IELNDMH - Chapter 68 < Did You Hear the Rumor? >
I Ended Up Living Up Next Door With My Ex-Husband
After Cedric leaves with Duke Bold.
After naturally leaving the crowd of Emperor, I sipped champagne and looked around.
It's been a while since then, but no 'unknown' person I want to talk to has appeared.
So I slowly turned my head and looked at Adrian.
He was just standing against one wall of the banquet hall, looking at the other nobles like an observer.
The only person who talked to Adrian like that was his older brother.
'I'm sorry for making a promise to Cedric, but... I can't help it.'
There is no choice but for people who are on the outside to come together.
It was at that time that I was about to take my steps towards Adrian.
“Oh, Your Highness! You are here!”
“I thought I’d see you here. You remember us, right?”
“I don’t know how long it’s been like this, really!”
Three noble ladies approached, making a fuss.
I don't know what Rebecca's relationship with them was like, but they were women I had never seen before.
'I have no idea who this is, so what should I do with this?'
I smiled awkwardly, hiding my embarrassment.
The women exchanged anxious glances with each other at my reaction.
‘This is something... I feel strange?'
In such cases, silence may be best.
As I was just looking at them with a smile, the woman standing in the middle cautiously took a step closer.
“Last time, our Princess Judith... I heard you made an unintentional mistake with Princess Bianca?”
“...Judith?”
“Actually, we all looked for Her Highness the whole time to apologize for what happened that day.”
Judith Montran.
When I heard that name, I remembered it.
The child was the Queen Bee of the group that bullied Bianca.
'Ah, it was the Duchess of Montran, the child's mother.'
Now that I think about it, both the bright yellow-blonde hair and the somewhat obnoxious look were exactly like Judith's.
The woman standing next to her also looked similar to her daughter, so it wasn't that difficult to guess who was her biological mother.
'It looks like she came to make excuses for what happened at the Orangery.'
After I witnessed the scene of Bianca being ostracized, the incident reached the ears of Emperor Letitz.
Even the words spoken by the Duke's couple and their daughters degrading mixed race demons.
Since the mixed-race demons contributed greatly to the founding of the Western Empire, Emperor Letitz did not ignore discrimination against them from the beginning.
Since the Emperor became aware of their irresponsible words and actions, it was natural that each family would fall out of favor with the Emperor.
It seemed like the Duchess wanted to win my favor and win the Emperor's attention again, albeit belatedly.
I looked at them closely with a smile on my face.
“I told the Princesses that day, but....”
“...”
“That is not a mistake, it is called a ‘mistake.’”
The women rolled their eyes as if embarrassed by my thorny words.
After a moment of exchanging glances, Madame Montran opened her mouth first, letting out an awkward laugh.
"...Right! Her Highness is once again correcting our mistakes!”
Then the other Duchesses also joined in.
“Of course, that’s right! Our Princesses were still angry and showed great disrespect to Princess Bianca.”
“Your Highness, we will make sure nothing like this happens again, so please....”
There was earnestness in the women's eyes.
I, who had been staring somewhere else with my back turned, turned my head towards them again.
And then I parted my lips with a sour expression.
"Wha... As the Grand Duchess of the Twins, I might be generous enough to give you a chance.”
A look of relief flashed across the Duchess' face.
Look, it's still too early to feel relieved.
I warned them in a low voice.
“Of course, if you feel that the apology is made insincerely while hiding the deepest feelings...My patience will run out forever.”
The women hastily shook their heads.
“Well, that can’t be possible, Your Highness!”
“What an opportunity you gave us, how dare we do that!”
“That’s right, that’s right! Ho ho ho....”
I continued speaking while looking indifferently at the women who were trying to lighten the mood with laughter.
“The imperial tea party tomorrow afternoon hosted by Her Majesty the Empress.”
“... ?”
“If the children and the Duchess apologize properly to Princess Bianca there, we will reconsider what happened that day.”
Unlike tonight's banquet, young ladies and royal servants from each family were also scheduled to attend the imperial tea party tomorrow day.
Wherever it is, wouldn't Bianca feel better if she received a proper apology from the children?
'We need to make sure that not only those children but also the daughters of other families, that Bianca is not a child to be treated lightly.'
That might have been the greatest gift I could have given her before my divorce was announced and I left.
I looked back at the Duchess and spoke strongly as if warning them.
“Then the ladies and the Princesses will have to make a proper apology certainly."
Then the women nodded vigorously.
“Sure, sure!”
“I’ll warn the kids!”
“How can you be so generous, giving me another chance... !”
As expected of women who are well-established in the social world, they quickly showered me with compliments and turned the conversation to somewhere else.
They said that my skin was glowing and that my body seemed to have become more beautiful.
It was a time when I was only giving a cursory response because the effort was immeasurable.
“Oh, I heard that news too?”
Madame Montran said, raising one of her eyebrows.
“What news?”
“Why, that...”
Madame Montran took a quick look around, then came closer and whispered in my ear.
“I heard the social world in the North is in an uproar over Countess Dmitry’s affair?”
If it was Count Dmitry, it was Camilla.
The rest of the women also took advantage of my moment of silence to come closer to me.
“I heard that too. Count Dmitry is now contemplating a divorce.”
“That’s right, it’s been a long time since they separated...”
Madame Montran covered her mouth with one of her hands and continued her words cautiously.
“Some say that the reason Count Dmitry decided to divorce her was not simply because of a failed investment.”
"Are you sure?"
In response to my question, she once again looked at her surroundings and whispered softly.
“If I were that woman, I would just want to fall off the top floor and die right now.”
***
Around the same time, on the second floor of the banquet hall building.
Camilla had been staying in one of the lady's rooms for some time now.
She didn't have any special business, but she had nowhere else to stay comfortably.
'Camila Dmitry, who was the biggest star in society just a few months ago, is now hiding in a smelly place like this, avoiding people's attention...'
The more she thought about it, the more deplorable her situation became.
She barely accompanied her husband since they were still legally married, and her husband, Count Dmitry, did not even glance at her.
Moreover, the rumor had already spread to the capital, so no one spoke to him first, as he was left alone.
Even though everyone was looking at them and whispering, they were busy avoiding eye contact when their eyes met.
'In the past, all of them were anxious because they couldn't talk to me.'
That time when she was grinding her teeth.
The voices of ladies entering the lady' room were heard outside the door.
“Why doesn’t this year’s banquet seem more extravagant than last year?”
“That’s right! How did Your Majesty come up with the idea to create a champagne fountain?”
About four or five women stood in front of the dressing table and burst into laughter.
'Why should I come in now? I was about to leave.'
That was when Camilla frowned and held her breath.
"Oh right! Have you all heard that rumor?”
“What rumor?”
“Why, that...”
The voice, which had paused for a moment as if examining the surroundings, continued again.
“About Countess Camilla Dmitry.”
At that moment Camilla clutched her chin and her chest as she felt herself suffocating.
The hand covering her mouth also began to tremble little by little.
“Oh, I heard that too. She lost half of Count Dmitry’s family fortune by investing incorrectly in demonic materials, right?”
“What is a class! Now she has lost almost all of the wealth that has been passed down from generation to generation.”
“I’m glad that’s all?”
The woman continued her words in a lower voice.
“No, I guess she was having an affair.”
“Oh my! Who is her opponent?”
“Unfortunately, that is not yet known.”
"Oh my goodness... If it's not just that she lost all of her assets and the rumors of an affair are true.... It’s only a matter of time before Count Dmitry kicks her out.”
“And then she went around holding her nose in the air. I knew this day would come someday.”
At one woman's cynical remark, laughter erupted from all over the place.
“Was that vanity a bit great? Moreover, the noble wife had no idea what to do and was just ho-ho, ho-ho... in front of this man...”
“A young lady from a poor family who had nothing but the title of Baronet met a good man and opened her arms, and from then on, her habits were firmly established.”
“I thought that woman was somehow shallow from the beginning.”
“So... Oh my goodness! Is it already this time? I told you that Baron Dane would be performing a masquerade in the Torsa Room around this time!”
“Oh, that’s right. That's right! Let’s go!”
The ladies who had been gossiping about Camilla for a while left the lady room like the tide.
Only then did Camilla let out the breath she had been holding.
"Ha...”
Even after the women who were criticizing her disappeared, her hands and feet did not stop shaking for a while.
Camilla was barely standing, leaning against the doorway, and soon tears were dripping down her chin.
A narrow single room with a bad smell.
Her situation was so desperate that she had to hide here and listen to her own gossip, and yet she couldn't even say a single word.
Bitterness and resentment welled up.
The more she thought about it, the more Henry's face she saw a moment ago kept coming back to her and irritating her nerves.
He had put herself in this mud and was smiling as if nothing had happened, that damn bright face.
'Even though you can clearly see that I'm in trouble alone... You didn't even pretend to know.'
Henry was ignoring herself just like other nobles.
Is that all?
From the beginning of his marriage, Henry did not treat Lobelia kindly externally.
Then, he clung to Lobelia, who did not respond even once, like she was a soulless doll, and wasted all her fawning.
Lobelia and her own situation had completely changed, and Henry's deep snobbery in her bones trembled.
'Henry. Do you think I'll just quietly watch you abandon me and be happy alone?'
The blood drained from the back of her hand as she clutched the hem of her dress.
Camilla, trembling with anger, quickly stormed out of the Lady's room.
Except for the banquet hall on the first floor, all of the hallways on the upper floors were connected by a large curve shaped like a horseshoe.
This was so that the banquet hall on the bottom floor could be seen from any floor.
Camilla leaned against the railing in the hallway and looked down into the ballroom on the first floor.
'Where... Where the hell are they?'
People laughing and chatting happily in front of a large champagne fountain.
It was a time when she was carefully looking at their faces one by one.
Henry is smiling as he chats with other people, unaware that he is being stared at.
And Lobelia sits next to him.
The moment she discovered Count and Couple Bard, life flashed in Camilla's eyes.
'... Found you.'
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