38

“Coco!”

“My lady, the Marquis, what brings you here…”

Usually, when the Marquis or the Lady summoned me, I would go, so it was rare for them to come all the way to my private office. I hurriedly stood and greeted the two of them.

“The final interview is over, and Father said he has something to tell you.”

“Is that so? Did the interview go well?”

The Marquis smiled faintly and nodded.

“Thanks to our daughter, we picked a sincere and smart friend. I can’t believe I didn’t know our daughter was so sharp.”

“Oh come on, Father was the only one who didn’t know.”

“Haha, then I’ll have to get to know her better going forward, won’t I?”

Before sinking into their father-daughter world, I quickly changed the subject.

“By the way, you said you had something to tell me.”

“Ah, that’s right. Nathan asked you to come to the Ministry of Finance for a moment; he has business with you.”

“The Minister of Finance?”

The Marquis’s errands were finished and the Minister of Finance wouldn’t usually have anything for me to do. It was hard to guess what it could be. He even told me afterward not to come to the palace often.

“He said it’s nothing serious, so don’t worry and go.”

“You’ve been busy working with Father on my affairs lately. You’re the type who hates overtime, yet you stay late.”

Well, I got paid accordingly, so it’s fine.

“A new aide was chosen, so stop by the palace and then go straight home.”

‘Lady really has the best sense!’

I couldn’t help smiling—uncharacteristic of me—and cheerfully packed my bag. Seeing that, Lady Kiara suddenly came up, grabbed my cheek, and stretched it out.

“My Lady…”

“Sorry, you were just too cute to resist. You shouldn’t go around laughing like that in public, okay? Especially in front of Duchess Seref even more so.”

“Yesss.”

‘Why did he call me?’

I guessed at the reason for his summons on the carriage.

Could it be something happened because of that day? Or maybe he wanted to ask more about the two of them?

That would have been a reasonable explanation. But all I knew were two sightings, so there wasn’t much more I could tell.

‘No, maybe the Minister of Finance might tell me what he knows.’

Given his position, he seemed to have considerable access to information. I wished he’d spread the rumor quickly.

Anyway, I’ll know when I arrive. The Marquis said it’s nothing serious, so it probably isn’t anything to worry about.

A moment later, the carriage stopped and I headed up to the third floor where the Ministry of Finance was. When I had almost reached the second floor landing, someone shoved me hard from behind.

“Ack! Who— huh?”

The man didn’t apologize and hurried off somewhere. I almost cursed, but when I saw where he was headed, I followed him without thinking.

“The Chancellor.”

That man earlier had definitely been standing next to Duke Seref’s wife at the Marquis’s residence business launching party. If so…

‘Duke Seref?’

It was then.

Crash!

“Kyaaa!”

When I realized the man’s identity, an unimaginable sight met my eyes through the wide-open door of the Chancellor. The Chancellor’s office was a mess of broken ornaments and scattered documents.

“Du- Duke Seref!”

“You dare to secretly meet my wife?!”

Chancellor staff gasped. Chancellor Marcus, clearly flustered, tried in vain to calm the situation.

“P- please calm down.”

Duke Seref strode toward Chancellor Marcus as if swallowing his anger.

“Calm down, calm down? How dare you say that to me?”

“M- my lord Duke, have some decorum in here!”

“This shame won’t happen again. It’s you or me.”

With those words, the Duke’s fist struck Chancellor Marcus’s face.

Smack!

I covered my mouth without thinking.

‘Is this for real?’

I watched the melodramatic fight at the Chancellery in real time, hands clamped over my mouth.

There was none of the aloof, dignified Duke Seref I’d heard about—he was beating the stick-straight, bookish Chancellor Marcus senseless despite Marcus’s middle age.

“Do you think you can still hold your head up in Rusera after doing something like this?”

“Argh aah, s- stop! Stop it!”

“Stop? Don’t give me that! Are you so bored that you dare look at the Duke Seref’s wife?!”

“You can’t just pin that on me!”

“What?”

Chancellor Marcus, bruised and swollen, snapped back.

“She said she liked me too! You should’ve taken better care of your wife!”

“What the—!”

The enraged Duke started a brawl and Chancellor Marcus struggled and retaliated. When the Duke’s aide came running and tried to intervene, Chancellery staff finally held the two apart, restraining their arms and legs.

“Let go of me! I said let go!”

“What is this behavior, coming to the palace and causing such a scene, Duke!”

“What? A scene? Compared to what you did, I’m practically a saint!”

I couldn’t look away. I’d heard stories of office fights, but I’d never actually seen colleagues wrestling like this.

‘Please don’t let this drama end.’

“Enjoying the show?”

“Ah! You startled me!”

Startled, I turned and found the Minister of Finance standing there with his hands behind his back and a relaxed smile.

“If you’ve seen enough, go on upstairs.”

The situation seemed to be calming down anyway, so, slightly disappointed, I followed him. Even after sitting in the Minister of Finance’s office, the melodramatic scene kept replaying in my mind.

“That was an entertaining spectacle after a long time.”

He looked unusually pleased. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seemed surprised at the Chancellery’s mess at all.

‘Could it be…’

“I didn’t expect Duke Seref to come all the way to the Chancellery.”

He didn’t seem to be trying to hide it.

“Did you do this, Minister of Finance?”

“I’ll just say an inability to tolerate injustice got the better of me.”

He hummed as he poured tea. Maybe it was my imagination, but the snacks on the table looked fancier than usual.

“I didn’t think my story would blow up this much.”

I only hoped the rumor would circulate enough to make the Duchess quietly feel shame.

“The time has come. Even the haughty Duchess who thought herself above it all will be dragged to the dirt. I merely used the clues I received a bit.”

I wondered if he was doing this because of what the Duchess did to me last time. I hesitated to ask, but the Minister beat me to it.

“It’s true I was angry at the Duchess’s unbecoming behavior. But this isn’t a humiliation I personally experienced, so I wouldn’t go this far just for that. Sorry, but I’m rather pragmatic in nature.”

At that moment, I remembered Chancellor Marcus ignoring the Minister’s greeting.

“So it was the Chancellor you were after.”

The Minister smiled wryly.

“Smart.”

He felt different than usual. Was this the real face of the Minister of Finance I’d thought was kind?

“You’re a formidable man, Minister.”

“If you stick to your own affairs, I’m endlessly kind. Disappointed?”

Actually, that was more realistic. Seeing someone a few times doesn’t mean you can expect more. I shrugged and gestured that I was fine.

“Not really.”

The Minister looked surprised.

“Oh dear, perhaps I underestimated you. I was ready to explain myself at length to avoid offending you.”

“I don’t need to know the details between the Minister and Chancellor Marcus. As an informant, tell me what you think will happen next.”

“Going forward…”

The Minister took a light sip of tea, set the cup down, and spoke.

“The Duke is a proud figure, but he values face and honor. I don’t know if he truly loved his wife, but he’ll find this utterly humiliating. You can tell from how he stormed into the Chancellery the moment I leaked the information.”

That image of him punching the Chancellor in the face would be hard to forget.

“After looking into what you said, I found they’d gone as far as they could. Even if people saw, they stayed silent because of the statuses involved. They started meeting cautiously, then grew bolder until you spotted them. So Duke Seref won’t sit idly by.”

“Will they divorce?”

“If it ends with just a divorce, that would be fortunate. As I said, the Duke cares about face and honor, and he’s persistent. The Empire sometimes has unofficial practices, but adultery is still a crime. He made such a scene at the Chancellery, so he certainly won’t let it go; there will be a trial and a divorce. He’ll ruin the Duchess’s reputation, down to the ground. And the Marquis Vein’s family won’t be able to avoid anger either.”

“Will the Marquis also divorce?”

“Who knows. In the Empire, people divorce when they have little to lose. The Marquis’s wife, Lady Vain, is known to come from a modest family; if they divorce, her family’s life would become difficult. There’s a good chance they already know that.”

“That could be the case.”

A woman’s intuition can surpass many arguments and evidence. They may have chosen to pretend they didn’t know.

“And the Duke won’t take as his wife the woman who was driven by Marcus’s temperament.”

“The Duchess likely feels the same.”

“I think so too. Besides, even if they lose everything, would that relationship endure? Would such people have been doing their duties properly? Their minds were elsewhere from the start.”

I wondered if the Duchess, who humiliated a stranger so much, would keep that attitude if she were no longer a Duchess. Nobles are nobles, no matter what.

“The palace will be busy for a while. And soon you will be too.”

The Minister left a cryptic remark and grinned.