"Because they are brothers."
Johannes replied in a dry voice. Eun-woo smiled bitterly.
It was both right and wrong. Tashian Verk was greeted by Reinhardt as brothers. However, they were half-brothers. It was Reinhardt, the older brother's side, who succeeded the authentic blood of the craftsman. Tashian was the son of a poor prostitute who was got drunk by the previous Duke.
Hellasium was a country with some absolute deficit rights. The illegitimate child, who was not recognized by either parent, was not treated as a person.
After the war, Tashian's mother who had been abandoned in a land in Genova, her hometown, and gave birth to a son. Tashian, who grew up as a fatherless child for 13 years, became the successor to the duchy overnight after his brother Reinhardt was elected as a 'successor'.
The heir is the sole and complete status under the imperial sun. They are the cleanest person who has left the world and worldly possessions behind more than anyone else.
Therefore, neither title nor position of any family could be inherited.
The engineer desperately needed a new successor. And about a month before the succession ceremony, an orphan boy with the black hair and dark eyes of a craftsman was found in a rural village in another country crossing the sea from Hellasium.
Thus, Tashian received Verk's surname at the age of 13 and became a man of a duke. In short, he was a substitute for his half-brother Reinhardt.
This was why he was an attractive character to Eun-Woo despite being a villain. Born to be a heavenly citizen until the age of thirteen, he grew up roughly in the streets and was different from the aristocrats that were like plants in other greenhouses.
No matter how much elite education was received from the Duke's family, harsh tone or belligerent character was not a kind of nature that could be easily removed. Other ordinary nobles despised him to the bones or feared him and treated him like a wild animal.
Both his obsession with power and his desire for power came from a sense of inferiority from him being an illegitimate child.
"If you're done looking around, we'll take you to the study now."
Eun-woo blinked her eyes, immersed in thought. Johannes was waiting for her in an immutable posture with her back upright.
The study was located right next to the Duke's office located on the second floor. Before entering the study, she stayed at the door of the office with her eyes closed tightly. Johannes noticed her strange gaze and said.
"The Duke is handling the work that has been delayed. Do you have anything to say?"
Eun-woo was surprised and flustered.
"No! That's not it… Well, he must be very busy."
"He's probably one of the busiest people in this Empire for a while, except for the Crown Prince."
"Does he have a lot of work to do?"
"The Duke served as the commander-in-chief in the Battle of Great Genova. It has been almost three years since he returned to the Empire."
I can't believe it's been 3 years. I couldn't even imagine how many papers he was trapped in there with.
"Of course, we've finished all the things we can do. However… There are more tasks that require the authority of Duke than expected. Except for the urgent business that was handled by sending a messenger to the battlefield, all tasks were put on hold until he returned."
They then visited the study. After touring a vast amount of rooms with hundreds of thousands of books and documents such as artifacts, they decided to stop by a branch with indoor gardens, medical rooms, and armory.
"Then, the bedroom I'm using on the third floor was originally a guest room?"
She asked as she went down the stairs along Johannes. Then Johannes' expression suddenly hardened subtly.
Seeing an icy person embarrassed, Eun-woo looked back inside herself to see if she had made any mistakes. It was not long before Johannes broke the strange silence and replied.
"… The room Young Miss is using was the bedroom of the previous Duchess."
At that moment, Eun-woo coughed out like a person who was suffocating to death. It was only after a while did she continue to speak.
"What? The Duchess's bedroom? Oh no, why was I given such an important room… No, before that, how could you say that without saying a warning… ."
"… I'm sorry. I thought you already knew."
Eun-woo felt so absurd that she lost her words. She held onto the stair railing to support her reeling body.
It was a mistake to be naïve in thinking that a spacious and luxurious room and a guest room for a Duke are of a different class.
Johannes, who was quite embarrassed, explained, unable to raise her head.
"The rooms that were used as guest rooms were destroyed by a fire that broke out half a year ago. The only guests who have been tied to the Duke's residence are the low-ranking nobleman who used the Knight's quarters next to the theater or merchants who deal directly with the family… We couldn't have Young Miss stay in the lodgings used by the servants. You didn't say anything, so I thought the Duke had already explained it to you. It's my negligence. I'm sorry."
"Then the duke…?"
"Of course he knew. He was the one who ordered the bedroom of the late Grand Duchess to be given away in the first place."
Eun-woo grinded her teeth inside.
You sneaky guy!
No matter how fictional it is, there are certain things about timing, and there are rules of etiquette that must be obeyed.
In a mansion governed by an unmarried Duke, a noble maiden filled the bedroom of the late wife.
If this happened to reach the ears of other nobles, Eleanor's marriage path would not have been blocked but would have gone backwards.
Eun-woo asked Johannes with a red face.
"The- then,His Highness' bedroom is…?"
"… It's just across from the bedroom that Young Miss uses."
It was as expected. Her body was burning with shame, and now her face was steaming. Avoiding him and living on the top floor of the annex was impossible then. It was like waving her tail softly towards him from a distance even if she was to stay at the top floor.
Eun-woo immediately visited the office and suppressed the urge to argue in front of the Butler.
She was not a person who didn't know what it meant to have an unmarried maiden use the duchess' bedroom. She was determined to address this issue the next day she met him.
•••
Contrary to her concerns, however, it was extremely rare to encounter the Duke even when using the room just across from him. As Johannes said, that the Duke would be the second busiest person in the Empire after the Crown Prince for the time being, he really didn't have the time to spare even the slightest bit of time.
One day, he went out in a carriage from the dawn of the early morning, and the next day she heard that he had arrived only when it was time to pick up breakfast, and the other day, he stayed in the office on the second floor all day and did not even show his nose.
In the duke's residence, Eun-woo was completely living in fortune and became a slacking lady. A daily routine continued, eating, sleeping, leisurely strolling through the garden, feeding wild squirrels and birds that visited her room's veranda, and taking a nap in a sunny window seat.
For the first time in her life, it was a peaceful and calm day. It was like she was dreaming.
On the other hand, she was even afraid. If it's a tranquility that she has never tasted before, she wouldn't also look for it from the beginning. For fear that if these days would be broken at any time, she would not recover from her old self again and seemed to slowly tighten her neck.
'When will be Marquis Miller's return…?'
Ten days and five days had passed since she sent the letter, but there had been no news of a reply.
She wanted to check through the Duke to see if she was going through the right contact, but she was more careful to get involved with him while she was already avoiding him, but it wasn't that Eun-woo didn't encounter him at all in the Duke's mansion.
It was a kind of unsolved mystery for her. In the restaurant, in the study, in the front door of the main building. Sometimes while talking to the butler, walking through the garden. He was encountering her accidentally in a path that was unknown who on one knew about and had no idea where the hell it appeared from.
And every time that happened, the Duke would approach her immediately without any hesitation.
Every time Eun-woo catches him and sees him striding towards her with his long legs, it was like looking at someone who had been starving for days. She thought it was like a wandering wild dog that had just found food.
Sometimes her eyes found him first. When Eun-woo found his short black hair, a large body with one head protruding from the crowd, and the tip of a huge long sword that he always wore around his waist, she would immediately run away until her hair fell out.
However, no matter how much she hid among the maids, behind the cabinet, behind the bookshelf in the study, he found her as if she was a see-through person.
Then, suddenly, he reached right in front of the place where she was standing, with the dignity of a General.
When he came all the way to her like that, she didn't have anything to say or to do. He approached her with a hard expression that was like he was going to share a military secret, and the only thing he said was whether she was comfortable with staying in the duchy, and whether she needed anything more.
Sometimes, when she saw his face, she just wanted to disappear.
It was when she was walking around with her maid, Anit. It was a good day to be alone in the room on a sunny day.
Wearing a light chiffon dress made of a light material, she was taking a gentle walk with the support of flowers in full bloom with the embroidered mass that Anit had put in her hand.
From afar, a group of knights could be seen passing the bridge connected to the backyard.
She wasn't afraid of showing them proper examples of a Lady, but that didn't mean she wanted to encounter men wearing iron armor.
Eun-woo turned around with Anit to avoid them.
But something caught Eun-woo's eye. Sure enough, there was the Duke at the center of the men.
Unlike the other knights who wore light armor, the duke was wearing a dark blue uniform. It seems that he was going to enter the Palace.
He was splendidly dressed with golden armbands on a perfectly angled uniform, a red drapery draped over his shoulders, and silver tassels dangling from his side sleeves. The white sable hairs wrapped around one arm fluttered like cloth in the light wind.
At the first sight of his face, Eun-woo stopped walking and looked at him.
He was talking seriously with a brown-haired knight standing next to him. And as if in a fixed procedure, he turned his head toward her. It was a place dozens of steps away.
The impression of his forehead like a habit unfolded for a moment. When the knights who were discussing him stopped talking, and gave attention to Eun-woo, who was standing around, Tashian was already walking toward her.
He walked towards her at a slightly faster pace. With every step he took, the golden chords of the drapery flapping from his shoulders swung side to side.
Eun-woo's heart had long become numb looking at it.
Tashian reached right in front of her, drawing a straight line. Eun-woo looked up at the Duke with a fascinated face. Cast iron-like black eyes looked down at her intensely.
Eun-woo felt that Anit was confused next to her about whether to give way and leave. However, regardless of what she had to do, Tashian bowed his head deeply, prepared courtesy, and stepped down.
[Then, what a great day it is…]
It wasn't funny. She just looked at his face and walked away.
But those things were repeated over and over again. Later, as soon as the maids found him, they even told her, "The Duke is coming."
Through the process, Eun-woo found out some facts.
First, when he found Eleanor despite his very busy schedule, he beat everything to find her. As if iron was attracted by magnets, she came to her senses and he suddenly appeared in front of her. Sometimes it gave the impression that he couldn't stand it and went out looking for her.
Second, he used polite words for her at the place where someone else accompanied him. He treated her politely as if he was treating any noble lady.
At that time, Eun-woo was captivated by the feeling of being the daughter of the royal family. Each time he followed her to escort a few steps away, or asked for permission to kiss the back of her hand, she had to blush.
Third, he had certainly built a considerable relationship with Eleanor. Whenever he suddenly gave the impression that he was penetrating everything about Eleanor, Eun-woo felt something sharp scratched her heart. Then useless thoughts encroached on her head.
Did Eleanor also love him a lot? Did she smile at him?
The secret and kind eyes that he sent toward me, and the kind actions he sent towards me, were not all for Lim Eun-woo. She was just a clown deceiving everyone. She is a troublemaker who had appeared out of the blue between two lovely lovers.
As time went on, those innutritious thoughts grew more and more bulky in her mind.
At that time, Eun-woo was able to recall the ending of the novel and turn her mind elsewhere.
However, the more she did it, the stronger the wall of her heart built toward Tashian Verk. She just wanted to leave the Duke's Residence as soon as possible.