In his entire previous life, Kieran had encountered his wife fewer than ten times.
Kieran had made every effort to avoid Alyssa, knowing she disliked him, and Alyssa, for her part, had never sought him out either.
Yet Kieran remembered Alyssa clearly.
‘The Monster Duke of the North.’
When he finally met Alyssa in person, she didn’t have the grotesque fangs or beast-like fur that the rumors claimed. But Kieran instantly understood why such rumors had spread.
The woman, draped in the hide of a magical beast with long black hair cascading down, looked like the Grim Reaper. Her pale lips peeked out from beneath her hair, and her white hands were covered in scars.
But what was most terrifying was Alyssa’s demeanor.
She hadn’t shown any intense hostility towards Kieran. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
Alyssa didn’t react to Kieran at all. She neither got angry nor sneered, but she also never spoke to him or even made eye contact.
“You don’t have to do anything.”
Alyssa had only spoken to him once. Upon hearing those words, Kieran had wished she would just get angry.
Her voice carried neither goodwill nor anger. It was like the indifferent assessment of a worthless object.
Alyssa didn’t even dislike Kieran. She was someone who gave nothing, not even the slightest bit of emotion.
That’s how he had always understood her. But then…
“…There are very few people who genuinely like me.”
Is this really the same person he knew?
Kieran, who had spent his life learning to hide his emotions, couldn’t quite mask his surprise. The reason she had avoided him wasn’t that she thought he wasn’t worth meeting, but rather because she believed he would dislike her.
Kieran was once again thrown into confusion. He was the only one who had been reincarnated, but it felt as if Alyssa had changed too.
‘Does she have memories of her past life? But even if she did, why would she regret my death…?’
His doubts about Alyssa’s behavior stopped when his gaze returned to his wife in front of him.
The woman with her disheveled black hair loosely tied back had her head bowed low. Her face, with only tightly pressed lips visible, was pale.
Seeing her like that, Kieran felt his tension suddenly release. Whatever might have been true before, the Alyssa standing before him now seemed just…
‘Like a mouse, trying to gauge the situation.’
Her question about whether he disliked her seemed sincere. Pushing aside the complex thoughts swirling in his mind, Kieran answered her.
“I can’t speak for others… but I neither like nor dislike you, Your Grace.”
He meant it. Although Alyssa had certainly played a part in his death in their past life, he didn’t hold her entirely responsible.
More than that, Kieran was starting to realize that his own actions had also contributed to his miserable end.
‘Were you always like this?’
At this moment, Alyssa’s behavior was exactly as he remembered from before—down to the very last detail.
Even if she had eventually lost interest in him, perhaps, up until this moment in the past, she had been considerate of him.
If, instead of staying silent thinking that nothing would change, he had spoken up just once like he did today…
Would things have turned out differently? Would he have avoided that lonely death?
“That’s a relief.”
Once again, it was Alyssa who broke Kieran’s train of thought. Her small voice made him look up. Her pale, chapped lips were curved into a faint smile, so innocent that it was hard to believe she was the cold-hearted wife he remembered.
Kieran listened with mixed feelings as Alyssa continued to speak. Her words were something he had never expected.
Alyssa had easily granted him permission to take charge of the household affairs as the Duke Consort. It was as if she had never opposed him at all.
Kieran asked her several times, unable to believe it, but her response remained the same. Although she hesitated briefly when he mentioned the head maid, Alyssa still nodded in agreement.
She had always been a stranger to him, but now she was even more enigmatic. With a somber expression, Kieran smiled.
“Then I’ll trust you, Your Grace.”
Without delay, Kiaran began taking steps for his next plan.
Having received her approval to oversee the household’s affairs, it was now time to secure actual authority.
As soon as the meal ended, Kieran headed to the head maid’s room on the second floor. He knocked quietly, but there was no response.
Thinking she might be inside but unwilling to open the door, Kieran waited a moment before opening it himself, only to find the room empty.
‘She must have stepped out for a moment.’
The room appeared as unremarkable as the other rooms in Benoit Castle at first glance. To an untrained eye, it might seem like a simple servant’s quarters, but Kieran saw it differently.
Expensive items aren’t always covered in jewels and gold. The furniture, the curtains, the stone of the fireplace, even the pen on the desk—each was at least twice as valuable as anything in his own room.
“What brings you here without notice?”
As Kieran quietly surveyed the room, a voice brimming with displeasure interrupted him.
An elderly woman with streaks of gray in her hair, tied up neatly, and adorned with ruby accessories, frowned deeply. She approached Kieran briskly without so much as a greeting.
Passing by him, she checked the items on the desk, ensuring nothing had been moved since she last saw them, before turning back to him with an irritated expression.
“It is quite rude to enter a room without its owner present.”
Though her words remained polite, the head maid’s demeanor suggested she was addressing a subordinate rather than someone she served.
‘This is just like it was in my previous life,’ Kieran thought.
The head maid had casually shown disrespect toward Kieran, and he had been unable to call her out on it.
There was a reason for that. The head maid was a powerful figure, a close confidante of the current Duchess and the one who had managed the castle’s affairs since the untimely death of the previous Duchess.
In contrast, Kieran was no more than a penniless bride, sold off without any dowry, and an illegitimate child without the support of his family.
The pretense of respect from the head maid had only lasted in the beginning. Soon enough, she began treating Kieran as though he were nothing more than a beggar.
‘Even so, no one ever stopped her.’
Not even Kieran himself. It had been unfair, but he resigned himself to it, believing that it had to be that way.
As he quietly looked down at the head maid, a bitter smile crossed his lips. In hindsight, he realized how foolish he had been. He hadn’t even lived to see thirty—why had he lived so submissively?
“I’ve come to collect the ledgers and documents concerning the estate management. It seems that you, as my subordinate, have failed to deliver them to me as you should have.”
His tone was casual, but there was an underlying sharpness to his words, causing the head maid to narrow her eyes coldly.
“That is not possible.”
“Why not? I’ve become the master of this house, so it’s only natural. And are you even in a position to grant permission in the first place?”
Kieran’s calm retort caused a flicker of unease to cross the head maid’s face. She seemed puzzled, wondering what he could possibly be relying on to act so boldly.
“…Of course not, but taking control of the estate without the lord’s permission isn’t something you can just do, is it?”
The head maid, having momentarily faltered, regained her composure and spoke sternly. Standing firmly in front of the desk as if to block Kieran’s path, she continued.
“The lord entrusted this task to me. She explicitly ordered that it not be handed over to any outsider, as it is a matter of great importance.”
“Did Her Grace specifically instruct you not to hand over the ledgers to me?” Kieran asked, his tone measured. The head maid remained silent, but her gaze clearly conveyed that she believed it should have been obvious.
In his past life, Kieran would have accepted her words without question. Even now, he didn’t entirely dismiss the possibility that she might be telling the truth. It was entirely possible that Alyssa had given different instructions to both him and the head maid—perhaps soothing him with kind words while assigning her the role of the villain.
“That’s strange. When I asked Her Grace, she didn’t say anything of the sort,” Kieran remarked, his voice steady. After all, it couldn’t hurt to verify.
“It seems we’ve heard different things. Perhaps we should visit Her Grace together to clarify. What do you think?”
Kieran’s response caused the head maid’s previously resolute gaze to waver. He waited in silence for a moment, but, as before, no confident answer was forthcoming.
“You are correct. If it was Her Grace’s order, it should be followed. If Her Grace indeed said that an outsider like me cannot be entrusted with the internal affairs, then I won’t come to you about this matter again.”
The head maid glared at Kieran with a fierce, icy stare. Undeterred, Kieran continued speaking calmly.
“But if that is not the case…”
He paused, letting the silence stretch and grow colder.
“Then you will have to face the consequences for daring to mock your master.”
“Th-That…”
The head maid’s face, which had been pale with anger, now flushed red with a mix of fury and embarrassment. With a shout, she responded.
“I am certain Her Grace commanded me thus. I will return and ask Her Grace again, so please wait!”
With that, the head maid stormed out of the room, her steps quick and apprehensive, as if fearing Kieran might follow.
What a trashy attitude