The Ghost Lady Of The Duke's Family - Chapter 1

Aellie had a set of rules she imposed on herself for a smooth life.

One. While not expecting a fateful encounter like in fairy tales, she would have at least one impressive romance.

Two. Though not dreaming of a marriage after a fiery love, she would exchange rings with someone capable of being faithful to the family.

And lastly, three.

She would give birth to a cute and lovable child and cherish them with all her might.

It was a perfectly ordinary plan, ideal for moderately enjoying life.

Isn’t it quite good? No need to frequent social circles in search of a husband and end up in gossip magazines. No need to be dragged to all sorts of parties, fighting with sharp-tongued people while being treated like a flower.

Undoubtedly, for a noble lady born with duties to fulfill, there was no more ideal form of life than this.

‘I’m sure I succeeded…’

But what on earth is all this?

Aellie muttered while standing in front of her room window, boasting an insane amount of sunlight, examining her hands.

My hands… are semi-transparent?

Something was going terribly wrong, though she wasn’t sure what.

Former Countess Aellie Mason, now Duchess Rattliffe, was literally a person with nothing to regret.

Though it started as an exchange between families, she succeeded in marriage after a picture-perfect romance following the confession of a childhood friend she had grown up with.

After a happy newlywed life without any particular problems, a blessing arrived.

Although if asked whether she loved her husband, Duke Rattliffe, the answer would be no.

She liked him as a friend, and thought that if she had to choose a spouse, he seemed fine as he wasn’t a difficult person.

It was a perfect life that didn’t deviate even slightly from the rules she usually tried to keep.

…Well, he was also very handsome.

‘Well, if you’re going to get married anyway, isn’t it… better if your eyes are happy? It’s good to pass on good looks to your children.’

Anyway, that’s how it was.

In fact, she was very satisfied after successfully giving birth to a very pretty child who resembled 30% of her face and 70% of her husband’s.

From now on, I’ll live happily with my handsome childhood friend who loves me dearly, watching our child grow up.

That day too, Aellie invariably fell into a deep sleep, imagining her peaceful life.

In other words, she was a very impressive woman who could end her day holding her child in her arms and firmly grasping her spouse’s hand with one hand.

−…

Why am I wearing these clothes?

Aellie sat on the soft bed of the newlywed room and lowered her head.

A floaty white dress with an extravagantly showy design, plastered with lace and jewels, came into view.

‘This is a shroud!’

The design was so showy, like a boastful peacock, that I hadn’t noticed at first. Now that I look at it, it’s unmistakably a shroud.

The one that the deceased wear.

‘I did get quite, very unwell after giving birth, but I didn’t die?’

Is it like, since I’m so weak anyway, just go quickly?

Unless they’ve gone mad, there’s no way that could be the case, but the clothes I’m wearing were proof.

Aellie, who was quickly deducing who might have put such clothes on her, clicked her tongue.

Come to think of it, there were a few ladies who had been trying desperately to seduce her husband.

‘The Marchioness Garcia who followed me around at every party I attended, picking fights?’

It wasn’t her, she was already married.

Didn’t she get caught eloping with a wandering knight from a neighboring country…?

She remembered because it had turned the social world upside down, and for a while, whenever a gossip magazine opened, that was all they talked about.

‘Then the Duchess Veron who invited me to a tea party and only told me a different dress code?’

She even conveyed a different time, making me late. Thinking I wasn’t coming, they removed the chair because the space was tight, and then made me stand in the scorching sun for over 30 minutes, saying to wait a little until they brought the chair back.

‘I ended up collapsing, and Lutis came crying to visit me in the hospital.’

He had abandoned what he was doing and came, insisting that carp juice was the best for regaining strength.

Aellie, who was recalling the horrors of that time, shook her head.

‘But that person came a few days later and apologized on their knees.’

It was really troublesome trying to stop them from rubbing their hands together while shedding tears and snot.

Then there was Viscount Pinto who deliberately drove wild beasts towards her under the guise of an accident at the hunting competition.

Baroness Cartagena who was caught hiring a black magician to cast an instant death curse and was dragged to a convent.

Baron Marcus who offered champagne laced with poison at the Crown Prince’s birthday banquet, but mistakenly drank it himself and passed away.

Aellie sighed as she recalled these incidents.

‘There’s no answer.’

Since the Duke was the only one with any mischief, and even that was at a cute level, she hadn’t really held grudges.

But if I had known it would come to this, I should have held onto those grudges.

Most of them would panic and run away whenever they encountered her after the incidents, to the point where she could barely remember what they looked like now.

So there probably wasn’t anyone bold enough to do something like this, at least among the people she had recalled.

Who could it be?

Aellie, tapping her knee with her index finger and a troubled expression, scanned the room.

Then she froze.

−…Is that snow?

Aellie approached the window with wide eyes.

How long has it been since spring flowers bloomed, yet here was a garden full of bare branches and piles of snow.

‘Am I seeing things?’

Just as she was about to place her hand on the window to get a closer look in astonishment.

Whoosh−

‘Huh, huh?’

She had clearly confirmed that the window was closed, but her leaning body suddenly fell forward.

Aellie, thoroughly flustered, barely regained her balance and turned around. She saw the firmly closed window.

Huh…?

She lowered her head.

Half of her body was still sticking out.

So, through the wall.

−…

She calmly raised her upper body.

Again, she saw the window in front of her.

Her mouth opened involuntarily.

−…What is this?

I’ve never heard of magic like this.

Aellie, with a dumbfounded expression, absently placed her hand on the window and stretched it forward.

It extended without any obstruction. Completely.

Seeing the bizarre sight of the window piercing through the middle of her arm sent chills down her spine.

The clothes she was wearing, and now her arms and head passing through walls.

‘No matter how you look at it, this doesn’t seem like a normal situation, does it…?’

Suddenly realizing that despite being awake for quite some time, no one had entered the room yet, Aellie slightly furrowed her brow.

The sun was high in the sky, so even if Lutis had instructed not to wake her, there should have been some signs of life by now.

It was eerily quiet, enough to give her goosebumps.

‘It seems like there’s no one around at all.’

The child who should have been sleeping with her wasn’t visible either, but this wasn’t surprising as it was a common occurrence when Lutis woke up first.

He would always take the child out, saying to sleep a little more.

But even then, it was never this quiet.

‘Well, that’s how it is in every house raising a newborn…’

No matter how careful one tries to be, there’s bound to be some bustle.

But lo and behold, not even the sound of an ant crawling could be heard.

…Are they all playing a prank by summoning magicians?

Aellie, blinking rapidly, soon shook her head. Lutis wasn’t the kind of person to play such pranks.

‘I should go outside and see what’s going on. If worst comes to worst, I can find Lutis…’

Aellie, trying to suppress the rising anxiety, moved her feet. She tried to grab the doorknob, but couldn’t grasp it, so she had to pass through again.

Swish−

‘……’

Emerging from the large room door.

Aellie gripped the hem of her dress tightly.

She had already expected it, but,

‘There really is no one here.’

In the unusually quiet corridor, Aellie quickly headed towards the stairs.

Let’s go downstairs first. First, visit Lutis’s office, and if he’s not there, find the butler or head maid….

“Ah, I hate this floor, it’s scary…!”

“What can we do? They pay a lot in exchange.”

“But it’s gloomy and makes me feel bad. They should just ban everyone except the cleaning staff from entering in the first place…”

Aellie, who was halfway down the stairs, stopped. Two maids were climbing the stairs, carrying buckets and mops.

‘There should be a separate passage for servants, why are they coming this way?’

Moreover, the guard who seemed to be guarding the stairs on the lower floor didn’t seem to care at all.

Aellie, her face hardening at the absurd situation, blocked the maid’s path.

The maid who passed through Aellie shuddered and opened her mouth.

“Besides, don’t you remember what happened to the girl who accidentally broke a vase while cleaning last time? She had one wrist cut off and was driven out naked.”

“That was something the Madam cherished when she was alive. She was caught trying to hide it by secretly carrying it through the servants’ passage, so she received a harsher punishment. That’s why all the passages have been closed until now, did you forget?”

“Ah, I don’t know. Anyway, nobles are really brutal…”

“…Watch your mouth. If you get caught saying such things, it won’t be your arm that flies off, but your head.”

The maid said she was creeped out, rubbed her arms with her hands, and continued up the stairs.

−…

Aellie needed time to interpret the conversation she had just heard.

A person had passed through her. But more shocking than that, Aellie’s fingertips trembled finely at the shocking statement.

‘When she was alive? Vase?’

What does all this mean.

‘…Am I dead?’

Before she could think, her body moved first. Aellie, who had hurriedly climbed the stairs and stood again in front of the room door she had escaped from, swallowed hard.

Her Adam’s apple bobbed. Or was it her stomach?

Aellie carefully stepped forward. Looking again, she now felt the sense of incongruity.

The bedding that didn’t smell of people at all, as if it hadn’t been used until just yesterday.

The candlestick that had rusted slightly, as if untouched for a long time, too faded to have changed color in just one day.

Even the baby crib, sadly without a trace of warmth, with one corner of the guard broken.

‘Lutis had even gone to ask a dwarf to make it…’

The face of him shyly smiling as he said it had to be absolutely sturdy since it was for the child, flashed before her eyes.

Aellie finally turned her gaze to scan the small table next to the window.

Her legs gave way.

−…Huh.

Really.

The cherished vase was nowhere to be seen.