Ael headed home with that determination. Though lost in thought, her steps towards home were light, as they had always been lately.

But the moment she entered the house.

Thud.

Ael dropped the bag she was holding.

The carriage that Elize had ridden in was parked at the entrance of the mansion.

The carriage with no emblem was clearly the one sent by the Grand Duke.

Just like before, the coachman wearing neat clothes without any insignia unloaded a few items from the carriage and immediately drove away.

Ael grabbed her trembling arms.

‘There’s no way she could be back already.’

The letter clearly stated that she would return in the fall season after summer ended. So there was no way she could have returned this quickly.

Frozen in fear, Ael soon noticed something strange.

There were three carriages when they left home. But only one carriage had just departed.

‘Did they come to drop something off?’

The letter from Count Aradis briefly mentioned how much the Grand Duke cherished Elize. Didn’t it say she was living in luxury, receiving the utmost hospitality there?

‘Then perhaps… they sent gifts received there to the house in advance?’

It’s a possibility. Since the Grand Duke cares for Elize so much, he must have given her an abundance of gifts.

While the Count and Countess didn’t even bother to send Ael a minimal greeting, they wrote in detail about how well Elize was being treated there.

Half the letter’s contents were about the number of servants Elize had, the luxurious decorations in her room, and the ornaments the Grand Duke had given her.

They even wrote that it seemed the Grand Duke had given Elize the entire summer villa.

‘It even said that since it would be difficult to take everything the Grand Duke gave, it would be better to just accept the villa as a gift.’

If there were so many gifts that they were difficult to bring at once, it would make sense to send them to the house in advance.

Though thinking this, her steps towards the house faltered. No. She shouldn’t be back this soon…

She thought there would be at least two more months, or three at most.

She believed that in that time, she could find a way to leave this place, even without a fake marriage. She thought she could save more money too.

‘I knew it would end someday.’

But it shouldn’t be today.

She entered through the open front door. There, she saw Jena looking perplexed. As soon as Jena saw Ael, she scurried over.

“Jena, what was that carriage just now? Perhaps…”

Ael took a deep breath and summoned all her courage to ask.

“…Have my parents returned?”

Jena quickly shook her head at those words.

“No!”

Hearing that answer, Ael staggered and leaned against the wall. As the tension released, her legs gave out.

‘Thank goodness. My parents haven’t returned yet.’

Ael tried to calm her pounding heart.

“Then… what was that carriage just now?”

At that moment, there was a sound from upstairs. Ael looked up towards the stairs.

“Oh, if it isn’t Lady Ael?”

Maya, Elize’s maid, was standing there.

“Maya? Why are you…”

“Why, you ask?”

Maya tapped on the newly repaired stair railing as she answered.

“Because Lady Elize has returned.”

As soon as Maya came down to the kitchen, she began ranting to the two about everything that had happened, as if she couldn’t contain her frustration any longer.

“Oh, don’t even get me started. You wouldn’t believe how unpleasant the servants at that summer villa were. Even though we’re all servants, just because they work for the Grand Duke’s household, they held their heads high and never once greeted me first!”

Ael and Jena sat across from Maya, quietly listening to her story.

Before coming down, Jena had told Ael that just before she arrived, a carriage had come, and Elize had flung open the door before the coachmen could even open it for her. She then went straight to her room without a word of greeting.

After that, Maya had gotten off, and the Grand Duke’s servants unloaded Elize’s few belongings before promptly leaving.

That’s when Ael had arrived.

After criticizing the attitude of the summer villa’s servants for quite some time, Jena cautiously spoke up.

“But Maya, why did only Lady Elize return first? And she seemed to be in a bad mood…”

At Jena’s question, Ael tightly clasped her hands on her lap. It was also what she wanted to ask the most.

‘Why did only Elize return?’

Although Elize found it bothersome, she usually moved together with the Countess. The Countess catered well to Elize’s moods and did the things Elize didn’t want to do herself.

For such an Elize to return home alone, without the Countess.

Moreover, she went straight to her room without greeting Jena or even the Grand Duke’s servants, and hasn’t come out since.

That clearly meant something had happened at the Grand Duke’s residence.

“It’s really a long story…”

As the topic of Elize came up, Maya let out a long sigh as if she had been waiting for this moment, and then answered.

“The Grand Duke abandoned Lady Elize.”

“What? What do you mean! Weren’t they supposed to get marr… mmph!”

Jena jumped up and shouted at Maya’s answer.

Maya hurriedly covered Jena’s mouth and looked towards the stairs.

After checking for any sign of movement upstairs, Maya released her hand from Jena’s mouth and glared at her.

“Be quiet! What if Lady Elize hears you!”

For a moment, Jena thought, ‘That’s not my concern,’ but she obediently kept her mouth shut as Maya instructed. There was still much to hear from Maya.

Maya glanced upstairs once more before continuing in a lowered voice.

“Actually, there were many strange things from the beginning. Unlike other invitations, this one came suddenly, and Lady Elize wasn’t allowed to tell anyone that she had received an invitation from the Grand Duke. Even the carriage and the servants’ clothes had no emblems, so even if someone recognized Lady Elize, they wouldn’t know where she was going.”

“Wait. Then from the beginning, did the Grand Duke…”

“Yes. He thought of her not as a marriage partner, but as a plaything for the season.”

“Gasp!”

Jena covered her mouth in shock, as if she couldn’t believe such a thing could happen.

Ael, too, felt dizzy from Maya’s story.

She had thought the Grand Duke’s invitation was strange, but to think it was prepared from the start to deceive like this.

“Still, it’s fortunate that we found out early thanks to me. Otherwise, Lady Elize would still be… ahem, hem. Anyway, she would still be unaware, living as the Grand Duke’s toy, right?”

“You said we found out thanks to you? How?”

“A while ago, the servants from the summer villa suddenly returned to the Grand Duke’s residence, and some really incompetent ones came in their place. When I asked what happened, they said important guests had come to the Grand Duke’s residence, so everyone went there due to lack of manpower. At that time, Lady Elize was so angry about how terrible the new maids were. Even I could see…”

“No, so how did you find out about the Grand Duke’s true intentions! Tell us that first!”

Unable to contain her impatience at the lengthy explanation, Jena urged Maya.

“Oh my, so impatient. I need to explain from the beginning, you know. Anyway, Lady Elize was extremely angry at the new maids. After that, those maids would avoid Lady Elize whenever they saw her. When Lady Elize noticed, she said she wouldn’t let them off easy when the Grand Duke returned, and it was quite a scene. Since Lady Elize didn’t like the new maids, of course all the work fell to me, and I had to go back and forth between the kitchen and bathroom more often. Then one night, Lady Elize said she wanted to drink wine and told me to bring some, so I went to the kitchen.”

“And then?”

“The new maids were gathered there, badmouthing Lady Elize!”

Maya remembered that moment clearly.

Dragging her tired body after enduring Elize’s irritation all day, she went to the kitchen only to find those insolent maids drinking and chattering among themselves.

As Elize’s name came up, Maya held her breath and listened to their conversation. Of course, she quickly memorized their faces. That way, she could report them to Elize with certainty.

‘If I report about these girls, she might give me something, right?’

With that thought, she tried to eavesdrop on the continuing conversation. But the moment the next words came out, Maya’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.