The Grand Duchess’s New Household
“...Then I can’t sell this right away, can I? If the symbolism is what matters, then the longer I keep it, the more expensive it gets...”
If what it symbolized was love, then the exorbitant price was guaranteed by love’s durability.
Curtis gave a soft snort of laughter.
“You have a decent head on your shoulders. Yes. You absolutely can’t sell it right away. Though I admit, it would be quite a sight to see what the newspapers would howl if you sold it the day after the wedding.”
“Damn it.”
As she grumbled, Curtis, who had been removing his cuff links, said in a low, casual voice meant for Chloe’s ears alone,
“Well, you and I are going to divorce. Dispose of it then.”
Oh.
There was that option.
Right. Their relationship had an ending set from the start. All she had to do was wait until then.
But Chloe tilted her head. Because Curtis’s tone, as he said it, felt almost excessively cold.
“It belonged to your late mother. Are you truly all right with handing it over to someone like me so carelessly, to dispose of however I please?”
It was a fair question. And for Chloe, it was one she had asked without much thought.
To her surprise, however, Curtis’s eyes narrowed at that very moment. He was still smiling, but the atmosphere around him was distinctly different from a moment ago.
Snake-like, one might say.
“Most people in this world do assign meaning to mere objects simply because they once belonged to someone of their bloodline.”
“Meaning Your Grace does not. Understood. I’ll sell it to whoever offers the highest price, without the slightest prick of conscience.”
At Chloe’s swift reply, amusement lit the man’s purple eyes.
Regardless, Chloe shook her hand out a couple of times and complained.
“But it’s so heavy the stone keeps spinning around. I’m worried I’ll lose it if I flick my hand the wrong way.”
“That is part of its charm. I hear noble ladies consider it a subtle point of pride when their ring stone is so heavy it turns on their finger.”
Easy for him to say when he isn’t the one wearing it.
Surely there were people who liked that sort of thing. Chloe was not one of them.
More precisely, she was anxious about having something so expensive hanging from her finger.
In her entire life, she had never bought clothing for herself that cost more than a thousand sings. And now, suddenly, she was supposed to live from today onward with a national-treasure-grade ring on her finger?
“What if someone covets the ring and cuts off my finger along with it?”
This time, Curtis looked at her as though she were truly hopeless.
“If public order is so poor that the Grand Duchess’s finger can be cut off like that, I imagine losing the ring would be the least of our problems.”
“...”
He had a point.
Chloe let out a long sigh and took off her ceremonial jacket. Julia and the other servants smiled awkwardly as they helped the two of them change.
Second Lieutenant Montpis had already left the Grand Duke’s room, saying she had something to attend to first.
Only after changing into comfortable indoor clothes did Chloe finally feel the tension leave her shoulders.
Seeing Chloe collapse onto the sofa with a long, exhausted “Haaah,” Curtis folded his arms and laughed.
“Was it manageable?”
“I’m dying. Truly.”
“What a spirited answer. I like it.”
“I’m glad.”
“Then shall we settle the remaining matter with that same spirit?”
The remaining matter?
Chloe narrowed her eyes and looked at him.
“Is there something else we must do today besides the wedding?”
Curtis smiled with his hands clasped behind his back and asked,
“Did you have servants at your house?”
“Do you think I did?”
“Then many new days await my household staff as well.”
Then he approached and, with an exceedingly exaggerated gesture, held out his hand to her.
Before she knew it, Chloe had risen and been led by him to the window.
Curtis drew open the soft curtains covering it.
The Grand Duke’s office had the best view of the Grand Ducal residence. Through its enormous window, the entire scene unfurled at once.
The beautiful garden of the white Berk Ducal Residence, sinking into deep blue darkness.
And from the gates of the residence to the inner courtyard and all the way to the end of the garden, more than a hundred servants stood in ordered rows.
Chloe was speechless.
She had known the Grand Duke had a considerable number of servants, but seeing it with her own eyes was overwhelming.
It carried a different sort of weight from the wedding.
Indifferent to her reaction, Curtis whispered with them as his backdrop.
“Welcome, my Grand Duchess. From now on, this is your home, and they will be your hands and feet.”
Hands and feet?
But her own hands and feet were right here.
“For reference, you may assume about eighty percent of them are His Majesty the King’s spies.”
Chloe felt faint.
Philippe Deltang, head butler of the Berk Ducal Residence, had originally been a court attendant at the Royal Palace.
Born the fifth son of the Deltang family, he had always carried himself with such elegance from a young age that he was able to enter the Royal Palace of Ibanes at fourteen.
Not only did he immediately become an attendant to the King, but from then until the age of forty, he had continued to climb the ladder of success.
It was thanks to his posture, always upright and restrained.
Yet even such a man had once faced a crisis in which he nearly behaved without dignity.
It was when, by the King’s order, he had been forced to leave his post as attendant and serve as butler to Grand Duke Berk.
“If not for my loyalty, I would be the court attendant chief by now. Ahem.”
One could easily guess Philippe Deltang’s lingering regret from this habitual remark alone.
Two years ago, the King had sent Philippe, who had been on the verge of promotion to court attendant chief, to serve as butler to Grand Duke Berk.
Serve in the residence of Grand Duke Curtis Shan Berk and report every detail of his current affairs and weaknesses.
For Philippe, who had been locked in daily nerves and rivalry with that tiresome, vulgar Depuys over which of them would become court attendant chief, the order had come like a bolt from the blue.
But he swallowed his tears and, as the King’s servant, became butler of the Berk Ducal Residence.
And every month, he reported the Grand Duke’s current situation to the King.
However, the King was most displeased with Philippe’s reports.
Understandably so.
Worked late every day.
Returned to the residence, slept, rose, and went to work.
Dismissed maids after declaring that the residence had not been properly cleaned.
That was the sort of thing they contained.
Ever since being assigned to the royal guard, Curtis had been living a decidedly inhuman daily life.
Far from summoning people or socializing, he lived like a man with no private life at all.
Naturally, Philippe had nothing to report.
The King had rebuked Philippe, saying, “This is not why I sent you to the Grand Ducal residence.”
It had been unbearably humiliating.
For reference, the current court attendant chief at the Royal Palace was that very Depuys.
But from today onward, things are different!
He clenched his fist.
Just one week ago, Grand Duke Berk had caused another major incident.
He had abruptly declared that he was getting married.
And that was not all.
Immediately afterward, he had brought the woman who would become the Grand Duchess, along with her family, into the residence.
The security was so fierce that servants, Philippe included, were forbidden from approaching the annex where the members of the Amboise family resided.
But the head butler knew.
This is both a kind of opportunity and an opening!
No matter how inhuman Curtis Shan Berk might be, now that he had a wife, there was no doubt his lifestyle would change.
Moreover, this Grand Duchess was said to be from the Navy.
Tsk, tsk. A former tax thief. That tells me everything I need to know.
She was from the Navy, infamous for its incompetence, and her family was of humble standing.
She was surely a vulgar woman aiming for an advantageous marriage!
There would undoubtedly be more than one or two instances of conduct that could bring disgrace upon the Grand Duke and the royal family.
In addition, the King was furious that Grand Duke Berk had married a mere aide rather than in a marriage arranged by him.
Therefore, all Philippe had to do was keep his eyes sharp and deliver every report-worthy scrap that came pouring out.
It would be even better if I could humiliate her while I’m at it.
He had already finished gathering information from the maids who had been going in and out of the annex for several days because of the Grand Duchess’s dress.
They said the woman who would become Grand Duchess was so poor she had never had even a single dress made before.
And that was not all.
They said she was so ignorant that the Grand Duke had to cling to her side and make her memorize the aristocratic register.
They also said her personality was capricious.
At times, she was insolent enough to talk back to the Grand Duke over every little thing, yet at other times she would suddenly become meek and obedient.
So she is the sort of reckless upstart who loses all sense of propriety after suddenly rising in station.
Thus, the butler lined up every servant in front of the residence.
Second Lieutenant Montpis had tried to stop him, saying, “His Grace and Her Grace said they are tired and wish to receive greetings tomorrow,” but Philippe deliberately insisted.
The wedding had only just ended, so the King was surely concentrating all his attention on any news emerging from the Grand Ducal residence.
If Philippe promptly brought him news suited to his taste at such a time, the King would praise him.
And people were bound to make mistakes when they were tired.
Philippe dearly hoped that the Grand Duchess, still intoxicated by the lingering glow of the wedding that had just ended, would make a grave mistake.
Of course, it would be fine even if she did not make one.
What mattered, in any case, was teaching the new Grand Duchess just how formidable this residence was.
And while I am at it, I should teach her just how refined a man Philippe Deltang is.
“Her Grace is coming down.”
Julia, wearing a displeased expression, announced the arrival of the Grand Ducal couple.
The butler’s insistence that they come receive the servants’ greetings had worked.
Sure enough, the complexion of the woman descending the center staircase of the Great Hall with the Grand Duke was poor.
When the servants all focused their attention on her at once, the woman, who still had a youthful air about her, hunched her shoulders as though overwhelmed.
Then, as she tried to take hold of the Grand Duke’s arm, she withdrew her hand in premature hesitation and ultimately slipped on the stairs.
“Eek!”