothing to do?” Kieran repeated, finding a flaw in Alyssa’s statement.
“As far as I know, you train for three hours every morning, patrol the walls daily, and you’ve handled all the documents that required your attention.”
Alyssa was already fulfilling her duties well. While she nodded at Kieran’s words, her face remained troubled.
“But that’s barely anything,” she muttered.
Even after finishing her morning training, inspecting the walls, completing paperwork, and supervising the knights’ drills, she got off from work often still early in the day.
“I have so much time left. Even after finishing everything, it’s only afternoon…”
The reason Alyssa had been restless and on edge, always looking to Kieran for approval, wasn’t just about that one incident in the early morning. Since Kieran had started making changes around the castle, Alyssa had found herself with increasingly more free time.
During those idle hours, her anxiety and unease grew.
“So please, give me something to do. I’ll work hard.”
She spoke with determination, as though she couldn’t bear the thought of being useless.
“Why should you?” Kieran responded, his tone unexpectedly light.
Thank you so much 💐 🩵 💓 💗 💛 💖 💐 🩵 💓 💗 💛 💖 💐 🩵 💓 💗 💛 💖 💐 🩵 💓 💗 💛 💖 💐 🩵 💓 💗 💛 💖 💐