Chapter 19

A flash of fabric, my skirt fluttering up and then down, momentarily filled my vision.

As my field of view was suddenly unobscured, I saw horrified faces and, at the same time, the boy who had lifted my skirt was already at the end of the hallway, making a swift escape.

I was dumbfounded and frozen in place, and the boy, perhaps wondering why no one was chasing him, stopped at the end of the hallway and looked back.

The boy had a mischievous look, with disheveled black hair and playful blue eyes.

My assessment wasn’t wrong, as I could see small cuts and scratches on his knees, exposed beneath his shorts.

I thought he probably fell while running around and playing.

After a closer look, I realized:

‘I finally met him.’

I immediately recognized the boy.

There was only one black-haired, blue-eyed boy in the castle.

Nine’s younger brother, Adel Eclipse.

I had never been introduced to any of the family members, and I had been living in hiding due to Nine’s presence, so this was my first time meeting the boy, but I was certain.

‘What a spectacular first greeting!’

As soon as Adel’s eyes met mine, he stuck out his tongue to tease me, and then he ran off quickly.

Seeing this, Van, as a veteran butler, quickly regained his composure, unlike the other servants who were still frozen in shock, and he bowed to me.

“I apologize for what just happened, Lady Chacha. That is Lord Adel, Duke Nine’s younger brother. May I be excused for a moment?”

I could sense his urgency in the quick speech I had never heard from him before.

I stopped Van, who was about to go after Adel immediately.

“Van, wait a moment. It’s alright; please continue guiding me to the office.”

He was just a child; what was a little mischief?

I had always liked children, so this kind of mischief didn’t bother me.

‘There was no real damage done, other than my embarrassment.’

I held back the flustered Van and proceeded toward the office.

But at that moment, I didn’t know.

That the boy was not just a prankster.

And that my ordeal as a new duchess had not even begun yet.

***

A few days had passed since I took possession of the office and the seal said to have been used by all the previous duchesses.

I quickly adapted to the administrative duties of the ducal estate and the castle.

After all, I was a graduate of the Dragonia Academy and had even received successor training from the Blueberry Count’s family.

‘They must have thought I was just a typical noble lady.’

I could clearly see the surprised expressions on Van and Kane’s faces over the documents I was quickly going through.

Kane was a temporary assistant that Nine had assigned to help me with the administrative work, and his initial uninterested expression was now completely gone.

I didn’t need to be taught the basics, and my work was fast and accurate. Kane couldn’t help but acknowledge my abilities, even if he had heard bad rumors about me before.

As for the others…

‘Their attitudes became even more respectful.’

Having instilled fear with the previous incident and now proving my competence, no one dared to look down on me anymore.

‘Well, it’s more about them trying to protect themselves than truly respecting me.’

But thanks to them, my body and mind were much more at ease, so it didn’t matter.

That’s what I thought until two days ago.

Because new problems started to plague me as soon as I resolved the last ones.

The problems with Nine’s family.

‘I should have known when no one came to greet me on the first day when the head of the family returned!’

Thump, thump.

As I stamped the seal on an urgent document and handed it to a trainee butler, Annie, who had served me for a long time and was very perceptive, immediately brought tea and snacks.

My nerves were on edge because Nine’s family was taking turns bothering me day and night.

‘It would be easier if it were just work!’

I soothed my frayed nerves with fragrant herbal tea.

It was chamomile tea with a calming effect. My quick-witted Annie had prepared it for me.

‘It feels like I’ve been drinking only this tea lately.’’

I inhaled the faint aroma of the tea and tried to calm my mind, but then the events of the past few days popped into my head one by one.

First, my brother-in-law, Adel.

Adel would cause trouble several times a day, claiming it was just pranks, but the level of his mischief had already gone beyond a simple prank.

A few days ago, I found Adel hiding in the castle hallway, waiting for a servant who was moving valuables.

Adel waited until the servant came near him, and then he tripped him.

Shatter!

The maid, who didn’t see her feet, fell and couldn’t help but break the expensive vase she was holding. But Adel only shrugged his shoulders as he watched.

The maid, who seemed to be still young, was afraid of breaking the vase and eventually burst into tears.

The vase wasn’t a big deal since the duchy had a surplus of money.

‘But she could have been seriously injured with shards of glass all over her body.’

Fortunately, the maid only had a small cut on her face and wasn’t seriously injured. The problem was that she was deeply scarred emotionally.

In just two days, two servants had quit because of such malicious mischief.

If this was the case in just two days of me taking charge of the internal affairs, how many incidents must there have been before?

‘But Adel wasn’t the only problem.’

If it were only Adel’s problem, it wouldn’t be this much of a headache.

The second ordeal that came my way was my sister-in-law, Roana Eclipse.

She was also a remarkable person.

I soon realized that her excuse of not being able to attend the banquet due to a stomachache from drinking was not a lie.

In the early evening, shocked by the severity of Adel’s pranks, Roana chased out a maid who was cleaning her room, claiming she had entered without permission, and then trashed her room.

I was worried that the commotion would get bigger, so I quickly went to her with a knight, but…

Grawrrrr!

Roana was already passed out from drinking and was asleep in the trashed room.

After that, she would drink every day like water, causing trouble inside and outside the castle, day and night, in a drunken state.

“Lady Chacha, Lady Roana…”

As long as I was in charge of the internal affairs, I had to go and clean up every time a report came in.

“Haa…”

A sigh came out naturally when I thought of the two of them.

But these two were not the only troublemakers in the Eclipse family.

‘She was also a handful…’

The former duchess, Kate Eclipse.

At first, she didn’t interfere with me and was living quietly, so I was relieved, thinking that there would be no mother-in-law conflict.

But one day, while I was enduring the harassment from the servants, I went out for a short walk at night to refresh my mood and met her.

Sniff… H-hic… Huu…

My mother-in-law, Kate, was wandering around the castle, wailing like a ghost.

‘I thought there was a ghost in the ducal castle…!’

If it had only happened that one day, I would have just calmed my startled heart and let it go, but her creepy behavior continued almost every day.

I later realized that the reason why there were so few people walking around the castle at night was because of her, and I also started to avoid walking around at night as much as possible. But…

“Haaahh…”

As my sigh deepened, the worries of Annie and Van, who were next to me, also deepened.

But I couldn’t hold back my sighs.

Now, all these problems had become my responsibility as the person in charge of internal affairs.

‘What if Nine gave me the seal just to pass all this off on me? A strategy to make me leave on my own?’

I was so desperate that I even had such thoughts.

Of course, they weren’t directly causing me great harm.

And even if there was harm, family matters were difficult to intervene in, unlike with servants.

‘So, I’ll just endure it.’

I had to endure it.

Interfering with them was completely different from controlling the servants!

‘It’ll pass soon.’

That’s what I thought, and I tried to relax.

***

But a few days later.

‘I can’t take it anymore!’

I could no longer tolerate it. No, I didn’t want to.

‘I have feelings, too!’

Over the past few days, the level of Adel’s pranks on me had been escalating.

The pranks he pulled at first were cute and harmless, but the problem was that they were becoming more frequent and severe.

At the beginning, it was just knocking and running away or teasing me playfully.

But the pranks became too serious to be taken lightly.

He would scribble on the books I was reading until the words were illegible, or he would hide and jump out to scare me, trip me, and even pull my hair on the stairs, which could lead to an injury.

It had gone beyond the level of just laughing it off and saying, *’Haha! Boys will be boys.’*

‘And if I leave him be, the pranks might get even worse.’

The servants were not in a position to stop Adel’s behavior. He would have ignored Van’s reprimands, and as I had seen so far, his family members were indifferent to him.

‘What should I do?’

Today, I was lost in thought while drinking chamomile tea again when the door to my office was flung open.

Of course, it was Adel.

‘What great timing.’

Adel opened the door without knocking, pointed his finger at me, and said, “You’re ugly! You’re a dummy!”

The me from before would have just smiled and told the pale-faced servants that it was alright and to send him away.

But today, I was different.

I elegantly put down my teacup and smiled gently at Adel, who looked briefly bewildered.

He must have noticed that my smile was different from usual.

To such an Adel, I said in a very gentle and soft voice, “You’re wrong, Adel. Objectively, I’m beautiful and smart.”

No matter how many problems there are, you have to solve them one by one.

‘Good.’

I decided to fix my first problem, Adel’s bad manners.