IELNDMH - Chapter 102 < Not Wanting To Seen The Woman I Love >
I Ended Up Living Up Next Door With My Ex-Husband
For the past few days since the masquerade ball ended, I have never been able to see Cedric's face.
Although I occasionally received word from his aide that he had a backlog of work, I couldn't shake the feeling that he was avoiding meeting with me.
Then today, I heard this sudden news.
“Cedric left on a business trip this morning? That too... Alone with Vincent?”
His aide personally came to the Dark Mansion and delivered the news.
“Yes, he left after asking me several times to convey the message to Her Highness.”
“Even so, this is too sudden.”
“...His Highness the Grand Duke was probably very concerned.”
The aide, who unconsciously showed signs of concern, soon bowed his head politely.
“Then I’ll just go back, Your Highness."
The aide quickly turned his back, as if he was afraid that he might get caught by me.
But his steps could not continue any further.
“Stand there, Lehman.”
He slowly turned around at my firm words, and it was obvious that he didn't know what to do.
“Why are you doing that?... Actually, there is a lot of work piled up in the Mansion of Light, so I don't have enough time...”
“I guess the aide was so busy that he didn’t have time to follow His Highness the Grand Duke on his business trip?”
“...”
“...It’s really strange to go on a business trip without an aide with you.”
“Well, that’s...”
He seemed embarrassed for a moment but quickly regained his composure after clearing his throat a couple of times.
“Sometimes that happens. Sometimes some things need to be handled by just the two of them, His Highness the Grand Duke and Vincent, without even having someone to assist them.”
“...Is that so."
I could only nod my head at the plausible answer.
Actually, at that moment, I had no intention of bothering my aide about something like that.
There was actually something else I was curious about over the past few days.
“...Cedric, how have you been?”
“Of course...”
“Please don’t tell half-hearted lies about how you are doing, Lehman.”
“...”
“No matter how much I live separately from Cedric, I can at least sense that something is going on with him these days. I’m not that dull of a fool.”
When I looked up at the aide with my arms crossed, he lowered his head for a while and was unable to continue his words.
After a moment of silence, the aide slowly opened his mouth.
“Your Highness, I may be presumptuous, but..”
He bit his lower lip for a moment as if he was worried about even saying that.
“Could you please just trust His Highness, the Grand Duke, just this once?”
The aide's voice clearly showed his loyalty to Cedric.
He looked at me with eyes full of seriousness and spoke slowly but forcefully.
“His Highness is perfect, no matter what he lacks... As a man, I’m sure there are aspects of him that he doesn’t want to show to the woman he loves.”
Those were words Rebecca had never heard before.
Especially from those who closely assist Cedric and know him best.
Cedric's close assistant was the first to acknowledge me as his lover.
That evoked different emotions than when I received Cedric's confession.
As I was just blinking, at a loss for words, a light sound of wind soon escaped the aide's lips.
“Your Highness the Grand Duke will soon return to your side in his original, wonderful form, as he always has. So just a little... Please wait just a moment, Your Highness.”
In the end, I had no choice but to nod to the aide's sincere request.
He left me with a faint smile on his face and a thank you note.
I looked at the closed door and briefly reflected on the words my aide left behind.
And I swallowed my many questions and made a promise.
Cedric will soon return to my side with his tired body. I decided to just greet him with a warm smile.
Rebecca wasn't the only one confused by the news of Cedric's departure.
High Priest Diat, who heard the news after her, was equally embarrassed.
As the object of surveillance disappeared, he suddenly had nothing to do today.
“So suddenly...You mean?”
It was only for a moment that he blinked his wide-open eyes.
Then today, I heard this sudden news.
“Cedric left on a business trip this morning? That too... Alone with Vincent?”
His aide personally came to the Dark Mansion and delivered the news.
“Yes, he left after asking me several times to convey the message to Her Highness.”
“Even so, this is too sudden.”
“...His Highness the Grand Duke was probably very concerned.”
The aide, who unconsciously showed signs of concern, soon bowed his head politely.
“Then I’ll just go back, Your Highness."
The aide quickly turned his back, as if he was afraid that he might get caught by me.
But his steps could not continue any further.
“Stand there, Lehman.”
He slowly turned around at my firm words, and it was obvious that he didn't know what to do.
“Why are you doing that?... Actually, there is a lot of work piled up in the Mansion of Light, so I don't have enough time...”
“I guess the aide was so busy that he didn’t have time to follow His Highness the Grand Duke on his business trip?”
“...”
“...It’s really strange to go on a business trip without an aide with you.”
“Well, that’s...”
He seemed embarrassed for a moment but quickly regained his composure after clearing his throat a couple of times.
“Sometimes that happens. Sometimes some things need to be handled by just the two of them, His Highness the Grand Duke and Vincent, without even having someone to assist them.”
“...Is that so."
I could only nod my head at the plausible answer.
Actually, at that moment, I had no intention of bothering my aide about something like that.
There was actually something else I was curious about over the past few days.
“...Cedric, how have you been?”
“Of course...”
“Please don’t tell half-hearted lies about how you are doing, Lehman.”
“...”
“No matter how much I live separately from Cedric, I can at least sense that something is going on with him these days. I’m not that dull of a fool.”
When I looked up at the aide with my arms crossed, he lowered his head for a while and was unable to continue his words.
After a moment of silence, the aide slowly opened his mouth.
“Your Highness, I may be presumptuous, but..”
He bit his lower lip for a moment as if he was worried about even saying that.
“Could you please just trust His Highness, the Grand Duke, just this once?”
The aide's voice clearly showed his loyalty to Cedric.
He looked at me with eyes full of seriousness and spoke slowly but forcefully.
“His Highness is perfect, no matter what he lacks... As a man, I’m sure there are aspects of him that he doesn’t want to show to the woman he loves.”
Those were words Rebecca had never heard before.
Especially from those who closely assist Cedric and know him best.
Cedric's close assistant was the first to acknowledge me as his lover.
That evoked different emotions than when I received Cedric's confession.
As I was just blinking, at a loss for words, a light sound of wind soon escaped the aide's lips.
“Your Highness the Grand Duke will soon return to your side in his original, wonderful form, as he always has. So just a little... Please wait just a moment, Your Highness.”
In the end, I had no choice but to nod to the aide's sincere request.
He left me with a faint smile on his face and a thank you note.
I looked at the closed door and briefly reflected on the words my aide left behind.
And I swallowed my many questions and made a promise.
Cedric will soon return to my side with his tired body. I decided to just greet him with a warm smile.
***
Rebecca wasn't the only one confused by the news of Cedric's departure.
High Priest Diat, who heard the news after her, was equally embarrassed.
As the object of surveillance disappeared, he suddenly had nothing to do today.
“So suddenly...You mean?”
It was only for a moment that he blinked his wide-open eyes.
High Priest Diat narrowed his eyes.
“No matter how urgent it may be, the Pope’s representative happened to visit the Grand Duke’s castle without even telling me...!”
To be honest, it was not the Pope who was ignored, but the High Priest Diat.
However, he deliberately brought up the Pope to justify his feelings.
Cedric said that daring to go on a business trip without telling him in advance was tantamount to disrespecting the Pope.
However, the aide, who was already familiar with the human world and its religious world, did not even snort.
“If you really are the Pope, I understand that a representative cannot ‘dare’ interfere with His Highness the Grand Duke’s schedule.”
The aide's eyes gradually became colder.
“Moreover, if you were the Pope, you wouldn’t even say something like this. You will respect the position and independence of His Highness the Grand Duke to the fullest.”
Words full of thorns calmly flowed out of the aide's mouth.
High Priest Diat glared at him angrily, but the aide just smiled.
Then he muttered to himself in a low, dark voice.
“It’s not like someone else’s feeling of inferiority and being a jerk to put down the other person whenever the opportunity arises...”
At that moment, High Priest Diat could not believe his ears.
But no matter who heard it, it was something the aide said with him in mind.
"Wha... What did you just say?”
“What do you mean, High Priest?”
“You just called me a scumbag...!”
High Priest Diat's face heated up as if it would burst at any moment.
However, the aide's expression as he looked at him was extremely calm.
“I was just talking to myself. But why do you assert that it is the High Priest’s story?”
“Yeah... !”
“I just thought that, unlike the generous Pope, there were people like that in the world.”
The aide was right.
What makes him question this more is that it seemed like he was admitting that his words were deeply piercing his conscience.
That's why High Priest Diat gritted his teeth but couldn't continue speaking.
He just glared at the aide with an angry look on his face and then turned his back towards the window.
“Then I’ve delivered all the important news, so I’ll just leave.”
With those words, the aide bowed politely and left the room.
High Priest Diat, who had been fixating his gaze pointlessly on the window until then, turned around again and glared at the closed door.
“Such arrogance...! Why on earth does everything in this Twins castle look like that?”
How dare they treat him like an idiot with an inferiority complex?
His stomach was boiling.
He just wanted to get out of this castle and head to a place where he could have his presence confirmed.
'The Twins Grand Duke will have left the castle anyway, and I don't think there will be any need to watch over the Grand Duchess for a few days.'
Moreover, didn't he already know at the masquerade ball that their discord still persists?
'Yes. Sometimes, before I return to the capital, I need time to get away from this stuffy place and cool my head.'
It seemed like it would be a good idea to spend some time as a high priest, such as visiting a northern temple to worship or delivering the Pope's congratulatory message to local residents.
High Priest Diat called his successor, a priest, and headed to the city together in a carriage provided by the Twins family.
Outside the carriage window, the Twins Castle began to gradually move away.
So it felt like his heart was getting lighter little by little.
He took a long time to admire the scenery of the vast forest passing by outside the window.
It was as the carriage began to pull into the entrance of a local village.
“Just past this village, you will see the entrance to the city. If you go a little further from there, you will find a temple.”
The successor priest chattered confidently even though this was actually his first journey.
This was thanks to his enthusiastic research on the area from the time he decided to come to the north.
"Oh. I understand there is a Bart family in this village.”
"Where?"
“Why, that...”
Although there were only two people in the carriage, the junior priest looked cautious as he looked around.
“The family of Sir Henry Bart, who died after falling over a fountain while drunk at an imperial banquet.”
“Oh, right. Count Bart...”
When he thought about the dead, the remaining ones suddenly came to mind.
Lobelia Bart.
This is the woman who lost her husband in an instant and so publicly.
Before he came to the North, the Pope, upon hearing of Lobelia's situation, asked him to comfort her on his behalf.
'I've been so busy monitoring the Twins Grand Duke and his wife that I've completely forgotten about it. I think I even met that Lady on the day of the masquerade ball...:
High Priest Diat shook his head, once again surprised by his own indifference.
'I just missed my schedule for today, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to visit the Bart family now.'
Although it bothered him to visit the family where a wife was left alone without first contacting him, it would not be a big flaw since everyone in the North knew that he was the Pope's representative.
“Tell the coachman to go to the Bart family mansion.”
Eventually, the carriage turned and started running towards the Bart family mansion.
Like other historic noble families, the Count Bart family's castle was located far away from nearby private houses.
Even so, it wasn't a distance that would take more than twenty minutes.
It was around this time that the carriage crossed the stream bridge and gradually narrowed the distance to Bart Castle.
An unknown shout was heard in front of the huge castle gate.
When he inadvertently turned his head, he saw a blurry sight of three people who looked like they were arguing.
“What on earth do you think is going on?”
"Well...?”
The two people's eyebrows slowly furrowed as they gazed together.
It was to take a closer look at the scene that bothered him.
As the distance between the carriage and the castle gate grew closer, the eyes of the two men slowly opened wide.
“That person... Isn’t she Countess Bart?”
It was definitely Lobelia Bart.
But isn't she, the owner of this huge castle, being roughly abused by a middle-aged couple?
They were so angry that they pulled Lobelia's arms and pushed her to the floor as if she were being beaten.
Eventually, the High Priest's carriage stopped in front of the Bart family gate.
The successor priest, who checked the situation closer, raised his voice with a sense of justice that was instantly inflamed.
“Well, that...! Who are they that they dare treat the Countess so rudely?”
High Priest Diat, who knew exactly the answer to that question, hurriedly opened the carriage door.
Baron Collins and his wife.
They were the deceased Henry's biological parents and Lobelia's parents-in-law.
“No matter how urgent it may be, the Pope’s representative happened to visit the Grand Duke’s castle without even telling me...!”
To be honest, it was not the Pope who was ignored, but the High Priest Diat.
However, he deliberately brought up the Pope to justify his feelings.
Cedric said that daring to go on a business trip without telling him in advance was tantamount to disrespecting the Pope.
However, the aide, who was already familiar with the human world and its religious world, did not even snort.
“If you really are the Pope, I understand that a representative cannot ‘dare’ interfere with His Highness the Grand Duke’s schedule.”
The aide's eyes gradually became colder.
“Moreover, if you were the Pope, you wouldn’t even say something like this. You will respect the position and independence of His Highness the Grand Duke to the fullest.”
Words full of thorns calmly flowed out of the aide's mouth.
High Priest Diat glared at him angrily, but the aide just smiled.
Then he muttered to himself in a low, dark voice.
“It’s not like someone else’s feeling of inferiority and being a jerk to put down the other person whenever the opportunity arises...”
At that moment, High Priest Diat could not believe his ears.
But no matter who heard it, it was something the aide said with him in mind.
"Wha... What did you just say?”
“What do you mean, High Priest?”
“You just called me a scumbag...!”
High Priest Diat's face heated up as if it would burst at any moment.
However, the aide's expression as he looked at him was extremely calm.
“I was just talking to myself. But why do you assert that it is the High Priest’s story?”
“Yeah... !”
“I just thought that, unlike the generous Pope, there were people like that in the world.”
The aide was right.
What makes him question this more is that it seemed like he was admitting that his words were deeply piercing his conscience.
That's why High Priest Diat gritted his teeth but couldn't continue speaking.
He just glared at the aide with an angry look on his face and then turned his back towards the window.
“Then I’ve delivered all the important news, so I’ll just leave.”
With those words, the aide bowed politely and left the room.
High Priest Diat, who had been fixating his gaze pointlessly on the window until then, turned around again and glared at the closed door.
“Such arrogance...! Why on earth does everything in this Twins castle look like that?”
How dare they treat him like an idiot with an inferiority complex?
His stomach was boiling.
He just wanted to get out of this castle and head to a place where he could have his presence confirmed.
'The Twins Grand Duke will have left the castle anyway, and I don't think there will be any need to watch over the Grand Duchess for a few days.'
Moreover, didn't he already know at the masquerade ball that their discord still persists?
'Yes. Sometimes, before I return to the capital, I need time to get away from this stuffy place and cool my head.'
It seemed like it would be a good idea to spend some time as a high priest, such as visiting a northern temple to worship or delivering the Pope's congratulatory message to local residents.
High Priest Diat called his successor, a priest, and headed to the city together in a carriage provided by the Twins family.
Outside the carriage window, the Twins Castle began to gradually move away.
So it felt like his heart was getting lighter little by little.
He took a long time to admire the scenery of the vast forest passing by outside the window.
It was as the carriage began to pull into the entrance of a local village.
“Just past this village, you will see the entrance to the city. If you go a little further from there, you will find a temple.”
The successor priest chattered confidently even though this was actually his first journey.
This was thanks to his enthusiastic research on the area from the time he decided to come to the north.
"Oh. I understand there is a Bart family in this village.”
"Where?"
“Why, that...”
Although there were only two people in the carriage, the junior priest looked cautious as he looked around.
“The family of Sir Henry Bart, who died after falling over a fountain while drunk at an imperial banquet.”
“Oh, right. Count Bart...”
When he thought about the dead, the remaining ones suddenly came to mind.
Lobelia Bart.
This is the woman who lost her husband in an instant and so publicly.
Before he came to the North, the Pope, upon hearing of Lobelia's situation, asked him to comfort her on his behalf.
'I've been so busy monitoring the Twins Grand Duke and his wife that I've completely forgotten about it. I think I even met that Lady on the day of the masquerade ball...:
High Priest Diat shook his head, once again surprised by his own indifference.
'I just missed my schedule for today, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to visit the Bart family now.'
Although it bothered him to visit the family where a wife was left alone without first contacting him, it would not be a big flaw since everyone in the North knew that he was the Pope's representative.
“Tell the coachman to go to the Bart family mansion.”
Eventually, the carriage turned and started running towards the Bart family mansion.
Like other historic noble families, the Count Bart family's castle was located far away from nearby private houses.
Even so, it wasn't a distance that would take more than twenty minutes.
It was around this time that the carriage crossed the stream bridge and gradually narrowed the distance to Bart Castle.
An unknown shout was heard in front of the huge castle gate.
When he inadvertently turned his head, he saw a blurry sight of three people who looked like they were arguing.
“What on earth do you think is going on?”
"Well...?”
The two people's eyebrows slowly furrowed as they gazed together.
It was to take a closer look at the scene that bothered him.
As the distance between the carriage and the castle gate grew closer, the eyes of the two men slowly opened wide.
“That person... Isn’t she Countess Bart?”
It was definitely Lobelia Bart.
But isn't she, the owner of this huge castle, being roughly abused by a middle-aged couple?
They were so angry that they pulled Lobelia's arms and pushed her to the floor as if she were being beaten.
Eventually, the High Priest's carriage stopped in front of the Bart family gate.
The successor priest, who checked the situation closer, raised his voice with a sense of justice that was instantly inflamed.
“Well, that...! Who are they that they dare treat the Countess so rudely?”
High Priest Diat, who knew exactly the answer to that question, hurriedly opened the carriage door.
Baron Collins and his wife.
They were the deceased Henry's biological parents and Lobelia's parents-in-law.
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