The End Of The Special Contract Marriage - Chapter 20
Typically, noble women bring maids from their family when they marry.
However, Arasila did not do so. She didn’t want to bother dragging people around when there was a high possibility of divorce within a few years.
‘Arasila, for the new mistress of the mansion, it’s important how many of her own people she has.’
Despite her mother’s worried advice, Arasila entered the Vandermir mansion with only Audrey. Demian respected her wishes.
The housekeeper separately hired a dedicated maid for Arasila within the mansion.
At first, the Vandermir ducal family seemed to nitpick about this, but at some point they lost interest and stopped interfering.
The housekeeper assigned half existing maids and half new maids under Arasila. And she gathered the servants to introduce them to her.
Soon, Arasila appeared wearing a black dress with elaborate lace embroidery, with Audrey trailing behind her.
“Did you sleep well, madam?”
As the housekeeper bowed her head and greeted first, the young maids followed suit and repeated the greeting.
Arasila nodded lightly to acknowledge the greeting, then sat in a chair and straightened her back.
“These girls here will be the maids serving you from now on, madam. Don’t worry, we’ve trained the newly hired ones as well.”
“Thank you, housekeeper.”
Arasila slowly scanned the maids. They all looked unremarkable and ordinary, except for one who stood out.
It was a blonde-haired maid who kept glancing at her while keeping her head bowed.
“You there, do you have something to say to me?”
“What? No, madam.”
The blonde-haired maid, suddenly singled out, flustered and lowered her head even more.
“What’s your name?”
“It’s Rosalyn, madam.”
“Alright, Rosalyn. Are you sure you have nothing to say? You’ve been staring at me since I came in.”
Rosalyn shrank her shoulders and shook her head. The housekeeper tactfully intervened.
“Rosalyn is newly hired, and she may have made a mistake as she’s not yet accustomed to the work. I apologize, madam.”
“No, there’s nothing to apologize for. I was just curious because she was staring so intently.”
As the atmosphere remained awkward, Audrey, standing behind Arasila, threw in a joke.
“I think she was captivated by madam’s beauty. Our madam’s appearance is indeed stunning enough to surprise anyone seeing her for the first time.”
“Oh Audrey. You never say anything but the truth.”
As the two laughed merrily, the expressions of the other maids relaxed as well. In the more peaceful atmosphere, Arasila greeted them.
“I’m not a demanding mistress, so it won’t be difficult to serve me. I’ll be busy with magic tower work, so you won’t have much to do either. I look forward to working with you all.”
“Yes, madam.”
The maids answered in unison and bowed. Arasila stood up from the chair and said, touching Audrey’s shoulder:
“Audrey here is my most cherished maid. Get along well with her, everyone. If you have any issues, you can tell Audrey too.”
It was said with consideration that they could use Audrey as an intermediary for matters they found difficult to speak directly to her about. That would be more comfortable for the maids as well.
However, Arasila later realized that words spoken with good intentions can sometimes be misused.
[This is the timeline separator]
Even with a new household, there wasn’t much change in life.
Although the home she returned to after work was different, Arasila lived much the same as she did when she was unmarried.
To finish the floating stone research that was nearing its end, she continued her routine of leaving early in the morning and returning late at night.
Even on the rare occasions when she got off work early, she chose to have dinner with her original family at Duke Hugo’s mansion. Just like before marriage.
“Sister!”
As a result, Adrian was the most excited. He couldn’t be happier that his sister, who seemed to have gone to a different planet after marriage, came to have meals together at least once a week.
“Ad, have you been listening well to Mom, Dad, and your sister while I was away?”
“Of course! Look at this, my tutor wrote a letter praising me to our parents.”
“Really? Let me see.”
Arasila read the letter containing her brother’s private lesson grades with a fond smile.
Hmm, but our Ad is better at swordsmanship than magic?
She was about to be slightly displeased, but her attention was diverted as Iris called out to her.
“Ari, you’re here?”
“Yes, sister. Where are our parents?”
“They’re waiting in the dining hall.”
As the three siblings went to the dining hall together amicably, the Duke and Duchess greeted them.
In a scene no different from before marriage, they started their meal.
“Arasila, is it alright for you to come this often when you have a new family now?”
The Duchess asked with some concern. Arasila shrugged her shoulders.
“My husband isn’t home either, so what’s the problem?”
It wasn’t as if Arasila was coming to her family home on her own while her husband was waiting for her at the mansion.
Since Demian was just as busy as her, they rarely saw each other’s faces despite being newlyweds. It had been a while since they last had a meal together.
So on days when Demian wasn’t home, Arasila ended up going to her parents’ house.
“Did you two fight already?”
“No, we’re getting along well.”
“Then why isn’t your husband at home? He’s not fooling around outside, is he?”
“That’s an exaggeration, Mom. Demian is just busy. He only works even when he’s at home, you know?”
In fact, on the rare occasions when Demian came home early, he would shut himself in his study and focus on paperwork. Being in charge of the knights at such a young age, he must have a lot to do.
Right. He needs to work hard like that to inherit the Duke title quickly.
Arasila, who wanted to divorce as soon as possible, enthusiastically supported Demian’s overtime work. Thanks to that, she had been monopolizing the couple’s room alone since their wedding night.
“How could similar people meet like this…”
The Duchess put her hand to her forehead after setting down her utensils. They had arranged the marriage thinking the two were well-matched, but was it a wrong judgment?
It felt like witnessing two identical people actively ruining their household in real-time.
“Don’t be like that, May. Thanks to this, we get to see our beloved daughter every week.”
The Duke, satisfied with seeing his daughter regularly one way or another, comforted his wife.
“But at this rate, when will they have children?”
“I’m not going to have any.”
Arasila now openly said what she couldn’t say before marriage for fear of opposition.
What can you do, they’re already married.
“Arasila! What do you mean you’re not having children? Will the Vandermir family and the Count sit still about this?”
“I’ve already agreed on this with Demian. The Ducal family can make a fuss if they want, that’s their problem.”
The Duchess, who held the old-fashioned notion that one must have children after marriage, was on the verge of fainting.
She shook off her husband’s hand trying to calm her and exclaimed:
“You’ll be called infertile if you keep this up!”
“People can be infertile, it’s those who insult others over health issues that are wrong.”
Arasila retorted without batting an eye, bringing a fork with shrimp to her mouth and adding:
“And Demian could be the infertile one.”
A moment of silence fell over the table. The Duke cautiously opened his mouth.
“…Is he really infertile?”
“I don’t know.”
How would she know when they hadn’t tried anything and hadn’t been married for long?
Arasila shrugged her shoulders and calmly continued eating. The unexpected infertility controversy only deepened the worries of the Hugo ducal family.
[This is the timeline separator]
The couple’s relationship is distant.
This was the conclusion Rosalyn reached after working at the Vandermir mansion for a few weeks.
They don’t eat together, don’t sleep in the same bed, show no interest in each other, and Arasila visits her family home every day.
Anyone would suspect there was discord between the couple in this situation.
‘This is good, it’ll make my job easier.’
A smile spread across Rosalyn’s face. In fact, she was a spy who had infiltrated the mansion under the Vandermir ducal family’s orders to interfere with the married life.
Thanks to the ducal family bribing the housekeeper, she was able to become a maid despite having no particular experience.
She regularly leaked internal information about the mansion to the ducal family and received instructions from them.
“After marriage, whether they cooled off rapidly or not, the master doesn’t look for the madam even when she’s not in the mansion. On the madam’s side, she frequently visits Duke Hugo’s mansion, perhaps missing her family.”
When she secretly wrote a letter and mailed it to the ducal family every Tuesday pretending to go out, the reply came back mixed in with the grocery delivery two days later on Thursday.
“Continue to isolate Arasila Hugo in the mansion, and seduce Demian to make the couple grow further apart.”
Unable to prevent the marriage, the Vandermir ducal family was grinding their teeth to interfere afterwards at least.
For now, they planned to use Rosalyn to drive a wedge between the two, postpone the heir designation, and find a way to nullify everything.
‘Both isolating her and seducing him will be easy.’
Rosalyn smiled confidently. Since childhood, she had been the prettiest girl in the village. Even as she grew up, she was always popular with men, being called a beauty.
For her, winning a man’s favor was a very easy task. Even men who acted like blockheads all crumbled before her.
‘The madam’s looks are not to be underestimated, but men prefer cute and affectionate women like me.’
From what Rosalyn had observed, Arasila was a beautiful and capable woman, but not the type to act coy with her husband.
A person accustomed to others looking up to her, and taking it for granted to be revered by someone.
Perhaps Rosalyn was viewing it somewhat distortedly, but seeing Arasila return home late at night with a noble posture naturally made her feel that way.
‘You can act all high and mighty, but you’re nothing if you lose the master’s affection. Isn’t that how the lives of noble ladies are?’
Rosalyn’s lips twisted. Imagining herself acting as the mistress by Demian’s side instead of Arasila made her expression dreamy.
Although she was a commoner and couldn’t become a noble lady like Arasila, if she became the master’s mistress, she could rise to a higher position than others.
‘First, I need to start by isolating the madam.’
Rosalyn made plans to lower Arasila’s reputation among the maids. It was a simple task of just portraying her as a bad mistress.
To do this, there were two things she needed to do. One was to create a good image of herself among the maids, and the other was to gain a more detailed understanding of Arasila.
Rosalyn started with the former first.
She deliberately took on her colleagues’ work, pretended to be naive to gain favor, and earned sympathy with made-up stories from her past.
“Rosalyn seems really kind and gentle.”
“You said your previous masters hated you for no reason just because you’re pretty? That must have been hard.”
After building relationships and establishing her position among the maids like that, she casually threw out bait during break time when everyone was gathered and chatting.
“What do you all think about the madam?”
The unsuspecting maids each offered their own opinions.
“I’ve never seen anyone so beautiful in the world. Doesn’t she look like a wax doll?”
“That’s right. And she seems nice with an unpretentious personality too. I haven’t interacted with her much so I don’t know for sure, but she doesn’t seem fussy.”
“That alone is something. I heard other noble ladies scold maids over trivial things.”
Despite being frequently absent due to work, the evaluation of Arasila was not bad.
Rosalyn was slightly taken aback by the response that differed from her expectations, but without showing it, she threw out bait again.
“But isn’t she too indifferent to the mansion affairs? It’s good that she doesn’t nitpick, but it feels a bit negligent…”
*
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