The Ghost Lady Of The Duke's Family (20 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 8

The child, diligently spooning soup into their mouth, kept their eyes glued to the bottle brimming with candies, unable to look away.

It was a gesture strikingly similar to something Aeli had once done herself.

Thus, she understood—though they appeared to be ordinary candies, they were in fact the very treats she herself had cherished in childhood.

Each vibrantly colored candy contained syrup made from the nectar of flowers that bloomed only in Mason territory.

They offered a delightfully tangy-sweet fruit fragrance that changed with every bite, coupled with a rich yet refreshingly clean honey aftertaste.

Because these flowers grew nowhere else and yielded such minuscule quantities of nectar, the honey was extraordinarily rare.

Consequently, candies made with this syrup surely cost enough that even a seasoned maid’s monthly wage would require saving for several months to afford just one.

‘But… that…’

Leaving aside how she managed it—why on earth did she buy it?

In Aeli’s memory, Mari would never be the sort to splurge that much on dessert, no matter how much she loved the child.

She was the kind who’d rather buy an extra set of clothes or an additional meal.

Their current attire only strengthened this conviction further.

Not only was the child’s outfit mismatched in season and length, but Mari’s sleeves and hemlines showed subtle signs of wear—as if she hadn’t bought new clothes since Aeli’s death.

Though still wearable, it wasn’t the sort of attire expected of a longtime maid in a noble household.

Utterly baffled, Aeli narrowed her eyes, lost in thought.

“But… Mari, aren’t you going back to your hometown?”

After perhaps dozens of seconds of silence, the child—who had been eating with great enthusiasm—cautiously spoke up.

Mari tilted her head at the question and asked in return, “Why would I go there?”

“I thought everyone was heading there today….”

“I decided to stay here and serve only Young Master. Both the Head Butler and Head Maid understood my situation, so it’s fine.”

Hearing this, the child—who had been casually eating soup while chatting with Mari—brightened instantly.

After all, no matter how composed they tried to appear, they were still just a little kid craving attention.

And both Aeli and Mari knew that well.

“Young Master.”

“…….”

“Young Master?”

“Y-yeah.”

“What will you do if you pick out all the lettuce from your sandwich? There’s only bread and meat left now.”

But that was beside the point.

Mari, her face gentle, smiled as she spoke. “You picked a veggie sandwich, yet somehow it became a beef one. Could it be our Young Master is actually a prodigy in alchemy? Wow.”

“But—but I’m full now! If I’m gonna finish all this, I can’t possibly pay tribute to the lettuce!”

“What about the steak garnish and the mushrooms in the soup? You sorted those out too.”

“Th-tha….”

“…….”

“Well, that’s….”

“Yes?”

“…….”

Under Mari’s soulless, smiling pressure, the child cast a wary glance and offered a feeble protest.

Watching from the corner as the child’s hopeless excuse floated uselessly in the air, Aeli felt a powerful sense of déjà vu.

[“Miss, picky eating is bad.”] [“But Nurse—these days, with the drought, even commoners are starving to death. How could I, as a noble, possibly overindulge?”] [“Yet you’ve completely cleared your plate of bread and meat, leaving only the vegetables untouched.”] [“That’s—”] [“Miss?”] [“…….”]

Aeli gave a quiet nod, now utterly certain.

Hmm. It really was her own child.

Watching this less-than-admirable trait with a strangely proud smile, Aeli only snapped back to reality once the child had finished their plate.

Even the child’s pouty expression while reluctantly chewing lettuce—like enduring some bizarre magical potion experiment—strongly resembled her own childhood face.

As Mari gathered the empty dishes and prepared to wheel the tray away, the child urgently called out, grabbing her arm.

“I finished everything! You promised to tell me a story about Mama and Appa along with the candy!”

She’s right beside you, sweetheart.

Aeli, who had been silently turning those unspoken words over in her mouth, suddenly jolted in shock at Mari’s next words, her shoulders trembling.

“Oh! Right—um… Here, take this first. What kind of story would you like?”

“I wanna hear one where Mama and Appa appear together!”

Mari plucked a candy from the glass jar and placed it in the child’s mouth, then let out a thoughtful hum. Seizing the moment, the child eagerly stated their wish.

The whole scene felt eerily like ordering at a restaurant, prompting an awkward smile to creep across Aeli’s lips.

“Well, for that kind of story… Ah! There’s one—from right after the young lady made her debutante ball.”

No way… Surely not.

With the child sitting right in front of her, Aeli couldn’t even show her shock—she just widened her eyes and glared silently at Mari.

Of course, sadly, that silent plea never reached its target.

After stomping her feet in frustration, Aeli tried to dodge the situation with desperate thoughts and let out a deep sigh.

Even so—parents had a certain image to uphold! Could Mari really be about to shatter that completely?

Aeli trusted Mari.

Of all people, Mari wouldn’t possibly—

“Our young lady—that is, your mother—was incredibly sociable.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yes. How sociable, you ask? Well, on her debutante day, she even brought me along as her maid all the way into the ballroom—”

—It happened. Of course it did.

Aeli’s eyes flew open as she instantly realized what story Mari was about to tell.

Unfazed by Aeli’s silent panic, Mari continued speaking, and the child—filled with anticipation—swung their legs excitedly under the bed.

‘Haha, guess I’ve given up on being a cool parent in this lifetime.’

Aeli recalled her own debutante day vividly.

[“Hey, Mari—wanna see something fun?”] [“…Huh?”] [“I read this interesting book once while following Lutis into the library.”] [“What… kind of book?”] [“In some eastern land, there’s a saying: ‘The Eternal Truth.’ It means something like an unchanging principle of the universe…”]

It had been an ordinary day, like any other.

The only differences were that Lutis was still residing at the Mason estate at the time, and it happened to be one of those rare, brilliantly sunny days when an unspoken rule quietly took effect.

Though never formally agreed upon, Lutis would mysteriously vanish every afternoon when the sunlight poured in just right.

[“What? You’re here again?”]

More often than not, Aeli would find him in the second-floor library.

[…“I’m reading. Keep it down.”]

Always in the same spot—the fourth bookshelf from the back on the left, beside the sunniest window, lounging on the window seat with a cushion propped behind him, immersed in a book.

The topics varied widely—sometimes literature, sometimes theology, sometimes military strategy.

Aeli would stare at whatever Lutis was reading, then pick a book on a similar theme and sit down below him, leaning against his legs.

No one told her to do it, and half the time she barely understood what she read—but that’s just how it always went.

Perhaps that habit was why, despite hating studying, she’d consistently ranked at the top during her academy years.

Aeli still believed that to this day.

[…“Hey.”] [“…….”] […“Hey, Mason.”] [“…….”] […“Hey!”] [“Huh.”]

It was back when they still didn’t call each other by name.

That alone showed just how long ago it had been.

Back then, Aeli had thrust the book she’d chosen right in front of Lutis, motivated by a distorted memory of something she’d once heard and fueled by the rash impulsiveness of adolescence.

Something like this:

[“You know I don’t have any close noble friends yet, right?”] [“That’s… true.”] [“So obviously, I’ve never met any of the young ladies here before.”]

Mari, sensing trouble, nodded warily at Aeli’s confident declaration.

Her eyes clearly said: Oh no, she’s about to do something reckless.

And to jump straight to the conclusion—her suspicion was dead-on.

[“But from this moment on, I’m going to become best friends with every one of them!”] […“What?”] [“Just trust me!”]

“No, I really don’t want to,” Mari’s expression seemed to say—but despite their close bond, she knew her place too well to stop her young mistress.

Leaving Mari behind, Aeli strode boldly toward the group of young ladies, snapped open the fan in her hand, and cheerfully declared,

[“Oh my! Lady! It’s been ages!”] [“Uh… what?”] [“How long has it been since that party? Did you receive my last letter?”]

The young lady, utterly bewildered by Aeli’s sudden approach, trembled slightly in her eyes—clearly with no recollection of ever meeting her.

Of course—because they’d never met before that day.

But back then, Aeli had a trick up her sleeve. She believed that when someone greeted you with such overwhelming warmth, even if you couldn’t recall them,

[…“Of course I did! Did you get home safely that night?”]

—you’d just go along with it.

This, she called “The Eternal Truth.” Nine times out of ten, people reacted the same way.

Deliberately omitting the subject to make identification impossible, her targets would awkwardly laugh along—only realizing the truth when Aeli reappeared moments later as if nothing had happened, leaving them utterly stunned.

After all, how shocking must it be to learn the person you’d just chatted with so warmly was a complete stranger who hadn’t even debuted in society yet?

Naturally, when Lutis finally arrived later and dragged her back into the ballroom, she received an earful.

[“Do you even know everyone’s been looking for you? The debutante herself vanished without her partner—how did you even get back in here?!”] [“Through the servants’ entrance… quietly?”] […“That’s not what I meant…”]

All around, guests stood frozen in disbelief, while one shameless impostor proudly declared, “It’s my special day—I’ll do as I please!”

Even Lutis, pinching the bridge of his nose with his eyes tightly shut, looked utterly exasperated.

And watching the entire chaotic scene unfold from a distance was none other than Mari.

Though Mari wore a carefully blank expression, Aeli—who had grown up alongside her—could read her true thoughts perfectly.

“What kind of person even does that?” Mari’s face had plainly said.

“Anyway, after that day, you were quite famous for a long time. People even nicknamed you ‘the hydrangea of high society.’”

“Why? Was I too nice?”

“Well… yes.”

Mari averted the child’s gaze and nodded awkwardly—but it was a lie.

‘It was actually because she was always pulling pranks and deemed fickle.’

For reference, white hydrangeas symbolize fickleness and capriciousness.

When that nickname first stuck—after she’d boldly swept through ballrooms and tea parties without a care—Aeli had grown utterly sick of it.

Only later did she learn about gossip columns, society rumors, and how judgmental the noble circles could be.

That entire experience was precisely why Aeli later imposed strict rules upon herself, just to live a peaceful life.

‘Once you get burned like that, you realize nothing matters more than quiet living.’

Seeing Mari clearly trying to cover up the truth to preserve the child’s innocence, Aeli felt oddly detached.

Only the child, completely enchanted by Mari’s vivid storytelling, remained wide-eyed with fascination.

“So Mari, did Mama have lots of friends?”

“…Y-yes.”

“What about Appa?”

“…….”

“……?”

“The Duke had many too. Oh—it’s getting late! Young Master should go to sleep now!”

I also need to return this tray to the kitchen, so I’ll take my leave.

Before the child could protest, Mari whisked the tray away and vanished from sight.

It was clearly evasion.