TTMLPTWW ~ Chapter 78

“I have something to say. Could you spare some time?”

Helene requested a conversation, but the Duke looked at her with cold eyes.

“I don’t particularly have anything to say.”

The Duke, who seemed to have no intention of conversing at all, openly embarrassed her.

After he coldly brushed past her, she heard the servants snickering behind her back.

Helene swallowed her humiliation and returned to her room.

‘……In the end, I have no choice but to solve this alone.’

* * *

After that day, Helene and the Duke’s relationship entered a state of cold war, where they didn’t exchange a single word.

Entering the bedroom, Helene noticed that the preparations for bed were not properly done and called a maid.

“Why hasn’t the bathwater been prepared? And the bedding hasn’t been properly arranged either.”

“Duchess, do you really need that right now?”

The maid retorted with a face full of annoyance.

Helene’s face mixed with anger at this.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I figured you wouldn’t need it since the Duke doesn’t come looking for you.”

The servants, who already knew that the Duchess was being kept in the back room, began to openly ignore Helene.

Blunt gossip was the norm.

“She’s just a princess in name only. There’s nothing else to see. I can’t stand her acting so high and mighty.”

“That woman, you have no idea how picky she is. She made me redo her hairstyle three times because she didn’t like it, you know?”

Some even started harboring foolish thoughts in the background.

“Don’t you think the Duke is lonely? He has nowhere to be comforted.”

“Dream on. He goes to the royal club where the upper class gathers. He’ll be mingling with ladies of a similar status.”

“I wonder if he’s not interested in men? I could fill his empty heart.”

With the Dowager Duchess and the princesses absent, there was no one to scold them, so they had nothing to fear.

Helene was practically invisible in the Duke’s residence. There was no one to confide in or trust.

The isolated situation that Cynthia had hoped she would be in had backfired and returned to Helene.

Left alone in the dim, empty room, she felt a sense of emptiness as she looked at herself in the vanity mirror.

Her hair, which she always neatly tied up, was now disheveled, and her plain white pajamas made her look no longer special.

‘Does just one person’s attitude dictate my life?’

The life of a powerless royal woman was nothing but unfair.

She was only human, so she couldn’t be immune to loneliness and isolation. Cynthia’s warning that she would eventually be alone kept echoing in her ears.

“……When was I ever not alone? I will become the best with my existence alone, not as someone’s wife.”

Helene lashed out at her momentarily weakened self.

It was then that her eyes gleamed with the single-minded determination to rise to the top.

“That’s cool.”

Helene was startled and turned around at the sudden unfamiliar voice.

“Who’s there?”

She could see a human figure between the open window and the swaying curtains.

Helene hurriedly opened a drawer and took out a self-defense pistol, aiming it.

The young man at the end of the gun barrel waved his hand as if to calm her down. The man was dressed in a smart suit and coat.

“Duchess, please demonstrate the purchased firearm on someone else.”

“I asked who you were.”

“You commissioned me. I am a technician from ‘Commedia dell’arte,’ and I’ve come to be the Duchess’s dog and do whatever you ask.”

The man politely handed over a business card.

He was a member of the gun-smuggling organization she had commissioned.

“As a VIP customer who purchased our products, you can commission anything. We’ll do anything for money.”

His attractive appearance, smiling face, and friendly tone made him seem like an excellent service employee, but there was a strange chill and dangerous feeling about him.

Just the fact that he had bypassed the Duke’s residence’s strict security and entered through the window was enough to show that he was no ordinary person.

The man swept back his gray-tinged black hair and introduced himself.

“Please call me Capitano.”

Capitano was the name of a boastful character in the masked comedy ‘Commedia dell’arte.’

The company name and everything else seemed to be a concept.

Just as she was thinking that it suited the man, he added.

“You said you were looking for someone?”

“Yes.”

Helene’s wary eyes followed his hand to the snake tattoo inside his sleeve.

The man confirmed the personal information Helene had given him and said.

“It will take about a week.”

“It takes that long?”

“I only work one day a week. Especially on weekends, I need to rest.”

Could she trust this man who was just spouting nonsense? His tone was like a male version of Cynthia.

Helene made a dubious expression.

“I understand, so let’s talk in writing. I hope you can leave quickly before someone sees you……”

“Your husband is openly having affairs, so what’s the big deal?”

‘How does he know that?’

He noticed Helene’s subtle change in expression and added.

“Our intelligence is beyond your imagination.”

Helene recalled the factory explosion that Cynthia had been involved in not long ago.

She had gone out to the shopping district and injured her arm in an explosion at a nearby gun factory.

‘The Duke said it was caused by a conflict between the Free Society and them. Is it okay to get involved with such dangerous forces?’

Above all, the gun-smuggling organization was founded by the remnants of the fallen empire.

‘But it’s been a long time, so there must have been a generational shift, and now it seems to be an organization that only pursues profits.’

The man, who had approached her, suddenly grabbed Helene’s hand. He kissed the back of her white hand and smiled with his eyes.

His yellow eyes were like those of a seductive black cat.

“I might be able to find them faster because the Duchess is so beautiful.”

Helene pulled her hand away with a serious expression.

She asked Capitano, who was smiling with his eyes.

“Can I commission one more thing?”

“Of course. I am yours for the time being, so use me as you please.”

After hesitating for a moment, she made up her mind and opened her mouth.

“I want you to investigate the women the Duke is meeting.”

“Understood.”

“I want to know if there is anyone he is serious about, not just a casual affair.”

Capitano stared at her intently, then loosely curved his eyes.

“I guarantee that even if there is someone he is serious about, she won’t be as beautiful as the Duchess.”

He left those last words and disappeared.

“His sales tactics are too blatant.”

Helene looked down at the business card he had given her.

[Commedia dell’arte, Sales Manager Capitano]

* * *

Sunday, today there was a volunteer schedule at the same orphanage as yesterday.

I woke up early in the morning and woke Masera, who was sleeping on the sofa.

“I can’t go today. I have to go to Nox.”

Masera said he had to go to check on the development work that had begun in earnest.

“Okay.”

I made a nonchalant face.

Masera straightened his disheveled hair and sat up straight.

“Would you like me to postpone the date to go to Nox?”

“No, it’s an important schedule, so go ahead.”

He was silent for a moment, looking at me, who wasn’t bothering him like before.

“A soldier must follow his wife’s words, so if you insist, I have no choice but to postpone the schedule……”

“I said you don’t have to postpone it? You can go with Diego or Dahlia.”

He gave me a dissatisfied look at my independent attitude.

Somehow, it seems like the situation has reversed from before. I smiled brightly and said.

“Please take me next time. I’m curious about what Nox is like.”

“……Understood.”

In the end, we decided to go our separate ways to do our respective duties.

“I won’t take you to the volunteer location. The train time is awkward.”

“Okay.”

I went outside with him, who was clearly showing his sulkiness.

Then, Masera’s expression hardened noticeably when he saw the scene in front of the mansion.

“I heard that Brigadier General won’t be able to go with you today? I will escort you.”

“I happened to be passing by. I thought it would be nice to go together if possible.”

Duke Rukanosa and Major Rodriguez, who had been waiting, said to me at the same time.

“I’m going to take her.”

Masera, who had been sulking until just now, saying he wouldn’t take me, said firmly.

But the Major has always been my emotional soulmate…… Why is the Duke suddenly acting like this?

Is he slowly switching lines because the success of the development project is becoming a foregone conclusion? Or is it because I might spread rumors about his affair?

“…….”

Suddenly, I felt a stinging gaze and turned my head, and Masera was staring at me intently.

“Do you have something to say?”

“Not really. But don’t follow strangers, don’t walk alone, don’t smile or praise just anyone……”

He was saying a lot for someone who said he didn’t have anything to say.