Chapter 116

It was late in the evening.

Nerys stopped in her tracks at the sound of someone calling her from behind. The voice was kind, cheerful, and somehow made the listener feel at ease.

“Advisor!”

Catherine Haricote approached Nerys with a smile, her steps light as if she’d run into a close friend by chance on the street.

Nerys glanced over Catherine in a single sweep. The sky-blue wool dress and the pretty hat with a small fur pom-pom suited her petite figure very well, and her face was carefully made up without being flashy.

By the standards of Nerys, who knew the social circles of the capital more than ten years in the future, it seemed a bit old-fashioned, but anyone could see it was bright and pretty—especially thanks to that beaming smile.

They were in the main palace’s first-floor hall, near the door leading to the West Palace—a place where Catherine had no reason to appear. Nerys, with polite restraint, asked with a faint smile.

“Is there something you need, Miss Haricote?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just out for a walk and was so happy to see you that I came to say hello.”

“You took a walk alone in the dark?”

Ever since winter arrived, the days in Maindulante had been growing drastically shorter. Around dinner time, it was as dark as the middle of the night.

Even if the Haricote family wasn’t a household Nerys had ever heard of in her previous life, Catherine was now staying at the castle as a relative of the Marquis of Tipion. Was it appropriate for such a young lady to wander around alone at this hour?

Catherine’s smile didn’t waver in the slightest at Nerys’s observation. Instead, she replied even more brightly.

“What’s the harm? I actually enjoy walking alone. The night air feels nice, doesn’t it?”

“Aren’t you cold?”

“I’m strong against the cold. In weather like this, it actually feels pleasant! Ah, but I suppose it’ll get even colder once it’s the middle of winter?”

“I haven’t been in Maindulante for long myself, so I’m not sure how cold it gets, but probably so.”

“Oh my, is that so? So you’re new here too, Advisor.”

Advisor, ‘too’? It sounded like she was delighted to find something in common, but it wasn’t an expression a guest should use to the host.

Nerys wore a smile that revealed nothing.

“Yes, that’s right. …Is your room comfortable?”

“Oh yes! I was so surprised—it’s the nicest room I’ve ever had… Oh!”

As she spoke, Catherine theatrically covered her mouth and giggled.

“His Excellency told me not to say things like that, but I couldn’t help myself. You’ll keep it a secret, right?”

“Yes, I have no reason to tell His Excellency about anything you say, Miss Haricote.”

“Wonderful! I wanted to be friends with you from the moment I first met you. Um…”

The servants coming and going had, before anyone realized, begun listening to the conversation between Nerys and Catherine. Both were eye-catching figures in the castle, and Catherine’s voice was just loud enough to draw attention.

Catherine paused, then shyly cupped her cheek and asked innocently,

“If you don’t mind, may I sometimes disturb your rest? I’m sure you’re very busy, so even just once in a while would be fine. I’d be so happy if you would talk with me.”

The word choice was considerate, the voice sincere… it was very convincing.

Nerys responded with a gentle smile.

“Anytime I have a spare moment.”

It meant she wouldn’t spare a moment if she didn’t feel like it. But Catherine, as if she hadn’t understood, smiled brightly and linked arms with Nerys.

“Thank you! I’m so glad.”

Nerys flinched. At that moment, the door to the West Palace opened.

Ellen, who stepped through, instinctively greeted Nerys with a warm smile. But only for a moment.

Her gaze shifted to Catherine’s smiling face, and her expression wavered wildly. The usually calm face, which always showed a steady heart, suddenly betrayed a longing.

Nerys realized who Catherine resembled. Those green eyes tinged with blue, the friendly smile, and the mischievous look.

They were just like the former Grand Duchess in the portrait.

❖ ❖ ❖

After dinner, it was Dora’s job to clear away the dishes used by Nerys and Madam Truydd.

In a typical noble house, such menial work would have fallen to the lowest servants or maids. But Dora enjoyed even these chores.

She fully understood that not just anyone could be allowed into the West Palace, but above all, these little chores came with ‘side benefits.’

Because only a select few in the West Palace could do the washing up, Dora always took the dishes to the main palace’s huge kitchen after every meal.

“You’re here?”

A junior maid working in the kitchen greeted Dora warmly and habitually handed her a couple of snacks.

“Thanks.”

Dora accepted the snacks and smiled faintly.

Tall, rather good looking, and usually unsmiling, Dora was quietly admired by the younger maids, who called her ‘that unni.’

The maid who’d given her the snacks blushed and tried to keep the conversation going. She brought up a bit of gossip that was making the rounds among the young maids.

“Did you hear? Lady Ellen told them to take a spare fur coat from storage to the guest lady earlier.”

The ‘guest lady’ clearly meant Catherine Haricote.

“Really?”

Dora’s side benefit wasn’t just snacks—it was information like this.

Even after retiring from Yaheon, the habit of collecting useful information was embedded in her at the instinctual level.

Besides, her current employer had a particular need for such information, and there was no one else on staff with this specialty. Dora’s sense of duty could only become stronger.

The maid, pleased that Dora seemed interested, continued chatting away.

“The guest lady is from the south, right? Seems like she didn’t have a proper coat. I guess the head maid didn’t want her freezing to death as a guest in our castle.”

It’s not like the Marquisate of Tipion is a tropical region. If she came to Maindulante in winter without even a fur coat, she’d have no one to blame but herself if she froze to death—at least, that’s what Dora thought. But Catherine Haricote’s survival wasn’t the point.

The real news was that Head Maid Ellen, who was closest to His Grace the Grand Duke and would surely not favor unwanted visitors, had gone out of her way to show kindness to the guest lady.

Among the servants, the guest lady and His Excellency the Marquis had the worst reputations. Even the youngest maids at White Swan Castle knew what was going on—they all sensed that the Marquis had brought a young woman to try and come between their Advisor and His Grace.

People were careful what they said about the Marquis since he was the Grand Duke’s maternal grandfather, but the guest lady was the subject of plenty of behind-the-back gossip.

If someone like Ellen, who needed to read the Grand Duke’s moods faster than anyone, had started treating the guest lady kindly…

‘Is something happening?’

But that wasn’t for Dora to worry about. She’d always lived by gathering information and letting wise superiors analyze it. At that moment, another kitchen maid passing by chimed in.

“Oh, that guest lady? I talked to her earlier.”

The maid who’d been chatting with Dora widened her eyes.

“Really? How?”

“Well, I ran into her by chance and she asked me who to talk to about getting water for washing up. I told her to ring the bell, and she just laughed and thanked me so warmly, like we were friends.”

“Really?”

The maids quickly fell into gossip. Dora listened in while playing along, then slipped out of the kitchen.

❖ ❖ ❖

Several days passed.

Catherine felt more satisfied each day as her treatment improved. She’d received a high-quality fur coat that would be hard to find even in the Marquisate of Tipion, and the firewood in her room grew more plentiful by the day.

“Rest well, my lady.”

A maid, with whom she’d already exchanged greetings several times, bade her goodbye and left the room, stealing a glance at the Marquis.

The Marquis watched sourly, then sneered at Catherine.

“You look like you’re living the good life.”

“What do you mean?”

Catherine, humming contentedly after her bath, answered lightly. The Marquis was annoyed.

“You’ve been wasting your time for days, fussing over commoners! You still haven’t met with Cledwyn even once!”

That was true.

Since that rude behavior on the first day, Cledwyn had had no contact with the guests at all. Nerys had checked in on them, but her attitude was as ambiguous as it had been on the first day.

If Catherine hadn’t coaxed Ellen into saying something, the Marquis might have had to send his own knights out to fetch firewood, as he would have been too proud to ask for more.

‘How insolent.’

This was a first for the Marquis in his entire life. He cursed those ‘northern brutes’ inwardly.

Catherine quietly regarded the Marquis, then smiled sweetly.

“Everything is going according to plan, Your Excellency.”

“What, not even seeing that guy’s face once?”

“That’s right, letting them snub me as much as they want.”

The firmness in her voice sobered the Marquis.

Catherine’s face was smiling, but it was cold.

“These days, I’ve been wandering around outside. Do you know why?”

“Wasn’t it to meet my grandson?”

“No. I chose routes and times when His Grace the Grand Duke would be least likely to appear, when he was busy. I charmed the common maids to gather information. What’s the point in making a direct approach when His Grace already holds so much resentment toward you? If I look like I’m also after him, it’s over. Do you understand?”

“What if he gets engaged to someone else in the meantime?”

The Marquis could guess that even the people of the castle half-considered Nerys Truydd as the lady of the house.

Even after all this, the common servants still drew a line with Catherine, and that was probably why. Catherine smiled coldly.

“That’s why you have to step up. …How is the plan to get rid of that Truydd woman coming along?”

“No one will go along with it!”

The Marquis felt stung.

He’d assumed there would be at least some vassals under the Grand Duke who disliked Cledwyn, especially those who’d quarreled with him since he took the title. He’d tried to persuade them with honeyed words.

But not a single one took the bait. Not one!

Hilbrin, in particular, had erupted at even the suggestion that Nerys Truydd might be an imperial spy.

The Marquis had to admit it: the Maindulante he knew was more than ten years gone, and too much had changed since then.

The people of Maindulante were utterly devoted to the Grand Duke. And they adored their young, clever advisor. Fools, the lot of them.

“That’s how it is.”

Catherine was not surprised. She’d known from the start the Marquis’s plan would fail.

Unlike the Marquis, who relied only on his title to nudge the vassals, Catherine had been personally tracking the castle’s opinions.

‘Not an easy opponent.’

The stories of Nerys Truydd instantly subduing the habits of the aristocrats who’d ignored her upon arrival… There was a fierce light in Catherine’s eyes.

Yes… Nerys Truydd was no pushover. Beauty, dignity, refinement, perhaps even bloodline… There was not a single thing Catherine could surpass her in.

But it’s not always the woman with the best qualities who wins, is it?