────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Chapter 23

Though she was exhausted, the maids urged Radis to change out of her sweat soaked clothes and into dry clothes. Then, she was given lemon water, and later warm milk with honey.

Then, the maid with a cute ribbon on her hair placed a wet towel over Radis’ forehead. The maid had a happy expression.

When Allen came back, he freaked out when he found about ten maids flocking around Radis’ bed while they supported her.

“What are you all doing to a patient? Everyone, go out!”

“We’re just nursing the patient back to health!”

“Is there a need for twelve people to do that?”

Allen drove the maids out of the room like an angry buffalo.

And the maids cried like a flock of sparrows.

Allen turned to Radis and apologized.

“I’m very sorry for making you go through a strange thing like this.”

“What do you mean strange? It’s alright with me. I guess everyone likes nursing someone to health.”

With a red face because of her fever, Radis thought.

‘I guess they don’t hate me. What a relief.’

When she thought so, she smiled.

Watching Radis like this, Allen sighed inwardly.

‘Rather than calling a fellow woman handsome, they just couldn’t understand!’

In Allen’s perspective, Radis had very short hair, but she was still a pretty girl.

Though she might look like a boy because of her strong features, the other women couldn’t see the truth.

The maids of the mansion strangely think of this lady as handsome. They were making quite the fuss, saying that Radis was like a handsome, prince-like young lady who looked like the main character in the novel 〈 Knight Angela 〉. It’s the most popular novel these days.

Allen didn’t know what’s going on anymore.

He looked at Radis with some pity, then he spoke.

“I’ll get a quiet maid who’ll be dedicated to taking care of you.”

“Dedicated maid? I’m really fine. It’s just a cold.”

“You don’t have to feel conscious when your condition is like this, Miss Radis. You just need to focus on your recovery.”

When Allen said this, Radis could no longer refuse.

She smiled and tried to brush off the awkwardness between them.

“Sir Allen.”

“Yes, Miss Radis.”

“Thank you very much for your concern.”

Closing the door behind him, Allen wiped his eyes with a handkerchief.

“Poor thing..”

Under Yves Russell’s orders, Allen investigated Radis’ background.

On the surface, Allen was the Marquis family’s butler, but underneath, he was actually a member of the Marquis’ secret information organization called ‘Acroates’.

‘It’s great that I got ahold of the old gardener at the Tilrod mansion.’

Once contact was established with a servant in the Tilrod mansion, it wasn’t difficult to investigate Radis.

In particular, old man Roto, a gardener working for the Tilrod family, seemed to have a lot of things to say.

’I really couldn’t stand it. The salary’s just as valuable as crap on a rat’s tail, but there are so many things to do. And there’s this one thing—there’s a run-down cabin that’s been abandoned for a hundred years far away from the mansion, yet they wanted me to be responsible for the cabin’s broken door? It’s been years since I told my wife about that broken door, but what’s the reason for holding me accountable for it? It’s not a place for an old man like me, and while crying, my wife told me to leave that place. That family’s ‘generosity’ is just too much.’

With a glass of strong rum in one hand, old man Roto started lamenting and rambled on.

’I’ve seen the Young Ladies and the Young Master grow up since they were young. But the Madam and the Master treated Lady Radis strangely.’

The old gardener raised his thick hand.

’If you bite ten fingers, only the fingers would hurt, right? That’s a lie. If you bite your ring finger, your jaw would hurt, and that pain would go straight to your brain. Then the other fingers would need to be held tightly so that the pain would go away. Poor Lady Radis was like that.’

With his fist holding silver, old man Roto told the whole story of the cancellation of David Tilrod’s acceptance to the academy.

The young lady, who had been obedient all this time to the terrible Madam, seemed to have finally begun to rebel. Roto added that he thought Radis to be pitiful, but on the other hand, he was relieved.

Hearing this, Allen thought that Radis would be a more rebellious or spiteful girl.

However, seeing Radis here now, in his eyes, she was just a poor girl who was abused by her parents.

No matter how insignificant her place was in that household, she was still a young lady of a noble family, but just by looking at the items she brought from home, anyone could guess what kind of treatment she received from the Tilrod family.

How could a girl of her age have only worn-out men’s clothes?

Moreover, she seemed to have been treated so poorly that she found it difficult to entrust her only bag to anyone.

’Thank you very much for your concern.’

Allen could feel Radis’ sincerity in those words.

It was natural to worry about a sick person, but this child seemed to be really grateful about it.

After blowing his nose into his handkerchief, Allen headed someplace else.

“I’m really sorry about yesterday.”

That evening, unexpectedly, Yves Russell visited her.

Whether it was a gift for someone recovering or not, the bouquet of roses that he brought was out of place.

Radis took her medicine and slept a lot. But still, with a high fever, she sat up and greeted him.

“It’s alright. It’s not your fault, Marquis. Rather, it was me who made a grave mistake..”

“Let’s start with this.”

As he beckoned to the side, servants came in with large things.

Perplexed, Radis just stared as they came towards her. Then one servant opened the lid of a box and held it to her.

There were various fabrics inside.

“What’s this?”

“These are gifts that Madam Mariel has sent as a token of apology.”

Yves Russell closed the lid himself, his face with an expression of frustration.

“I have no excuses for yesterday. I’m just very sorry. I’ve caused a strange misunderstanding because I haven’t explained why you’re here to the Madam before that. But I’ve since explained and I told her that I decided to be your guardian.”

Yves Russell drew closer to her.

Unlike his gloomy appearance, he smelled quite good.

It was an adult man’s scent, a mixture of sweet yet bitter scent that seemed to be like scorched sugar.

“I’m sorry to have made you suffer like that. It’s completely my mistake.”

It’s really strange.

Obviously, Radis was hurt by Mariel’s words, but the resentment harbored by her heart seemed to melt away after hearing Yves Russell’s apology.

Looking back, Radis was also at fault.

If she had waited for Yves Russell just as he requested, she wouldn’t have met Mariel. But she had become impatient and went to visit him anyway, and this caused Mariel to misunderstand.

“No, I’m the one who went to see you first..”

“I’ve already told Madam Mariel not to come to the mansion until she’s apologized to you properly. There will be no such incident again from now on.”

From now on, he said.

‘Am I still allowed to stay here?’

Radis looked up at Yves Russell.

He always covered half his face with his fringe and wore only black clothes as though he was an ominous crow. Because of this, Radis’s only impression of him was that he was brutal and volatile, but after a few exchanges with him, she started to think that this person was truly good.

He’s even gone to the extent of apologizing sincerely to Radis, who had no true position here in the Marquisate.

Radis asked him.

“Why.. are you going this far for me?”

Yves Russell answered her with a kind voice.

“You signed a contract with me, Miss Stepping Stone.”

“Stepping.. What?”

“If Prince Olivier likes you, you’re not just no one.”

As the corners of Yves’ mouth went up, he started speaking bold words.

“I’m going to be a Duke. I’ll do anything just to achieve this, and as someone who needs to break down Prince Olivier’s iron wall, I won’t have to worry about anything if I can go over that iron wall. I have to do it. You may end up being a stepping stone for me, so isn’t it natural that I’d be nice to you?”

Hearing all this, Radis could only stare at him with her mouth agape.

She had just thought of him as a good person. Radis felt like she had been swindled. Anxious at this, Radis felt like a fool.

‘Marquis Russell isn’t someone foolish. He just wanted to make sure to invest in a gamble like this. So.. It’s just like how I consider him to be my ticket to my cherry farm.’

Radis almost burst into laughter.

‘Indeed, this was something like a gamble. Even if the cherry farm fails, it’s not the cherries’ fault.’

Radis was finally able to shake off the guilt that she harbored against Marquis Russell.

With a smirk, she said.

“That’s right. Gambling chips are precious.”

“Now we can talk.”

Yves Russell grinned and reached out his hand.

Radis held that hand and shouted.

“I’ll be in your care, Marquis!”

8. Is this okay?

It’s been fifteen days since Radis entered the Marquisate.

“Can I really do this?”

She muttered this to herself several times a day.

In both her lives, she considered the best bed to be a hard plank bed with a single blanket on it.

This was because there’s no such thing as a bed whenever she went on subjugations.

“It was terrible at the camps. I had to sleep in hammocks.”

Sleeping in a hammock made from weaving vines was better than sleeping on the ground.

It should be better to sleep with one blanket on the ground, but it’s difficult to endure the cold and moisture seeping from the bare ground.

“But it’s all in the past.”

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────