Chapter 7
A Good Opportunity Missed
The room Shed had left.
Liana remained alone, curled up on the bed.
The air was cold, and the blanket felt like a thicket of thorns against her skin.
Liana hugged her injured leg. A tear fell onto her knee.
‘How foolish…’
She wiped away the tears with the back of her hand and self-deprecated dryly.
When Shed approached her, ridiculously, her heart began to beat as if it knew him well.
Like a moth drawn to a flame, knowing it would burn her.
Shed wouldn’t know.
That the first emotion she felt when she first recognized his face was relief.
When she realized he was alive and well, it was as if she was setting down a long-held burden from a corner of her heart.
She had always been curious.
The Duke from a slave background, called the undefeated hero.
Whenever Liana heard the name ‘Shed Lester,’ she thought of the slave she had known.
The slave who had been endlessly kind and loyal.
She had peeked at tabloids and newspapers that came into the Barony of Godwin and imprinted his name in her eyes.
She heard the story of Lupus, who had once saved the Duke’s life, and before she knew it, ‘Shed Lester,’ the adopted son of Duke Leicester, had made a name for himself.
After the death of the late Duke Leicester, ‘Duke Shed Lester’ graced the front pages of newspapers for months. His name was always bookmarked in news of victory.
It was brilliant. Not even a hero from some myth could shine brighter than his story.
Liana gazed up at that beautiful star from the mud.
She loved the star, but it had to end there.
She wasn’t qualified to face Shed Lester.
Nor should she meet him.
So she hid in a low position in a corner of this vast empire.
Believing that it would be alright since Godwin Baron had no deep ties with the Leicester family.
But as misfortune had always cursed her, she was eventually led here by the leash of fate.
Remember your sins, Luise.
It was as if the cold air was whispering in her ear.
Liana curled up and covered her ears.
Then, click, she heard a sound that pulled her from her thorny memories back to reality.
Liana hurriedly wiped her wet eyes.
Turning towards the door, she saw a middle-aged man adjusting his monocle and looking at her.
Werner sighed as he saw the woman curled up on the bed, crying.
Disheveled clothes, trembling body, and tear-soaked rosy cheeks.
‘…It seems she didn’t satisfy the master.’
Werner shook his head, roughly guessing what had happened in the bedroom.
“You missed a good opportunity.”
Werner approached her and handed her a thick gown to put on.
Liana simply lowered her head at his words.
A good opportunity. It seems that’s how it looks to others.
The Duke of the great Elector Family gave her a chance to share his bed, so a lowly maid should be grateful, is that what they mean?
Liana was suddenly reduced to a pathetic woman who didn’t even have the ability to seize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Ah… perhaps she seemed like someone who couldn’t become any more pathetic in the first place.
Liana wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and sneered.
Werner looked at such Liana with pity.
He thought that the woman’s situation was truly unfortunate, whatever the reason.
“Stay here for the time being until the master gives his orders. You have nowhere else to go anyway…”
“I do have somewhere to go.”
Liana raised her head sharply and looked up at Werner.
Her tearful, light green eyes were now filled with a firm light.
Somewhere to go? In fact, there was no such place.
Because she had no intention of returning to that filthy Godwin family.
But anyway, she didn’t want to stay in Shed’s family.
‘If I leave, everything will be resolved.’
Liana clenched her fist tightly over her chest.
“You’re not going back to the Godwin family. And from what the master said, you don’t have any family. Where do you plan to go?”
Werner asked, looking at the small and skinny woman.
She looked like she wouldn’t last a day or two on the streets before collapsing.
Besides, her body wasn’t in good condition, with her leg and other places injured.
“Alright. I understand you want to run away after experiencing something like this on your first day.”
The butler nodded.
Having suffered this kind of treatment as soon as she arrived in an unfamiliar place, she probably had no face to stay.
Having been left alone in the master’s bedroom, it would probably be difficult for her to stay here any longer.
“But you belong to the Leicester family now, so stay here and wait until a decision is made.”
Werner pointed to the emblem embroidered on the gown she was wearing.
A clear mark of a wolf holding a sword, as if stamping that she was the property of Leicester.
Without even realizing it, she had become completely owned by Shed Lester.
Years had passed since she had abandoned her position as a noble lady, but whenever her fate was decided by a few words from those above, she was filled with a chilling sense of powerlessness.
“Follow me.”
Werner turned around as if to say he wouldn’t bother saying anything more.
Eclaus’s head turned along the line of the second-floor hallway.
A woman with dark brown hair, wearing a white gown, was following behind the butler, Werner.
‘My eyes weren’t wrong.’
After being washed and dressed in clean clothes, she was as beautiful as he had expected.
‘It seems Duke Leicester wasn’t uninterested in women, but rather had high standards.’
Eclaus thought, fiddling with a gold coin with his fingers as a habit.
Was his taste in women picky and refined?
His calculating red eyes glanced towards where the woman had come from.
‘Isn’t that Duke Leicester’s bedroom…?’
Coming out of there at this hour?
Eclaus, staring at the tightly closed door with narrowed eyes, grabbed Caroline, the head maid who was passing by.
“That woman. Is she the woman Duke Leicester brought during the day?”
He asked the head maid in a fairly polite and gentle tone.
“Yes, she is.”
“I heard she was brought from the Barony of Godwin?”
“That’s right.”
The head maid answered stiffly.
Then Eclaus raised the corners of his lips and stroked his chin.
“It’s still early, but it seems the Duke’s time in bed is short. At his age, full of vigor…”
It was only nine o’clock at night. Considering the time Shed had dinner, washed up, and went up to the bedroom, it was too early for the woman to come out of the bedroom.
He wondered if Lupus’s blood was boiling after a long time.
“That’s why unpleasant rumors are circulating.”
Tsk, Eclaus shook his head and clicked his tongue.
Perhaps the rumor that he was impotent was true.
Whether he didn't like Eclaus's attitude, the head maid Caroline's brow furrowed.
“Did you send that woman back?”
Caroline asked, recalling the woman Eclaus had brought with him during the day.
A woman wearing messy clothes that revealed her back and legs.
A gait that shamelessly wiggled her hips, white powder thickly applied to her face, a perfume scent so strong it made her nose hurt, bright red painted lips, and a deep cleavage that boasted her fullness. It was obvious what kind of work she did.
At Caroline’s barbed question, Eclaus’s eyes curved softly.
“Of course, I sent her back. I couldn’t possibly keep a precious lady in danger until this late hour.”
Caroline’s brow deepened at the ingratiating answer.
A precious lady. How dare he use such a word for such a woman.
“It would be difficult if you brought such women into our Leicester family carelessly.”
As the head maid, Caroline had a duty to keep this family pure.
“Such a woman? It would be upsetting if you said that to our cute little lark.”
“A, a lark…”
The head maid let out a hollow breath as if the nickname was absurd.
She clearly saw her leaving happily with a bag of money, what…!
In fact, Caroline already knew that the woman had left this mansion before evening.
Her questioning whether he had sent the woman back was to warn Eclaus.
“Don’t be so rigid, Caroline. That’s why Duke Leicester can’t even get a woman into bed. At this rate, the Leicester family line will be cut off.”
Eclaus shrugged and smiled.
Caroline’s face flushed red as if she had been insulted.
“Our master is already engaged. There’s no reason for him to bring such a woman into his bedroom!”
At the firm and solemn answer, Eclaus chuckled.
“Of course. Our Duke must protect his chastity and purity. Of course. That’s a virtue.”
Caroline closed her mouth discontentedly at Eclaus’s light tone.
‘How frivolous…!’
Caroline was displeased with the Sub-Count Eclaus Vittel in front of her.
‘I shouldn’t expect dignity from a merchant…’
The Vittel Count family was originally merchants.
Although they were commoners, the Vittel family, who had a lot of money - nominally because they had contributed greatly to the economy or something - bought a title from the imperial family with a large sum of money.
It was an unprecedented exception.
The label that followed the first family to obtain a title using money was self-evident.
‘Our Duke may be from Lupus, but he’s on a different level from such a merchant.’
If you think about it, Shed’s background was lower than Eclaus’s, but Caroline had great loyalty to Shed Lester.
‘His Grace saved the lives of the late Duke and His Majesty the Emperor, after all.’
Obtaining a title by rendering distinguished service was a traditional honor.
Shed had obtained his title in a fair and honorable way.
Eclaus saw Caroline’s expression, which was full of antipathy.
He knew what she was thinking, as she had a strong sense of pride.
‘She’s probably just rationalizing because she’d be too ashamed to look down on the master she serves.’
She looked down on Eclaus, who was from a commoner background, but had pride in Shed, who was from a slave background.
Eclaus knew how impure the source of that pride was.
She was just rationalizing because looking down on Shed would be like spitting on her own face.
If she hadn’t been working in the Leicester family, that woman would have become one of the many people who looked down on Shed Lester.
In general, those who looked down on Eclaus Vittel also tended to look down on Shed Lester.
“It’s getting late. Bring me a cup of warm water to my room.”
Therefore, Eclaus ordered nonchalantly.
Whether Caroline looked down on him or not, he was a Sub-Count and she was just a head maid.
