So the Duchess Disappeared

54. The Emperor’s Visit

Psyche felt a sudden relief at Alex’s question, as if her fatigue had vanished in an instant.

She opened her eyes wide, looking at Alex.

“What?”

“I’m not trying to intrude between you two, of course… Just… There are some unfortunate aspects from my perspective…”

Realizing that her question had gone off topic, Alex stumbled over her words, glancing around cautiously.

“It’s okay. Go ahead and speak.”

Psyche now understood Alex’s demeanor a bit better.

At first, when the duke arbitrarily assigned her as Psyche’s guard, she couldn’t believe it and was suspicious. But now, although Psyche didn’t necessarily trust Alex, she didn’t think Alex was a bad person.

“Do you think… you two need to have a conversation?”

Alex tried to express herself as gently as possible.

“A conversation… A conversation sounds good.”

Thinking of Alex as a conversational partner, Psyche got up from the bed.

“But they have to be someone you can talk to, right?”

“…?”

Alex didn’t understand.

Psyche chuckled.

“Can you have a conversation with someone who tried to kill you?”

“…?!”

Alex’s eyes widened even more.

“No, it was just a joke.”

Only then did Alex’s surprised eyes return to normal.

“If it’s such a big misunderstanding, wouldn’t a conversation be even more important?”

Alex seemed to think that Psyche was just giving an example and took her words seriously.

“Is that possible?”

“Well…”

“What if that person tried to kill me, but denies it? Then there’s no way to know the truth.”

“Ah…”

Alex looked perplexed.

“Well, anyway, His Highness and I have a complicated relationship. If that makes you uncomfortable, I’m sorry.”

“Oh, no! It’s definitely not that…”

Psyche waved her hand.

“Well, eventually, we’ll find out the truth.”

Just like when she found out that Johnny had killed her parents.

The truth will come out eventually.

Psyche found some comfort in that fact and relaxed her body again.

Caught up in Psyche’s mood, Alex was speechless.

And suddenly…

She thought that Psyche’s words were about Clint.

❖ ❖ ❖

As time passed, Psyche recovered to a certain extent.

The one who was most delighted to find her in such a state was none other than Shilred.

“Mommy!”

Having not seen Psyche for a few days, Shilred was even more overjoyed upon seeing her.

“Did you miss me, Shilry?”

Psyche quickly hugged him and lifted him onto her lap.

“I missed you. But, there’s, um, that, no, mister?”

Shilred, who had just started speaking, was quite awkward, but he was starting to form sentences fairly well. Although each day his words flowed more freely, his pronunciation was still quite unclear.

Nevertheless, Psyche found Shilred’s awkwardness extremely endearing and hugged him tightly.

“Mister? What mister played with you?”

“The big, tall, scary mister!”

The habit of calling anyone “dad” was still ingrained in him.

Perhaps someone had advised him not to call anyone “dad,” so the term “dad-like” was quite cute.

Psyche, who had thought that there were only a few people in the duke’s estate who could play with Shilred, such as Alejandro, asked again.

“The big, tall, scary mister played with you?”

“No, not tall! The scary one!”

Shilred shook his head vigorously.

“The big, scary mister?”

In reality, most of the men in the duke’s estate were tall and intimidating.

Since most of them were knights who trained in swordsmanship every day under the duke’s command, they often appeared intimidating and unapproachable.

However, Psyche couldn’t help but chuckle because she knew that these knights were not actually bad people.

“Okay, so the scary mister played with you nicely?”

Psyche nodded, thinking of Alejandro as one of the knights who accompanied her.

“What did the mister play with you?”

Feeling like she had brought Shilred here to be taken care of, but instead he was constantly being separated from her, Psyche couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

But Shilred seemed to be in a good mood just by looking at Psyche.

“Well, the mister… gave me a knife!”

“A knife?”

At the mention of a knife, Psyche suddenly furrowed her brow.

Giving a knife to a child who wasn’t even five years old!

Just as she was about to get angry, someone knocked on the door. And at the same time, the door opened.

Both Psyche and Shilred turned their gaze to the person who had come to visit.

As soon as she recognized who it was, Psyche asked Shilred.

“Is that the mister?”

Her tone was somewhat wary.

With a somewhat downcast expression, Alejandro, who was cautiously entering, answered instead of Shilred.

“Sir? Sir, madam! I haven’t even gotten married yet!”

It was a voice filled with injustice.

“Giving a knife to a child, Alejandro, are you out of your mind?”

“Yes?”

In response to the sudden accusation, Alejandro looked at Psyche with a puzzled expression.

“Please, sir, speak so that madam can understand.”

Feeling suddenly scolded, Alejandro scratched his head awkwardly.

“If you’re not going to find out who gave Shilred the knife right now!”

“Well, what’s so-“

“Your Majesty has suddenly arrived!”

“What?”

Psyche wondered if she had misheard for a moment.

“That’s…”

Alejandro hesitated on how to explain the situation.

He couldn’t mention that the Emperor had come all the way here because he suspected the Duke of lying. Psyche had collapsed while the Duke and Duchess were supposed to attend the banquet together. The Emperor used that as an excuse, thinking the Duke was lying to him, that Psyche had returned but was being deceived.

So, he had come to visit the Duke’s estate unexpectedly.

Knowing this background, Alejandro hesitated, and Psyche, after setting Shilred down, stood up.

“What are you doing? Didn’t I come to call you? Lead the way.”

“Oh, uh, yes!”

Psyche felt puzzled by the Emperor’s visit.

But no matter how dark her situation was, she knew that the relationship between the Duke and the Emperor was not good.

Entertaining external guests was originally the duty of the hostess, especially when it came to the Emperor’s visit. Regardless of the reality, he was still the supreme authority outwardly.

Since she had returned to her position as the Duchess, Psyche had no intention of stepping back.

She didn’t want to be just a figurehead Duchess.

She wanted to make the most of her position and become someone who could live without the Duke. So, she saw the Emperor’s visit as an opportunity.

With that in mind, she headed towards the reception room.

“Why has Your Majesty come?”

She asked Alejandro, who followed her, in order to gather information.

He scratched the back of his head and awkwardly explained the situation.

“Well, actually… There was a banquet while madam was collapsing. The Duke was supposed to attend with madam…”

Although the Duke had told Psyche not to mention this, Alejandro, who was one of those hoping for an improvement in their relationship, didn’t want to hide it. Of course, he couldn’t mention anything about Rachel, whom the Duke absolutely forbade him from talking about.

“Oh, so you’ve come to confirm if I’m really here?”

“Exactly, madam, you always hit the nail on the head!”

Alejandro laughed proudly.

Psyche could still sense that the Emperor’s relationship with the Duke was bad and that now he was even severely restraining him.

At the thought that such impulsive behavior resembled that of the Crown Prince, she unconsciously frowned.

She didn’t want to remember him.

Eventually, they reached the reception room.

“Who’s inside?”

“Probably the Duke is receiving His Majesty.”

“Got it, I’ll go in and see.”

With a polite greeting, Alejandro stepped back.

Psyche looked at herself in the mirror, straightened her clothes, and tidied her hair.

Thinking it was a good change of mood and worth having her hair done nicely in the morning, she entered.

Inside, Clint was already receiving the Emperor.

From the corridor leading to the reception room, their conversation could be heard clearly.

“Duke, you still have refined tastes.”

The Emperor seemed to have noticed the plants set up to decorate the reception room.

He was probably referring to the ones Psyche had brought from Alister Estate and arranged nicely.

“Oh, it’s not my hobby, but madam has been interested in gardening lately…”

“Oh, so the Duchess has finally returned!”

The Emperor’s eyes clearly showed he didn’t believe Clint’s words at all.

Psyche quickened her pace.

“But where is the Duchess?”

“I have the honor of presenting His Majesty.”

Before the Emperor could finish his sentence, Psyche turned the corner of the corridor and entered the reception room.

As soon as Psyche appeared, the Emperor’s expression changed instantly.

“Oh my, who is this?”

And then it happened.

“Mama!”

Shilred suddenly appeared from between Psyche’s skirts and leaped into the reception room.

“It’s this mister! The daddy-like mister!”

With Shilred’s sudden appearance, the atmosphere was completely overturned, and not knowing anything, Shilred happily ran towards Clint.